ElaineAndMajeedsWackyAdventures

Mataranka was a pretty sweet camping spot. In the morning as Majeed prepared our morning coffee, he noticed a funny looking branch that turned out to be a Tawny Frogmouth bird! And his partner one branch up! They are these really amazing birds that become still as a branch, and look just like the branches except for their crimson red eyes. After sharing our discovery with fellow campers, who all came by to "ooh and aah", we headed out to the Mataranka natural hot springs. They weren't really hot, just warmer than you'd expect. We brought our snorkelling gear and did half of it face down and half of it floating with our heads out of the water. It was beautiful and cleansing. After walking back to the car and changing into our dry clothes, we ... read more

"Travelling in a fried out combie"…begins the song "From a Land Down Under" by Men at Work. That song has become our theme song. This morning we headed out on our wonderful Adventure Down Under. We plan to travel for just over five weeks through Australia, travelling south from Darwin, through the centre of the continent, stopping at several places including Uluru, one of the most famous landmarks in the world. We will head south all the way to Adelaide and then take the Great Ocean Road and head to Melbourne, Sydney and then Brisbane and the Great Barrier Reef, including all the little towns and beaches in between. Then we will go to New Zealand for three weeks, USA for one week, Hamilton Ontario for 3 days and then home sweet home for September! We ... read more

Last weekend we went on an organized two-day tour of Kakadu National Park (pronounced Ga-ga-doo). Really beautiful place with lots of Aboriginal rock paintings, many that are thousands of years old! As per usual, there were plenty of "look out for the crocs" signs but our tour guide said it was safe to swim in this one location where there was freshwater and a waterfall! And we did loads of hiking. It was beautiful. It was rainy the whole time, which was great because it's much cooler than when the rains stop and the humidity build up starts. On the down side, the mozzies were full on (translation: the mosquitoes were very plentiful). During our hikes we saw a few wallabies hopping around -they are SO cool and we also went on a jumping croc tour. ... read more

Darwin is the world capital of misplaced shopping carts! It's really bizarre how you see them EVERYWHERE. People take them from the stores and just leave them wherever they feel like. We had one parked just outside our building for a few days until I couldn't take it anymore and I wheeled it to the nearest store. There was a new one left in the same spot the next day. It looks so dumpy. So after spending some time wondering what I could do to make Darwin look prettier and help the stores hold on to their carts, I thought of the solution: locking wheels!!! You know the ones that lock once you wheel the cart too close to the invisible fence? I saw them at some store somewhere in Ottawa once. So I looked into ... read more

It is incredible how the media can help to instill serious panic. As Christmas approached, the front page of the seriously sensationalist NT News (see earlier blog "No news is good news") got scarier and scarier, warning us about a cyclone (hurricane) that was travelling towards us. There were radio ads with a man with a very stern voice warning people to take it seriously. I imagine there were TV ads as well (we don't have cable). Some locals scoffed at the warnings, while others went completely berserk, emptying all the stores of canned goods and bottled water and waiting in huge line-ups at gas stations to fill their tanks. Some stores even had seriously overpriced "cyclone kits", which were comprised of first aid kits, batteries, flashlights, candles, waterproof matches, and pr... read more