Darwin to Alice Springs

K... these photos are not in a good order, but still give you an idea!
1. and 2. and 3. the Devils Marbles- very cool, huge boulders sit precariously on one another appearing to be ready to fall, but sitting solid. they go on for miles and miles.
4. mango wines- sparkling, sweet and a port.
5. Tropic of Capricorn
6. helicopter
7. Katherine Gorge
8 . sunset from the helicopter above Katherine Gorge
9. Katherine Hot Springs- a good old 30 degree "bath"!
10. Daly Waters Pub- the oldest in the Northern Territory
11. Charlie- Crocodile Dundee's Water Buffalo
12. Mataranka hot Springs- very warm splash!
13. me atop Katherine Gorge
14. walking through the boulders on the way down from Katherine's Gorge

All right.. the next adventure... Darwin to Alice Springs, the middle of the Outback.. the middle of no where!

Now to understand the distance we had to sit on the bus and see nothing for for hours is very hard to explain, but much worse than the journey from Smith to Edmonton.. We would drive for 2 hours and then have a snack. then drive for 3 hours and have lunch then drive for 3 hours and do a walk or something, then drive for 3 hours to our destination... we start each day about 5 AM and arrive at our destination by 6 PM or so.. and literally not much to see out the windows, but red dirt and the occasional tree! and we are still in a semi arid zone!

So out if Darwin and heading south towards Adelaide.. fun fun fun.. Our first stop was at Adelaide River (we had lunch here with the other trip as well!) and found Charlie! He was the ox/ water buffalo from Crocodile Dundee the one put to sleep with Dundee's hand.. he is dead now and they stuffed him and put him up on the bar in the pub, to have him immortalized for life! We headed off for a swim at Edith Falls and also had lunch there. A rambunctious group of army cadets were there and gave us a quick lesson in back yard cricket. We headed off to Katherine Gorge and hiked up the side of the cliffs for a great view, then a few of us went on a helicopter tour of the 13 gorges at sunset. It was pretty cool. And I loved being n the helicopter (my new calling?!?!) The ants here love me and want to travel with me..yup, they packed up and moved into my bag... hopefully they won't stay long.

The next day we are headed to Tennent Creek.. I just read a book about the disappearance of Peter Falconio that happened in this area so that is cool. We stopped for a hike and a swim to Mataranka hot Springs to start the day, stopped for lunch and a drink at the oldest Pub in the Northern territory, Daly Waters. It is also the first international airport in Australia! we spent a lot of time on the bus today.. btw- the bus is packed and very uncomfortable and the air conditioning is making me sick! We are sleeping in permanent campsites on this trip and tonight slept in a swag inside the tent. A swag is a canvas bag with a mattress built in. You put your sleeping bag inside and zip up the sides and flip over the top and you are covered from the cold and the elements.

The final day had us heading deep into the outback and to the neatest thing ever, to the Devils Marbles. These are huge pieces of circular rocks that have been pushed through millions of years ago with volcanic rocks and heating and cooling and pushing of the tectonic plates and the ice age and such. They are precariously balanced granite boulders. Some of them are even hollow! It is a spectacular site that goes on for miles. We stopped in the UFO capital of Australia, Wycliffe Well. Their store is cluttered with newspaper clippings of UFO sightings! We stopped in on a mango farm and tasted different mango wines and ice cream. the ice cream was delightful, but the wine not so good! Our final stop on the tour was at the Tropic of Capricorn... not sure what that means at this point in the world.. I need to find a map of the world..

We Are traveling on the Stuart Highway.. so names for the explorer who was the first to navigate Australia from the South to the North. It took John McDouall Stuart three attempts to get through having to deal with the Aboriginals, the weather, no water and lack of food. He finally made it through in 1863, and went a little nutty and died a few years later.. I think living or going through the Outback can drive anyone nutty!

Darwin and Kakadu National Park

All right it has been a while, but I will give you the details as to my disappearance finally today... I am actually in Melbourne, but will do a few different updates to get us all on track.

Photos:
1. waterfall in the park.. there were a few, but getting into dry season many did not flow much more water than this.
2. me and a termite mound. (none to be seen thank god) these are known to get 15 feet high and much like an iceberg 2/3 is below the surface!
3. Old Town Hall in Darwin.. hit with bombs during the war, rebuilt and hit by Cyclone Tracy, town hall never recovered
4. crocodile jumping.. they make the crocs work for their food and entertain us by getting them to jump out of the water! and they would still have 1/3 to 2/3 of their body in the water.. very big fellas!
5. Rock art paintings dating back 20,000 odd years.. pretty basic ways of communicating... though you have to have the inside scoop as to its entire meanings.. there are three types of rock art... lessons, information and x-ray??? not too sure at this moment..
6. Me atop the Ubirr mountain (?) this was a spectacular site for looking out over miles and miles.. it was one major highlight from Kakadu.
7 . and a spider pic.. up here they are big and plenty.. yuck....

So, upon arrival in Darwin I was melting. Even at 1:00 in the morning it was hot and muggy. So when I hit the path the following day I truly was sweating off the pounds, literally. Dripping sweat in places you never want to feel it.. but I pursued and went for a walk of the town. Darwin was hit pretty hard by the Japanese at the beginning of the war and you can still see some of it. The government wasted millions of dollars building underground oil storage tunnels (which were never used) after theirs were bombed. After walking around the town core for 3 hours I headed to an old jail, which was interesting as it still had the gallows where they hung people ( a very big thing in Australia at it hay day). I enjoy touring jails to see how things were then.

And to get out of the heat I swam in the hostel pool while I did laundry. A nice luxury.

The Trip to Kakadu National Park was a thrill. It was a spectacularly green place and had some pretty interesting sites. The Australians screwed up in trying to grow their own rice (to avoid importing it) in that where they built the Humpty Doo Rice Project there were over 400 species of birds and plants. etc.. and after the first planting the birds ate all the seeds, so the rive would never grow. The area has now been turned into a conservation site.

We went on the Spectacular Crocodile Jumping Cruise, in which the drivers tease the crocs by dangling meat on a rope and having them jump out of the water for our pleasure.. it was pretty neat to see how quickly they can get out of the water and how high they can jump! After that we hiked into the Ubirr area and saw ancient Aboriginal Rock art paintings. Pretty cool. and then a climb to the top had amazingly spectacular views! We hiked into a couple of different fresh water water falls and had crocodile free swims... though at on time there may have been crocs in there!

I had a great group to travel with on this trip, which always makes it fun. Justin, our guide does not own a TV and is passionate about books regarding the history of the Aboriginal people and the Darwin area. So he was an enthusiastic guide full of all the info you ever wanted to know.... AND he was a keen didgeridoo player as well!!!

I hope this makes sense.. on to the next trek!

quick update..

Hi all,

I am alive and well. I was really out in the middle of nowhere for the last 10 days or so, but have finally come back to the real world in Adelaide. I will do an update with photos tomorrow, promise.

Shari

the Great Barrier Reef from above!

So after I cancelled my scuba dive and was feeling somewhat better, the girls in my room were talking about a flight they took that day over the Reef. It sounded so wonderful I called the company and booked a seat on the 3 PM flight. I was meeting Betina and Sanne at the lagoon (a swimming pool created because you cannot swim in the water here) for some sun and convinced them to join me, so off we went for a flight.

Daintree Air was a great tour. For $199 for a 1 hour flight we went over the southern part of the reef up to the Daintree River we had crossed with the crocodiles a few days before. It was a spectacular flight with 6 of us on the little plane.

The pictures don't show the view well, but it is embedded in my mind forever.. a great choice I think to see it from above rather than below.

I hope you enjoy the photos..

Carins and Cape Tribulation

1. the Great barrier Reef from the Rum Runner

2. my master diver for my dive on the reef

3. tree kangaroo

4. jungle surfing

5. Jungle surfing

6. Mossman Gorge

7. little croc!

8. amethystine python

9. me atop the rainforest in my jungle surfing gear

10. Cape Tribulation (with mangroves in the fore ground)

So Cairns is a tourist town, built as a stepping stone for the Great Barrier Reef and other out posts. Not much to do here but eat expensive food and go on tours... so that is what I did. On April 3rd I headed out of Cains to Cape Tribulation via Daintree National Park. Our first stop was at Mossman Gorge for a short interpretive walk and a swim in the river (for some). Our guide pointed out some interesting plants, like the stinging plant that when touched or brushed against makes you feel like molten metal is running through your blood with pain lasting up to 3 months and the only relief is to pour boiling water on it! Thankfully most have been removed from the park. Another leaf is oh so pretty until you touch it and it wilts while its edges become sharp pokey objects!

We drove past Batt Bay where Steve Irwin found his fateful death at the hand of a manta ray. Pretty spot though!

As we wound our way through dry lands, wet lands and rain forests the scenery changed and the more freaky insects and snakes were to be found. No lie, that the average size of spiders I saw was like 2 1/2 to 3 inches big.. SCARY.. and I saw the largest snail ever.. stepped over a snake without knowing (thank god)..

A stop at the Rain forest habitat Wildlife Sanctuary was gross.. full of birds and bats that I am not so fond of. A pelican actually ran out of the water after me and I ran away screaming.. To be honest I didn't spend much time in there, but had to see the tree kangaroo for my own eyes.. yup there he was sitting in a tree... a kangaroo.. seems odd..

We had some beautiful views of the old rainforest in the world. Quite spectacular. We stopped at a fruit picking place and tried some natural ice cream interesting flavors. (Just so you all know, I have been eating well and even trying new things. I still avoid mushrooms and onions and green peppers as much as possible, but I am eating! I'll get to more in a minute)

Before we got to our final destination in the Rainforest we went on the Daintree River on a little passenger boat. I was thinking ho humm another wait to get somewhere, but it turned out to be an interpretive tour about the crocs and wildlife in the area! We saw 5 crocodiles (ranging from small ladies to huge fat males). The guide said we were lucky but it seems as though the crocs have decided that the wet season is over and have settled into their dry winter spots where they will stay for 3-6 months.. one of the crocs was protecting her babies. It was neat to see them in the wild. There are 7 crocs per km in this river and as you go further north it gets to 14-20 per km! No more ocean swimming for me! And to top it off we saw a amethystine python about 40 feet up in a tree... I think it was a big on because we were a fair distance away and could still see it.

We arrived at our Rainforest get-away and had a swim in the pool, avoided the spiders and other insects and had supper. I just ordered a pasta dish (Very tasty) but the Danes I was staying with ordered the kangaroo and crocodile dish and let me taste! the kangaroo was very tender and cooked pretty rare. It tasted fairly sweet actually. The crocodile was smoked and tasted just like smoked fish and was rather chewy. Interesting.. not up to tasting squid yet...

The next day was rather lazy, but started with a Jungle Surfing trip on cables in a harness over the rainforest. It was definitely a unique way to see the rain forest from above. The rest of the day I went for a walk, a swim in the pool, and just generally was trying to feel better. (had a fever and gas issues that would not pass, but better now).

On my final day in the rainforest I went out to the Great Barrier Reef in the Rum Runner. There I did a dive (that didn't go so well) and I lost an underwater camera which sucks, but oh well. It was a beautiful day and I also got to snorkel, which was AMAZING... so much better than the dive... so many colors and fishes and sting rays and eels, and all that stuff.. wicked..

After those relaxing couple of days we came back to Cairns. I was scheduled to go on a boat for 2 more dives on the Sunday, but I just couldn't do it. I felt like crap and being on another boat for 8 hours would not have been enjoyable, so I cancelled and went on another tour... see next blog..

The Captain Cook lesson for today... After Captain Cook mistakenly found New Zealand and it wasn't the great Island continent they were looking for, he and his crew were happy to be heading home back to family and friends. BUT on the way they bumped in to the reef and found what they were originally looking for. Cape Tribulation was so named because his boat the Endeavour crashed into the reef here.. his men and he were tired and sicka nd just wanted to get home, so names in the area reflect their mood at that time.. Mount Sorrow, Shipwreck Bay, Black Rock, Stuck Island, Cape Trial etc... So the boys had to wait awhile before they got to head home!

Extreme Shari???

1. feeding a grey kangaroo

2. holding a water python

3. holding a baby croc

4. holding a lizard (very prickly)

5. a big croc

6.- 10. jumping out of the plane

11.-13 rafting the Tully River

So I believe that when I last left you, I was having a relaxing time and enjoying the quiet calm tour life, getting comfortable with having my feet on the ground and looking forward to getting to Cairns (or Cans as they say here)... well life changed dramatically after that... I don't know who I am anymore!! JK

I arrived at Mission Beach and had a relaxing time with some girls from the bus. We had a great meal at the hostel pub and had an early evening. I have started to read a book about the disappearance and abduction of a British couple back in 2005 which happened around Alice Springs... where I will be in a couple of weeks! Maybe not the best choice??

So I awoke the next day and headed off for some extreme rafting... unfortunately there were not enough people for the extreme rafting, so we just rafted, though in the end because there were only 6 boats we were invited to do all the extreme rafting stuff. The Tully River rapids ranged from Class 1 to Class 4 and was it ever fun. I laughed all day! By the end of it our crew had the paddling and moving around the boat down to a tee. I jumped off a 4 meter (12 foot) boulder into the water and swam through a class 2 rapid... not to scary for the Fort Smith kayakers, but SCARY for me! One of the guys (from SK!) had a waterproof camera and I asked him to send me some photos of the journey in the raft. It was a great day, but I wish the clouds wound have dispersed and let the sun through..

Then if that wasn't enough, I decided to let the weather be the decision maker for me hurtling myself toward the ground at 220km/hr... and as luck would have it the clouds cleared and it was a great day to jump (of course it got cloudy and rainy again about 2 hours after - btw). We had an early pick up (7:30 AM) and by 9:30 I was sitting in a plane at 14000 feet hooked up to a complete stranger, assuming he was knowledgeable enough to save my life as I would fall to a potential death below.... But I took a deep breath and closed my eyes as we fell off (literally) out of the plane and into a free fall for 60 seconds (about 8000 feet or so). My eyes were close for about 30 seconds then Paul tapped my shoulder, I opened my eyes and arms and "flew" for another 30 seconds or so (stomach in my throat by now) and he pulled the parachute just as we went into a cloud. That was a neat experience... then we broke through the clouds and what a view (though I remember I was screaming the whole time!). I could see Dunk Island and the great Barrier reef and just a great view of the country. He made us spin a few times and stall then free fall a bit which of course did not let my stomach settle, and then with a lifting of the legs and running on the beach I was done... CRAZY! Yup that is what I am. I have officially decided!

For those who may not believe that I actually went through with it I have added some photos and you can drop by and watch the DVD anytime!

In the afternoon I caught a bus to Cairns with a stop at a crocodile farm on the way. Here we watched the breeder feed the crocs and gators, while we fed kangaroos and held water pythons, lizards and baby crocodiles... and I even did that!! Really what has come over me?

Tomorrow I am off to Cape Tribulation and the rain forest, so I will be out of touch for 3-4 days.. I will update when I come back.

Thanks for the e-mails all.. Missing ya!

PS- happy 9th birthday Chelsea.