It's a Wicked Culture!

Finally left sunny old cairns in search of work and all things Darwin! "Lets fly" I seem to recall someone saying whilst discussing our next move, "Fly? that's just way too easy". So the search for a camper began and the rest is history. When there are three lads travelling together in a camper there is really only one option when it comes to a campervan company. You've just gotta go and see Wicked Campers. You see them all over Australia. You can't miss them. They have Wicked written on the front and are spray painted allover in a chosen design. We pulled up in the Taxi and the first one we saw was a YMCA one, with the village people painted on the side. "Brilliant, that'll do nicely!", a little camp but would be a hell of a laugh. We joked about buying hats to match, an indian feather hat, a sailors cap and a policeman helmet! Would have been hilarious with the three of us in the front drivingh round with them on! Unfortunately it just wasn't to be as that camper had been booked out, probably a good thing really! So in the end it had to be the Pink Floyd Camper, called The Wall. One of the newest ones there with air con and power steering, gonna need that on our really long journey. Off we head. The shortest period the company would let us rent it for was 2 weeks. So knowing it was only gonna take one week we decided to head upto Cape Tribulation, something that everyone should do when visiting Cairns. Don't worry people, I will be back in Cairns later in the year to see The Great Barrier Reef, can't miss that! Got to Cape Tribulation just after dark on the first day of our trip. Went across on the ferry and found the closest campsite. We looked like complete first time campers, setting up the tent and trying to cook! And it all turned even worse when it came to us trying to get a nice camp fire going! We were there for two hours at least trying to get it blazing like all the people around us! The funniest thing was heading out trying to find fire wood under torch light. Jumpiest time of my life, you'd hear a rustle to the side of you and spin round as quickly as possible to see what had caused the noise! Obviously we were expecting snakes and such dangerous creatures, but no, FROGS! Not poisonous Tree Frogs just normal ordinary frogs, the kind you get in your Pond - and loads of them. Danni was the funniest though. He would scream like a girl everytime something moved near him. Later on in the night we thought we would head down to the beach for a walk, off we set. It was completely pitch black and Danni kept on getting scared, calling us crazy wanting to walk around in this environment. Simon and I just kept on walking, we knew he wouldn't head back on his own. Got to the Croc warning sign near the beach, Danni was virtually histerical by now, "You can't go down there, you crazy f#&kers!" It was a thin dark lane with bushes and trees either side leading to the beach, in the end I think we all chickened out on that one! Didn't fancy a bite from a King Brown Snake out in the middle of nowhere! We waited til the next morning to return to the beach and see the beautiful sands and tropical trees overhanging. Headed off shortly after to find the path to our final destination of Darwin. Unfortunately our chosen path took us over some hills (well maybe mountains) and caused our shitty camper to over heat, meaning we had to stop for half an hour waiting for the water to cool. Cutting a long story short (maybe a bit too late for that!) we stayed a couple of different places, just random campsites a long the way. Hit a kangaroo one of the days at about 4 o'clock. There was a sticker on the dashboard of the van which said "Train your mind to follow the following: Don't swerve to avoid animals, if you do, you are a DICKHEAD! You will roll the vehicle 4 times! Which will survive? The Roo, The Emu, or You?" Those are exact words! So naturally I see a kangaroo at the side of the road and Swerve. Being the dickhead that I am, what else could I do. Infact it was lucky I did. The Roo jumped straight across the road heading for a front on collision. With a slight swerve of the van (at 120kph! - 70mph ish!) it jumped straight into the side denting the sliding door. More unfortunate incidents were Road Trains, Articulated Lorries that are 55 Metres long, in other words three times the length of ours. One passed us heading the opposite direction, we pulled as far across as we could and up pops a stone chipping the windscreen, more Bills from the Hire company! Luckily they didn't spot any of the damage and we got away with it! 4200k's later and we get to Darwin after a solid week of driving, sometimes doing upto 800k's (500 Miles)a day. Danni, bless his little cotton socks (18 years old) did 200k's of driving, me doing the remaining 4000k's all while Spiderman sat and watched the scenery go by (He doesn't have a license). Got to Darwin a week early so we went to Kakadu National Park and camped there for a couple of nights. Went on a River cruise from Yellow Waters and saw a load of Salt Water Croc's. Took Spider into Hospital one night due to his Mossy Bites, serves him right for scratching them so much. His left foot was swollen to double its nomral size! So he booked into a hotel for three nights so he could keep his feet up and watch some much needed TV. He's back with us now and we are booked into a Hostel right in the centre of the city. The search for work begins. Fruit picking is heading our way. Something that every proper backpacker should at least try once. Watch this space. So sorry for long entry, I'm even boring myself now - and believe me that really was the short version!