9 year anniversary

We spent our wedding anniversary this year touring Auckland and getting ready for our early departure tomorrow. First of all we got up and celebrated with coffee and cake (coffee for me, cake for Trace!).

Next up we got on board our free orientation bus tour of Auckland provided by our hostel. We got to watch one of our number jump off the Skytower (that's 192 metres up!). Luckily he was attached to a couple of wires which managed to stop him plummeting to his death... We also stopped by such attractions as extinct volcanoes, monuments to a famous New Zealand Prime Minister and busy tat markets.

We've just got back to the hostel to check email and suchlike before heading out to dinner at our local veggie cafe. We went there for lunch the other day and it was pretty good, hence the return visit.

Anyway, looking forward to seeing New Zealand - starting tomorrow!

First steps in Kiwiland

And so on to New Zealand...

We arrived in a veil of mist. Our first port of call (literally) was Napier. Napier is famous for its art-deco architecture which was in style when the city was rebuilt following the destruction of the old town by a earthquake in 1931. The optimistic citizens decided to rebuild and (touch wood) it has survived so far. While in Napier we met our freighter travel agent who has been most helpful in our round-the-world-without-flying quest: Hamish. In a bizarre twist of fate, Hamish comes originally from Edinburgh - where some of his family still live. Even stranger is that I have fixed his brother's computer while working for Microsys. Small world indeed.


Napier itself is a nice little place. Apart from all the art deco stuff its a compact town - very pleasant atmosphere and ambiance (despite the rain which greeted us). I guess it helps that we came from Australia where there isn't any rain to be had. Kinda reminds me of home already.

Anyway, we were soon back on board for the short hop to Auckland. This voyage was on board the CMA CGM MANET which is a French owned, Croatian and Filipino crewed, Barbados registered freighter. I reckon it's slightly bigger than the last ship (the HANSA SONDERBURG) but was pretty similar. The Croatian officers tended to stick together and speak in their own language a lot (fair enough I guess) whilst smoking seemingly non-stop, but the Filipinos tended to engage a bit more and they were all very friendly. The food on this voyage was better than the previous one - the cook seemed to know what he was up to and did make an effort for us - which was much appreciated.


So. We're now in Auckland and haven't had much time to explore yet, but it seems nice enough... We're off on our bus on the 2nd (fingers crossed, the company seemed [worryingly] slightly unsure on this point...) so we've got tomorrow to chill out and have a look around.

Melbourne - Full Circle!

Well, we're back in Melbourne, which means we've come full circle since we arrived here on 15 February 2007.

What a wonderful time we've had. I've been trying to think of my top five highlights, but it's too hard to choose. The koala hospital with its inspiring volunteers and adorable (sometimes heartbreaking) patients was definitely the most rewarding experience in Oz. Our time in Tasmania was like a dream; it's so beautiful, I can't imagine why more people don't go there. Our visit to Kangaroo Island was action-packed and great not only for spotting koalas and echidnas in the wild but sleeping right amongst them in our swags! Our time in Katoomba in the Blue Mountains was a solace after leaving the koala hospital; we hiked ourselves silly and marvelled at all the fauna and flora existing so quietly yet so incredibly in this huge, amazing area. At the top end, we hiked and swam ourselves silly in Kakadu's Jim Jim Falls; that water was so cold but refreshing after climbing miles uphill through scratchy plants and over rocks. I caught up with a friend I hadn't seen in 20 years; we've now met up with each other in the US, England and Oz (and will hopefully manage to stay in touch this time)! We saw stromatolites and thrombolites, just sitting there doing the same thing they've done for millions of years; it's thanks to their species that this planet obtained enough oxygen to support the creatures we evolved from. We swam with whale sharks, rays, reef sharks and countless fish amongst gorgeous corals in Ningaloo Reef and the Great Barrier Reef, and we spotted a mother dugong with her baby swimming along the sea grass beds in Ningaloo Reef as well as turtles, whales and dolphins on both coasts. We sailed among the Whitsunday Islands for three days, loving to bits the beauty of the whole area and the experience of soaking up the sun, snorkelling and sites without motoring through it all in a hurry. We've been through rainforests, caves and underground dwellings; climbed mountains and made it through the Overland Track (not gracefully!); run up and down huge down sand dunes and squealed like kids as we boarded down them; walked among massive tree tops (not at all afraid when the whole tree top walkway shook with people's steps or the wind!); seen the most gorgeously clear starry skies with the milky way showing itself as a massive cloud; walked along the most pristine beaches with pure, white sand and swam in their crystal clear waters; gaped at amazing rock formations, some of them in the most unlikely-looking locations; been ceaselessly delighted by the birds, animals and plants in this country -- so much colour and specialisation; and been absolutely charmed by the people here (Ozzies and people from other countries who are lucky enough to call this place home) and their wonderful language and way of life. And along the way, we've gained friends among the locals and travellers alike, friends I hope to see again someday either in Oz or any other country.

I've found Australia to be fiercely beautiful and will miss it too much for words to express. It's been our home for over five months, and I sincerely hope we can call it home again -- even if only temporarily! We still haven't seen everything here, after all...

Port Macquarie - Katoomba - Sydney

We continued our race down the east coast of Australia with another few hours of travel before reaching Port Macquarie. It was nice to pull into the town centre and start recognising things. We were picked up at the bus station by Mary with whom we were staying overnight. She took us back to her house and we spent a pleasant evening with her, Greg and Angus the dog.

The next day we presented ourselves at the koala hospital to see how the place was getting on without us - well enough apparently. So well in fact that one of the patients/inmates had felt comfortable enough to let her baby out and about! Anna Bay Sooty - a koala who had just arrived before we left - was suffering quite badly from conjunctivitis when we left but by the time we dropped by again everything seemed to have cleared up and she was the picture of health.


While we were watching, her little baby (gender unknown) stuck its little head up for a little look around. We learned later that this had only just started happening and several more permanent members of staff had not even seen the little kid.


Anyway, the pictures aren't great, but I would encourage you to check Sam's "Koalawrangler" blog (link on the right) for better quality pictures in future. We spent the rest of the day intermittently catching up with other vollies, feeding koalas and running out to look whenever the baby koala appeared. One on occasion I went to check on the baby without realising I was in another koala's enclosure. The first warning I got was when the irate occupant started clawing at my leg - I guess he was just letting me know he wasn't happy I was hanging around - so I beat a hasty retreat.

We spent that night with Joyce and Brian who very kindly not only put up with us for the night and fed us, but also gave us a lift into town for the 7am bus to Sydney! Everyone at the hospital was particularly welcoming, but Joyce, Brian, Mary and Gregg were really particularly good to us - it will be a shame to leave their country not knowing when we'll be back. At least everyone has email these days.

We got to Sydney that afternoon and quickly boarded a train for Katoomba. The first thing we did in Katoomba after dropping our stuff at the hostel was head back to our favourite restaurant in Australia - Niche Nosh.


They were unfortunately out of chocolate cake, but we had a wonderful dinner (and lunch next day) nevertheless.

So we're now back in Sydney and have just spent the evening with Louise and Mark eating Campbells soup flavoured Chinese food. The food wasn't anything special, but it was good to see them again. Tomorrow sees us on another early bus, destination Melbourne - our last stop in Australia. Time flies, eh?

Brisbane

We arrived in Brisbane around 4pm - so we did have a little time to get around and arrange some things. First of all we managed to get a quick look at the internet - no freighter tickets yet... - and caught the latest Harry Potter movie offering (OOTP). Also we got to have a quick scout around the city centre in Brisbane - rather similar to any other "CBD" (Central Business District) in the country: concrete and glass high-rises, Subway restaurants, shopping malls etc. We caught a bus out to our hostel and settled down for the night.


In the morning we rose bright and early to catch a train out to Australia Zoo. We got to the station in plenty of time, which was just as well as there was chaos on the platform. It seems that they have recently closed a couple of platforms at a few stations in Brisbane and noone knows where any trains are arriving and at which platform they are likely to arrive. We asked three different employees and got 3 different answers before we found someone who knew what they were talking about. We also managed to find a few more people headed our way so at least we were all equally bemused. Finally the train was located (it had been delayed by 20 minutes which caused some of the confusion) and we lept aboard before they could lose it again.


Australia Zoo was quite an experience. Steve Irwin's image was omnipresent and I found myself wondering what it was like before Steve was killed (4/7/06 by a bull ray on the Great Barrier Reef). Regardless it was a good zoo with many healthy looking animals (including a baby koala!) but the one problem was that some of the animals seemed far too tame. One of my favourite stops at any zoo is the tiger enclosure and I always love watching tigers behaving as naturally as possible (usually asleep). In this enclosure, however, the keepers were standing next to the lounging tiger and were able to stroke the tiger like a tame cat. On our way out we saw two of the keepers walking a cheetah on a lead as if it were a pet dog. I'm sure that these animals are being well taken care of, but it seems rather indulgent that these seemingly wild animals are effectively just tame pets of the zoo.


Anyway, we got the train back to Brisbane and walked back to the hostel. The funny thing is that the area in which our hostel is located is outside the main CBD area (south of the river mate). Walking through the main street of this little suburb it seemed really nice and pleasant, lined with cafes, ethnic food places and fruit and veg shops. There was also a quaint little statue of a lizard which was rather reminicent of Barcelona with its Gaudi sculptures. I appreciated Brisbane a little more after that and wished that we had more than a day and a half. We had barely stepped outside the train station.

Well, next stop Port Macquarie. Brisbane was the last new place we were planning to visit in Australia. When we reach Port Macquarie we'll have completed our circuit of the continent and we will be going over previously covered ground. Our date with New Zealand is drawing ever closer...

Brisbane via points various...

... or more specifically Rainbow Beach - so called because of the rainbow colours adorning the surrounding beach. Unfortunately we were disappointed to find that the "rainbow" sands consisted of varying shades of yellow, orange and white rather than the red and yellow and pink and green which we had (perhaps foolishly) been expecting.

Our hostel in Rainbow Beach also has the funniest signage in the word - which included this gem (amongst others):


Anyway, we were soon on our way to Fraser Island - the world's largest sand island and one of only a few areas (possibly the only one) where rainforest grows on sand.

Our tour got off to a bad start - we had to wait on a connecting bus from further south which eventually turned up 20 minutes later. We were all crammed onto a bus which seats 40 and packaged off to Fraser Island.

Luckily the tour improved - our tour guide was funny and the scenery breathtaking. Driving along the beach we passed a pod of humpback whales swimming just off the coast, making their way north to the Barrier Reef.

Unfortunately we were dragged back to reality with a chaotic tea break (two tours of 40 people lining up to get themselves tea and a muffin - eek!), a debacle that would only be duplicated during the lunch break later on.


Regardless we were determined to enjoy the tour and the sights of Fraser helped in this endevour. We saw a rather impressive shipwreck - the Meheno which was cast ashore in the 30's due to an unseasonable cyclone, ancient king ferns in the rainforest and the incredible Lake MacKenzie.


Our indomitable guide supplied interesting facts and stories throughout the day and, for me, saved the tour from becoming remembered for the wrong reasons. One of the more interesting tales was of Eliza Fraser (after whom the island was named) who was shipwrecked there in the 1830s. After rescue she painted the locals - who ultimately were responsible for her survival - as inhuman savages. She realised that the more shocking the story, the more money she would make in book sales and public speaking engagements and so aparently she may have embelished certain parts of the story while omitting other parts - like the parts where they shared food and suchlike. This is how Mark the tour guide painted the picture anyhow.

Unfortunately we only had a few hours on the island and before long it was time to return to the mainland. It's a shame we have such little time left because it would be great to go back. Maybe next time...

In the meantime, there just a couple more things to note from here in Brisbane:

1. We'll be heading over to New Zealand on the 24th of July - leaving us about a week and a half left in Australia. Expect further msuings on this subject soon - but we're going to drop by Port Macquarie again and try to catch up with some of the koala hospital vollies before we go and also drop by Sydney to see Louise again.

2. We're hoping to go and see Steve Irwin's Australia Zoo tomorrow. Crikey!

Cairns - Airlie Beach

One thing guaranteed to be on any Australian east coast traveller's wish-list is a few days sailing off Airlie Beach to the Whitsunday Islands.

The Whitsunday Islands are a small island group off the Queensland coast which offer outstanding beaches, snorkelling and sailing. We boarded our boat (simply called "Enid") on Thursday morning after a 12 hour bus journey from Cairns. Luckily we were able to get a night's sleep at a local hostel so we weren't COMPLETELY wrecked. We met up with our crew and fellow passengers on the quayside and were soon under full sail headed for the islands.

I doubt that there is any better feeling that lounging on the deck of a sail boat - although the experience would have been vastly improved by the addition of a wind-break. I guess that would cheapen the experience somewhat...

Anyway, we spent the next 3 days touring the various beauty spots. The undoubted highlight of the tour, however has to be when we ran into Wally: a 1.5m long humpheaded wrass. He let us feed him and stroke him as he swam around the boat. I reckon everyone listed him as a highlight.

We just got back to Airlie Beach (from where I write these very words) and are probably going to be meeting up with the rest of the passengers for dinner and/or drinks. After that, we're on a overnight bus (again) destination Rainbow Beach!

More Reef Excitement (Port Douglas)

Ello.

This'll be quick because it's getting late and I (badly) need some beauty sleep...

Just a quick report on our latest activities in and around the greater Cairns area. We got up bright and early again (eek) after a relaxing Sunday off (during which we watched the excellent new Transformers movie - giant killer robots: what's not to like?). We took a bleary eyed trip a few k's up the coast to Port Douglas where we boarded a boat out to the reef. This time we were further north than Green Island - closer to the place where Capt James Cook dented his ship (but luckily for Australia managed to refloat on the high tide - otherwise they'd all be speaking French!). We pulled up next to a couple of sections of reef and explored the many different varieties of coral. The coral in these places was incredibly varied - from big fat brain corals to small, delicate blue-tipped staghorn. This time the water was much deeper - being further out from the coast - and the coral stretched all the way up to the surface like a great living wall (or barrier I guess...). In and among the coral formations we encountered hundreds (or maybe even thousands) of little fish happily going about their daily business. We saw angelfish, sea cucumbers, clown fish (there's that pesky Nemo!), a dog-faced puffer fish among others. We narrowly missed out on seeing a Minke Whale who appeared just before we got out of the water, but unfortunately on the other side of the boat so we missed him. We did spot a Manta Ray and although we were excited to see him, he was only a small one and (of course) Manta Rays are yesterdays news :-).

We only had a short time to recover from our reef trip before we set out again (bright and early the next day - yeuch!) to explore the oldest living rainforest in the world: the heritage listed Daintree forest and Cape Tribulation. Apparently, while naming this area, the dauntless Capt Cook was plumbing the depths of depression which is why so many of the local spots have dismal names. Anyway, we toured around the area, seeing various coves and forests - the drive from Cairns reminded us somewhat of the Great Ocean Road in Victoria - and always keeping an eye out for the local speciality. This particular creature is the heaviest Australian land dweller, one of the more dangerous creatures on the continent as well as being unusually shy and retiring. It's also incredibly rare - with only an estimated 1500 surviving in the wild. This creature is the Cassowary.

While tramping through a rainforest boardwalk trail, we chanced upon one of these magnificent creatures happily rooting through the undergrowth in search of food. Contrary to everything we'd been told, it seemed neither shy nor particularly fierce. This one was only a sub-adult so I guess it had something to learn about being a Cassowary, but we all got our pictures and left it alone. We did see an adult looking slightly more menacing on our way out of the park, but we luckily had the side of a bus between us and it - so we weren't particularly threatened. We were also introduced to various other rainforest dwellers including strangling vines, flesh tearing tendrils, king ferns and the fern-like sensitive weeds (Trace's favourite) which appear to shrivel up when you get close to them - but regain their previous stature when you leave them alone.

We had locally grown billy tea and damper with exotic fruits by the side of a small creek and a BBQ lunch. After a quick stop by Cape Trib beach, we headed for the Daintree River and a wildlife cruise (at which we are now old hands!). Whilst on the cruise we spotted the obligatory salty crocs (including a foot-long 2 year old), but the show was stolen by kingfishers. We spotted 3 of the smallest kingfishers in Australia - including the Little Kingfisher which is arguably the smallest in the world. He's also a brilliant blue with a white chest - very stylish.

So we're now in Airlie Beach and tomorrow we depart to the Whitsunday Islands on a 3 day voyage.

Cairns and the Great Barrier Reef

Having snorkeled on Australia's other, lesser known reef (Ningaloo Reef), it was time for the big one: The Great Barrier Reef, the only living thing visible from space. Before we dove into the deep end though, we headed south of Cairns to see Kuranda village and the Atherton Tablelands.

Kuranda village is a small tourist village set in the heart of rainforest nearby Cairns - primarily drawing tourists for its markets and small town charm. There's also a cablecar which takes you back Cairns-wards. Never able to resist a cablecar we set off and browsed among the markets. On a journey such as ours there is usually little point browsing markets given that anything we buy has to replace something we've lost, had stolen, worn out, sent home or otherwise gotten rid of. This makes looking through markets an exercise in self restraint. Having given in to get a sarong in Perth, we really didn't need anything else, but did manage to spend an hour and a bit browsing whilst remaining purchaseless. We did buy lunch, but we didn't need any backpack space for that. We returned to Cairns via the cablecar which conveyed us over dense rainforest - up to a height of 40m at points - back to a bus stop where we got ourselves back to Cairns.

The next day we were picked up early for a whizz around the Atherton Tablelands. We were taken around various beauty spots including rainforests, chasms, gorges and a cheese factory (yum!) for lunch.

We stopped at a place called Paronella Park which was a bit like the Disneyworld of Queensland inthe 1920s and 30s. It was built by a Spanish immigrant who wanted to create a Spanish castle in Australia. He built a small cottage for his wife and family before starting on the castle itself. When finished the castle featured a grand stairway, turrets, fountains huge gardens, a cinema, dance hall and a hydro power plant - years before the surrounding area received mains power. Unfortunately the Queensland climate was not kind to the place. It suffered from floods and was finally partly ruined by cyclones. These days it is still in partial ruins, but the way that nature is reclaiming the site is amazing: there are bats in the tunnels, moss growing up stairways and vines surrounding the turrets. Quite a wonderful little place.

Yesterday (Saturday) we finally got to the Great Barrier Reef (GBR - for the sake of my typing). We boarded our sailboat at 8:00am along with 30 (ish) other people and headed out into the reef area towards Green Island. It took somewhere in the region of 2 hours to get to our destination but once we were there it was obvious why people are so keen to see the reef. The water was clear and blue and fairly calm - perfect snorkeling weather. We went straight in - no wetsuits required - and swam around for an hour or so looking at all of the abundant reef life - a myriad of fish, starfish, sea slugs (I think) and (of course) coral.

I was just heading back to the boat, when a Blacktip reef shark swam straight in from of me. First of all, it would be prudent to note for all you who are scared of sharks that various sources (including wiki, tour guides, experts etc) say that these chaps are harmless unless you are annoying them in a Steve Irwin-esque manner. Wiki says:
"Blacktips may attack humans in poor visibility, mistaking it for prey. Under normal conditions they are harmless and even quite shy."


Now avid readers of the blog will know that we've been in the water with reef sharks before. Over on the Ningaloo reef we saw one enter a cleaning station before he clocked us and beat a hasty retreat. This fella on the other hand was - if you'll pardon the pun - a different kettle of fish altogether. Anyone who's been snorkeling before will know about the magnifying effect of water and how difficult it is to judge distances down there. Both of these effects combined on this occasion making me believe that this shark was twice his actual size and half the distance away. I could make out a couple of suckerfish attached to him, hitching a ride around the reef in search of food. Luckily I was able to identify him as a blacktip by his... well, black tipped fins. This saved me potentially embarrassing myself by screaming to all and sundry that they should abandon all dignity and enact a rapid evacuation of the immediate vicinity - or words to that effect. Managing to keep my wits about me enabled me to get a good look at this most elegant of predators - one so perfect in its evolutionary niche that it has declined all offers of evolution over millions of years. As quickly as he had appeared the shark disappeared again beyond my range of view off into the murk. Few of my fellow snorkelers seemed to have spotted this handsome beast - or at least so I presumed by the lack of screams or yells from less well informed members of the public - or at least ones less willing to trust experts and tour guides. I asked the ships observer (the guy trusted with looking out for the snorkelers and ensuring they don't drown, wonder off or otherwise get themselves in trouble) if he'd spotted it. He replied that he had and estimated it at about 3 feet long. I thought it was something longer and more impressive, but it may have just been the effect of the water (or my own impulse to believe Jaws had just swam past) that made me so wildly inaccurate. I still reckon he was at least 1.5 metres though so that'll do for me.

The rest of the day was spent walking around Green Island and more GBR snorkeling. Although we didn't see any more sharks, we did get another look around at more of the diverse sealife. I did try to catch a fish (not to eat you understand, just for fun), but they all rather contemptuously swam just out of reach. Just as well because I believe it's illegal and who knows which ones have ridiculously poisonous spines... This is Australia after all.

All in all, the snorkeling was great fun. We have some more booked for tomorrow as well as a quick jaunt up to Cape Tribulation (great names for places in Australia) which is supposed to be lovely. I'm on the case with the photos. Hopefully later today or tomorrow. They take AGES to upload - I hope you are all suitably impressed...

Housework

Just archiving off a few photo albums. Getting a little crowded on the right hand bar.

Overland Track

Tasmania

Kangaroo Island

Great Ocean Road

Phillip Island

Melbourne

Freighter Travel

Mexico

Grand Canyon

Pacific Northwest

Catching up...

OK so I've let the blog updates slide for a few days and now (because of our action-packed schedule) I have a few destinations to cover in this one update...

Well, here goes: from Darwin we took a bus down to Tennant Creek where we hoped to get a quick shuttle to the Devil's Marbles before heading out to Cairns via Townsville. Unfortunately, when we arrived at our (curiously ramshackle) hostel in Tennant Creek, it turned out that the guy who runs the bus had decided to get it serviced that day so we were stuck for a day in a town (pop. 3500) halfway between Darwin and Alice Springs with all the exciting entertainment opportunities that go along with being in the middle of nowhere.

In a last desperate attempt to reach our desired goal, we decided that rather than sit around town and try to entertain ourselves, it would be worth the cost to rent a car and head off to the Devil's marbles on our own. To help you make up your mind as to whether we made a good decision or not, we took some photos (soon to be displayed in their own facebook photo album).

Anyway, we left Tennant Creek on the Greyhound and 20-something hours later washed up in Townsville a large-ish but unremarkable town in the north-east of Queensland. Upon entering Queensland we realised that we had now reached the 8th and final administrative district (including states and territories) in Australia. Unfortunately, this meant that the rest of Australia lies behind us and we only have three weeks left before we have to leave Oz.

We reached Cairns the next day (spent another night on the Greyhound!) and found ourselves another hostel. We wound up in a 4 person dorm for the first couple of nights where I made no end of friends with my epic Noden snoring (I can't think where I got that from...) luckily we got ourselves a private double room after that.

So all that remains to do now is tell you about our Cairns experience. I'll leave that for another day as I am rapidly running out of time, but needless to say it's all been pretty amazing so far... I'll try to finish catching up soon - and post the pix! Keep your eyes on the right hand column for photo updates.

More time to waste...

So now that I have a little more time to waste I can spend a little more time on describing what we've been up to. It'll be a little sketchy because it's been a while since this stuff happened - and we've done so much stuff since - but I'll do my best. Also I've had to cobble this post together over a few days so please bear with me.

We were originally booked on two tours - one from Broome to Darwin via the Gibb River Road and a second one which covered two big National Parks in the Northern Territory (NT): Kakadu and Litchfield. Things got off to an inauspicious start as we were unsure whether we'd be able to get our bags on the bus (not a lot of space...) but in the end everything fit even if we had to shoehorn it all in.

Anyway, we were all rather deflated to find out that the Gibb River Road (and all the gorges and chasms it lead to) was closed due to rain - as was the Bungle Bungle National Park - two of the highlights of the tour. We all quickly realised that we'd be in for an entirely different experience from the one which we'd anticipated. There was a bit of friction between Daniel our guide and a few members of the group who were understandably put out by this, but I reckoned it's not his fault so we'd better make the best of a bad situation. Anyway the first couple of days had no obvious highlights (except for passing signs to places we'd wanted to visit) and spirits were obviously depleted by the inclement weather. The last couple of days of the tour were much better - we were able to visit Katherine Gorge and Litchfield which were both lovely. We all met up at the end of the tour at the Vic and had a few drinks - by which time I think everyone had mellowed out a bit.

Due to the fact we'd already visited Litchfield we changed our 4 day tour of Kakadu and Litchfield to a 3 day Kakadu only tour. Our tour visited various swimming holes, waterfalls and walking trails all of which were lovely. We hiked all the way up to the top of Jim Jim Falls which even in "the Dry" is awesome. We got to try our hands at basket weaving, didgeridoo playing and even spear throwing! I must say that I'm better at playing the didge than throwing a spear but my true calling is weaving. Not much of a aboriginal warrior, me...

After of tour ended we met up in the Vic (again) for the same post tour dinner. Having done it all before we decided to leave early having things to arrange for the next day. Unfortunately we missed out on the exciting events of the evening - tour members (and guides) hooking up, people getting arrested, etc... More details as I get them, but it all sounds very exciting.

Anyway, we're now headed for Queensland and Cairns via Tenent Creek, so hopefully we'll be on the Great Barrier Reef before we know it!

Broome - Darwin

Helloo...

We are now in Darwin: gateway to "The Top End". We'll be leaving soon (in about 30 minutes) but I just thought I'd fill you in on what we've been up to since I last posted.

Basically we've been touring through the inhospitable north of Australia. We started with a tour of the Kimberley region. Unfortunately this tour was curtailed by the horrible weather. We did manage to get a good look at the area, but missed out on most of the wilder areas.

We also toured Kakadu which was brilliant! The place is amazing. We'll need to go back at some point to try to see more, but what we did get to see was stunning - I hope the photos do it justice.

Anyway, I'll try to get the photos uploaded soon.