Finally, the final day

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The bed of the dry Todd River, which "flows" through Alice Springs. You can see a bridge in the background.We took a trip to Hermannsburg, a historic Christian Mission in the NT.

The local dogs chased our bus.
Hermannsburg was also the home of Albert Namatjira, a landscape artist.

Below is his grave in Alice Springs.We then continued to Palm Valley.

Day 7

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My first lie-in all holiday!We left Darwin for Alice Springs today, but before we did, we visited Crocosaurus Cove.

Although we've had quite enough of crocodiles this trip, what was interesting about this place is that it is a crocodile park right in the middle of the city.
How did I get that close to the crocs?

Through these glass bubbles!
They also had a reptile display.
Being Sunday evening, everything was closed at the Alice Springs pedestrian mall.Some of you may know that every year, on the anniversary of our move to Perth, we celebrate by dining at a different ethnic restaurant.

This year, the 27th, the restaurant, appropriately enough, was: - outback Australian!
I had the outback platter above: clockwise from top left, barramundi, kangaroo, emu and camel pie.

Cheryl had barramundi.

Day 6

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No tour today - we spent the day just wandering around Darwin on our own.

Breakfast was at Parap markets.

The satay man from the night market was there!We discovered that the pedestrian mall, with its banyan trees, was quite close to our hotel.Walked to Parliament House......the Supreme Court......and Government House.Cyclone Tracy destroyed the old church in 1974- the stone facade of which is still standing. The new church was built behind the facade.We came across a Chinese temple.And finally visited this in the evening.Here's a short video taken at Aquascene.

Day 5

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We spent the day at Litchfield National Park.

The photo below shows Cheryl standing near a termite mound. This type is known as the cathedral mound.A different type of mound; these are the meridian mounds. The broad sides face east-west, and the thin ends are all aligned north-south. This is believed to aid in keeping the mounds at a constant temperature for the termites.A field of these termite mounds looks very much like a cemetery.We visited 3 waterfalls: Florence, Tolmer and Wangi. By now, however, I can't really tell which is which.Cheryl set off on a monsoon forest walk. Too hot and humid for me, though.I just loitered around; wondering why the screwpine is so called......caught the tour bus driver resting...
...saw a green ants' nest. These green abdomens of these ants are edible.Looks like I annoyed this picnicking family.
Yellow flowers of the kapok tree - the fibres of which were used to fill mattresses back when I was a kid.Cheryl returned from her walk.Finally, an emu with a buffalo and a pig in the background.