Another day in paradise.

Nikki put things pretty well on her description so I'll just add a few meandering thoughts. First of all, the canoe trip was very cool. We paddled down a river and saw crazy birds, a crocodile skeleton, huge fish swimming belowe us, and wallabies all along the way. One of those times when I really appreciate the grand adventure we are having.

The first morning in Darwin we went for a tour to Litchfield National Park. We generally don't like tours because it is way more fun to get lost, dodge Kangaroos in the outback, show up at the airport a day early, get trampled at the Eiffel tower or one of the other strange circumstances we have gotten ourselves into. But this turned out to be one of the coolest days I have ever had. In the morning we went to the jumping crocs cruise, where they actually jump out of the water. These things aren't just occasionally found like Bears in the forest... they infest the waters. A park ranger said your life span if you are to fall into the river with a life jacket is about 5 minutes. When he said that I didn't buy it... after 20 minutes on the cruise... believe me it is true!

After the croc cruise we went swimming, and it was the kind of thing you see in movies. Amazing waterfalls in a calm swimming hole. You could just swim right over to the waterfall and let it fall around you. I climbed the side of the cliff and dove into this crystal clear water. It was amazing!



The picture below was at another swimming hole. This is the one that had the natural hot tub. What is was, was you climb about half way up the falls on the left and there was a hole about 10 feet deep in the middle of the cliff that fit about 5-6 people. Another interesting nugget about these falls were that the Aborigines used to swim here and one side was female and one side was male. They determined this because the falls on the left have a cave that looks like a giant vagina (half way up just to the right of the falls), and the falls on the right had a giant penis. I'm not making this stuff up... click on the picture and you can blatantly see where they might get the idea. I don't get why Nikki failed to mention that interesting tidbit.


The picture below is me licking the ass of an ant. Our tour guide for Litchfield taught us the trick and these green ants were all over. This was a table at a bar in town and here Nikki and I licking ant butts. They really taste pretty good. It is like a shot of real sweet, citric acidy, tangerine. Very good stuff.



You know all the really cool shots on Crocodile Dundee... yeah that is where this picture is taken. It really is cool looking. Just behind the camera is the tour guide that is watching the water, and we couldn't get any closer because it is full of crocs. This was Kakadu national park. I've never seen a place with so much life. We saw, buffalo (like the one Croc Dundee hypnotized in the movie), brumbies (wild horses), tons of crocs, exotic trees and plants, and every strange type of bird you can imagine.




All in all, the trip was an amazing taste of Australia bottom to top. From our big city, multi-cultural city of Melbourne, to the green hills of the McLaren Vale vines, to the desolate outback, and through to a tropical paradise. Now it is back to work to pay off the credit card!