PaulaAlexander

Reckless and expensive? Yes. But you can only really get to Easter Island from Chile, and what are the chances of us being in Santiago again with a few days to kill? Slim. I blame my brother. We were so sad after he left us in New Zealand that we went ahead and booked our flights to cheer ourselves up. So, this week was spent on Easter Island, or Rapa Nui, a speck of volcanic rock a 5-hour flight away across the Pacific, 2000 miles from the nearest land mass and the most remote inhabited place on earth. Landing there was a bit like when James Bond arrives on a tropical island - drummers playing, hula girls putting flowers around peoples' necks, the whole island out to meet the plane, dogs barking, palm trees swaying, and ... read more

Post dive trip we headed North through Daintree to Cape Tribulation. The drive included a so called ‘ferry’ crossing which basically involved driving the van onto a metal platform which slowly travelled on a cable from one shore to another. You could practically jump the distance, I reckoned with a decent ramp we'd have made it and saved a lot of time but Xan wasn't so keen. Our campsite was brilliantly basic with nothing but a narrow section of rain forest separating it from the beach. At night after an amazing sunset we saw some absolutely huge bats flying above us and a creature in a tree beside us that looked like a cross between a possum and a rat. We awoke in the morning to discover our ’thongs’ left outside overnight had been sabotaged (that‘s ... read more

We flew from the coolness of the centre of Australia to the warmth of the North East and picked up our second camper and home for the next 6 weeks. It was the same make and model as the first but older - much older. No more i-pod jack and CD player, we now had a cassette player. It was great, and most importantly cheaper but everything was older - from the engine to the bedding and crockery. We realised how spoiled we’d been with camper mark 1! We soon settled in though and made the most of being in the biggest city we’d been in since Perth almost two months ago, I went shopping! As well as the essentials (new clothes for myself are essential right?) we headed to all the Op Shops (charity shops ... read more

Darwin is a little busy outpost on the northern coast and felt like a metropolis after 5 weeks of one-road towns. It was a charming place, not least due to the hospitality of Fizz, Tani and Phoebe (still calling me Sandra). We went for fish, chips and ice cream on the harbour, and then the next night were treated to homemade stew, which, although it was about 30 degrees outside, was magnificent. Paula was really desperate to see the WWII gun emplacement at East Point (I think it was one of her “must do’s” for Australia), so we went and had a look. Now, notwithstanding the massive sacrifices of Australian troops overseas in various conflicts, I think it’s generally fair to say that Australians over-egg their domestic wartime experiences a little. This was one exception however: ... read more

Kakadu national park was the most accessible of them all so far, with coach parks, proper paved paths and health and safety signs. We stayed in Nourlangie and visited nearby cave paintings. They reckon they’re thousands of years old but can’t tell for sure because they’ve been touched up regularly ever since. Apparently there’s been people living in that area continually for 20 thousand years. We also had a walk around Anbangbang billabong, a shallow marshy pond which takes its name from a surf clothing brand. Other highlights included sunset up at Ubir: a large rock plateau overlooking green wetlands, a big fat orange sun plopping down behind the horizon and setting the cliff faces red like fire, geese flying in formation overhead, kangaroos grazing, and a view stretching for miles and miles. The setting was ... read more