Wombats
Kanga and Roo
Scarri Terri doll
See ya in the Whitsundays!
Kanga and Roo
Scarri Terri doll
See ya in the Whitsundays!
Scubaaaa
14 years ago
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
Crikey! A Day at Steve Irwin's Zoo
Tuesday we went to Steve Irwin's Australia Zoo. I took the public train to the zoo, Jess and Sarah took a bus from Noosa and we met there. It's a really nice zoo, chock full of conservation information. Before the wildlife show they played a video with Steve and it was hard not to get teared up. We got to pat a koala, feed elephants, pet a camel, touch a spiky Echidna, and feed kangaroos (many with joeys!). I had a Bindi Burger for lunch and had fun browsing all the Steve Irwin paraphernalia in the gift shop. Below are some pictures from our day!
Soapbox Diaries, Vol. 1: I WANT MY OWN ROOM!
*Warning: This blog contains a bad attitude and negative thoughts but in no way is a reflection of my overall opinion of my trip.
Dear Soapbox,
The whole “sharing a room with 7 others is a great way to meet people” is starting to lose its charm. It’s 6:45am and I’ve given up on trying sleeping anymore. The girl above me has been hacking for the last 30 minutes. The part of me that feels bad for her because she is sick is trumped by the part of me that thinks she is being rude by not leaving the room to cough. Or covering her mouth. Or going to the bathroom to cough up whatever it is blocking her wind pipe. She has woken up the entire room and as I sit here typing this blog I see other people from our room coming into the TV room to escape it. I could almost feel the germs floating down from her bunk above me onto mine. Even my ear plugs couldn’t block out the “productive” coughing.
Speaking of other people in my room. To the guy who packed everything in plastic bags: if you pack your bag the night before you leave then you don’t have to wake everyone up as you crinkle your little bags.
Last night was the straw that broke the camel’s back. These 2 other girls in my room had suitcases larger than them and they left them in the middle of the room, so when I got up in the middle of the night I ran into them on the way to the bathroom. Really? Come on now, use common sense. Good thing there wasn’t a fire because those were definitely a hazard.
The shelf-life of my patience for hostels must be 3 months. Needless to say, I’m looking forward to having my own room again.
XOXO,
Katy
Coming soon: Soapbox Diaries, Vol. 2: I WANT MY CAR aka Tired of Walking Everywhere
Dear Soapbox,
The whole “sharing a room with 7 others is a great way to meet people” is starting to lose its charm. It’s 6:45am and I’ve given up on trying sleeping anymore. The girl above me has been hacking for the last 30 minutes. The part of me that feels bad for her because she is sick is trumped by the part of me that thinks she is being rude by not leaving the room to cough. Or covering her mouth. Or going to the bathroom to cough up whatever it is blocking her wind pipe. She has woken up the entire room and as I sit here typing this blog I see other people from our room coming into the TV room to escape it. I could almost feel the germs floating down from her bunk above me onto mine. Even my ear plugs couldn’t block out the “productive” coughing.
Speaking of other people in my room. To the guy who packed everything in plastic bags: if you pack your bag the night before you leave then you don’t have to wake everyone up as you crinkle your little bags.
Last night was the straw that broke the camel’s back. These 2 other girls in my room had suitcases larger than them and they left them in the middle of the room, so when I got up in the middle of the night I ran into them on the way to the bathroom. Really? Come on now, use common sense. Good thing there wasn’t a fire because those were definitely a hazard.
The shelf-life of my patience for hostels must be 3 months. Needless to say, I’m looking forward to having my own room again.
XOXO,
Katy
Coming soon: Soapbox Diaries, Vol. 2: I WANT MY CAR aka Tired of Walking Everywhere
Saturday, July 18, 2009
Conclusion: Australia is Expensive
In addition to $15 movies and $30 paperback books a few more things have been added to my mental list of “Things that are overpriced in Australia”. I read in a paper today that people spend an average of $660 per month on public parking. WHAT? And gym memberships are around $40….a week!
Life in Brisbane has been pretty slow, just trying to save money (see above statistics). I’ve been passing the days conversing with our Korean roommate, Bumo, helping him distinguish between “p” and “f”, “z” and “g”, and “b” and “v”. One day it took me about 4 minutes to realize that he was trying to say “farm” and it was coming out “parm”. While I help him with his English he provides me with hilarious broken sentences such as “everything Western (meaning the Western world) is big, even the roaches! (as we killed one in our room)”, him asking me if I found German guys attractive and his desire to see a big plain since all he’s seen is hilly, small South Korea. I’ve also started the 4th Twilight book and watched too many episodes of the Simpsons against my will (remote hogs!). But don’t worry, I have left the hostel. There is a cool outdoor shopping area called Queen Street Mall that we’ve been to a few times, and I’ve gone running a few times along the river. And lest we forget the library and its free internet. Oh and one day we rode the giant ferris wheel on Southbank. Today there is free acoustic music in the park so I might go check that out. And then Tuesday (when it’s Tight Ass Tuesdays and movies are cheap especially when you say you are a student) I’m going to see Harry Potter 6 solo and I don’t even mind, I’m just excited to see it!
Tales from the Valley:
Last night I went out with a few people from the hostel: Joe the loud American who is everything stereotypical about the U.S., Mariah the rescue diver from Holland, Brice from New Caledonia and David from France. We took the train to a part of town called Fortitude Valley where all the bars are. But it should be renamed Short Dressville. I mean wow, I have never seen so many short sequin dresses, tall heels and feather hair pieces in my life. Even wearing my best backpacker going-out clothes I was exceedingly underdressed. We danced the night away at a club called Bank and there was plenty of people watching to be done. Called it an early night and came home at 2:30. On Saturdays the bars stay open till around 5.
This morning Sarah went to meet Jessica at the airport and then they are headed up to Noosa for a few days. I’m meeting them at the zoo on Tuesday, which fortunately is the day before Bindi Irwin’s 11th Birthday Party and the Park.
Life in Brisbane has been pretty slow, just trying to save money (see above statistics). I’ve been passing the days conversing with our Korean roommate, Bumo, helping him distinguish between “p” and “f”, “z” and “g”, and “b” and “v”. One day it took me about 4 minutes to realize that he was trying to say “farm” and it was coming out “parm”. While I help him with his English he provides me with hilarious broken sentences such as “everything Western (meaning the Western world) is big, even the roaches! (as we killed one in our room)”, him asking me if I found German guys attractive and his desire to see a big plain since all he’s seen is hilly, small South Korea. I’ve also started the 4th Twilight book and watched too many episodes of the Simpsons against my will (remote hogs!). But don’t worry, I have left the hostel. There is a cool outdoor shopping area called Queen Street Mall that we’ve been to a few times, and I’ve gone running a few times along the river. And lest we forget the library and its free internet. Oh and one day we rode the giant ferris wheel on Southbank. Today there is free acoustic music in the park so I might go check that out. And then Tuesday (when it’s Tight Ass Tuesdays and movies are cheap especially when you say you are a student) I’m going to see Harry Potter 6 solo and I don’t even mind, I’m just excited to see it!
Tales from the Valley:
Last night I went out with a few people from the hostel: Joe the loud American who is everything stereotypical about the U.S., Mariah the rescue diver from Holland, Brice from New Caledonia and David from France. We took the train to a part of town called Fortitude Valley where all the bars are. But it should be renamed Short Dressville. I mean wow, I have never seen so many short sequin dresses, tall heels and feather hair pieces in my life. Even wearing my best backpacker going-out clothes I was exceedingly underdressed. We danced the night away at a club called Bank and there was plenty of people watching to be done. Called it an early night and came home at 2:30. On Saturdays the bars stay open till around 5.
This morning Sarah went to meet Jessica at the airport and then they are headed up to Noosa for a few days. I’m meeting them at the zoo on Tuesday, which fortunately is the day before Bindi Irwin’s 11th Birthday Party and the Park.
City Roos
The old Treasury Buliding is now a casino
No hands on the ferris wheel! Actually it was really slow and kinda boring
Brisbane as seen from said boring ferris wheel
And another view of the city and river
No hands on the ferris wheel! Actually it was really slow and kinda boring
Brisbane as seen from said boring ferris wheel
And another view of the city and river
Monday, July 13, 2009
Taste of Brisbane and a Lisa Frank Moment
Who knew the Darwin airport would be PACKED at 1am! I mean we had to scramble to find seats to sit on/take a nap on while we waited for our plane to leave. Glad we didn’t have to worry about parking. In true Katy fashion I fell asleep as soon as I got on the plane, even before we took off.
After leaving Darwin and its goofy 30 minute time change behind (yeah, I didn’t think that was even possible but I learned the other day that Afghanistan has a 30 minute time change also) we arrived in Brisbane at 6:20am, collected our bags, found a shuttle and headed into town. Keeping with tradition, we were the last people dropped off so it was 8am when we finally got to our hostel, Somewhere to Stay. Our room wasn’t vacated yet so we watched a movie in the lounge and I fell asleep on the beanbags. When our room was ready we pushed the empty wine and beer bottles and other random trash aside and took a nap. Thankfully the cleaning people were there when we woke up. But I guess you can’t expect too much when you pay $19 a night.
We caught the hostel shuttle into town (it’s about a 20 minute walk into town, 5 minutes by shuttle) and went to the library to use their free internet. I’m already a big fan of libraries but this takes the cake. Plus the library is gorgeous and has comfy chairs and free wifi. I’m in backpackers’ heaven. I wonder if they let travelers check out books…
It was rainy and cold (are we in Melbourne?!?!) which equals movie weather, plus it was “Tight ass Tuesdays” when the movies are discounted. We went to see Sunshine Cleaning, pretty good movie.
The next day we ventured back into town, stopped by the library to use the internet and walked along the city’s Southbank area. It’s school holidays so there were tons of kids around. There was even a Circus School going on, Sarah wanted to join in the fabric acrobatics class.
That night I caught some of Michael Jackson’s funeral on the small TV in the hostel’s kitchen. Questions: Why didn’t John Mayer sing any words? And could Brooke Shields have talked about herself any more? Geez!
Since Brisbane was cold and rainy we decided to jet to Byron Bay for the weekend. The 2-hour bus ride south went by fast and before I knew it we were back in New South Wales. Byron Bay is a small surfer town with lots of cute shops and restaurants. It’s a few degrees warmer than Brisbane and the rain only comes in short spurts. There was a rainbow every day we were there, no lie. We spent the weekend walking around the town checking out the shops and restaurants and looking at rainbows. Sarah bought some jewelry, including a ring made out of 100 year old spoon. We went to the beach a few times to watch the surfers, but not partake ourselves as it’s a bit too cold for my liking and I’m afraid I’ll get squashed by the good surfers.
Saturday, after I had the best muffin of my life – apple, coconut, macadamia and blackberry – we rented bikes with baskets and peddled around town. Sarah got called a “wild rider” by a pedestrian she almost ran over. We peddled over to the beach, but not onto the beach per our renter’s agreement, and watched some 8 year old kids catch monster waves. It started to rain so we stood under a tree with our bikes for about 20 minutes until it let up. Don’t worry, it wasn’t lightning. After it stopped we biked up to the lighthouse to whale and dolphin watch. Didn’t see any whales, but we did see dolphins….swimming under a rainbow that extended in a perfect arc over the water. Call Lisa Frank and tell her we have a new sticker idea. I didn’t think stuff like that happened in real life!
There is a platform at the lighthouse that is the most Easterly point on mainland Australia. I told Sarah I wanted my picture taken there but a father and son were hogging the spot and said she would ask them to take a step west. Haha! We peddled safely back into town and locked up our bikes in the hostel’s parking lot, hope they are there in the morning.
The bikes were safe and sound in the morning and we took them for a spin over to Suffolk Park after we checked out of our hostel. Then we caught the afternoon bus back to Brisbane and checked into a different hostel this time, Tinbilly Travellers. It’s a good hostel but I’m on the top bunk and it shakes with every tiny moment the person below makes. So now I’m the first person awake in the room because the girl below me is tossing and turning and I feel like I’m on a horrible rollercoaster. Not fun.
We have a week to kill before our friend Jessica gets here and we go to Steve Irwin’s zoo and then the Whitsundays. I spent $35 at the grocery store and am hoping it will last me till then!
In front of Main Beach, Byron Bay
Holding at rainbow at the most Easterly point of mainland Oz
Cape Byron lighthouse
Surfer and kids on Main Beach
Funky lights
Main beach around sunset
After leaving Darwin and its goofy 30 minute time change behind (yeah, I didn’t think that was even possible but I learned the other day that Afghanistan has a 30 minute time change also) we arrived in Brisbane at 6:20am, collected our bags, found a shuttle and headed into town. Keeping with tradition, we were the last people dropped off so it was 8am when we finally got to our hostel, Somewhere to Stay. Our room wasn’t vacated yet so we watched a movie in the lounge and I fell asleep on the beanbags. When our room was ready we pushed the empty wine and beer bottles and other random trash aside and took a nap. Thankfully the cleaning people were there when we woke up. But I guess you can’t expect too much when you pay $19 a night.
We caught the hostel shuttle into town (it’s about a 20 minute walk into town, 5 minutes by shuttle) and went to the library to use their free internet. I’m already a big fan of libraries but this takes the cake. Plus the library is gorgeous and has comfy chairs and free wifi. I’m in backpackers’ heaven. I wonder if they let travelers check out books…
It was rainy and cold (are we in Melbourne?!?!) which equals movie weather, plus it was “Tight ass Tuesdays” when the movies are discounted. We went to see Sunshine Cleaning, pretty good movie.
The next day we ventured back into town, stopped by the library to use the internet and walked along the city’s Southbank area. It’s school holidays so there were tons of kids around. There was even a Circus School going on, Sarah wanted to join in the fabric acrobatics class.
That night I caught some of Michael Jackson’s funeral on the small TV in the hostel’s kitchen. Questions: Why didn’t John Mayer sing any words? And could Brooke Shields have talked about herself any more? Geez!
Since Brisbane was cold and rainy we decided to jet to Byron Bay for the weekend. The 2-hour bus ride south went by fast and before I knew it we were back in New South Wales. Byron Bay is a small surfer town with lots of cute shops and restaurants. It’s a few degrees warmer than Brisbane and the rain only comes in short spurts. There was a rainbow every day we were there, no lie. We spent the weekend walking around the town checking out the shops and restaurants and looking at rainbows. Sarah bought some jewelry, including a ring made out of 100 year old spoon. We went to the beach a few times to watch the surfers, but not partake ourselves as it’s a bit too cold for my liking and I’m afraid I’ll get squashed by the good surfers.
Saturday, after I had the best muffin of my life – apple, coconut, macadamia and blackberry – we rented bikes with baskets and peddled around town. Sarah got called a “wild rider” by a pedestrian she almost ran over. We peddled over to the beach, but not onto the beach per our renter’s agreement, and watched some 8 year old kids catch monster waves. It started to rain so we stood under a tree with our bikes for about 20 minutes until it let up. Don’t worry, it wasn’t lightning. After it stopped we biked up to the lighthouse to whale and dolphin watch. Didn’t see any whales, but we did see dolphins….swimming under a rainbow that extended in a perfect arc over the water. Call Lisa Frank and tell her we have a new sticker idea. I didn’t think stuff like that happened in real life!
There is a platform at the lighthouse that is the most Easterly point on mainland Australia. I told Sarah I wanted my picture taken there but a father and son were hogging the spot and said she would ask them to take a step west. Haha! We peddled safely back into town and locked up our bikes in the hostel’s parking lot, hope they are there in the morning.
The bikes were safe and sound in the morning and we took them for a spin over to Suffolk Park after we checked out of our hostel. Then we caught the afternoon bus back to Brisbane and checked into a different hostel this time, Tinbilly Travellers. It’s a good hostel but I’m on the top bunk and it shakes with every tiny moment the person below makes. So now I’m the first person awake in the room because the girl below me is tossing and turning and I feel like I’m on a horrible rollercoaster. Not fun.
We have a week to kill before our friend Jessica gets here and we go to Steve Irwin’s zoo and then the Whitsundays. I spent $35 at the grocery store and am hoping it will last me till then!
In front of Main Beach, Byron Bay
Holding at rainbow at the most Easterly point of mainland Oz
Cape Byron lighthouse
Surfer and kids on Main Beach
Funky lights
Main beach around sunset
Monday, July 6, 2009
Darwin & Outback pictures
Mindil Beach sunset
Territory Day fireworks at Mindil Beach
Holding pythons before the crocodile cruise
Jumping Croc Cruise
Our 4WD Vehicle, the Warrior
Aboriginal Art on a rock wall
The sun BEATING down on us
Giant Golden Orb Weaver spider, relative of the spiders that catch and eat birds in their webs
Example of the rocky terrain we had to traverse all day everyday
Termite mound
Beautiful water, but croc-infested!
Jim Jim Falls swimming hole
Our 4WD Vehicle, the Warrior
Aboriginal Art on a rock wall
The sun BEATING down on us
Giant Golden Orb Weaver spider, relative of the spiders that catch and eat birds in their webs
Example of the rocky terrain we had to traverse all day everyday
Termite mound
Beautiful water, but croc-infested!
Jim Jim Falls swimming hole
More Great Barrier Reef and My Australian Outback Adventure
Our 2nd dive trip was fantastic. This time we did 3 dives, instead of just 2. We saw more of the same fish, clams, etc but it’s so awesome that I don’t think I’d ever get sick of it. Our underwater camera worked for the entire trip this time so we got some great photos. A turtle swam right around us while we were snorkeling!
Jamie’s skydive went well and she had a blast. One of the Irish guys, Ronan, did it with her so Sarah, myself and Darren went to Mission Beach to accompany our friends and watch their safe landings. That night we went out one more time with our friends from the hostel and danced until 3am. The next morning we flew to Darwin.
Darwin is the one and only city in the “Outback” we’ll be going to, and for that I am thankful. It’s so hot, humid and sunny here. Being from Texas you’d think this wouldn’t bother me but for some reason it feels hotter and more humid here than back home, even though its not. And the sun is relentless! Most of the town is situated around Mitchell Street which is where our hostel is. Oh and the hostels are expensive! I guess they can be since this is the closest decent town to Kakadu National Park and everyone has to stay here the night before their camping trip. The guy to girl ration is 4 to 1, but as our tour guide put it “while you will find quantity, you won’t find quality”.
The day we arrived in Darwin was Territory Day, the day this state known as Northern Territory became a state. We went down to Mindel Beach to join in the festivities. After a grueling, hot 40 minute walk down there we had “fair food” for dinner then watched the sunset on the beach. They had a crazy awesome fireworks show when it got dark. Australia sure does know how to do fireworks!
We beat the heat by going down to the wave pool and splashing around the day before our camping tour. We left at 7am on Friday morning for our 3-day camping adventure with the tour group Kakadu Dreams. We drove out to the park in a giant 4WD vehicle. We stopped along the way to hold pythons and go on a jumping crocodile cruise. A guy on the boat dangles meat from a fishing line over the side of the boat and makes the crocs jump for it. It was so cool, the crocodiles are huge! And so scary. I would hate to come across one in the water. The Northern Territory has over 40,000 Estuary Crocodiles (crocs that can swim in fresh and salt water) and so swimming in nature is always a gamble, unless you have spoken with a guide and know its croc free for the time being.
After the croc cruise we drove into Kakadu, a World Heritage listed park. We stopped at the front gates to take pictures and I quickly learned why they tell you to bring lots of bug repellent. The flies swarmed us! We hiked around some rocks and looked at Aboriginal art drawings on the rock walls. Kakadu is owned by Aboriginals but it federally run. The park also is the only one in the world to contain an entire river inside it, in this case the South Alligator River. (There are no alligators in Australia, the guy who first saw the river thought the crocs were gators. But the name had already stuck.)
We set up camp – tents made of mosquito netting – and had a delicious dinner of buffalo sausage (real buffalo, and real delicious), kangaroo, vegetables and mashed potatoes. Then we slept under the stars!
Day 2 started at 6am. After brekky we loaded up into the 4WD Warrior and headed down a 4WD-only road. The journey felt like I was in one of those motion movies where you watch the screen and your chair moves to simulate what you are watching. Except this was real life. After the bumpy ride we hiked straight up, over unstable rocks to Twin Falls. At one point Sarah, Jamie and I took a wrong turn and kinda got lost, then got in trouble for getting lost and for not being half mountain goat and being able to spring up the mountain side like our guide. (Side note: We did not look at the brochure before going on the trip and missed the fine print where it said to expect 10-12 kilometers of hiking per day. Hence the rest of the 16 people on our trip being avid hikers, we are not.)
Anyway, the waterfalls were pretty. Then we hiked down, took a boat crusie to the base of the falls. Had lunch, then hiked another mountain to another waterfall. This waterfall, Jim Jim Falls, is currently dried up but has a magnificent plunge pool at its base for swimming. The water was so cold but I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to swim in it, the pool was so gorgeous. That night we camped in mosquito city (don’t remember the real name of the campsite), aka by croc-infested waters, so I layered on the clothing and went to bed early just to take refuge in the mosquito net.
Day 3 we slept in, till about 7am, then hiked to Barramundi Gorge for some more spring swimming. This swimming hole was the best and we spent a couple of hours there. I jumped off rocks and swam through underwater archways. Very serene. Pictures do not do it justice. We also saw some giant termite mounds. See picture below to see just how big they were! Our guide would occasionally pull off the road, run out into the trees and come back with a flower or other bush foods for us to try. One flower tasted like caramel! Add that to the green ant I licked the other day (very sour!) and I might as well be on Survivor!
I enjoyed the trip more than Sarah and Jamie, but I guess that’s cause hiking and camping are more my element than theirs. They starting calling the trip Kakadu Nightmare, instead of its real name Kakadu Dreams. Haha. We had some good laughs, especially once we got back to civilization.
When we got back to town I took the best shower of my life and attempted to clean my clothes, but half of them didn’t come clean and ended up in the trash. Oh well, at least my backpack will be lighter! Jamie left at 2am to fly home. Sarah and I checked out of our hostel at 10am this morning and have a flight to Brisbane at 1:45am. So we have a whole day to kill in Darwin, a town where there isn’t much to do. We went to Crocosauras Cove (a small reptile/croc park across the street from our hostel) and saw more crocodiles, including one that was in Crocodile Dundee. No, I didn’t get its autograph. We got to hold a baby croc and watch a python eat a rat. Not sure what we’ll do for the next 8 hours….
Next stop: Brisbane, where the world doesn’t revolve around crocodiles.
Jamie’s skydive went well and she had a blast. One of the Irish guys, Ronan, did it with her so Sarah, myself and Darren went to Mission Beach to accompany our friends and watch their safe landings. That night we went out one more time with our friends from the hostel and danced until 3am. The next morning we flew to Darwin.
Darwin is the one and only city in the “Outback” we’ll be going to, and for that I am thankful. It’s so hot, humid and sunny here. Being from Texas you’d think this wouldn’t bother me but for some reason it feels hotter and more humid here than back home, even though its not. And the sun is relentless! Most of the town is situated around Mitchell Street which is where our hostel is. Oh and the hostels are expensive! I guess they can be since this is the closest decent town to Kakadu National Park and everyone has to stay here the night before their camping trip. The guy to girl ration is 4 to 1, but as our tour guide put it “while you will find quantity, you won’t find quality”.
The day we arrived in Darwin was Territory Day, the day this state known as Northern Territory became a state. We went down to Mindel Beach to join in the festivities. After a grueling, hot 40 minute walk down there we had “fair food” for dinner then watched the sunset on the beach. They had a crazy awesome fireworks show when it got dark. Australia sure does know how to do fireworks!
We beat the heat by going down to the wave pool and splashing around the day before our camping tour. We left at 7am on Friday morning for our 3-day camping adventure with the tour group Kakadu Dreams. We drove out to the park in a giant 4WD vehicle. We stopped along the way to hold pythons and go on a jumping crocodile cruise. A guy on the boat dangles meat from a fishing line over the side of the boat and makes the crocs jump for it. It was so cool, the crocodiles are huge! And so scary. I would hate to come across one in the water. The Northern Territory has over 40,000 Estuary Crocodiles (crocs that can swim in fresh and salt water) and so swimming in nature is always a gamble, unless you have spoken with a guide and know its croc free for the time being.
After the croc cruise we drove into Kakadu, a World Heritage listed park. We stopped at the front gates to take pictures and I quickly learned why they tell you to bring lots of bug repellent. The flies swarmed us! We hiked around some rocks and looked at Aboriginal art drawings on the rock walls. Kakadu is owned by Aboriginals but it federally run. The park also is the only one in the world to contain an entire river inside it, in this case the South Alligator River. (There are no alligators in Australia, the guy who first saw the river thought the crocs were gators. But the name had already stuck.)
We set up camp – tents made of mosquito netting – and had a delicious dinner of buffalo sausage (real buffalo, and real delicious), kangaroo, vegetables and mashed potatoes. Then we slept under the stars!
Day 2 started at 6am. After brekky we loaded up into the 4WD Warrior and headed down a 4WD-only road. The journey felt like I was in one of those motion movies where you watch the screen and your chair moves to simulate what you are watching. Except this was real life. After the bumpy ride we hiked straight up, over unstable rocks to Twin Falls. At one point Sarah, Jamie and I took a wrong turn and kinda got lost, then got in trouble for getting lost and for not being half mountain goat and being able to spring up the mountain side like our guide. (Side note: We did not look at the brochure before going on the trip and missed the fine print where it said to expect 10-12 kilometers of hiking per day. Hence the rest of the 16 people on our trip being avid hikers, we are not.)
Anyway, the waterfalls were pretty. Then we hiked down, took a boat crusie to the base of the falls. Had lunch, then hiked another mountain to another waterfall. This waterfall, Jim Jim Falls, is currently dried up but has a magnificent plunge pool at its base for swimming. The water was so cold but I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to swim in it, the pool was so gorgeous. That night we camped in mosquito city (don’t remember the real name of the campsite), aka by croc-infested waters, so I layered on the clothing and went to bed early just to take refuge in the mosquito net.
Day 3 we slept in, till about 7am, then hiked to Barramundi Gorge for some more spring swimming. This swimming hole was the best and we spent a couple of hours there. I jumped off rocks and swam through underwater archways. Very serene. Pictures do not do it justice. We also saw some giant termite mounds. See picture below to see just how big they were! Our guide would occasionally pull off the road, run out into the trees and come back with a flower or other bush foods for us to try. One flower tasted like caramel! Add that to the green ant I licked the other day (very sour!) and I might as well be on Survivor!
I enjoyed the trip more than Sarah and Jamie, but I guess that’s cause hiking and camping are more my element than theirs. They starting calling the trip Kakadu Nightmare, instead of its real name Kakadu Dreams. Haha. We had some good laughs, especially once we got back to civilization.
When we got back to town I took the best shower of my life and attempted to clean my clothes, but half of them didn’t come clean and ended up in the trash. Oh well, at least my backpack will be lighter! Jamie left at 2am to fly home. Sarah and I checked out of our hostel at 10am this morning and have a flight to Brisbane at 1:45am. So we have a whole day to kill in Darwin, a town where there isn’t much to do. We went to Crocosauras Cove (a small reptile/croc park across the street from our hostel) and saw more crocodiles, including one that was in Crocodile Dundee. No, I didn’t get its autograph. We got to hold a baby croc and watch a python eat a rat. Not sure what we’ll do for the next 8 hours….
Next stop: Brisbane, where the world doesn’t revolve around crocodiles.
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