Aquascene Fish Feeding 

Episode 10

 I thought  Darwin was a great little city, perched in isolation on the edge of the continent, and one of the nicest places I have been to.  The temperature at this time of year, April, May,  is around 34 degrees, which sounds  pretty hot, but it didn’t affect me at all.  The use of ceiling fans is widespread, running at full speed all the time.  The cost of living seemed to be on a par with Auckland  and the city itself was clean with no slums apparent,  as the loss of buildings in the cyclone was around nine thousand, and I guess anything that wasn’t in good shape would have been blown away.

On the tourist trail, I saw such things as huge saltwater crocodiles,  jumping out of the water,  to snatch meat from the rangers ( this was during  a boat trip on the Adelaide River).  The crocodiles have been protected for a long while now, and the population has increased so much, that the authorities are going to re-introduce culling.  I was told that the ocean  around Darwin is totally unsafe and unswimmable and I didn’t see any small boats , sail boats or water skiers in the  harbour, even though the weather was great and the water clean and warm.

Apparently, the crocodiles can see you coming and are able to  completely submerge under the water for more than an hour .  Then, they just come up and grab you and take you away.  There are a few people taken by crocodiles, but this kind of event doesn’t get much publicity. They probably don’t want to scare off the tourists. The Darwin Council even employs a “crocodile catching team” much in the same way as they employ a “dog catching team” The crocodile rangers, so I heard, take hundreds of crocodiles out of the Darwin Harbour each year .The crocodiles can apparently roam for twenty kilometres or so from the inland waterways, and are found in all sorts of places ---billabongs, creeks and rivers – even backyard swimming pools. I was warned that no waterway is safe in the Northern Territory or Far North Queensland.

As part of my tourist exploits, I visited the Museum and the War Museum, and saw evidence of how much Australia was kept in ignorance of the Japanese bombing raids, during World War Two. I also went to Acuascene and saw the marvellous sight of huge fish coming inshore into ankle deep water,  and taking bread  from the hands of the tourists.  I didn’t get to go to the Mindil Night Market,  as it is held from  dusk onwards  and I didn’t have any transport,  I was a bit reluctant to find myself on  a dark beach with no way to get back  to the YWCA, excepting on foot.

All in all, I had a great trip everywhere I went.  The weather was very good with little rain to spoil it. The best time of year to go to the Far North, is in the dry season.

“These Boots Are Made For Walking”, sang Nancy Sinatra, and I only wish I could.

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