Grab yourself a cuppa-joe and get comfortable because this is a long one :o)

In Darwin we actaully had a bit of a night life. Thursday night we went to the markets, which I already wrote about. Friday night we went to the casino. We had to change in the parking lot into appropriate attire. We vouched not to spend more than $40 - watch out big spender! We took about an hour to decide how we were going to blow our big $40, and finally decided on Black Jack. Minimum bets were $10 - so we were guaranteed at least 4 hands (only Trev played - I just watched). He did really well at first, we almost doubled our money, but then the cards turned and he kept losing and losing and then it was all gone - a total of about 15 minutes of fun :o) We were tempted to go to the cash machine and try again - but we knew that would be a bad idea.

Saturday night we went to the Speedway. That was good fun. There were about 5 different types of cars that raced, incl. dirt bikes, quad bikes, go-karts, cars with huge top spoilers and rally cars. Each race Trev and I would each pick our favourite car and cheer them on. At first Trev's choices were winning, but in the end I think I won.

Our last day in Darwin we went to the Territory Wildlife Park. We got there just in time for the Birds of Prey display. We got to see a barking owl (which actually sounds like a barking dog), and black breasted buzzard and a white-bellied sea eagle (Australia's 2nd largest bird of prey). After the show we also go to see the wedge-tailed eagle - Australia's largest bird of prey. They really are impressive birds with wing spans over 2 meters.

We walked around the park and saw lots of different types of birds and some more kangaroos. But the best exhibit was the aquarium. There is one section where you walk through a tunnel and the aquarium goes over your head. It was so cool. There were sharks, and sting rays and pig-nosed turtles swimming all around us. I even saw a ray eat a fish right above me! But the best part of all was the Saltwater crocodile. It was sunbathing right up against the glass and I even got to see it open it's eyes. It was kinda scary. Apparently they have two sets of eyelids, one acts like goggles under the water.

But that wasn't close enough to crocodiles for us - no! We had to go see them in the wild real close up. The day after the wildlife park, we did what they call a 'Jumping Croc Cruise'. There were about 16 of us in this little aluminium boat, not much bigger than a fishing boat. The guide took us down the river where he splashed his stick with meat on the end and made the crocs jump out of the water for it. We were so close we could have touched them - if we wanted to. It was really cool. The first croc we saw was a large female, which the guide named lucky. She was about 4m. The next couple of crocs were smaller males about 1.5-2m. My favourite croc was Surfer-Joe. Most crocs jump out of the water with their legs against their bodies, but not Surfer-Joe. He uses his front legs to propel himslef out of the water - like a surfer does to get on his board.

Not only did we see crocodiles, we saw a couple white-bellied sea eagles. OUr guide put some meat on a cooler lid and let it float out adn the birds swooped down to get the meat - it was guite amazing. Apparently the birds mate for life, but they don't share their dinner, so the guide had to put out 2 pieces of meat.

After the croc cruise we went to an interpretive display centre and learned a lot about the Australian wetlands. There were displays on the types of plants and animals that inhabit the area as well as a history on the area. The upper level of the centre had a great lookout, so we went back there for the sunset. This time of year the grass is really dry and subject to fire, and there were a few fires in the area so the skyline was quite hazy. The sunset behind the haze before it reached the horizon - can't say I've ever seent that before.

We spent the night at the worst caravan park so far. The pool was disgustingly dirty, the hot tub was cold and we had to shower in a barn!

The next day we drove into Kakadu National Park. A major highlight of our trip. It's a major attraction in the Northern Territory. The park is over 22000 square km, and there is a river entirely encompassed within the park. We stopped at some wetlands and did some birdwatching. We had picked up a cheap set of binoculars in Darwin, so we got to see quite a bit. We saw some Magpie geese, egrets, cormorants, darters, green pygmie geese, Jacana (also known as the Jesus bird b/c it looks like it walks on water) and many other birds. We saw these birds all throughout our stay at Kakadu.

We spent a total of 8 days in Kakadu. We spent 2 nights near Ubirr, a sacred rock art sight for the local Aboriginal people. The rock art was really neat. Some of the drawings were on the tops of rock caves, I have no idea how they would get up that high without ladders. Some of the art has been dated back 20,000 years.

Kakadu is world heritage listed for two reasons. One, being the cultural aspect with all the rock art and aboriginal influence. The aboriginals still live and feed off the land. The second reason it is listed, is the natural beauty of the area. We spent most of our time doing walks and exploring the park. The wildlife and plants were amazing.

One of the features of the park is the guided ranger walks and talks. We participated in a lot of those so we learned a fair bit as well. One activity we got to try our hand at weaving baskets, it was hard work and we didn't do very well. We also got to try some bushtucker: lily pad stalks, lily pad seeds, yams, fire cooked cat fish (she just threw the whole fish on the fire, no foil or anything), and the day before we tried green bum ants - they tasted like lemons. Not a 5 star meal, but it was fun to try the different foods that the aboriginals traditionally ate.

Our last day in Kakadu we took another boat cruise on the Yellow-Water billabong this time. The cruise left at 6:00am, it was so early, but the birdlife was incredible. We got to watch the sunrise and the birds come to life. There were still some night birds out, and the day birds were out looking for breakfast. The crocs were out as well. We saw a few crocs, but the largest was named pluto. As the story goes, a local fisherman took his dog, named pluto, out on the boat with him. The dog decided to go for a swim............and I'm guessing you can see where this story is going. So now, the croc is named after the dog in which it ate.

We were quite scared of swimming or even walking by water after Kakadu and all the horror stories of people being eaten by crocs.

After Kakadu we made our way back to Katherine (the highway doesn't go right across the top, we had to backtrack a bit). We stayed there for a couple of nights and got to take a swim in the hot springs there. Though the water is a cool 32 degrees, it actually did feel refreshing to swim in, since the air temperature was about 40 degrees.

From Katherine we headed straight for the East coast. The highway across was sooooooooo boring. There was nowhere worth stopping, so we just drove and drove, about 8hrs a day. There was one stretch of the highway where there was roadkill about every one hundred meters. The smell was just lovely. It's funny the number of different things that can be roadkill in Oz. There are signs for kangaroo, cattle, sheep, horses, wombats, koalas, emu, camel - plus you have to watch for frogs, snakes, turtles, lizards and even birds. We hit a bird! It scared the @#$% out of me. I wasn't paying attention, and then all of a sudden there was a big bang on the windshield. We even went back and got a feather for a souvenir :)

So, we are now on the East coast. We arrived in Townsville on Sat. the 2nd of Oct. We knew we wanted to go scuba diving and do our courses and get certified while in Oz, but we weren't sure where to do it. We started looking at all the options, and decided Townsville was the best place to go. We talked to the travel agent on Sun. and she suggested we do the course right away, so we booked to do the course Mon. morning. Talk about last minute.

We had to go get a medical done, get passport photos and pick up our course books that afternoon. Then we were told we had homework! We had to read 3 chapters before class at 8:00 am! I'm on holidays, I shouldn't be doing homework.

Anyway, we did all the class stuff and the pool stuff and learned the basics, then Tues night it was onto the boat for 3 days of scuba diving on the Great Barrier Reef! We departed late Tues night and slept while the boat drove all night to our frist diving destination. We were awoken at 7:15 am, had breakfast and were diving at 8:00. Our first dive was on the Wheeler Reef. We went down for about 30 minutes and just got used to our equipment and the mechanics of diving. Trev and the rest of the group saw a reef shark in the distance but I missed it.

We had to do four dives in the ocean before we became certified. We did our first 3 on the Wheeler Reef. Our last dive of the day was kinda scary. There was a really strong current and you could really feel yourself being pushed away. But we were still with a guide, so we were okay. Our last course dive was the next day on Davies Reef. We got to go down to 18m and got to just swim around and make sure we were good to go. We got to do 2 more dives on the Davies reef, but we did those on our own. It was sooooo much fun. Trev and I even saw a reef shark on our first dive! We went around a corner and there it was swimming right at us. It was a little scary, but I think it was more scared of us, b/c it took off straighaway. Our 2 alone dives were by far my favourite dives. We just got to go off exploring on our own.

We saw so many different fish. And they were huge. There were so many different colours and shapes. Even the coral was really neat to look at. Oh, and we found Nemo!

The way the dive thing works, is now we are able to dive on our own up to 18m, during the day. We have to take 5 different adventure dives, to become an advanced diver. Then we can go night diving and dive to 30m. We got the option to do a night dive, which counts towards our certification to becoming an advanced diver.

The night dive was a totally different experience. I felt so lost. It was hard to see, and very easy to get disoriented. The colours looked different as well. We got to take flashlights down with us, so we could see what was going on, and if you hold the flashlight against your tummy and wave your hands around, it looks like sparks going off - pretty neat. The night dive was a good experience, but not my favourite, Trev really like it though.

The last day we went to the Yongala shipwreck. Apparently it's one of the best wreck sites in the world. We had the option of making these dives count towards our advanced certification as well. We did our deep dive and wreck dive. So we did two dives on the wreck, but the first one we just went down to about 28m and then basically straight up, we didn't see much of the boat itself because some of the group were quickly running out of air. The wreck dive however, was basically a tour of the boat. Our guide pointed out all the points of interest, including the toilets, the bathtub and a chair. There were tons of fish and some of them were huge... we even got to see a bunch of Trevally fish (that's its real name :o) and a huge sea turtle! It was a pretty good dive, but we didn't get to stay down very long, I wish we got another chance to take a look at it. Next time we're in Oz :)

We got back to Townsville last night. It was such a great trip. Our group in the diving course and the other divers on board got along really well and a bunch of us went out for dinner and drinks. It was good fun - our first drinking binge in quite awhile.

Not too sure what we are going to do next. The funds are running a bit low, so we hope to find some work either here or in Cairns.

Peace out!

It's only been a couple of weeks, yet we've done so much. After my last posting, we went to a Dinner & Show presentation. For dinner we got to try some Kangaroo kebabs, not my favourite, but at least I tried it! The show was quite fascinating. During dinner an Aboriginal played an instrument known as the 'didgeridoo' - it's a hollowed out log that's makes a really low humming-gargling sound. After that, a group of Aboriginals presented some traditional dances. Trev got to try his hand at the didgeridoo, and I got to dance around pretending to pick fruit.

We spent a day touring the West MacDonnell Ranges, just outside of Alice Springs. In one day we saw Simpson's Gap, Standley Chasm and Ormiston Gorge, though I don't know the difference between a 'gap', a 'gorge' and a 'chasm' - they all were rivers that flow through the mountains.

We decided to splurge on another dinner. We went to the Overlander Steakhouse and tried their 'Blowout' menu. We started with tomato bacon soup and fresh damper (damper is just thick bread, like a biscuit). The next course was a sampling of Crocodile, Camel, Emu and Kangaroo. Suprisingly enough, they all tasted quite good - even the kangaroo. The camel was a bit tuff, but I think we decided we liked the emu the best. The next course was fish (Barramundi) or steak, I had steak and Trev had fish, but we ended up switching part way through. To top it all off,we had fresh apple pie servied with whipped cream and ice cream and a cup of tea - we didn't have to eat for days after that meal!

Another highlight of our stay in Alice Springs was our tour around the Desert Park. We walked around for over 4 hours looking at the natural wildlife, the birds and trees (not many in the desert) and we got to watch a birds-of-prey presentation and saw a couple of different birds. It had 4 different deserts and the different wildlife in each.

Oh, and I almost forgot! We went on a camel ride! That was my idea, but Trev really enjoyed it as well. We rode for about an hour while the sun was setting, it was quite beautiful. Riding a camel was much more comfortable than riding a horse, and you don't have to do anything - I could have read a book while the camel trotted along.

After Alice Springs, we went to the small town of GemTree, just outside of Alice. We went gem fossicking there. We got to sift through buckets of sand looking for the precious zircon. It looks like a diamond - just not quite as clear. We found one good sized one and 4 a bit smaller, but still good enough to make a ring or earrings out of. Maybe I'll get a ring someday:)

Our next stop was Mataranka. We had been told that the Hot Springs there were really good. To our disappointment, the whole area was overtaken by bats. There were thousands of them everywhere, and they smelled really bad. Trev even got pooped on while we walked to check our the hot springs. Needless to say, we didn't stay long. We moved right along to Elsey National Park. It was a small park, but right on the Roper River. We got to go swimming and even took a canoe out for a day to some small waterfalls.

We also went canoeing in Nitmiluk (Katherine Gorge) National Park. The Katherine Gorge is a succession of 13 gorges - we were only able to canoe to the end of the third gorge in the one day we had the canoe. It was a lovely day though. The second gorge was by far the most impressive, the walls were massive towering over us. On our way back down the gorges we saw some sparrow nests, some turtles (at least the diameter of a basketball) and a freshwater crocodile! There are two types of crocodiles - the freshwater (freshie) and the saltwater (salty). The freshie is only small, it shies away from humans unless provoked, and then, it can only nip at you and maybe get a toe. The salties are the big ones - we haven't seen any of those yet, but there are warning signs all over the place letting you know where not to swim.

We wanted to do a day of Barramundi fishing on the Daly River, but when we got there the tours were booked out for the next week. The Barra is known around the world for its strong fights. We only stayed the one night, but the lady at the reception felt bad we couldn't go fishing, so she gave us some fish anyway. She gave us a large fillet of Barramundi, the most popular fish of the Northern Territory. It was delicious - we cooked over an open fire.

Instead of heading straight into Darwin, we stopped at Litchfield National Park. I think it is one of my favourites so far. We swam at the Buley rockpools, at Florence Falls and at Wangi Falls. It was so picturesque, swimming in the waterholes and the waterfalls cascade down infront of you.

We are now in Darwin. Not too sure how long we are going to stay. Last night we got to experience the Mindil Sunset Markets - a must do in Darwin. It's not like a real market, there were all sorts on international food vendors and tons of buskers. There was one guy that was painting with spray paints - the paintings were quite elaborate with lots of detail. There were two guys - one playing the didgeridoo and another on drums - they were really good, we bought their CD. And another guy was cracking whips. He could crack them in a rythm you could almost dance to. We each got to try cracking the whip. Trev was really good, he was even able to pass it behind his back and crack it with his left hand. Me, on the other hand, took forever just to get it to crack once, I ended it there.

After Darwin, the plan is to go to Kakadu National Park to see the salties, then head out to the East coast.

Well, we are doing well. The van is actually serving us quite well, it's become our little home.

We've taken tons of photos, but again I don't know when we'll be able to get them on the website. We'll let you know. Hope everyone is doing well. We miss you all.