Australia is an island and do not have the same illness we can have on the continent. In order to
avoid the proliferation of virus or other illness from the continent, she has put in place a
quarantine service which the goal is to destroy those nasty little beasts.
We had been warned by the severity of this service. Coming from Asia, the quarantine has been quite virulent,
not only on the spaghettis we had kept, but also on the mud there was below the truck.
Consequences : two days of a full cleaning with Karcher and huge vacuum cleaner.

During this time, we enter in the australian atmosphere : do not swim in the sea because of the box jellyfishes
extremely dangerous...be careful in the parks, the snakes are the most fatal in the world, also scorpions
or spiders...We were nearly at the point to buy the complete set of the perfect adventurer.

  
                                                                swimming pool in the hostel
              
            Titus begins to help                    familiar with the australian monsters, the game
                                                    consists not to be eaten by the crocodiles

country environment:

  
the fishes come to eat some bread at every high tide
  
       Pollux : 5 1/2 years old

Litchfield National Park :
small park in the south of Darwin, first meeting with the termites (who are pullulate in the north)
and with the spiders.

 a termite mount : 5 meters high, more than 50 years old.


Florence falls, our first night...
  
We just bought an australian wildlife guide. After a big fear, it turns out that those
two spiders (Saint Andrews cross spider and golden orb-weavers spider) are totally harmless..ouf !!!

We can find burned wood on every tree. the whole region
burns at least once a year. Some parts more than 10 times. the origin of the fires are natural and human.
the supervised bush fires are to make healthier the areas that can make huge fire naturally. Moreover, some
kind of trees need those fires for reproduction.


  

Kakadu National Park :
biggest national park of Australia, it is made up mainly by swamps. We are in the dry season,
which is not the best time to visit the park. On the other hand, the mosquitoes, usually very voracious
in the parks are totally absents.
no need to explain.

  
This picture is to show how adventurers we are. We get in touch with the danger.
The salt water crocodiles are the most aggressive. Kakadu is the place where they are the most numerous.
Despite the warnings and the hundreds of board, every year, the crocodiles have a nice human meal.
Otherwise, the fresh water crocodiles, who inhabit all the rivers in North Australia, are very shy
and avoid humans.
BBQ for the evening in the nature.


Ubirr : we spend a lot of time in this part of the park. The nature is splendid and
there is a true aboriginal cultural richness.
The Rainbow Snake is part of many aboriginal stories.
Painting is above all a way to communicate the experience between generations. The story of this snake
explains to the young parents not to let the children crying, but also that they should not accept
all their whims.
  
This painting, named "X-Rays art", allows also to explain what is inside the animals like fishes, turtles
or kangaroos.
On the right, this personage is "lightning man": he throws
thunders and lightning knocking his knees and elbows covered by stones.
This one is a dangerous spirit who eats women.

We spend a day with aboriginal artists in the Arnhem land (aboriginal territory adjacent to the
Kakadu national park)
He is one of the most famous artist of the area

    
preparation of the colors... Only three colors are authorized in the aboriginal art (Ochre, white and red).
              
                     Being nearly blind, his disciple will last the painting

The inside of this barramundi is detailed..
Pollux's version !!


Nourlangie : We spend a day with the rangers
The green ant :
quite pretty, this ant weaves his nest with leaves. Real dressmaker, she links the leaves to create
her house which fades very fast with temperature around 43 degrees Celsius. The aboriginal love those nests
they crush in their hand before eating them in dessert.

 
Pollux makes the ochre color with a ranger.
more than 6 meters high for this termite mount...record ?


                                            by duj