Take only photographs, leave only footprints
Trip Start
Apr 26, 2009
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Trip End
Jul 25, 2009
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Darwin,
Northern Territory,
Australia
Thursday, June 11, 2009
We arrived in Perth, Western Australia (WA) on 24 May flying in from Singapore. We literally only had one afternoon and evening here so we headed straight for a backpackers in Northbridge. At first, it felt rather strange coming into such civilisation after our month in crazy SE Asia but we adapted very quickly. I introduced Neil to 'Hungry Jacks' and any memories of spicy noodles were just that...memories. Hungry Jacks or 'Sloppy Joes' as Stacy and I renamed it and was a particular favourite of ours when we went travelling here in '03 - it's basically Burger King under an alias due to a copyright issue back in the 80's - it's sloppier and it's yummier.
By this time, Neil was obsessed with the Aussie language but failed a bismally at the accent with the exception of two phrases;
'Awh yeaaaaah' and 'Can ya tell what it is yet?'
These phrases he continued to say throughout our whole time in Oz, constantly. Goodness knows what the locals thought but they just ignored us generally.
We went through to the wharf in Perth and sipped a lovely glass of wine in the interestingly named 'The Shag Bar' obviously due to the shag birds inhabiting the area. It felt good to be back in the Western world but we both missed Asia and it's funny ways we could tell. We missed not being herded into a guesthouse, sitting on the street eating unnamed substances and the cheap cost of everything.
Coogee Bay
So we headed to an Irish bar and all was well.Early the next morning, we boarded our tour bus which would take us from Perth right through to Darwin. There were 21 of us, all of a similar age so that was really cool, as you never know who you're going to end up with. Now let's see, we had representatives from of course England and Scotland, Ireland, Wales, Japan, France, Switzerland, Germany, New Zealand and even some local Perthian Aussies - so a pretty multi cultural bunch.
Highlights of this tour definitely began straight away with some sandboarding on the first day, the dune was really quite steep and rather scary but after some mild encouragement, we were all racing up the dune to get down on our boards and having a whale of a time - the idea was to go down as if on a sledge, but Neil managed to upgrade it to a snowboard as you'll see in the photos.
The first night brought back some fantastic memories of how 'hands-on' these tours really are - get to base, dump backpack, get chopping...is generally how things work. For the first few nights we stayed in bunkhouses until we reached Exmouth where the camping would begin. I think this is because, before the mid-West coast, the temperature is a chilling 25degrees only - brrrrrrrrrr - that's a cold winter, gotta love these Aussies and sympathy them when they come to our temperatures back in Blighty.
Despite the civilised nature of the country and the obvious similarities, it's amazing how different things feel and how awesome a country this is.
Sydney
It's the little things like the roadhouses serving their amazing pies and sausage rolls and hot chips with chicken salt. It is the many picnic and clean and well equipped public facilities you just don't get back home, the cool and different ice creams, huge cans of coke and millions more Cadbury's flavours than we get. Of course the most engaging yet scary part of this country is those who inhabit it. We're not slating the Aussie's here, they're crazy but adorable, no it's the creatures. From sharks to snakes and bats to spiders, crocs to kangaroos - everything deadly exists here. You can't drive down the road for fear of a 10-ton weighted roo hitting smack bang into the windscreen, you can't walk around a campsite in the dark for fear of a snakebite (and not the cider and blackcurrant mixed variety either) and spiders are everywhere you have to stamp on your shoes before putting them on fearing a killer creepy crawly nipping at your toes. Sharks come in all different flavours, especially here in WA, all of them ready to take a bite and I'm not even going to talk about crocs at this stage! However, Neil cared not about any of this and grasped at any opportunity presented to us to show this!Continuing on the tour we moved along through the Pinnacles - average 3ft rocks jutting out of the ground rangeing for miles across the desert. We then went to Shell beach - a beach completely covered in shells where we saw a very lovely sunset and the sea was calm as anything. We moved through Monkey Mia where we witnessed the feeding of the dolphins and Neil was lucky enough to feed a fish to one of them.
surf
The dolphins come for feeding every morning and it's all very well controlled by the trust who run it. They are visited by the same dolphins every day and know them all by name and the dolphins know them too, especially when it's time for a feed. They only ever feed 5 of the female dolphins to enable nature to take its course as much as possible. Back in the 60's they were feeding all dolphins but this proved incredibly damaging due to baby dolphins not learning how to fend for themselves, male dolphins becoming agressive and female dolphins not nurturing and teaching their young. The dolphins arre so tame and playful, check out the video of Neil feeding - he was like the cat who got the cream!We went through Coral Bay, a gorgeous small fishing town. The backpackers we stayed at was grim but after drinking hours, around the corner, a wee bakery always opened up about 2am so everyone would take their chosen liquids and continue the party at the bakery - it was so random but very good fun and instead of a kebab at the end of the night - fresh bread and pastries all round - and if you've been to Oz, you'll know what else is a favourite - hmmm you guessed it - pies pies and more pies. That night was interesting also as a very drunk person sitting very close to me on another computer terminal right now managed to lock us out of our room for the whole night - no one at the lodge - no caretaker, manager- nope just us and some very lively swallows who kept swooping through the corridoor where we were sat like urchins, all night long!
I almost forgot to mention that, on the way to Coral Bay, our driver Mark kept on about how treacherous the journey was and you can see it for yourself - it's incredible, there's just nothing for miles and miles.
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Then, smack - we hit a large thing and yes, sadly it was a kangaroo but it wasn't dead so two of the boys had to get out to finish the poor thing off - we knew the driver was going to be very upset by this as he'd already told us how much he hated killing any animals but sometimes and often as well, had to. So we thought, rather than draw attention to this sad occuence, we'll just act normal and continue drinking wine from our goon bags.When we approached Exmouth we were all getting to know each other well and spent a day there sunning ourselves around Turquoise Bay and snorkelling the Ningaloo Reef. From the pictures you can see how stunning the bay is and it was even better in real life. Not so great was the front page of the newspaper that day headlining the two unfortunates who had that week drowned on the reef. The currents are horrifcally strong and our driver Mark was stood frozen on the beach with a pair of binoculars, not wanting to lose any of his gang to hit the next headline. My worry was more the hundreds of Tiger Sharks who inhabit this part of the ocean oh and a Saltwater Croc they had found took up page two of the newspaper. This country never ceases to amaze me in terms of how lethal it actually is! Neil cared not about most of this and belives he has a clear procedure in his mind on how to kill a shark when attacked and survive and thought he could apply this theory easily to crocs too.
From Exmouth we drove for about 8 hours inland to Karijini National Park, where we would be camping for three nights to walk the gorges of Karijini.
surfin' sunshine
The campsite was a very good initiation into camping as this was just the start...tents already made up, toilet and shower and all our cooking stuff in a trailer near the tents - all we had to do was the usual dump backpacks, start chopping, cook and go. The stars in the night sky were absolutely stunning and we had a great view being basically in the middle of nowhere. Walking the gorges was amazing - we saw stunning red rock and were spoilt for lagoon pools, plus it was great to get out climbing and trekking after sitting on a bus for so long. The water was freezing and we had to trek through a lot of it - Mark advised us to buy soem reef shoes due to all the jaggies in the water - so there were 22 people all wearing these crazy shoes - we looked very special - all of us.On the second night here we went star gazing with these incredibly enthusiastic astronomer. He had two massive telescopes and we viewed multiple constellations before seeing the half moon. He allowed us to grab some shots which you can hopefully see. We were so impressed with the view.
From Karijini we headed through Pardoo - an amusing Sheep Station where we were permitted our first bonfire and opportunity for marshmallows- forest fires haven't yet threatened Pardoo or they just ignore the warnings!
Last stop on this particular bus with this group of people was Broome. Originally a bustling pearling town, there's still evidence of the pearling industry but now it serves more as a sleepy seaside town, pleasant but not all that exciting.
Noosa
Scrambling to be first to use the backpacker laundry, we had a mega quick 12 hour turnaround before yet again, the next morning standing by the bus stop at 06.00 ready to board another form of transport - destination: Darwin.
This was a true monster truck, it really was. The vehicle was huge, about 12ft off the ground with the biggest tyres ever - this will be important to note for later... we were really excited now!
The first thing our driver and guide, Sharpy, said when we boarded the monster or 'The Black Pearl' as it was named (not due to an obsession with Pirates of the Carribean on the driver's part but due to the famous black pearl which is very rare and was discovered by the Chinese who first started the pearling industry) was;
'This is a difficult trip, it will be hard, you won't sleep much and you won't shower much but you will eat great food!'
So, we didn't really know what was in store for us!!
It started off much the same as the last one - lots of people, chopping and making food but this time we had to sleep just in swags out in the open until, that is, I found a two man tent on top of the truck - oh yes!
The group were mixed from us being the only couple, to a few Germans, one French and an Irish guy, with a couple of English girls plus our favourites, two Aussie grandmothers Carol and June. They were fab, up for anything and really looked after us all when it came to cooking and clearing up.
On the first night, after walking through a saltwater croc infested jungle which was supposed to be fine as long as you kept at least 50m from the shoreline (what!?) and walking into a croc infested water filled cave - we must be insane, we arrived in what can only be described as the middle of nowhere.
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We drove for hours, the landscape didn't change for miles and then suddenly, we took a turning off into the bush, surrounded by the eery looking boab trees. Now, there is a story attached to the boab trees. You'll see from the photos we've attached that they are quite fat at the bottom and then branch off. They're hollow inside and were historically used as prison trees for the aboriginal communities back when they were not as accepted in society if they committed crimes. They used to pile them in all chained up, awful when you consider the conditions they lived under. The trees themselves are scary looking, especially surrounding a campsite in the dead of night. Useful when trying to get down to nature though - in terms of a hiding place, if you know what I mean.The following day we experienced that which provided Helen Daniels (for those who remember) with much artistic pleasure - The 'Bungle Bungles' or 'Purnalulu' National Park. The Bungle Bungles is a national park covering miles and miles of the most extraordinary rock formations. This enchanting 'rock' wonderland has been formed over trillions of years and is all basically a slowly eroding coral reef - very impressive. Walking around this baking hot compound of majesty, we felt like we were in a Yoshi-esque computer game or something similar. We both agreed this was probably the most amazing thing we'd seen certainly in our experiences of the natural world.
During the next crazy night camp in an even more secluded and isolated spot, we cooked up a big casserole and Sharpy made an excellent dessert, all prepared on the campfire.
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In fact, he made an excellent dessert every night hence the 'great food' comment - not a trip for calorie dodgers that's for sure. One night he even made a delicious chocolate cake, iced with the pith from the nuts which grow on the boab trees - he described himself as a professional traveller and we were beginning to see the abundance of truth in this description of himself. We were also visited by a couple of aboriginal guys; Mac and his mate who remained nameless. Both came carreering down the dirt track we'd arrived on an hour previously in a ute, beer in both hands. They came along to the river, croc infested of course, filled up their water, proceeded to tell us two stories about dingoes killing kangaroos and something else connected to the Bungle Bungles and then headed back to their truck. They were incredibly entertaining as we sat round the campfire, especially as Mac shouted out of the window, holding a new can of beer, 'he had no license and a crate of beer in the back' - then drove off chuckling to himself leaving us slightly bemused but laughing a lot.From Purnalulu we headed to El Questro. Here we had a campsite with facilities and alcohol for the first time in three days (considering the barren camping conditions we were under, it certainly beat The Priory for detoxing). We walked through 'Emma' gorge which was quite adventurous but great fun, scrambling over and under rocks, across streams and eventually ending up at the most wonderful waterfall with a lagoon to swim in at the bottom.
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Neil braved it but I was willing for sunshine before heading into the ice cold water, which never arrived! We also visited Zebedee Springs - a beautiful lagoon of hot pools. It again reminded us of the 'Lost World'. We were surrounded by paths of palm trees, thick vegetation and a series of hot pools escalating up a small gorge, lillipads dotted around and colourful islands in the pools to sit and baske in the sun while pretty colourful butterflies fluttered around us. It was truly harmonious and absolutely fantastical. This was also where I got the idea for the title of this blog. I thought the sign leading us into the springs perfectly depicted our adventures in the beautiful and majestical country that is Australia.After El Questro we did some serious KMs in the mighty Pearl and headed through Lake Argyle, home of a monstrous dam which Neil was very excited about and proceeded to tell June and Carol, our lovely grandmas on the tour, all about the building of the dam, why it's required and how it works. He was excited about it anyway, maybe the only one!
Then we went through the town of Katherine, home of the pink diamond. There were a few stores stocking the pink diamonds and they assess and price them as we would white diamonds but they're far rarer and extremely pricey, unbeliveably so, we were amazed.
Eventually, after bombing it from Katherine, a quick stop in Victoria, we arrived in Darwin. Well, actually not quite. On the way from Katherine, late at night in the pitch drak - pop! We burst a tyre on the monster.
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The tyres were huge and jacking up the Pearl was a sight to behold. The usual. Sharpy was fortunate enough to have Neil plus two other testosterone junkies aboard the bus, eager to get cracking on the tyre - after some time all was fixed and we set back off on our merry way.After a lot of people describing Darwin to us as a city we wouldn't want to stay in for very long, we were very pleasantly surprised, we loved it in fact. Darwin is tiny, the CBD is made up of about only 3 blocks. We arrived and pitched up at a nice modern hostel and quickly got ready for a much deserved night out on the town. We went straight to 'The Vic', a well known backpackers' drinking hole and met the rest of our tour group. It was strange seeing everybody with nice clothes, non greasy hairand make-up - what a difference. We drank cheap beer out of jugs and danced to good old 90's dance tunes and it felt great!
The next day it felt good not to be awoken by the sun at 05.30 and to be in a bed rather than a swag! Over time and as you'll see from he photos, Neil had developed a most awesome beard. This day in Darwin, a nice friendly Greek barber chopped it all off and I had my baby-faced hubby back again. It was quite a shock for both of us as we'd got quite used to the new hairy Jocky.
We had planned to go to Kakadu National Park but the thought of yet more gorges and waterfalls, another camping expedition and salad sarnies and spag'bol just felt a little tedious when all we really wanted to see in Darwin was the crocs.
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So, we hopped on a day tour to the Adelaide River and home of the Jumping Crocs Tours. Terrifying is one word to describe this experience - Ultra terrifying would be two. We arrived at a shack on the side of the river where a chap who would later become our skipper was playing with a bullfrog and holding a 4m python. Neil held the snake but my love of reptiles does not extend far enough for this hence why you will only see him in the photos.We then boarded a nice big luxury boat, walked across this, out the other side to a tiny boat, rails on the side and very low in the water for my liking. Our skipper, whose name escapes us now but he was very funny, knew Steve Irwin and appears on National Geographic on the croc shows. He told us to keep all limbs in the boat and that we WOULD see crocs. And oh my God yes we did see crocs. Massive, huge reptilian creatures started jumping up to catch the meat our man was dangling off the side. It was probably the most terrifying experience of my life, right up there with sharing a tiny hut with a rat and then a bat back in '02. Neil loved it and took loads of great photos and videos. I jumped into the middle of the boat where, apparently the kids sit when they're scared and entertained the whole boat load of people by constantly asking how these evil looking man eaters know not to jump in the boat. We also saw baby crocs which is apparently really rare but the operators bribe the mother with meat to allow us to get close. I even received a round of applause at the end of the tour for providing the entertainment that afternoon!
We got some footage of the huge eagles flying past the boat, which we also fed.
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I felt exhausted after this trip, absolutely drained!Darwin itself is a crazy place and mainly due to these dear crocodiles. You can't walk along the beach for fear of a salty coming and grabbing you and dragging you back to the sea ready for that night's dinner. The swimming pools in hotels have been known to be a great vactioan place for the reptiles and any newspaper, any day of the week will have on, usually the front page sometimes pages 2 or 3, a story about a croc. It's absolutely insane.
We weren't going to venture onto the East coast with it now being winter in Oz but having cancelled a tour to Kakadu we decided to fly over to Noosa, north of Brisbane to catch a bit of surf. We're so so glad we did. We arrived and stayed in a grotty backpackers which was freezing cold much like the temperatures, this was at about 8pm. The next day, we found a beautiful, homely apartment with all mod cons and a great view, spa pool and sauna plus the weather was now at 25 degrees, not a cloud in the gorgeous blue sky.
We went surfing on Sunshine beach every day and had a great time, we both improved our much inexperienced surfing skills and really enjoyed Noosa's great beaches, nature walks and general vibe. Unfortunately on our final day, I managed to dislocate my shoulder on my board catching a mega wave but it's okay now - pure clumsiness was the cause I would imagine!!
From Noosa we headed down to Brisbane to fly out to Sydney, our final destination in Oz. We stayed centrally.
a close shave
On the first evening we had a fantastic night out with Terry, Neil's good friend from Uni. We started at Circular Quay and headed over to the Rocks finishing up in a grotty backpacker bar but with cheap booze and great live music - we partyed the night away and it was great to see Terry and have some fun in the big city.Then, the next day we skipped along to check in for our Harbour Bridge Climb. We neglected the fact that they breathalise you before you move forward on to the tour - by some miracle we both passed despite our frivolous night out the previous evening. We got all geared up and had some instruction. Now we can't put the photos on here because they're professionally printed but they do say it all. It was heavily raining, really windy and high, so high. I managed to get to the top but phew it was not the most comfortable experience. Neil was mad for it and I will attempt to scan the phopt in at some point as it is one funny photo depicting perfectly both of our very different feelings about this experience.
On our second day in Sydney we headed over to Bondi and walked through to Coogee. I stayed here for a few months back in '02 so it was very strange going back, but lovely. The walk was pleasant despite a drizzle and we were just upset we couldn't go in for a surf. It was a wee bit cold really.
We then went out with some friends on our final evening, had a lovely meal and drank far too much good wine before flying out to Auckland, New Zealand the following morning. Our adventures in Oz over, we were both very sad to say goodbye to this crazy, fun and adventurous - despite having so many deadly creatures and natural hazards - country but were excited about the next leg of our trip...
The photos may not come through due to a restriction on this computer I'm on but we'll upload as soon as we can.
See you all soon we hope and we'll blog about our adventures in New Zealand soon.
Comments
Austalia Travels
Hi Great Blog, made me feel part of it and looking foreward to the next installment about NZ and hopefuly the photos. Enjoy the rest of your trip. Miss you Janice & Robin