The sad farewells

Out final night in Darwin together was a memorable one…. Or rather non memorable with thanks to the copious amounts of alcohol and free champagne on offer!

We dined and partied at Monsoons, just a few minutes from our hostel and had a very eventful night and a few sad farewells!

It has been a fantastic trip with fantastic people who will all be missed dearly

Friday has been a hangover day with a few of the people leftover from my trip before my flight to Cairns at 8pm for the next part of my adventure!

Chasing waterfalls

Our last day on the Rock N Top Topdeck tour has been a beautifully relaxed one chasing waterfalls around Litchfield National Park

Our first stop was the humongous termite mounds which can reach up to 5 metres!

Next up was this beautiful plunge pool which we weren’t allowed to swim in unfortunately due to those snappy visitors previously mentioned…
Luckily the next stop (Florence Falls) was exclusively for us to cool off after the 135 step journey. We immediately stripped down to our bikinis and got in and it wasn’t long before the guys in the group had found a rock to jump off and practice their belly flops (well those that were brave enough to do them).

On our final bus ride of the tour to Darwin I rode up front to play DJ and get a slightly better view of our surroundings….. Or take selfies with the rest of the bus!
(It had to be done)

Crocodile Dundee!

Kakadu National Park is a wonderful area of Northern Australia which is filled with many many visitors, during the dry season these are the tourists which flock to see the sensational views…. During the wet season these visitors are a little more snappy

We are lucky enough to still be allowed in some areas however not so lucky that many of the best areas are already closed. These pictures I have of the crocodiles are from a cruise along the Alligator river (obviously named before they realised they were crocodiles) near Cahills Crossing where we spotted about 8 crocodiles!! Luckily none got too close!

Theres something about a good tune

I don’t know what it is about a good song that just makes you feel good and appreciate all the little things in life.

Today we had a cruise around Katherine Gorge (as the tide had risen too much to kayak unfortunately – got to be careful of those crocodiles!!)

This afternoon we did a small hike (which was ridiculously hard in this humid heat) to some beeeeeautiful waterfalls where we had an afternoon swim to cool off…. And where I nearly drifted off down the lake because I was trying to hard to keep my bikini bottoms on! First stop in cairns is going to be a bikini shop!!

But besides all of this… I am very thankful for the following today:
• Having an air conditioned bus and pool at the hotel to go back to
• Having great company to share this experience with
• Having clean drinking water – even if it was extremely hot water
• And finally having a camera and this blog to document my journey to re-read again in the future

On the road again…

We’ve spent the last two days mostly driving the long stretch up to Katherine from Alice Springs (a journey the same length as the entire United Kingdom!!). Stopping off for toilet breaks at weird and wonderful Roadhouses along the way – many of which collect random artifacts from travelers from all over the world and one particular man could pinpoint exactly where in his rather large shop a particular artifact from your region was!! Amazing!! The things I could do with a memory like that! Haha

One particular roadhouse which stood out was one of the first ones we viewed who delightfully directed me to the “Shithouse” when I asked for the bathroom (and boy did it smell like a shithouse!)

They sold everything from comedy XXXL condoms to coffins for their funeral services – they’re even kind enough to offer an $80 discount if you dig your own grave!!!

Along the way we stopped off at Devils Marbles (almost an Australian version of stone henge from the way it looked)

We stopped the first night at Tennants Creek, a very small town with little to do but eat schnitzels and play card games. The second day we drove on some more again stopping at a variety of Roadhouses – we even got to meet a couple Wallabies !!

We finished our day with a lovely swim in Mataranka Hot Springs (which luckily weren’t actually that hot) and dinner and a game of boules at the local Country Club in Katherine.

Finally pool time!

After three days of sweating buckets in the 40 degree heat of the outback it is finally time to relax in the pool on our free day. I am currently writing this post from the safety of the jacuzzi with a view of the guys throwing a ball around in the pool.
And what a pool it is…!

We spent the first day doing the 11.2km base walk of Ayers Rock, the second day walking around The Olgas and finally the third day at Kings Canyon all as part of the Topdeck Rock and Top tour. Several people in our original group have now left, either it being the end of their journey with Topdeck or are continuing their adventure down to Melbourne. There are 10 of our original group joining another group to head up to Darwin.

On Wednesday evening we spent one night in Australian Swags – which basically means a very large and very thick sleeping bag, with another regular sleeping bag inside…. Not the best in this heat!!

I’ll be honest I’m not looking forward to the thought of even more flies and bugs on our way up to Darwin but I will power through!

Fly nets to the rescue

Today I walked the base of Uluru (Ayers Rock) – a total of 11.2km, plus 0.5km to get to the toilets and back in just over two hours and IT KILLED ME..!

My feet are in agony, my legs ache and for some reason my hands itch, a lot.

Luckily the heat wasn’t too bad due to the clouds but the worst thing of all was the flys.

Oh. My. God. Those flies…. I wanted to scream the entire journey – I did at parts(!!) but thankfully we have now invested in fly nets for tomorrow (another 3 hour walk and 5am start!!)

Welcome to the outback

3 girls, one can of bug spray and a LOT of screams later and we have two dead cockroaches (that were the size of a finger! – nothing like what you’d get in England)… Welcome to the outback!!

I’d also like to point out the men left the minute they found out there was a cockroach.

(I’ll save you from the pictures)

Feeling hot hot hot!

Welcome to the red centre!!!

Everyone keeps telling me not to worry it will only get to 37 degrees today…. ONLY?! It’s 35 at the moment and I’m staying in the cool air conditioned room for the time being!

If you’re staying in Alice Springs the place to be is Toddy’s! It’s a very nice hostel (even has a mini pool!) and the staff are great… Already we’ve had free towels, water an wifi simply because the ‘boss man’ couldn’t be bothered to scan it. Fine by me!

He told us that yesterday it was 42+ degrees and apparently when washing towels they took 6 minutes to dry!
After the sunstroke I had from Thailand I think it’s probably a good idea I stay in the shade for the next couple of hours!