Good old Babs

We left the rainy Sydney behind (much easier to leave than a sunny Sydney) and flew into Tasmania for our final week before heading back to Melbourne. I’ve got to admit I’m more excited to get back to Melbourne than for the week in Tasmania at this point, a night in my bed and some clean clothes are well overdue!!

We started with a relaxing and sleepy day at the hotel ready to start our group trip with a 7am pickup. Day one on our trip consisted mostly of chasing waterfalls across the south of Tasmania and the heaviest bulk of driving (which was still nothing compared to previous trips thankfully).

We also visited an unfortunate old mining town which doesn’t have a lot going for itself nowadays called Queenstown – unfortunate name for this town as most travellers will instantly compare it to the infamous NZ Queenstown… Not an easy one to win!
We’re spending the first two nights of out trip in Stahan, a no network coverage zone apparently! Not ideal when I’m mid way through fixing my university timetable for next semester.

The next day we saw another waterfall in the morning and headed to some sand dunes before lunch. I thought the funniest part would be watching Hannah try to make up the dunes (by somehow crawling) but in actual fact it was much better watching her try to walk back down them – and fight off the flies!!

It was a refreshing change being able to cook out own spectacular lunch and not just choose off a limited menu – ahh the little things! And my chief chefing skills haven’t completely vanished.

We spent the evening at the longest running play in the whole of Australia at a whopping 22 years!! They use a large number of the audience to take part in playing some of the roles to tell the story of a group of pirates who steal a ship but try to justify it to a court. All though confusing it was funny as we watched Barbara (Babs) continue fishing the whole way through the play and some other people from our group act out cats and jellyfish!

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!

Northern heights

Today was a multi-stop extravaganza!

First stop was the White Temple, built for Thai people to worship in. The design is beyond phenomenal – I don’t even know how else to describe it! The design and detail out into every last corner is amazing and the inside is even more spectacular, it was being hand painted whilst we were inside but unfortunately you cannot take pictures. There was also a (what I presume) wax work of a Buddhist monk inside, it looked a lot like Gandhi however whether this was intentional or coincidence I didn’t find out.

The next stop was the golden triangle, a river which connects Thailand, Laos and Myanmar (or Burma). There is an island in the middle referred to as ‘No Mans Land’ or ‘Black Market’ as it has no governing body or population however has been used in the past to grow, buy and sell opium.
We made a quick stop off to Laos where we were offered the local whiskey which had a variety of dead animals (snakes, scorpions – even a turtle!) however I couldn’t stomach that and went for the safer option of a coke instead – not very adventurous of me but, well, I’m a wuss!

We then visited a city which hosts the border between Myanmar and Thailand and I made the obligatory mask purchase for my wall at home.
This city was beautifully decorated with lanterns hanging all the way down the streets.

Our final stop was the village of the Long Neck tribe. Our tour guide told us how the men of the village used to go hunting for tigers but the women and children stayed home, afraid of a tiger attack. By means of protection the women and children covered their necks with steal (I think) rings to avoid being bitten. Children from the age of 5 start off with 5 rings and the eldest of the village had a whopping 32!!! And I held them – they are not light!

On our way out of the village I overheard another tour guide saying how the villagers were ashamed of their long necks which is why they covered them with gold plated rings however in more recent years doctors have studied their bone structure and informed them that they are not born with any different neck size however by wearing these rings their whole life their shoulders are pushed down forcing their neck to elongate – how the two stories fit together or which the truth lies within I am not sure but along the way they have managed to make it into a tourist attraction for many to see.

Now for an attempt to sleep on the three hour journey back to Chiang Mai!