Hi all,
Just wanted to let you know that we arrived home safely yesterday evening! It was a wonderful trip and we hope you all enjoyed reading along during our journey! We missed you all tons!
Pedro and Dawn
Friday, June 22, 2007
Saturday, June 16, 2007
Cairns/Open Water Scuba Course/Great Barrier Reef Journal Entry
June 11th
We arrived in Cairns around 9AM to one of the nicest hostels we have ever stayed at. It is called Traveler’s Oasis. Immediately, we received warm hospitality, a really nice room, and it was a block from Cairns Central-the mall! After arriving, Pedro and I walked around the city to explore and found it was amazing..lots of shops everywhere(mostly dive shops), restaurants, and beautiful water! We went to our dive shop and picked up our information for our class to start tomorrow and went and got a physical from the doctor.
The physical was very interesting for me. The doctors in Queensland are very strict and almost failed me because I had taken Sudafed the day before to relieve congestion and my back surgery. They told me that in Queensland, they don’t release anyone with back surgery, blah blah. After talking with several divers, I found out that it is ok to dive after back surgery if you are after 1 year or so. I decided to take the chance.
After our physical , Pedro and I had dinner at a nice restaurant along the Esplanade-an open area along the water with many restaurants. I tried what Australia is known for-a fish called Barramundi. It was delicious!
We returned back to our room to study up for class to start the next day.
June 12th
Open water dive class training started this morning at 8:30AM. There were about 15 of us in the class, 2 dive instructors. Both of the instructors were awesome! They were so enthusiastic and fun! We started off with a few hours or classroom, then into the water we went. It was definitely strange the first time going underwater with a regulator. At first, I really didn’t think this sport was for me. We continued to do some training in the pool for a few hours. By the end of the training, we all knew how to breathe under water and do some safety skills. At the end of the day, we were definitely exhausted and had dinner and went straight to bed for another early start.
June 13th
Day 2 Open water dive class. We started off in the pool to do some more fun safety skills. I have to say I hated the mask removal one! It’s awful! After a few hours in the pool, we went back to the classroom to finish up our studies and take our final exam. We all passed our final exam!! After the training, we went to this class called “Reef Teach”. It’s a 2 hour lecture of various things that you are going to see in the Reef to prepare you before you go out diving. It was very interesting and exciting! We had some dinner and went back to get ready for a 3 day dive trip to the Great Barrier Reef!
June 14th
Pickup time was 6:15AM. We all made our way to the dive shop to pick our equipment and head to the boat. When we arrived on the boat, we were introduced to the Dive Master, the skipper, the other instructors, and the chef! (yes, we had a real chef on board—you wouldn’t believe what we ate—all we did was dive, eat, dive, eat—and awesome meals too!!) We were all informed that it would be a bit choppy and to be prepared. Little did we know that a “bit” choppy means VERY VERY VERY CHOPPY!! The boat ride was about 3 hours out to the reef site, and yep, it was rough! I went down to my cabin to relax a bit and came back up an hour later to find half the boat at the back with “seasick bags” in their hands! Luckily, Pedro and I didn’t get sick at all through the whole trip. After 3 hours of rough riding, we got to the Great Barrier Reef. And, I will have to say, we were upset because the weather was awful. The sun was gone, it was raining, windy, the waves were so high…I was thinking, no way am I jumping in there! But, we did because we had to!! We had our first training dive in the ocean to about 10 meters where we had to repeat all of our fun skills again (mask removal, buddy breathing, etc). In the afternoon, we had our second training dive where again more skills and a little swim to look at things. In between dives, we ate like pigs-pasta, chocolate cake, and much more. The night came and we all gathered around in the boat and played card games, talked, etc. I came to learn about everyone’s cultures. I still found it again amazing how many people just take off a year to do backpacking and a little working all around the country. It really is amazing that people do this. I really could stay in Australia for another few months..there is so much to see. After a delicious dessert, we went to bed pretty early as we had an early start for another training dive at 6AM.
June 15th
We woke up to another ugly, gloomy, rough weather day. I kept thinking..where is this paradise everyone brags about for the Great Barrier Reef? We still had to do more training dives, so we jumped in the water. I tell you it is hard to swim at the surface with all the dive equipment on when the waves are beating you up! Once we got under, it calmed down a bit. This dive was our deepest one to 18 meters. This dive we mostly just swam around a bit and did some surface skills. It was really beautiful! We saw turtles and lots of fish and the coral reefs were amazing! After this dive, we had one more dive with some more training skills to get our official certification. We finished the skills with success and were official PADI certified divers! YAY!!
We finally could swim without an instructor! So, in the afternoon, we did our first dive alone together..and...the sun even came out for 10 mins and the water calmed down a little!!! We went swimming for about 40 mins around 10 meters and saw the most beautiful fish and barracudas, turtles, and more! It was amazing!!! It is really another world under the water! On our way up of this dive, unfortunately, I had a really hard time getting my ears to equalize and I ended up getting a “negative block,”as they call it. This was very painful and it wouldn’t go away, so unfortunately, I missed out on the night dive and the next early morning dive. Pedro since he joined the Adventure Training group did the night dive, which to me looked soooo scary! The water was rough, it was dark and you couldn’t see anything! Some of the other divers in the group said they saw a shark, and this special kind of fish(I cant remember the name)-that makes a sleeping bag for it out of its own mucus for the night. Pedro said it was lots of fun, but a little freaky!
June 16th-17th
We woke up this time to a beautiful morning! Finally the sun is out---well..partially, some clouds, and a little bit of waves. Let’s just say that this day was beautiful compared to the others!!! Pedro and his Adventure gang started their first dive at 6AM to 30 meters. If you are not familiar with diving, at this depth, you get what’s called narcosis—in other words, you start feeling “happy/high”. They had to do several skills down there to see if they were "narked up" as they call it. Also, Interestingly, if you bring a soda can down there and pour it out, you will get to drink just the syrup from the soda! Pedro said it was an awesome dive and he really enjoyed it! I woke up hoping my ear would feel better, but unfortunately it didn’t, and the instructors told to wait out the first dive of the day. I decided that I was going to join in on the last dive of the day since I did feel a little better with my ears.
Pedro and I went on our last dive together, and it was spectacular! It was really the best dive we had! We stayed about 5-10 meters so we could stay down longer and enjoy the reef. We saw all kinds of beautiful fish, coral, etc! With the sun shining this time, the colors of the reef really came out! We even saw Nemo! After our last dive, we returned to clean up our equipment and grab some lunch and get ready for the long and bumpy ride home. We took a nap (well tried to….although it was rather bumpy-lets just say I had to hold myself in the bed!) on the way home.
I have to say that scuba diving is absolutely amazing! At first, I really didn’t think it was for me and it was pretty scary, but after sticking with it, I felt so much more comfortable under the water and it really is amazing the things that you can see! I can't wait to go diving again back home!
We arrived back in Cairns around 3PM and checked in our hotel, The Shangri-La Marina Cairns for the conference to start tomorrow.
We arrived in Cairns around 9AM to one of the nicest hostels we have ever stayed at. It is called Traveler’s Oasis. Immediately, we received warm hospitality, a really nice room, and it was a block from Cairns Central-the mall! After arriving, Pedro and I walked around the city to explore and found it was amazing..lots of shops everywhere(mostly dive shops), restaurants, and beautiful water! We went to our dive shop and picked up our information for our class to start tomorrow and went and got a physical from the doctor.
The physical was very interesting for me. The doctors in Queensland are very strict and almost failed me because I had taken Sudafed the day before to relieve congestion and my back surgery. They told me that in Queensland, they don’t release anyone with back surgery, blah blah. After talking with several divers, I found out that it is ok to dive after back surgery if you are after 1 year or so. I decided to take the chance.
After our physical , Pedro and I had dinner at a nice restaurant along the Esplanade-an open area along the water with many restaurants. I tried what Australia is known for-a fish called Barramundi. It was delicious!
We returned back to our room to study up for class to start the next day.
June 12th
Open water dive class training started this morning at 8:30AM. There were about 15 of us in the class, 2 dive instructors. Both of the instructors were awesome! They were so enthusiastic and fun! We started off with a few hours or classroom, then into the water we went. It was definitely strange the first time going underwater with a regulator. At first, I really didn’t think this sport was for me. We continued to do some training in the pool for a few hours. By the end of the training, we all knew how to breathe under water and do some safety skills. At the end of the day, we were definitely exhausted and had dinner and went straight to bed for another early start.
June 13th
Day 2 Open water dive class. We started off in the pool to do some more fun safety skills. I have to say I hated the mask removal one! It’s awful! After a few hours in the pool, we went back to the classroom to finish up our studies and take our final exam. We all passed our final exam!! After the training, we went to this class called “Reef Teach”. It’s a 2 hour lecture of various things that you are going to see in the Reef to prepare you before you go out diving. It was very interesting and exciting! We had some dinner and went back to get ready for a 3 day dive trip to the Great Barrier Reef!
June 14th
Pickup time was 6:15AM. We all made our way to the dive shop to pick our equipment and head to the boat. When we arrived on the boat, we were introduced to the Dive Master, the skipper, the other instructors, and the chef! (yes, we had a real chef on board—you wouldn’t believe what we ate—all we did was dive, eat, dive, eat—and awesome meals too!!) We were all informed that it would be a bit choppy and to be prepared. Little did we know that a “bit” choppy means VERY VERY VERY CHOPPY!! The boat ride was about 3 hours out to the reef site, and yep, it was rough! I went down to my cabin to relax a bit and came back up an hour later to find half the boat at the back with “seasick bags” in their hands! Luckily, Pedro and I didn’t get sick at all through the whole trip. After 3 hours of rough riding, we got to the Great Barrier Reef. And, I will have to say, we were upset because the weather was awful. The sun was gone, it was raining, windy, the waves were so high…I was thinking, no way am I jumping in there! But, we did because we had to!! We had our first training dive in the ocean to about 10 meters where we had to repeat all of our fun skills again (mask removal, buddy breathing, etc). In the afternoon, we had our second training dive where again more skills and a little swim to look at things. In between dives, we ate like pigs-pasta, chocolate cake, and much more. The night came and we all gathered around in the boat and played card games, talked, etc. I came to learn about everyone’s cultures. I still found it again amazing how many people just take off a year to do backpacking and a little working all around the country. It really is amazing that people do this. I really could stay in Australia for another few months..there is so much to see. After a delicious dessert, we went to bed pretty early as we had an early start for another training dive at 6AM.
June 15th
We woke up to another ugly, gloomy, rough weather day. I kept thinking..where is this paradise everyone brags about for the Great Barrier Reef? We still had to do more training dives, so we jumped in the water. I tell you it is hard to swim at the surface with all the dive equipment on when the waves are beating you up! Once we got under, it calmed down a bit. This dive was our deepest one to 18 meters. This dive we mostly just swam around a bit and did some surface skills. It was really beautiful! We saw turtles and lots of fish and the coral reefs were amazing! After this dive, we had one more dive with some more training skills to get our official certification. We finished the skills with success and were official PADI certified divers! YAY!!
We finally could swim without an instructor! So, in the afternoon, we did our first dive alone together..and...the sun even came out for 10 mins and the water calmed down a little!!! We went swimming for about 40 mins around 10 meters and saw the most beautiful fish and barracudas, turtles, and more! It was amazing!!! It is really another world under the water! On our way up of this dive, unfortunately, I had a really hard time getting my ears to equalize and I ended up getting a “negative block,”as they call it. This was very painful and it wouldn’t go away, so unfortunately, I missed out on the night dive and the next early morning dive. Pedro since he joined the Adventure Training group did the night dive, which to me looked soooo scary! The water was rough, it was dark and you couldn’t see anything! Some of the other divers in the group said they saw a shark, and this special kind of fish(I cant remember the name)-that makes a sleeping bag for it out of its own mucus for the night. Pedro said it was lots of fun, but a little freaky!
June 16th-17th
We woke up this time to a beautiful morning! Finally the sun is out---well..partially, some clouds, and a little bit of waves. Let’s just say that this day was beautiful compared to the others!!! Pedro and his Adventure gang started their first dive at 6AM to 30 meters. If you are not familiar with diving, at this depth, you get what’s called narcosis—in other words, you start feeling “happy/high”. They had to do several skills down there to see if they were "narked up" as they call it. Also, Interestingly, if you bring a soda can down there and pour it out, you will get to drink just the syrup from the soda! Pedro said it was an awesome dive and he really enjoyed it! I woke up hoping my ear would feel better, but unfortunately it didn’t, and the instructors told to wait out the first dive of the day. I decided that I was going to join in on the last dive of the day since I did feel a little better with my ears.
Pedro and I went on our last dive together, and it was spectacular! It was really the best dive we had! We stayed about 5-10 meters so we could stay down longer and enjoy the reef. We saw all kinds of beautiful fish, coral, etc! With the sun shining this time, the colors of the reef really came out! We even saw Nemo! After our last dive, we returned to clean up our equipment and grab some lunch and get ready for the long and bumpy ride home. We took a nap (well tried to….although it was rather bumpy-lets just say I had to hold myself in the bed!) on the way home.
I have to say that scuba diving is absolutely amazing! At first, I really didn’t think it was for me and it was pretty scary, but after sticking with it, I felt so much more comfortable under the water and it really is amazing the things that you can see! I can't wait to go diving again back home!
We arrived back in Cairns around 3PM and checked in our hotel, The Shangri-La Marina Cairns for the conference to start tomorrow.
Shangri-La The Marina Cairns
This is a view of our hotel as we were coming back from our Dive Trip. Our room is in the far left corner dome facing the marina. :)Our conference starts tomorrow!
Great Barrier Reef Dive Trip-Underwater Images
A Sea Cucumber!
Lots of fish!
Pretty coral and fish!
A stingray!
Great Barrier Reef-Underwater Pics
Some coral and a clam
An Eel!
A fish hiding in the coral!
Barracuda! There was about 30 of them together swimming!Great Barrier Reef Trip-Underwater Images
Pedro underwater removing his regulator!
Me underwater...definitely not removing my regulator! Its very hard to smile underwater if you cant tell!
Mr. Turtle!
Mr. Turtle!Great Barrier Reef Dive Trip-Underwater Images
Cuttle fish(purple clam)
Yellow tail fusilier fish
Orange SeastarGreat Barrier Reef Dive Trip
Our Dive buddies after passing the Certification!!
The Adventure Diving Team! 30 Meters deep!!
Our boat in a distance! Picture taken by one of the other divers that got lost! ha!
Great Barrier Reef Diving Trip
Our equipment!
Pedro after jumping in the water!
Pedro looking so hot in his wet suit!
Me in my wet suit!
Great Barrier Reef Dive Trip
Our cabin on the boat. 
Pedro and I on the top deck of the boat
Sunrise over Great Barrier Reef
The Great Barrier Reef
Great Barrier Reef Scuba Diving
Pedro and I looking sooo hot in our wet suits!
Pedro and I on our first offical CERTIFIED DIVERS fun dive!! :)
Some really pretty black and white fish called Hamburg Damsel in the coral.
Look its Nemo!!!
Cairns
Our hostel in Cairns called Traveler's Oasis. It was awesome!
This is the view of the Esplanade along Cairns about 1/4 mile from our hostel. The hotel in the distance is the Shangri-La where we are now staying for the conference.
A larger image of the Shangri-La along the Esplanade.
Tuesday, June 12, 2007
Just a Quick Note!!!
G'day Mates! Just a quick note..I posted several pics and journal entriess from our last two stops in Australia. The easiest way to follow along is use the Archive on the right hand side, click on the arrow thing for the oldest date, and then click down on the Journal entry first and then the pics in the order they come up. This should make more sense rather than working backwards. I just cant figure out how to make it come up the older ones first.
Hope you all are doing wonderful!! We started our SCUBA today in Cairns, and it was awesome! I'll update you on pics in the near future! We miss you!
Dawn and Pedro
Hope you all are doing wonderful!! We started our SCUBA today in Cairns, and it was awesome! I'll update you on pics in the near future! We miss you!
Dawn and Pedro
Darwin-June 8th-Day we Arrived Journal Entry
We arrived in Darwin in the mid afternoon. One thing that I immediately noticed was all these clouds of white smoke we saw upon flying it. It looked fires everywhere! It was not until a lot later that I found out that this is normal for Darwin. Every year during dry season, they purposely light fires in the woods to keep the grass from growing too high and it also has been proven to attract fresh animals and vegetation to the area. This technique has been used by the Aboriginal culture for thousands of years, so they continue to do it. The other season is wet season here and it is constantly raining and most places in the outside city area are too wet to even drive on the dirt roads.
When we arrived in Darwin, we went to our hostel called Elkes Backpackers. This hostel was definitely not as nice as our Sydney hostel, both with hospitality and cleanliness but we survived! We went out to explore the city which we found to be beautiful. In the city, they have something called the Esplanade. This is just a park that lines the water where people can walk around, sit on benches, etc. There is much history here as well from during World War II, and many beautiful memorials surrounding it for this. The first thing we read and we were told about Darwin is Beware of the Crocs! Avoid all water! So, Pedro and I were very hesitant to go near any water areas because of this! It’s unfortunate that they have this beautiful water but they can’t swim in it.
In the evening we went out to Mitchell Street. This is the main street where all the action is happening. And, there were people everywhere! All the pubs and restaurants had their doors open for dinner and just hanging around. We grabbed some dinner at a place called “Duck Nuts”—yes, a weird name. Pedro got a new kinda white fish called Barramunde. It’s a very popular fish around here and it’s very delicious!
When we arrived in Darwin, we went to our hostel called Elkes Backpackers. This hostel was definitely not as nice as our Sydney hostel, both with hospitality and cleanliness but we survived! We went out to explore the city which we found to be beautiful. In the city, they have something called the Esplanade. This is just a park that lines the water where people can walk around, sit on benches, etc. There is much history here as well from during World War II, and many beautiful memorials surrounding it for this. The first thing we read and we were told about Darwin is Beware of the Crocs! Avoid all water! So, Pedro and I were very hesitant to go near any water areas because of this! It’s unfortunate that they have this beautiful water but they can’t swim in it.
In the evening we went out to Mitchell Street. This is the main street where all the action is happening. And, there were people everywhere! All the pubs and restaurants had their doors open for dinner and just hanging around. We grabbed some dinner at a place called “Duck Nuts”—yes, a weird name. Pedro got a new kinda white fish called Barramunde. It’s a very popular fish around here and it’s very delicious!
Darwin-4WD-Day 1 Journal Entry
June 9th, 2007
We woke up super early for our 2 Day 4WD Camping trip. I have to admit I was very nervous not knowing what to expect! We packed our one backpack and were picked up in a large 4WD jeep with a trailer, and we met our tour guide named Paul. We also met our group that we were going to be with for the next 2 days. There was a young couple our age that was from England. Interestingly, they worked for a company together for 3 years, and in this company, they have a choice to take 6 months off if they want to do anything. They automatically get their job back when they return! Can you believe this! It’s awesome! So, they have been traveling for the whole 6 months. They spent 4 weeks in New Zealand, 6 weeks in Australia, and they are heading up to Asia area before heading home. The other people in our group were 4 men in their 40’s from Melbourne, Australia. They call themselves the DMC club (Divorced Men’s Club) +2. Two of them are divorced and the other 2 are married. They were soooo hilarious the whole time! And, there was one woman our age from China that was traveling around Australia and working to get her VISA.
We headed out of Darwin to the local park called Kakadu National Park, about 3 hours East of Darwin. It spans 20,000 square kms (about the same size as Denmark) and is home to many Aboriginal tribes. Oh, yes, and lots and lots of crocodiles! We started off with an off road drive down this long dirt road in the park. The park was amazing, just green trees everywhere, some mountains off in the distance, and a dirt road.
We all at first thought this guy Paul was crazy because he really drove fast since no one but tour groups drives down this road. We even had to drive through a couple flowing rivers about 2 feet deep. Thank God for the 4WD!
We arrived at this place that does “Spectacular Jumping Crocodile Cruises” down the Adelaide River. At the area where we were hanging out waiting for other people to arrive, they have several snakes in cages. Paul took out a large black snake and let us all touch it and hold it. Pedro and I even put it around our necks! After hanging out with the snakes, we boarded our boat for the crocodile cruise. The Adelaide river was very muddy and brown..no wonder crocs love it!
We rode along down the river and when they spotted a croc, the boat slowed down to see if the croc would come near it. I guess the crocs learn that when they see this boat, they could get some food! Then, one of the workers dangles the bait (raw meat) off of a string and tries to get the croc to come near it. The worker keeps pulling it away from the croc and eventually the croc will jump out of water to get it!! It was amazing that a large croc could really do this! We did this a few times with several crocs before returning back to the car to continue on our 4WD tour.
After the croc cruise, we drove about another hour to another off road site to a beautiful location called a billabong (or swamp in Australian terms). It was a huge billabong and off in the distance you could see wild horses. Here, we parked the car and had some sandwiches and snacks. After lunch, we drove a bit more till a touristy site that many travel to see some famous Aboriginal artwork on the mountainside. Each piece of artwork has a very interesting story to it. Some of the artwork that we saw date back to over 25,000 years ago. It was really spectacular to learn the history and background of the Aborginal culture.
Along our walks, our tour guide, Paul, would stop us and introduce us to different types of plants, animals, etc and their use for the Aborginal culture. We got to taste passionfruit, mint, citronella and more all from different plants. The most interesting one is there are these green ants that if you pick them up and squeeze their butt and lick it, it tastes like lemon and lime together! I wasn’t to keen on licking an ants butt, but Pedro did and said it tasted awesome!
After doing a little more hiking, we headed to our campsite. Along the way we stopped at an overpass to view the sunset in the park. The haze from the fire smoke made the sunset even more unique with the colors we saw.
We drove some more backroading till we arrived at a campsite. Interestingly and to my surprise, this was an “official” campsite where many other tour groups went. It had appropriate places to make a fire, park the cars, and even toilets!!(well….toilets in the sense of a deep hole in the ground with a toilet bowl to sit on!) I was amazed.
We started unloading the truck and setting up the campsite-tents, etc, and got ready for preparing dinner. We cut up tons of veggies and through them in the skillet and grilled them over the fire. Potatoes were wrapped in foil and stuck in the ashes of the fire to cook them while we got everything else ready. Last, we used a frying board to cook up some kangaroo and sausages. It was an awesome dinner for out in the wild! Pedro and I tried our first ever kangaroo and I have to say it was pretty good! It really tasted very similar to steak. After dinner we all hung around the fireplace talking. Pedro was a lifesaver to all the DMC men’s club when he said, “Hey, guys, you want any Habanos cigars?”! Paul, our tour guide, brought along the Aboriginal instrument called the Didjeridu. As I described from Ayers Rock, it’s just a long hollow tube that you make music with based on the way your mouth moves. It’s very hard to make the sounds actually! But, it was fun trying! I appreciated people who play this even more than ever after hearing this.
After hanging out for a while, we all made our way to our tents, which by the way, were tents with see-through tops so we could look out at the sky which was again amazing! The Milky Way was so clear and we saw several shooting stars. During the night, one of the DMC men snored like crazy and I remember hearing the other men kept yelling at him and throwing things at him. The next day, he never heard the end of it!
We woke up super early for our 2 Day 4WD Camping trip. I have to admit I was very nervous not knowing what to expect! We packed our one backpack and were picked up in a large 4WD jeep with a trailer, and we met our tour guide named Paul. We also met our group that we were going to be with for the next 2 days. There was a young couple our age that was from England. Interestingly, they worked for a company together for 3 years, and in this company, they have a choice to take 6 months off if they want to do anything. They automatically get their job back when they return! Can you believe this! It’s awesome! So, they have been traveling for the whole 6 months. They spent 4 weeks in New Zealand, 6 weeks in Australia, and they are heading up to Asia area before heading home. The other people in our group were 4 men in their 40’s from Melbourne, Australia. They call themselves the DMC club (Divorced Men’s Club) +2. Two of them are divorced and the other 2 are married. They were soooo hilarious the whole time! And, there was one woman our age from China that was traveling around Australia and working to get her VISA.
We headed out of Darwin to the local park called Kakadu National Park, about 3 hours East of Darwin. It spans 20,000 square kms (about the same size as Denmark) and is home to many Aboriginal tribes. Oh, yes, and lots and lots of crocodiles! We started off with an off road drive down this long dirt road in the park. The park was amazing, just green trees everywhere, some mountains off in the distance, and a dirt road.
We all at first thought this guy Paul was crazy because he really drove fast since no one but tour groups drives down this road. We even had to drive through a couple flowing rivers about 2 feet deep. Thank God for the 4WD!
We arrived at this place that does “Spectacular Jumping Crocodile Cruises” down the Adelaide River. At the area where we were hanging out waiting for other people to arrive, they have several snakes in cages. Paul took out a large black snake and let us all touch it and hold it. Pedro and I even put it around our necks! After hanging out with the snakes, we boarded our boat for the crocodile cruise. The Adelaide river was very muddy and brown..no wonder crocs love it!
We rode along down the river and when they spotted a croc, the boat slowed down to see if the croc would come near it. I guess the crocs learn that when they see this boat, they could get some food! Then, one of the workers dangles the bait (raw meat) off of a string and tries to get the croc to come near it. The worker keeps pulling it away from the croc and eventually the croc will jump out of water to get it!! It was amazing that a large croc could really do this! We did this a few times with several crocs before returning back to the car to continue on our 4WD tour.
After the croc cruise, we drove about another hour to another off road site to a beautiful location called a billabong (or swamp in Australian terms). It was a huge billabong and off in the distance you could see wild horses. Here, we parked the car and had some sandwiches and snacks. After lunch, we drove a bit more till a touristy site that many travel to see some famous Aboriginal artwork on the mountainside. Each piece of artwork has a very interesting story to it. Some of the artwork that we saw date back to over 25,000 years ago. It was really spectacular to learn the history and background of the Aborginal culture.
Along our walks, our tour guide, Paul, would stop us and introduce us to different types of plants, animals, etc and their use for the Aborginal culture. We got to taste passionfruit, mint, citronella and more all from different plants. The most interesting one is there are these green ants that if you pick them up and squeeze their butt and lick it, it tastes like lemon and lime together! I wasn’t to keen on licking an ants butt, but Pedro did and said it tasted awesome!
After doing a little more hiking, we headed to our campsite. Along the way we stopped at an overpass to view the sunset in the park. The haze from the fire smoke made the sunset even more unique with the colors we saw.
We drove some more backroading till we arrived at a campsite. Interestingly and to my surprise, this was an “official” campsite where many other tour groups went. It had appropriate places to make a fire, park the cars, and even toilets!!(well….toilets in the sense of a deep hole in the ground with a toilet bowl to sit on!) I was amazed.
We started unloading the truck and setting up the campsite-tents, etc, and got ready for preparing dinner. We cut up tons of veggies and through them in the skillet and grilled them over the fire. Potatoes were wrapped in foil and stuck in the ashes of the fire to cook them while we got everything else ready. Last, we used a frying board to cook up some kangaroo and sausages. It was an awesome dinner for out in the wild! Pedro and I tried our first ever kangaroo and I have to say it was pretty good! It really tasted very similar to steak. After dinner we all hung around the fireplace talking. Pedro was a lifesaver to all the DMC men’s club when he said, “Hey, guys, you want any Habanos cigars?”! Paul, our tour guide, brought along the Aboriginal instrument called the Didjeridu. As I described from Ayers Rock, it’s just a long hollow tube that you make music with based on the way your mouth moves. It’s very hard to make the sounds actually! But, it was fun trying! I appreciated people who play this even more than ever after hearing this.
After hanging out for a while, we all made our way to our tents, which by the way, were tents with see-through tops so we could look out at the sky which was again amazing! The Milky Way was so clear and we saw several shooting stars. During the night, one of the DMC men snored like crazy and I remember hearing the other men kept yelling at him and throwing things at him. The next day, he never heard the end of it!
Monday, June 11, 2007
June 10th-Darwin-4WD Trip-Day 2
We awoke to the howling of the dingos(wild dogs) and the loud chirping of the cockatoos at sunrise. We all got up for a nice healthy breakfast (cereal, fruit, hot coffee, tea). We packed up our tents and were on the road again to head to the next site. This time it was about an hour hike through the mountains till we arrived at a site where there was a waterfall and a lagoon underneath it. This was very secluded and we were the only ones around. At first, I was like “Hell no, I’m not going in there..where are the crocs!” , The tour guide jumped in first, so I figured it should be ok! It was very refreshing and nice to swim around for a bit..although I have to say I kept close to where I got in and looked around a lot for crocs or snakes! After a swim, we hiked back to the car for another ride to a different spot which was a much more “touristy” site near a campground and bathrooms, etc. We hiked up to the top of this mountain where there was a beautiful lagoon with waterfalls, white sand, and different swimming holes, and an awesome view of the mountains. There were lots of families up there hanging around the place enjoying the sun and the swimming. It was really amazing!!
We walked back down to have some lunch at the picnic table and took a quick nap under the trees. After about an hour, we were back on the road again to head back to Darwin. On the way, we stopped at the local pub/gas station (which was the only one out in the middle of nowhere), and grabbed some drinks and snacks. Supposedly, this is where Steve Irwin, the Croc hunter, used to hang out to drink beers with his mates and met his wife. We then drove another 2 hours and headed back to our hostel. We showered up and met out with our gang from the tour a few hours later for some dinner and drinks. After a couple hours, we were exhausted and went back to our room to get ready for our 4:30AM pick-up time for our flight to Cairns.
We walked back down to have some lunch at the picnic table and took a quick nap under the trees. After about an hour, we were back on the road again to head back to Darwin. On the way, we stopped at the local pub/gas station (which was the only one out in the middle of nowhere), and grabbed some drinks and snacks. Supposedly, this is where Steve Irwin, the Croc hunter, used to hang out to drink beers with his mates and met his wife. We then drove another 2 hours and headed back to our hostel. We showered up and met out with our gang from the tour a few hours later for some dinner and drinks. After a couple hours, we were exhausted and went back to our room to get ready for our 4:30AM pick-up time for our flight to Cairns.
Darwin-4WD Tour-Day 2
The Lagoons at the top of the mountains in Kakuda
The view from the lagoons.
Pedro swimming in the Lagoons.
Our 4WD group at the entrance to the park.
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