Happy Christmas from down under
Trip Start
Apr 20, 2004
1
18
21
Trip End
Mar 30, 2005
Perth,
Australia
Friday, December 24, 2004
In our last update we left you at Cairns. We are now sunning ourselves in Perth, the other end of the country completely.
We left off our van and decided to fly the rest of the way to save time. As luck would have it a number of new no frills airlines have set up in Australia. We made the most of these and booked flights for the rest of our journey around Australia.
Our first stop was Darwin. First we have to tell you about a stop we made on our way there. The plane had to land and refuel in a small mining town called Gove. If the airport was anything to go by, the town must be something out of the Wild West. We got off the plane, and were sent into what looked like a tin shed to check in again. So off we went. We entered the building to find one tiny room. On the right hand side there was the check in desk and on the left all the bag security check things. The shed wasn't big enough for all of this stuff never mind the 100 people who just got off the plane.
We approached the desk; it was one desk divided in two. One side for economy passengers and the other for business class. There was one lady operating both sides of the desk, just stepping from one side to the other alternatively. Behind the desk there was no conveyer belt, just a big door out to the runway, where the plane was parked. When anyone checked in a bag, the lady took it and ran over to the plane with it. After check in, we headed for the security check. which was about two feet from the check in desk. Again they had all the equipment, the x ray things for your hand luggage, the thing you walk through that beeps and even explosives testing things but only about two people doing all the jobs. It was a like a Monty Python sketch. After security we could go to our gate, out the back door of the shed into a sheep pen, with a wire fence and a gate, then herded back onto the plane.
A short plane ride later and we landed in Darwin. Darwin is a lovely city, its all brand new, as the whole city was practically wiped out by a cyclone in 1974, so there are very few buildings older than 30 years in the entire place. Around Darwin there are a number of impressive national parks. One such park, Kakadu is about the size of Wales, and another smaller one is Litchfield at a mere 20,000 square kms.
We took a trip to Litchfield, and explored some beautiful waterfalls. Every 30 minutes or so throughout the day we would stop and go swimming in a waterhole. The ice cold water was a welcome relief with the temp in the high thirties and humidity almost one hundred percent. We also checked out some very impressive termite hills. Now, I know what you are all thinking, termite hills, yeah right. However, these termite hills were in fact about 8 meters tall and about 50 years old.
The next day we visited Katherine, a small town south west of Darwin, home of the famous Katherine Gorges. Because of the time of year, and the on coming monsoon, known as the "wet" locally, not all of the gorges were open. On the day we visited the water level had rose by over a meter that morning. So we only got to see the first two of the five gorges - these were quite impressive.
On our way back to Darwin, we popped into a pub for dinner and ran into a local celebrity standing on the bar - Charlie the buffalo. His claim to fame is that he started in Crocodile Dundee. I am sure you all remember the scene where Paul Hogan puts the buffalo to sleep at the side of the road. However sadly since then he has passed away. The owners of this pub sent him down to Brisbane to be stuffed, at a cost of 20,000 dollars! Charlie isn't even his real name, it's his stage name, before hitting the big time he was know as Bill to his friends. Very Hollywood!
We also took the opportunity to take a quick cruise on the Queen Adelaide River in Darwin. We arrived early in the morning to see the salt-water crocs being fed. Now, these are the real dangerous ones, the ones that grow to about 7 metres long. The guy on boat dangled pieces of raw meat off the end of the stick and the crocs jumped up and grabbed it. I knew what was in store when we boarded the boat so I made sure I was sitting safely in the centre, nowhere near the edge. Martin must have spent too much time with Japanese tourists, as when I looked around I found him hanging over the edge practically sticking his head down in the crocs mouth - for a better shot.
After about a week in Darwin we moved on to Broome, in Western Australia in the hope that it would be a little cooler or even less humid. Unfortunately, this was not the case; it was just as bad. We really didn't plan this part of our trip very well. It was completely the wrong time of the year to be there, due to the heat and wet all the camping trips and tours we wanted to do were cancelled. The town itself was lovely, but very small and quiet. The main shopping area was one street of single storey tin buildings, very modern tin buildings, but tin buildings none the less. It was the type of place where you would expect to balls of tumbleweed blowing down the road, if fact we did once, and then fell around the place laughing.
We stayed at backpackers outside the town at cable beach. The beach was magnificent, and we witnessed some really impressive sunsets.
We spent most our days just chilling out by the pool. Although, I don't know if chilling is the right word, we were anything but chilled, melted would be more accurate. I know I am not getting any sympathy at home, as you probably all had to defrost your cars this morning or something. Sorry.
We did visit some under ground caves, tunnel creek and wynjina gorge. These were nice, but not as impressive as the ones in Darwin. Our guide that day was originally from Melbourne. He proudly told us that his family had been involved in some gangland style shootings in Pizza shops in Melbourne. I don't think we will be looking them up when we get there next week.
This brings us to Perth. We landed on the 2nd Dec, and were greeted by Matins sister Sheelagh, who along with her family, were going to be our hosts for the next three weeks. We arrived full of excitement, staying in a proper house, with the use of a washing machine, TV, cooker and fridge, would be pure luxury for us. Not only that, we wouldn't be expected to check out by 10 in the morning, ahhhh heaven. Bliss.
Did she really know what she was letting herself in for? The first few days were spent checking out the city centre and some of the cool shopping areas. The shops all had their santas and decorations, which felt completely out of place for us. It felt nothing like Christmas, with the clear blue skies and warm sun.
After a few days we left the city for Sheelagh's home in Peppermint grove beach, or Peppi Beach as the locals call it. This is a small seaside town about 3 hour's drive south of Perth. The house is right on a lovely beach. We often go for walks, snorkel or just cool down in the sea just in front of the house. A number of dolphins swim by every so often and we can spot them from the veranda. Last week, Sheelaghs husband, Sean took out his boat, and we all went for a little spin. We spotted a pod of dolphins and they swam around the boat for ages. We pulled up for a short while and I got in for a little swim, it was fantastic.
We have been checking out some of the surrounding towns, Bunbury and Busselton. On Monday we drove to a town called Denmark, which is on the southern coast. We visited some more stunning beaches, Greenpools
(Where the water is always green), the elephant rocks (where the rocks are shaped like elephants) and Madfish Bay (no idea).
We also stopped of at a place called Walpole, where we checked out the valley of the giants. This is basically a huge forest, where the trees are up to 60 metres high. There is a walkway that you can take which goes right through the tree canopy and then back down to ground level, The views were spectacular, and we had great fun checking out all the mad looking trees.
So now we are back in Peppi beach preparing for Christmas. It feels a little bit more like Christmas now, we have put the decorations and tree up and the kids are starting to get excited. As we had all our shopping done, i.e. the fridge stocked with beer, we spent yesterday touring the local wineries. We visited about five in total and sampled many different wines. We managed to find a few for the Christmas dinner, so we are looking forward to getting into them.
Once of the best things about staying here is getting to spend time with Martins two nephews, Rory (7) and Connor (5). We had the honour of being invited to their end of year school parties, which were highly entertaining. The younger ones did a little play and sang some carols.
The carols were slightly different to the ones we were used to. As it's summer here, songs about snow and sleighs don't make much sense, so they have their own version of jingle bells, in which they sing about swatting flies, eating pies, wearing thongs (flip flops) and bathers. Santa's sleigh is pulled by white boomers - which are kangaroos, as it is too hot for raindeer.
That about brings us up to date. I will sign off now and let you all get back to planning your Christmas sessions.
We wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and wonderful New Year.
Take care,
Roisin and Martin.
