Well ok, just asked Murf what we done last Tuesday and Wednesday. Short answer; shopping, reading and shopping. So not that important. Reason why I write this? I kicked Murf to his emails and took the writing stick forsfully back.
But to start off with the most exciting part of the last week; diving. Thursday was the big day when it al happened. Armed with a swimming gear and learning books we entered the most hated classroom. Where I just ran off from. The whole morning nothing but theorie and boring tests. After that my first experience with underwater breathing. And putting in each other your diving gear. Very funny and diffrent. Really have to get used to it. The standard easy to learn practises under water were piece of cake. Going down in the middle 'deep' piece made it already more exciting. Bit scary and offcourse you mess up your equalising. So you have to get up to straighten your ears again. But then your finally sitting with your knees under 3 meters of water. Bit scary. Strange and a complete diffrent world. After that and your proving of swimming skills. (10 min float and 16 laps swimming) You were done for that day and had even homework. :s That night exhausted and numb we just went to bed. Got up freakin' early. Though not extremely because we could park our van behind our practising building. So only a 2 min walk. 6.30 was waking up time so we could learn a bit. Murf became a bit sick so we had to drive in the morning to a gasstation for a reasonable toilet. Not fun for the both of us. And messed up our learning. Murfs' learning so badly that he only could learn half of it. And the final test was that afternoon. Not really nice. But we had to do with it. The whole morning we spended in the pool doin more practise. Going down, coming up. Kneeling on the to rough floor. (goodbye knees) And keep attaching and detaching everything of your gear + tank. Very boring but necessairy. The afternoon was first lunch at the nightmarket which was very jummy. And off for the shop for info and uppertunity to try masks. Which is an important part of your gear and the most personal. Next to that we had the uppertunity to by some own gear. With a backpacker package in front of our nose. With cheap flippers, glasses, snorkel and boots. Murf and I couldn't resist. Next to that Murf wanted a hooded vest for under water to keep himself warm. Because after his last dive in Egypt he was freezin. So bought one of those as well. Long live creditcard. Because gear is expensive. Even with extra discount we paid almost a $1000 on gear. Which we could use on the boat as well to test it out. After that we went back in the class room for more and more theorie. Pieces of tape and then questions. Blegh. Felt like really school again. Then the final big test. Would we make it or not? Murf still didn't get part of the theorie. But we had to and there was a retry on the boat. Within minutes we filled in the test. With loads of help of our instructor, Chris. So everybody actually made it!! With only 5 out of 50 wrong we were easy passed. After a lot of congratulations and yelling we had some bad news. Pickup time for the next morning to bring us to the boat. For us that was; 6.20 After the course we had to eat and then pack. Which we did half and hoped that we didn't forget the rest.
The next morning I wasn't completely awake. But still managed to get everything in the bag. Except for some medication Murf couldn't find. But time was running out and we had to go for our pickup point. Which we nicely made on time. We got drivven to 'our' boat and boarded. Still half asleep we did al the necessairy paperwork. And waited for the boat to leave. After 3 hours we were on the place of arrival. Couple of people were already quite seasick. I didn't feel to well either. And Murf looked absolutely horrible. But there were people looking less happy. Just before the place of arrivel we had to get geared up for our first dive. We unpacked our bought stuff and found out they forgot his hooded sweater. So the diving was expected to be a bit chilly for him. The sea was abnormal blue and you could see the reef laying underneath the surface. Which was quite cool. After getting in the water we nicely followed all our learning. We went down and entered a complete new world. After regrouping all down and sticking to your diving buddy. (never dive alone) We had a short tour. Which involved seeing and stroking a sea cucumber. Lots of fish. And coral. To new to this world we probably missed a lot anyway. After that we went easy up again and went to the surface. There we did some practise on things we should be able to do. Halfway I got disturbed by a creature I would have rather skipped. A bleubottle or stinger. Never been sting before. And not nowing what to do. I completely freaked out of the pain. After help from someone in the group I went still half crying through the rest of the exercises. Went the uppertunity came I went as fast as possible to the stairs to come aboard. The whole ship didn't contain anything but the pain would float away. Which it did. But it kinda got me good and it didn't looked very pretty on my arm. Why didn't Murf helped me out? I heard later that he was freakin' at the other side of the group, because a part of his fears from Egypt drifted up. So he had his own hard time. But with the scar in my legs and the words that this was very rare to happen this badly I went back after the lunch for my second dive. Our second dive was less spactaculair. We went down and sat bassicly on the sand between the coral. And did a lot of practising. I went up on Murfs' air as practis required. On the surface we had to navigate our way to the boat while not looking. Went fine. Just before going aboard. A stinger fatched me again.... Just as bad but right arm. Still hurts like hell. But now knowing what to do I reacted a lot calmer. And responded a lot better. After getting aboard the cook baked us a gourgious cake, which was very welcome. Then after every dive you fill in your logbook. Depts, circumstances, pressure group and your experience underwater and what you did with every dive. After the second dive the boat moved to an other part of the Milln reef. So we could do a nice dive before dinner. This time we went again through all procedures to go down. Did some practising and had a underwater tour. Saw some fish including the chocolate dip fish, bumphead parrotfish, batfish and the giant travelli. You see so much fish you can't name. But some fish are easier than others. After that everybodies energy was drained. Luckely we weren't allowed to go on the nightdive. So we spended the night looking at the most gourgious moonrise and sunset ever. (my batteries went flat, sorry) And checking all the lights from the underwater divers on top of the deck. That night had a bit of a bad night sleep because of the ocean that kept banging against the boat and the ship that kept moving. Thank god my and Murfs' seasickness already sunk a good way down. The next morning wake up was at 7.00 With a the nice thing that we were diving before breakfast. And we already moved that morning to another part of Milln reef. Nicky with her not easy getting up way, wasn't to pleased. And then I am expressing my morning mood softly. Because of my sleepyness and a foggy mask I didn't got a lot of the underwater tour that morning. I just did all the exercises half asleep. After coming up I had breakfast. So I was quite allright for the next dive. And already quite excited. Because the other group certified itself already with this dive. We didn't because of a group of bleu bottles that came in. But this dive would be the last necessairy dive with just one excersise and a big tour. We saw a turtle that dive. Who was chearfully nibbling on some coral. After an easy snorkel back to the boat. (just as gourgious at some points as diving) Then we were sertified open water divers. *applaude* That felt so good that we booked ourself in for a adventure course so we could dive to 40 meters instead of 18meters. But first we had one free dive. Including underwater navigation and completely being on your own with your buddy. When we got geared up. We were going down. No problems. Navigating was for me because Murf didn't got that skill very well. And he is used to me navigating in the car. So he that it was easier to leave it up to me... Our instructor (who did all our water practise with us) Sam waved us out with the words; My nest is flying out. Which almost made me choke in my regulator. But going down the freedom is at that point ultimate. Just your own way. Found all the recognition points and navigation right. So plenty of time to wonder around. Saw 3 stingrays. One turtle who floated stoned before our noses away. A couple of big schools of fish. Bumphead parrotfish. Who are absolutly huge. And I still love the little group of humbug damsel fish in the fingercoral. After getting legally lost in a part of the coral Murf and I found a way out by swimming underneath a 'bridge' of coral. It was coral all around at that point and loads of fish. Murf was running out of air on that point so we did a nice and slow descent on the way back while swimming back to the boat. We didn't make that a 100% but we nicely snorkelled back the last little piece. As a first dive was this absolutely a thing you cannot describe in words. Perfect is too empty. And doesn't fill it in right. But wouldn't now how else.
After dinner we started off our adventure course with a nightdive. We moved to a new reef; Flynn reef. Where we would meet Brian. A giant green turtle of a meter/1.5meter wide. And he was indeed fast asleep in his cave. Saying a he, i mean a she. But they only found that out after naming her. Didn't saw a lot exciting. But as a dive it is a completly diffrent experience. That night I slept wonderfull. The next morning waking up at six was no problem. Diving 15 min later went lovely as well. It was our deepdive. As well for our adventure course. By entering the water I got stung again by a bleubottle. But at this point I could react pretty cool and there wasn't any trouble. Pain gets less as well. We went to a depth of 25 meters and did some stupid test. (pointing out nr 1-20) To see if we would suffer from Nitrogen Narcosis. Which is not harmfull. It just lets you respond a bit in the way that you are high. Gigling and strange behaviour. Solving is just going a bit up. Just one girl got the giggles. Me and Murf were fine. Did saw 2 lionfish this dive, a turtle, school of little fish. And there were a group of Bumpheaded parrotfish fast asleep beneath the boat which looked awfully cute. All the way from the dive we had a Spinal emperor swimming along with us. Which was very curious but also very big. Funny fish. We had a safety stop at 5 meters for 3 minutes to adjust to the pressure. So you prevent decompression illness. Which is a serious illness. After that went up with no problems. After that we had breakfast!! And after moving we had our last dive. For our adventure course but also of the complety row of dives. We did a photodive which contained a lot of watching out with how to take a picture. Because conditions are quite diffrent. Saw a couple of Nemo's! Had a lot ot fun. A lot of trouble with the camera as well. So I made a lot of shitshots. And didn't even got my film filled. Murfs fotos are quite alright although he will tell you diffrent. Got stung again by bluebottles. This time Murf as well. Had a lot of fun. And said goodbye to the reef with pain in my heart. After 3 hours back to the shore we got our first drop of rain in days. Our luggage got unloaded and we got to the shop for paying and finally picking up Murf his hooded vest. Which he hugged out of the fact he finally had it. But we still had to pay for 2 adventure courses, 5 t-shirts, drinks and some other stuff didn't made that bill any cheaper. Without knowing the price and just swiping the creditcard. We got brought home. For us to the dive centre. And our van, who was loyaly staying behind the centre. We unpacked the whole lot. And Murf found his medicine back. In the pockets of his paints. So he had them with him all the time. After unpacking we had a goodbye dinner with the whole group. And went nicely to bed.
We decided to stay a couple of more days in Cairns because we enjoy ourselfs so much. Next week we will have move I think. But that you will hear the next time. For now enjoy the Nemo fotos. And all the other of his friends. We probably pick a movie for tonight and have an easy day.
Love Nicky
Ps 95 days before my return. And in a week I can celebrate my 200 days being away. Time seems to go flying. Just for the fact we have 1.5 months to get back to Sydney. Than half a month to sort out paperwork, our car and see some musea etc. Then we have a month in Bali and then I will be home again...
Because I have the most to do on the internet I decided to update this one as well :-) Meanwhile a couple of new pictures are uploaded at a thriving 1Kb/s or so (the upload window doesn't seem to go away but I have the time anyway so I don't really care), so by the time you read this some new pics should be on the gallery. Unfortunately we forgot to take our USB2SDCARD tool (to make it possible to grab images directly from Nicky's digicam instead of a burned CD and THUS being more up2date) so I only have this CD, but not to worry too much, probably tomorrow we'll return and upload a few of the pics currently on Nicky's cam. Ah well, enough to tell I think. The last update in Katherine was nothing more than a yell that we where safe for Ingrid, our cat 5 cyclone right at our doorstep. We heard that it even got the news back home, so can imagine that you where quite scared. But nothing to worry about, never where we really near to Ingrid (it's been at least 300Km away from us) and we where out of the Darwin region way before it could strike. Actually, in Darwin we decided to go down ASAP but off course WITH seeing Kakadu on our way south. So we did, went to Kakadu, the info center and spend the next 2 nights at an official camping to keep ourselves updated with the weather-status AND near someone who could evacuate or warn us if neccecairy. Fortunately none of this was neccecairy as Ingrid processes slowly along the cost and didn't seem to go on shore so we had a couple of nice days at Kakadu. To be honest, because of the wet season most of it was closed and it was not THE experience we both hoped but it was absolutely interesting and nice to see. Pretty interesting WAS that quite close to Kakadu you can go on all sorts of Jumping Crocodile trips and off course we did. Slowly moving over a seemingly quit river they hang out some food and suddenly you see something moving in the water. A saltie! (Or, for those who are not yet used to aussie-slang, a saltwater crocodile.) At that moment you realize that that water is a quite hazardous place if you manage to fall overboard of the ship, salties DO eat human. Breakfast, lunch or dinner, they don't care, human is nothing more than just food for them. And they do jump. Basically a natural behaviour for them, (BTW spacebars on the run are quite annoying, cheap internet, cheap rotten keyboards an a rotten upstream) they use it to grab prey on the side of the river above their heads. And almost the complete croc comes above water. 3 meters of massive murder machine. WOW! On those trips 2 of the passengers get the chance to feed one themselves (with meat, not theirselves off course) and Nicky got lucky this time. So with something that looks like a fishing rod and a Kg or 4 of meat hanging at it she swong the thing above the head of croc "Anna". Jumping was aparently not on her program, just a small jump came out of her but at least Nicky can say that she DID feed a salty. Nice.
Good, as I told we left Kakadu quite soon though it was quite allright as we didn't want to get involved with our lovely cyclone and drive quite straight to Katherine to do our usual stuff like developing pictures and in this case, update the internet to let you all know we're safe. I almost killed the persons in the photoshop there because they where extremely clumsy (4 different items on one order was a bit too much for them, they handled my precious negatives with their bare hands straight on the surface instead of the edged AND they shut off their digiprinter 10 min before closuretime so we couldn't check if they burned the right images on CD), anyone going there do NOT take the newsagency/photostore in the mainstreet but just go to the one in the shopping mall across Woolworths. The last one mainly being a pharmacy but with a lot more relaxed and professional personell. As the lady behind the counter told us it was not uncommon that the other shop messed up, here development street broke down and now she has actually people just waiting with their films till that thing is repaired instead of going to the other shop.
From Katherine we headed further south again, doing part of the Stuart Hwy double as there is NO other route to the east. There is, sure, but only with a couple of permits to cross aboriginal land and last but not least, a sturdy 4x4 as most of the tracks are dirtroad and have nasty river crossings, even in the dry. (Or in a kinda dry wet as we have now.) Slept 30Km south of Katherine on a rest-area as it was getting late already. (We do that a lot, they don't complain as long as you don't really camp there and they're free.) Next day was finally the day where we would say goodbye to the Stuart Hwy and hello to the Barkly. Where the Stuart goes south-north from Port Augusta to Darwin, the Barkly goes west-east from Three Ways (25Km north of Tennant Creek) to Cairns. Not completely true, it DOES start in Three Ways but it ends little south of Cairns and it doesn't do a complete cross-country like the Stuart Hwy does. Anyway, we serviced ourselves (and Vannievan) at the service station, bought a magnet to prove that we where really there and headed east on the Route 66 of Australia. Still in the middle of the outback, desert all around us and more to come. Only Darwin, Katherine and Kakadu helped us out of the dry and fly-filled red-center for a while but being around 600Km south of the ocean Three Ways is really center of the outback. Off course you see that there is NO rest area in the neigbourhood if you need it so we drove a little further, almost 800Km that day and found ourselves a rest-area just 200Km from the Queensland border. This one, as remote as it was actually stated that it was allowed to spend the night there. In the Northern Territory ALWAYS true (according to our information) but still gave a relief. Grabbed a coldie (yes I mean beer, though it was not cold unfortunately), made some pictures of the sunset in the desert and went down under to dreamland. If after driving the Stuart Hwy you think the outback doesn't get any emptier, try the Barkly. It DOES get empty, our first impression of Queensland was a very empty one. No shrubs, no trees, nothing, just endless Km's of just little bunches of grass, if any. Still no sandy-desert (we didn't and won't pass them as they are off the track for us and 4x4 only) but really impressively EMPTY. Makes you feel quite small, driving in your minivan through this landscape of desertness knowing that you might be the only human in a patch as big as The Netherlands.
Next day we headed towards The Isa (Mount Isa for non-aussies or again, those unfamiliar with the aussie-slang), after driving along the longest mainroad in the world. Officially the mainroad of Mt. Isa goes from downtown Isa to Camoweal, ~188Km east of the town, all being hiway. The first night we spent at the movies (Hitch, absolutely a must-see feelgood movie!), had a marvellous view at the town during sunset and parked just 200 meters out of town on a road-train rest area, maybe 100 meters away from a caravan park. Lucky we didn't get caught there, for sure they wouldn't like THAT. But hey, police patrolling the city lookout (probably for hiding backpackers finding it a nice place to spend the night and couples (or married men with gay- or cheating habits) finding it a nice place to be "romantic") we didn't dare to dump ourselves there... So we took the gamble just parking outside town. Because of the darkness we couldn't see where we really where, the next morning brought us this amusing surprise. Didn't get caught and have yet another backpacker story to tell this way ;-P
Mount Isa beeing a copper/silver/etc mining town had some nice surprises for us though no cheap silver as ALL of it is exported straight away in big blocks and nothing is kept in town for low-price sales to poor backpacking tourist like we. Unfortunately. But, nonetheless Mt. Isa was interesting. Went down a mineshaft to get a wonderfull presentation of underground mining throughout the years, starting somewhere around 1930 and ending in the present and future. The trip was guided by a bloke who used to work underground for the last 34 years and clearly knew his stuff, telling all sorts of annecdotes from his years underground. You know BTW that it's very confusing uploading pictures of the Stuart Hwy (NT) while you're typing a story about your trip on the Barkly Hwy (QLD)? Anyway, the mine was unfortunately not a REAL mine, though dug out like a real mine with all the original stuff. The mining companies shut down all tours in their mines and let the town basically suffocate. So they (the town) decided to dig their own mine, so that they still can profit from the tourists who want to see a real mine. And they did it good, the mine looks and feels genuine and it IS. The only difference is that it was never comercially used to get silver, copper or whatever out of the ground. There is a price to that off course, $45,- for an almost 3 hour during guidance through the mine. You get what you pay for, not only a very experience guide but also hands-on demonstrations of the equipment being used and you get dressed in a mining-overall to get the image complete. So, for sure something to do if you ever manage to find yourself in Mount Isa.
After Mount Isa we headed little east to Cloncurry, going off the Barkly at that point and taking the less-taken Matilda Hwy, driving towards Normanton. This is where you finally leave the 2-lane bitumen and end up at the famous 1-lane strips where you really have to look out for road-trains and other heavymetal, towards and from behind. These strips are too small to let 2 cars pass without one leaving the tarmac completely. (Or both leaving it with 2 weels.) Road-trains and other trucks go first in any case (they can NOT leave the tarmac unless it's in an emergency) so be carefull, watch out, and be prepared to go off the surface as soon as you see something big thundering towards your bullbar with around 100Km per hour. Mind you, we're still talking about hiways here. It makes driving hard though very interesting. There is something strange about these roads, they make you realize your really in a remote area of a country far away from home, at least me really giving the aussie-feeling. And aussies patch their roads quite funny, there ARE 2-lane strips on these roads but they suddenly pop up and dissapear. Not that they start in one city and end when the bitumen (or the money) is finished, no, they just take pieces of one-lane strips and lay patches of 2-lane on some places. Sometimes on potentially dangerous ones (which makes sense) but as often on places where it seems completely unneccecairy and out of place. And they do move funny things along these roads. First beeing pushed away by a pace-car we already felt something oversize was coming our way. Far away on the dirt we waited, and waited, and suddenly something HUGE popped up. A house! WHAT!? Yep, a complete house, straight on the back of a giant truck, followed by its shed, probably made in Mount Isa and having destination Camoweal as we saw those houses a lot in this service-station-on-steroids.
We've seen this before, a little more south in Victoria but that was on the side of the road. It was kinda surprising finding this on the middle of a one-lane road...
Further up the road we needed bread. So headed into Normanton, a tiny settlement in the gulf-region, still the largest town around. Not really THE place to be. Aparently not really used to strangers there, the first lady almost looked us out of her store. The next one was a lot friendlier (we needed lunch and the first one didn't have anything usefull) and even pointed us to a park nearby. Declined the offer and had lunch outside her shop but nonetheless a better experience than the first one. Still not a town we need to visit again. 7Km south of Normanton we headed further east on the Savannah Way, looking for a rest-area. Off course, again not to be found so our first stop was a service-stop in Croydon to re-fuel and re-oil our car and somewhere outside Croydon we parked the thing on a rest-area.
Next day we headed further east on this very touristic road. NOT really touristic was the detour we took, starting a couple of Km's east of Croydon, heading south, east and north and after ~ 150Km ending straight in Georgetown we took a track which was absolutely very scenic but... Well, read for yourself. The track started as a fairly normal dirt-track as we did before in Tassie. Heading south, no problem, turning left and heading east, even less troublesome as the road changed to one of the best dirt-tracks ever seen. One you can easily drive 80Km/h without ever being afraid to loose your car on a bump. Off course it had it's rotten pieces where suddenly you felt like a milk-shake but it was absolutely a nice drive and the scenery was pretty ok. Actually, as still a bit afraid of dirtroads after our Tassie-incident I needed this track to get confidence again. So that was good. But, the as we turned left hell started. The first river-crossing was fairly easy, Nicky out of the car walking barefoot through the river in front of our van (no salties here and very shallow so no worries) to see where the concrete was and if there where any unstable pieces. Only 20cm of whater and no strong current nor hidden nastynesses so we crossed the whole 30 meters slowly but steadily and easily. The next part of the track (around 42Kms in total) was less easy though. It started with a sign "high clearance only", as our van has a fairly high clearance (in other words, it stands high on his wheels) we weren't to afraid for that and started on the track. But it turned out a little trickier than expected with lots of potholes, bumpy tracks and worse, kinda muddy and sandy river crossings. Glad that it was a dry wet instead of a wet (otherwise we couldn't do the track at all, meaning driving 100Km straight back) we managed the first few crossings with a lot of hassle, almost getting stuck a couple of times but by means of luck and probably some decent driving capabilities of yours truly we got through the first 20Km. And then horror happened, a little too muddy, a little to deep and a mistake in judging the right track our van got stuck. Tried to rock it back and take the other track but unfortunately by that time the rear wheels (our driving wheels) got digged into the mud too deep to get out on ourselves. Puzzled we stopped the engine and looked up to see how the hell we would get out of there. This track was rarely used, maybe 1 or 2 cars a day so we had what you call a little problem. Luck was with us, looking up the hill a kinda old and crappy looking 4x4 showed up! Walked towards the vehicle and tried to speak to the person in it. Another challenge, the guy in the vehicle seemed older than his pre-WWII truck, was even thinner than I and could barely speak. It took a while before I realized that the blode did UNDERSTAND what I needed but we managed. And off course he only had a really thin rope with in his car, by far not enough to pull out our 1750Kg minivan. By this time Nicky got her brains together when I yelled "rope" from the hill, realized that I had brought a climbing rope for common purposes (she cursed me for that when I arrived here, being utterly useless in her eyes) and that we might try that one. Well, climbing rope is strong but it is NOT designed for pulling out vehicles. Having nothing better we attached the rope to our car and to the 4x4 and just prayed. Probably all three of us. The poor 4x4 had some trouble finding grip on the steep hillslope, the rope squeeked, but slowly and steadily our van started to move! The rope held, the 4x4 was strong enough and after a couple of minutes we where up the hill. Cut the rope (by no means you can untie that nut), thanked our saviour extensively and went both our own ways. He where we came from and vice versa with still 20Km to go before we would reach the civilized roads again. To be shorted, the rest of the road was as nasty as the first 20Kms, stretching the capabilities of our van and our hearts to the maximum. We definetely missed a couple of heartbeats on that track as the only proper technique of doing those crossings seems to be just to get up the hill, steer into the right direction, hitting the gas and just plunge down with 30-40Km/h, using the weight and momentum of the car to get through the dirt and up the hill again instead of getting stuck, relying on the trackion of your rear-wheels which isn't there. (It's MUD...) That's SCARY. You don't have any control in the down-section and just have to pray that you don't hit any rocks damaging your car, blowing a tyre or two, get stuck in the mud instead of up the hill or simply loosing the control of your car completely and ending up somewhere off the track or worse, on your side. After this any other type of road seems easy as cutting through butter with a hot knife and any other surface seems ironed. Being scary like hell it WAS fun though, we made it to the bitumen again after uncountable nasty downs and where pretty proud of ourselves that we did this track with getting stuck just once. The next town (Georgetown) we first got petrol, got info about the lava-tubes a bit further on the road and celebrated our survival with a roo-burger (the lady in the general store asked if we where interested in one instead of the meatpie and sausageroll we ordered) and a pause on their bences. The first lady told us that it WAS a 4x4 track and not even made tidy because they normally do that before the dry starts, the second lady welcomed us very warm. So, another tip for if you ever get to this part of Australia, do NOT do that dirt-track unless you have a very sturdy 4x4 and some experience but DO stop in Georgetown and get a rooburger at the general store. (And say hello to the lady and her husband from us.)
After our adventure we needed a piecefull place to spend the night so went off to the Lava-Tubes a bit further to the east. Well, the campside was pretty doable and fairly cheap ($12,-) but the park was IMO a bit too commercial. You're only allowed to get into the tubes by a guided tour (as they say because it's too dangerous, as I believe because it's private property and they make nice profit out of tourists that way, Kakadu is with it's salties much more dangerous and you CAN go in there for free), the walks are fairly limited and the tour... Ah, it's a nice place to be and if you're a geologist it might be very interesting but our half-day tour was a bit dull. The guide seemed like a school-teacher (one of those dusty ones) and the lava tubes are simply not THAT spectaculair. So IMO you won't really miss a thing if you skip it and if you do want to visit it, stick to the 2 hour tour, do a walk up to the rim of a crater (nice view, again not REALLY specteculair) and after that visit the waterfalls in the west. We planned to spend 2 nights there, ended up with one and headed of to Cairns. Simply because the park was too commercial and not interested enough to spend longer than a day. Spend the night little south of Cairns in a village/suburb where I did forget the name. We planned halfway but unfortunately there are no rest-areas, so we had to drive through the dark for 2 hours (nasty as it was a long and very winding road, straight through the Great Dividing Range), and after a fuel stop and asking there we ended up on a rest-area being the only one in the neigbourhood. It said "no camping" but having the attendant of the fuelstation saying that it was allright for just a stayover we learned that those signs mean that you can not CAMP but can spend the night there. (Other backpackers even did put their tents down.)
Next day (yesterday) we then finally arrived in Cairns, being the backpacker capital of the far north. Suddenly we realized that we forgot a whole month and instead of having a month and 10 days to go back to Sydney we have 2 months and 10 days. *OOPS!* So we decided to relax here a little, went shopping yesterday, booked ourselves into a camping 15Km north of town for 3 days (both not being in the mood to explore the nightlife we prefer the ease of a more quit campsite) and booked our diving trip. That's correct, we're going to explore the Great Barrier Reef. Even better, we booked our 5-day PADI Open Water course, starting thursday and giving us not only an Open Water certificate at the end but also 3 days liveaboard. That means that the whole training is split in 2, 2 days theory in a classroom combined with practical training in a pool and 3 days on a boat on the reef itself. Luxury, the boat has hotel-like facilities and for the first time we get a complete cabin for ourselves. As the reef is 60Km outside the shore it takes a while to get there, therefore almost all companies offer this livaboard option. It simply gives you more time on the reef. Not only for diving (our course contains 4 training and 5 fun-dives, including 1 or 2 night-dives) but also for snorkeling and just relaxing aboard a multi-million-dollar dive vessel. Not really cheap (my creditcard was ~ $1300,- lighter when paid for the 2 of us) but probably definetely worth it. For me it's something I want to do for the last 3 years (I've done an instructor-guided dive in the red-sea in feb 2002 as part of my honeymoon with my previous girlfriend and got addicted but never took the big step.), Nicky just gives it a go and doesn't want to do things half. So that's for the near future. Tomorrow and wednesday we'll spend our days basically shopping and probably lying on the local beaches. Thursday till monday we're busy with our training and afterwards we'll see what we'll do with the rest of our 2 remaining months. Probably going up north, into the peninsula and then going very slowly down, back to Sydney.
The weather is still tropical but not too extreme, around 32 degrees in the shade. That's far less than what we had in Darwin and the outback. It must be as this temperature feels comfortable and even a bit chilly to me.
Good, that seems to be it for now. Nicky is going out shopping and looking if she can find a shop where they have male-skirts (yes I want to wear a skirt, maybe a scottish, maybe another more dark style), I need to check my email now but offered to write this story. Is a bit bigger than expected so it took me, erhm, 3 hours I think.
Tried to find an IPod or an Iriver (what do they cost back home? The 60Gb Ipod Photo is here just $699,-) but failed as also on this part of the world they go like hot pies across the counter... Even HarveyNorman couldn't help me out so I try again in Brisbane or Sydney. I DID found my woolen liner for my coat though (size 5XL), and the hood. Not the hat but we have still 2 months for that.
Ok, next time probably some diving stories. For now, up to my emails and other neccecities...
BTW the uploading of the new piccies (60 in total) is finished, so have fun!
Grtz,
Murf (and Nicky)
Hi there, just a small line to let you know that despite of having Ingrid (a cat 5 tropical cyclone) in the neigbourhood we're save. Ingrid seems to be heading for Darwin now, after 2 days spending in Kakadu N.P. we're back on the Stuart Hiway, Katherine to be preciesly. That means we're way inland again, even heading more south tonight towards Tennant Creek (we hope to make that tomorrow) and we're completely out of Ingrid's fury. So, no worries for you all up there. Sleep tight... :-) The rest of our Kakadu experience we'll update somewhere else, might be Cairns but hopefully a bit earlier.
BTW one funny thing, just 20Km outside of Darwin, heading towards the entry of Kakadu our car suddenly stopped, smelled and didn't want to start again... (Very nice at a traffic light with a Road Train straight behind you.) Called the local ANWB and when the bloke looked at it the thing started and since then it worked as never before. Cool!
CYA!
Murf and Nicky
Finally safe arrived at the very end of the Stuart Hiway, Darwin. We've made it, crossed the outback, seen Port Augusta, Darwin and everything in between. (Off course we skipped the dull parts...) Next stop will be Kakadu N.P., just a few Km's away from here but as internet is cheap in Darwin we decided to update you "Right here, Right now." (Remember Fat Boy Slim?) Anyway, today we almost drained my creditcard, drowned is maybe a better expression. After looking for a decent coat (I got bored of my other one and don't have a warm coat for New Zealand) and a proper didgeridoo (hard to find, even in the area where along the hiway you see 2 meter high termite mounds for hours and hours) and after our crying story about our vannievan today we got a bit lucky, finally. We made a decision about the car, we keep it. Selling it only gives us $1000,- back on schrap-metal and a decent 4x4 is at least $9000,-, oil is much cheaper than that ($10,- for 5 liters) and the car SHOULD make it all the way back to Sydney so we bought 20 liters of cheap-ass oil (thank you Woolies!) on which we should be able to make it all the way to Cairns. We cuddled our car, ripped of the ads of Travellers Autobarn and some Koala Experience stickers they put on, and hit the road. Maybe the higher spirits liked our caring decision to stick with our car, for some odd reason we where also succesfull in 2 other things. I'm looking for a decent coat since we left Tassie and saw my first almost-to-the-ground oil-coated Driza-Bone horseriding coat. That must be THE coat for me, but unfortunately the XXL was a tad to small to my taste. I've found my 5XL today at a horseriding/outdoor shop here. Bit strange, the climate is far too hot for these coats (I got almost boiled inside it, though they had airco inside there.), but hey. The only thing missing, a floppy hat (have to go back to Katherine for that) and the hood. (Enoclue where I can find that one, but we'll cross the factory on our way to Sydney so I should be succesfull somewhere.) $225,- poorer but a LOT happier I left the store. (Erhm, WE left the store, with my coat in a nice paper bag.) Oh, should I remind you on the fact that trying on a heavy coat when your shoulders are burned is NOT a nice feeling? ;-) Next on our quest was THE aussie instrument, a true playable digeridoo and VOILA, also that succeeded. Getting into a didge-shop for the second time we found an instrument that is around 150cm long, 15cm thick and without any abo paintings on it but with a sound we both totally got in love with. Looking for a design you like is hard (and this one we both liked, a bulge on the side and the lovely wood shining through it's transparent cover), finding the sound you like is even harder. Tried around 20 didges there, all in different designs, tones, sounds whatsoever. It's tone is a very deep and droning D, playing it makes your whole body resonate. Must give a true natural high. Off course now is the time to learn how to play it properly... Topping it up with a learn-the-didge CD, a music cd from a didge prof with a very heavy ongoing, modern beat (Boneman) and a wooden bowl we left the store with $496,- less on my credit-card. KATJING! Ah well, we now have what we searched for so long...
Yesterday wasn't a totally boring day either, travelling from Katherin (still a very lovely city just 315Km south of Darwin) up north we went swimming in our first rockpool (with waterfall). The water was a bit cool for the time of year (24 degrees celcius) but it was absolutely lovely. And, if I may give a tip to all people-in-love out there, go kissing under a waterfall... It's marvellous ;-P But DON'T forget your sunscreen (15 or higher please), as I did. Seriously, swimming in that rockpool with the catfish, garfish, archerfish and lots of other species swimming around your feet was lovely. After weeks of hot weather and lots of sweating this was the refreshment we where both waiting for. The night we spend just 80Km south of Darwin on a $5,- paid campsite at a service station.
Darwin is not too interesting to us but with just 100.000 inhabitants a LOT less scary than Sydney or Melbourne. (FYI Sydney is with 4.2 million inhabitants 42 times as big as this city.) And off course we found our stuffies and souvenirs here (finally got a decent aussie T-shirt as well, a little less obvious with a batik/abo print on it) so we're pretty happy being here. But, after reading and answering our email we'll leave town and head to Kakadu and then back to the Stuart Hiway, turning left just a few Km away from Tennant Creek, direction Cairns.
And that's basically it for now. Probably forgot a lot what I really wanted to tell but well, that's for later. First feed some salties ;-P
Hi everyone, while Nicky updates our adventures from Adelaide till Port Augusta (and gets furious about a mail from Travellers Autobarn where you will hear more of later on) it's my turn to do the track from Port Augusta till Katherine, just around 315Km south of Darwin. In km's quite a long track, in time not too much as we did it in little more than a week. We moved out of Adelaide on feb 28th (monday), time now is tuesday 8th of March. To change my habits I'll start from the beginning instead of the end so I'll start when we left Adelaide. We decided first to drive around in the area for a while to see the world's biggest rocking horse and then go up north to Port Augusta. (PLING! Toss in another $2 coin for another 15 minutes of internet, time flies here...) Climbed the horse off course and then headed north. That is, that was the plan but we got horribly lost in Adelaide, stuck in the rush traffic and missed the hiway up north so it took us another 1,5 hours to get out of town. That day we stopped a few km's south of Port Augusta on a free spot, so that we could go to the port (in SA also called Port Augutter because of the sewage-like smell when you enter the city) quite early to do our neccessities. We had to find a doctor because Nicky seemed to have a bladder infection for already a month or so and meanwhile we wanted to develop some pictures and do some groceries. So we did, went to the medical center, got some medication, went to Woolies, the photoshop, the pharmacy and at the end to the Medicare building to get some of the money spent on the doctor back. Flawlessly, by the end of the morning we could leave town again and head up north into the Outback. The last petrol station in town was immediatly the last in 200Km or so so we decided to fill up our tank AND the reserve 20 liter bottle we bought specially for these remote area's. Up north we planned to visit Coober Pedy that day but that was a bit too far so we decided to stop a few Km's before that and dump our vannievan aside the road in a rest-area as usual. Next day finally to Coober Pedy, I expeted quite a lot of this town as it is THE opal capital of Australia and most of the town is underground. It turned out to be a bit of a dissapointment. The town was quite nice but really the only thing they have is opal and you get crazy about the many opal shops around. Nicky got a set of nice opal triplets as earrings (basically the cheapest you can get, a triplet is nothing more than a black base, a thin slice of white opal on top, then a very thin slice of the precious and expensive blue opal, topped with a transparent cover of another material) and that was about it. Took a few pictures of the opal fiels outside town and we left, not staying there for the planned 2 days but leaving it to just 2 hours. Still we lost some time there so we stopped a few Km's before Marla that day. Next day was a BIG trip, all the way from Marla to Uluru - Kata Tjuta National Park, indeed the famous and very sacred Ayer's Rock and The Olga's. We arrived somewhere in the afternoon and as expected NO free camping anywhere in the neighbourhood there so we where forced to take an expensive payd campsite of $26 a night for our minivan off course exclusive the park's entrance of $25 per person (for 3 days). But hey, you're not seeing those mountains every day so even as backpackers on a budget you'll pay for it. Did the sunset that night but unfortunately it was too cloudy to make it really spectecular. It even rained little that night, the second time that day, in the middle of the bloody DESERT... Next day again Uluru but now driving the way round the mountain to see it completely, getting out of the car and taking some pictures. Some people believe you're not allowed to take pictures at all, that's not trough. The trough is that you're not allowed to take pictures of certain places as they are sacres sites. The whole mountain is sacred, therefore the Aboriginals don't like it if you climb the rock (which we didn't, both out of respect for the people and the fact that the walk was closed due to extreme temperatures) but they seem to have accepted that western people like to take pictures of what they see. Not that they get really poor out of sacrificing some of their sacred sites, they get $100.000,- a year AND 25% of the park admission fees. It's really a big touristic thing there. Bit sad, too busy, too touristic, too much for us. Because the main population goes to Uluru we took the road to Kata Tjuta (The Olga's) just 50Km further in the park. Less touristic and absolutely different. Where Uluru is the largest Monolith in the world, this rock contains several rocks, sticking out of the ground like giant heads. Pretty cool to see and my panoramic photo of both Uluru and Kata Tjuta worked out quite allright. (From one lookout around halfway you can seem them both if you just turn your head.) Funny thing is that actually the weather changed and it got cloudy. Nonetheless the temperatures where extreme, it must have been around 40 degrees or more. Doable because of the dry desert climate but incredible how much water you suddenly drink. Early back to the park that day to relax a little and to have some sleep for the next morning where we would see the sunrise at Uluru. We did, from the sunset area to see the sun come up behind the mountain instead of behind us. Failed a bit, the sun came up next to the mountain but hey, it was a good attempt and maybe less specteculair, probably something many tourists don't see as they all go for the specteculair sunset and sunrises. And then, back to the Stuart Hiway (Uluri is 250Km straight west driving from the main hiway), very early in the morning to go back north again and visit Alice Springs and the Flying Doctors. RIGHT... We made it to Alice, got scared (the infocenter people where unfriendly, some idiot tried to drive into my bullbar when I got out of the way of a busdriver unloading the side of his bus, we met an english speaking Dutch lady at the photoshop who didn't recognize we where Dutch, and the town got an overall unfriendlyness over it), and ran away. Skipping the Flying Doctors and everything else which might be there to see we did what we had to to (getting milk and developing our pictures) and got back onto the hiway as soon as possible. We crossed the official border between the desert and the tropics somewhere around 50Km north of Alice though it takes a long time before you really see the transition. Couple of Km's before Aileron we dumped our car aside to sleep, knowing the next day would be a VERY long one as we wanted to go to Catherine because the car started using LOTS of oil again and we didn't trust this at all anymore. In fact, it uses lots of oil since we bought it but the outback seemed to make it just a little worse, even 25W60 didn't help at all and now we're burning and leaking around 1 liter every 200Km's though we don't know exactly as everytime we check (around every 400Km's) the tank is simply below the low-level. Weirdo's walking around here, they actually have a UFO capital and off course we had to cross it. Nothing more then a service station and some campground they told that they where UFO sightings here. Not really surprising if you keep in mind that there are 3 RAAF bases in that neigbourhood. But hey, it got us a nice couple of fridge magnets and them another $7 of income. A little north there WAS a nice attraction, the Devils Marbles. Large round marbles of solid granite. Even a spliced one, and yes pictures of that will come online as soon as we have burned the lot on a cd again. (So another month waiting for you.) Had our time and small walk there and up onto the hiway again as Katherine was still a long way to go. But then, just little north of that, KABOOM!, and an slightly out-of-control minivan. You guessed it right, rear tyre blown to shreds. Nearest civilisation: ~100Km. Environment: Middle of the desert. Temperature: Too bloody hot. Nothing left to do than get under the car, get the spare tyre out and praying that our jack and other tools worked as they should and that my first tyre-change ever would be a good one. Ah, it's Murfies law to blow a tyre in the middle of the outback (not really, every backpacker will blow a tyre once) but its Murfies will to do it properly. Had a hard time getting the spare one from the back and getting the blown one off but after that it went smoothly and a good hour later we had a shredded tyre horizontally under the back and a perfectly working one vertically under the car and after some neccecairy hand and face washing (I was BLACK, even darker than the natives here...) we where on the road again. Drove untill sunset and then stopped at the nearest parking space. Turned out to be a payd one at a service station (Dunmarra) but getting a shower and a quiet night of sleep for just $10,- is not really bad and I absolutely needed that shower. That day was one of the longest ever, we drove 800Km's and from 8 am to little past 7 pm with just some rests in between but actually I wasn't too tired at the end and we did almost make it to Katherine which was just 350Km away or so. The night turned out to be tropical, way north of the Carpricorn we where really getting into the tropics now. You could see that as well. Where the desert is mainly red sand with shrubs, bushes and sometimes a field with small trees (no, no Sahara here, not where we went, this is simply another type of desert) the tropics contains large trees and precious flowers. It's kinda funny to travel from the hot and dry desert to the almost as hot but very humid tropics in just one day. The transision sets in quite slowly and then goes fast and suddenly you see creeks with water in it instead of just dry rivers. After a very hot and uncomfortable night (sweaty!) we headed more north to Catherine, where we are right now. We arrived yesterday, went to the visitor information centre to get some info about the town, Kakadu and a park in the neigbourhood and then headed off to a Ford dealer to check out our car, AGAIN. Left it there, walked to town (30 minutes, finally giving our butts some excercize) to see if I could find my Driza-Bone coat size 3XL or 4XL (off course not, probably Darwin or Cairns, or the factory in Bundaberg on the eastcoast), got a decent lunch (Subway, always very healthy) and went back to the dealer at 5pm. "We got bad news, bad news or bad news." "Well, then give me the bad news please..." By that time I already knew what he would say, the unavoidable "Sorry, we can not do ANY about this, the only solution is a new engine, refit this engine or simply sell the car and get one which is more than a piece of schrap metal." Well, he didn't call our car a piece of schrap metal but agreed with me when I uttered "So our car is basically not much more than a piece of schrap with weels?" Sad, very very sad and though we suspected this already since Tassie it's still quite hard to hear. $5000,- of almost worthless metal. *AUTCH!* And there are not really many options. Refitting the engine is with at least a cost of $3000 a bit too expensive and as the guy has serious doubts about the age of the car (it says ~166.000Km but he doesn't believe that that's anywhere NEAR the truth as the engine is way to worn-out for that) it might not be the wisest idea anyhow. So what's left is selling the car to some dork and getting a decent one, then probably buying or renting a 4x4 so that we have a decent excuse to get rid of this one on one hand and making the second half or our trip more interesting for us by taking offroad tracks OR just dealing with is, buying lots of cheap-ass oil, refilling around 4 liters every day and praying that the entire engine won't blow up somewhere in the middle of knowhere. That means that we have to stay on the main tracks and that's bit of a pity as we like to go into the forest. But with a car in this condition it's a bit too risky. Today we got email back from where we bought the car, Travellers Autobarn, mentioning that it's basically our own fault and that all they can do is giving us a $500,- cheque to spend at TAB. Hell NO! Yes the temperature was very high when we got it but they didn't tell us what the temperature should be (some cars run hot, some run cool and we got it into the mountains in the hottest days of the year so off course it runs hotter than normal), and yes it leaked water and oil but we refilled it everytime before it got empty. That is imo THE procedure so save it. As soon as we got back in Sydney we brought it back with all the major and minor issues found on the car for them to solve. Exactly as they told us. "Just take it to the Blue Mountains for a couple of days, then return and we'll fix whatever is wrong with it." We did and now this. Sad. No refund of the towing cost, no refund on the costs we had to make in Burnie ($600,-), no nothing and left with a piece of metal worth $2000,- only if we bring it back to TAB in Cairns or Sydney. If the car makes that and if they don't start nagging about the ditch in the left-rear. And unfurtunately that's where today's story ends. We'll go to the Ford dealer today to pick up some paper declaring his doubts about the age of the car and to get some info about our alternative (loosing the car and renting or buying a sturdy 4x4) and then go to the nature reserve 30Km east from this lovely town. Hopefully getting back some piece in our minds. Bit of a sad and isn't it? Ah, we'll live. It's just that this is one of the not-so-nice aspects of travelling around. But we keep our heads up, find an alternative, probably invest some more money (in car or in liters and liters of oil) and just have fun. We're just half-way our trip and have a LONG way to go before we're back in Cairns and nothin' is gonna stop us in that. You bet!
Good, the plans for the next part are clear. Head to Darwin, then to Kakadu National Park, maybe up north to Gurig NP (4x4 only) and then to Cairns to see the Great Barrier Reef. As with the Outback it's very unclear when we'll have internet. Now it took us more than a week, the next one probably the same. Only past Cairns we're quite sure about our connections as that track is THE backpacker track so there are plenty of opportunities there. (And hopefully some cheaper than $8 per hour as it is here.) That's it for now, I'm going to work on my email. People who got cards from us, please let us know if you liked them :-) We're sending out our own photo's now instead of postcards to give it a personal touch and to give an impression of what WE saw here, not some photographer. And again, please leave us your postal address. Sometimes we just like to send out cards and have more card then addresses...
TTYL!
Murf
Okay last update is from a while ago. See what I can do about that... We ended up last time in Adelaide. Where not a lot happened bassicly. Just visited some more musea etc. Ow wait that is a lie. Michael took us to Symphonie under the stars. Which was just what is says a symphony out in the open air. And with a big firework finale. Was very cool. Next to that the last sunday we were there we got a trip through the Barossa valley. Lost and lots of wines. So did a bit of tasting and visited some other strange stuff. (hotel in traincarriges) The last weekend Mathew, Michaels' son and my cousin, made it to spend at Michaels place. Which was very cool. So I finally have seen all my family over here. After that we went up on monday to Port Augusta. Packing Monday morning. Because of some mistakes on the road we ended first up below Adelaide. While we had to head up straight north. But after finally the good way. We drove straight up. (sorry Michael we didn't do the other penninsula) We stayed over just a bit before Port Augusta. We did last shopping the next morning and some regulair stuff. And I had to visit a doctor for some maintanance (wrong spelling) on myself. Got some pills and should be fine. And the next piece from Port Augusta to Katherine is been typed by Murf right now. So that is easy for me.
Love NIcky