AUSTRALIA.....my home for the next 12 months, we made it!!!! The first stop after our night flight over from Bali was Darwin, right up at the northern part of the country. It is a nice little town, little being the word - seeing as it is the gateway from South-East Asia I was quite suprised the place wasn't bigger and more bustling! It was quite nice though after the over-populated streets and cities of the past few countries to be able to walk down the street and not have people barging right into you, or weaving through the crowds! We had 2 full days in darwin, walking round the streets, esplanade and after struggling to find the Tree Of Knowledge - realised we are obviously not that knowledgeable at all! I spent the day with Michelle and she was gloriously happy to find that our hostel was situated right beside Shenanagans Irish Bar, and so was I when I found out that had bowls of Mash on the menu mmmm! That evening we all went to a Kareoke bar for Anna's belated birthday party, I tried to get someone to sing with me but they all refused...think it was maybe a god send for the rest of the people in the place! After meeting our very very very drunk air stewardess from the flight (who recognised us in the bar) we trotted off to Discovery Club where we partied the night away with music we actually recognised for the first time in 3 months. With no hangover in sight, me and Michelle chilled by the pool the next day and then went to the deckchair cinema that evening with April, Alex and Annie watching 'Young at Heart' - a film about old aged pensioners singing in a rock/pop choir, very very funny if you get the chance.

Moving on from Darwin we egded towards the Aborignal people and their landscape...for sure a highlight of the trip, mixing with the locals and learning about their culture directly from them. With our guide for the Australian section, Wombat, we headed first for a Jumping Crocodile Cruise. This was really cool, one of the rangers held huge chucks of meat on a stick and kept dipping it into the water to attract the crocs...and attracted they were! When they came close she would lift the stick up so it made them jump, hence the name Jumping Crocodile Cruise! They came right out of the water, looked like they were like Jesus walking on water (!) and gave us great opportunity for pics. Did you know that if you fell in the water, even with a lifejacket on, you would have less than 5 minutes to get out...you would probably more than likely get eaten...niiiice! Once off the boat we heated for an Aboriginal Culture Tour with a local family who showed us how to play the didgeridoo, throw spears to hunt for food, basket weave and even taught us a ceremonial dance. This was a fantastic opportunity and we even got the man spitting on our heads with water from a billabong (yes this was good luck apparantly!). The first of our busy days compared to the rest of the Ozbus concluded with a trip to the beautiful kakadu National Park, where traditional Aboriginal art is displayed on the rock faces. These tell stories about their culture and pictures of some of the important mythological beings they worship, such as the Rainbow Serpent. Ubirr, the part of the park housing these drawings. led us to our first sunset over the floodplains - absolutely beautiful! It was so nice to be in the outback, in the landscape that is so dramatic and with an amazing sunset to close the day.....