Bye Bye Oz

Just spent our last night in Darwin at the wharf with some tasty fish and chips in the lovely heat of the evening.  What a nice way to finish our trip here.

We’ve really enjoyed our time and, after being here for 10 months, really feel at home here.  It’s been great to spend so much time ’down under’ and get to know some really lovely people and see some amazing things, but the rest of the world calls so we’re off to see Australia’s cousins in New Zealand to see what quirky things they get up to!

Things we will miss from Oz:

Friends, beaches (and amazing ones at that), surfing (Dave), the weather, the traffic free driving (Darwin airport had one little car park!), moaning about the rancid chocolate, being able to speak ones mind very directly at work!!! And so it goes on…

Darwin, Litchfield and Kakadu

OK, so we have made it to our final destination without being stung by jelly fish or bitten by sharks, snakes, crocs or spiders!  I can’t think of anywhere being a better final destination in Australia then Darwin, Litchfield and Kakadu.

As you know we arrived in Darwin by train a few says ago.  Since then we have seen some really amazing things and enjoyed mentioning the ashes on several occasions!  I (Carly) managed to pick up a cold in the hottest part of Australia somehow, so we spent the first day doing some relaxing things.  We wandered over to ‘Lyons Cottage’ and the Chinese Temple, as Darwin has a big Chinese population.  The heat here really is relentless – it is coming up to the hottest time of year and the humidity really gets to you.  We have got used to being very sweaty and smelly… sorry, too much information I’m sure!

On the following day we hired a car and set off for Litchfield National Park.  You can drive around this park quite easily and tourist ‘spots’ are very easy to find.  We stopped off to look at some cool magnetic termite mounds, which were taller than us and all over the place!  A little walk took us around some beautiful waterfalls.  It was interesting to see the locals swimming in the waterholes at the bottom.  If only we had taken our swim things, it would have cooled us down quite a bit!  Litchfield is lovely and relaxing and it was good to get used to the heat in preparation for Kakadu.

Then the adventure really began.  We had booked a 3 day tour of Kakadu to ensure that we saw all the hidden places.  We even booked a tour which said we needed to be young and fit, which frightened me slightly!!  Our guide, Geoff, rocked up in a 4WD vehicle at 5am on Monday and advised us that if we weren’t prepared for heat, mosquitoes and sleeping outside we should not come on tour.  At this stage we did wonder what was going to happen!  However, it was another brilliant tour that I cannot sum up in just a few paragraphs!

Kakadu is about 200kms from Darwin and is 2/3 the size of Belgium i.e. it is pretty massive and Australia’s biggest national park!  First of all we drove to the Corroboree Billabong, part of the Mary River wetlands, and went on a crocodile cruise.  It was like nowhere else we have seen.  We cruised across a billabong and spotted many saltwater and freshwater crocodiles.  It was amazing – so much bird life and wallabies hopping by - the kind of thing that you would only see on a nature TV show.  After that we headed to Ubirr which is known for it’s aboriginal rock art (saw some really cool paintings very high up on the rocks).  This place is also known because of a certain someone named Mick Dundee.  We overlooked where he made his famous ‘phone call’.  What a brilliant day!

Once again we slept in swags outside and hoped that nothing was crawling in with us (difficult to sleep in these situations!!!).  The next day was a long day.  We were up at 6am and out of the campsite by 7am on our way to Twin Falls.  Once again it was extremely hot and we climbed many kms up steep rock faces to get to twin falls.  We had to drink 1 litre of water per hour, which is quite something!  I’m sick of the taste of water!!!  At the top we were all so so hot that when we saw the twin falls water hole we were all very tempted to get in and swim.  Geoff informed us that there was only a 2% chance of saltwater crocs so we should be fine!  Everyone started getting in and it was a case of die from the heat or maybe die from a crocodile, so we got in too!!!  I never thought I would do that.  I remember Sarah saying “when you travel you just do these things” (I thought ‘yeah right…’), but she was right!!!

We then had to walk all the way back down, get a boat around the corner (definitely couldn’t swim in that area, full of crocs!!!) and walk even further to look at the base of the falls.  After a bit of lunch (dry warm bread, with a bit of cheese and salad and warm water!) we took another walk up to Jim Jim falls.  Another refreshing waterhole greeted us and you could swim through through a couple of plunge pools to the base of the huge waterfall – beautiful.  It was a very long hot day, but very worth it.  That night we had a go at playing the didgeridoo around the camp fire.  After a few attempts at making no sound through the intrument and funny spitting noises, we did quite well!

The next morning was a definite highlight.  We met up with some indigenous people, who showed us what they eat, how they hunt and how to properly play the didgereedoo.  It was so interesting and they were really nice, funny people.  We had a go at hunting (with fake animals, of course!) – I was pretty horrendous and Dave was pretty good (as usual he says).  It’s so sad to hear about how the aborigines have been treated in the past and in cities such as Sydney these people have a bad reputation for being drunks etc.  If only some of those city people came on a tour like this they might have a better understanding.

The tour ended with a walk to Barramundi Gorge and another swim.  Please note, that this was another 2% chance of crocs swim!!!! .  Really I don’t think they ever come, they stick to their favourite waterways, it’s just that the national park don’t want to be responsible if one does come.  On the way home we stopped off at a didgeridoo shop.  This sounded like a normal thing to do until a baby wallaby came hopping out of the shop to play with us and a 2m python brought out to greet us too.  Dave had a go at holding it.

All in all (and I have honestly tried to keep this short) the top end of the Northern Territory is absolutely wonderful.  I wish that I could show you more of it than these pictures, which simply don’t do it justice.

The Red Centre

Our little adventure to the real Australian outback began with a 5am start, but it is about 500km to Uluru from Alice Springs so takes quite a bit of driving. We were on a ‘small group’ tour, just the 14 of us, for the next 3 days and 2 nights, our driver/guide/chef was Steve – a Captain Jack Sparrow and Russel Brand lookalike with many of the same mannerisms. The scene was set for a fantastic trip to the heart of the red centre.

The entire first day was dedicated to the awesome Uluru (aka Ayers Rock). It was a bit of shock when we arrived in the middle of the desert to find rain clouds looming and a bit of a chill in the air! Steve however was more than excited, less than 1% of people get to see Uluru in the rain, especially in the dry season! From a distance Uluru is spectacular, a single piece of sandstone in the middle of the desert, and close up it has many features, caves, cracks and valleys you don’t realise are there.

We went to the cultural centre and learnt a little about the indigenous people of the area and then Steve took us on a bit of a guide walk of some of the base. We obviously didn’t do the Uluru climb, mainly because it is disrespectful, but also because it was closed due to strong winds (it’s actually closed 75% of the time due to unsuitable weather). It was while we were completing some of the base walk that it started raining and then pouring! Steve thought this was the best thing ever and so latter we abandoned the statutory sunset viewing and went waterfall hunting. Uluru with waterfalls running down it… awesome! We were very wet, but ultimately amazed, this is not what we were expecting at all.

The next little bit of fun came when it was time to sleep in our swags (Australian outback camping roll). It was still raining so everyone had to huddle together under the little shelter the campsite had to offer…. apart from me (Dave), I slept under the truck as there was no space left! It was a peaceful night sleep although impossible to roll over due to the driveshaft being a little too close to the ground.

Next day was Kata Tjuta (aka The Olgas). These are a small range of domed mountains close to Uluru. We left camp early for a sunrise with a view over the Olgas and Uluru, spectacular. Next up was a 8km hike around the domed sacred site. Although we were told various bits of Aborigine culture and Dreamtime Stories we are not told of too much, since the Aborigine way of life is that you have to earn the right to knowledge and for them to give it away would be wrong. They liken knowledge to money, and it’s not simply handed out.

That night we slept in our swags near Kings Canyon. We had a beautiful desert sunset with clear skies that meant later we could see an abundance of stars from our swags. This camp site was a little more basic, with the shower being open air and the toilet also – this did mean you got a great view of the stars from the dunney!

Kings Canyon and the Garden of Eden was the last stop on our three day tour. We got to Kings Canyon early to try and avoid as much of the scorching heat as possible – today was predicted to be 34C in the shade at it’s highest. The 9km trek took us through most of the canyon area and to the Garden of Eden, which is a small valley where there is a little waterhole and an abundance of flora and fauna all surviving happily in the desert! This trek was one of the best we’ve done and a real experience in the ‘arid zone’. We later had a BBQ lunch before heading back to Alice Springs where we later met up with the group in the evening for a spot of dinner at the touristy pub Bojangles.

Our last day in Alice Springs was spent washing all our dusty clothes and going to a few local highlights. We popped in to the Royal Flying Doctors museum- very informative, and then walked down the Todd River to the Telegraph Station. The Telegraph Station is the main reason for Alice Springs existing; the overland repeater station was built next to what was believed to be a spring (now known as a depression in the river bed). All very interesting, especially as it’s 4km out of town – weird baring in mind it was the first thing to be built in the area.

We’re now on The Ghan and making our way north to Darwin. We’ve just had a ‘whistle stop tour’ of Katherine Gorge and are heading north again. Only 1 week left now in Australia!

Alice Springs, The Northern Territory

I suspect you know that Alice Springs is right in the middle of Australia and therefore in the desert! We arrived last Friday and have been enjoying having a look around before our Uluru tour starts tomorrow (no one told us that Uluru is actually 500kms away ).

As you can imagine, Alice Springs is a lot different to other places we have visited so far. It’s a very small town and in some places looks rather cowboy like. There is evidence of Aboriginal culture, which is really nice, as we haven’t had the chance to find out about it until now. It’s quite tricky to get around and you need to get taxis or hire a car. This is understandable when you see how in the middle of nowhere you are!

We took the opportunity to see more of the area by hiring a car yesterday. This involved driving out through the West MacDonell ranges all the way to Glen Helen gorge. We were treated to some really nice desert sights. Orniston gorge was our first stop, followed by Glen Helen gorge and then, finally, Standley Chasm on our way back, which is a very weird corridor of red rock.   Each place had it’s own little waterhole with many birds and fish!  Considering that it’s the Australian ‘winter’, 34 degrees felt extremely hot, especially for hiking! Can’t complain though… On our way back to dropping off the car we came across ‘Flynn’s Grave’, which honours the life of the man who set up the Royal Flying Doctors charity.

We have been celebrating our first wedding anniversary today (we can’t believe a year has gone by either!). Unfortunately we couldn’t go out in the hot air balloon as planned due to strong winds – they kindly told us at 5am this morning after we had got up and were waiting outside! However, we’ve had a lovely day relaxing by the pool and having a nice lunch.

So the trip to Uluru begins tomorrow and we’ll be in touch next week!  Pics to follow.

Life on the Road, part 2

Well life as we knew it has come to an end – life driving the roads of Oz is over.  But as we drove around hammering the poor Maui van up hill and down creek on and off road (don’t tell Maui though) we came across a few things that amused us…

There’s a lot of things to dodge when driving on these long straight and sometimes incredibly bendy roads.  There’s always signs for them, but sometimes it takes a while to figure out what it is you’re meant to avoid hitting.  There’s signs for koalas (usually they’re all in slightly different poses), kangaroos, tree kangaroos, cassowaries, horses, cattle, overhead fauna crossings, speed humps, dingos, bush turkeys, cliff edges and speed cameras.  Luckily we didn’t hit anything, but we did see a lot of road kill.  Another thing that seems a little odd is that different states have different speed limits and they tell you the max speed in the state is 100km/h then put a speed limit sign of 110km/h on some of the roads.   Which brings us to how slow the speed limit is.  Imaging driving about 7,000km at an average speed of 90km/h. (That’s 4,500miles at 56mph) (and 7,000km is the answer to our poll- well done that 1 person who got it right!)

When in the camper we had loads of fun and saw loads of stuff, definitely one of the best ways to travel around such a big country.  There were lots of trips where our favourite radio station would play the same songs over and over again for 7 hours, but we powered through on a diet of sweets, coke and cheese sandwiches.  It was always exciting seeing what the campsites would have to offer.  Some were delux affairs with jacuzzis, spas, pools, games rooms and clean amenities, others were less so – say no more.  The camp sites in the south were fun as, generally, we were the only ones around and had lots of space to pick whatever site we wished; but as it got warmer and we headed north it started to get busier and so we were usually shoved in between other campers.  Those up north had better facilities too, we think.  Because of the warmer weather up north we could start to use the outside space more and usually had dinner ‘al fresco’ (as you do!) with a bottle of local wine.  One thing that did keep us amused was that each camp site was guaranteed to have it’s own little community of bush turkeys, that would run around at dawn and dusk chasing each over at high speed and amusing the tourists.

Our only real drama on the road was a stone chip on the windscreen we picked up with about a week to go.  After much debate and calling around we decided to leave it for the camper people to resolve… in the end they didn’t charge us anyway – what a result!!

Well, that’s it for the east coast of Australia.  For more camper stories join us in New Zealand in early September!  (and before that, we have the small matters of Uluru and Kakadu)…

The Great Barrier Reef (from above and below)

Prepare yourself, this post may come across as a bit cheesy, but I can’t write it in any other way. This place has been voted the 2^nd best natural wonder of the world (after Grand Canyon) for good reason.

From Cape Tribulation an excellent company called ‘Rumrunner’ took us out to the Reef for snorkelling. We had barely set off when we saw a baby whale leaping out of the water. The captain, Gaz, told us that it would have just been born and was learning to swim. It was pretty amazing. The mum and dad swam beside it and we were treated to a breaching show!!! They just kept on jumping out of the water and barely went under. That was a very unexpected highlight of the trip!

It took 1 hour to get 20km off shore to Mackay Reef, part of the middle reef. It is a little sandy island with a huge reef surrounding it. We got our snorkelling gear and went for it. I (Carly) am usually quite nervous, especially since a sea lion popped up right in front of me in the Galapagos! However, I just had to go for it because it was the Great Barrier Reef. I am soooo glad I did. We saw so much multicoloured coral and zillions of tropical fish.

Dave decided to give scuba diving a go and had an introductory dive. He seemed to really enjoy it and went up to 8m down for 45 minutes. He saw a giant blue fish (2 metres long) hiding in the coral which he seemed very pleased about (I’m glad I didn’t bump into it)! The crew then gave us a good lunch and an enthusiastic Gaz told us about the different types of fish and coral etc. They also told about some of the damage that is being done to the reef, for example prawn trawlers scrape almost everything off the ocean floor and only 25% is prawns, the rest is discarded and dead. Put us off prawns that’s for sure!

After lunch we snorkelled the amazing underwater world again. Never seen anything like it. We swam behind a turtle for a while watching what it did. We swam over massive clams, about a meter long, and watched them close up and… we saw a 2 metre long reef shark!!!! Luckily I didn’t freak out too much as it was quite far away from me. I thought it was quite a small one, but people told me (later) that it was actually quite big!!!

I would highly recommend this company if you want to see the reef. The crew were so helpful and gave us loads of info: www.rumrunner.com.au

We are now in Cairns and were so impressed by the reef that we decided a scenic flight over it was called for!!!! We went in a tourist information shop and asked about the flights. Managed to find one for $109 each, which goes over the reef for 45 minutes. Worth it we thought… (Yes, Sam, we are champagne backpackers I know )

We arrived at the airport at 2.30pm today and went to ‘check in’. I realised that only myself and Dave were present and asked the pilot ‘is it just us?’. ‘Yes’, he replied, ‘the plane only seats 4′. Most people know that I am a nervous flyer – I was prepared for a 20 seater, but not quite 4!!! Before going to the plane the pilot gave us a briefing and told us that because we were flying about 1,000 feet over the sea we had to wear life jackets at all times – scary! Nevertheless, I put on my brave face and got in. Me in the back and Dave in the front with the pilot!

Wow!!! It was fantastic! When we got going it was like being in a car. I wasn’t nervous at all. Of course, the reef looked wonderful. The photos we have don’t do it justice at all, but I hope they give you an idea of what we saw. I am close to saying that it’s the best thing we have seen in Australia, but it’s too difficult to choose, so I’m not going to pick a favourite. (By the way for this flight company look up www.barrieraviation.com.au/sfb).

We are now getting ready to drop off the camper tomorrow and prepare for the ‘red centre’. We have had such a brilliant time going up the east coast and don’t really want it to end. However, Uluru calls, so it can’t be that bad

Don’t forget to guess the number of kms we have driven (you may not find it that much fun, but we do!!!!)  find it a couple of posts down – or here.

Will be in touch…

Cape Tribulation, northern Queensland

Named ‘Tribulation’ because of the troubles Captain Cook experienced on his journey around Queensland, this cape is also famous because it is where a huge rainforest meets the sea. It is the only place where you can see two world heritage sights at once; the Daintree Rainforest and the Great Barrier Reef.

 You enter the Daintree National Park (Cape Trib is part of this park) via a ferry crossing over the river Daintree. Quite frankly it felt like we were entering Jurassic Park (minus the dinosaurs). We have passed many rainforests on our journey through Australia and the amount of trees we have seen is phenomenal. However, this one seemed to be the most dense and undamaged we have seen. Apparently it is 140,000,000 years old and is claimed to be the oldest in the world. There is one road going right the way through it and, thankfully, very few buildings. The area is not on the national grid for electricity and there is no mains water either. Thankfully we remembered to boil water before drinking it

 Right alongside the forest are yet more beautiful beaches. Once again, this seems untouched, except for the odd sign warning you of crocodiles (aaargh!!!!). We decided not to swim in the sea!

 We stayed in the area for 3 nights. During our time there we went on some brilliant walks through the forest by ourselves and even spotted a few freshwater turtles ambling along a creek! Walking along Cape Tribulation beach was also really lovely. We also went jungle surfing (Dave’s idea!). This involved being harnessed 25-30 metres in the air and swinging through the trees to 5 different tree houses!!! At top speed we reached 40km/h . It was great fun and enabled us to see a lot of the surroundings. We saw flying fox bats hanging from the trees and loads of birds of paradise.

 We visited a little old man in the ‘Bat House’, which was really interesting. He rescues injured bats, which I didn’t think would be cute, but they were! He also told us loads of stuff about how the rainforest is depleting and every year a team of volunteers from overseas join him to plant different types of trees to help rebuild the rainforest. He sent us on a ‘re-generation’ walk so that we could see the baby and teenage trees!

 A major highlight of our stay was a trip to the Barrier Reef with a company called Rumrunner. I have devoted the next post to this, as it wouldn’t be fair to combine these 2 fantastic heritage sights