Local Wildlife Viewing in Darwin

 January 25

Here in Darwin it was just as hot and sticky as it had been in Cooktown, even though they are separated by 2 days at sea across the Gulf of Carpentaria and the Arafura Sea. More on the sea days and the ship in another post, as usual.

It was Australia Day and a Sunday, so we weren't sure there would be much to be able to do in Darwin. We chose to visit the Territory Wildlife Park where, in a similar fashion to the Toronto Zoo, birds, fish and other wildlife of the territory are showcased as much in their natural habitat as possible .

On the way, however, we passed some Australia Day celebrations. In Darwin there is an annual tradition of dressing up their 'Utes', or old style single cab pickup trucks, with flags and the like, and making a huge parade along the highway through town. We had to take this highway to get to the park. Even though the parade had finished a while earlier, groups of parade viewers had brought picnics and were having 'tailgate' parties with friends and neighbours.

A Ute, dressed up with the Aussie flag

Cars and trucks were clustered along the roadway
to watch the parade, and stayed on for tailgate parties

At the park we climbed aboard a road train that drove around and made stops at the various exhibit buildings. Because we had about 100 people from the ship at the park, they had even changed the schedule for the train so we could see more of the park in our limited time.

The entrance to the Aquarium exhibit at the park

As we walked through the tunnel, we noticed
a Pig-Nosed Turtle having a rest on the
plexiglas. Larry couldn't resist this one

Nemo!

And in the aviary:

A Red Finch

This little guy was watching everyone that passed by

Barn Owls

The outside trails included a walkway that started
higher up in the forest canopy and gradually
dropped to ground level

In the Nocturnal House we saw this
small Wallaby

In a couple of the buildings we saw the effect of the 'reuse and recycle' philosophy. There were a couple of beautiful depictions of a coral reef in the Aquarium building, all made of crocheted and knitted pieces sewn together:

And another in one of the other exhibit buildings showcasing the butterflies in the ecosystem, all made of felted wool. We had to look very closely to realize that they weren't real.

The park staff had a really good way of making sure that all of us cruise guests came back to the main building on time to leave the park - one of them brought Lady Gaga out to see us....no, not THAT one, but this one -

She is a 17 year old Darwin Carpet Python. She is albino, but earlier in her life she had orangey rings along her body instead of the regular brown shades of a python. She's lived her whole life at the park, and is quite comfortable around people. The same can't necessarily be said for the people, although these kids didn't seem to be scared.

And finally we met a Black Chested Vulture who has been in the park since she was hatched. She's about 30 years old now, and also comfortable around people, as long as we give her space. 

While we were visiting with these two a rain shower passed over us, and it continued to look threatening. Our very informative and helpful bus driver and guide, both women, made a slight detour in the downtown area to drop some of our fellow guests off at the Shuttle Stop, which wasn't so bad in itself, but that delay in getting back turned into a longer wait.

As we were walking through the cruise terminal building, which included a covered walkway to a tent right in front of the ship where the security check would take place. A group of us from the bus was walking down this walkway when there was suddenly a flash of lightning and a gigantic crash of thunder right above us. And then it started to pour like the proverbial bucket turned over. It reminded both of us of our stop in Papeete, Tahiti a few years ago when the same thing happened as we left for a walking tour. And it kept raining, for a good 20 minutes, before it started to let up. In the meantime ship's crew had brought umbrellas for everyone, but the Security official of the port refused to let us through the screening. He deemed that the pier and gangway would be too slippery because of the volume of rain. Someone finally overturned his ruling and, as the rain lessened but didn't stop, he started to let us all through.

It did finally stop raining at some point before we left, but it remained cloudy.