Jun 2006

1500kms from Katherine, it took us 15hrs over 2 days to get here.

Broome is a winter holiday resort for all Aussies living in the southern half of the coast where the temperatures are very cold at the moment. Even though there isnt too much to do, weve still had a good time in Broome, we met up with some Aussies at our campsite, travelling up the coast for winter. We spent the first week with them lot, going to the beach, horse racing and of course a bit of drinking.

Cable Beach

Sand Surfing

Broome Races

Stairway to the Moon. This is a natural phenomenon that occurs evry month when there is a full moon and the tide is low enough. The moon rises above the horizon and they say that it looks like the mud flats are giving the impression of a 'Stairway to the Moon'.

Guntheaume Point

On attempting to leave Broome a week ago we our engine basically blew up. So there we were stuck in the middle of nowhere with no signal on the phone hopelessly flagging people down to see if we could get towed the 120km back into Broome. Luckily for us someone had the means to bring us back and we have been here until today.

Next stop Karijini National Park.

Coming from Kakadu to Katherine was a mere 5hr drive and barely visible on the map, after a night in Katherine itself, we made our way straight to the national park.

Between the territorys monsoon tropics and dry zone, the park is known for the 15km gorge that goes through the park. We took part in a bushwalk (insert joke here) through the park, ending up at the face of the gorge where we thought we'd be able to take a swim in the river only to find out that crocodiles had been spotted recently.

We also had a visit from one of the locals during dinner one night.

We have now bought a new camera as our old one was unfixable, which is why we have now only managed to take pictures and update the site and why we have no pics of Darwin. But here it is

After a two and a half hour flight from Bali to Darwin, we landed with a local time of 4:30am. Throughout both airports we mustve been through around 25 gates ranging from customs, quarantine, immigration, visas, luggage search, and around 10 other security checks. All worth it i suppose.

Our introduction into the Australian hostel life was not necessarily the best. We spent our first night in the bunk bed of a dorm with people coming in and out all the time, not forgetting the cleaner who woke us up a number of times.

We spent the first three days looking into campervans, buying or renting etc. etc. which was a hassle all by itself but eventually we managed to buy one that is perfect for us. We call it the Mystery Machine 2. Bought off an old Aussie couple it has only done 280,000 km and still going strong!

As soon as this was all sorted we hit the road and arrived in Kakadu National Park the next day.

Where they filmed Crocodile Dundee, Kakadu National Park is the 2nd largest national park in the world, covering 20,000sq/km.

Unfortunately after a the recent cyclone Tracy which hit the northern territory, many of the areas of the park were closed and the roads innaccessible after being flooded. And anywhere there is water there are crocodiles, with signs like this around everywhere, and the fact that there are thousands in the park, we decided to skip these bits.

Main areas included waterfalls, 20,000 year old aboriginal rock art sites, bush walks and most impressive landscapes and sunsets.

The bonus about having a campervan is that we can cook all our own food and not have to choose from a menu consisting only of rice, noodles or pancakes. Weve been staying in and around the camp sites in Kakadu and we had our first barbie yesterday.

Onto Katherine next

After Kintamani came back down to Kuta and after a few days rented a moped to to the top end of the island. We went to Lovina, which after the bombings was really quiet and there wasnt an awful lot to do apart from the sunrise dolphin watching trip. This saw us get up at 5 again to climb into a boat barely made out of two bits of wood but the dolphins were awesome and well worth it. We saw almost 100 in total but our camera had to break so we havent got any pictures of Lovina and/or the dolphins.

Back down to Kuta for the third time for a few days before our flight to Darwin. We did much of the same but i decided to try my hand at surfing, for which Bali is known for and the reason most of the Aussies come here. Had a 1hr lesson and then rented the board for the next few hours. Absolutely loved it though and would recommend but again no photos as no-one in Bali was able to fix our camera.

For anyone who knows Judge Jules, he was due to DJ at one of the biggest clubs in Bali but pulled out at the last minute which left up a bit dissapointed but he got replaced by Stephan K who i thought was just as good. Pics from when camera was working:

Memorial from 2002 Bali bombing in the Sairee club in Kuta, killing nearly 200 people.