On Mar 3, 2024, we docked at Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia. Darwin is a town of approximately 250,000 people and is the capital of the Northern Territory. The Northern Territory is a large, sparsely populated area of Australia. It represents 25% of the area of Australia, but has only 5% of the population of the country. Darwin had much activity during World War II, and was heavily bombed by the Japanese after Pearl Harbor. However, because of its distance from Japan, it was never invaded. It served as a staging area for air and sea forces of the Allied countries.

On our first day in the Darwin area, we took an all-day outback excursion that took us to the Litchfield National Park, a park that covers approximately 1,500 square kilometers, and is home to a number of stunning waterfalls and crystal clear pools. Aboriginal people have lived throughout the area for thousands of years.

On our trip to see the waterfalls, we passed wide open areas and could see wallabies running across the fields, many different birds, and various species of trees. We also passed a number of magnetic termite mounds. At a swimming hole we stopped at, we met a friendly lizard along the shore.

On our second day in Darwin we took another excursion that concentrated on sites in the city itself. We visited the Botanical Garden where we saw a large metallic crocodile, and also stopped at a museum which had a number of art exhibitions and an exhibit devoted to Cyclone Tracy which devasted 80% of Darwin on Christmas Day, 1974. In the days after the disaster, most of the population left the city. We also stopped to see a view of the Darwin harbor, which is the largest harbor in Australia (seven times the size of the Sydney Harbour). We ended the evening with our last Australian sunset.