Darwin down to Alice

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April 20th 2007

Published: April 20th 2007

Hey Everyone,

sorry for not writting for so long.

Well I managed to find my flight to Darwin from singapore. The plane looked,and flew like an old tin baked bean can. I almost thought it would never get off the ground! I got into Darwin at about 5am only to be stopped as you had to declare all the food that your bringing in. I had known about this and had spent my time at singapore eatting the contense of my rucksack, so I was wondering why I had been stopped. well it turned out that the book I was using as a journal was made of banana paper, and therefore appently food. So they promptly ripped that up much to my deversation, and yes I did cause a big scene and I was totally unimpressed.

Anyway... They then stopped me again as on the immagration form I had not written where I was spending my first night, and that was because I hadnt booked any ( haha me completly not worried, I was just going to turn up) anyway they didnt know if they could let me go though or not, so I just walked off through when there backs were turned. The nice lady at the desk got me a bus to a cheap hostle called Chillis. This is a really cool hostle, with two spars an out door kitchen and nice people. The first thing I realised about ozland is that it is germanys second home. I think just about everyone in darwin was german, apart from one japaneze girl. Well my german is certainly improving. anyway I got to my hoslet, had breakfast then went to bed and got up at 2pm. I then went for a walk around darwinl. This city is very small and is the home to a lot of battles and conflict and there is lots of memorials everywhere. I got rather lost but finally found my way back. I went shopping in the supermarket, which is alwys a lot of fun in a differnt country and shopping for one is hard as there are not many one person packeets of cerial or milk to hand. anyway I finally got my meal togeather ( spagettie hoops and bread) and went to bed as I was shattered.

The next morning I got up at 5 had breakie ( strawberry yoghurt (as it was the only one person yoghurt you can buy) frozen bananana (as there fridges only have 'freeze' and coco pops. yum ish. I then cheaked out and put my luggage into storage. This was because I was going on safari woo.

The bus pickup point luckly for me was directly accross the road. everyone all clambored onto this minibus/4WD and off we went. We were going to kakadu, a national park. We stopped off at a place called foggy dam, to see some birds and stuff. all very interisting. we then went on a boat trip down the adalide river. we saw many big crocs and baby ones too. They swam around to our boat as the lady on the side had big chuncks of meat on a stick and we got to feed them and they half jumped out of the water to get the meat! It was really cool to see them all in the wild. But they were weird crocs. they were salt water ones (the ones which can kill you) but were liveing in the fresh water rivers. fresh water crocs wont eat you as they swallow there food whole and adult humans are too big for them. anyway we then headed off to a water fall. It was a bit smelly but pretty enough. we then headed out for our camp for the night.
Now then, I had had both my tourches stolen on the stupid sleeper trains in thailand so I was without a tourch. I finally decided to sleep in some other girls tent when i decided that i was not safe to crawl into my sleep sheet incase there were nasty big spiders waiting to eat me.

The next morning we got up and had breakfast yum. we then headed off further into kakadu and saw some aboriginal drawings on lots of rocks. we went for a climb and finally got to the top of a massive rock, where all you could see were trees, rocks, a bit of water for miles around. There is stuff here called spnidex grass. this is very sharp needle like strong grass and me being me sat on some. ouch. My day rucksack from bangkok for like a pound is breaking so i mended it with spindex grass which not much sucsess, it just made the holes bigger. oh well. we then went and had lunch and went and visited a pub, which has chalie the buffaloo. If you have watched crocadile dundee, it is the bufflallo that he makes lye down in the road at the beginning of the film. now then when my tour guide said it was a famouse actor I thought they had either stuffed a person or a croc! so I ran in and asked the bar maid where the stuffed person was and turned round face to face with the biggest buffaloo i have ever seen. well I can now say ive met charlie.

We then went to water fall number two. This one is definally my fravoite. It was a pretty little place,and I managed after a lot of falling off rocks, to clime up inside the little water fall wehere I found that the rock was just about big enough to sit in. It was reallly cool, a sercret little cave. i also met some sydney kids who were having a great time huring themselfs of nice high rocks, which I joined in with. After we had dryed off, we got back into the bus back to darwin.

the group met up later as we had been given some free meal vouchers. (i stole a few! ) and we went down to the vic for our supper. We played crazy bar games, including through the jug and my group won about 15 jugs of free beer! this was a crazy pub and all the beer was free! ( but beer is so discusting yuck) anyway after that we headed to another pub, our group had grown as we had picked up some more random people as we walked along. We had a yellow rubber chicken which we had to get in all our photos, so we spent the night getting it in weird places. My freinds ended up with even more free beer, as they left at 4am too drunk to remeber to pay there tab! haha poor bar people. anyway by that point i had to be up in an hour, so did we all so we didnt bother going to sleep.

It turned out that we were all booked onto the same bus to take us down to alice. The bus was an hour late but when It did turn up we were very impressed. it was nice and big and coach like, compared to the 4WD we were driving round in the other day. Also I felt alot safer in this bus then the thailand ones, which I forgot to mention crashed into a tree and hit a motorbike! Anyway back to our bus. There was enough space for us all to have one double seat per person which was great. after sleeping for a bit we made our first stop. we had lunch at the charlie the bufflalo pub again. then back on the bus. We got a boat up the river for like 2 minuits then walked up some rocks and came to a waterfall. there are not many places to swim in the northen terrory as there are crocs ever where but this water fall was too high up for crocs to swim to. after a quick dip, we went on a 5k walk up some rocks in the stupid mid day heat where we got an incredable view of of a gourge. it was stunning. Then the group split as some walked fast and some slow. There was about 6 of us following me (haha) so I think I must of took the long way round as we were walkeing round this natioal park hot place for ages. Finally we found our way back for icecreams. yum. we camped again for the night. The next day we stopped in the middle of nowhere at a place called daly waters. This is a very old and famouse pub on the stuard highway. It is full of things people have left, from the flipflop tree, to photos to badges to bras and pants! I left a small photo of my self hidden near the bar on the under side of a shelf. We had some good food then headed on. we stopped at a old ghost town which had been completly deserted. and we drove past a ufo crasy town in the middle of nowhere. The people there claim that it is the most contacted place in the whole of the world by alians. crazy! I saw a kukaburra wow that was rather cool.

We got to camp, which was a horse farm place with no horses in the middle of nowhere. we had supper and then had a camp fire. Before the fire my freinds and I descovered a giant water tank which vaguly resembled a swimming pool, so late at night, in the dark we all went swimming. it was fun as you couldnt see what was in the water, but it was also FREZZING! as cental oz is much cooler at night. that was rather fun, though I think thats how the start of my cold began. I had visited a person who lived in a tin hut who made didgerdoos and artwork and stuff and him and an elder abouridganl person came and chatted and played there didges and sang aborginal songs by the fire. The two old ozzy guys in our group spent the night makeing pommy jokes as I was the only english peroson in the group. The rest were german. We didnt sleep in tents that night. We all slept under the stars. This has to be the highlight so far in austraila. We slept in swags, whcih were basically canvas sacks. As we were in the bush there were no lights for hundereds of miles anywhere and so all you could see as you fell asleep was the milky way lighting up the night sky. The stars are diffent here, but there are some that you can see from england but they are all on there side. it was lovlely but I froze as I didnt have a sleeping bag. I woke with an hugmungas cold in the morning. Oh what way does the water go down the plug hole in england? the sun still rises in the east and sets in the west though.

Anyway although the sun rises at 7 we all got up at 5am as normal. My body has now adjusted to getting up at this time as all the tours leave then and also its much cooler than the middle of the day. We went and visited some hot springs, which was the same place as the film never never land was filmed. (ive nevaer heard of it myself). the hot springs were nice and lovely after the long walk yesterday. We then watched crocadile dundee on video on the bus for the next two hours. the drive was long, but we had funky crazy oz music playing and we mostly slept. we went and visisted the devils marbles as well, which are giant rocks placed everywhere. I climed and slid off one and now have a massive horrid graze across my tummy. not attracive!

We arrived at alice springs, where my lovly german frinds, and I went for a wander and to get some food. We ended up getting pizza as we coulndnt be bothered to cook. the pizza was horrid. oh well. I have been staying at a hostel called malunkas. It is nasty dirty. I find alice a bit of a weirdo town though. the people are really weird.

Oh next to my hostle is a kanagroo santury where all the road kill kanagoo who still had babys alive in them go. They are so sweet. I went and a had a look and sent a happpy half hour holding the sweetest baby kankagroo called dave. they nestle into your arms and lick you and are so sweet. I want one! and they go for a walk for about 5 mins as all they do is sleep.

We went out as a group later to the local pub, which was a very weirdo place and I didnt like it. There was a cowboy bloke with a whip where we got to have a go at cracking it. that was fun. we spent the eveinng playing pool with the locals.

The next moring i was up at 4 and had a quick breaky of custard (it was cheapter than milk) and weetabix. there weetabix are weird smalll here so you have to eat lodes of them. I then got on my bus for the uluru tour. This bus was the equibelant to the tin can plaine. very rickady and uncomftable. oh well. we drove to kings canyon and went for a 5k walk. The views were stunning, but the flys were hell. They went in your ears nose hair mouth eyes everywhere. evil things. We stopped off and I saw some emus much to my delight. 9am I had my first ice cream of the day. I am eating lodes of them. yum we spent pretty much the whole day at kings canyon but it was worth it. We got to see the sun set over uluru just in time. I had a great time messing about in the hot bright red sand. My tummy finally got plastered up which was a relife as it meant that my clothes didnt rub agains my graze. we had the most yummy barbeque ever wither really great food, and then (this time with a nice walm sleeping bag) we swagged out under the stars again. our tour gude, to my request haha, told us a bedtime story poem thing which was nice! I fell asleep listing to the very noisy bats hunting for there food and the sound of dingos howling in the distnace. we had to make sure all our stuff was locked up or the dingos would steal it!

the next morning we got up at 5am like normal, and I went to see the sun rise over uluru. It was amazing seeing how much the rock changed coulour from dull grey to brown to shokcing orange to bright red. I then walked around the rock and learned all aobut the hidden story and belifes conneceted. it was all very intersting. I didnt clime it as I respect what the aboriginals want as it is there sacrid land. Though I would have loved to clime it, i had amaazing views up close and far away. We then went for a short walk round kata tjara or whaterer it was called. nickneded the olgars. From a distance these rocks looked like a sleeping homar simpson! quite uncannie the likeness! after that we had the long haul back to alice, apart from my plea at 4 oclock as that is icecream oclock so we had to stop for that yum. we got back here at about 7 where as a group we headed out to a place called annies for budget backpacker meals for 5 dollars. I had yummy fish and chips. We then headed to bed as we were all shattered. I had a really long lye in till 9 today. wow. but the stupid people had eaten the rest of my custard and bananans so I had to buy new breakfast. I have alomst finished book number 5 now woo. I said good bye to my freinds and came here to write this. My bus leaves at 1 20pm so I am just passing time. sorry it has been such a long email, but I havent been near a comp to write for a while.

Hope englands ok? I hear that it is very hot?

Keep writng lots of emails and I want more neighbours updates PLEASE!

Love and banananans Katharine xxxxxxxx

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