TravelStream™ news feed for member scruffyandco on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/scruffyandco en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Tue, 04 Nov 2008 10:08:11 -0500 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/scruffyandco/australia2007/1224164580/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/scruffyandco/australia2007/1224164580/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/scruffyandco/australia2007/1224164580/tpod.html Tue, 04 Nov 2008 10:08:11 -0500 Scruffy Teddy's amazing adventure in kangaroo land (with a couple of human side-kicks to carry the bags).

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Norwich, England, United Kingdom

So here we are back in cold, rainy England and after nearly three weeks we've managed to catch up with most of our friends and family and bore them silly with some of our 7000 photographs. Everyone's blown a few raspberries down our beautiful didgeridoo and we've been out and about hurling boomerangs all over the Norfolk countryside.

After a year of vivid colour everything here seems to be in various shades of grey and brown - no colourful parrots, red dust or turquoise water. Occasionally the sun comes out and we peel off one of our three jumpers, look out at the Autumn leaves and tell ourselves it's not all bad, we only have to fight off the sniffles, find jobs, buy a house, buy a car and get used to living in the real world again.

Some of the things we're missing most from our travels are:
1. SUNSHINE!!!!
2. Being on holiday
3. Gorgeous beaches and the sea
4. Friendly Aussie locals
5. Interesting (if deadly) wildlife
6. Colourful landscapes and huge open spaces
7. Always seeing something new
8. National pride
9. Places (shops etc) closing at weekends so that families can spend time together
10. Taking pictures, writing Travelpods and sharing our experiences

And the things we're not missing in any way, shape or form:
1. Backpackers!
2. Hostel kitchens
3. Living out of a suitcase
4. Long drop outback dunnies
5. Nasty eight legged things
6. Lack of pavements - nobody walks anywhere!
7. Incredibly expensive fresh food
8. Excessive drinking culture
9. Being thousands of miles away from family and friends
10. Cold water top loading washing machines - they're rubbish!

For the boffins among you, over the course of our trip we've flown roughly 38713km (23228miles) and travelled over 16000km (9600miles) by road which works out at an average "movement" of 150km (90miles) every day. That doesn't include any distances covered by helicopter, boat, train, hovercraft, motorbike, foot, cable car, bicycle, canoe, toboggan, camel, body board or parachute. No wonder we need a holiday to recover!

As you've probably noticed we had an absolute blast and we loved being able to let you all see what we were up to. Thank you so much for sticking with us and not forgetting about us while we were so far away.

We'll leave you with a quote from John Lennon that we found in one of our camper vans
"Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans." Enjoy.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/scruffyandco/australia2007/1224083760/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/scruffyandco/australia2007/1224083760/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/scruffyandco/australia2007/1224083760/tpod.html Thu, 16 Oct 2008 15:25:17 -0400 Scruffy Teddy's amazing adventure in kangaroo land (with a couple of human side-kicks to carry the bags).

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Legian, Bali, Indonesia

The first thing we noticed on leaving the plane was the incredible humidity, even at night, and the distinct lack of fans or air conditioning in the airport. Once we eventually got our visas and cleared customs we were greeted by our hotel representative and tour guide, Wayan, or 'Hot Curry' to his friends and driven through the absolute madness that is the streets of Bali.

The relatively small island of Bali has a large population of roughly 3.5million, so space is scarce, and it seems that everyone over the age of 14 has a motorbike or scooter as there are millions of them too. Somewhere the maths has gone wrong, because most of the bikes seem to have at least two people on them and rather scarily it's not uncommon to see whole families on one bike, babies being held by the mother riding side saddle on the back while the father drives, a toddler sits between him and the handle bars and not one of them has a crash helmet. It was quite a shock to the system.

The second shock to our system was arriving at the hotel and being treated like VIPs. Our bags were whisked away from us before we could blink, Hot Curry checked us in and generally made us redundant and then we were shown to our room... well we say room, but after a year of frankly inadequate space in often pretty shabby hostels it felt more like a luxury apartment - the bathroom alone is bigger than most of the bedrooms we've had! But then at 2,856,000 Rupiahs for the week it should be! (That's just under 200 quid to you guys).

We were, by this point, a little overwhelmed so we had ourselves some Australian therapy -made a bee-line for the restaurant and washed down a good feed with a cold Bintang (or 3) and a few fancy cocktails.

Next morning, after the best night's sleep either of us can remember and after the biggest breakfast we've ever had too, we ventured onto the streets of Legian in search of some bottled water and maybe a souvenir or two. Five seconds after leaving the hotel gate we began to think we'd be safer chancing the dodgy tap water as every local within shouting distance had something to sell, be it transport, T-shirts, jewellery, souvenirs or suspicious sounding time-shares. And not to mention the small children scurrying around trying to sell beads and bracelets - it's heart wrenching!

There is no window shopping or 'just looking' in the shop keepers' vocabulary - you look, even a furtive sideways glance, and he is on a mission to sell you that item, plus a spare and one for everyone you know, and you're not even in the shop yet! It starts off being vaguely amusing but after a while it's exhausting saying 'No thank you' all the time.

Later on, having managed not to get mown down by the thousands of passing motorbikes and having finished our shopping we found ourselves sprawled in the sun next to one of the hotel's three gorgeous swimming pools. This was to become a favourite position over the next few days but first we wanted to see some of what beautiful Bali had to offer so we rejoined Hot Curry and set off for what we hoped would be an interesting look at Bali life.

First we visited four traditional craft villages, each one having a different speciality. The weaving and Batik centre was amazing - such intricate a complicated designs being produced by hand and at the silver village we saw some stunning examples of jewellery and pictures hand made from silver wire and beads. The wood carving and painting galleries were equally fascinating and we spent quite some time looking around and watching the artists at work.

Next up, a visit to a typical Balinese home, open to the public and totally different to any house we'v ever seen. The home is made up of several different buildings, mostly open sided,and an open air temple. Each small building has a different function be it kitchen, bedroom ar whatever and the temple is used by the family every day for prayer and simple offerings to the Gods.

Around 95% of the population is Hindu, and while they embrace modernisation and a large number of tourists their beliefs and traditions remain strong. Every home and business places small woven baskets containing flowers, fruit and rice outside their door or gate each morning to bring good luck and ward off the evil spirits. Similar offerings are placed in shrines in almost every property for the same reason.

After lunch in a restaurant overlooking Gunung Batukau (Bali's second highest mountain) and its picturesque neighbouring lake, we moved on to a springwater Temple, taking a look at a traditional rice terrace along the way. At the Temple it is very disrespectful to have uncovered legs so men and women alike have to wear a sarong over their shorts. The Temple, open to visitors in between six-monthly ceremonies is a beautiful place with detailed and delicate stone and wood carving decorations, ornate statues and water features, fish ponds, shrines and a calm, spiritual ambiance.

Final stop of the day was at one of Bali's five Monkey Forests in Ubud, where naturally occuring wild monkeys have become used to human visitors and go about their business with no fences or restrictions and only take notice of you if you have food to offer. The river and cool forest setting make this a very pleasant place for a quiet stroll and the monkeys, especially the young ones, with their amusing antics make it even more so.

As the day drew to an end it was time to head back to the hotel and try to absorb everything we'd seen and been told. Although most of the places we visited were aimed at tourists the day was still an eye opener. Driving through the small streets we noticed that every home has something for sale, be it paintings, wood carvings, stone work, clothes, jewellery, even in what feels like the middle of nowhere and every time we left the vehicle there was someone trying to sell us their wares and they don't easily take no for an answer.

As we continued our new found adrenaline sport - being driven around the chaotic Bali roads - we were continuously amazed by how much stuff can be carried on an ordinary motorbike - from six bags of rubbish to a head high pile of bananas (plus two adults and a toddler) to a wheelbarrow of all things. Amazingly, given the apparent lack of road sense or any sort of highway code, we witnessed the aftermath of only two accidents, but the potential for so many more.

One night at the hotel we attended a traditional dinner and Legong dance, where the graceful dancers demonsrated amazing strength and flexibility. The live music was performed entirely from memory and was very complex. Apparently the dancers and musicians are taught from a very young age so by the time they're performing in public the moves and rhythms come completely naturally and half the time the musicians don't even seem to be concentrating at all.

Our remaining few days were spent in well earned luxury, being waited on hand and foot and even finding time for the occasional cooling dip in the pool. Even Scruffy donned his trunks and persuaded his new found Aussie girlfriend, Matilda, to join him in a spot of sun worshipping. We're hoping they'll get married one day to make it easier for us to get residency!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/scruffyandco/australia2007/1220755740/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/scruffyandco/australia2007/1220755740/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/scruffyandco/australia2007/1220755740/tpod.html Mon, 29 Sep 2008 22:54:56 -0400 Scruffy Teddy's amazing adventure in kangaroo land (with a couple of human side-kicks to carry the bags).

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Perth, Western Australia, Australia

It's called Aussie Rules football, but to be honest we're not entirely sure what they are, or even in fact, if there are any. Having wanted to see a live game since Brisbane (how many years ago was that?) we finally found ourselves near a venue on match day and joined 34012 other people to watch the Fremantle Dockers take on St Kilda (The Saints) from Victoria. We made our way to Subiaco Oval, not at all sure what to expect and as we took our seats in the stands the teams came out on ot the pitch.

We decided to back the home team (Freo Dockers) mainly because they play in purple and for the first quarter this seemed like a good move. The first 20 minute quarter lasted almost 28 minutes, the four (maybe six) referees blew their whistles frequently during the game but play didn't stop, goals were kicked, some of which scored six points and some only one and it seemed like organised chaos without the organisation.

A couple of locals who actually knew what was happening tried to enlighten us during one of the breaks (by which time the Dockers were losing) but we still couldn't really claim to know what was happening. It's kind of a cross between football (or soccer, whatever the hell that might be) and rugby and teams all over the country have a passionate following.

Despite not really knowing what was going on all the time we still enjoyed ourselves. Not sure if we'd go again but it was good to see this unusual sport. Aussie Rules - Clear as mud!

After browsing around the shops of Fremantle, a short train ride from Perth, we ventured through the castle like gate house of Freo Prison. Built as a convict establishment by convicts in the 1850s and later becoming Fremantle Prison, the maximum security facility was used continuously as a place of incarceration and punishment for almost 140 years, before being decommisioned in 1991.

We were taken on a couple of tours which covered a brief history of the jail, daily prison routine, a few colourful characters and their less successful escape attempts, and the very sobering death row and gallows.

It's really difficult to imagine trying to survive in the harsh, sometimes brutal conditions - being locked outside in the yards for at least 8 hours a day in the freezing cold or blistering heat with no shade or shelter and nothing to do but play cards, write letters or watch the latest exercise yard brawl. The tripod whipping post and stark solitary confinement cells must have been quite a deterrent from breaking the rules - the cells are claustrophobic enough with the door open, it must have driven people insane being closed inside for 23 hours a day.

Until just before the prison closed it was forbidden to mark cell walls, but with the imminent closure and probable demolition of the buildings inmates for the last few months were allowed to draw or paint on the walls and some of what remains is quite remarkable.

These days the prison is one of WA's most popular tourist attractions and it's not unusual to have ex inmates visit and take the tours. You can even hold conferences, birthday parties and wedding receptions there or tie the knot in the prison chapel - not everyone's first choice of venue but it would certainly keep your party talked about for a while and the fees help preserve this National Heritage listed site and keep it open to the public.

Proving that we haven't lost our knack of stumbling across random "what are the chances of that" events a shopping trip into the centre of Perth proved a lot more interesting than it sounds. It turned out that the city was hosting a "Happy Homecoming" event for the Australian Olympic and Paralympic Teams and we managed to bag ourselves a front row spot.

The event began with a couple of song and dance acts and then over sixty members of the Olympic team, many proudly sporting their medals, were welcomed one by one to the stage, to cheers and applause from the gathered crowd of office workers, school children and anyone else who found themselves in Perth this Monday lunchtime.

There were a few speeches and interviews with the athletes and a couple of rousing singalongs including "Waltzing Matilda" before the team left the stage amidst cheers and streamers and green and gold confetti and set about signing autographs and posing for photos with as many of the crowd as they could.

Scruffy made some new friends and got closer to Olympic gold, silver and bronze than we ever thought possible... then Cameron McKenzie-McHarg, one of the silver medal winning rowers swapped our camera for his medal and took a picture of us, holding an actual, real life Olympic silver medal. Us, Julie and Paul from sleepy old Norfolk! As if the day wasn't already random enough, Julie was interviewed briefly by Channel Ten for their evening news and waffled admirably with no preparation whatsoever. Working at Argos was useful for something after all! Shopping trips will never be the same again.

Now to end this final Australian Travelpod here would be amazing, but you know us... we decided to end our time in Oz on a high... followed by a low about five minutes later. Those of you who know Julie won't believe this until you see the pictures but.... we went up to 14000ft and got out of a perfectly good aeroplane! How insane are we? VERY!!!

Our crazy day started outside the WA Skydiving Academy office waiting for the shuttle bus, where we met a camera crew filming a segment for a TV travel show. No, we don't know how we do it either. The presenter and camera man joined us on the bus and did a short interview about why we were doing our skydive and how we felt - more random gibberish spouting with no script... we should turn pro!

After the longest hour long bus ride ever we made it to the Drop Zone in Pinjarra where after the necessary paperwork we were briefed on the positions we'd need to take up during exit, freefall and as the chute opened. We also did a comprehensive landing simulation by jumping off a bar stool!

We were set to jump after Fiona, the TV presenter and her camera man so we knew we were in for a little wait, but just as they were suited up, strapped in and ready for the off we were informed that there would be a half hour wait while a military aircraft cleared the airspace - not what any of us wanted to hear. They passed the time with some more interviews and pieces to camera and eventually they were away, leaving us on the ground peering into the sky waiting for them to come into view.

It wasn't long before we heard the elated screams of Fiona, who had been so nervous and not at all happy about the prospect but clearly loved every minute of it. We watched them come in to land right on target and started to get really excited - we were next! Or so we thought. Unfortunately the wind had got up to unsafe levels and it was just too gusty and unpredictable to work with so we were grounded.

Talk about deflated - all that build up just to be put on hold indefinitely while the wind howled around the hangar. So we paced up and down, and sat dejectedly on the couch and paced up and down some more and the crew nipped out every now and again to take wind readings and almost three hours later as clouds began to gather and we were sure we'd lost out chance, Rob, the pilot, came in and announced that we were good to go but we had to be in the air within five minutes or more military activity would shut us down for the day.

We frantically pulled on our jump suits and our Tandem Masters harnessed us up and we were finally inside what felt like the world's smallest aircraft, slowly, oh so slowly climbing our way to 14000ft. Wayne (with Paul) and John (with Julie) were capturing the anguish on video and doing their best to relax us and eliminate any nerves, which rather strangely neither of us really had, we were just determined to get up there and get out of that plane!

As we reached 14000ft last minute safety checks were done and the door was opened - the wind rushing by was so loud! Wayne had a quick look out to make sure we were in the right place and then Paul gingerly eased himself out of the door and on to the tiny step. Julie looked on as Wayne gently rolled them both forwards into the air and they were away, plummeting towards the Earth at about 200kmh (120mph) for the next 60 seconds. She didn't have any time to dwell on that, as John moved them into the doorway and all she could think about was "Oh my God, here we go!"

Before she knew it she too was whistling towards the ground at an alarming rate, cheeks flapping wildly (not very flattering), mouth as dry as can be but attempting against the odds to smile and take in as much of the experience as possible. After the quickest 60 seconds in the history of time our chutes were deployed and we could actually hear again and it was time to breathe a sigh of relief, sit back and enjoy the ride.

We were handed the controls for a short while and then Wayne and John took the lead again as the landing area came into view. The ground seemed to approach very quickly in the last few seconds and all we could do was keep our feet up and hope. Both our landings were pretty good and it felt great to be back on something solid.

We were both totally amazed and elated and so proud of ourselves for going through with such a daunting experience. Thankfully we have our DVDs to fill in the bits our memories couldn't absorb at the time and to prove to everyone else that we did it!

We couldn't think of a better way to end our fantastic year, yet another thing we never dreamed we'd be doing and even more incredible memories to last us a lifetime. There's nothing like ending a holiday with(out) a bang!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/scruffyandco/australia2007/1220575200/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/scruffyandco/australia2007/1220575200/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/scruffyandco/australia2007/1220575200/tpod.html Sun, 07 Sep 2008 22:41:23 -0400 Scruffy Teddy's amazing adventure in kangaroo land (with a couple of human side-kicks to carry the bags).

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Albany, Australia

After our last camping adventure which in true Wicked style was rather back to basics, we decided that our next road trip would be in a little more luxury (and much less interesting paintwork). We met Olive, our latest travelling companion and were introduced to all her useful features like cupboards, electric hook up, fridge, kettle, microwave (in a camper van honestly!), lights, wheels, engine... well you get the idea.

Julie, being a girl, was especially pleased about the cupboards because they meant she could hide all the useful/edible things and know that Paul, being a bloke, would never find them. We called her Olive because within half an hour of picking her up there was oil pouring out of her and we spent the whole trip having to feed her every other day. Sunflower just didn`t suit the mood and vegetable simply sounded daft.

Dwellingup - A beautiful little township whose aboriginal name means 'place of nearby water' but to Julie it means happy memories of childhood family summer holidays, which without fail included a visit to at least one lovingly restored steam railway. A holiday just isn`t a holiday without the smell of burning coal, the hiss of steam, the whistles and the "chuff chuff" sounds of a hundred year old loco working hard to haul her eager passengers out of the station.

Like many historic railways, Hotham Valley is run by enthusiastic volunteers and funded by equally enthusiastic visitors. The 8km line from Dwellingup Station to Etmilyn Siding
was laid to service the highly productive logging industry which until about 30 years ago harvested wood from the ancient Jarrah forests of the area. The track was purely functional and even in its restored state has tight curves, steep gradients and a few somewhat bumpy sections, but that's what gives WA's last surviving pioneer railway its character.

We clambered aboard the open air carriage - all the better to absorb the sights, smells and sounds of our journey - and Julie was like a kid at Christmas as Locomotive G123, originally made in Glasgow in 1897, blew her whistle and inched out of the quaint little station. The wooded valley through which the line passes contains some huge trees, believed to be around 300 years old, as well as the smaller regrowth establishing itself in the now protected forest.

It wasn't hard to feel a million miles from anywhere with the rattle and rumble of the carriages and the steady pulse of the steam engine the only sounds. The return journey on this fantastic little railway was over all too soon, but at least now we can say we've had a proper holiday in Australia. We disembarked windswept, covered from head to toe in ash and soot and grinning from ear to ear - Julie's her father's daughter alright. And Paul and Scruffy quite enjoyed themselves too.

On to the 1841m long Busselton Jetty, the longest wooden pile jetty in the southern hemisphere and second only to Southend (UK) in the world. We took a lovely leisurely stroll to the end in the sunshine and visited the Underwater Observatory - a great way to see what's going on 8m down nearly 2km out to sea without getting the tiniest bit wet.

The visibility was remarkably good and we saw schools of herring, colourful wrasse, sponges and corals growing on the wooden piles supporting the jetty and even a rather enchanting white barred box fish, which was pretty cool!

Back at the campsite a couple of cheeky kookaburras kept us entertained, getting us in the mood to make some more feathered friends at the Eagles Heritage wildlife centre near Margaret River. The centre is home to an impressive collection of native birds of prey, many of which we've seen hunting or scavenging on our various trips around the country so it was really good to get closer to them.

The pair of magnificent wedge tailed eagles were just gorgeous and we could have looked at them all day, but if we had we'd have missed the equally impressive free flying display, involving four beautiful black kites and a wild but almost always present whistling kite circling overhead and showing off their skill at grabbing chunks of meat in the air and from the ground without missing a beat.

The highlight of the show was the opportunity to have one of the black kites, called Red Dog, sit on our arm and pose for photo's. Pretty groovy!

The Valley of the Giants Tree Top Walk took us on an elevated path up to 40m high amongst the Red Tingle tree canopy. The lightweight, low impact structure sways about quite a bit when you walk on it but you do get a feeling for just how enormous these trees really are, especially when you combine it with the Ancient Empire boardwalk (on solid ground) which actually takes you through the trunk of one of the huge naturally hollowed out tingle trees.

While we were in tall timber country it would have been a shame to shy away from the challenge of climbing the Gloucester Tree. At 61m, it is the world's tallest fire lookout tree and its platform can be reached by climbing the metal bars which spiral up the trunk. Only a quarter of the people who visit the tree actually make it to the top and we were determined to be in that minority.

Julie went first, slowly and very, very carefully making her way up past the lower branches, into the canopy and finally onto the lookout platform. Everything on the ground looked very small and the view across the surrounding forest was pretty amazing. Then came the inevitable downward climb, but by now adrenaline had pretty much taken over so it wasn't so bad. Absolutely thrilled to have conquered the climb but relieved to have something more than an inch wide to stand on Julie passed the challenge to Paul - not much pressure then!

Determined not to be beaten by a girl he started the climb fairly confidently and it was around the half way mark that he started to think "This is a stupid idea!". After a moment or two telling himself how much ribbing he'd get if he wussed out now, he carried on further up the winding metal stakes until he reached the top, quite chuffed that the fear had been overcome. A few moments to take in the view and then came the descent which was much easier than going up.

We both felt a real sense of achievement at having reached the top, especially as there were lots of people there who either chose not to climb or only got a little way up before nerves got the better of them.

The next day, having just about stopped shaking we visited the Bicentennial Tree - similar thing, although never used as a fire tower, the tree itself is slightly thinner which means the spiral is tighter and the 130 metal rods are spaced a bit further apart making it, in our opinion, harder and even more challenging to climb.

Pushing aside all "why are we doing this again" type thoughts we made the ascent together this time, and on reaching the rest platfrom at the 25m mark took a moment to gather our thoughts before pressing on to the top. Up and up we went, finally reaching the platform where a series of ladders took us to the final lookout, a whopping 75m above the ground. An exhilarating climb, slightly nerve wracking descent and a feel good factor that lasted the rest of the day - as our certificates say, we climbed with courage, dignity, decorum and SURVIVED!!

Next stop on our South West tour was WhaleWorld in Albany. The ex whaling station which ceased operations in 1978, is now a fascinating but somewhat gruesome museum. On our guided tour of the facility we were told about the methods of catching and processing the whales - we won't go into too much detail because it's quite horrible but let's just say it's a good thing the photographs on display are in black and white, so you're not completely put off your dinner.

The three enormous oil storage tanks have been converted to theatres showing interesting short films, including one in 3D which was cool, and the Cheynes IV whaling ship is open for inspection, exactly as it was when she was working. The skeleton exhibition contained a sperm whale, humpback whale and a pygmy blue whale which even at 22m long is only about two thirds the size of a normal blue whale - absolutely enormous. Gave us some idea what we were looking for on our visits to various lookout points over the next few days.

We visited several sites in and around Albany on the lookout for whales with little or no success. We did see a few big splashes and a dark shape jumping out of the water about 8km from the shore, which we knew was a whale, probably a humpback, but wasn't the most satisfying of encounters. We were seriously considering putting ourselves through a whalewatching boat trip in desperation when we were given a hot tip by the owner of our campsite (where the wild kangaroos become very friendly if you've got bread) that a female southern right whale had been hanging around in the waters off Cheyne Beach, about 60km away.

As this was basically our last opportunity we raced off full of anticipation and hope but still not really expecting our luck to change. To our absolute amazement roughly 100m from the beach a mother and calf were basking in the sunshine and there was no wiping the smiles from our faces as we watched them splashing about.

We spent about an hour watching tail lobbing, body rolls, spy hopping (poking their head out of the water) and fin slapping and were overjoyed with what we'd seen. To get a different perspective we moved round to some large rock that allowed us to look back across the bay towards the beach we just left. We nearly fell off the rocks when we saw how close we now were to the frolicking whales - no more than 50m away, well have a look at the picture and judge for yourselves! We could hear the splashes as their tails and fins hit the water and even hear them breathing they were so near.

They played around some more and we were about to leave them to it when they started to move even closer to us but into deeper water. We stuck around, not really expecting to see much more, when the baby decided to put on a rather spectacular show for us. We were in danger of getting wet from the splashes as the little one started throwing him (or her) self out of the water - a behaviour known as breaching.

This just blew us away - there aren't words to describe how special and magical and experience that was. What a way to round off our trip! Think we're on a mission to make "wow" the most used word of the year.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/scruffyandco/australia2007/1218424500/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/scruffyandco/australia2007/1218424500/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/scruffyandco/australia2007/1218424500/tpod.html Thu, 21 Aug 2008 00:44:52 -0400 Scruffy Teddy's amazing adventure in kangaroo land (with a couple of human side-kicks to carry the bags).

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Cervantes, Western Australia, Australia

Roughly 3 hours South of Coral Bay we settled into the basic, very windy campsite near the Point Quobba lighthouse. We climbed the beautiful wildflower covered dunes to the lighthouse and the views out over the sea and the ferocious waves was amazing. The main reason for taking the detour off the highway to Point Quobba is the spectacular blowholes, which on all but the calmest days spout geyser-like plumes of seawater up to 20 metres in the air. An awesome sight with the sunlight making rainbows in the spray and the roar of the ocean and the hiss of the vents adding a suitably dramatic soundtrack.

We stopped for a few hours in Carnarvon, where we walked along One Mile Jetty (sadly reduced to 1km by fire) and had a nose around a huge satellite dish, allegedly once part of the Strategic Global Communications Network which had the honour of relaying Neil Armstrong`s first words from the surface of the moon.

Next up was the curiously named Rainbow Jungle in the pretty coastal resort of Kalbarri, which is a bird lover`s paradise displaying hundreds of native and exotic parrots, some behind bars, but many free flying in the huge walk through aviary. One of the caged corellas called Cocky was particularly entertaining with his repertoir of whistles, phrases and fire siren impressions! Scruffy went to say hello but Cocky didn`t seem too interested in making new friends at lunchtime. There was also a whale watching tower in the grounds and we did spot a couple of humpback whales frolicking out to sea but as they were several kilometres out we could only see them clearly through the powerful binoculars. Maybe we`ll catch some a little closer later on.

Kalbarri also boasts some rugged and impressive coastal cliffs shaped and pounded by the collossal waves of the Indian Ocean. Some of the formations such as Natural Bridge, were quite interesting and we spent a little while checking out the area while looking out for whales and dolphins.

The remarkable limestone pillars of The Pinnacles have been formed and exposed by a combination of seeping rainwater, shifting sand dunes and the prevailing ocean winds. The vast area of the Pinnacles Desert can be explored both on foot and via the 4km unmade scenic drive and we took the opportunity to do both, stopping regularly on the drive through to get closer to the strange formations and spending quite some time on foot exploring the unique limestone forest.

Walking amongst the petrified pillars is quite eerie, especially as some of them seem to have mysterious, gravity defying properties.

The position of the desert itself is quite strange, with the ocean not too far away and the whole area surrounded by lush green bush and wildflowers.

As our 4240km road trip came to an end we reflected on the pros and cons of life on the road. It's great to have the means to go where we want, when we want and the Australian caravaners we meet on the sites who indulge us in their hospitality remind us why we came to Australia in the first place. We were given alcohol, offered lighting at night and even accommodation and food when we had a problem with the van.

On the down side, the escalating fuel costs in outback Oz, having so little space to spread out and having to get dressed laying down and nights of eating 2 minute noodles by torchlight (which we actually found really amusing!)and we won't mention the late night 8 legged visitor we found and had some difficulty removing - yeuk!! But overall we really enjoyed our camping "holiday" - so much so that we'll be off for another couple of weeks very soon.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/scruffyandco/australia2007/1217729520/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/scruffyandco/australia2007/1217729520/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/scruffyandco/australia2007/1217729520/tpod.html Sun, 17 Aug 2008 23:10:07 -0400 Scruffy Teddy's amazing adventure in kangaroo land (with a couple of human side-kicks to carry the bags).

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Exmouth, Western Australia, Australia

One of the main reasons we changed our itinerary to take in more of Western Australia was the underwater wonderland of Ningaloo Reef, said by many to be as beautiful if not more so, than it`s Queensland cousin.

The 250km long fringing reef is unique for being formed on the West coast of a continent and one of its biggest advantages is that it is never more than 7km offshore, so no long choppy boat trips are necessary to enjoy all that Ningaloo has to offer. One of the things that helps keep Ningaloo Marine Park clean and unspoilt is the fact that it is adjacent to Cape Range National Park, so development of resorts etc is not allowed and visitors are more inclined to appreciate and look after the existing habitats and wildlife. And there`s plenty of it to appreciate as we found out on our travels around the NP.

The first thing we noticed was the abundance of kangaroos and slightly smaller Euros (walleroos) who unfortunately have no road sense whatsoever and can make driving quite hazardous.

Also wandering the spinifex bushland were several wild emus, occasionally with 2 or 3 stripy chicks, and the odd Australian bustard (looks a little like a goose) and an echidna - only the second one we`ve seen in the wild.

We did an interesting bushwalk through Mandu Gorge where we were lucky enough to spot some of the rare and mostly nocturnal black footed rock wallabies who call the rocky gorge home. It was amazing to see how agile and skillful these little fellas are on the seemingly inaccessable narrow ledges high up the cliffs.

Further along the trail, after watching adult ospreys flying backwards and forwards to feed their young, we were startled by an ominous looking orange and green snake which, until it moved we were convinced was plastic. We later discovered that it was a venomous (but not lethal to humans) yellow-faced whipsnake. As we were leaving one of the bay carparks later on in our visit we actually had to stop the car to let another whipsnake cross the road! What are the chances of that?

From here on we decided to spend our time getting as wet as possible. The crystal clear waters of the aptly named Turquoise Bay make one of the best spots in the area for snorkelling. At low tide the reef is easily accessable straight from the beach and the current tends to gently sweep parallel to the shore, so the easiest approach is to get in as far down the beach as you can, swim out to a comfortable distance and then drift on the current over the coral, swim back to shore the other end, walk back down the beach and do it all over again.

We saw some absolutely amazing coral formations and spectacularly coloured fish and on our first attempt Paul even spotted a grey reef shark in the shallows - despite their generally placid, even timid nature still quite an unnerving experience. But it didn't put us off and we did several more drifts which gave us the confidence to tackle a different bay which can only be snorkelled at high tide to avoid damaging the delicate coral structures.

This area, known as Oyster Stacks, is a bit more challenging as even getting in to the water requires a scramble over some sharp rocks and once there the more open water and the natural swell of the sea mean you get moved about a lot more than in the calm, sheltered water of the bay. It was well worth the effort for the abundant coral and familiar curious fish and here we also saw several sea stars (starfish) and many sea cucumbers - large slug like creatures who sift the sand on the sea floor and extract nutrients and tiny organisms.

Here we were also both fortunate enough to see a black tipped reef shark who hopefully managed to get far enough into the picture for you to believe it really is a shark!

Two hours South along the coast is the resort of Coral Bay where the more commercial side of Ningaloo Reef exploration is based. We once again donned our masks and fins and headed out into the very calm but reasonably deep water and almost straight away came across a 1.5m wide manta ray resting on the sandy sea bed, but he didn't hang around for long.

After exploring some more we returned to the crystal clear shallows where we almost trod on a very friendly stingray on our way to see some enormous spangled emperor fish in water barely deep enough to cover them.

On our walk back to the shore we saw a dark shape in the water which as it came towards us we assumed was another ray but when it stopped no more than 6ft away from us it still took us several moments to identify, as we just couldn't believe we were looking at an octopus! In water not even up to our knees! Never in our wildest dreams did we imagine we'd see anything like that without going SCUBA diving. Absolutely magical.

To get a better look at the larger, further out sections of the reef we hopped on a glass bottomed boat tour where we were amazed by the size and density of the different coral types and the vivid colours showed how alive and healthy this reef is. On our way back we were lucky enough to have a small turtle swim under the boat and then come up to one side for air. It really rounded off our visit to Ningaloo in style and our few days here made the detour half way across Australia totally worthwhile.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/scruffyandco/australia2007/1216965300/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/scruffyandco/australia2007/1216965300/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/scruffyandco/australia2007/1216965300/tpod.html Fri, 15 Aug 2008 00:40:19 -0400 Scruffy Teddy's amazing adventure in kangaroo land (with a couple of human side-kicks to carry the bags).

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Karijini National Park, Western Australia, Australia

Western Australia is massive. The State covers a third of the Australian continent, which makes it nearly the size of India but is home to only 1.8 million people, most of whom live within 200km of Perth. Basically, big place, very empty.

So on our three week road trip from Broome to Perth we kinda guessed that the first two and a half weeks would be pretty quiet. So quiet in fact that a lone petrol station is often the only sign of civilisation for hundreds of kilometres.

We get the odd wave from the Grey Nomads (mature Aussie caravaners who spend months, even years on the road) we pass along the way - a welcome 'wake up' when we haven't seen a living soul for best part of an hour, but the friendliest encounters by far are with the brave (or skint) people who have also found themselves with the somewhat dubious honour of piloting a Wicked heap.

There is a certain cameradery between Wicked travellers and the frantic waving and flashing of lights says more "Thank goodness we're not the only ones" and "It's ok - ours is rubbish too, we know what you're going through" than merely "Hello". And of course there's the obligatory gawp to see if our paint job is better than theirs, in this case probably not as our '12 Apostles' van, which we've called Dugdug in honour of the convincing impersonation of a tractor it does for the first half hour of each trip, has a random collection of famous faces , several of which we're yet to identify (have a look at the pics and see if you can help us out).

Our first major stop, almost 1000km in, was Karijini National Park where numerous gorges and more of those pools and waterfalls we seem to be drawn to carve through the deep red iron-rich earth. Everything we own (including us as it happens) is now covered in a layer of dark red dust.But it's worth it. The basic but spacious Dales Gorge Campground made an ideal base from which to explore the gorge itself.

We started with a walk along the rim, peering into the depths when the path strayed close enough, and then decended to Fortescue Falls and the picturesque Fern Pool, where local Aboriginal people believe their serpent ancestor lives, and then scrambled, paddles and clambered our way back along the base of the gorge to the icy cold waters of the Circular Pool swimming hole. Having learned our lesson in Kakadu we stayed firmly on dry land and spent a while soaking up the peace and quiet and admiring the gently trickling waterfall before hauling ourselves up the steep stony steps back to the lookout at the edge of the gorge where we began.

We hoped to explore more of the gorges to the North of the park but the unsealed roads frightened our rickety old van so much that it started shedding pieces before the bumps even began.

So, slightly disappointed, we headed West to WA's second highest peak (by a measly 7 metres!) Mount Bruce (Punurrunha). Now at a height of just 1235m we expected the 4.5km track to be a poor substitute for the trails around the Northern gorges... but we were wrong.

The initial steady climb on a fairly well made path did have us worried that we'd be to the top and back in an hour but then the path disappeared and we were faced with nothing but a large pile of rocks and a sheer cliff edge. Fantastic! Something to get our teeth into. After a couple of false starts we scrambled over the rocks and onto the path again, but not for long as the loose rocks, steep climbs, sheer drops and not very well defined route combined to make the rest of the hike quite demanding but great fun and it was really satisfying to reach the top and take a look at the ranges and plains for miles around.We could also clearly see the Marandoo iron ore mine where the dumper trucks looked like Dinky toys - on closer inspection we discovered they're not so small after all!

We signed the visitors book and Scruffy added a stone to the ever growing mound at the summit, and then it was back the way we came, slipping and scrambling our way down to the car park and a well earned cuppa!

From here we headed West to the second phase of our Wicked Adventure.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/scruffyandco/australia2007/1218520140/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/scruffyandco/australia2007/1218520140/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/scruffyandco/australia2007/1218520140/tpod.html Tue, 12 Aug 2008 01:52:35 -0400 Scruffy Teddy's amazing adventure in kangaroo land (with a couple of human side-kicks to carry the bags).

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Broome, Western Australia, Australia

Just when you thought we`d done it all and there could not possibly be any mode of transport left that we hadn`t used - we found another one!

With no brakes, little steering and even less traction our "flight" across Roebuck Bay and its beaches and sand bars in a bright yellow hovercraft was quite an eye opener. We began on dry land at the Hovercraft Base where we were allocated seats so as to balance the vessel and then we were off down the launch ramp, onto the beach and without even noticing onto the water - quite a strange sensation.

Unlike a boat, which even in a calm sea moves with the "motion in the ocean" a hovercraft skims over the surface, so the waves just feel like bumps in the road. Our pilot, Tim, must have wanted to be a rally driver when he was a kid, because we spent a lot of time going sideways and kicking up spray on our trip across the bay.

Somehow he brought us to a halt on the beach near some rather interesting 130 million year old dinosaur footprints which we spent a few minutes wandering between before returning to the hovercraft for the flight back to base.

The trip was really cool and very different and we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. In fact we`re thinking of getting one for the daily commute when we go home so that going to work isn`t quite such a chore!

We went off in search of another kind of dinosaur footprint at Gantheaume Point. The site is accessable by road and the morning Town Bus goes there but we chose to take a delightful 5km stroll along the quieter stretch of Cable Beach and make a day of it.

The footprints, one of 9 different varieties in the Shire of Broome, are actually covered by the sea at all but the lowest low tides and even then are very tricky to get to but to avoid disappointing us tourists the authorities have taken casts of the prints and set them into rocks higher up the cliffs. We expected them to be a bit bigger, but thinking about it anything carnivorous with feet that big is probably quite big enough!

We ate our picnic near the Gantheaume Point lighthouse watching the nesting ospreys make good use of the scaffold-like structure and the sea birds diving from great heights to catch their lunch and then wandered back along the beach.

We picked our spot, cracked open a few tinnies and settled in to watch the famous Cable Beach sunset, complete with passing camel trains. What better way to relax after our 10km walk.

Before we left Broome on our Western Australia adventure we had the chance to see a strange phenomenon called "The Staircase to the Moon". The "staircase" occurs when the rising full moon reflects off the water left in the mud flats at low tide, creating the illusion of a set of steps with the moon at the top. Quite interesting and much more striking than our photographs make it look.

While we still had contact with civilisation we also treated ourselves to a delicious meal at one of the beach front restaurants to celebrate Julie`s birthday and our 3rd anniversary. It was really nice to have proper food and to let someone else do the washing up for a change, especially as we`ll be back to basics for 3 weeks as we explore some of what WA has to offer.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/scruffyandco/australia2007/1216091700/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/scruffyandco/australia2007/1216091700/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/scruffyandco/australia2007/1216091700/tpod.html Thu, 17 Jul 2008 23:23:10 -0400 Scruffy Teddy's amazing adventure in kangaroo land (with a couple of human side-kicks to carry the bags).

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Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia

Being the jammy so and so`s that we are, we got ourselves a free one day trip to Litchfield National Park when we booked ou Kakadu tour. Litchfield is 100KM South of Darwin and similar to Kakadu with its main attractions being waterfalls and swimming holes. The park also boasts 2 distinct types of termite mounds - Cathedral, which can grow to enormous sizes and have irregular turret and buttress shapes, and Magnetic, which are unique to the area and get their name because the thin gravestone shaped mounds all face the same way (just off the North/South line). Each mound houses millions of tiny termites who work tirelessly to build and mantain their home one grain of sand at a time - constructing roughly one cubic metre of mound each decade. Some of the larger ones are 80 possibly up to 100 years old.

Closed throughout the wet season due to dangerous currents and the likely presence of crocodiles, the plunge pool at the base of Wangi Falls had only been open for swimming 2 days when we visited and still people were falling over themselves to get in. You wouldn`t have got us in there for love nor money so we moved on to the equally beautiful Florence Falls where a short loop walk took in the view of the falls and led to another swimming hole, every bit as busy as the first.

We did eventually get a chance to swim at Buley rockholes billed as "Natures 5 Star Spa". The series of 7 small pools linked by waterfalls were perfect for a refreshing splash about. We did have a lovely day (if a little hurried) in Litchfield but the school holidays and the close proximity to the city made it a very busy place and we certainly preferred the deserted "all to ourselves" feel of Kakadu.

Since Paul and Julie got together, Julie and Scruffy have been weaned onto a diet of Top Gear and Formula One, so the natural progression of this was to go and see Australia`s premier motor racing event, the Australian V8 Supercar Championship. Somehow having managed to avoid the series all year, and then realising that we actually were in the right place at the right time we simply had to go.

The weekend started Thursday lunchtime when Scruffy dragged us along to a meet the drivers autograph session and a 20 strong car transporter convoy which brought the city centre to a complete standstill and had thousands of locals and tourists alike lining the streets to wave and cheer.

Friday was essentially a practice day for the drivers and a chance for us to get familar with the layout and vantage points of the 2.9KM Hidden Valley circuit. Saturday brought the first of three action packed V8 Supercar races. We should mention that although there are several different teams the only cars used are the Ford Falcon and Holden Commodore, and supporters are definitely divided into the red camp (Holden) or the blue camp (Ford) with nothing in between except us who just wanted to experience it and see some good racing.

The support races weren`t bad either, the V8 Utes being particularly entertaining and not afraid to trade paint when push quite literally came to shove!

The third and final day was even more spectacular and V8 fans from all over Australia had decended on Darwin`s Hidden Valley to see who would win the 6th Round of the 14 Round championship. The atmosphere was electric as the V8`s took to the grid for the second race and Ford fans were in conifident mood after FPV`s (Ford Performance Vehicles) Mark "Frosty" Winterbottom had won the first race and was starting from the front. The 2 Fords led again with Holden`s Garth Tander (reigning champion) back a distant third, it looked like a repeat of the first race... that is until the safety car was called onto the circuit so the marshalls could clear something off the track - bizarrely a Holden flag!

The field all bunched up for the restart and Tander managed to find a way past the 2 Fords and send the Holden fans into raptures as cheers and whistles went off all around the circuit. Despite some heavy Ford pressure, Tander held off till the end and made it Ford 1 - Holden 1 with one race to go. But it wasn`t to be for Holden as the Ford duo were too strong and easily made it an FPV 1-2 with Tander once again the highest place Holden in third. FPV`s Steve Richards was the winner of this race and the overall round.

The event was really well organised with free buses all weekend from and to the city and suburbs, huge TV screens showing the action all round the circuit and entertainment for young and old both on and off the track. The weather was perfect, although the 30+ deg C heat was quite exhausting after 4 days of it, and despite slapping on gallons of water and drinking loads of sunscreen we still think the heat might have got to us just a little bit.

Onto races of a very different kind we, along with half the population of Darwin, piled on to Mindil Beach to watch the slightly bizarre, annual Beer Can Regatta. As the name suggests, the event sees teams of locals constructing vague boat-like objects out of empty beer cans, mostly held together with lashings of sellotape, and then pitting themselves against each other in a short, frantic race to be the first round the buoy-marked sea course and back to the beach.

We think it`s fair to say that some teams had obviously spent more time emptying their cans than sticking them together and the amount of beer consumed was inversely proportional to the success of the vessel - but there`s no doubt that everyone had a great time planning, building, racing and spectating in what is certainly a unique event on the racing calendar.

And so, as we hurtle along the runway at Darwin Airport - one of NASA`s designated emergency shuttle landing sites - we look down at the city, glad that we visited in the dry season when temperatures limit themselves to a manageable 30 deg C with 30% humidity rather than the wet, with temperatures regularly topping 40 deg C, near 100% humidity and people getting ever so slightly tetchy because of it. It would have been pretty cool to see the tremendous thunderstorms and torrential rains of the wet season, but we guess we`ll see enough of that when we come home!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/scruffyandco/australia2007/1214617440/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/scruffyandco/australia2007/1214617440/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/scruffyandco/australia2007/1214617440/tpod.html Mon, 07 Jul 2008 01:05:14 -0400 Scruffy Teddy's amazing adventure in kangaroo land (with a couple of human side-kicks to carry the bags).

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Jabiru, Northern Territory, Australia

The World Heritage Listed Kakadu National Park is 19804 square kilometres of Aboriginal land leased to the Australian Government. The National Park, which is roughly half the size of Switzerland, contains woodland, wetlands, rivers, waterfalls and rocky country and is teeming with wildlife of every shape and size.

We stopped on the way for a spectacular jumping croc cruise on the Adelaide River. The advertising says you're "guaranteed" to see a wild croc jump, so we were hopeful of seeing one or two throughout the cruise. We were simply blown away by the number of large 'salties' basking on the river banks and swimming around the boat. This is not a good time to be hinking about what happens if the boat goes down - and come to think of it the crew never actually made any safety announcements about life jackets and stuff, which we suppose tells you all you need to know.

We thought we were off to a promising start when a large croc made a bee-line for the boat and looked hungrily at the chunk of meat on offer. It was so close, those cold, predators eyes sizing each of us up in turn. But, alas, he just couldn't summon up the burst of energy needed to jump for his breakfast, so we chugged on down the river in search of hungrier beasts.

We didn't have long to wait for our next customer, an enormous 6m long male (that's over 3 Pauls end to end!) called Hannibal believed to be getting on for 100 years old. Unfortunately he hadn't had long enough in the morning sun to raise his body temperature so although he was hungry, he too was not quite up to jumping. This was shaping up to be a frustrating morning!

We carried on, passing a few crocs on the bank trying to catch the sun's warming rays and a few in the water who either weren't hungry or were too wary of the boat to approach. In one of the few croc spotting lulls we took a look around and were amazed to see in excess of 20 beautiful kites and a white bellied sea eagle following the boat. One of the crew began throwing small scraps of meat from the top deck and none of it hit the water - the agile birds of prey gave a magnificent display of their ability to take prey on the wing. Breathtaking!

Not wanting to be outdone the crocs upped their game and the next one to approach the boat, about 4m long, was determined not to leave without brekky. We stood, breath held, as he dipped under the surface and then rose again fixe on his target. With an almighty surge of power he propelled over half his body length out of the water and snapped his ferocious jaws shut around the meat on the end of the line, before dropping surprisingly gracefully back into the river. He suraced once, to swallow his prize whole, and then was gone, leaving a boat full of people not quite believing their eyes. We were fortunate enough to witness this awesome spectacle a couple more times with other crocs before the cruise was over and we gained a whole new level of respect for these perfectly adapted predators.

Safely out of harms way we squeezed back into the Kakadu Dreams Landcruiser (8 of us in bench seats in the back - no room for shyness here!) and we rejoined the Arnhem Highway on course for Kakadu. As we hurtled along we got our first view of the South Alligator floodplains, parts of which were used in the filming of "Crocodile Dundee" (lots of the film was shot in and around Kakadu) and then the Arnhemland Plateau which ranges from 30 to 300m above the plains.

We took a 1km sandstone walk around Ubirr, one of the few Aboriginal art sites open to the public and saw some amazing art work, much of it remarkably detailed considering the "paintbrush" was usually a blade of long grass which had to be dipped in the ochre or charcoal paste for every stroke.

We climbed to a lookout 250m up on the plateau and were rewarded with fabulous views over the Nardab floodplains and monsoon forest. We even spotted a couple of black wallaroos feeding in a clearing. We drove on to Yellow Waters billabong to watch a "Top End" sunset and we couldn`t believe our luck when one of the resident salties decided he would "spoil" our sunset pictures by swimming right in front of the sun!

After setting up our mozzie tents near Jim Jim billabong it was time to stoke up another camp fire and get some tucker on the go. Once again kangaroo was on the menu but this time in the form of juicy stir fried steak and Paul assures us it was delicious. With the moon rising much later in the night we had a wonderful view of the Milky Way and the Southern Cross constellation (stars on the Australian flag) and fell asleep to the sound of frogs croaking and small rodents rustling in the leaf litter.

As the sun crept over the horizon we were up, breakfasted and off for a day of hiking, swimming and serious 4 wheel driving around the National Park. First up, a bone shaking drive through deep sandy ruts, creeks and flood ways up to half a metre deep and rough, corrugated dirt tracks to Twin Falls, where a reasonable hike over large rocks and unmade paths brought us to the top of the falls for some spectacular views of the gorge. A small pool with waterfalls at each end provided a safe place for a cooling dip and a welcome watery neck massage.

After lunch we did a short boat cruise and walk to the white sandy beach at the bottom of Twin Falls, but as tempting as the pool looked it was not guaranteed crocodile free (they`d caught and relocated 6 in the last couple of months) so we couldn`t swim and had to be content with a cooling spray from the cascading water.

Following some more uncomfortable bouncing about in the back of the 4WD and another short rocky hike we were on the edge of the plunge pool at the foot of Jim Jim Falls, the highest straight drop waterfall in Australia (150m drop). Some of our group were mad enough to take the plunge into the freezing cold water and swim the 80m or so to the bottom of the waterfall, but not us. We did get in for a minute or two and then the loss of feeling in our fingers and toes told us it might be a good idea to get out and admire the falls from a warm distance.

Another cosy night under the stars and we were again up with the sun and before too long careening along the narrow, twisty 4WD track to Maguk (Barramundi Gorge). Our only break was a brief pause when we spotted a black headed python by the side of the road and all piled out of a closer look and a quick photo. A short relatively easy hike into the gorge and then a bit of a clamber over some enormous boulders on a not very well defined path to the safe, croc free swimming holes above the waterfall.

We spent a good couple of hours throwing ourselves off rocks into the beautifully clear, refreshing water, swimming and relaxing in the sun. Having built up a healthy appetite we polished off lunch in no time and just enough time before heading back to Darwin to stop off at a section of the Mamukala wetlands to see some of Kakadu`s abundant birdlife, in particular Magpie geese.

In the 3 days we had, we saw some wonderful things but we barely scratched the surface of this vital wildlife haven. In fact, even if you were to drive every single road in Kakadu you would still see less than 1% of the National Park. It was also really hard to believe that during the wet season most of where we`d been would be under at least 10 foot of water and the roads in and out would be impassable. We are very grateful that the park rangers take the trouble to clear the paths and remove the crocs year after year so that we were able to visit this beautiful unspoilt wilderness.
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