So my last blog entry ended in a bit of a hurry. I was due to meet up with some friends so didn't get the chance to write about my the final few days and final tour of Australia that I had promised. SO here you go...

The Buffalo Dreaming Tour

I have to say this was my favourite part of Australia. Despite the ridiculous humidityand temperature, the bugs and little beasties trying to nibble or devour you and the sudden down pour of rain due my choice to travel in the rainy season, the shear beauty of this area outweighs all those things.

With four days left in the country I set off from Darwin on my final tour. There were a few people on the four wheel mini bus that were on my previous trip so it was a nice mix of friendly faces and even friendlier new ones.

We set off for Kakadu National Park....just as the heavens opened. Unfortunately the bus wasn't as water tight as I would have liked so there was a sudden scramble to find a safe dry spot for our possessions as well as a position I could sit and fall asleep as we drove where I wouldn't get soaked. We were surprisingly lucky though and the rain didn't last.

Our first stop was an area of Kakadu where there were more sacred spots, just like those at Uluru. There were may rock facces that were covered in aboriginal art that ranged from thousand years ago to a few hundred.

It was fascinating to hear all the stories connected to the paintings. But as we were not aboriginal or part of any of their communities we were not allowed to know the full meaning of the paintings. We were only told the children's versions of the stories , that was as much as we were allowed to know! But there were many different levels to the stories that children would find out as they got older.

Their language was not originally a written one so they passed on knowledge through the spoken word and images. But you could only understand the images if you were told by the elders.

We were told that these stories helped the community to function in a really interesting way. When the children got to a certain age the boys would go with the elder men and the girls with the woman. Each group would be told the deeper meanings to the stories, and these stories gave them skills e.g. the boys might learn how to hunt fish correctly and the girls would be taught which part of the fish was safe to eat when cooking it. Neither group knew what the other was learning, therefore they needed eachother to survive. A pretty good set up eh?

We were also shown images that had helped to date how old they were. For example there was a painting in white of a man with his hands in his pockets. This simple image straight away told us it was only a few hundred years old. Aboriginal people didn't wear clothes with pockets and their skin wasn't white so this picture must have been an image of what they saw when people from Europe landed on he Australian coast, which was around 1600. It was pretty cool to see this evidence and understand it.

After we explored the art and tried to work out the meanings of images, we climbed up some rocks and I was not expecting what I saw. We were pretty high up and all I could see was this lush, bright green swamp land. It was beautiful and stretching for miles. A few mountains could be seen in the distance and the noise of the crikets, frogs and birds echoed around us. One-by-one we all fell silent, and without speakign to eachother we each found a spot and just sat and looked out. It was so peaceful and we were all hypnotized by it.

We sat there for quite a while, until our guide, Tommy, told us it was time to move on. Reluctantly we dragged ourselves away and clambered back down the rocks.

When then headed to our campsite where we got to have a lovely refreshing swim before dinner and bed in more tents, ready for an early start and more exploring the next day.

The next morning we went on a crocodile hunt, and the biggest croc I saw was.........

Well I didn't actually see one. Which was a shame but I did see lots of native birds some of which I had only seen in books as a child and was amazed to see, such as kingfishers and bee-eaters. We also saw a Sea Eagle which initially I wasn't too impressed by because we only saw at a distance and I couldn't hear our guide very clearly and I thought she was saying Seagull. I see plenty of them back home! But as we got closer it did look quite magnificant and it's nest was huge!

After our boat ride we went on an adventure into the bush, and I really cannot describe the humidity at this point. The temperature hot! The air sticky! Within seconds of getting of the air-con bus you were covered in beads of sweat. But we had a promise of a waterfall at the end of our hike so it was not something to fuss about.

As we walked through grass that reached above our heads, we all commented on how it felt like we were in Jurassic Park, there were no other humans around us and the odd kangaroo family hopping off in the distance could easily have been mistaken for Gallimimus.

Needless to say, we made it to our waterfall without seeing any prehistoric creatures and were rewarded with a refreshing swimming and a pummerling massage under the waterfall itself.

Once we returned to the bus we headed to our final campsite of the tour. I was apprehensive as to what it might be as, although I do love living at one with nature, I was not getting much sleep with all the bugs and spiders about me and the temperature remaining in the high 20s. So you can imagine my excitement when we rock up and shown.....rooms! Rooms with 4 walls, a ceiling, beds and....wait for it....air-con! Oh I was so happy! And that night I slept very well!

Our final day was filled with many more waterfalls, so of which we could swim in and others not, due to the elusive crocodiles. Each location was beautiful and many photos were taken. However one of the most unusual places we went to was to see the termite mounds.

They were massive! If you look at my pictures you will see one that is 6m tall, so it is about 60 years old. It is amazing that such small creatures could make something so big! And they were rock solid!

But before long it was time to return to Darwin. Myself and couple of the other girls explored the city of Darwin and in the evening we all meet for a farewell meal.

Then, after 2 and half months in Australia, it was time for me to leave and move on to my last country Cambodia! I was nervous but excited to see my friends and this country I had heard so much about.

Want to find out what has been going on there? Better read my next blog...