Kakadu and beyond

Picked up my camper van rental last Friday and headed to Kakadu Natl Park.  I don't know what I expected exactly but it was no where close to reality.  By the end of Friday I was sorely disappointed.  The drive was much like the drive out to Watch Hill station - mile after mile after mile of short somewhat sparse trees and scrubby brush. Took a walk to a swampy place (they call them billabongs an aboriginal word perhaps?) that had a lot of birds and was somewhat interesting but honestly I was thinking what the hell.  

Mile after mile after mile of this...

Then it got better. A LOT better. Saturday was a whole new day that started much like Friday with a drive to Ubirr.  On the way, I took a walk through a micro climate rainforest along the east alligator river. Got sight of 3 different crocodiles in the river and had the eerie feeling that there were many many more. I have a video of one swimming down the river that I'll post it at some point if it turns out. This was the walk that had a woman's only area men weren't allowed by aboriginal culture. Apparently there are men only areas as well.

Ubirr itself was the place that made the entire trip worth doing. It's a 1 km walk past several extensive aboriginal rock art sites ending with a climb to spectacular views of the surrounding areas.

Flood Plain - during the rainy season this whole area fills with 2-3 meters of water

Rock Art Site

Stone country - there are an estimated 10000 rock art sites in this forbidding country - about 5000 have been documented

Third and final walk took me through an interesting rock and canyon area that sort of reminded me of Utah.

Kakadu has more to offer but many places require a 4 wheel drive and more time than I had. So on to Katherine and Nitmiluk Natl Park.

I stopped at the information Center in Katherine yesterday to inquire about hikes in the area.  The woman there convinced me to check out the free public hot pools down the street. The heat here has been oppressive - I spend every day bathed in sweat.  So I thought I'd just go for a quick dip before heading up to the canyon for a hike. 2 and a half hours later, I was finally able to talk myself into leaving. The spring source was maybe 200 yards upstream so the water crystal clear and beautiful. There were a series of pools,  the last of which had a short waterfall into it. It made an infinity pool space where you can swim among the bubbles endlessly without ever going anywhere, or wedge between the ladder and the waterfall and let the water massage sore neck and shoulders. Or go up and slide down the moss on the waterfall into the pool. Too much fun.

I did manage to hike a bit late yesterday and get a glimpse of the gorge that defines Nitmiluk.  Heading back north today. There is another way into Nitmiluk to a place called Edith falls. Apparently they have put up a metal fence to keep the crocs out so swimming is allowed there.  One night there then on to Lichfield for my last 2 nights.

Croc video:

 

Farewell to Cairns (homeless again)

Flying to Darwin in a few hours. I've already booked my ticket out to Singapore in 2 weeks time. I'll have a week to kill in Darwin and then have booked a campervan for a week in order to see Kakadu and Litchfield national parks and some of the surrounding area.

We've been celebrating my departure for the past week. I made fish tacos on Tuesday and Andrew showed off his extraordinary chef skills for the past 2 nights making some delicious curry on Weds and then amazing Asian fish cakes last night. I can only dream of cooking so well...

My family for the past month - left to right - Lisa, Andrew and Nina:

I love you guys and will miss you ever so much. Many thanks - I couldn't have asked for a better group of roomies. Best wishes for the best that life has to offer!

Watch Hill Station

It seems like some of the best experiences just come out of the blue, totally unexpected. My visit to see Cloudy and Bram at Bram's cattle ranch certainly falls into that category. I was excited to see Cloudy and the outback but I didn't think it would turn out to be SO MUCH FUN! First a bit about the road to get there.

I spent Sunday walking and hiking around Kuranda, followed by a short night in my tent at a roadside camping area. Andrew had suggested that I camp at a place called Davies Creek, but the road was rough to get to it and it was a violation of my rental agreement to take the car on unpaved roads - something I wanted to save for getting to Watch Hill... still, it would've been nice to see Davies creek it sounded really beautiful.

Barron Gorge National Park is just outside of Kuranda. A really nice elevated boardwalk through the rainforest leads to a view of Barron Falls - although it looked pretty big to me, it is apparently just a trickle compared to the rainy season:

Mount Hypipamee National Park was a short stop and hike to nice waterfalls and a deep volcanic crater - the picture on this sign is better than any I was able to take and hopefully you can read a bit about the area:

I also sidetracked to Undara Volcanic National Park. Apparently there are lava tubes there that run for many miles. It is a closed area and can only be accessed via an organized tour. Much to my disappointment, I got there a bit late to see them - I wanted to be sure I got to Watch Hill before dark. I did take a hike to the top of a volcanic cone (Kalkani) with wide views of the surrounding lava plain - very forbidding country.
A couple of small kangaroos were on the path - I got a picture before they took off but it's a bit rough:

The drive to Watch Hill was mile after mile after mile of pretty much nothing but road. There were these lumps all over the place - at first I thought they were rocks but they didn't really look like rocks:

Turns out they are termite and/or ant hills. Some of these were as large as the little car I was in, the ones at Watch Hill are shorter (maybe a foot or 2 in height) and pointy and all over the place. They turned out to be a part of the obstacle course that made Tuesday so much fun.

I got to Watch Hill late afternoon on Monday (August 10) and found the place completely deserted. I had no idea what to expect, but this wasn't it. After waiting around for maybe an hour, I finally heard some noise and saw dust rising in the distance on the other side of the house. I made my way down to a maze of steel pens to find Cloudy and Bram running cattle through a series of spaces that narrow down to a chute that forced them to dive into a pit of tick dip. Watch Hill is in tick country and the cattle have to be dipped before transport to market. It was dusk and they were just wrapping up but Cloudy wasn't near to being done for the day - she still had animals to feed and dinner to make - we all dropped into bed probably around 10. I slept like a rock. Among the animals she feeds are the orphaned calves (they call them poddies) - she bottle feeds them a powdered milk mixture morning and night. She had me feed one - I think I ended up with more on me than it got in it's tummy - they are very enthusiastic about feeding time and kept yanking the nipple off the bottle.

Tuesday was chopper muster day - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muster_(livestock). It was a chopper muster because Bram hired a small helicopter to help him chase the cattle out of the bush. With 38,000 acres and over 4000 head of cattle, you would think it would require a small army to run the place but it was down to just Bram and Cloudy. Bram's father was in the hospital (a bit of a heart procedure - he's going to be just fine) and they have an open position that Bram is trying to find someone to fill. This was quite lucky for me as I was drafted to ride the 3rd quad bike. Bram did a great job of explaining what needed to be done and we had a very successful day of bringing the cattle home. It was just too much fun :)!

I posted some pics on facebook (for those of you who haven't found me there yet - my profile name is Rasta Pasta and pic is of my siberian husky Rasta)

GBR and Daintree Natl Park

I visited the outer reef on a snorkel and dive boat last Tuesday.  There is a shelf drop off at the outer edge of the reef where the visibility is supposed to be greatest.  So I paid the extra money to have the best experience possible and it was worth it. We visited 3 different spots. I snorkeled the first and last and took an introductory scuba dive at the second site. The reef was so close to the surface,  it turns out that diving was really unnecessary but it was an experience of a lifetime and I'm glad I did it. I might consider certification at some point in the future but only if I find myself somewhere where a long boat ride to dive sites isn't required. I must admit to a bit of sea sickness in spite of the prevention pills.
There is a fungus that grows on the reef that makes it a reddish-brown color and thus more subdued than I had expected. The fish were beautiful and there was a lazy old sea turtle we interacted with a bit on my dive. Overall it was a wonderful day.

I have hired a car for a week and went north to Daintree Natl Park. It is a world heritage area and apparently is the only place in the world where the rainforest grows into the ocean. The mangrove forests at oceans edge makes it unique. It's a beautiful rainforest and I took all the walks I could find.  I'm posting this from my phone so pictures will have to wait.

Headed for Kuranda today.  I've stopped at an area called the Crystal Cascades,  shortly outside of Cairns. It is a beautiful river and waterfall area,  part of the water system where most of Cairns water comes from.

Cairns part 2

Well here it is Friday and still no internet where I am living... so I've made the trek to the library in Cairns to book some stuff and give an update. There is a daily data limit of 100mb here so I will post words first then see if I have enough data to add some pictures.

The bus system along the coast is quite good. I took a bus north to Palm Cove last week stopping at a couple of beaches along the way. There were lots of people swimming at the beaches in spite of the warnings about crocs and jelly fish.

Cairns has an amazing Botanic gardens that I have spent a couple of days exploring. Mount Whitfield Conservation park is adjacent to it - a long day hike yielded some nice views of the area surrounding Cairns.

One of the lakes at the botanic gardens:

Views from Mt Whitfield:

I have booked a flight to Darwin on the 21st of August. Prior to that however, I want to dive the reef and have reserved a car rental for the week of August 7-14 to go to Daintree north of here and to visit Cloudy (who I met at Fat Cats in Auckland) at the cattle ranch (they call it a cattle station here) she works at. It's in the outback about 5 hours south of Cairns. I'm really looking forward to seeing her and the place she so loves. I've been postponing the reef dive for a few reasons but will probably go ahead with it this upcoming week. The initial plan was to get certified but I think I'll just go for an introductory dive first, maybe get certified in SE Asia where it's cheap.

Much to my dismay, I have yet to see a kangaroo! Have seen more than my fair share of cockroaches however, a 2 inch long one crawled out of the couch onto me last night - creeps me out still to think about it. Andrew does what he can to control them but living in the tropics they pretty much are a fact of life.  There was also a massive spiders nest I found at the botanic gardens - dozens of spiders from tiny to 1-2 inches in length - yuck!

Cairns

I have rented a room in a house about 5 km outside of Cairns.  Andrew owns the place and lives in a guest house in the back yard,  Nina and Lisa have the other 2 bedrooms in the house.  Internet will be installed this week sometime - I promise I will post a better update once it is.

Australia!

Arrived in Cairns yesterday without a hitch. Safe but quite exhausted. Today will be a do nothing but rest up day. My big desire in the region is to get dive certified and dive the Great Barrier Reef. However, I'll need to finish recovering from what I'm almost positive was the flu in Auckland. Diving with a cough probably won't work...

My first impression of Australia is that it isn't nearly as lovely as NZ but then, I'm pretty sure most countries will not live up to my first on this grand adventure. Weather so far is warm and humid but not uncomfortable.

When inquiring about the walk from the airport to the hostel yesterday the woman at the cafe was horrified of the idea. "There are crocodiles!" After a round of 50 questions with her, I determined it was probably just fine and indeed never saw a single croc in the entire 3.5 mile walk, much to my dismay. Unlike New Zealand, there are many things in nature here that can do a person harm - spiders, snakes, crocs and who knows what else. I can't wait to see my first kangaroo however!