More Darwin!

Hey everyone or anyone reading this! So let me back track to what I did this past Wednesday (6/17)...My two professors took my class to the Northern Territory Wildlife Park which was amazing!! This park only has native animals so everything we got to see was unique to Australia which I thought was pretty awesome. This park is quite different from a regular zoo in that all of its animals roam freely throughout the reserve & aren't locked up behind cages so I acutally got to get very close & even touch some of the animals...well only the ones I wanted to touch.

One of the animals I touched was an agile wallaby (it's like a mini kangaroo) & it's little baby it was carring in its pouch! I think it was the cutest thing I have ever seen & the baby even started to nibble on my finger! I was really surprised how calm the mother was when so many of us came up to touch her, but I have lots of pictures of it & will upload them asap...I also got to get close to some freshwater crocodiles that we laying right next to the railing of the deck I was standing on in the billabong ( I must have been only like 4 ft. from it!) I also ALMOST accidentally ran into the web of a golden orb spider which I wasn't exactly excited to see...for those of you who know me I am frightened of spiders..& these spiders were seriously the size of my whole hand..maybe even bigger! I got to see a bunch of other cool stuff as well...& I almost stepped on a snake that was crossing right in front of me so that was pretty interesting too..but luckily I don't think it was poisonous...at least that's what the park ranger told me! And lastly we saw an amazing bird of prey show which I have pictures of as well.

And finally yesterday (6/18) my class & I went to the Northern Territory Museum where we saw a bunch of aboriginal art, some cool fossilized Australian organisms, & Sweetheart...the 17 ft. saltwater crocodile (don't worry it was stuffed) that was caught in Australia in the 1970s, but the trappers accidentally killed it when they sedated him...yes Sweetheart was a he... (I don't get it either)

So today (6/19) I just had class & have to pack tonight for my 3-day camping trip in Kakadu...so wish me luck & I will be posting soon!

Darwin!

So today is the first day I have had computer acess to contribute to this blog so here it goes....I arrived in Darwin, Australia a couple days ago (6/14) & so far it's been incredible...I am staying in a hostel with my program right in the center of town & so far I have met so many people from all over. At my hostel, there are a bunch of young backpakers from all over the world & it's nice to talk to them & get to know their perspective on things. The first night in Darwin I went to the local markets here which is right by a beach. The beaches here are amazing; however, they warned us not to go swimming due to all the crocodiles here. They told us that they find 200-300 crocodiles in the Darwin harbor alone each year! The markets are awesome & they sell a variety of things; to hand-made jewlery, aboriginal art, food (kangaroo & crocodile), clothes, & so much more. Then yesterday I had orientation which was suprisingly a lot of fun. They gave us a quick glimpse into Australian history & how much they value the aboriginal culture here; they acutally had an aboriginal guest speaker come & say a few things to us to welcome us into Australia which I thought was really nice. Today, I had my first day of class which was also really interesting & they also had a guest speaker who worked in the territory wildlife management so I got to learn about how they deal with "wildlife welfare" which is basically how they deal with intruding animals who affect the populations of the native animals here. Well that's about it so far...I don't have very much time left, but I will be writing again soon!