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

Delayed Entries

I'm still having problems getting reliable and affordable internet. When I do I will post all that I have been up to over the last week. I'm hoping that when I get to the East Coast, internet will be more readily available. As an example of how expensive and dated the pricing is, please see below:

"$10 for 1 hour or 100 MB"

The Wauchope Cup

Today's entry needs a little bit of back story to understand everything.

1. Tuesday November 4th was the day of the Melbourne Cup. It's like the Kentucky Derby except it takes place on a work day and LOTS of people get excited about it, girls dress up with funny things in their hair and many work places stop working to either go to the pub or pop a bottle of sparkling wine and watch the race. It's a big deal in Australia. This post takes place on that day in Outback Australia.

2. In the outback, at least where I have been driving, there isn't anything for about 100 kilometers and then there will be a small pub/grocery store/restaurant/gas station/campground all in one. There is one such place where this entry takes place and it is called the Wauchope Hotel (Devils Marbles Hotel).

As I arrived at the Wauchope Hotel, I asked the girl behind the bar if they had any space for me to park my van. (This means that I would get access to a shower and toilet and place to legally park the van). The girl asked me my name and then wrote it up on this board (Number 8: Red Centre Chaos):

I asked her what that meant and she said that I was just in time to participate in the Wauchope Cup with 9 locals. She told me I had 20 minutes to get ready but to know that it involved running and drinking alcohol. I pulled my van around back and changed out of my flip flops into my Nike shoes and came back into the bar to wait. Once back in the bar, no one looked ready to do anything so I ordered myself a cold beer and sat on a bar stool to relax. After my first sip, the proprietor of the Hotel came in to announce we would now be starting the Wauchope Cup. I quickly downed my beer and followed everyone out to the back of the hotel where 10 wooden horse faces were attached to broom sticks. The prizes were announced, 3rd place a Wauchope Hotel singlet, 2nd Prize a bottle of Whiskey and 1st prize $100 in cash. Not bad prizes for free entry at a country pub, I thought.

We all layed on our stomachs in front of the horses facing away from them. On the sound of "Go" we all jumped up and grabbed our horses and then were told to spin in circles for 1 minute. After a minute of spinning, we were told we could head around the building to the first checkpoint, but after a minute of spinning we could all hardly stand and all ran into each other knocking each other to the ground and breaking the head off of several horses. I was able to get out of the mess and start running towards the first checkpoint 500 meters away. I was currently in 4th position.

At the first checkpoint we had to clean a large tablespoon of Vegemite. The best way I can describe Vegemite is if you took salt and mixed it with dirt, with a kind of tar consistency. It is generally spread very thin on toast, and I have tasted it two times prior and not enjoyed either experience. An entire large tablespoon full of the stuff on the other hand made me start to dry wretch. I could taste stomach acid in the back of my mouth as I tried to swallow all of the paste. I managed to swallow half of it and tucked the rest away in my chipmunk like cheeks.

I ran with the broomstick between my legs to the second checkpoint a further 200 meters on. The challenge here was to eat a large Weetabix (cereal / cracker thing) and a hot can of premixed rum and coke. This wasn't too bad, as I was able to use some of the Weetabix to swallow more of the Vegemite down. I was still gagging and wanted badly to vomit from the vegemite (The running around and drinking in the hot sun could have also played into the equation). At this stage most positions 3-7 were all at about the same place. I was still in the running for a prize!

We had to run a further 200 meters and drink a hot can of beer through a straw. The hardest part of this was that by now I was out of breath and drinking through a straw requires air, that I was lacking. I finished the beer and ran across the finish line dry heaving from the Vegemite in 5th place.

I spent the rest of the night trying to get the Vegemite taste out of my mouth and chatting with the locals. Overall it was a really fun experience, despite not winning a prize, and the conversations provided me a great insight into the thinking and daily lives of the locals.

The Kings Canyon Debacle

I left the Uluru Kata Tjuta National Park and headed North towards Kings Canyon, without the company of the Spanish Guys. The plan was to get close to Kings Canyon, camp for the night and then hike the rim of the canyon at first light, before the day become too hot. I arrived in the area of Kings Canyon at the place I had intended to sleep for the night around noon, I ate lunch and it was only 1pm. I couldn't force myself to hangout and wait the whole night, so I drove to Kings Canyon and did the valley walk instead of the rim walk, as the rim walk was closed for the day because of the intense heat. The canyon was okay, but much less spectacular than I had hoped, I didn't think it was worth waiting around for to do another hike in the morning so I decided to head towards my next destination, further North.

The GPS in my car told me I could get to the next town by 6pm, and I knew I would be able to find a place to park the van and sleep nearby the town, so I followed the GPS directions North.

Approximately 30 minutes out from Kings Canyon a sign was posted saying "Unpaved Road". I pulled onto the road and it was gravel, but straight and flat with some rocks about. I slowed down to 60 km/h and drove dodging rocks on the ground. There were some places with corrugation, but it wasnt too bad and after 5km's the road was paved again. I checked the GPS and it still showed that I would be at my destintion by 6pm. After another 5km's of paved road it turned back to unpaved road and was heavily corrugated. I slowed right down to marginally faster than idol and the car bounced around like crazy. I drove like this for about 5 more kilometers and the road remained very bumpy.

I thought to myself "If the GPS is recommending this way, it can't possibly be like this for the whole 3 hours", but the further I slowly bumped and rolled along, it stayed this same bumpy dirt road. I stopped the van and checked all of my maps and guide books but none of them were very clear on when this would become paved again, if at all. I kept driving and watching the GPS time, I decided that if the GPS arrival time changed to 7pm, I would turn around and go back. I didn't want to be driving this slowly and bumpily all night long. After a total of 40 kilometers from when I first got onto this unpaved road, the GPS arrival time changed to 7pm, and the road was still very much unpaved. I gave up turned around and drove the same bumpy 40 kilometers back the way I had come and then down to the place I had stopped at earlier at noon and spent the night there!

Does this look like a pig to you?

Check out the rest of the day's photos HERE

Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park

Accidental sunrise photo

I spent the last two days at Uluru Kata Tjuta National Park. I saw the sunrise and set over Uluru and hiked around Uluru and the Olgas. I'll let the pictures do most of the talking today, the only comment I have is that Uluru was harder in real life than in my mind, I imagined it would be very dusty, with lots of dirt, but it was all solid rock. Very spectacular.

Sunset

Sunrise

At the Olgas

Olgas from a distance

Uluru watering hole

Check out all of the pictures HERE

Opals and Vampires

Coober Pedy....what an interesting place. It's unlike anywhere I have ever been before.

I arrived in Coober Pedy with these two Spanish guys that I had met while swimming with the sea lions and sharks and learned that we were all heading in the same direction, so we decided to drive together in case either of us had any car trouble and to also have a little bit of company. We found a place to stay where you can camp underground and by paying for the 1 hour nightly mine tour you got to camp for one night for free. The Spanish guys loaned me a $16 grocery store tent that they had purchased as a backup, and we setup in the underground caves.

We then headed into the city of Coober Pedy to take a look around. It seemed that the stores were worked by the white people and the aboriginal people were mostly standing around outside in the shade watching everyone else go about their day. One aboriginal guy approached us and asked if we had an ID and could buy him some alcohol. He was by no stretch a young man, so I assume that he was on a "Do not sell alcohol to this guy" list of some kind.

We spoke with a couple of locals who were very friendly....very friendly. I don't know what else to say about them other than they were friendly and interesting...

We went back to the campsite and took the Opal mine tour from the campsite operator, who was also very friendly and interesting. The tour guide kept telling these really lame and cheesy jokes, which I found hilarious, but sadly no one else was laughing. The Opal mining process was described as such. You get a license from the city to go prospecting, you then find a piece of unclaimed land and claim it as yours for Opal hunting. You then pay the city money to register your claim and then you have 12 months to start extracting Opal from that piece of land. This is done by drilling holes into the ground, looking for indicators of Opal and then going in with a machine that tears the ground up and puts rock and opal in a massive pile on the surface. These massive piles of rock are then looked through by this person or sometimes other people for Opal.

The area around the city has holes in the ground everywhere and massive piles of rock/dust.

When we went back into town to have "Australia's best pizza" (It wasn't), one of the Spanish guys thought the town reminded him of the Quentin Tarantino film, From Dawn to Dusk, with people secretly being vampires. During the day, people stand around in the shade and at night they sleep in caves and everything just seems strange some how. I can't really explain what was so strange about Coober Pedy, maybe the Spanish guy was right! Check out the rest of my photos HERE

Swimming with Sharks

Right there is perfect, now hold still.

The other main reason for coming to Port Lincoln was the opportunity to cage dive with Great White Sharks! I boarded the boat at 6:30 am and we headed south 3 hours to the North Neptune Islands, where a colony of New Zealand seals breed and Great White sharks hunt them.

When we got there, the skipper gave a safety briefing and explained what would happen:

The cage would be put in the water and then they would put food into the water to entice the sharks to come around.

After waiting for about 30 minutes the first of five sharks for the day appeared. Then it was time to get suited up in a wetsuit and climb into the cage. The water was freezing cold and this was my first time breathing through a ventilator. I kept getting scared that the ventilator wouldn't work, so I was sucking in large amounts of air and then having too much air and having to breathe out a bunch of air. Every time that I breathed in on the ventilator there was plenty of air but my brain kept thinking that there wasn't going to be anymore. The ocean was moving around and the cage was banging against the boat. In my mind, I kept imagining the cage becoming dislodged and not noticing until I was at the bottom of the ocean. I found both of these things more frighting than the sharks themselves.

I was in the cage for about an hour and during that time 3 different sharks came around for 10-5 minutes each, with two sharks there at the same time at one point. It's amazing how quickly they can move and how they can change direction so quickly. There were a couple of times that the sharks came close enough to the cage that I could have touched them (instead I pulled myself further back into the cage, just in case).

Overall I really enjoyed the experience, I am glad that I came all the way South to Port Lincoln and that I got to swim with Tuna, Sea lions and Sharks. Tomorrow I head North into the outback and Red Centre (Center)

To see the rest of the pictures please click HERE