I just realised, I don't actually mention the BEER! It was the catchphrase of the tours from Alice Springs up to Darwin.

24/04/13

Day 1 of the next tour! Alice Springs to Darwin! Pretty dull start, stopping at the tropic of Capricorn (nothing to see), a telegraph station and a roadhouse for lunch. Lunch was great, everyone on this tour has already been on a tour, so lunch was smooth, people knew what to do and we were able to use the roadhouse swimming pool for a swim and as we travel further north, I see the landscape change from red to green, a few creeks even have water in! We stopped off at the devil's marbles, large round boulders scattered across the landscape, I climbed up to the top of rocks I wouldn't normally climb and I got stuck at one point, that was pretty fun. We stopped off at Tennant Creek, a small town where we could buy beer or supplies, I bought a dry-wipe marker and decided to introduce a bit of fun onto the bus, we all wrote our names, drew some pictures and were having a good time. This was before Sergeant No-Fun, our tour guide, told us that 'This company doesn't do that' and 'Can you rub everything off please'. Well, yes, we can. That's the point. Spoil sport. It's not permanent, it doesn't hurt anyone, loosen up. David, who was on my last tour aptly said to me "I don't think this tour is going to be as fun". I think he's right. Anyway, a little about the people; We have more Germans, more Swiss-Germans, Danish, Canadians, Irish, English, Japanese and Australian! A huge mix of nationalities, and Yes Dad, there are a number of attractive girls on this trip. As I said, a lot of these people have just been on a tour together, so they have already formed groups, unfortunately for me, the 3 people who were on my tour were probably the dullest 3 on our trip. Also, most of these people are on the 6 day tour up to Darwin and then around Kakadu and Lichfield national parks. Luckily, our tour guide changes. I miss Groovy Grape.

26/04/13

Yesterday, day 2, the excitement didn't exactly escalate much. I moved back a seat, further back in the bus and in front of Tanya, a German girl who I seem to be getting on well with. The others near the back spent the journey on day 1 playing cards, so I gladly joined in. We stopped at a few places which didn't get me excited. Historic places, where explorers stopped, old cattle stations and the such. This may get some people's juices flowing, but not mine. I prefer the natural geographical history. Where we stopped for lunch, we were able to have a swim and had a casual 2 hour stop. It was a short 2 hour drive to the pub we were staying at, and what a pub! The pink panther ?Larrangther? in the Northern Territory had a zoo. There was a train line and a tiny train which we went on. I didn't see the point of it. It took us through foliage and then took us back, 20 minute round trip, no commentary, nothing to see. Weird. We had dinner and went to the bar, bought a drink and cowboy, the barman brought out Redman. Redman is an orphaned kangaroo. I know last week I saw an orphaned kangaroo at the sanctuary in Coober Pedy, but I didn't get to hold that one, did I?! Redman was passed around from Tanya to me, to Rachel, the Aussie from Newcastle, each time holding him for about 5 minutes, feeding him. From then on it was just pass him for a photo. When I was holding him, Rachel quipped that 'Fatherly instincts were taking over' and she was right, why did I feel gooey inside?! After that, Cowboy brought out a Queensland Children's Python and a Northern Territory Children's Python, these were passed around and photos taken as standard. It was quite an early night in comparison to all the other nights on tour, getting to bed at 10:30. I'm on the bus now, at 5:49 on our way to the thermal springs. ... Oh that was exciting! Just saw a dingo feasting on a bit of Kangaroo road kill! Back to it; I think today's going to be the best day of this tour. I have a couple of worries though, someone told me we were leaving at 6, so at quarter to when I came out of the bathroom, everyone was on the bus, I ran to my room, grabbed my stuff and ran to the bus. I've just remembered my zip pockets at the top and bottom of my bag were open. These are known to spill stuff if their open, so I'm hoping they held themselves. Also, after I threw my bag on, I didn't have my ukulele in my hand, so I'm hoping I threw that on with my bag. This is why I'm never late, this feeling is horrible. Oh, day 1 ended with a fire, so that made life better, but this social event was nothing on the others from the previous tour. I think it's ruined tours for me.

We got to the hot springs at 7am, a warm 33.c and crystal clear! We spent a short 30 minutes there, swimming and enjoying ourselves before Captain no-fun (promoted for this reason) went back to the bus and gave us a 15 minute warning. We spent longer at the s***ty telegraph station than we did there. It was fantastic and I think I speak for everyone when I say we could have spent another hour there. Karen brought her underwater camera which really showed how clear it was. Incredible. We're now on our way to Katherine Gorge for a 4 hour walk and another swim. This one will be a lot fresher, but by the time we get there, I imagine we'll be hot and need the cool down. I checked the trailer, I have my Ukulele.

29/04/13

It feels like a lot longer than 3 days since I've written in this. We got to Katherine Gorge, took just over an hour to walk to the lookout point, what a spectacular view, this day was the best day by far! And it was about to get better, we walked a little further to the waterhole. There was a waterfall and again, crystal clear water at the bottom for us to swim in. The water, although I said it was 'crystal clear', had a very turquoise look about it, it looks like I imagine the waterfalls in Thailand will be like! We checked the depth of the water in the centre and assumed it was at least 3m, with that in mind, the rocks either side of the pool were climbed and the fun began. I got to the top of the first one, a height of probably 3.5m and jumped. It's safe to say, before the bungee I wouldn't have done that. Sure 3.5m isn't very high, but it's high enough for me! I then climbed up the rocks on the other side, probably about 5m and same again, just jumped. It's pretty awesome how I have somewhat overcome this fear. I still feel uneasy but that's natural. I mished it back in 40.c heat, and I started to get a headache. I'm sure you're thinking 'Dehydration', but this was the start of a s***ty cold that would last 3 days. We got to Darwin at about 7pm and I had hassle checking in. This is not what I needed feeling the way I did, the cold escalated to full effect by this time and I was feeling s***. I got in to the room at 7:30, needing to be downstairs at 7:45, I had a shower, shave and was downstairs for 7:40. No problem! We went to 'Monsoons' for the tour meal. $15 for 2 pizza and $10 for a jug of beer, happiness. I had a couple of beers and decided it was mind over matter with this cold, scoffed a 12" pizza, drank some beer, danced, sang and enjoyed myself. This lasted for 2 hours before I hit the wall. I decided it was best not to climb, tunnel or smash through this wall and I went back at 10:30.

Pickup for my 3rd and final tour was at 6:30am the next day and we were all waiting at the designated time, only to be picked up at 7:15. I could have had an extra 45minutes in bed. My cold was now a full blown man-flu. On the bus is most of the previous tour with a few changes. So many Germans and Swiss, I don't know what's with these tours, they just love them! It's pretty good for me and my German, Tanja and Soenke both enjoy helping me with my German and even when the rest of them are talking I try to listen in and pick out words I understand. 'Das Leben ist kein Ponyhorf' - a phrase I learnt a few days ago means 'Life isn't a ponyfarm'. We watched the scenery change from green shrubbery to rainforest foliage. We had a longish drive, about 4 hours to the north-eastern corner of Kakadu national park, We arrived at the first place, Ubirr. We had lunch and started on cultural walk through some Ubirr. A fortress of ancient aboriginal art, it was so well preserved and our tour guide for this part of the tour is so knowledgeable compared to the other one, it's good to finally fill my noggin with information. We climbed up a few rocks and finally reached the top, a view which I can only describe as like the lookout from Pride Rock. It was so green, and just stunning. My head is full of aboriginal stories from the north now as well as the centre and it's fascinating how their perceptions of the wildlife and landscape changes. We set off for the campsite for the night, getting there at about 3pm, Soenka, Tanja and myself made use of the pool for an hour before going on a Croc spotting tour down the river! The boat was so smooth, I was so tired and the tour guide's voice was so soothing, I was a nodding dog for most of it. I still saw a few salt water crocodiles and a beautiful sunset. We had a bbq for dinner and everyone hit the hay pretty early, I stayed up with Tanja teaching her a bit of Ukulele and chatting until about 11pm, still quite early, but the mosquitoes were out in numbers and I couldn't stand it.

We got up at 6am and set off for Gubara at 7am. A short 3km walk to the water hole it wasn't too bad at 8:30, but my god it was hot already, feelings of Thala are flowing back, even just walking is making my body moist. It didn't take very long to reach a turn off to the walking hole and I was ready for a swim. The guide had another idea though, wanting to take us to the top of the rock. We clambered up this peak, only a 50minute round trip, and the view was incredible as always, I was sitting on the edge of cliff, feet dangling in the breeze. Again, before the bungee, there's no way I ould have done that. We got down to the pools and most of us went in. It was so good. There was a path around the back to get to a waterfall and another pool where we spent most of our time, there were plenty of fish in both pools which were awesome. The walk back, in the midday sun was so hot but that's obvious, the ice from the esky providing a perfect cooling agent. We stopped off at a little park in a town for lunch, jumping at the opportunity to be the bbq man, I cooked up burgers for everyone and we headed to the cultural centre. This is where I got some well needed zzz's. Putting me in a dark, air-conditioned room, after food and long days was always going to end the same way, but to put a documentary on, well. It was lush. I don't regret that nap at all. It was then a 2 hour journey to the campsite. When we arrived we eyed up the pool straight away, dumping our stuff and jumping straight in, oh how this was a mistake. The amount of mosquitoes was ridiculous. We thought going in the pool would escape them, but they were everywhere. To make matters worse, when we got out, it was like getting acupuncture! A ridiculous amount of the blood sucking demons. After dinner we started up the fire. This didn't have the desired effect of deterring the f***ing mosquitoes, so we went back to the fly screened kitchen, I learned a better way to play the didgeridoo, now I just need to learn how to circular breathe! Everyone went to bed until myself and Rieke were the only ones up chatting until 11:20, this time; tiredness was the cause of conversational ceasefire.

This morning, we were up at 5:30, this is my last day on this 2 week tour, let's hope it finishes on a high note!

30/04/13

What a note to end the trip, and my time in Australia! I've only just realised; I leave Australia tomorrow, that's f***ing unreal. 10 Months have flown by, giving me the best time of my life. But I'll be uploading a separate blog for an overview of my time here. So what happened on the last day of my tour? We had a 2 hour drive to get to Litchfield, in comparison Litchfield is tiny, only 1500 square kms, as opposed to Kakadu's 200,000 square kms (Yes, it's about the size of the Netherlands). The first place we got to was a waterfall to swim in. Paradise. I could do with being there now, but we'll get to that. We floated around and swam under the waterfall for a short hour before leaving. Then, because of the size of Litchfield, all the other places were only about a 20 minute drive apart. We went to a waterfall lookout where we had lunch and moved to another waterfall to look at. By this point, a waterfall was a waterfall, and if I can't swim in it, don't show it to me. Due to the recent wet season, the surrounding areas flooded, giving Salt Water Crocodiles, or 'Salties' access to the waterfalls and pools. On one of these waterfall walks, I got attacked again by mosquitoes. My leg now looks diseased, I hope they don't suspect I am actually diseased in Oman! Our final stop was at the 'Natural spas' a short but long waterfall, flowing through a series of pools, fantastic to sit and relax in. Again, we spent a short hour there and I wish we had less time at the waterfalls we just looked at and had longer at these places, but hey, it was still lush. A 2 hour journey took us back to Darwin and the obligatory tour meal was in order. We had longer to get ready this time though, a lovely 2 hours! This meant a dip in the pool with Tanja and a quick sort out of my bags. We all met downstairs at 8 and made our way to Monsoons, the $7.50 pizza, $10 beer jug bar. I'm sure you know how the rest of the night went, pizza, drinking, dancing and farewells. I think I need to stop making friends with so many Germans, I've agreed to meet every single one at Oktoberfest, I may as well just stay there for the entire 3 weeks that it's on! This fun was ground to a halt when Rieka and I were dancing on the podium, because I'm a shy person, obviously. She jumped down and fell awkwardly. I spend the next 4 hours with her outside with ice on her ankle trying to reduce the swelling. We didn't even realise it was 3am and she had to be on a tour to Alice Springs at 5:30. But she's told me to visit her on her home island in North Germany.

This brings me to today, I'm not as hungover as I was expecting which is always a good thing. It's 10:27 and I have to think about what I'm doing for food for the first time in 2 weeks. I have a lot to sort out and internet things to do so I guess it'll be a McDonalds lunch for their free wifi.