Sep 2006

Having had a great last night out in Darwin with our newly found buddy sinners (Bouncer from The Ducks Nuts) it was time to say bye to the stupidly hot weather of Darwin before embarking on our insane journey through the red centre of oz, then heading for the West Coast.

The camper was way better than expected considering the amount we were paying, infact it was as good as we could ever have imagined. Microwave, Two hob cooker with grill, toaster and all the necessary impliments to cook noodles and baked beans!

Got away later than I had wanted on the first day due to shopping for food and other goodies that were necessary for the trip - lots of music! Finally got on the Stuart highway heading out of Darwin at about 2.30. Managed to get a fair old distance before nightfall and all the kangaroos coming out. Got down to Katherine, a good 320 k's covered! Not much to say about the time we were travelling between there and Alice, except for Lauren chucking her drink all over me while I was driving, it was only us hitting a bird which made her jump like hell! Naturally she received a few harsh words from me and carried on our way. My road kill count is now upto: Birds - 4, Lizards - 3, Snakes - 1, Kangaroo's - 1, Flies - 3,489,289.

Didn't stay at Alice for too long, quick stop and off again we went heading towards our first destination of Kings Canyon. Stopped the night at a free campsite which was behind a road house. Dodgiest place I have ever stayed, the other two were so scared I ended up in tent on my own as they both jumped into the LOCKABLE camper! Arrived at the canyon about midday the next day. Thinking it was gonna be a quick stop for a photo and then on our way to Uluru. I was hugely mistaken. Started walking and saw people up very high, "Surely we don't have to go up there!", then we saw a sign saying about the round trip for the canyon walk taking 3.5 hours. I was determined to do it, so off we trekked. The first bit was incredibly steep, simon started to struggle a bit (due to his beer belly most likely), me and Lauren battled on. Just as we got to the top, and the worst bit was over, simon headed back down the hard way (way he had come) not thinking he would be able to complete the walk. Me and Lauren however, absolutely stormed it round, stopping only for quick drinks and photo opportunities. We made it round in an hour and a half, a full 2 hours short of the recommended time needed! It was a great experience, saw loads of little lizards and Lauren claims to have seen a Python too (she's a bit dippy, so could have been just a long bit of grass). The short time it took us to do the walk enabled us to get to Uluru before sunset.

Got up at 5 am to see the sunrise over Uluru. It was nice but I imagined the position of the viewing area would be so that you saw the sunrise behind Uluru, giving some great silhouette shots, but no. The sun rose behind us, giving some nice colour changes on the rock. Started climbing the Mala Walk up the Rock at 7am, when the sun was not yet hot. Unbelievably steep. Hardest climb I have ever done, way harder than all my hiking in Cumbria in my youth. Most of the way to the top there was a chin provided to pull yourself up the steeper parts. Simon made it about half way up the chain and said he'd wait for us. So, once again just me and Lauren headed for the top. Once the chain bit had gone it got easier with only little up and down bits. When I say little, I mean little, but they were still tricky, no walking was involved. It took run ups to get up some of the really steep bits, even though they were only 4 or 5 foot high they were so steep that you had to run up them to keep your momentum going. Ayers Rock is definately one of those cases where I would call it the "Never ending Summit walk", you know the kind, when you look up and see what you think is the top, but no, there's always a bit higher. In Ayers' case, about 20 bits were higher. But I guess that is what made the walk so rewarding! The views were not that great from the top but some funny photos were taken and we had a laugh with taking some shadow photo's (i'll show you one day). Headed back down the same steep way. It was so steep at points that the chain had to be used to almost abseil down backwards. Great fun though, not for lauren though, who was constantly scared of the heights! Went back to the campsite for the rest of the afternoon, just to chill out. Went back to Uluru to watch the sunset over the rock, once again a slight disappointment!

Next day we headed for the Olga's, wanting to do the walk. Went to the viewig platform for a photo, and feeling pretty tired from the day before we decided against the walk and just got on with the days driving. Stayed the night in Alice Springs before heading all the way back up to Katherine and then west to a Victoria River Roadhouse where we stayed the night. The next stop was Fall's Creek, where we used the pool to cool down and stay for the night. Broome! Where I am now. Staying here for 4 nights. Went to Cable Beach yesterday, got really burnt, whole of my back, legs, arms, boobs all nicely pink, well red, whatever colour burnt is! Hopefully some brown will come of my stupidity! The other two are worse though as they stayed a whole two hours longer in the sun than I did! Sleeping last night was hell. The matress we use in the tent feels like sandpaper when you are this burnt!

Anyways, that's all the news for now, my next extremely amusing and informational Blog entry will be posted here when I'm in Perth. Til then......

Ahhh, Darwin!!! How I loved it here, so, very very much! It has become my temporary home for 2 months. I have probably as many friends here as I have back in the UK. Unfortunately everyone is leaving now, due to it getting stupidly humid going into the wet season! In a couple of months it will be 36c day and night! I'm sweating as it is!

Feel as though I should mention all the people at the Fox N' Fiddle british pub. Without them we wouldn't have been able to afford the odd drink! Crab Racing has always been fun - "crab racing?" I hear you ask! Yes they race Hermit crabs! You get given a ticket and if it is picked out of the bucket then you get to pick a crab and race it against other
people with crabs - sounds cheesy I know. But without this we wouldn't have had the drinks and food in the pub that we have. Jimmy the person who runs the crab racing always made sure that we were picked, and as we did it so often we knew the fast crabs. I can't even remember the number of times me and simon have come 1st and 2nd place! Winning $30 for 1st and $15 for 2nd place. These $ vouchers bought us those drinks we wouldn't otherwise have had. Just wanna jot down some of the cheesy lines that Jimmy would use everynight at Crab Racing (just for memory sake!) - "Pick a crab from the Crabitarium as it is so hilariously known". And "As usual the enthusiasm is overwhelming!". Good old Jimmy. And just last week we won the pub quiz! Another $50 voucher - bonus!!

Just wanna note down some names of the people I have met here: Dave, Peachy, little dave, Sinners, Craig, Izzy, Sian, Jo, Alex, John, Hannah, Lauren (who we are going down the west coast with), Phil, Anna, Karl, Moff (the two RAF boys from back in England) and well there's probably more but can't think right now! These are the people who have made my time in Darwin such a great experience! Gonna miss all these guys loads!

And now I move on to the subject of work! Which is always a good topic when you are a backpacker! Yes I did get myself a job, did it last long? No! In this heat with the protective clothing I was wearing! Lets just say I lost half my body weight in sweat! But that wasn't the worst of it! Bending over using a file to get rid of all the dodgy bits of galvanize! It killed my back. I had difficulty walking from the hostel into town that night!

Wade, our friendly local tour company owner! He's been great to us, providing us with a cheap deal on a camper, he actually cut our other quotes in half! And for the work he has provided me with. Its not been lots but every little helps! Polishing his Coach wheels for 4 hours, oh what fun! I even helped him wash his smaller bus with him one night, for which he paid me with a jug of beer. It did only take 15 minutes!

Did Litchfield National park the other day. Which included a cruise on the Adelaide river know as the "Original Jumping Croc Cruise". It was great, got some pretty damn good photos of the salt water crocs jumping a good 6 feet vertically out of the water to grab the pork chops that were being dangled above them! Then we did a couple of stop offs at some waterfalls and a chance to swim in some nice fresh water where there are no crocs! We were given the option to either do a walk or swim. We both agreed to do the walk thinking we'd get some good sights out of it! Simon has since been telling people "I had a near death experience in Litchfield - others call it exercise!!" The walk was pretty tough. Nice steep walk up and to be honest I'm not sure the views were worth the effort. But still it was good for me to get active! Thanks Wade for the deal you did for us on this trip!

Lynzi came back to Darwin for a couple of days. Haven't seen her since Coogee! Yeap that now 4 and a half months a go! And shes still as fun as she was back then! We are meeting back up in cairns in about 5 weeks to do the east coast together. So there should be 5 of us travelling down the whole of the coast, where I will be meeting my parents for christmas and new year! Me and Simon are staying with Lynzi and Nicola in Sydney at Base Hostel. Should be a blast!

And so, we are leaving for Alice springs and uluru (ayers rock) and kings canyon. Then diagonally across to broome and then down the west coast to Perth. The views along the coast are supposed to be absolutely amazng.

Can't wait!