from Fiji to the Red Centre

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Brace yourself for a long one - I'm afraid I've been out of contact for a couple of weeks so have a bit to catch up on. I'll try to keep it to the highlights so that I don't bore you all too much.....

So I think on my last blog I was headed to Fiji where I think I may have come down with Fiji fever. Apparently it's quite common around the South Pacific - you just get drawn in to the laid back beaching lifestyle and find it very hard to leave. Some of the guys that were there (almost all English) had been there for weeks and showed no signs of moving on.

I arrived in Nadi (which is the jump off point for most of the islands) and Jo Dadds and Leah Woolridge (both ex-Somerfield) were in the hostel next door so had a really nice evening catching up on each others' travels over some food and a few beers.

Next morning I hopped on a boat to Mana Island which is in the Mamanuca Islands. I stayed at the backpackers but treated myself to a private room which was really nice - it feels like luxury not to be in a room with 12 others! I was glad I did too as apparently there were rats running around the dorm at night. The scenery was typical Fiji I'm guessing with white sand beaches and turquiose sea. On the first evening I learnt to drink Fiji style which meant getting together in a group, buying litre bottles of beer and playing Taki time, where one bottle is opened at a time and the Taki master pours small amounts into a glass and you have to down it. I wasn't impressed at first, thinking that I wasn't going to get enough to drink, but if you have a good Taki master (and you can encourage the slow ones by shouting - Taki Master, Taki Faster) then it soon comes around to your turn again. I can see something similar going down well in the Piano and Pitcher! Honestly before I knew it and after a few drinking games I was well away!! Some very funny incidents to report but maybe the blog is not the place, and a few more drinking games to add to the repertoire.

Also on the first evening there was a dance show by the locals (the blokes were oiled up a la Chippendales), which included group participation in the Bula dance. It was hilarious - most of the moves were out of either the Locomotion or the Macarena!! Still I'm sure that the influence started in Fiji and not the other way around.

I was only there for 3 days and was sorely tempted to extend my stay but that would have meant changing my flights to Australia and I've been itching to get there. I was planning to do some snorkelling in Fiji, but to be honest most days I was nursing a hangover and was incapable of doing much except lay on the beach.

Travelling to Darwin was horrendous, in one day I took 3 flights, ate 3 airline meals (plus a couple of airport meals to relieve the boredom), passed through 2 time zones and finally arrived at my hostel in Darwin 22 hours later. Strange time zone thing going on in Darwin - the time difference between there and Sydney is half an hour - what's that about?? I thought time differences were measured in full hours and now I'm very confused because to me it looks like the time difference is about 20 years - I've stepped back to the 80's once again.

Darwin itself is a nice little city although the nightlife is a bit suspect - on the way from the airport I spotted two choice nightclubs - The Honeypot and (my favourite) Pokies Buff Buff Nite Spot. Whilst I was there I went to see the fish feeding down by the wharf - hundreds of fish (catfish, barramundi and other types of fish) come in a high tide and you can hand-feed them - there are so many of them its a bit freaky really. Also visited the Myndll beach markets which was great - loads of stalls and entertainment (didgeridoo players, whip-crackers, bands, fire jugglings etc) and fabulous food.

Didn't take long to spot my first Aborigine - he was wandering down the high street wearing an Elvis t-shirt and holding a bottle of Thunderbird wine. Now, it's probably (well, definitely) not very pc to say this, but Aborgines are not blessed with good looks. They all look really Neanderthal - even the kids look like they fell out of the ugly tree hitting every branch on the way down. And they smell bad. In the Aboriginal languages (there are hundreds of different languages and dialects) there is no word for 'work' and I reckon there isn't one for 'hairbrush' either - and that's rich coming from someone who rarely brushes her hair.

There's an interesting selection of souvenirs available here - mostly consisting of everyday items made from kangaroo testicles - gear stick knobs (if you get what I mean), bottle openers, corkscrews etc. Place your orders now for the genital-fashioned ornament of choice...

From Darwin I took a 10 day safari travelling down through the outback to Alice Springs on a group tour. The group I was with were brilliant fun - a real mix of people, we had an Irish couple, an Irish girl travelling on her own (Grainne, pronounced Gronya????). a couple of German girls travelling on their own (one of whom told everyone that she was Swiss because she says everyone hates Germans!!), a couple from Leeds, an American woman, a Czech girl, a Japanese couple,a couple of guys from Canada, and a Geordie who had serious i-pod envy and who thought that my music collection rocked - I'm guessing he hadn't spotted the Shirley Bassey and the Abba. The tour guide was Dangerous Brian (we never really established why he'd earned this nickname). Anyway we all got along famously,and I made some great friends, particularly Grainne who was game enough to stay up drinking with me on the first night until 2.30 am even though we had a 5.30 am start. She didn't have much stamina though as on the next night she had to be forced to have a beer.

Spending so much time with Oirish folk it wasn't long before we all started saying odd things like, 'so will I be telling yer man there to get us some beers?' and such like. We even had an evening of learning to play the spoons - we had to entertain ourselves somehow.

The set up of the tour was that everyone had to muck in to prepare meals so we got quite a good routine going. Most of time we had camp kitchens to use but one night we cooked everything on the fire and I even made damper (a kind of savoury bread) to go with the meal - not sure that Jamie Oliver has too much to worry about but it wasn't bad.

As part of the tour we went to Kakadu national park where we jumped off the rocks and swam in billabongs - there was lots of male testosterone in the air and it got very competitive with everyone trying to be the one to jump off the highest rock - I packed in at about 2 metres - wimp!! We also visited Jim Jim (the dog boy) Falls, where Fee (Oirish bird) went a cropper while clambering over the rocks and took a chunk out of her arm. She proved to be quite the clumsy one with a number of very entertaining comedy falls over the 10 day trip. We visited Barramundi Gorge, and looked at Aboriginal Art on the rocks at Ubirr.

I saw my first kangaroo as road kill but there were plenty of live ones jumping around later - very cute! Now, apparently there are Kangaroos, Wallaroos and Wallabies - the difference being in size so the first we saw were Wallaroos then kangaroos as we headed south but they all looked like Kanga from Winnie the Pooh to me.

We went on a boat tour at the Mary River wetlands where there were more crocs than you could shake a stick at and some amazing birds (of the feathered variety).

We camped out almost every night either in tents or in swags out in the open under the stars. It was amazing - one of the group said that we were staying in a billion-star hotel and they were right. We saw so many shooting stars that if all my wishes come true I should shortly find myself with Brad Pitt at my beck and call and David Beckham carrying my luggage for me as I travel around the world in style having won the lottery even though I don't do it!

Lots of laughs sat drinking around the campfire and trying to play the didgeridoo - I was a bit of a natural - might be because I have a big gob?

At Katherine Gorge I took a helicopter flight as well as doing the trek - it was breathtaking (and the pilot was quite cute too).

At one of the roadhouse stops we were able to hold a black-headed python, it was very soft and smooth to touch and I was quite enjoying it until it started heading for my neck - the look on my face as I realised why everyone else was holding their breath is classic!

Obviously whilst in Rome etc etc meant that I had to try some form of bush tucker so after some convincing I ate an ant - can't remember what type of ant but it is was huge and had a big yellow pouch thing hanging off its end (maybe its his bum??) which you bite off and it takes a little like lemon and is really refreshing! I've also tucked into kangaroo steak (very nice), camel and stout pie (similar to any old meat pie) and crocodile (bit like chicken).

We visited Kata Tjuta (the Olgas) and did a trek there and then we went to Uluru where we were hoping to climb the rock but it was initially closed (due to wind or something - not mine!) and by the time they opened it it was too late for us to get up to the top and back in time for the sunset so were only able to go about half way. To be honest it was exhausting doing that much, so I'm not convinced I would have made it to the top. Anyway the sunset was amazing and we had champagne - which I think is my favourite drink in the whole world (or maybe flaming sambucas, not sure...)

The next morning we were up and back at Uluru in time to watch the sunrise. Predictably I have about a million pictures of the rock but I also have some funny ones of Anne (German girl masquerading as Swiss) and I doing kangaroo impressions in front of a road sign, and some acrobatic ones of us trying to leap off a fence to make it look like we were jumping over the rock - judge for yourself - Fee (Fianoula - another strange Oirish name) did the best leap. The following day we were up at 5.30 again (the day we lay in until 6am felt like a real treat) to do a 3 hour trek around King's Canyon, which was hard work but the views were really stunning.

Because in effect we were doing 3 tours back to back we managed to get in 3 end of tour dinners which involved loads of drinking, dancing and taking part in various bar competitions (none of which we won).

I'm now in Alice for a couple of days catching up on e-mails and washing my clothes and boring stuff like that but some of the crew from the tour are here for a few days so it'll be nice to hang out with them for a bit. I went to a kangaroo rescue centre this morning - when kangaroos become roadkill sometimes the baby joeys are able to survive if they're taken from the pouch soon enough and they look after them here. They were so cute - they're all wrapped up in pillow cases. It was like holding a real baby (except a really hairy baby with huge feet) and I did that really selfish thing of holding on to it like it was my own and not wanting to pass it on for others to hold.

I'm loving Australia and am really sad that I only have a short time here - I'm already thinking that I need to come back to fit in the West Coast.

Next leg is Alice - Adelaide taking in some vineyards along the way, then on to Melbourne via the Great Ocean Road. In Melbourne Grainne and I are meeting up and attempting to get tickets for the Arctic Monkeys gig which was sold out in April - watch this space for more news.

Keep the e-mails coming, it's great to hear from everyone, even if mostly you're just gloating over the fabulous weather you're having...

lots of love to everyone

Carole
xx

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Photos

with Jo and Leah in Nadi
Always something there to remind me ..... of Somerfield!!

Devils Marbles
there's hidden strength in my thighs...

Open Wide
Croc at Mary River

Strange Bird
a Jabiru

Comments

[anonymous]

new envious reader
Hi Carol,really enjoying reading about your travels,strange really, as I'm sat at my P.C it's 11.40pm,it's dark,chilly and pissing with rain! Enjoy!Love Mark Pyles.