Cairns

After spending the night in the airport, I arrived in Cairns at 8:00am. Since check in was not until 1:30 I wandered down to the dive shop to see when I could go. They actually go out every day of the year so I got myself booked in for Friday. I will be doing a 3 day/2 night trip staying on the boat at night.

After getting booked in I wandered downtown Cairns. Wow there really isn’t anything to this place! People come here just to dive or take a trip to the rain forest up north.

Since I didn't feel like cooking I went out and got me a lamb Gyro from a nice little Greek restaurant. Ended up sitting there for 2 hours they just wouldn't let me leave it felt really weird since every place at home is get you in and out as fast as possible.

I’ll let you know how the diving went when I get back.

I have found a nice little gelateria that makes their own. I had Caramel mud and Macadamia nut.

Ice cream and Crocs

I spent the last week or so eating ice cream and sitting by the pool reading. I just don’t want to know what I spent on ice cream since it was mostly $4.25 a day. I did manage to get burnt, so my chest is nice and pink.

My last day in Darwin I went to Crocodylus Park. Here they farm salt water crocs for their hides they also do conservation programs and accept problem crocs. This is how they get most of their big male crocs, sadly they didn’t have any croc ice cream!

After seeing more than enough crocs I headed back into Darwin and off to get my free meal at the local pub. It wasn’t the best for free I wasn’t’ complaining. I got me an ice cream for dessert as walking in 25 degree heat at 8:00pm is just too hot. I then watched some TV and got the shuttle to the airport at 10pm for my 5am flight.

Darwin

Salt Water Crocs
Originally uploaded by s webster

Darwin is a nice little city (150k) in the tropics; it’s also the fastest growing city in Australia. The weather is 35 and sunny every day. The first week here was interesting I fed fish; tho it was windy and the water cloudy so I could not see the bottom. I ate fish, both barramundi and jewfish. I rented a mountain bike with a girl form the states and got a sore ass from the uncomfortable seats they put on bikes.

Every Thursday and Sunday they run markets at the beach here called Mindle. There is food, music and lots of “crap” that you can buy. These markets bring in roughly 15mil to the community every year so you can see they are vital to the city. Here I tried some Crocodile from the Road kill Cafe, no it doesn’t taste like chicken it is lizardy! I also found a great little ice cream stand that make their ice cream here. For $4.50 you get about ½ a litre in a waffle cone. So far I’ve had Mango, Macadamia nut, boysenberry, passion fruit & lime swirl. I think there are a few more flavours to try yet.

Right now I sit by the pool every day and go for a swim ( since you don’t really want to swim in the ocean here as they have crocs). On Sunday I went and saw the famous jumping crocodiles! We got on a river boat and headed down the river. Even before we got on the boat you could see them. They say there are approx 70,000 in the alidade river. Oh these are salt water crocs so they are massive, 6 meters long and weigh over a ton! They can also jump! One of our guides put some pork on a fishing line and held it over the side of the boat. The croc comes into the water right up to the side of the boat and jumps straight up to get at the meat. One things’ for sure you don’t want to hang over the side of the boat for any reason.

I have issues with things called Katharine!

Staircase to the Moon
Originally uploaded by s webster

The past few weeks have flown by. From the sheep station in the outback we headed to a mining town just on the border of Karijini national park. We stopped for the night then headed into the park. Tho for some reason we took the back road so 80kms of unpaved un-graded road. Everything was covered in red dust after that. We ended up getting the last camp site. The ground was soo hard I could not get my tent pegs in. The problem with that is without the tent pegs my tent will not stand; luckily I managed to get them in a little tho if you blew on them they would fall over. After setting up camp I went for a hike in Dell’s Gorge here there are 2 swimming pools one at either end of the gorge and roughly 2kms apart. It was a nice little walk.

The next morning we packed up and headed north to Port Headland where I ended up on my own! My so called travel buddy decided she could not travel with anyone so I got left in a caravan park. In a town with 10,000 people.

So I woke up the next morning somewhat relaxed and not really sure what to do. I talked with the guy that was next to me as he was having car problems. He was on his 2nd car since Perth and just got the top end rebuilt. They offered me a lift to Broom as they were going there! So I had a ride. I quickly packed up my stuff and dropped my tent. I thought I would lose the $35.00 I had already paid for the night but they were nice enough to refund it for me. Things were looking up. I sent the girl that I had been traveling with a txt telling her I got a ride and I was leaving. Well a while later I got a call from her telling me she had somehow found a job on a cattle farm 400kms south and wasn’t going any further for a year. Really nice of her! Did I tell you her name? No well you can guess.. It was Katherine.

So we left Port Headland and headed to Eighty Mile Beach. Here we stopped for the nigh and watched the sun go to the other side of the world! At the park they were doing burgers for $4.00 so I got one they were pretty good. We were up and on the road by about 9am the next morning we got into Broom around 2pm. Setup camp and then wandered into town. It’s a nice little place with 15000 permanent residents though over holidays it grows to over 50k. With it currently being school holidays it was completely packed.

Broom

Broom is a nice little pearling town with lots of restaurants and a really nice ice cream shop. (I only visited once a day)
That night the markets were running and the Stair case to the Moon was on. This happens once a month when the moon is full and the tide is out the mudflats look like stairs going up to the moon. (See pic) I think I had some doughnuts and ice cream for supper. I didn’t like the look of most of the food.

The next day we went to Cable beach, this is the famous beach that people watch the sunset and take camel rides on. We went swimming and sat on the beach for the day. That evening we went just out of town to a field to look at the stars. The astronomy man had 10 different telescopes he just gotten a 16” the day before so we could really look at some galaxies. He explained the southern sky pointing out the individual stars he really knew his stuff.

Over the next few days I was looking for a ride to Darwin as my new friends weren’t sure what they were doing yet. Once they knew they invited me along. We were going to head into Derby (a small town) but also the western end of the Gibb river road. Here we rented a 4x4 and drove into the national park that is on the road. (You can only access this road with a 4 wheel drive) In the park there is a gorge with a waterfall and small pools that you can swim in. On our way into the park we had stopped for a bathroom break. One of us was standing around flicking a switch on the front of the truck. We had both wondered what it did. Well as we were ready to go I got in and tried to start it up. Nothing, no lights any dingy. Everything was dead! We had 2 people stop to see if we needed help we tried jumper cables and that did nothing. Eventually the one guy asked if anyone was playing with the switch on the front. He clicked it and said try it now. Well apparently it is an isolator switch that completely kills everything. The lady at the rental place didn’t tell us at all about it, we could have been in big trouble.

Did I mention there was a river crossing we had to do? Well we had to stop and drive thru a few times to take some pictures.

The next day we explored a tunnel where an aboriginal outlaw sent some time. I did not find any rock paintings but our feet did get wet as in some places the water was up to our knees.

After returning the 4x4 we had to spend one more night in Derby as it was getting late. Over the next 2 days we would travel to Kununurra, the last city in Western Australia before the Northern Territory (also one of the places where they filmed “Australia”) and only stopping to change 1 flat tire. Here two of us took a Scenic flight over the Bungle Bungles. (Australians sure love their rocks) it was a 2.5h flight south of the city we crossed a lake and some low level mountains. As well as 2 diamond mines. The one produces 1/3 of the world’s diamonds and has the largest private air strip in the southern hemisphere. I wasn’t really impressed with the rocks or the flight. (I fell asleep) though I did get some great pictures.

We left for Darwin the next morning and traveled the first day without incident. Tho that night they were talking about where they should list the car for sale. We got up and packed the next morning and left. About 5 minutes down the road the car loses all power. We pull over and the car doesn’t start. Great! We are in the middle of nowhere with a dead car. I volunteer to sit on the side of the road while they go back up the road 40min to call for the tow truck. Eventually they return and we wait another 3 hours for the tow truck. I did manage to get some good pictures of an Eagle while I was waiting. (I also got sunburnt even though I was sitting in the shade). Eventually he shows up 45min after they said he would be there. We get the car loaded and eventually leave as we had to wait for one guy as he had gone back into town to phone and see where the towie was. Into town we go. Can you guess the name of the town? Yep that’s right it’s Katherine! So I get my stuff and we call a taxi I head to a caravan park and my friends to a hotel. I setup my camp and get some fish and chips for dinner (or tea depending on what country you’re from) it was a local fish call Barramundi. It’s quite nice. The following day I find out that my friends are just going to head back to Sydney so I need to find my way up to Darwin. Great now I’m stuck in Katherine. Did I mention I really don’t like things called Katherine now! I was going to hop on the bus up though luckily I met some folks that were headed up and they offered me a lift. I spent a week in Katherine tho as I could not get into the hostel till after Saturday. I spent my days swimming in the pool, reading and wandering the big town (12,000 people). I also spent an afternoon in the Hot springs which was a nice 32C and some people called it cold!

So my Western Australia adventure ends and I find out I don’t like things called Katherine!

** I would have posted this sooner though internet reception was not the greatest out there in the sparsely populated North West.