Hitting the rock

Taking a well deserved break

The Olgas, and some rocks

Sunset at Ayers Rock

We signed up for a three day trip to see Ayers Rock with our hostel, as we didnt fancy doing loads more driving and thought we would get to see more. So we set out on a freezing cold Saturday morning at 6am (ouch) and jumped on our bus with 21 other people and our friendly tour guide Carla. We were promised a free camel ride in the package, and I think I was expecting a nice ride at sunset in front of the rock. No, let's be serious Kat. It was about 7am and we arrived at what looked nothing more than a petrol station, but no...out the back were 2 grumpy looking camels ready to take us for a ride (for $5!!!)! In a circle! And that was it! Oh well, it wasn't for another 3 or 4 hours until we actually reached our destination, a place called King's Canyon. It was pretty impressive yet we were met with a 3 hour walk, starting with a climb called 'Heartattack hill'. What the hell! I won't lie my lack of fitness showed as Nic and I clutched on to every last breath that we could muster, as we could vaguely make out the image of Roz running up the sodding hill. It was pretty good once we were at the top and then I think I may have blacked out, but hours later we arrived at some petrol station in the middle of nowhere where we bought some alcohol (needed to warm my cockles and lessen the pain of camping). It was roughly 6.30pm and this is when Carla decided it was time to drop the bomb that this was our last toilet until an hour and a half after we woke up. Now thats some serious leg crossing. Nevertheless we drove on about 5 minutes more to find a delightful patch of scrub land and this was 'home' for the night. We made a big fire which was great and then Carla made us dinner. Chilli. Good choice you IDIOT! Ha ha! We were all pretty much knackered so we set up our beds...it was a 'swag' (basically a big cover for your sleeping bag with some kind of matressy type thing to sleep on), and the sleeping bag was put inside that. So no tent or anything, the likelihood of being woken up by a dingo licking your face and running off with your trainers was pretty real! So we perfected the art of a 'bush wee' and then headed to our swags.
The next day it was a 6am wake up call and we headed to 'the Olgas' which was a big group of huge rocks that we had another 3hour walk around (it wasn't even 11am by the time we finished!). The Olgas were actually very impressive and probably the best bit of the trip though. We had lunch and that afternoon we headed to Ayers rock. Unfortunately we could not climb the rock as it was too windy (oh and over 30 people had died doing it!) so we had to do the base walk which took around 3 hours which got us up close to the rock and it was pretty great. That evening we got to see the sunset on Ayers rock and had dinner which was great seeing the colours change on the rock. That night it was another well picked piece of scrubland. Yay. Needing a bush wee at 2am was not good.
The next day we were up to see the sunrise at Ayer's rock which was bloody cold but very impressive. We had breakfast there and then set back on the long journey to Alice Springs. Once back we had a well deserved shower and then had some drinks with the group in the bar! Nice to be back in civilisation, toilets, and showers!

Darwin

A bush fire!

Abo art...apparently!

Check the crocs gettin' snap happy!

Now I thought Perth was hot. Welcome to the tropics. It is so so so hot in Darwin I was beadin' sweat pretty much constantly! We spent a few days on the beach and also we welcomed Roz to Oz (hey that rhymes!) and just laid around a lot as it was so damn hot! We did manage to visit yet another Crocodile Farm, which was good as they put chicken heads on this suspended pole above the croc enclosure, then out of nowhere the croc's just jump up from the bottom of a lake and everyone screams. Brill. They also had tigers and kangaroos and wombats and all sorts, all of which were hidden in the shade too bothered to even show their faces! How rude! ha ha! We also went to Kakadu national park, which is the biggest one in Australia. After hours of driving we didn't see much, hampered by the fact our car doesn't have a 4wheel drive booster on it. but we saw some Aboriginal 'rock art'! Hmm... we did see some big big spiders though! Ah!

Welcome Roz...the world's most hyperactive 24 year old

Even the croc looks like he's had enough of her hyper activity!

We arrived in Darwin ready to meet our friend Roz, who we worked with in Corsica in 2006. She is a wee jock and she is pretty short and hyperactive. Well, we thought she was, but now she seems to have doubled up on the medication and comes out with random quotes as 'you can't watch tv...we're in australia!' what?!?! Anyway the old jetlag didnt seem to affect her and within the first few hours she was clutching at leaflets saying 'we have to go there' to about 50 crocodile parks, and buying as much Oz memorabilia as possible! Ha ha! So for the moment, we are three!

Katherine....a town I could like

I like it. I like a lot

We found some bats just hangin' out in a tree!

On the way up from Kununarra we stopped off at a place called Katherine. FINALLY a town that has recognised my greatness and named a town after me! The town was dripping with Aboriginies but the hostel was pretty cool and we found some hot springs to swim in! We went to Katherine gorge where you could kayak, but decided walking to the edge of the water then back to the car would suffice given how hot it was. Then we went to 'Cutta Cutta' caves, which was pretty good, but we were accompanied by many keen cave goers asking questions about rock formations and comparing them to other caves they had visited, and other topics we could add a huge amount to! All in all, Katherine was great (except they clearly made a spelling mistake when naming the town, if as I suspected, they were naming it after moi!)

Worst. Hostel. Ever

Following on from the trauma that Kate and I endured at the South Beach hostel in Miami, I have managed to find an equally poor excuse of a backpackers in the Southern Hemisphere. We drove up to Kununara, the last stop before reaching the Northern Territory, through some pretty nice scenery. So we arrive at the hostel there, having been told that we "may not" be in the same room, interesting. Essentially the hostel comprised of about 3 wings, with about 50 people staying in each one, with one toilet for each wing. Add to that the average kitchen, with sticky tables, and a tv room with furniture that I can only presume was looted from a nearby plane crash, and even that had bit the dust. No one in the hostel seemed bothered though, for these people, are what we call "lifers". Lifers are generally people who cant be bothered to move on from one place, so get a job cleaning somewhere and seem to live in bliss in the skankiest hostel going. So we are surrounded by these happy people that seem oblivious to how bad the place is. At least I have a bed to sleep in. Well. Nic and I were indeed in different rooms, she was in a 4 bed dorm and with a few weirdos, yet I opened the door to find a seemly normal German girl and a somewhat Wizard like Male who later introduced himself as "Bushy". Having been there for 3 months, presumably in the original bed linen, he worked as security on a farm, which entailed sleeping in his clothes and then getting up at around 4am, turning on the light and then prancing around humming and singing for roughly half an hour before leaving me alone for an hour or so. Fantastic! So all in all it was pretty crap! Oh and it rained all damn day!

Broome

Kayaking at sunset

So 'hunky'

Mick Dundee

Crocodile Hunters

Like a pro

Broome has pretty much tropical weather the whole year round and by the time we made it it was scorchio!!! It's the biggest place on the North coast in this area and is pretty popular. To be honest it was too hot to do much except swim in the jelly fish ridden sea, the freezing cold pool or just sit in the shade! Nic made friends with two seasoned travellers...by the name of Kev and Val...in their EIGHTIES they were staying in our hostel and we so well travelled and had so many stories to talk about as they sat in the bar and knocked back another beer! We went to a crocodile farm, one of the highlights of Broome, which is put together by a less exciting Steve Irwin and but got to see some big Mommas and we got to hold some little crocs! On the last day (in Broome and for Dave) we finished with a kayaking trip at sunset with Nic teaming up with some Lawyer lady and I was stuck with the Crease. who after a few initial mistimed paddles, managed to do pretty well and we made a good team! We watched the sunset from out boat and then as we were paddling back to the beach everything all got a bit wavy and before we knew it the boat in front of us capsized. Just as we hope to get out the way a boat crushing wave comes in and resigned to our fate, Dave simply shouts 'we're going in!' and we rode the wave for a bit but we managed to survive and make it to dry land. Probably because of me. Ha ha!

Coral Bay

Beaut!

Scary snappers coming to get us!

Everyone knows the Great Barrier Reef, over by Cairns on the East Coast, but few people know the Ningaloo Reef by Coral Bay. It's apparently one of the best ones around and is great as the reef starts close to shore and all you need is a snorkel! We went out on a glass bottomed boat and saw lots of big fish and coral and then us three and three Frenchies and a Jap went out to snorkel. The first one was good because we saw loads of nice and colourful fish and then we got back on the boat and were taken out to another spot to do some more snorkelling. This spot was called the 'Snapper Hole' where loads of huge snapper fish hang out and we were plunged into it! We were advised that the Snapper 'shouldn't' hurt but if you keep your hands out you could be pricked by their spines on their back. Oh good. We cautiously got in but after about 5 minutes of swimming with potentially painful fish the fun was over. Dave swam in to the boat and as I watched under water just as he got back on the boat the fish went mental around his legs in some frenzy and as he got on the boat he had one of these fish sat on his lap and had to bat it back to where it belongs! The next second me and Nic are wondering what the hell happened and next thing we know tonnes of these fish coming swimming head first at a million miles an hour at us! Ah! Again we had no idea what was going on but we looked back at the boat to find the 'oldies' that hadn't gone swimming were filming us! Not wanting to be made a fool of I dashed back to the boat and sure as anything these fish went nuts just as I got in. I was so keen to get back that I grabbed the boat and launched myself head first to the floor landing somewhat like a bikini clad beached whale as I could feel the fish snapping at my feet! Nic then tried to come in buy by now we realised the guy in charge was throwing food at us and that's why the snapper were snapping! This didn't stop him though as when Nic tried to get back on the boat she was within about a metre of the boat for around 5 minutes as as soon as she tried to get closer he would throw food and she would get a face full of fish battering her about! Ha ha! She made it in the end though and we were pretty certain that we deserve a cut of the money when we make it to 'You've Been Framed'!

Monkey Mia!

Flipper!

An intruder!

We made some friends at last!

Dave looking cool as ever!

As we drove up from Kalgoorlie we met up with Nic's very sunburnt parents in Geraldton, and we went though to see the pub we worked at on the way, showing Dave the true desolation of our home for 2 and a half months! Nic's Dad was on fine form, telling us stories of how he gave the Cops a run for their money on the journey up there, and he kept harassing a Chinese guest of his hotel yelling out 'G'Day Bruce!'. Nic goes red and we all crack up. After a night there we said goodbye to the parents and the three of us carried on up towards a place called Shark Bay, which has a resort called Monkey Mia, no monkeys (or sharks that I know of) were involved, but Dolphins a plenty! We went along to the resort and they feed the dolphins a few times every morning and about 4 turned up on cue to come and say hi! We went on a boat to see lots of wildlife, which was good except we only saw about 5 dolphins and 1 turtle and were forced to wear these horrific 'polarised' sunglasses complete with a headband for increased security/embarassment levels. It did nothing to improve the look of the the 2 spams in the group. We also did a sunset cruise which was pretty awesome because we got to see dolphins jumping out of the water in front of us! Oh and we had a few beers on the boat, brill!

Kalgoorlie

Nic- 'No I DON'T know why you pulled me over officer'

One of the many pubs in Kalgoorlie complete with the Jim Beam party bus!

We left Chris and Janet for a couple of days and we headed West towards a gold mining town called Kalgoorlie. It was pretty interesting, having a huge 'Super Pit' that you could go and look at and see all the miners in action. However the rest of the town is much better known for its Pubs and brothels to keep the miners entertained...and us. We experienced our first 'Skimpy' ie a bar maid serving in not much more than her birthday suit and we also went to look around a brothel! Don't worry it was a brothel tour, hosted by Carmel..the Madame, who was a very prim and proper lady and eventually after lots of talking she showed us round! It was all very posh and upper class and we got to see the rooms and the 'equipment' and hear the stories about the 'clients', including one that died whilst there! It was an eyeopener! Oh and Nic got pulled over for speeding! There is some justice in the world after all her handbrake turns and donuts!

Nic, Kat, Dave, Chris and Janet Road Trippin'!

Don't be fooled people, Nic and I were not cool enough to attract a mob of party hungry youths on our road trip to fit into our little Pulsar, we finished work in the pub and made our way to Perth to meet Nic's parents (Chris and Janet) and some Gills fan called Dave (ha ha!). They all arrived within one day of each other so we spent some time down in Perth. Despite (apparently) coming from a heat wave in the UK, they were greeted by rain and cold weather in Oz, but I'm sure it was warmer than what they were used to! Nic's Dad worked over in Oz for 2 years when he was younger, living near Perth and also in the North in a mining town called Port Hedland. So the first few days were spent following him as he run around looking for his old hang outs (which were mostly pubs so we weren't complaining) and saying such gems as 'That wasn't here when I was' and 'That's where I used to live..there...that room!' and filled us in with so many funny stories about his days in Oz complete with over enthusiastic hand gestures! As requested by Dave I went along with him for a tour of the WACA ground (that's West Australian Cricket Association to the rest of us laymen) and we listened to the oldest guy EVER talk about the history of the place as I had to restrain Dave from proclaiming how great England are at cricket. The rest of the time in Perth was pretty rainy but we managed to find things to do!