Feb 17

It’s a chillax day. Sue, Mollie and I combined our laundry so we could efficiently do a light and dark load and then hung it up to dry. It is awesome to have a bag of full of clean clothes instead of having to pick your cleanest dirty shirt.

The hostel room had coffee and we scarfed a bowl of cereal with milk from the trailer so saved a few bucks on breakfast. Free wifi meant I could skype home and got to talk to Stephanie, Mike and Jackson while Chloe just stared at me like she wondered what I was doing in the computer.

Dingo gave us a ride into Alice Springs to check out the town, hit the ATM and pick up snacks for the train. We ended up at an ice cream shop that had pistachio ice cream so I HAD to have one. Call it lunch.

The train station had free wifi as well so finished a blog entry. I’ve already taken almost a thousand photos and it’s really hard to choose favourites to put on the blog.

The Ghan train was quite comfy with nice reclining seats but no foot rests so, again, my feet puffed up. The AC was cranked so we had to bundle up and I woke up a few times cold anyway even with, in my sleep sheet and a scarf, I was chilled. Silly when it’s so hot outside.

At 9 am we stopped in Katherine and were transferred by bus to the gorge where we hoped to swim. Nope. The river had flooded so the crocs could get past the fence so it was too dangerous. So, we went on a hike. It was only 3 or 4 km altogether but HOT and very humid. We’re now in the tropics.

Back at the cultural centre some of us went to the bathroom and soaked our heads under the cold water tap…VERY refreshing.

In 2006 there was a cyclone that caused such flooding that when the water receded there were 3 crocs in Woolworths, one of which was over 3 metres long. They were in some homes as well.

After dinner at a bar, Sebastian and I snuck out early as neither of us is a fan of the noise and mayhem. I tried purchasing wifi but after an hour of farting around and it didn’t work I got my money back and went to bed.

Feb. 19

We were up and ready by 6 am as requested and got more and more grumpy when the tour guide didn’t show. Finally he arrived shortly after 7 am to a group, most of whom had been partying too late and the rest of us needing coffee. Apparently there was a miscommunication. Pick up is at 7 in the rainy season.
Heath redeemed himself with a fantastic day. First was a cruise with “Spectacular River Cruises” on the Adelaide River which is infested with HUGE salt water crocs. We were again incredibly lucky to see “Michael Jackson”, a 5 metre croc with a white face, a smaller croc and Hannibal, a 7 metre croc that is estimated to weigh close to a ton. Scary beasts! Crystal would coax them with raw buffalo meat and they had to jump 4 times to get it. The idea is to make them work for it so they go away just as hungry as they came and have to forage for their own food.
We drove further into Kakadu National park, got our passes and went for a walk where Heath texplained the rock paintings and aboriginal culture. I tried the Kakadu plum. Apparently they make quinine from it but it was just really bitter and numbed my tongue. Heath found some ants that when you annoy them their bums get really green. As instructed, I picked it up by the head and licked it’s bum. It tasted really lemony! The day had started out with pouring rain but dried nicely for us.
We stopped at a resort pool and went for a VERY refreshing dip before getting to camp where dinner prep started. Heath barbecued beef sausage, steak, kangaroo and crocodile…way too much meat but VERY tasty
After sitting around the fire and trying to play the didgereedo which is much harder than it looks, we went for a night walk. We saw a few toads, spiders, lizards a LOT of stars and then got totally freaked out by crocodile eyes on the flooded road. Well, I was freaked. Heath was quite calm.
Too many bugs in the wet season for swags so we slept in tent structures. There’s no power or running water so it’s still camping 🙂