Hey!

Kat and I didn't end up going to the night market in the end.... Alcohol got the better of us, which wasn't very wise considering I had to join a tour to Kakadu at 6.30 the next morning, and I didn't get to bed until 3.30! And, I didn't get a kebab. I had carrots. Gr!

Today is Monday (I think!) Left for Kakadu National Park on Fri morning and got back yesterday evening. Kakadu is the largest National Park in Oz, and the second largest in the world. It's world heritage listed as well, so twas pretty special! It's probably the best tour I've done - after the Whitsundays and Fraser Island.

We started off on a little boat cruise on the Adelaide river, to break up the journey to Kakadu as it's about a 3 hour drive! It was a jumping crocodile tour, where there were guys on the boat dangling chunks of meat over the side of the boat to get them to jump out of the water. Was pretty good - there were some cool eagles and kites flying around too. Did a croc boat cruise up in North Queensland, but this one was probably better! They're huge - and you don't really get to see that unless they're out of the water.

Then headed on to Kakadu and stopped at a few little bits on the way - had a look at some termite mounds and stuff like that. Then did a walk around Nourlangie rock, on the eastern edge of the park. Saw a bit of aboriginal art which was pretty cool - Vera and Sarah didn't want to walk around Uluru, so this was the first time I'd seen some. Headed back to camp - slept in mosquito nets tent thingys under the stars. Kangaroo and buffalo sausages cooked on the cmpfire and a bit of didgeridoo playing! Haha. Dan, our tour guide found a huntsman spider in the toilets and decided to bring it back, Sam volunteered to have it crawl all over him. Ew. They're big and hairy. They're poisonous but it wouldn't kill you, and apparently they don't really bite very often - they eat all the littler venomous spiders. Oo I just remembered that on our first night in the van with the guys and Kat, she decided to bring a tree frog back from the toilet wrapped in loo roll and give it John as a present - he didn't appreciate it but we all thought it was hilarious! I just thought I'd write that in lol.

Next morning up bright and early again, to do a boat ride down to Twin Falls and a walk to it. (On a side note - there is the most irritating woman sitting next to me and I think I may punch her). Headed over to Jim Jim falls for lunchtime for a walk around there - on in my case an uncoordinated stumble over a load of wet rocks. I have discovered that me and rocks do not go well together as I am the slowest person in the world walking over them, and tend to pick the most complicated route for myself. Jim Jim Falls was nice - but it was dry. Would love to see it in the wet season - but I don't think you can get there becasue the dirt track to it, floods. Did some swimming here though - there are no crocs in the water! There were loads of extra little water holes you could clamber over too - but they were all pretty freeezing cos the rock formations blocked the sunlight. Nice though!

Then the group divided and half went home, and the rest of us carried on for a third day. Left with 2 big rugby player Italian guys, a Taiwanese couple, Colette and Lilly (two english girls!) and a German called Sven. Oo before that, in the group there was a girl from Redditch who is on my flight to Singapore. And a nice lady called Di - turned out she was Dale's Mom's sisters sister-in-law - haha. If you got that. Small world!

So we went to camp and had lamb chops for tea! This trip had really good food - I don't get to eat meat very often! Although, I did notice in these photos that I have a fat face - eating s*** (especially Jason's amazing desserts in Melbourne!) has taken its toll on me! Haha. Asia will hopefully get rid of that though! Had a few beers, a mini swim and got up bright and early the next morning for a steep walk up to some gorgeous rockpools. Spent the morning there swimming and trying to take photos haha.

Was really nice! Dan our tourguide knew loads about the area and the aboriginals, which made it good toooooo. My camera battery died toward the end of the last day - missed out on pics of them burning the bush land. The park officials do this periodically (as the aboriginals do - it's their technique originally) to prevent wild fires. After the wet season, grasses can reach six foot high, and wild fires then would spread quickly. So, it's burnt off before it gets this high, and this in turn helps the new stuff to grow. All very exciting. Haha. Would have been a cool photo though! On the way back to Darwin stopped in a pub where the water buffalo from Crocodile Dundee lives! He died there, and was stuffed and lives in the bar. Bloody huuuge he is!

Dan offered me a lift down from Darwin to Alice Springs/Uluru and Kings Canyon to spend some time there and live the aboriginal way of life - his best mates are aboriginal. So hopefully that'll happen, as that'd be amaaazing! He has a 4WD so I can see the bits I wanted to before, but couldn't. I also want to go either to Alice Springs to work, or work in a roadhouse in the outback somewhere... I loved it there and they wages are much higher! Found a flight which I am going to book now - under 300 quid for a one way to Darwin! YAY!

Anyhoo. I'm probably off to get drunk. Haha. After my free food! Of course.