Oct 2006

I managed a couple of day trips in the hire car before I had to return it. The first was to Philip Island, about 2 hours from Melbourne. Loads of lovely cliff walks, koalas and when the sun set there was a penguin parade. The penguins are indigenous to Oz, the smallest in the world which the aussies have very imaginatively called Little Penguins! They return from hunting at sunset and 'parade' up the beach back to their homes. A very bizarre sight! The second day trip was to the Dandenong ranges, about 35km outside Melbourne where I walked 15km through rainforest.

I am now in Darwin which is a tiny town right in the north. Jen arrived the day after me and we have spent 3 days in Kakadu national park. There were only 6 of us on the tour with a 4WD and a guide. The tour started with a 'cruise' on the Adelaide river which has about 2000 saltwater crocs living in it. They get the crocs to jump by dangling lumps of buffalo above them, amazingly powerful animals. Very glad I was in a boat!

We then headed into the park and saw old old Aboriginal rock paintings and a looong walk to the top of a massive rock to get a view over the whole park. Absolutely stunning. We finished the first day of with a quick visit to a caravan park for a swim in their pool. Our camp site for both nights was in the middle of the park next to a billabong. We camped only 30 metres away from the edge that had very prominent warning signs about the crocs!

The aboriginal manager of the park turned up for dinner, Johnny, and took a couple of people for a ride on his quad bike. He also told us that 3 years previously a guide had taken his group night swimming in the same billabong and a german girl was killed by the crocs - a lovely thought to go to sleep with!!

The second day started with a walk through the wetlands, saw my first wild snake, a yellow tree snake. Then a clamber over boulders to get to a beautiful water hole tucked right away at the bottom of a gorge. We spent a couple of hours chilling out here, saw another snake, a brown snake, that was basking on the rocks. After leaving the water our guide, Steve, informed us that a few freshwater crocs live in the same water but they are much more placid than the salties hmmmmmm!!! Just glad I didn't see one!!

Another night camping and eating buffalo and kangaroo! We also had a couple of didgaridoos to play with.

The third day was definately the best. First stop was a series of pools at the top of another gorge. Full of underwater tunnels and natural spa pools. I took a Dad-style panic attack at the underwater tunnel and had to be lifted out the pool!! Then another swim in yet another stunning gorge full of freshwater crocs to a waterfall. The perfect end to an amazing tour.

The weather has heated up a LOT. It's about 40 every day and pretty humid. Our hostel has 3 pools though so we're coping! The wet season starts in about a week so apparently we've timed it perfectly for our west coast trip.

We're aiming to leave Darin in a couple of days once we've finalised our travelling buddies and how we're actually going to travel!

Unfortunately Tim, the family dog has gone to the big dog kennel in the sky. He got too old and sick so he had to be put down. Sad but definately for the best.

Unfortunately we didn't have long in Adelaide, about 17 hours and most of them were spent in an Irish bar!!

We hired a car in Adelaide to drive the great ocean road to Melbourne. I have no idea what type of car it is but it's big and red. The first stop was the Maclaren Valley just south of Adelaide as it has LOADS of vinyards. So we had to stop at a few and sample and buy. Gorgeous scenery, rolling hills and off course vinyards!!

We then drove round the peninsula, the scenery round this section reminded me a lot of some parts of the UK. We then pulled up at a backpackers to check in for the night only to find it didn't exist anymore and everywhere else was fully booked as it's the school holidays - ooopsssss!! Donuts was set on sleeping in the car but I managed to find a cabin in a random caravan park 2 hours down the road. So it had a happy ending!!

The next day was mainly driving with a couple of stops to stare at the beautiful scenery and walk around a bit. We spent the night in a strange town called Waranbool with some even stranger locals. Excellent for people watching though!!

The 3rd day definately had the most spectacular scenery, amazing rock formations, gorges and blowholes. Also the biggest road kill, huuuge kangaroos. We only managed a wee bird though.

We spent the night in a very cute hostel in Appollo bay. 3 of the other residents were from Edinburgh, the only scots I've met so far!!

The last day on the road we started with some koala spotting. We saw loads in the wild and even one awake. They're gorgeous cuddly animals. We then extended our wildlife skills to feeding parrots and a few ducks. The drive again was beautiful, right on the coast. The next cultural stop was the lighthouse from Going round the twist!! Didn't see the ghostie that lives in the toilet though! Then to finish the road trip we took a stunt flight in a Tiger moth plane over the coast. The cockpit was open so we got to wear the biggles helmets and jackets!! A fantastic end to the trip and my time with Donuts!! He's buggered of to Canada now!!

I'm in Melbourne now, staying in St Kildas with 2 girls I know from waaaayyyyy back in Juniper Green! Still got the car so planning a couple of day trips in the next few days. On Sat I fly to Darwin to start my west coast adventure!!

The last activity we did in Cairns was white water rafting on the Tully River. It was absolutely amazing, loved every minute of it, well almost. Apart from the rapid swimming which was actually very scary and for some reason, I still don't understand, I did twice!?!?

We then flew to Alice Springs which is pretty much in the middle of the country and extremely isolated. It's actually a lovely wee town, with a fair amount to see and is the home of the flying doctors. We didn't have a huge amount of time as the next morning we set of on our 3.5 day tour round the red centre. The drive is not all that interesting very flat,red, dusty landscapes with a few trees here and there. The first stop was King's Canyon where we did a long walk through gorgeous rock formations and a natural water hole.

The camping was actually fairly civilised, we had showers and electricity! We camped out under the stars in swags every night. They are basically massive, comfy sleeping bags. The sky was soooooo clear and the moon so bright you could read by it. Our group mainly consisted of Japanese and Koreans who took about a trillion billion (no exageration!) photos every day and they did the peace sign in every single one! They also built amazing camp fires.

The first night we watched the sunset over Ayers rock (now called by its aboriginal name, Uluru)which was pretty impressive. The second day we got up stupidly early to watch the sunrise over Uluru which wasn't all that impressive. We were told it changed colour but all that happened was it got lighter!! Then we walked round the Olgas, a group of head shaped rocks right next to Uluru. Some people find them more impressive than the big rock.
That afternoon was spent chilling by the pool, we had it tough!!

The next day was Uluru day,again we got up stupidly early to watch the sunrise. We then walked all the way round the base of it.It was too windy to climb and the locals prefer you don't climb it anyway. I was a lot more impressed by the rock than I thought I would be. It's got all sorts of bizarre craters and lines all over it. The aborigines have loads of cool dreaming stories about how they got there.

It's a fascinating place, full of mystery and spectacular scenery.

We then had a loooooong drive back to Alice Sprngs and spent a night gawping at the very strange locals and their 'unique' dancing styles.

Another ridiculously early start the next morning to catch the Groove Grape bus to Adelaide. We saw many cultural sights like Dinky the singing dingo and some camels. The lanscape is impressive, it's been in loads of filllms like the red planet and Mad Max. We stopped for the night in a bizarre opal mining town, Cooper Pedy. It is in the middle of nowhere and is pretty much entirely underground. The locals spend their Sundays making bombs for their mining the following week. I was glad to leave the place it gave me the creeps!!

After a 13 hour drive the next day in a bus with no air conditioning we arrived tired and very sweaty in Adelaide.