Hi Everyone

Thought I would give another update since my last entry from Alice Springs.....so......

I caught a greyhound night bus up to a small town called Katherine which took a fair while as our bus kept breaking down. Ironically at one point our bus driver who was clearly Meatloaf's biggest fan was playing Bat out of Hell as we crawled along at snail pace. W replaced our vehicle, resumed ten hours of Meatloaf and drove through miles and miles of desert with an occasional kangaroo hitting the front of the bus.

We finally got to Katherine and I looked around bleakly as I was the only person getting off. I could see why as it was a pretty crap small outback town with very little to commend it for. It felt very creepy and I had the feeling that the longer I spent there the more likely I could end up buried in someone's basement. However, I had wanted to come to somewhere remote like this and so took a deep breath and went off to look for accommodation. The weather alone would be enough to put most people off coming here as not only is it 38 degrees but the humidity is about 80 percent and is unbelievably tiring.

However, the main thing to do in Katherine is to visit the beautiful gorge here, which is worth going to. I spent a day at the Gorge where you catch different boats and walk along the rocks between the gorges to see the different birds, waterfalls and high rock walls jutting up above you.

I then went up to Darwin for the last few days of my time in Oz and the highlight here was to visit the nearby Kakadu National Park. The park is enormous and goes for miles, so it would take weeks to really expore it. However, I saw some of the best parts including Nourangie rock where there is some of the best rock art in Australia and the Yellow water billabong and nearby Alligator River where we did a cruise and saw loads of crocs. This was great as we had lots of croc action with the above star croc eating a fish nearby and a rather scary looking huge old croc who has obviously been in a fight and had half his tail bitten off. There were also loads of eagles and other birds including ones who could walk across water known appropriately as the Jesus bird and others who were doing mating dances on the shore.

I stocked up on some Christmas presents to take home for my family and then it was time to say goodbye to Australia and head to the last place on my tour.

Cheers

Samantha