The outback Adventure begins!
Trip Start
Aug 01, 2007
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76
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Trip End
Jan 11, 2009
Kununurra,
Western Australia,
Australia
Friday, August 8, 2008
The northern part of the country is tropical weather- no seasons per se, just wet and dry. Luckily we are in the dry but that also means hot! Darwin was more humid but it is a bit more dry and tolerable since we've gone further south.
The days in Darwin were mostly spent preparing for the road trip, shopping etc. We went to a few markets, walked along the Esplanade and went to the wharf, I observed Ashlee and her "cousin" Sean fishing (no way am I touching those fish! lol).
On our date of departure, we first went to the museum for one last experience of "culture". They have Sweetheart, a 5m long (I think) taxidermied croc that was caught in the area. They also have a display on Cyclone Tracy which pretty much wiped out the city on Christmas 1974. You could even go into a small dark room and hear a real sound recording- definitely creepy! After some last minute groceries, batteries etc, we were on our way... ROAD TRIP!
Our first stop was Kakadu National Park. We did a lot of driving, but detoured to a little place called Ubirr where there are walks to old Aboriginal Rock Art. It was very cooL! Some of it was thousands of years old. We also heard a ranger talk about some of the dreamtime creation story... dreamtime is the way of thinking that Aboriginals believe in, why/how the world exists etc. After refuelling in Jabiru, we cracked onwards to our campsite for the night.
It was MISERABLE.
Contrary to what everyone had told us, it was NOT cool at night. (Turns out it was a super warm day in Darwin). So, locked up in the station wagon, we started to get very hot. We would open the windows for a few minutes.. then turn on the light and see the roof covered in mozzies. (Mosquitoes for you non-Aussies!) Eventually we fell asleep holding onto the frozen water bottles we had used to keep a few food items cool.
Next day we decided we were sleeping in a hostel- no way contending with that situation again! We woke up in the cover of darkness to drive 30 or some kilometres to Yellow Water for a wildlife cruise. It was amazing! Being so early in the morning, the wetlands were shrouded in mist, and with the sun rising it was so surreal and beautiful! We also saw tons of birds, and lots of croc sightings etc. Afterwards, I had my chance to drive on the left side! And I mean more then the 5 minutes allowed to me by dad in New Zealand. An hour on the road! Of course it was easy enough being on the highway, I only had to make 2 turns when we got to a village. Later on we headed to Edith Waterfalls, where we went for a swim in the waterfall pool. Refreshing! We arrived in Katherine and found ourselves a bed (and shower) for the night.
We've now made our way to Kununurra, a small town in the middle of pretty much nowhere. We purchased a mozzie net to tape over the windows at night so it's been much more comfortable- probably more so than the hostel beds we've splurged on twice! We were hoping to get some fruit work straightaway but turns out lots of other poeple have the same idea- so we are on a wait list. We're out of here tomorrow however, its not worth hanging around. We headed up to Wydham for a side trip to see the giant cement croc that welcomes you to their town, as well as a lookout where you can see 5 rivers converging for sunset- pretty. We met a woman in the supermarkey checkout line and she actually tried to find some work for us as well, so we'll see how it pans out- but, without any work we will hit the road tomorrow and head for Derby- a two day drive, and then onto Broome.
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