DARWIN - ALICE SPRINGS - CAIRNS - CAPE TRIBULATION

Okay then dear reader welcome to the next leg of our journey... Australia . But before I begin did you know that if you lay Oz over Europe, the West coast starting in Ireland , the East coast will finish up near Russia - that's just how big this country is. You can now 'wow' people with that fact at dinner parties!

Right then... we landed at Darwin airport at an ungodly hour and had a few hours to kill before the shuttle buses ran. It was at this point we sat down and had a major stress about finances... up until now everything had been incredibly cheap, but when thinking that the cost of a couple of coffees at the airport cafe was a daily budget in Thailand we were going to have to pull in our, now rather manky, money belts. Gone were the days of our own room and en suite bathroom for pennies, we were now officially 'proper backpackers' in shared dorms and bathrooms. We'd be lying if we said it wasn't a little bit of a come-down, but on the whole I would say the pro's outweighed the cons, meeting new people everyday with stories of where they had just been or where they were off to, giving you pointers on what to look out for, sharing a drink and experiences - this is what we came to love about traveling in Australia.

We started our Australian adventure in the Northern Territories, a place quite unlike the rest of the East Coast, which is more touristy and hedonistic compared to laid back 'it'll come good' attitude of NT. To come to the Northern Territory you have to like the great outdoors and there is a lot of outdoors to see. Darwin is next to Litchfield and Kakadu National Parks - places of immense beauty and history and riddled with animals that really do want to kill you. Crocodiles are everywhere, spiders the size of dinner plates hang between trees daring you to walk near them, cassowarys (pre-historic looking birds about the size of an ostrich) want to disembowel you with their feet and the flies.... they are everywhere and they WILL find you (apparently they pooh 4 times every minute, which is nice). We visited Litchfield in a campervan that had seen better days (where we were allowed to have our own campfire each night - take a lesson UK campsites!!), went to an outdoors 'deckchair' cinema, fed fish that swam in from the sea and fed and held crocodiles, and that was just the first 10 days! The rest of the time you could have found the 2 of us lounging in the pool of our hostel, yes a pool, we are poorly backpackers don't you know (any NT resident worth their salt has a pool, for sanity reasons (40 degrees with 100 per cent humidity anyone??), and all the backpackers hostels are the same, so it wasn't really that extravagant dear reader!!). It was the people that had the biggest impression mind. After 10 days in our hostel here, we knew more people living down our street than we did after 4 years living in the same road in Hounslow, is that over friendly Australia , or unfriendly Hounslow, we'll let you make the call on that one! We were very sad to leave this charming (and again extremely hot! 36 degrees daily!) part of the world, it had the small town feel about the place, but the folks had a big wide hello for us.

We flew down to Alice Springs where we embarked on a 3 day journey to Uluru (Ayers Rock). 21 of us got on a bus strangers but emerged 3 days later good friends - someone told us before we went that nothing makes you bond with people quicker than sleeping with them under the stars and it's true. We saw the Valley of the winds, Kings Canyon, Mount Connor which we were told was called 'Fool-a-roo' as it looks the spitting image of the 'big red rock' and of course we saw the mighty Uluru. Our guide was an amazing guy, our driver, cook, walk leader, and most importantly our insight into the Ananu (local Aboriginal tribesmen) life and culture, we certainly have a new insight into this rich and interesting culture, with tales of snakes and wagtails, a strict moral code and ways of enforcing it, and a sense of belonging and loving such an apparently hostile terrain, also the shame felt by himself and of course ourselves at their treatment at the hands of the original English pioneers and the past Australian settlers. The historical and cultural teachings passed on to us, certainly enriched our understanding, not only of 'The Rock', but of the many sacred places across this gargantuan country. We slept in swags (giant sleeping bags with mattresses in them that kept us nice and toasty), stared at the most stars we have ever seen in the middle of nowhere (literally, our campsite was hundreds of miles from anything that resembled civilization), ate kangaroo tail by bonfire light, bush toileted and drank goon (cheap nasty wine!), with our new family. A superb experience, the 3 days spent around Alice Springs and Uluru have left many many lasting memories.

Leaving the Northern Territory behind we moved onto Cairns in Queensland . Up until then we had met only great fellow travelers and people we liked sharing dorms with, but here we were to meet the first annoying 'roomies' and what made it all the worse is that they were English!! Damn right rude, messy and selfish, 2 nights with them and we were pissed off enough to want to move on ASAP. So where do you go when you want to escape the 'Skins' type yoof?? Cape Tribulation of course! A extremely isolated, self sustaining rainforest community, we booked ourselves on the first bus out of town to Cape Tribulation - one of the only places in the world where a rainforest comes out to meet the ocean. Up until then we hadn't really done any 'adventure sports' as such, not being too keen on the whole bungy jumping, skydiving thing we opted for a Jungle Surf! We were hoisted 25 metres into the air, where we then zip linned through the rainforest! Being the rainforest we shouldn't have been surprised when we did get rained on - alot, but we got caught out a few times and had a few soakings (see the pictures!). It certainly lived up to it's World Heritage status, with some of the most ancient rainforests on earth, and beeches that would make Judith Chalmers pee herself (not that tricky these days at her age perhaps!!:)), it was a wild and untamed kind of place, which even though it rained as much as it shined, we wished we had had longer to explore.

So there you have it dear reader, already a few weeks into our Oz adventure and still so much to tell you, but that will have to wait until next time!

More when there's more!

JnJ