I’ve just checked into the Adelaide YHA for the 4th
and FINAL time. Woo hoo! It’s not that I dislike Adelaide, it’s a nice town and
all, but I’m a bit tired of it. Four visits is more than enough.
I left you all hanging as I was about to depart Darwin, headed
for Kakadu and Litchfield national parks. I did a 3-day 4WD safari trip that
started and finished in Darwin. I was picked up nice and early at my
accommodation and managed to snag the front seat of the truck, the best seat in
the house. Best views and lots of room for all of my crap. The first stop on
the trip was Litchfield National Park, which although is not quite as famous as
Kakadu, it is equally as lovely. The Litchfield itinerary was a short one,
which I found a bit disappointing, but those are the breaks when you sightsee
with tours instead of on your own. No control over where you go or how long you
stay. Anyway, we made 3 stops in Litchfield. The first one was to check out
termite mounds. I started seeing termite mounds during my Perth to Broome trip,
and they’re pretty interesting things. The ones in Litchfield are super
gigantic though. Here I am standing in front of one, and it goes up even higher
than where the picture cuts off (unfortunately the lady I asked to take a photo
for me wasn’t a very good photographer…)
Millions of little termites live in there, and the mound is
made up of termite poo and spit. It’s pretty hard stuff though – back in the
day, the early settlers used to use crushed mounds as cement. The guide knew a
lot about the little buggers, and even showed us how the workers do their
thing. He poked a small hole in the mound, and then about a minute later, mobs
of worker termites emerged to patch up the hole. By the time we were done
looking at the mound, the hole was patched.
After gawking at the termites, we went swimming in two
spots. One was a pool with a waterfall, and the other was sort of a spa-esque
series of rock pools. Some of the pools were amazingly deep, but I stayed
sitting with just my feet dangling into one, with the rushing water giving me a
nice back massage. We were at each pool for about an hour, and then that was
all for Litchfield. A nice visit, but a bit short!
After lunch we drove to Coroborree Billabong for a little
wildlife boat cruise. We stopped at a roadhouse along the way that sort of
doubled as a mini-zoo. That’s where I met this fellow:
His name is Brutus, and I didn’t use much zoom in taking
that picture. Just stuck it through the fence of his enclosure. At one point he
started opening his mouth up and then just left it there, which was a bit
freaky, but I read later that they do that to regulate their body temperature,
not because they want to make sure that you are aware just how big and sharp their teeth are.
The cruise on the billabong was pretty. We saw lots of
native birds, but only a few saltwater crocs. Unfortunately it was a windy day,
and crocs don’t like wind. It bothers their eyes, so they tend to spend most of
their time submerged. We did spot one though, sunning himself just at the water’s
edge. We drove the boat right up to him and he didn’t seem to mind.
You can tell by the size of the ladder in the photo that
this saltie is just a little guy, but he’s still big enough to kill a grown
human. He’d just grab you and drag you under and drown you. Apparently they
don’t always eat you right away. Sometimes they’ll make a kill if the
opportunity is present, even if they aren’t hungry. They’ll just put you into
storage in their underwater meat locker until they are ready to have their
meal. Comforting. Here’s a second saltie that we spotted towards the end of the
boat ride. I like this photo. It’s creepy.
The second day was spent at Kakadu National Park. We lucked
out, in that one of the top attractions of the park, Twin Falls, had just
opened. It’s closed every wet season, and they had just finished re-installing
the floating bridge and dropping the transfer boats back into the gorge.
Getting to Twin Falls from the main road was an adventure unto itself. I somehow
got booted from my front seat (a bunch of the German speakers decided to put
someone else in it, and since I don’t speak German I couldn’t really argue) and
had to sit in the very back, which is the bumpiest part of the bus. The 4WD
path to Twin Falls was about 12 miles long, but it took like 40 minutes to
drive. Never in my life had I experienced anything like that. It wasn’t even a
road really, it was a track. It was a 2-way track, although the width of the
whole thing was just enough to fit the truck we were in. Passing involved one
of the two vehicles going by to pull off into the bush while the other one went
by. We bounced and flew out of our seats, and the bush on either side of the
track smashed into the truck the entire way. I actually got a bit of light
motion sickness from it. Ever been on the Indiana Jones ride at Disneyland, or
the Spiderman ride at Islands of Adventure? The cars there are obviously on
tracks and the jerk back and forth along the tracks, while you get thrown from
side to side. The ride to Twin Falls was kind of like that, only we weren’t on
a theme park ride, we were just relying on the driving skills of the tour
guide, who had introduced himself to us as Viking. I really enjoyed the first
half of the ride, but by the end I was super ready for it to be over. Anyway,
here’s a photo of Twin Falls and the gorge that we took a boat ride through to
get to the walking track.
It was a beautiful water hole – but no swimming allowed.
Brutus has wild cousins who live in the water, and they will not hesitate to
store you in their underwater meat locker should you want to go for a quick dip
in the gorge…
After Twin Falls we drove back along the path we came
through and turned off to visit Jim Jim Falls, another one of Kakadu’s top
attractions. It was a great hike in to the water hole; less than a half mile to
get to the falls, but the track was challenging and involved climbing over
giant boulders in random spots, so the hike in took about an hour. We were able
to swim here, although I did not in the end because I was freezing just sitting
on the rocks by the water. Why is nearby Twin Falls infested with saltwater
crocodiles, but Jim Jim allows swimming? Check out the sign:
Jim Jim is a croc management zone. Basically at the end of
every wet season, the park rangers go in and remove any salties who are in the
area. Once the high waters of the wet season are gone, it’s not as easy for
them to get into the Jim Jim area. There are traps set during the dry (high
tourist) season just in case anyone comes moseying in, but as the sign warns,
salties are smart. There’s always a chance that someone might sneak into the
area undetected… J
One of the highlights of the 3rd day of the trip
was visiting the Ubirr area of Kakadu, which is where may examples of
Aboriginal artwork can be found. Some of these rock paintings are thousands of
years old. I took a bunch of photos, but here’s just one example:
It’s a depiction of a thylacine, also known as a Tasmanian
tiger. Extinct nowadays in both Tasmania and mainland Australia, the animal
disappeared from Tassie only within the last hundred years. On the continent,
however, thylacines started to die out with the introduction of the dingo from
Asia, about 4,000 years ago. That means that this picture on the cave wall is
at least 4,000 years old. Kinda cool, eh? There are thousands of rock art
sights such as Ubirr, but only a precious few are accessible to the public. The
rest are either too remote, or are in areas of the park that only the
traditional Aboriginal owners are permitted to access.
The end of the Ubirr rock walk was a lookout point, from
which you can see 5 different eco-systems at work in Kakadu. Here’s a photo
from the top, which gives you an idea as to how mesmerizing the park is.
The last stop on the 3-day tour was back in Darwin, where
our guide decided that he liked us enough to take us to his favorite sunset
spot in town. I’m personally not a fan of gawking at sunrises and sunsets. I
don’t find them all that exciting. Never in my life have I purposely watched
one and been awed by it. The sun goes up and down every day. Every. Day. Yeah,
sometimes the colors are pretty, but I just don’t get it. Maybe that means I
have no soul or something, but you can throw watching sunsets in along with
beer, tomatoes, and coffee as things that the rest of the world adores and I
could very easily live without. However, that being said, I was highly amused
by the location that the guide took us to. It was a beach. A killer beach!
Behold a warning sign, cautioning potential swimmers against
not one, but TWO of Australia’s deadliest creatures! The box jellyfish actually
holds the crown as being Australia’s most deadliest, and that’s a big honor to
hold when you are competing with the likes of saltwater crocs, spiders, snakes,
sharks, etc… The box jellyfish
makes the waters of Darwin absolutely un-swimmable for half the year, and you’d
have to pray for a lot of luck to survive for the other half. As the rest of
the group was gawking at the sunset, I was chatting with the guide about the
box jellyfish. He said that it’s not actually the poison in the sting that
kills you. Apparently the pain from the sting is just SO intense that 98% of
people’s bodies can’t handle it, and the body just shuts down and you die,
after a few moments of unimaginable excruciating pain. So yeah. Don’t go
swimming around Darwin. If you manage to miss the crocs, then the jellyfish
tentacles will finish you off…
I spent the night in Darwin at a hostel that was included
with my tour package. I was beyond leery of staying at a hostel in a party town
whose name was “Youth Shack,” but despite the horrible crowd and skanky bar
downstairs, I thankfully ended up with nice roommates who all went to sleep
before I did. However, I did not sleep at all that night. While hot coffee
makes me gag, Australian “iced coffee” (coffee flavored milk) is super yummy. I
knocked one back 2 hours before bed to give me energy while I re-packed my bag,
and then stared at the paint peeling on the ceiling all night long, wondering
why I couldn’t fall asleep. My alarm was set for 4:45 am, and I was up at 4,
downstairs reading travel brochures in the dark lobby by 4:55 for my 5:30 am
bus. Paul’s Iced Coffee is delicious, but do not drink it before bed.
The next leg of travel was a 3-day trip down the Stuart
Highway to Alice Springs. It’s considered more of a connector bus than an
actual tour, as it basically just runs down the highway to Alice while stopping
at anything interesting along the way. It was a big bus, but only 7 people plus
the driver. That meant plenty of room for my disgusting amount of stuff, plus I
was able to curl up on 2 seats and sleep. The scenery going down through the middle
of Australia wasn’t very exciting, but we did stop at a few interesting spots
along the way. Spent an afternoon at Katherine Gorge, a morning at a natural
hot spring, and visited the famous Devil’s Marbles. Here I am posing at a lookout over Katherine Gorge:
I thought it was nice, but after all the amazing gorges I’d
seen in Western Australia, Katherine didn’t quite have the “wow” factor.
This one is me posing in front of some of the so-called
“marbles”:
And here I am after shimmying up in between one that cracked
open:
The tour finished up in Alice Springs, familiar territory
for me. I saw some familiar faces again, which was very nice. After travelling
for near 2 months and being constantly surrounded by strangers, it was nice to
go back to people who knew me as more than the weird chick who spend every
campfire with her head buried in her journal. It was also nice to not be a
backpacker for a bit. The night that I got to Alice we ordered pizza for
delivery. The next morning I went to the bank and the post office and the
supermarket. Had a real dinner at a pub that night instead of instant noodles.
Went to the movies the next day and shoved popcorn in my face, half of which
probably ended up on the floor. Normal stuff! Travelling is wonderful and all,
but sometimes it’s nice to just go to the bank.
After 2 free days in Alice, I had a 3-day “Red Center” tour,
which went to King’s Canyon, Uluru and Kata Tjuta. Nearly all the tourists that
passed through Glen Helen left the next morning to drive to King’s Canyon,
which would be followed the day after by a drive to Uluru, so I was pretty
pumped to actually SEE these places for myself. The tour bus was packed to
capacity, but much to my pleasant surprise there was a familiar face onboard,
someone I’d come across in my earlier travels. Small world!
Day 1 was July 1st, which I did not have last year. If you recall the title of my very first blog, it was "Qantas Ate My Friday." That Friday was July 1, 2011. My first July 1st in 2 years! I spent it on the long drive to King’s Canyon, followed by the
3-hour canyon rim walk upon our arrival. The walk was really stunning, one of
my favorites that I’ve done thus far in Australia. It also helped that our
guide was really good. New to the guiding world, but he’s going to be a great
one down the road. Here’s one of the photos I took, although the pictures don’t
really do it justice:
King’s Canyon was really unique and pretty. I’m SO glad that
I did the walk in the winter though. The initial ascent to the top of the
canyon is nick-named heart attack hill, because more than one tourist has had a
myocardial infarction on the walk up. The walk was perfect because it was nice
and cool. I even kept my hoodie on for most of it. If I had to do that in 100+
degree heat, I think I would have hated King’s Canyon with every fiber of my
being. Camping accommodation for the night was in swags. These swags were nice
and big, you could actually squeeze in two people if you wanted. All the other
swags I’ve slept in during my travels have been short and narrow. There was a
guy on my Kimberley tour who didn’t even fit in the thing, it was so small.
The next day - my one year anniversary in Australia, July 2nd - was driving to Uluru, also known by the white
man name of Ayers Rock. Uluru, along with the Sydney Opera House, are probably
Australia’s most iconic images. I was happy to finally get to The Rock. After a
year of putzing around the country, Australia’s iconic rock and I were finally
going to meet face to face. Here we are:
The rock is huge. It’s 1,140 feet tall, and the walk that I
did around the base was about 6 miles long. That’s no small pebble. You can
climb up to the top as well, but I elected not to for a couple of reasons. 1)
It’s hard. People die with regular frequency, and you have to have a pretty
good fitness level to make it up the initial ascent. About 40% of those who
attempt the climb have to turn around and come back down because they can’t do
it. 2) Uluru is a sacred Aboriginal spot, and while the climb is open to the
public (The government only gave back the land that Uluru is on to the
Aboriginal community under the condition that they keep the climb open for all
of the foreign tourists who flock to tackle it), there are signs everywhere
that ask you not to climb. You can even buy merchandise at the nearby cultural center
that says “I didn’t climb Uluru.” So I figured if the traditional owners plead
with us not to do it, then it’s sort of not cool to ignore their request and do
it anyway. Plus I’d probably have
a heart attack ¼ of the way up. That climb, to quote the one person on the tour
who had conquered it previously, is “gnarly.” I was happy to stick to the base walk, which was pretty
amazing unto itself. Uluru is an incredibly sexy rock. Here’s a photo I took on
my camera’s “super vivid” mode. It’s my new favorite setting, it makes
Australian landscapes look like Mars!
The last day of the 3-day tour was visiting Kata Tjuta, also
known as the Olgas. It’s not too far away from Uluru, so we woke up at our
Uluru campsite and then drove over to Kata Tjuta for sunrise. The walk that we
did was about 2 hours in duration, and was through the valley of the formations
shown below:
The walk was very up and down, but not too intense. The rock
formations of Kata Tjuta are very different from Uluru, which was also very
different from King’s Canyon. That’s what was so cool about the trip. Spent 3
days looking at rocks, and gaps in rocks, but it was all so amazingly different
and well worth the schlep out to the middle of nowhere to see it all.
After returning back to Alice Springs, the next morning I
took a greyhound bus down to Coober Pedy, South Australia. Farwell to the
Northern Territory! It was time to start heading back down to the bottom (and
cold) part of the country. Coober Pedy is a really odd place. It’s the opal
capital of the world. Something like 90% of the world’s opal comes from this
random spot in the middle of the South Australian outback. Coober Pedy is a
town and all, but it’s strange. It’s more of a bunch of opal shops,
restaurants, hotels and gas stations spread out amongst barren, desolate hills.
Coober Pedy is famous also for how its resident live. It gets HOT during the
summer. Brutally hot. A majority of the residents actually live underground, in
the hills surrounding the main street. It’s cooler in the heat of the summer,
and a bit warmer in the winter. My hostel was actually underground as well.
Here’s a photo of my dorm room.
It’s essentially an underground lair. The kitchen and
bathrooms though, were some of the cleanest and tidiest I’ve seen during my
travels. Very modern and spic and span.
I went on a 4-hour afternoon tour of the town’s surrounding
areas, and it was worth it to actually see
the opal mining areas up close. Here’s a bunch of holes.
That’s what opal mining does to the landscape. There are
miles and miles of fields that look exactly like this one. Giant piles of
rubble, with deadly 100 feet deep holes next to them. We weren’t allowed to get
out of the bus to look around, because some of the holes are hard to spot. It
goes without saying that if you fall into a 100-foot deep mining shaft, you are
not coming back up alive.
I had about 24 hours in Coober Pedy before getting back on
greyhound to head to my beloved Adelaide for a 4th and (blissfully)
final time. The bus left at 7:30 pm and arrived at 6:25 am this morning. I
haven’t spent the night on a greyhound bus since the infamous 2002 Florida
plane disaster. Thankfully, Australian greyhound is a bit classier than its
American cousin. The buses and clientele aren’t quite as sketchy, and I lucked
out that the bus wasn’t full. I parked myself in the very back seat and curled
up into a ball to get a few hours of sleep during the journey. I’ve got one
more overnight bus ride when I do the east coast. Hopefully I’ll be just as
lucky then!
What’s next? Two days in Adelaide, then I fly to Cairns!
Yes! I am finally travelling Australia’s famous east coast. Most tourists who
come to Australia only travel the east coast, and then go home. I’ve been here
over a year now, and still have not set foot in Queensland. I’m pretty excited!
I’ve got scuba diving, snorkeling, white sandy beaches, Steve Irwin’s famous
zoo and Australian theme parks coming up in the next 3 weeks. It will be a
grand finale to the end of an epic year. Stay tuned!
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