"And I heard a voice in the midst of the four beasts, and I looked and behold a red horse, and his name that said on him was Dingo...and Hell followed with him."
"Ra ra ra."
Broome was great, of course. Very relaxing. We stayed on a really good campsite which was literally a boules throw from the beach, and made friends with various female Scandinavian neighbours...which was nice. We saw a real Dinosaur footprint (fantastic), went to a crocodile farm (brilliant) and saw the much hyped Stairway To The Moon (underwhelming). And we beat the Swedes in an international boules match.
But it was time to press on as we were getting conscious of money, so we decided to ride Dingo hard and burn across to Darwin like the one-eyed Jack of Diamonds with the Devil close behind...
Very tough trip. Passed through a couple of very small towns and a brief stop in Katherine (I've wanted to get in to Catherine for ages). It's just so damn hot in the car, and opening the windows doesn't actually help at all. Any water we bought would be warm within an hour, and literally feel like it had been boiled after a few hours. Our clothes were just saturated with sweat (lovely).
It was the first time that distances on this trip have been a bit daunting. I think it was because of the heat. There were times when it all got a bit too much and we suffered from various hallucinations...Mike battling a steering wheel which consistently increased in size, and me running over a Care Bear. No damage to the car, but the bear won't be giving the Care Bear Stare for a long while.
Drove through a controlled forest fire just before Darwin. It was dark, and you could just see loads of patches of flames around us. Pretty eery.
We spent a few days in Darwin before it became obvious that soon we were soon going to have to dart towards Sydney and get some work...so we decided to do something epic. We had heard rave reviews of Kakadu National Park from Jimmy Malone and Aislinn Ni Cuinnesomething (known in some circles as the King & Queen of Banter) so we splashed out on a 3 day trip.
We were picked up early in the morning and met our guide and the rest of the people we would be spending the next few days with: A Canadian girl whose father is narcoleptic (meeting someone related to a narcoleptic is a highlight in itself for me), a 'typical' English girl who claimed to have her own religion, a French-Canadian guy training to be an air traffic controller, a quiet Dutch girl, and a 42 year old American guy on a break from work who has been getting photos of himself mooning at some of the most spectacular sites in the world.
Despite some serious walking in heat which I have never know the likes of...it was great. Spectacular view after spectacular view, great Aboriginal paintings, cool animals, and a few natural pools with waterfalls we could swim in. We couldn't swim or go near most of the water due to the large number of crocodiles who can and have killed backpackers. We saw plenty of crocodiles.
Without a doubt the higlight for me was going for a dip in a large pool of water where it was known a fresh water crocodile lived. As opposed to salt water crocs (who can also live in fresh water), fresh water crocs won't attack unless provoked, so it was safe enough. As 3 of us swam out in to the middle of the water I spotted the crocodile's head about 10 or 20 metres from me. We just treaded water as it slowly swam around us, disappearing under the water now and then. Absolutely class. Such a rush. This is the first crocodile in the wild I have ever seen and I'm swimming with it!
Great weekend which I won't bother to go in to in too much detail, but good to be back. After 3 showers the dirt is nearly off me. We've decided to call it a day on the holidaying due to low funds and are now going to head to Sydney quick enough and settle down for a while. Will probably take a week or two to drive down, cutting off the east coast and saving it for after Christmas.
Feel like I haven't really done justice to Darwin. The heat is too perversely heat to do anything. It's a joke. They tried to build a city here a few times before Darwin was settled and it just didn't work. Too hot and too dry. I think it's only worked now because the people that did it this time are stubborn bastards. Went exploring a couple of times but it's just too damn hot. You begin to feel faint and end up just heading back to the hostel's swimming pool...someone told me it's salt water, but I'm pretty sure it's fresh water...the taste is just all the filth from the backpackers.
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