Darwin | Adelaide River | Litchfield National Park

Pat Chappel a real Crocodile Dundee

Adelaide River and Litchfield National Park tour.

I'm not sure who the biggest character was on this tour, Our kiwi bus driver Rohan with Wallaroo Tours, or Pat, owner and operator of The Great Ozzie Bite.

The tour is a day trip to Adelaide river to The Great Ozzie Bite, where you are taken on a short boat tour to view crocodiles in their natural habitat, this was well worth it, Pat understands crocodiles very well, and is quite passionate about them.

Pats a bit of a character, and you also get a bit of his philosophy on life on the boat, so very entertaining.
Pat had done most things in life, including being brought up with aboriginals, he had a great understanding, love and respect for them, that was refreshing.
You would hope that politicians listen more to people like Pat.
You get the impression that Pat could do pretty much anything, and commented that the only thing he hadn't had a go at was an Astronaut!

But you wouldn't want to underestimate Pat, he would be quite capable of a left hand seat in the space shuttle!

On returning from the croc part of the tour I asked Rohan, our bus driver, what Pats Surname was?

Rohan quickly quipped that his name was "Chappel", this immediately allowed him to bring up the Chappel underarm Cricket incident, back in 1981 I think?
I am sure Rohan would not have been born at the time, but that didn't stop him!!

Its a bit sad, but it would appear that this unfortunate incident is so entrenched in the psyche of the average Kiwi, it is now passed on in their childrens DNA!

But they are getting their revenge, you can't get on a tour up here without it being run or owned by a Kiwi, good luck to them.

From the Adelaide river you travel back toward Darwin and then out to Litchfield National Park.

The falls are worth a look, and water pristine, and the swimming holes great, but its a bit of a bus ride from one favorite swimming hole to the next, so you get over it, the park is pretty much about that, so unless you love swimming that part of the tour will be as boring as bat shit!

Sunset Fanny Bay Darwin

Without the outstanding effort of the bus driver I would have found this part of the tour a bit slow.
We pulled in at Bachelor on the way home, to buy some beer for those that didn't like champagne. great idea Rohan!

So finished the tour at sunset with Champagne and Prawns at Fanny Bay, just getting there with a few seconds to spare at sunset, great job Rohan!

I had to spend some time in the city, catching up with an oncologist, so between appointments had a wander around the Darwin Museum.

This is well worth a look, and on a hot day, great air conditioning with free entry, great spot to take the family.
The cyclone Tracy exhibition and the Aboriginal artifacts are incredible, you need a few hours, great spot.

B52 Cockpit, 8 throttles and 8 sets of engine gauges for 8 engines
no fly by wire stuff here!

The other part of history that's important to Darwin is its involvement in WW2.

Darwin was subjected to many raids by the Japanese, with many Australian deaths.

The display at the Darwin Aviation heritage museum is worth spending a coupe of hours going through.

Something I was unaware of was that Post WW2, in the 1950s and 60s  Darwin had a US squadron of B52 bombers that visited and refueled here, as part of US global defence.

There was always a B52 bomber airborne between Guam and Darwin, as a contingency against any possible soviet aggression in the Cold War Period.
Pretty interesting stuff!

F111