The next day of diving didn't happen at all. We headed out on the boat and spent an hour getting to the dive sight. The boat didn't even slow down, but spun round and headed back to the marina. The waves were too big and the current to strong to go diving! To catch up for lost time the next day we did three dives. Rob being a really good instructor didn't worry too much about the theory once under the water and we had three really good dives taking photos of everything that moved. Unfortunately the digital camera that I [View Full Entry]

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I arrived in Exmouth and checked in for the week! The longest I have ever spent in one place. Luckily the hostel is nice and clean. I'm here for so long as I'm starting my PADI Open Water Diving course. I had planned on arriving Wednesday afternoon and spending Thursday having a look round. After going to the dive shop and being given a 300 page manual and told to read it, I didn't get to do much sightseeing on Thursday. The first two days of my dive course were spent in the classroom and the pool getting used to all [View Full Entry]

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I left early the next morning for the 6 hour drive to Port Headland. I usually try and leave early so that I get time at the next place to have a look around before moving on the next day. In the case of Port Headland I wish I hadn't. The guide book says nothing about how much of a dump the town is. I hope no one from Port Headland will ever read this. Actually I hope they do, and then maybe they will do something about their awful town. There should be a large sign and a gate on [View Full Entry]

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I have promised a few people this so hopefully I now understand enough to be able to write it. I’m sure some of this is still opinionated and that other people may have had a totally different perception but this is mine. When I came to Australia I knew virtually nothing about the Aboriginal people and it was not until I left New South Wales and Victoria behind and headed into South Australia that I started to become aware of these people. Unfortunately my first encounter with Aboriginal People was not very pleasant. I was in Coober Pedy. Large groups would [View Full Entry]

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The drive to Broome was 1049km and was going to take 10 hours. Now normally I would not attempt to drive such a great distance. Unfortunately I had no choice as there was nowhere to stop along the way. There are two towns between Kununarra and Broome; Halls Creek and Fitzroy Crossing. They are both aboriginal towns and several different people all gave me exactly the same advice of don’t stop. Now I have to stop for petrol but was told to lock the car as soon as I got out of it and be as quick as possible. Halls Creek [View Full Entry]

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The drive from Katherine to Kununurra takes you along 530km of Victoria Highway. Otherwise known as the forgotten highway. If they don’t start repairing it soon it will totally fall apart. Without warning you are faced with a road full of pot holes, some a foot deep. It was a boring drive, made even more annoying by my CD player refusing to play anything. I also caught up with a vehicle that was spraying tar onto the Road. Before I realised what he was doing to front of the car was covered in tar. This took ages of hard scrubbing to [View Full Entry]

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To get to the east coast I have to go back to Tennant Creek to get on the Barkly Highway. I wanted to stop over in Katherine as I liked the place the first time round. When I checked in, someone was booking a canoe for the Katherine gorge. Having managed to go the whole of New Zealand without doing this I book one too. Up at 6.30am to get to the Gorge in time to sort out my canoe. Unfortunately they gave me one without a motor so it was going to be down to using the paddles. The instructions [View Full Entry]

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Just outside of Darwin I stopped again at the Aboriginal Arts centre just so that I could play with the snake! I was then off into Kakadu National Park, passing through a little place called Humpty Doo. Nothing important about the place at all, I just liked the name. Jabiru is at the heart of the National Park but being fully booked up I had to stay in Cooinda. The wet season finished late this year and as a consequence most of the attractions of the National Park are closed. During the wet season salt water crocodiles move around freely in [View Full Entry]

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This morning the car was packed to capacity. Along with mine and Helen's stuff we were also taking Lou and Bill up to Darwin and they had a lot of stuff. We packed it all in and headed off for the final three hour trip to the top. With every mile north we went the temperature went up and up. Just before we got to Darwin we stopped off at the Aboriginal Art Gallery and were treated to a display of snakes, crocodiles and lizards. Before I had the carpet snake wrapped round my neck I wash assured that it was [View Full Entry]

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The Tropic Of Capricorn is only about 50km above Alice Springs. We soon found the line across the road although it didn't really feel any warmer above the line. The drive up to Tennants Creek was quite a boring one so it was good that I had company. We stopped at the Devils Marbles about 30 minutes before Tennant Creek. These are hundreds of spherical rocks scattered across the ground. Some are very precariously balanced on top of each other but no amount of pushing was going to move any of them! We got into Tennants Creek by late afternoon and [View Full Entry]

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