[ by Stian ]
We had one day in Alice where we
almost did absolutely nothing before we went on another tour, which was pretty great actually. I
got some postcards sent off, so hopefully someone back home will be
happy soon;) I also got rid of some brochures which I sent home as
well (overseas shipping is expensive). We had dinner at
McDonalds! I KNOW !!!! Awful choice of place, but Lea and Kenneth
wanted some junkfood. I got myself an Angus Burger which was actually
pretty good, and their chips was ok as well – so it was probably
the best McDonald's experience I've ever had – but then again –
I have only had bad McDonald's experiences – back in Europe it
really is the SHIT!!!! No matter how much Kenneth tries to convince
me it's not THAT bad;) haha.
ALICE TO DARWIN - TOUR
The following day we wear headed for
our next tour: 3 Day/2 Night tour starting off in Alice Springs,
ending up in Darwin, and this time we traveled with a different
company, called Adventure Tours Australia. We were picked up at
5:15 in the morning, shortly after departure I realized that I had
forgotten my stupid sunglasses at the hostel, which I just got the
day before!!!! FUCK IT! So now I had to purchase a 4th pair of sunglasses. 4 pairs in a month and a half.. damn it – I
will spend so much money on shades this year:( Well well, clumsy
Stian keeps up the job obviously, especially since he actually found the 3rd pair in the luggage later... The couch we got this time was WAY
better than the one from the other tour. There was way more space,
since it roomed 21 people, but we were only 10 doing the tour. Also
the seats were way more comfortable – and the back of the seats was
high enough for me to find a comfortable position, wiiiii:) And the
A/C worked perfectly:) NICE!!!!
The New Tour-team
It's kinda strange heading from one
tour to another. Now we have completely new people that we have to
get in touch with, and the question will always be if our new team
will be as good as the previous one? Well the Rock-tour team was
pretty amazing so the new team has to work hard to match the
others;)
Our tour guide, Keith, was an elderly
guy who's been working in the business for many many years. He
seemed to be of a very loud and dominating character that needs
everything to be done exactly his way. Well he was also very
sociable and informative – but I have to say I struggled a bit more
to understand his English than what I did with Myles on the previous
tour. At times I felt that Keith was rushing us as well, and I did
not appreciate that very much since we kinda had plenty of time on
this tour doing nothing really special. The new tour-team looked
pretty ok as well. This time we were only 10 in the group. 2
Norwegians (that would be us), 2 Irish (Amanda and John, couple), 2
Swiss girls (Anna and Seraina, schoolmates), 1 South-Korean guy
(Dongwoo), 1 American woman (Lauren), 1 Dutch girl (Johanna) and 1
Australian woman (Kym), who was a tourguide for the company herself
and joined the tour to get a ride back home to Darwin, haha;) I did
detect some problems already in the beginning though. Since we have
so much more space on the couch everybody get way more privacy and
suddenly it was harder to get in touch with people – as opposed to
on the Rock-tour where we almost sat on top of each other, haha. But
eventually we got in touch with each other on this tour as well:)
Tropic of Capricorn
The first stop we did on the first
day was at the Tropic of Capricorn, which is located on the tropical
circle to say. So we got our photos there and then headed on
towards our lunch spot. At the place were we had lunch we also had
the option of jumping into the pool for a swim, which we greatly
accepted because it was a HOT day, REALLY HOT! The place was actually
very nice as well and while we were enjoying the swim, Keith made
perfect burgers for everybody for lunch.
Devil's Marbles
Next stop the on first day was the
Devil's Marbles, which is a pretty defined and an amazing area
consisting of a whole lot of huge marble-like rocks. How these
rocks came to this place in the first place might still be a question
today, but the most logical explanation is that there must have been
a huge explotion at one point and that these rocks was shot up from
underground and to the surface. All the rocks are made up of pure
granite as well, which make them even more extraordinary, and proves
the theory of the explosion. So we did a walk among these rocks and
got our photos but the flies was unbearable and the heat was horrible
– we definitely had crossed some kind of limit yes. We spent only an
hour on the area and that was plenty of enough time.
Telegraph Station
We then went on to explore a
deserted telegraph station. We got some information on how the
settlers worked their way through the outback and how they were able
to communicate with the rest of the world. A message could actually
take around 7 months to reach its goal in the early days, but when
they had all the telegraph stations functioning it was down to 7 hours
to get a message sent one way. Even though it wasn't the most
interesting thing to do (for my sake) it was still ok, at least Keith
seemed like a passionate guide when it comes to these kind of things.
Sleeping in the rain
Finally at our campsite we enjoyed
some ciders while Keith was making a nice dinner consisting of
beef-schnitzels. Since we now have entered a pretty humid area it
was great having a shower as well. For the night, we had the option
of sleeping in tents, fixed safari-tents with beds, not the kind we
use when hiking back home in Norway. Though, even after sunset it was
so hot and humid that I and Johanna decided that we wanted to sleep
outdoors. The ground was covered of ants so it wasn't very tempting
to sleep on the ground to say. The ants BITES! So we decided to sleep
in swags again, on the tables located on the porch of the camping
site. There was a house with a fan in the ceiling so why we couldn't
sleep indoors I don't know, but well. This evening it had been
lightening a bit as well and we even had some rain very shortly
earlier in the day – so we were told that IF it started to rain we
had to relocate ourselves into the tents It was soooo hot in the
beginning of the night that I didn't even get into my sleeping bag. I
was just laying on top of it only wearing my boxers for most of the
night – It was an amazing feeling. Then it started to rain shortly,
before it stopped again. Then it started again and soon it rained
more intensively – but we still didn't feel like relocating into
the tents so we just lay down on the floor under the ceiling of the
porch and spent the rest of the night there. It was pretty great
listening to the rain and to hear the wind rush through the area.
Somewhere there was a door or a swing that squeaked a lot and the whole
setting reminded us of something taken from a horror-movie, and for
all we know there could have been spiders all around us as well (the
most dangerous one – the Redback Spider – do live in and around
houses in this area, exactly at spots like where we were sleeping) –
so pretty cool to say:-)
Relaxing second day
This tour is not so stressful so the
following morning we could sleep until 6:15 before we had to get up.
I have started to enjoy Vegimite actually – but then again –
its the only salty option on a breakfast table around here so thats
why I choose it – and by now I have learned to portion it correctly
as well so I avoid the shock that I got the first time I tried it
when Danielle brought it to Norway;) haha.
We didn't do a lot the second day
really. We stopped by Daly Waters, a small town were Australia's
first international airport is located at, and got some second world
war-history by our guide, took some photos and then headed on. We got
to do swimming TWICE today. First at the lunch spot, in a very small
town, with a total population of 12 people or something. The café/pub
we stayed at had a nice pool and we found our way back to childhood
once in it. This day Keith had made us wraps for lunch. At this place
we also had the option to donate something of ours to nail/glue to
the wall for a dollar. Kenneth donated his student card from Norway,
so now Norway is represented on the ID-wall as well. Other things you
could donate were thongs (that's what they call flip flops here),
t-shirts, caps, money, both coins and bills, carplates, and girls
could donate bikinis if they liked to. So this pub was filled with
all these kinds of things – so it was pretty cool concept to be
honest. Next we headed onwards to Mataranka Thermal Pool located in
Elsey National Park. We spent about 90 minutes here – doing a short
walk and having another swim, but compared to the hot thermal pools
in New Zealand this thermal pool was just perfectly and mildly
temperated. Then we headed for our next camping site, right outside
of the city of Katherine and for dinner we were served wok. This
night we did not have the option of sleeping outdoors in swags
though, so we had to use the tents. It was a hot night – so I did
not use the sleeping bag at all other than as a mattress, but I did
sleep very well anyways even though I woke up a couple of times during
the night.
Important Eurovision sidenote:
AH, and since it was Saturday and the
9th of February, which meant Norwegian Eurovision
preselection final, I was very very excited about the show back home
– and I got to learn later on that my favorite song DID win the
final! Wiiiiiiiiiiiiiii!!!!!! WHAT A HAPPY DAY:) So to all you that
wants to check out the Norwegian song for this years Eurovision Song
Contest – Look up Margaret Berger and her song «I Feed You My
Love» on youtube:)
Also it was my goddaugther's birthday
this Saturday so HAPPY BIRTHDAY to lovely princess Trine Therese:-) I
really hope she had an amazing 6th birthday:)
First Day of the Year of the Snake:)
According to the calender, Sunday
was upon us again, but in my world it's still Saturday
though. This day we would be heading for Darwin, but first we were do
drop by the Katherine gorge for a hike. That is, 6 of us chose to
do the 3 hour hike, while 3 of us decided to pay for a river cruise
instead. As I am starting to become cheap on the money (about time) I
of course chose the hike. When we finally arrived at the hike we were
met by 3 wild wallabies, they are the cutest ever. We were also met
by a SNAKE! Yup – the first snake we were to get to see in the wild
happen to fall on the very first day of the new year, the year of
the snake. So it was pretty fitting actually, haha. So btw – to all
Chinese and Korean and probably more Asian countries: HAPPY NEW YEAR.
We have no idea what kind of snake it was though, but according to
our guide it was a juvenile snake. He warned us that juvenile snakes
can be more dangerous than adult snakes, since they are more likely
to act upon their fear than reason. That is, an adult snake would
probably defend itself by biting you, if you stepped on it, and then
run off, while a juvenile snake would be so afraid and not know what
to do and therefore end up biting you several times and to, if
venomous, inject poison with it's every bite – not understanding
that it should rather just get away. Well, this snake was laying on
the path just in front of us but run off as soon as it discovered us.
Katherine Gorge Hike
The walk itself was very very very
humid, and the heat was strong as well, even though we were «lucky»
to have some clouds with us today that made the temperature do drop a
little on parts of the hike. When on top of the gorge, at Pat's
Lookout, we got an amazing view of the gorge and the river. We even
noticed some moving object in far distance that suddenly disappeared
and then reappeared. It could well have been a crocodile, cause they
DO live in these waters:) I got some photos and of course also my
jumping photo, hooray. We then headed for the Southwalk Rockhole
which is a really nice waterhole just at the foot of an amazing
double waterfall. Here we made for a swim (perfectly safe since it
was freshwater and crocodiles didn't get into this exact waterhole).
The temperature was amazing and we once again found our way back to
our childhood, at least I and Irsih-man John did by doing some
«cliff jumping». I can assure you it was at least 5 meters high
cliffs, maybe more, not knowing at all how deep the water was;) Our
tourguide wasn't to happy with us having done that when we told him
later. Funny.
Keith also gave us an introduction
to flora and trees and stuff on this walk which was very interesting.
For example did we get to see a bleeding eucalyptus tree which
actually bled red blood! I have never seen a tree with actual red
blood before so that was very interesting. On our way back we also
got to see black red tailed cockatoos and also a tree filled with
flying foxes, large bats (for those who didn't know that).
On this walk I got to know Dongwoo a
bit better since we walked together most of the time. He is a
really cute and nice guy and I did enjoy his company a lot. He seems
just as interested in taking photos as I am. Of course the people of
this group has made comments on the amount of photos I take as well,
but that's ok;) I know that I DO have at least some photos that I
will be satisfied with;)
By the end of the hike we got to
meet up with Kenneth, Johanna and Lauren, who did the cruise. They seemed to have had a nice start on the day as well. We then
headed for our camping site for another lunch. This time it was
chicken legs and -wings, with salad, coleslaw, wok etc that was on the
menu. We, the hikers, also got to do another shower -since it was
really needed – but the humidity is so massive here that it doesn't
help much. It takes only just a few minutes to be totally soaked
again.
On Our Way To Darwin: Edith Falls
On our way to Darwin we dropped by
Edith Falls, which is part of a national park that were seriously
affected by really bad weather back in December 2011. So we were
checking out the effects of this. It looked pretty ok to me, but then
again I don't know how it used to look though. Earlier it was
possible to swim in he lake close to the Edith waterfalls, but not
anymore since the bad weather caused so many rocks and sand to fall
into the lake, making a small island, making the waterlevel to rise
permanently which again now makes it easy for crocodiles to get into
these waters. So we did hope to see a crocodile, but there were none
to be seen anywhere.
On our way to Darwin we also
experienced a shortlasting but an extremely heavy rain shower. So
far I have had 4 of these during my journey, so really not that many
– but it REALLY rains a lot and HEAVILY when it happens. One pretty
amazing sight during the shower was the sight of a road train passing
us and the amount of water that spinned around its 64 wheels. It
didn't look like a road truck at all – it rather looked like a
jetboat racing towards us, haha;)
Thankfully the shower didn't last
for long, cause we eventually made a stop to take a photo of a
socalled termite-cathedral. Our guide Keith told us that a guy he
once had in a group had such an advanced camera that it could measure
how tall this thing was and he said it was 5,85 meters tall. I think
it might be even higher though. It takes termites about 8-10 years to
create a «cathedral» of this size. The biggest cathedrals can be
almost 8 meters tall we were told. Pretty amazing, even though
termites are not among my favorite creatures;)
Dinner in Darwin
Finally in Darwin I and Kenneth
checked into the YHA-hostel, which Kym thought to the best hostel in
Darwin, and then we were to meet up with the whole group once again
for a meal, and some drinks of course;) Our
hostel was really nice. We even got a 6 bed dorm-room all by
ourselves the first day, and there was a private bathroom to it –
hooray! Also, there was a pool there! NICE! Since Kym
is from Darwin she had arranged a table for us at a pizzaplaze were
we could get 2 pizzas for only $15 AUD, and we would even get
discounts on drinks. Well, this is obviously a place the
tour-company has a special deal with – otherwise I would have been
surprised if we got those cheap prices anyways:) I ended up
eating more than one pizza though. That's what happens when
I don't eat anything between lunch and dinner, one gets hungry then;)
It was a fun evening and I did get to do some more dancing as well,
and also to meet up with some nice local people:) And the following
day I could once again sleep in and this time hopefully no crazy
people would wake us up in the morning;)
An amazing outback adventure!
To sum it all up: We've had pretty
amazing 7 days in the outback! I really think it was worth the
money and I am glad I got to do it. Everyone should try to get to the
red center at least once in their life. The tourguides were really
good, and the people we met were among the best. There were things
along the way that we did not get to see or to do, but that is ok
really – If I were to do everything I think I would have died of a
heatstroke ;)
FINALLY PHOTOS:
@ Devils Marbles
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