The End of the Road

 

So that's it...we've made it to Melbourne and are going our seperate ways after almost 4 months in each others pockets. Tis gonna be very weird without my sidekick for the remainder of my 6 weeks of travel!

Thanks for reading...I hope it was somewhat entertaining and kept you posted on our adventures.

If you wanna drop us a line, feel free on lemmieandloonie@gmail.com

Lemmie and Loonie...over and out!

Great Ocean Road

I've run out of steam a bit and am trying to write this up a while after the fact so bear with me...

The Great Ocean Road, a brilliant end to the Lemmie and Loonie adventure that started on May 20th with a Sail & Rail ticket from Dublin to London. We left Adelaide on September 16th and pulled into Melbourne on September 20th bringing our 4 month adventure to a close.

The trip involved hiring a campervan in the form of a Spaceship (spaceships.tv). A bright orange, automatic transmission beast - a modified Toyota Estima. I was nervous about driving it having never driven an automatic before and the only car I've really driven being my little Micra at home, but I stood up to the challenge well and got us through the journey in one piece with the only casualty being the poor green parrot who walked into the path of the tyre as I tried to dodge it on the road to Mount Gambier on Day 1. It was a dark moment for me..I've never run over anything before :(

So....we took off from Adelaide and drove to Mount Gambier on Day 1 with very little stops because it was raining so much. We pulled into the carpark of the oval there and cooked up our beef stirfry in the pouring rain on our little camping stoves before settling in for the night and watching a crappy DVD about partying in Cancun.

Day 2 saw us move from Mount Gambier to Warrnambool with a good few stops along the way to check out the lookouts and sites along the way.

Day 3 had us move on to Cape Otway, a little ways short of our target of Apollo Bay but a worthy diversion. The road to get to the Cape was like something from the Blair Witch Project...pitch black, deserted, surrounded by tall forests and very scary. The whole thing was made a bit more freaky by Una trying to scare me senseless and having a moment where the only car we came across was a few hundred metres shy of the campsite we were headed for...about 30 seconds after it passed us blinding lights appeared in the rear-view mirror and I was convinced some mass murderer had spotted us and done a u-turn to come get us..thankfully my imagination was just working overtime! The campsite had the best bathroom block of any I've seen to date...I regret not taking a photo!

Day 4 was a monster drive day because we got a bit lost in Geelong. We had hoped to stay there for the night before moving on to Melbourne but couldn't find anywhere suitable to pull up. Then the signposts stopped making sense and we were lost in the middle of housing estates. The only way out of it (considering we didn't have a road map to great enough detail, any printed directions or a sat nav) was to follow the signs to the only place I recognised the name of - Ballarat...an hour and a half from Geelong. Not exactly the end to the day I was hoping for as my eyes were already glazing over as we approached Geelong!

The last day was a pretty excellent one. We explored Ballarat and went to Soverign Hill where they've got a gold mining town with period costumed staff for you to explore. Well worth the entrance fee, though it would have been great to have had longer there..but...we needed to get on the road to Melbourne in time for me to get to the airport to welcome Conor who was arriving to start a 6 week adventure with me, and get Una in town early enough to get to the YHA before it got too dark.

It was a day of mixed emotions..the end of an era, the start of a new chapter. Very weird to say our goodbyes at the airport..but we'll be reunited soon enough at home with enough photos, stories and memories to bore all of you to death!

Photo Albums

We've got thousands and thousand of shots at this stage....

I've been putting some up on my personal Picasa WebAlbums until now, but I've managed to fill up my quota :( So...to solve the issue I've set up a new Lemmie and Loonie Picasa account where we can put all the albums we want. I've started this with the most recent shots from our ATA travels...check them out on;

http://picasaweb.google.com/lemmieandloonie

This is where the rest of the photos from our travels will go and ultimately, the OzBUS and other Oz albums that are currently on http://picasaweb.google.com/mailnem will be moved over to this new account too.

If you've got any queries or comments on our travels, if you're interested in doing OzBUS and want feedback from people who've been there, done that and worn the t-shirt out, or if you just wanna drop us a line to say hi here's the most convenient email address to use: lemmieandloonie@gmail.com

Thanks for reading :)

Adelaide

Again, as with Perth, we saw all too little of Adelaide. During the trip we had two nights there, one with OzBUS and one after we'd been on the Indian Pacific. Neither visit was long enough and sadly we didn't take in any of the sights.

The good to be taken from the visits is that I got to catch up with my mates Ann & Cerri and meet their new arrival Aisling. A big bonus on the trip is catching up with people I don't get to see all that often :)

So...add Adelaide to the list of places to spend more time in when I eventually get back to Oz.

Indian Pacific

Having done a long distance train ride before I was really, really, really excited to be taking the Indian Pacific railway from Perth to Adelaide. The initial plan way back when had been to take the train in the reverse direction, east to west, from Sydney to Perth. But having spent some time on OzBUS talking to people who'd been to Australia before I'd come up with a different route that meant we take it west to east and only part of the way, which though a shame was good enough for me.

When we were booking our tickets we were torn about whether to stick to the cheapest option to reduce the impact on our backpacker budget or to splash out a bit and get a sleeper cabin. The day/night sleeper seats were the cheapest tickets and though we would have been fine there we went with Red Sleeper Cabin tickets so we got a bit of privacy and comfort after months of dorm rooms and buses. When we checked in at East Perth station we were told our carriage was out the door and follow the platform to the right, so off we went...we walked and walked and walked and eventually found our carriage. The only Red Sleeper Carriage with the only other carriages behind us being the Red Diner, a single Red Seat Carriage and the luggage/car sections. We really were toward the bottom end of the ladder on the train!

Boarding time arrived and at last we were clambering up onto the train looking for our home for the next two days. The hallway snakes up the carriage to make the cabins a weird shape on the inside with one side wall longer than the other...altogether very weird. We squeezed into the room and closed the door and almost immediately had to open it again to avoid the sense of claustrophobia that engulfed us. The seats we had were very comfy with a little table in between, we had a cubby hole each to hang our clothes in, we had a small sink that folded away into the wall, we had a window with a magic blind that could be raised, lowered or twisted to be partially open or closed fully. The bottom bunk folded out of the wall by the cubby hole and was lowered into the space where the table normally stands (it's folded away to make room). The top bunk is then pulled town from the roof and clipped into place a couple of feet above the bottom bunk. It's accessible by a ladder that's casually hung from the handle on the side of the bed. All very smartly configured. The only issue is that when the beds are out there's even less room to manoeuvre yourself...we spent most of the first night wondering how the rather portly man across the corridor was managing to survive in his room with his pretty portly mate.

We had planned on having a “Sex and The City” moment like Carrie and Samantha on the way to San Francisco with a champagne toast to start our journey but in the hurry to find the station and get on the train we didn't have a chance to find a bottle shop to get the champers. But as with everything, if the universe wants it to happen it will...we got on board and there in the Red Diner they had little bottles of Brut for sale. So, the universe agreed that we needed our toast :)

Our evening meal on the first night was a baked potato with chilli...Mmmmmm. It seemed to be the dish of choice amongst the backpackers aboard as the portion seemed to be bigger than the other options on the menu and it was one of the cheapest. We sat in the diner listening to the chatter at the table next to us where a bloke from Dublin was trying his charms on a German girl who'd said she loved the Irish accent and had met more Irish than Aussies during her time travelling here (I'd tend to agree with her on that...we Irish do seem to travel a lot..there are more Irish accents around than any other kind which is weird given how small a place Ireland is...has everyone left? Is there anyone there at all anymore?). After dinner we went for a power nap to make sure we'd have energy for the Whistle Stop tour of Kalgoorlie scheduled for shortly before 11pm that night. We pulled into the station (the second longest platform in WA) and were herded out front to waiting coaches. I thought we'd be on foot so was a bit surprised to see two big coaches waiting for us. On we got and had a look around...it was reminiscent of my holiday in Benalmadena in 2005 with Mairead...blue rinse brigade on tour and Una and I sat in the middle of them! The tour went on for a good hour or so with the crazy driver moving slower than some of the passengers would have walked faster with their zimmer frames as he gave us the history of the city (which turned out to be a lot bigger than I expected – Kmart and Red Rooster here too....shame). The tour included tales of thievery, brothels and murder. He went on at length about the topless barmaids in some of the local establishments, giving us a giggle when he told the story of how they responded to complaints from the health department about serving drinks and food in the nip. Rather than put their clothes back on, the girls wrapped themselves up in cling film so everything was still on show, but was covered up thus addressing the concerns from the health department officials. At a later date they were in trouble again but this time because people were complaining that they could see nude barmaids through the windows of pubs and hotels...the answer was to put in frosted glass or cover the windows with newspaper up to a height of 6' 6”. This stopped people from seeing stuff they didn't want to see but resulted in all the towns milk crates going missing over night as young fellas in the place stole them so they'd have a height to stand on to see over the 6' 6” cover ups.

When we got back from the tour we visited the shop in the station to see what it had to tempt us with. It was run by possibly one of the craziest people we've met along the way...she tried to serve multiple people at once but had no attention span so randomly started serving someone else before she'd finished up with 2 or 3 others. She was attempting to guess where everyone was from and then giving them her impression of their national accent. It turns out she's from Liverpool and had taken a ferry to the bottom of Ireland years ago (I've no idea where the ferry from Liverpool goes to and she didn't have a breeze). She did the typical 'top of the morning', 'aye begorra' and various other leprechaun type speeches at us. Good for a giggle at 1am :)

Waking up on the train was a bit weird, I tried to swing my legs out of bed and bashed my feet on the sink and my legs on the ladder, then walloped my arm against the window. Eventually I woke up enough to go in search of breakfast but they'd stopped serving it (it was about 8.40am!!). We spent most of the morning lounging in bed and finally got up and ready to do as we pulled into Cook, a practical ghost town on the Nullabor Plain. This use to have about 500 residents, now they're down to 5. The local hospital is closed, the school's been shutdown and the houses have all been left idle with most of them now condemned. It's gotta be a pretty lonely existence for the people of the town who are employed to refuel and rewater the trains that pull in twice a week. We helped the local economy by making some purchases in the local shop, and helped the Flying Doctors service with a donation for some books they had in the shop. An afternoon of trashy Mills & Boons books followed....what a way to spend the day :)

We continued on the train journey overnight arriving in Adelaide shortly after 7am on September 15th...now to start the spaceship adventure!

Verdict on the Indian Pacific...do it..if you like trains at all...if you like travel...do it, do it, do it!

Perth

Perth has to be added to the list of places to visit on my next trip to Australia, there's no way I can really say that I've been there having spent less than 24 hours in the city! We arrived in at 7pm ending our 10 day tour from Broome. We met Richard of OzBUS fame at the train station at Wellington and William and headed off to his place where he was kindly putting us up for the night. A local chinese restaurant fed us a lovely dinner for a very reasonable price before we headed off in search of The Shed on Aberdeen Street to meet up with the Western Exposure (ATA) gang to say the farewells before everyone headed off their separate ways.

It should be noted that The Shed won't let you in if you're wearing 'thongs' (flip-flops to you and me)...but only if it's Saturday..which is was! So, there I was standing in mine freezing my toes off and being refused entry. Since we'd gone all that way and we didn't have any numbers to tell the others what had happened I told Una and Richard to head on in and I'd wait for them in a net cafe or somewhere around the corner where my footwear wouldn't be a problem. They partied for 2 hours and then we all headed back to Richards for a snooze...man it was great not to be in a bunk-bed or in a room with a million people (or 8 or 10 or whatever).

We slept soundly and were up before 9am to get ready to visit the Perth Mint, the one attraction that we'd decided to do and that rather amazingly and very conveniently turned out to be just around the corner from where we were staying. So off we went to see them pouring liquid gold into a mould to make a solid gold bar..amazing! The tour was informative and they guide talked a lot about Kalgoorlie (good because we had a planned stop there on our impending train ride and we intended to take the whistle stop tour to see the place). Time ran out too quickly so we headed off pretty quickly to collect our bags and try find a cab to take us to East Perth station – the Indian Pacific doesn't leave from the main station in Perth but from the suburbs.

So, a very quick visit...not nearly long enough, but it was enough to tell me I'd like to see more of the place so I'm adding it to my 'must visit next time' list (it's getting quite lengthy now).

Kalbarri - Perth (ATA Day 10)

What is about making the last day of a trip a really long drive day? OzBUS had us do Narrandera to Sydney which was a bit adventurous given the time we stopped off in Canberra for....this crowd have us doing Kalbarri to Perth with a stop at the Coastal Cliffs, Jurien Bay Marine Park and the Pinnacles.

Up at crazy o'clock but we had a breakfast of bacon and eggs...Mmmmm. Of course we're out of butter because it wasn't on Ben's shopping list, but thanks to Una introducing me to the cheese and honey delicious combination earlier in the trip I was able to improvise and have grated cheddar, honey, egg and bacon on my toast to avoid the dry toast situation. It wasn't half bad ;)

A short ways outside of Kalbarri we detoured to the Coastal Cliffs which can be described as the Great Ocean Road of the West Coast (except it's not a road it's a short walkway...but you get the idea). There was a short walk we headed off on to see the One Apostle (proper name is Castle Cove) and a ways further on the Natural Bridge. The waves crashing into the cliffs were awesome and the scenery was pretty breathtaking. One thing I've come to the conclusion on during my travels is that all this world exploring is great...but I need to get out an explore what's in my own backyard a bit better (read any bit at all). The Cliffs of Moher is a must see for me by the end of 2010...enough is enough..I need to become an Irish tourist in Ireland :)

Back on the road, we drove on until it was time for lunch. We pulled in to Jurien Bay Marine Park where we had the last sandwiches I'll eat for a while. Having barely digested the ham & cheese goodness we were off climbing up the sand dunes with sandboards and candles in hand. After waxing up the underside of the board most of the bus crew had a few runs at sliding down the dunes on the boards. My first attempt ended prematurely when I got scared about how fast I was hurtling toward the fence at the end of the dune. I tossed myself to the left, thus ending up rolling to the bottom off the dune at speed and having to run after my board to retrieve it. My second attempt was perfect...but Una was chit-chatting at the bottom and didn't get a picture of my triumph. My third and fourth attempts ended up like my initial run with me tumbling down the dune rather than sliding gracefully, though I blame these crashes on the fact that some of the guys were trying to go down the dune standing up and when they fell off they took chunks out of the runway we were using so each time my board hit a divot I got chucked off. That's my excuse, and I'm sticking to it!! ;)

The final stop before Perth was at Nambung National Park to see the Pinnacles. We wandered amid the limestone pillars for half an hour or so taking jump shots and pictures of the more shapely rocks. The ground was covered in a yellowy sand rather than the red that we've seen for so long..it was a bit weird, but a nice change.

Last stop Perth....10 days on the road bringing our Lemmie and Loonie bus tour total days up to 101...not bad within 4 months on the road. Both buses were very different. It's hard to get to know people in just 10 days, but in saying that the guys on the WestExpo bus were lovely. I'm looking forward to seeing some of their pictures when they send them on :)

Denham - Kalbarri (ATA Day 9)

Today's drive was to get us from Denham to Kalbarri to make a bit of progress on the mammoth distance that's still left between us and Perth. I really struggle to understand how tour companies come up with their routes and stop points. Drive days with OzBUS and ATA have such varied lengths that I really can't fathom how whoever does the research comes up with the list of accommodation stops. Anyways....it's not my job so I'll stop whinging ;)

We got on the road early to make the short trip over to Monkey Mia to see the dolphin feeding there. I'm not quite sure what I expected of it, but what happened wasn't really it. People line the beach and can stand in the very shallow water while the staff are getting ready to feed the dolphins. Before this can happen everyone has to step back out of the water onto the sand, a yellow 'decoy' bucket is brought out to distract the pelicans that have gathered on the beach hoping to steal the dolphin's breakfast and then the handlers come out with the real fish buckets. There are only 5 dolphins that are hand fed, each of them have a quota of fish that they are fed each day in order to guarantee that they'll go fend for themselves and fish for the rest of their daily requirement and not rely on being hand fed everything they need. It's illegal to feed them if you're not working in the centre and part of the team that feeds them up to 3 times a day (in the morning). Nobody, including the handlers are allowed to touch the dolphins...one of the girls explained that from having them rub against her leg in the water she thinks they feel like a shelled boiled egg.

With the feedings over within a half hour we were going to be at a loose end for a few hours while one of the crew headed off on an Aboriginal tour (the welcome to country ceremony here was to rub soil between their hands..no billabong water spitting on the head). A big gang of us decided to take up the ATA/WestEx discount on the Dugong spotting boat and headed off for 2 hours on the water. We were dressed up in very fetching yellow raincoats (I can't complain it kept me nice and toasty), and headed off out to see in search of dolphins, turtles, sharks and dugongs. I spotted 3 out of 4 so that wasn't bad. The dugongs were pretty shy and I only got a look at them appearing for air for a fleeting second or three before they were off back to the ocean floor to graze on more sea grass. I spotted a solitary turtle which was cool, but there were no sharks to be seen. Dolphins however were all over the place! There was a big gang of males chasing a female to mate with her. After the boat crew explained what was going on and left me with some pretty disturbing imagery we sailed off to leave them to it. Poor lady dolphin...she'll either be pregnant, with calf or being chased by a group of males all her life! Despite not seeing all that many dugongs the boat trip was great..it was ace to just lay on the net in the middle of the boat watching the waves pass below.

Onwards then toward Kalbarri National Park to see Natures Window, a rock formation that looks like...a window. We messed about there for a while taking lots of pictures and attempting new jump shot manoeuvres (I think I'll have quite the collection by the time I get home).

After that we continued on to Kalbarri where we stayed for the night after yet another sumptuous Aussie BBQ evening with steaks, sausages and coleslaw.

Coral Bay - Denham (ATA Day 8)

On the road early enough this morning as we had a lot of driving to do to get us from Coral Bay to Denham.

We passed through Carnarvon where Ben spent a few minutes trying to locate a place that sold chocolate covered bananas that he'd been to before – he couldn't find it now. He got back on the bus at the petrol station we eventually pulled in at and asked if anyone fancied driving because he was tired and cranky. Tempting...might have been nice to get some driving practise in in advance of being let loose on the Great Ocean road but since I doubt my licence covers me driving a bus I just had a giggle as he shuffled back to the driver seat.

After a long time on the road we pulled in and stopped at the entrance to Shark Bay World Heritage Centre for a photo op. I was more interested in the road sign across the way that indicated Useless Loop was 163km away from us. I had to find out what it was and why in hell it was signposted....so asked Ben. The Loop is a route that was followed by two maritime 'geniuses' way back when...their boat was grounded at Denham so they set out on foot in search of fresh water. They walked for a few days until they came to a point where they looked out over the sea and saw their ship grounded in Henri Freycinet Harbour and realised they'd looped the coast. Idiots!

From there we moved on to Hamelin Pool Nature Reserve to see the Stromatolites (I had never heard of them before and so knew nothing about them in advance). These are living organisms that effectively look like black rocks on the sea shore. The area is protected by having a boardwalk erected to take you out over the Stromatolites into the breaking sea so you can view them at various stages of life...from blossoming (growing up to 1cm a year) to dead because they've been in the heat of the sun for so long and the shoreline has receded starving them of the water they so badly need. In high tide it's sometimes possible to see bubbles of air coming from them but we didn't have that pleasure.

The final stop was Shell Beach where instead of sand there are banks of cockle shells that have been forming in the area for more than 4000 years. Cockle shells thrive in very salty water (as is present here). The shells are constantly being washed ashore and over time are being compacted into banks of shell that are now up to 10 metres above the sea level in parts. Walking to the water we had to go over ridges of shells that were like giant sized strawberry drills. The water was pretty warm but there wasn't really any chance of swimming there because it was so shallow. I went walking out to sea to see how far I could go before the water got up to my knees. I lost interest much before this happened. Within a foot of the shore the water was ankle deep...another couple of feet in it was maybe 3 inches above ankle height and it remained that way for a couple of hundred metres out to sea. I walked out until the people sitting on the beach were specks on the horizon but the water never reached knee height!

Back in the bus we journeyed on to Denham where we stayed the night in the smelliest room I think I've ever slept in. I woke up in the middle of the night feeling like I was going to be sick and seriously considered moving to the sitting room area of the apartment thing we were in (but was too tired and lazy to move). We reckon someone either puked all over the room and it wasn't cleaned properly or someone is buried under the floor in there...it was like decaying feet...euwwwww!

Exmouth - Coral Bay (Day 6 & 7)

We were up earlyish this morning to maximise the time we had at the beaches around the Ningaloo Reef. First port of call once we got going was to pull in at a beach not far from the campsite where there was a young humpback whale beached on the sand partially eaten by sharks. It was here that we saw our first 'do not enter the water there are sharks signs' of the trip. From there we moved to a lookout point that allowed us to hunt the horizon for whales jumping about. We saw a couple off in the distance frolicking about making a splash.

The next stop was a flying visit to the Cape Range National Park Visitors Centre. Here we picked up some info on what fish we could expect to see and the do's and don'ts of snorkeling. Driving through the park we saw wild kangaroo bounding around along with emus and bush turkeys.

We drove on through the park stopping at Turquoise Bay for most of the day where we snorkeled, sunbathed and chilled out. I took to snorkeling pretty quickly with my only real difficultly being when water leaked into my goggle thingy. It didn't happen too often but did seem to happen when I was out in the water trying to manoeuvre my way around. A lot of the group spotted sea turtles (Una included) but I didn't manage it myself. I saw a good few different types of fish, a lot of coral (though none of it as brightly coloured as I expected given how many times I've watched Nemo) and a hell of a lot of sand...lots and lots of sand being swept back and forth by the waves.

When we had our fill of snorkeling we headed onward to Coral Bay where we stayed for two nights. The first night we arrived in the dark. The hostel had a BBQ with damn fine burgers for us and we were shown to our 10 bed dorm. Two nights in a 10 bed...nice...NOT!

We had been given a list of optional activities that were available to us for our full free day in Coral Bay – these were mainly water based with snorkeling tours, scuba diving, swimming with manta rays, glass bottomed boat etc and a quad bike tour of the place done at several times during the day. Una and I signed up for the manta ray swimming tour in the morning, and the quads tour for sunset. It was going to be a long day but with the weather already a bit colder than Broome we wanted to make the most of the sunshine while we have it.

The manta ray tour was sooooo good. We headed out around 9am and had 30 minutes to snorkel in an area called 'The Maze'. The water was between 4 and 5 metres deep where we hopped in and we were told to stick to the sand channels only (easier said than done!). The coral out here was so much cooler than what we'd seen at Turquoise Bay, more colourful, bigger and just all round better. We saw an incredibly large selection of fishes floating around there too. It was immeasurably better than the snorkeling the day before. From there we moved on to an area called 'Bateman's Bay' where we going in search of manta rays to swim with. We sat sipping tea/coffee and eating cinnamon raisin cakes as Tara (of of the crew) explained a bit about mantas to us. They grow up to have a wing span of up to 6 metres, they are solitary animals that don't travel in packs, they are resident all year round in this area of the world (one of only 3 places that is the case), they feed on plankton and other microscopic sea matter so we were safe and weren't going to be eaten, and the final fact I remember that shocked me was that they can swim at speeds of up to 60km per hour! The first group got into the water and gave chase but could catch the manta that had been spotted for us (by the spotter plane doing loops above us). They swam hard and fast but the manta was obviously spooked and took off at speed. The boat picked them up and went in search of another one where they tried again. This time they managed to get in quietly enough not to frighten it and they got to swim with it. Next up it was our turn...having heard how much difficultly one of the girls had had in keeping afloat in the waves we took life jackets to keep us afloat. We slipped in as quietly as possible and kicked our legs as hard as we could to catch up with Tara who was following the manta in the water and directing us with her arm held up above water. I kicked like a crazy person but didn't seem to be getting anywhere and was losing the pack falling behind pretty much straight away. This was one of those time I wished I was a stronger swimmer. Then, by a pure fluke I saw a huge manta under me when I looked back down into the water. I popped my head over water to see what was happening and discovered that Tara was now nearly on top of me..the manta had changed course and was conveniently swimming along at a nice pace under me with the rest of the group kicking like mad to catch up with it. I followed for a while taking one picture and a short video before calling for the boat to taxi me. I could have got dropped off closer to go back in again but I was breathless from all the kicking and the amazement of how graceful the manta had been. It was a very cool experience to have had.

After the mantas we headed back to the outer area of the reef where the ocean waves were crashing in. We had another opportunity to snorkel here before heading back to base. There were a two options, go in by yourself and explore around the boat or do a guided swim. The guided swim sounded pretty amazing but given how much trouble I'd had keeping up with the mantas and the fact that the current where they were going was at least twice as strong as anything I'd struggled in so far and the water was twice or three times deeper than where the boat was anchored I thought I'd better pass. They were swimming out beyond the outer rim of the reef into the ocean to see a shark cleaning station (it turned out there was no shark there at the time – but still cool to see). I almost chickened out of getting back into the sea (the water wasn't cold cold but wasn't the warmest either) but thankfully I sucked it up and dove in. I have never seen anything like the sight of all the different fishes that were swimming around at the back of the boat. I lowered myself into the water and was immediately surrounded by all sizes, shapes and colours of fish. I paddled a little ways back from the boat to leave room for people to get on or off and then just bobbed about on the surface watching the fish come closer and closer to me to see what I was. It was AMAZING! The coral there was even better than what we'd seen in the Maze earlier in the day too with more brightly coloured stuff there and the water was much deeper so I felt a lot safer knowing I was unlikely to be unable to accidentally hit off some of it (ashamedly I must admit that I think I hit off something in the Maze..either that or there was a person behind me when I tried to kick my way back to the boat – my flipper definitely connected with something :( ...not good).

I didn't think it was possible to top the morning we'd have and was wrecked before we even got back to the Eco Tours office to get started on our Quad Bike sunset tour of Coral Bay. Because they require driving licence information from anyone who wants to drive the quads (there's a tiny portion of road involved on the route) Una braved being my passenger for the tour. Having only driven a quad once before on snow while on holiday in Austria I was a bit nervous about taking on the beasts they had at Coral Bay. They have to have been twice the size! Off we went and after a couple of minutes of bumpy riding while I got used to the throttle we were in business. We were flying around the dunes at top speed with a few hairy moments when I took turns a bit too quickly or didn't see an upcoming hump in the track until we were launched over it. It was such great fun that it kicked the morning's snorkel tours ass!! We watched the sunset and headed back to the hostel absolutely shattered ready for a good sleep (in bed by 9.30pm).

The time we had in Coral Bay and the activities we did made it one of my favourite places in Australia thus far. It was such a beautiful place and was surprisingly normal and not really trashy touristy. They've only cottoned on to how popular it could be as a destination in recent years and are starting to build it up. I hope they manage to do that while retaining the charm the place currently has.

Karijini NP - Exmouth (ATA Day 5)

Here we are at the halfway mark of the tour already..hard to believe!! We're on the road to Exmouth, another long drive day with the only scheduled stop to be in Tom Price, a little mining town, to fuel up and get some snacks for the road.

We pulled into our accommodation for the night and were pleasantly surprised to find we were in 4 bed cabins..not the massive dorms we were expecting. Dinner was to be served at 6.30pm so I rushed to get laundry on and get a drink in the shop across the road to find that relaxed Ben had lost track of time so our Tacos (they were Fajitas) were about an hour later than planned...but very tasty.

There wasn't really a whole lot to report..it was a very quiet day.

Indee Station - Karijini NP (ATA Day 2, 3 & 4)

I awoke from an amazing sleep at Indee Station without an alarm and lay there enjoying the colours of the sunrise above me. I drifted back to sleep to be woken shortly before 7am as Ben started up the truck to go get water supplies. We rolled up our swags, had breakfast and cleaned up camp aiming for a departure time of 8am but being ready to go by 7.45am...aren't we great!

Rather than everyone cleaning their own dishes the system here seems to be that someone does all the washing and someone does the drying and it works itself out that way. I'm not sure what system is best as I tried to help out at lunch and dinner last night and again at breakfast this morning but there were too many cooks already in place taking care of it. Don't want to be seen to be sitting back doing nothing but don't want to get in the way either, though I'm sure the eager beavers who've been all over it so far will tire of it soon and I can step up to the plate then and help.

We hit the road to get to Karijini National Park, a drive of in the region of 350km, half what we did on the first day. We set up camp at the Eco Resort there and stayed for 3 nights to allow enough time to explore the park.

On the agenda for the first day was a visit to Dale's Gorge where we were to see three areas of the park: Fern Pool, Circular Pool and Fortesque Falls. When we arrived Ben said we'd be aiming for two of the three and see how we were doing for time to go to Fern Pool once we'd gotten back up the gorge. A bit disappointing that he reckoned we'd only see some of what they advertise in the brochure but then again given the climb down to the first section I can see why.

We pulled up into Dale's Gorge and had a delicious lunch of sandwiches...Mmmmm sandwiches. When everyone was foddered up and in their bathers we started the trek down the gorge along a very steep slope where the steps were formed from natural rock formations and some that had been placed to bridge the gaps. There was a ladder in one portion too as the gorge seemed to be on two levels that were too far apart to climb down without assistance. This trek led us to Circular Pool, which was as the name suggests a circular pool of clear water. It was beautiful and totally worth nearly losing my life several times as I stumbled over rocks and my Tevas threatened to have me slip on the algae and muck that was around the place. This freshwater pool was our first swimming hole of the day, though from the reaction of some of the people who got into the water I wasn't sure I would brave it. One of the girls took a step off a rock, lost her footing and was trying to tread water to make her way back to the edge while struggling to breathe because the water was so cold it made her lungs feel like they were collapsing. But still, in I got...the water was as cold if not a little colder than it had been at the Home & Away beach. I waited by the edge to acclimatise before swimming over to join Una at the other side where there was a ledge to sit on. The pool was cold because it was shadowed all around and no bit of sunlight was hitting the water at all.

From Circular Pool we headed back along the same track for a portion but rather than ascend the rock path we'd come down we headed straight to trek through undergrowth and over more slimy rocks to take us to Fortesque Falls. It was spectacular, the water was warmish and we were able to swim right over to the falls and sit under the water as it sprayed down. We stayed there for a while messing about before starting the ascent up the gorge from that side. Lots of man made steps to get us there, but it was a much better option than going up how we'd come down!

All explored and tired we headed for camp and got our swags and tents sorted out. It's a hell of a lot colder here in the evening than it was at Indee Station. It makes a bit more sense to me now why we're in hostels after we leave the Eco Resort. Dinner was fish, cous-cous and salad. Ben had no idea what the fish was (all of our food is vacuum packed and stored in an eski in the back of the truck) as there was no label on it. Whatever it was..it was damn fine!

After dinner 7 of us headed off on an Astro Tour of the Western Australian night sky, one night before full moon. Una and I had strolled up to the reception area shortly after we arrived at the resort to get some bottled water (the stuff in the eski on the bus is minging and the stuff from the waterfall had creatures floating in it) and there we'd seen the sign about the tour. We signed up and mentioned it to the others when we got back to camp. The guy who runs the tour is called Phill and he's a crazy man. He came to collect us in a bus, filled it up with as many people as he could find and drove us out to 'the finest observatory in WA', that is, 3 large telescopes set up in the middle of the outback a couple of minutes drive from the resort. We were all given a day-glo yellow sleeveless jacket to wear to keep us warm and visible, and a cushion to put on our chair to keep our bums warm for the 2 hour show. He showed us the Southern Cross, the Pointer Stars, Scorpio, Sagittarius, Libra, Capricorn, Jupiter and the Moon. We got to see some other stuff too but they were the main ones. He talked a lot about how many light years away everything was and gave us some facts about our sun and moon that I'd not heard before. It was really interesting and because he was such a funny guy it was really enjoyable. The almost full moon made it very tough to see the laser he was using to point out stuff though so he had to do it over and over again with us to make sure everyone saw it. We got to take some photos of the moon with our compact cameras and mine are awesome (Una's camera was too big so she didn't get any). He took us back to camp when the show was over and presented us with a Milky Way as a treat to remember our time together.

On the second day the gang headed off after a hearty breakfast to venture to Jeoffre Gorge, Junction Pool and Oxer Lookout. I stayed at the resort to rest up my left knee as I'd been awake most of the night from the jolting pain each time I rolled onto it. No major damage to it, I'm just not that used to all that jumping around on steep rocky ground and had landed on it a bit funny a few times causing a bit of discomfort and swelling. I spent the day chilling out at the shaded reception area watching the world go by and marvelling at the tranquillity of the place. The group arrived back at lunchtime but I wasn't feeling the love for an afternoon of walking so again I stayed put at the resort electing to stay by the camp this time. The heat was incredible, the dust was blowing everywhere raising up big red clouds everywhere I looked.

On the third day I rose again and headed out with the group in the morning to get a bit of walking in. I went on the morning walk that saw us descend a set of uneven steps to an initial pool of water I deemed too cold to swim in. We sat there for a long while chilling out before moving on to Handrail Pool that was accessible by you guessed it..a handrail. We had to wade through waist high water and then cling to a rock face while shimming along to the left to the next portion of dry land. Everyone got across safely apart from poor David who fell in..on Father's Day! The rest of the way was back to the normal climbing over rocks and narrow passages until we got to the final section where you had to 'spider walk' through a narrow gap with water flowing underfoot down into the pool. At the end of the enclosed section of the spider walk you had to grab hold of a handrail and get to the other side of it to stand on a flat area of stone. From there you had to lower yourself into the pool by rope – I couldn't do it because my arm was in bits with tendinitis (I've been bold and haven't been doing my exercises). I sat and watched the others for a while before making my way back through the tunnel to the open area on the other side where I was able to soak up some sun and dry out while I waited for them to get back. The afternoon session was into Hancock Gorge that I heard was tougher than what we'd just done, so I chickened out. I enjoy walking on the flat, with a bit of a gradient and a bit of rockery tossed in...but effectively canyoning without the required equipment ain't my thing. Two of the guys from the group headed off on an organised canyoning tour earlier in the morning..they were doing grade 6 gorges..some of the ones we did were grade 5. Una, ever the adventurous stuck out all the treks despite being quite nervous in parts.

So came an end to our time in Karijini National Park...and it was ace :)

Broome - Indee Station (ATA Day 1)

ATA...what is that I hear you ask? Well it's Adventure Tours Australia and we've signed up for a 10 day tour with them to get us from Broome to Perth and experience some of what Western Australia has to offer. The stops have been plotted on our Route Map (see the links section on the side of the blog) with Yellow pins that will be set to markers like the Green OzBUS ones as I get internet access to update them. When we finish this tour it leave us with only one Australian state to explore on our mammoth adventure – Queensland.

So, our last evening in Broome saw us in bed before 10pm..very sensible and very unlike me. The reason, my alarm was set to go off at 5.45am for the first time in almost 2 weeks so I'd be ready for a 6.30am collection from the Kimberly Klub. I woke up before the alarm and pondered the reasons why I was voluntarily putting myself through more of these crazy o'clock starts by joining another bus tour. I came to the conclusion that even though I'd rather wake up on my own terms, when I was forced into early starts I actually got to see a whole lot more than I did when I didn't have to be up. Being on an organised tour I was guaranteed to see something new everyday rather than being left to my own devices and deciding I was too tired to explore. And sadly, I've gotten used to having someone plan things for me and tell me where to be when so unless there's a plan in place I've gotten a bit lazy (hence the major efforts I've been putting into getting a route and itinerary planned for Conor's forthcoming arrival in Melbourne to make sure we see as much as possible in our limited time travelling here).

Anyways, 6.30am arrives along with a Western Exposure truck with driver/guide Ben. Not the ATA branded bus I was expecting, but so much cooler. The truck looks like a lorry but surprisingly it drives like we're on a bus. The only person already on the truck when it arrived at the KK to pick us up was the Japanese guy whose name hasn't stuck with me yet. Along with us there were 3 other passengers at the KK - an Aussie couple David and Jan in their 50's from the Melbourne area and a Czech girl in her early 20's who lives in Munich whose name escapes me at the moment. With 20 passengers and Ben it means that all bar one of the 22 seats on board will be taken, so everyone has a seat buddy, no solo seats – the days of OzBUS are well and truly behind us. Una and I got the primo seat, first one on the passenger side behind the door so we've got the barrier thing in front of us to use as a foot rest, we've got nobody in front of us reclining seats, and best of all....there's no seat rotation required! We can keep this baby for the whole 10 days!!! The passenger list has 6 English, 4 Irish, 2 Chinese, 2 German, 1 Scottish, 1 Japanese, 1 Czech and 1 Dutch persons on board. A fair mix of ages and everyone seems like good people so far.

It's hard to avoid comparisons with OzBUS. The people are different obviously and nobody on here reminds me of an of the OB crew as yet. The thing that I find slightly weird is that a good number of this gang already know each other either because they were on the Darwin – Broome tour a few days before this one (at least 6 people I think) or because they were staying at Cable Beach Backpackers (14 people) and had got acquainted there. I thought this might be bad in that it's an automatic clique but so far it's not really an issue. Everyone seems friendly and throughout the day I've spoken to more than half the people on the bus (not that I can remember their names). Also, because we're sharing seats it's harder to fall asleep (not that we didn't manage it) so people are talking more than we did on the first day of OB. Finally, one of the first points of business on the bus was for everyone to introduce themselves to the group on the microphone with name, nationality, length of time in Australia and a recent embarrassing story. I remember a few names and a few faces, but haven't necessarily connected them properly. This kind of ice-breaker would have been useful on OB (guys if you're still reading take note ;) ).

During the day I found myself expecting a gasp of 'ohhh lovely' from Annie or see Barbara running up to the bus after a toilet stop when we're all on board ready to go and she's the last one we're waiting for. It's the first time since August 23rd when I've actually given thought to the fact that the big trip is over and I may never see some of those lovely people again!

Ok, so back to the trip at hand, we were on the road from Broome to Indee Station – the first port of call along the 750km drive was 80 Mile Beach which is in fact more like 77 or 78 mile beach, but rather than shortening things on this occasion the Aussies have made it longer than it is for ease of naming. The brochure had suggested we might have time for a quick swim before lunch, but when we got there Ben told us it's a fishing beach that has been known to have sharks so swimming isn't really something we'd want to do. So we settled for splashing our feet about in the shallow water and collecting some of the most unusual shells I've ever seen. I took a few sand dollars with me that I'm hoping to make a pendent out of when I get home if I can figure out how to do it nicely. We made sandwiches for lunch in the caravan park by the beach and munched happily on those while I discovered the delights of Solo Lemon & Lime drink instead of Coke.

After lunch we were back on the road to get us to Port Headland for a brief stop to stock up on food and beer for the next 4 nights as we're bush bound into Karijini National Park tomorrow. There's only so many sandwiches of mystery meat I can eat so I'm back on the muesli bars, crackers & cheese and cashew nuts. I'm taking a few days to dry out after hitting the beer hard in Indonesia and Australia with OB so will be beerless for the first couple of nights of the trip.

Food and drink on board off we headed again turning onto road 95 to get to Indee Station, a sheep and cattle farm where we'd be camping out for the night. The camp was basically a clearing in a cattle field with a trailer full of swags and stools. We laid a big tarp on the ground and set up the 20 swags – talk about close proximity to each other, you roll over and you're on the person next to you...not the best when you've only just met! But, having said that, it was the best night's swag sleeping I've had yet. I woke up a few times during the night because I was too warm and the only way I could cool down was to sleep with my arms and chest out. Something I'd have been scared to do to that point but if a creature wanted to get me, it'd get me regardless of how much of me was out in the open. At first I was a bit freaked out by the fact that there were cows roaming all around us but we didn't see them close to camp at all so I was at ease by the time I was going to sleep and thoughts of a midnight stampede crushing me were at the back of my mind.

Back to the first evening, once the swags were rolled out and the campfire was lighting Ben started on dinner – beef stew, on a cattle farm! The cooking was started by putting a metal sheet on top of the campfire barrel until it heated up, then he threw chunks of meat on top (the metal was dirty and rusty so I just tried to block it out because I was so hungry). He flipped the meat around with a paint scraper until it was starting to brown up, then half brown/half raw he tossed it into a big pot, topped it up with carrots, broccoli, onion, squash and garlic and put it to boil on the gas ring that was on site for us to use. To accompany the stew we had mashed potato – roughly mashed campsite styleee, no nicely pureed mash like at home. When grub was up we all tucked in and surprisingly most of the massive pot of stew was chowed down in record time. I struggled a bit with the beef as it was quite grizzly but managed enough to stave off my hunger. For dessert we had toasted marshmallows which I mixed with my Dairy Milk Bubbly Mint (we gotta get these at home they're sooo good) in an attempt to have some S'mores.

It was nice sitting around a campfire getting to know these new people and hear about their travels so far in Australia. Though I'm now even more terrified about driving in Melbourne than I already was. Some of them lived there for a while but avoided driving at all costs. The right hand turn system there seems to be even more crazy than I had imagined – to make a right turn you have to get into the far left lane of traffic and wait for all the cars going straight ahead and all the trams in the centre of the road to stop moving before making the turn....confused? I am!!

Tomorrow's start time is 8am....I can't believe it. Mental that it's that late...and more mental that I consider that to be late?!

Broome

Cable Beach...now that's what a beach should be like! None of this pebbly,rocky stuff we've seen along the way. Sandy white beach with turquoise water reminiscent of Curracloe but so much warmer you wouldn't believe!

We got to Broome shortly before midday and spent the rest of that day chilling out and sleeping since we'd been up at 3.30am to get a cab to the airport (we were told it was 45 mins away but it was more like 10). We were so early the airport wasn't even open! Flying with Qantas was cool, we went from Sydney to Melbourne and then from there to Broome - both flights had the same breakfast service which was good because it was delicious :) On arrival at the airport we tried to get a cab to take us and all of our luggage to our hostel, but the taxi refused to take us. Backpacker bashing was Una's immediate thought but the guy was just being arsey because the hostel was closer to the airport than the resort the guy behind us wanted to go to and he wanted the bigger fare. So not to be sneer at we took off on foot to show him a lesson? The heat? Why??

All checked in at the hostel we lay on our bunks wondering whether we'd have the energy to do anything at all that day when I noticed something about our room that seems a bit odd to me. Rather than just have four rooms joined and topped by the same roof, they stopped the walls about 3 feet shy of the ceiling so all the rooms are in effect joined. For noise purposes at any rate! A cacophony of snoring was expected that night and it was delivered along with chatting from a room that wasn't ours but was clearly audible..very strange!

During our 4 days in Broome we got a lot of R&R, soaked up some sun, kayaked on the ocean watching whales jumping in the distance, turtles swimming under us and I treated myself to a hovercraft tour that brought me out to see some dinosaur tracks at low tide - AMAZING!

We also saw a few movies: Dance Movie, The Proposal and My Sister's Keeper. For the second one we went to the outdoor cinema in Chinatown that's under the flight path into the airport so had planes landing all the time..it was ace!

I was really excited about seeing the Staircase to the Moon but I stupidly had the 2007 dates so we've missed out on it by 2 days :(

Overall verdict on Broome, it's a nice place but quite small. I'm not sure I could handle the heat outside of the winter temperatures we've got at the moment! Definitely worth a visit particularly if you want heavenly beaches and are in the market for pearls..sadly my budget wouldn't allow me to treat myself after the splurge on the hovercraft!

Sydney (Part 1)

I really don't know where to start about Sydney.

We drove in, I thought it was very much like Boston. I wandered around it during the week I had there after the OzBUS trip and have come to the realisation that it's one of a handful of places that I've been on this whirlwind adventure that I think I could actually move my life to and happily live in. I was sad to leave it but I'll be back for a couple of days at the end of September so will make the most of that and see what I missed out on first time around (namely that Thai restaurant we couldn't wait a half hour to get into Todo! I won't be inviting you to come :P )

The first full day in Sydney passed by me in a bit of a hungover haze. Last night with OzBUS peeps so we partied hard..a little harder than I should have, and the baby guinness came out (I may well have to accept the Evil Triplet Ringleader title after all). I managed to drag myself out of bed around noon – the first morning we didn't have to be up and be somewhere in sooooo long. The furthest from the hostel that I ventured as a coffee shop around the corner for some banana bread and a cuppa to try clear the cobwebs. It didn't work to I went back to bed to rest up from the *cough* 3 months on the road..the hangover was a coincidence.

When I was feeling a little more bright and bubbly the next day I got up and out of the hostel at a reasonable time to go explore a little bit and get my first sight of the Opera House. My partners in crime for the day were Richard and Todd, both of whom wanted to get a look at the OH too. We strolled through Hyde Park admiring the place and wondering at how relaxing the atmosphere in Sydney is. It's a big city but doesn't have the same rushed pace and hurriedness about it as I've seen in other big cities. We were walking along minding our own business when all of a sudden, out of nowhere, the Opera House was right in front of us. We turned a corner, and bam, there it was. Crazy and soooo cool! We walked around it and through it and enquired about a tour for a later date before settling down to some lunch in the cafe on the Harbour Bridge side of the OH. I wanted to check out the Bridge in advance of my climb later that evening...it looked high! The people that were climbing it were like little ants crawling along it, I was pretty chuffed that I was going to be one of those ants in a few hours, and also slightly freaked out that I was going to be climbing it! After lunch we walked around Circular Quay, stopped for a drink on a rooftop bar and I left the boys to go check out The Rocks before making my way to the Climb office.

I got there in lots of time and found out that I was to be the only climber for the Discovery Climb at the time I'd booked in – a VIP tour with the sections of the bridge we were using all to myself along with the greatest guide, Kelly. The climb took about 3 hours and had me navigating through narrow corridors, over mesh walkways, up lots and lots of stair all the while connected to a wire running the length of the Bridge. It was INCREDIBLE! Thanks for the gift guys, it was truly awesome! When I got to the top and had had all the cheesy pictures taken I stood and admired the views over the whole of Sydney sparkling brightly below. I was standing there minding my own business trying to ignore the people from the Classic Climb who had arrived up a few minutes after me and were across the way having their photos taken when I spotted two people separated from the crowd standing closer to me than to their group and thought it a bit weird. Then the dude got down on one knee and I clocked what was happening. Not wanting to be part of or ruin their moment I tried to step back but was stuck in place so stood there silently while he did his thing...embarrassing! She said yes, it was a happy day :)

The next day a gang of us headed out to Palm Beach to visit Summer Bay and see if we could catch a glimpse of any of the Home & Away cast. No actors to be seen but the beach was beautiful. We had some snacks at the Surf Club and then headed for a stroll on the beach. Annie and I braved getting in for a dip and boy was the water cold...Brrrr! When we got back to Sydney Annie, Una and I headed to the Aquarium. We were expecting big things as it's advertised as Sydney's #1 Attraction – I was let down. It was cool and all, but it wasn't as magic as they seemed to think it was.

As we had got a combo ticket to get entry into Wildlife World, Una and I headed there the next day. Along the way we got sidetracked...I needed some warmer clothes than those I've been wearing (I sent warmer stuff home already doh!). After a bit of shopping by the hostel we headed off but again got waylaid and ended up in Paddy's Market in Chinatown rather than Wildlife World. It was like the Grand Bazaar in Istanbul, but with less agro from the vendors so all was well with the world. When we eventually made our way to WW we were not let down. It had a whole lot more to see than I expected and we got to see our first koala bears. They even had some little baby ones to look at...sooo sweet!!

The final site I saw in Sydney was the Pylon Lookout on the harbour bridge. I'd got a free pass after the bridge climb so took advantage and headed off to see what it was like from that height. While I was doing this Una was off exploring the Museum of Contemporary Art and the Botanical Gardens – both things on my list of stuff to do when I get back there.

My last full day in Sydney was spent visiting my old neighbours from home, the Dempseys. I was a bit nervous about seeing them given it has been about 16 years since I last saw them, but I was soon put at ease. They're still as warm and friendly as they were then, welcoming me into their homes and taking me out to lunch to catch up. It's weird to see someone I grew up with in what's become their home speaking with an Aussie accent when she used to sound just like me! Apparently I look exactly the same as I did when I was 4...so they wouldn't have walked by me in the street if they'd seen me because they'd have figured out it was me ;)

We bade farewell to Sydney to fly to Broome for a few days before getting on our next bus adventure.

The Adventure Continues...

...so here we are, post OzBUS, fending for ourselves with nobody to tell us where to be, when to be there and what we're doing everyday. Eeeek!! Scary times...or rather, exciting times!

The Lemmie and Loonie adventure continues...

We're currently in Sydney, wandering about trying to see as much as the city can show us in the week we've got here. So far she's been exposing herself quite a bit and we're loving it! We fly out of here on August 30th (*sob*) and head for Broome with Qantas (we've a stopover for a while in Melbourne and then an 8ish hour flight...crazy distances!!).

We'll get 4 nights to explore the area around Broome where I hope to soak up some sun again (Sydney is pretty darn cold...I've purchased jeans to replace the ones I sent home from Turkey!). On September 3rd we start a 10 day Adventure Tours trip from there to Perth (stops are mapped out on our map if you're interested) which looks like it's going to be a heck of a lot of fun. I'm hoping for a guide like the guy who dropped me to the helicopter pad in Katherine..he was bloody mental! Here's hoping for Pictionary on the windows of the bus :)

We've got a single night in Perth where we're hoping to meet up with Richard from the bus before we board the Indian Pacific train. After 2.5 days aboard that we'll pull into Adelaide for another visit to the Morgans. We'll pick up out rental van there (hoping for a cool spaceship name) and take about 4 days to drive the Great Ocean Road all the way to Melbourne.

All going to plan we'll meet up with the Galway Girls there and crash on their floor for the night before Loonie and I part ways *sniff*. That's gonna be a weird one..we'll have been in each others pockets for 4 months at that stage...crazy times!

So, throughout our remaining adventure we'll (read I'll) continue to post up our tales here. When the Lemmie & Loonie adventure is over, maybe I'll start a new blog..it's become part of my routine now ;)

Top 5's (Emma)

A quick off the top of my head top 5 from my OzBUS experience...if I had my journal it'd be a bit more scientific!

Top 5 Countries
================
1. Australia
2. Thailand
3. Nepal
4. Pakistan
5. Belgium

Top 5 Stops
============
1. Ko Samui
2. Bali
3. Chitwan
4. Bangkok
5. Bruges

Top 5 Places I've Slept
=======================
1. Jayakarta (Bali) * not an OzBUS location, we treated ourselves when we flew down early
2. Swag at Uluru (Yulara)
3. Hotel I can't remember the name of (Tehran)
4. Meninger Hostel (Vienna)
5. Home Bay Resort (Ko Samui)

Top 5 Activities **
====================
1. Canyon Swing @ Last Resort, Nepal
2. White Water Rafting @ Pokhara, Nepal
3. Everest Flight @ Kathmandu, Nepal
4. Hot-Air Ballooning @ Goreme, Turkey
5. Elephant Washing/Safari @ Chitwan, Nepal

** the Sydney Harbour Bridge Climb would be #1 had I done it during the OzBUS window

Top 5 Things I Miss From Home
=============================
1. Conor
2. The rest of my family and friends
3. My bed
4. Cooking my own dinner
5. Having clean clothes all the time


Despite not ending as I had imagined I've had the time of my life. The journey was immense, the company was fantastic and the craic was mighty. Would I do it all again given a do over?
Hell yea!

OzBUS Over And Out!

We made it to Sydney...the missing blog entries will be added at some stage this week to make the journey jigsaw complete. For now, all's you gotta know is that we arrived...everyone in one piece (except for Alex who's missing a fingernail). The drive was a few hours longer than expected and so it was getting pretty dark. Our driver appeared to get lost as we didn't make it to the Opera House for the final group picture...a shame...but who's going to complain and demand we drive on when there's a bus of people who have been desperate for the loo for hours and there's no time to stop. I'll get my own photo tomorrow...it'll be a day late getting to the Opera House but I can't count the trip as fully over and say I'm in Sydney proper without a picture there...guess it's the same smelly clothes for me tomorrow ;)

Final Group Picture

Fireworks to herald the arrival of OzBUS 9 to Sydney ;)

Day 91 (Sydney)

Up before the crack of dawn again this morning, but for the FINAL time! We awoke from slumber in our cabins in Narrandera with mixed emotions about the day ahead. For me, I was excited to get to Sydney and reach the end of the OzBUS portion of my journey - I was looking forward to the sense of achievement of having stuck with it when the going got tough for me (which is did a bit from time to time). But on the other hand I was sad about what the end of the trip would mean for the friendships that had been forged along the way. Some of the crew have become like my right arm so the thought of leaving them was quite upsetting.

Our only scheduled stop along the way was for a brief spell in Canberra. We pulled in there for an hour or so, grabbed a bite to eat, used the toilet facilities and were on the way again with an additional passenger aboard. Wombat's girlfriend's father..very random! He gave us an impromptu description of the sights as Wombat drove around (with what may have been the first genuine smile I saw on his face). It was nice to have things pointed out, though it reduces what I've got to see in Canberra considerably!

After that stop we were back on the road...limited toilet stops as we needed to push on to make it to Sydney while it was still bright enough to get a decent photo at the Opera House. We drove, and drove, and drove, and drove...we got to Sydney and it was bright, we got lost in Sydney and it got dark. We managed to end up quite lost and with Wombat tired as hell from the mammoth drive the Opera House photo was abandoned :(

I was gutted. That photo, though it may seem insignificant to some people was what acted as a proper close to the trip for me. To never get it, it sucks and at long last I could see where Todo was coming from with his "I'll be deflated if I don't see Everest" comment! But while clouds blocking a mountain will stop you seeing it, a dark sky with a glowing Opera House is better than no sky and no Opera House.

I suppose I could have said something, but realistically I wasn't going to kick off about because at that point we'd been on the road for hours and everyone was dying for the toilet (who supplies a bus for 12 hour drive days without a working toilet when there are little or no places to stop for a toilet?). So rather than finish things properly we were bussed to the hostel and turfed out there. A bitter disappointment for me. I'd filled out my comment card already so couldn't voice my disgust at how the trip ended, not cool guys, not cool at all!

As it was Richard's birthday I turned my frown upside down and went to join everyone at the Gaff for some celebratory drinks and foods. It turned out to be a great night, and the upset about the photo faded somewhat. I can do a funny photoshop of the Opera House over the picture we got in Canberra..not the same but at least it's something I guess?

Day 90 (Narrandera)

En route from Adelaide to Narrandera we had a brief stop at the Seven Hills winery for a tasting session run by Jesuit Monks. I tried as many as I could but found none that I liked enough to actually make a purchase.

The evening in Narrandera was spent in the ex-serviceman's club having some food and then while some of the others headed off to a bar to watch the rugby I headed back to the cabins with Mel to watch the Notebook. Of course I managed to fall asleep before the end so missed all the sobbing and crying that would have come my way.

Hard to believe that we'll be in Sydney tomorrow!!

Day 89 (Adelaide)

I didn't get to explore Adelaide on arrival today because I was collected from the hostel pretty much as soon as we arrived by the lovely Ann. She swept me off to her place to catch up with herself and Cerri and meet the adorable baby Aisling. A home cooked dinner and a proper bed for the night...BLISS!

We'll be back in Adelaide in mid-September when we catch the Indian Pacific train from Perth so I'll get some time to explore then.

For now, thanks for the hospitality guys! See you in a few weeks ;)

Day 87 & 88 (Yulara)

Why even begin with 'we had an early start' – it's standard by now ;)

Today's schedule began with a 6km sunrise hike through Kings Canyon which I thought was going to kill me at first, but turned out to be a really excellent experience. The initial 15 minutes or so of the hike was up an almost vertical climb along really steep steps up the side of a hill. The view from the top made the pounding heart and gasping for air all worth it. I contemplated turning back once I'd got my photo taken but since it was still pretty cool out and the sun hadn't yet heated up to scorcio temperatures I pressed on. I was glad I did because the place was vast with more gaps and holes than I knew to expect. Wombat gave up regular talks on what we were seeing and kept us moving to make sure we were back to the bus before it got way too cold.

When we got back to the carpark we picked up two new passengers – a couple, on honeymoon, who had been screwed over by their travel agent/tour operator. The bus they'd been put on was heading in the wrong direction, but luckily we could take them to where they needed to go so all was well with the world. They slung their bags into the luggage hold and hopped onboard – nice to be doing a good thing for people, good karma :)

Our lunch stop was at Kings Creek Station where they had activities like helicopter or camel rides, quad bikes and rodeo type show stuff. I had planned on going quad biking but given how tired I was from the 5am wake up call and all the climbing and clambering over the rocks at the canyon I passed – turned out the rest of them did too. After we'd had a bite to eat and some of the crew had done a camel ride we were on the road again - destination Uluru Cultural Centre to allow us time to see what the local Aboriginals had to say about Uluru and it's meaning to them. It was good to get this in before our visit to the rock the next day as it gave people a chance to get the guardians point of view on whether to climb or not rather than doing it and then regretting it later because you didn't understand why they don't want people climbing on it. I never had the intention – some people did, but happily after looking in the centre nobody wanted to anymore. Each to their own and if someone had decided to do it, fair enough that's their call and off with them, but I was proud of our crew for respecting the beliefs and wishes of the Aborigines. I think something that may have swayed some of them was the Sorry Book. I'd read about Uluru in my guide book and found out that they get on average between 2 and 4 letters a week from people who want to return pieces of the rock that they've taken as a souvenir. They've found that since they took it they've had misfortune and want to apologise for it and seek forgiveness. I leafed through one of the sorry books and some of the letters I found were quite scary to read. One guy in particular had developed cancer, kidney failure, several strokes, his marriage failed, his kids were taken away and his life was in tatters – coincidence maybe, but still enough to give anyone considering climbing the rock and disrespecting their beliefs something to think about.

I was on cook duty the first night at Yulara with Michelle and Alet. We were serving up kangaroo steaks, beef burgers and bangers with a green salad and homemade coleslaw. I got stuck in on the coleslaw straight away because I figured shredding enough cabbage and carrot for 22 people might take some time. I'm pleased that every single last scrap of coleslaw was devoured...nice :) Alet sorted out the salad and Michelle was left at the hotplate trying to BBQ for 22 having never done it before – talk about deep end! But she performed gallantly assisted by the lovely James and they served up a mountain of meat that people took 2nd and 3rd helpings of – so, so, so, so good...Mmmmm!

We were back to basic-ish camping facilities tonight so it was a choice between swags or tents..13 of us went with swags. At first they were spread all over but after some talk of spiders, snakes and insects that caused some alarm (particularly when there was a joke about ants in one of the swags) we reshuffled and placed them in a circular formation with all the heads at the centre (minus one swag that was off at the far end leaving Richard alone – sorry dude!). So we all slept there head by head for the night. I was sharing my mozzie net with Abby who managed to tie herself up in it so bad that I woke up to find my head completely uncovered and some kind of giant cockroach type insecty thing sharing my pillow. I would have freaked out more had I been a) more awake and b) able to get myself out of the liner/sleeping bag/swag parcel I was so tightly encased in. Instead I hoped it wasn't poisonous and blew it off onto the ground and grabbed some more mozzie net for myself.

Again we were up at 5am, but this time to get us to the sunrise view point for Uluru and boy was it worth it – magic! From there we drove to one of the entrances to the base walk where we started off and did loop that was just shy of 10kms. We were careful to take pictures only in the areas that it was allowed and stuck to the path the whole way around. I know it's a giant red rock in the middle of nowhere – but it's a damn impressive giant red rock. Every angle of it was different, it was awe inspiring. When we finished up the base walk we met up with Wombat who took us on the Marla Walk and provided the interpretation of the rock for that portion. It was nice to have someone point stuff out to us for a while rather than just walking around wondering if there was any significance to the portion of the rock we were looking at.

Lunch was at Yulara shopping area where I did a spot of retail therapy. I got me a new shirt, flip-flops and a didgeridoo. Been looking for one that's got the traditional colours and isn't too big or heavy for getting home – got the perfect one, now all's I've got to do is figure out whether I'll try to learn to play it (I bought the instructional CD) or use it for decorative purposes.

After lunch we went to see the Olgas and a good number of the crew went walk about for a few hours there. I stayed behind at the bus because I'd managed to twist my knee in my sleep during the bug incident and having done the base walk on it earlier in the day it was quite sore at that stage. Rested up and it feels much better now :)

When everybody got back we moved on to the sunset viewing point for Uluru which was magical. We had champagne and nibbles (didn't really needed food afterwards). It was a pretty special time...kinda wished I was there in different circumstances. Love this group like family, but miss my family if ya get my meaning.

Back at camp the chef team cooked up a delicious chicken stir fry that we struggled to eat. I spent most of the evening sorting out blog entries and photos so by the time I was ready to sit by the campfire almost everyone was already tucked up in their swags. I managed to recruit Libby to come with me to the lookout a short walk from the camp to see if the stars were more visible than the previous night. We were pleasantly surprised. The sky was lit up with stars and the Milky Way was awesome. We got to see some shooting stars which was pretty class. When we got back to the camp I bunked down in my swag with a really clear view of the stars. Now here we are, 3 nights left on the trip – Coober Pedy, Adelaide and Narrandera. Then we pull into Sydney and after a blowout to celebrate Richard's birthday and us making it to Sydney we go our separate ways. It's weird..and as much as it surprises me...I'm not sure I'm happy about it!

Day 86 (Kings Canyon)

Kings Canyon Resort takes the piss out of camping...or at least removes the ability to call it camping when you're travelling with Adventure Tours – it's called Safari in Style Dahhhling ;)

I'm not complaining, I have to admit I loved my pre-erected tent complete with bed dressed with not one but two duvets and a towel!! Crazy!! I have however carried my roll mat all the way from Dublin to have used it only 2 times – once in Brugge on the first night when the bunk beds were so lopsided I couldn't risk climbing up in case I flatten Una and then once again somewhere in Turkey, again in a hostel not a campsite. Why am I still carrying it, well cos I paid for it and it's now a nice padded home for my boomerang ;)

We didn't get up to much after the free morning in Alice Springs..we spent the rest of the day driving with a stop or two at roadhouses on the route. One of those was at Mt Ebenezer where we checked out the gallery and had a quick snack. What was surprising about the day was that around 3pm something unusual happened – it started raining! We've not seen rain in quite a while (Ko Samui is the last I remember off the top of my head). We got off the bus at the roadhouse and everyone made a dash for the door to avoid getting too wet..all of us running around in our skimpy t's and shorts complete with flip-flops....what a sight!

I spent most of the evening sorting out photo backups (for me and a few others on the bus – we use electricity when we can!) and drinking stubbies. We're getting into the Australian spirit good and proper :)

Day 85 & 86 (Alice Springs)

Alice, alice...who the f#*k is Alice?!?

After a long, long, long 12 hours on the road we pulled up to Haven Backpacker Resort in Alice Springs. We'd had stops along the way for a photo opportunity at the Devil's Marbles, at Wycliffe Wells which is possibly one of the weirdest places I've ever been (it's known as a centre for UFO's and has a really high report rate for extraterrestrial activity), Barrow Creek (where there's a famous Telegraph Station where the workers were killed by Aboriginal men a long time back) and Ti-Tree to see a mango farm – or rather taste their ice-cream. We crossed the Tropic of Capricorn and I got some pretty good sunset shots, one of which I'm considering for a canvas print when I get home.

For our evening in Alice we headed out to Bojangles where I had my first full kangaroo steak..Mmmmm so tasty! Not sure it'd surpass beef steak in my hierarchy of deliciousness – but it was damn nice. The Galway Girls were shouted to a round of drinks from one of their mates at home who logged onto the Bojangles website to see the live stream.

The next day we were leaving for Kings Canyon but first we had a free morning to explore all that Alice had to offer – the Flying Doctors, School in the Air, Reptile Centre and the Desert Park. Unfortunately Una and I managed only a single one of those (though I'd like to think the best). We hired bikes from the hostel and cycled off into the desert in search of the Desert Park. Yes, I realise it's a bit weird to go to the desert to see the desert...that's exactly what Bill Bryson's mate thought in Down Under (I finished it a few days ago). But...it makes perfect sense! They've created three ecosystems in the Alice Springs Desert Park – Riverbed, Sand and Woodland, each being completely different. The cycle out was refreshing..so nice to be off the bus and surprisingly I managed to do the whole thing without having to get off and walk or getting red in the face – miraculous! Una wasn't as happy saying that had it been a walk or a swim to get there she'd be happy out but biking just ain't her thing. By the time we got there we had about an hour to spend wandering the place before we needed to get on our bikes and get back to the hostel for the drive to Kings Canyon – not the best when they suggest a minimum of 3 hours to see the place in its entirety. Thankfully the guides onsite were really good and were able to tell us the must see sections and what would be advisable to skip to be able to get the most for our $20. It was amazing to walk just a couple of paces and see the landscape change so dramatically between the three areas. We got to walk around live kangaroos that were bouncing around the place and saw a wealth of plants and birds too. Well worth the energy it took to cycle out and the cycle back in while battling the wind and creating a jet-stream to make the ride a little bit easier for Una.

Verdict on Alice Springs, a nice place to stop and I'd definitely consider going back to see the attractions that I missed out on. It seems like a small enough place but I didn't really see enough of it.

Day 84 (Daly Waters)

There was another group staying at the same camp area as us in Katherine and one of the passengers needed one of us to sign up for a helicopter ride over the Katherine Gorge in order for her to be able to fly. It was $75 AUS for 10 minutes which would allow you to see 3 of the gorges. I was booked onto the two gorge cruise but thought this might be a nice way to see the place too so signed up along with Annie, Todd and Kim. The 4 of us headed off to the launchpad at 6.45am and met the pilot who had been dubbed Hottie McHot by the girls who wanted lots of pictures of him to drool over when I got back to the bus. The helicopter was teeny tiny, a four seater meaning there would be two trips to get us all up there. I'd forgotten about the standing on the scales part of helicoptering but was pleasantly surprised that though I thought I'd put all my parasite weight loss back on, I'm still hanging in there at my slightly lighter weight. Annie went up first with Patti the Canadian from the other group, leaving Kim, Todd and I for the 2nd flight. True to his word he had them back in 10 minutes and then took us up – I got the front seat which was pretty cool because of the way the glass curves into the floor so looking down it looked like my seat was floating on air. It was pretty cool to see the gorge that way but I'm not convinced it was worth the money, still it gives me another mode of transport to add to my list for the trip :)

After we'd finished there we headed to the Katherine Gorge information centre to meet up with the rest of the gang in time for the cruise. A big contingent of the passengers had hired out two person canoes to paddle their way up the first gorge. As cool as the cruise was (two boats with a bit of a walk in between to move between gorges) I instantly regretted not taking a canoe out when I saw how cool it looked and how still the water was. I expected something like the white water rapids river (naïve) so thought I'd struggle with it having no real canoe experience, but I would definitely have been able for it. You live, you learn!

When everyone was back from the boat or canoe we took to the road to go for an art lesson with an Aboriginal artist who's work was on display at a local gallery. We sat with him as he explained how he had learned to paint in the traditional way and how he loved the skills that he had learned and enjoyed it as his profession and his hobby. He was darn impressive on the didgeridoo too! When he'd finished giving us a talk about painting he encouraged us to paint our own little masterpieces. Mine didn't turn out the best, but it's not too shabby either. When we'd finished our painting we headed toward the bus where Wombat had BBQ'd a feast for us – so incredibly tasty!!

Within a minute or two of leaving the gallery we pulled over to see some camels at the roadside that Wombat called Cam and Mel..I'm not too sure if that was his sense of humour or the actual names of the camels – either way they were a nice distraction. I fed them some bread and had my photo taken with them narrowly avoiding having my hair eaten when I was found to have run out of bread. They looked a whole lot happier and healthier than the ones we'd seen in Pakistan which was a good thing.

The next stop was Mataranka Thermal Pool where pretty much everyone went for a dip. The water was incredibly clear and a wonderfully warm temperature. Again the camera came out for some water shots (I've since found out that the camera shouldn't be used in natural springs...all seems to be functioning ok but it's a big oops on my part!)

When we finally reached our destination for the night we saw just how empty the outback communities are. We were staying in Daly Waters that had a pub as it's centrepiece and not a whole lot more to be honest. The pub had a whole lot of character which totally made up for the lack of other facilities. They had underwear strewn from the rafters, graffiti'd money from all over the world, id's from workplaces/colleges/schools etc all stapled to the walls, a collection of Irish GAA jerseys (none from Wexford [I reckon that needs to be remedied when I get back]), shirts, flipflops and pretty much everything else you would imagine!! The flipflops had their own section called the Thong Tree, I've never seen such a weird area in a pub (and I've been in some pretty weird pubs). I had their Beef & Barra dinner, the house speciality and the finest meal I've had in a while and washed it down with a few mugs of local brew. I added some Indonesian Rupiah's with our blog address posted to the pillar at the end of the bar and signed my name to the bottom of the Irish flag. Since we were missing a yella belly jersey I went with my backup county and signed the Dublin jersey...roots are still yella but after 10 years in Dublin, I've got a blue tinge ;)

Todd produced a brand-spanking new, whiter than white t-shirt that he's been carrying from Ireland for the group to sign and hang. April as the artiste responsible for our official OzBUS 9 t-shirts direct from Kathmandu (Una's seam ripped the first time she wore it, my arm stitching has a whole since my first time) was recruited to recreate the design on plain white for everyone else to then sign. My inscription reads 'Living the Dream. Loving Life.' Una's reads 'Hey Dudes! Oz Rocks! Thank you. Go raibh mile maith agat o Eire :)'. If you make it to Daly Waters have a look for it..pride of place when you walk into the bar from the outside seating area beside the BBQ.

After a few too many beers my accommodation for the night was an oversized sleeping bag called a swag. I chose this over a tent or paying for an upgrade to get me a room in the pub for the night. Una, Jacinta, Emily & Ana also elected to sleep under the stars. After the initial panic of 'oh my god what about the poisonous snakes/spiders/god knows what else!' we relaxed into it and enjoyed the view for the night, waking up the next morning to a kick from Wombat telling us it was crazy o'clock and time to get up to make a move and wiping the dew off our faces.

Daly Waters verdict, nice to have seen, but I wouldn't be tempted by the bar jobs they had on offer..it's way too Bally-Go-Backward for me!!

Day 83 (Katherine)

On the road again today to make our way from Kakadu to Katherine for overnight camping in another pre-erected campsite on a Cattle Station, how very Australian! Today Mel left us to head back to Darwin to wait for a few days to get a road train down from the Top End, through the Red Centre where she'll catch up with us in Coober Pedy. Half thought about going with her, but as I've not seen any of the sites and it seems like we're going to see a LOT I thought better of it and stuck with the bus.

We got up early to go for a walk around Mamukala Wetlands to see some landscape and wildlife. The place had lots of birds to be seen and we spotted a few wild wallabies too. It was pretty hot on the walk and I've never been quite so swarmed by flies in my life..they were crawling all over me even with my bug spray on (note I think Aussie flies might not respond to European spray so I need to invest in some new stuff).

From the wetlands we headed to Warradjan Aboriginal Cultural Centre where we had a half hour or so to explore the exhibitions and learn a bit more history and culture. I managed to get through the whole centre by speed reading most of the signs, but a few of the others didn't manage to get everything read before we were ushered out again. It's a case a lot of the time, tight schedules and short stops all the way to make sure we're maximising distance travelled each day during daylight hours.

We had another stop before we got to the campsite and that was at Edith Falls. This place was beautiful, we strolled from the bus to the lakeside and took in the scenery while pondering if we were willing to risk swimming given the 'swim at your own risk, there may be crocodiles in there' warning signs around the place. The signs did say that it was freshwater so the crocodiles to be expected in there would be the ones that we didn't need to be too scared of, but they couldn't guarantee there were no salties in there...so....we went swimming of course :) I got to test out my new camera's underwater shoot mode and ability to withstand being submersed in water (not up to 10metres..I didn't go that deep into the water). A good number of the gang swam over to the waterfall and frolicked about there, of course mermaid Una was one of the first to start the swim over, water baby if ever I've seen one! I wanted to but am not that strong a swimmer and having almost drowned myself twice already on the trip (White Water Rafting in Nepal and swimming in the Green Canyon in Indonesia) I wasn't brave enough to try it. The waterfall was a good distance away with nothing to cling to if I got into trouble so I mucked about in the shallower water. Everyone survived the swim with a 0% crocodile incident rate to be reported :)

We got to the cattle station and Wombat and James got a bonfire started (first one of the trip) and the cooks for the night got started on our bolagnese. After dinner the campfire became the place to be with quality tuneage on the speakers and beers in hand while admiring the night sky. Wombat pointed out the Southern Cross and the Emu that was perched on it meaning it's time to eat Emu. My super cool laser purchased in Bangkok came in useful to point out the stars to people who were having trouble seeing them. I had my first glance at the Milky Way..and it was magic. Looking forward to having a constellation tutorial from Conor when he gets here...hurry up!!

There was a casualty from the day..Alex lost his little fingernail on his left hand after a log from the fireside fell on/crushed it..not a pretty sight at all. He was really calm about the whole thing, as I said, if it had been me thread have been a call to the Flying Doctors ;) It was the first time that I've heard a swearword from him on the whole trip...and that was because I provoked him by filming as Libby was patching him up. No amputation required, but he does deserve an 'I've been brave at the campfire' badge or something!

Day 82 (Kakadu)

Let the Oz Adventure begin in earnest now...we're back on the bus (another different one, supplied by Adventure Tours) and starting our route down from the Top End through the Red Centre and then across to Sydney. In eleven days time we'll be pulling up at the Opera House..which is really hard to believe.

We met our driver and guide for our Oz travel – a guy called Wombat, a Tazzie native who's on his 6th year of touring with Adventure Tours. Una struggled to figure out who he reminded her of, but it came to me almost as soon as I met him...he's like a younger version of my dad. Resembles him a lot in appearance and manner which is freaky! He's got a jam packed schedule for us which means we'll get to see a whole lot of Oz before we even make it to Sydney. That's ace and will help me in my aim to cover as much ground as possible in my time in Australia. It's great to see how packed an itinerary Adventure Tours have for us especially since Una and I have booked another one of their routes from Broome – Perth (10 day road trip in a 24 seater bus) starting a week after we finish up with OzBUS....Nice ;)

We bade farewell to our hostel wondering what the campsite was going to be like that night in Kakadu. I had visions of a mouldy old tent that you'd see in the movies when scouts go camping...how wrong I was! We were staying at the Kakadu Lodge in pre-erected tents with roll-mats already provided (why am I still carrying mine..I've used it a grand total of twice now!). There was a big mess hall for cooking and eating and an excellent shower and toilet block...not exactly camping...more like luxury camping but I'm not complaining ;)

Before we got to the campsite we had a few stops on the drive. First port of call was to see the Jumping Crocodiles which I had seen advertised as a tour from Darwin in the hostel and thought it looked quite interesting. When we got to the site, Wombat went into the info centre and returned with a snake that we were allowed to hold – I wanted to, but couldn't bring myself to do it..I did touch it and rub it's skin but it felt too weird and having seen it wrap itself quite tightly around Mel's neck I was having none of it.

I did sign up for the crocodile cruise where they took us out on the river on a pretty sizeable boat for an hour or so and found some saltwater crocodiles to feed. We pulled up along side the crocs and then Sissy the feeding lady plopped a big chunk of meat into the water and splashed it about a bit to attract the croc to it. Then when the croc had it in sight and came over to snap at it, the chunk of meat was pulled back up from the water at speed and the croc launched itself out of the water to try get it. She got them to jump once or twice before letting them take the chunk of meat. Pretty awesome sight..especially when two crocs tried to go for the same bit of meat and started fighting right in front of me..I of course was in too much shock to get a picture of it, but it was awesome! On the ride back to the port, they fed some of the birds that were flying around us. She then threw a chunk of meat the same size as they'd used for the crocs into the air and the biggest bird I've ever seen swooped from nowhere and grabbed it from mid-air..whooshhh! She they tossed out small cubes of meat that smaller birds flew in to grab – every piece of meat ended up with a bird, not one of them fell through to the water.

After the fun and games with the crocs we moved on to meet some local Aboriginals - Graham and his mob. They performed the 'Welcome to Country' ceremony for us which involved one of the men from the mob (Stephen) getting water from the billabong, sucking it into his mouth from a piece of wood and then spitting it out onto each of our foreheads. It was a bit weird to have someone spit on my while I stood there willing to take it, but it was pretty cool to take part in the ceremony and a nice way to start off our journey. After the ceremony he took us on a bush walk showing us the plants that they use for tools and handicrafts. He also showed us a bush cooker before introducing us to some of his family who gave us an impromptu didgeridoo show. They explained how in order to find the right piece of wood for the instrument they go walkabout and bang random trees that look like they'd make a good one to check how hollow it has been made by the termites in the area. They also explained how they go about finishing it off and the significance of the colours and decorations used to dress it up. We got to have a go...I was actually reasonably ok. I'd need to work on my rhythmic breathing if I wanted to make a career of it though. Got the sound right but couldn't get it to continue on like they do, there's a definite trick to it :) From there we moved on to trying our hand a spear throwing, again something I did quite well and it was the general consensus in the splinter group that should we need to get some bushtucker I'd be the spear thrower..not sure that'd be a great idea as I had no aim whatsoever, all's I could do was launch it nicely and get it to travel quite far (much like my arm in softball ;P get that in there before any of you guys comment!). Next up we tried our hand at making rope for the weaving projects that Graham's daughters and other female family members are working on. It was tough to try get the fibre from the plant..in the end I had to take some from the girls because I couldn't manage it. My rope did turn out pretty good though and wasn't far off the quality of the one the girls gave me as a souvenir :)

Our first exposure to Aboriginal culture was a great one, I really enjoyed the time we spent talking to them and hearing what they had to say. The next step was Ubirr to see some rock art and watch the sunset over the floodplains. This was the perfect end to a wonderful day. The rockart at Ubirr was really cool, clambering over big rock formations to climb up to the viewing point for sunset was ace. When we were up there looking out over the land Wombat told us a bit more about Bill Neijdie an aboriginal leader who along with his kin have leased Kakadu to the Australian Government for all to share. The words he paraphrased from Bill were quite touching and made me feel a really strong connection to the place...

“Earth... Like your father or brother of mother, because you born from earth, you got to come back to Earth. When you dead... That's your bone, your blood. It's in this Earth.”

This highlights the Aboriginal belief that people belong to their land. The soul or a person is born from the land and returns to it after death. Bill made the sacrifice to break from tradition and allow his name and image be used after his death. In his culture his name and image shouldn't be used for a few years after his death as in doing so he will be distracted from his path back to his birthplace, but people say he's such a strong character and great guy that he'll make it back regardless :)

So far Australia is surpassing my expectations so I can't wait to see what else there is to come!!