The rest of my outback safari!

I hate to do it but since I was having so much fun and didn't keep up on daily blog entries I gotta do one massive one. But I do have to say I'm having one of those "best time if my life" moments! Seeing incredible things and meeting amazing people. Seem to always feel a little heartbroken at the end of each tour. It's a little too much actually, I'm trying to remember back through all the different tour groups I had and I'm a little fuzzy on names and places I went to! But I'm sure once I slow down, have a chance to go through my pics (thousands of them!) and catch up on facebook it will all sort out. Anyways it's so much at once!

End day 6
I last left you just as I pulled on to alice springs, the end of my tour with the drive Kiwi (who now despise, but I won't go into that, but u can guess why). The whole tour group went out for dinner at a great western theme saloon pub called Bojangles, I had a lamb shank, almost got a camel meat pie. Since we all had the next couple days free and had been travelling hard it turned into a long night of drinking and dancing!! I left at the first chance I saw someone leaving since I was exhausted! Sandra, Anne maria, kiwi and I walk... Skipped and piggyback rode our way back to the hostel. K&S sprinted away at the last moment and disappeared :-/ ... Guess you could say she got away

Day 7&8
Free days in alice springs. Did the usually on my free days slept off a hang over, laundry and roam the town aimlessly! Basically took it as easy as possible and rested. One of the nights we went to a little hippy pub/hostel called annie's and I feel like really got to know Anne maria (german), anna and emeile (both swedish). It was magic pitchers of beer that night, never seemed to run out but nine of us were buying.

Day 9
New tour! Alice to darwin, new guides (Scottie and michelle) and a couple new faces a few austrians that kept to themselves (besides to complain) and amy from perth funny (but loud). Next couple days we covered so many miles it was sickening! Didn't matter when we saw amazing things we just wanted to be done for the day! Our 1st stop that day was as we crossed the Tropic of Capricorn (u know that latitude line on the globe? Basically we were entering the tropics!) Stopped at an old (out of use) telegraph station, interesting history there about aboriginals attacking the operaters. Stopped at a funky town Wycliffe Well, sort of the roswell of OZ, "secret" airforce base nearby, lots of alien yard art and paintings and roadhouse filled with clippings and fuzzy pics of UFOs. I loved it! ;-) next stop was a highlight!, Devils marbles, huge sphereical rock formation in the middle of nowhere, hiked around and on them, super strange. Lots more driving, stopped for firewood, saw huge spider and arrived in tennet creek at our camp late... Had lots of alcohol related rules since the owners of the cattle ranch we were staying at hated us backpackers ruining the peace out there. But fireside that night I finally got to learn how to play a didgerido!! And I was able to play, voted the best that night!

Day10
Up before the sun again for another day of driving! But the sunrise thatmorning made it worth it. A few roadhouse stops aka pee and coffee while they refueled the bus. Funny side note: not allowed on the bus during refueling! The roadhouse in dunmarra had reptiles for us to hold, black headed python and big monitor lizard. 1st major stop was at Daly Water, at it's very famous roadhouse. Even got a special tour guide, 9 year old bailey. Kept us entertained while he showed us around the old postoffice, school, store, jail (all one building). Then we all chilled out at the pub which was filled with things stapled to the walls by travellers...currency, ID cards, badges, patches, heaps of underwear. I left a US dollar bill. More driving, stopped at one roadhouse with cages of exotic birds and even a croc in a cage next to the swimming pool(not sure I would swim if given the chance). Lunch was late @3 again, had the chance but didnt float down a creek heated by hot springs (too hot and smelt like eggs) End of the day was in Kathrine. Before heading to the camp site we spent time at an aboriginal culture center. Taught to do paintings, I did a cool kangaroo. Pet an emu. And in the dark we saw a few animals, cane toads and a huge green tree frog which sandra tried kissing to see if it became a prince. Night came to a close fireside, drinking and playing didgeridos.

Day 11
I was peer pressured into taking a helicopter tour of Katherine gorge since 2 people were require and Anne maria really wanted to go... It was a fun experience but not really worth the money. Later met up with the rest of the group for a boring hike with a huge reward! Swimming up to and under a waterfall! It was amazing! The best was to float facing up about 10 yards from the fall... Water was falling over 100feet. A little driving to another falls but no swimming, but had lunch. A few short stops here and there till a cool purple sunet before arriving in Darwin. Met up with most of the group for pizza and beers... As usual sandra, Anne maria and I ended up passing a bottle of wine around chatting till bed time.

Day 12
Start of the 4wd kakadu tour! New guide Deblin. New group, out with the rude Austrian in with a german couple, a german filmmaker and Tine (pronounced Tina) and a new bus! This thing is heavy duty, look like more if a dump truck than a tour bus.
1st stop was at some giant termite mounds, huge! Over 15 foot tall, made by bugs small as ants! Too cool. Even saw weird ones made my magnetic termites, flat, looked like tombstones. Spent most of the morning playing in the water, first a rocky waterhole/slide then again swimming around waterfalls. This waterfall was much larger and powerful, but I had to swim through it! Haha which wasn't easy, the closer I got the more mist was blinding me and making it hard to breathe then just as I finally got to ur the water starts to push down on you... Extreme! But i made it! Rested afterwards with my bikini babes. I think it was called Florence falls. Just as we were finishing out hotdogs over campfire lunch a big water moniter lizard came out of nowhere to check us out, very unusal looking. The ride was starting to get rough, but that's what we wanted! Over bug rocks, through river crossings and around billabongs. Learned about the 2 seasons here...the wet and the dry... Basically alot of the land we are visiting is underwater 1/2 the year. And to help prevent big bush fires they do control burns, which just started... Cooling seeing all the fire but very smokey... But did make for a better sunset, very red! But before that we went on a river cruise before dusk looking for crocs! And did we see them! Both freshwater (nice) and salties (bad,aggressive). That night the mozzies were aweful and attacked everyone... Still covered! And there were a few geckos on our tent walls, sandra tried to grab one but it lost it's tail (which is a normal defence) but we told her she killed it!

Day 13
More rough riding. Tried sleeping on the bus but impossible. Saw some wild horses (not sure I mentioned the wild camels we saw near Uluru) more river crossing and 4wd through twisting sandy roads, very fun. Stopped to hike to twin falls, which required a short ferry ride through more croc infested water, which we actually saw one and when we returned they caught it because it was a bad saltie. The falls was massive and we all rested and hung out enjoying the surroundings for a while before heading back. Next we headed to jim jim falls another waterfall to swim up to. Only this time it was twice as tall and twice as far to get to... Not to mention I was freaking myself out about halfway there thinking just below me in the black cold deep water a croc (like all the signs at the beginning of the hike mentioned) was hiding waiting to pull me under! The hike there and back was extreme, basically walking in giant boulders, one slip and you could really hurt yourself. Camp at Jabiru was a welcome site, very exhausts after the days activites... Again sat up late drinking with my girls.

Day 14
Our last day :-(((
Slept in ha ha just after sunset we broke camp and headed out. Checked out the east alligator river, no crocs. Then went on a walking tour of Ubirr, a aboriginal rock art site. Amazing stuff! Some ancient some modern (less the 50 years). Ended up top a great lookout and took the opportunity to get group shots. Had so much fun. Sad because we all knew it would be goodbye soon. Lunch near a beautiful billabong then back on the road headed back to Darwin!
That night we went out in style. It was me and my ladies! Sandra, Anne maria, anna, emeile, and Tine (and the goofy Italian vinchenzo sp?) we decided to find a place serving crocodile! And we all agreed it tasted like chicken. Haha sandra and I also split a dozen oysters. Afterwords we headed to a nightclub for a bit more drinking and dancing. Turned into a crazy night! Sandra and I even ended up partners on stage for a game...later ended up on the table dancing. Later still had to take the girls to be picked up by a taxi headed fir the airport and say my final goodbyes.., lots of kisses for tommy but still was very sad.




-- Post From My iPhone