Two Days, One Night

I arrived in Airlie Beach in the Whitsundays and went around to all of the boat shops looking for a sailing trip to go on. I wanted a smaller boat, that left preferably the next day and found a trip leaving the next day that held 12 passengers and two crew on a two day and one night trip around the Whitsunday Islands. The next morning at 8am I boarded the boat, met the other passengers and the crew and we set off. Everything other than drinks (Non Alcoholic or Alcoholic) was included. We motored and sailed around, went to some beaches, snorkeled a couple of times and before I knew it the trip was over. This is another of the "it's better to show you than to tell you entries".

There are jellyfish, so everyone had to wear a "stinger suit"

This fish was MASSIVE, like the size of a dog massive, his name is Elvis.

Thumbs up Dude!

Sailing

More sailing

Whithaven Beach

Another picture of it because it's so amazing

I really enjoyed the trip....I love sailing and snorkeling. It's not bad to have someone who cleans the boat, drives the boat, cooks and cleans for you either!

The rest of the pictures from the trip can be found HERE

Three Days of Driving

With my decision made to head to the East Coast, that meant I had a long way to drive. My original plan was to drive the Savannah Way along the top of Australia to head East. When I was in Wauchope (LINK) I met a Dutch couple who had just driven the Savannah Way and warned me that there was 350 kilometers of unpaved roads like I encountered the day I tried to drive from the Kings Canyon to Alice Springs (LINK). So instead of the Savvanah Way, I backtracked 600 kilometers South and then headed East. Along my way, I passed by many of the bar/gas station/restaurant/grocery store locations, the one with the post personality was definitely the Daly Waters Pub, which claims to have the oldest liquor license in the NT.

I went into one such pub and had a conversation with the barman that went something like this:

Barman: Gooday Mate, What can I get for you Mate?
Me: I'll have a beer please.
Barman: Which one Mate?
Me: A 4 X Gold Please
Barman: Okay Mate, pint or schooner Mate?
Me: A pint please.
Barman:Okay Mate, Here you go Mate, $5.40 Mate, Thank you Mate.

Almost literally every other word was mate!

I also went to some caves, which were interesting, as I love caves.

I made another timelapse video while driving. Watch how dramatically the landscape changes at 29 seconds:

After three days of driving, I have reached the East Coast!

You can check out the rest of the pictures HERE

Controversy

This morning I visited the World War 2 Oil Tunnels under Darwin. (To digress: Only last year I learned that during World War 2 the Japanese bombed Australia and even went as far South as Sydney Harbour with some submarines that were destroyed by the Australians.) After Darwin was bombed the Australians decided that they needed to securely store their oil under ground where it couldn't easily be bombed and destroyed by the Japanese, so they hand dug these tunnels. The approval to build them came so late that they were only finished as the war was ending and they were no longer needed. It turns out that it's good that they weren't ever used as they leaked and all of the oil would have been contaminated and useless. There are a lot of pictures of these tunnels in the link below:

I then drove out to Litchfield National Park, where I swam under waterfalls in cool water. Today there were a lot of people around, so I wasn't so scared of the crocodiles. I also looked at some more termite mounds. The ones I have previously posted are called Cathedral Mounds, but the ones I saw today are called Magnetic Mounds because they always face North/South. This is done so that one side of the mound is always in the shade, which is where all of the termites go in the heat of the day to stay cool. There were two theories as to how they know directions either that they can see the sun or that they have some kind of built in magnets. Scientists took a mound to a lab and artificially altered the magnetic field and the termites started to change their existing mound! The mounds also look like tombstones from a distance, which is a bit spooky.

Tomorrow I was planning to go to Kakadu National Park, which is the biggest and best of all of the National Parks in the NT and is the most famous. I have decided that I have Cathedral syndrome, what you get when you go to European cathedral after European cathedral after European Cathedral, only with parks. I have seen enough bushland, termite mounds, waterfalls and aboriginal art. I'm Heading to the East Coast!

Check out all of the pictures from today HERE

What lies beneath

I have been spending the night at all kinds of places, some of them free, some of them paid. In the desert, by the beach and underground. Last night I stayed at a place that was a former race track that is now a not for profit campground and local watering hole. There are also massive termite mounds everywhere as well. I have seen thousands of these while driving but none were as big as the ones at this race track, they were taller than me!

I sat at the bar and had a couple of beers with the local guys after they got off work. Their conversations were magnificent and I wish I would have recorded them to share, I was laughing so hard. One conversation went something like this:

Guy 1: We have already gotten over 100 millimeters of rain.
Guy 2: Already? It's only rained the two times.
Guy 1: I'm certain, I measured 105 millimeter on my rain gauge. I checked with Bill and he had 108 millimeters, he gets more rain west of town than where I live. Bill gets paid to report the rain you know.... I was thinking about doing that.
Guy 2: What do you do with all the excess water? Do you watch it all night long and empty it?
Guy 1: What are you talking about?
Guy 2: What do you do when your rain gauge overflows?
Guy 1: Mine never overflows.
Guy 2: Well you must have a bigger rain gauge than I do.
Guy 1: I doubt that, it's pretty small.
Guy 2: How much does your rain gauge hold?
Guy 1: I don't know, at least 200 millimeters.
Guy 2: I should have known... you being a millionaire and all, I'm just a poor guy with a 25 millimeter rain gauge.

(The reason for all of the rain talk is that this part of the country is dry for 9 months of the year and then it rains nonstop for 3 months and this is the first of the wet season.)

There was another conversation about cops and how one guy won't talk to the cops or go anywhere the cops are. He was going to a house party once and saw a cop car in the drive way and turned around and went back home. "There is a reason I live in The Territory and talking to cops isn't it".

Then the guys started talking to me and asking me questions about where I was from and what I was doing in Australia. When one of the guys found out I was American he said "I know an American guy, I was best man at his wedding". Then the Aussie guy called the American guy and handed me the phone. I spent 10 minutes talking to a very nice guy who is originally from Wyoming but has lived the last 26 years in Australia. His accent was so American sounding, I would have believed that he was still in Wyoming to this day.

Today I continued driving North and saw salt water crocodiles in the wild from a boat. The driver/guide/owner would hold out a long stick with buffalo meat on it and the crocodiles would come and snatch the meat from him.

These crocodiles were amazing, they would appear from nowhere and could go from floating on the surface horizontally to fully launching their bodies vertically out of the water in an instant.

They could also turn their jaws and clamp down in any direction nearly instantly. It was exciting but really really scary. If I were to be thrown into a body of water and was given the choice "Shark or Salt Water Crocodile", I would choose shark, because with them there is a chance, the crocs look like they would just straight bite your head off!

Check out the rest of today's pictures, including more crocodile snaps HERE

Glamping in Katherine Gorge (Nitmiluk Gorge)

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Yesterday I woke up a little bit rough from the Wauchope Cup (LINK HERE) and drove a couple of kilometers North to the Devils Marbles. The Devils Marbles are large round boulders that are formed when softer rock on the outside is worn away by the wind and rain, they were pretty cool.

I continued driving North until I reached the town of Katherine and checked in to spend the night at the campground of the National Park. This wasn't any normal national park setup though there was a massive tropical pool in the middle of the campground and there was a cook to order restaurant there as well. There were a total of 10 other people there, so it felt like being at an exclusive resort, well an exclusive resort where you sleep in your van. For dinner I had a delicious medium rare steak with both a hot and cold salad bar. Fanciest place I ever camped.

This morning I woke up and rented a kayak to paddle in the gorge. There are a series of gorges and you paddle to the end of each one and then walk to the next gorge and get in a new kayak and paddle on.

When I arrived at the end of the first gorge there was a tour group that had arrived by powered boat, a group of school children and a couple. I walked around a little bit to see the Aboriginal art on the rock face and jumped into the water to cool off.

After about 30 minutes everyone else left and I was on my own. It was spectacular! I was kayaking around, shouting things to hear my own echo and swimming, all without anyone else around.

Then I remembered that these waters were inhabited by freshwater crocodiles. I was advised by the park rangers that if you leave them alone, they will leave you alone. Nonetheless I got all paranoid that I was going to be swimming and accidentally kick one, make it angry and it would attack me. Suddenly the idea of being out here all alone went from wonderful to terrifying.

So far Katherine Gorge is my favorite natural feature in Australia that I have been to, the scenery was absolutely spectacular, definitely better than Kings Canyon and I even prefer it to Uluru.

Check out the rest of my pictures HERE