Darwin gave us a chance to rest (other than the
3am fire alarm that had us standing out on the street for an hour).
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| Waiting on the street as the firemen checked the building |
We slept in, did laundry, and made an
appointment for me to see a doctor the next day. We spent a good part of the
day exploring the city.
We tried to
spend some time in the library to get a few things done, with no luck with the
internet. Darwin has realized how
internet hungry the backpackers are and they limit even the amount available in
the libraries to a ridiculously low amount.
Jojje, being a computer expert, figured out how to hack the wifi both at
the library and the hostel, and as such was using as much as he wanted. Australia is pretty shit with internet.
But it was nice for one reason: it got Joe and I
outside, walking around in the hot weather and getting some sunshine, which was
perfect medicine. We talked through the
rough but magical trip we had just done with the others. We also slept and ate well, a great suggestion
from my mom.
The next day we went to the doctor’s office for
my appointment. On the way there we were
going to stop by the post office where they were supposed to be holding my
credit cards that I had had shipped to Cairns, but they hadn’t made it in time,
so I had to ask Gary and Sue to forward them to me. Joe convinced me that since this was an
important appointment, we should prepare first and we would get the cards on
our way back into town. I regret that
now.
I had entirely run out of one of my medications,
but it was also a convenient time to talk to the doctor about solutions for my
mad mood swings during PMS. I was
nervous about talking about it all with her, but glad that Joe went with me. It all went well and it was really nice to
talk to her about everything, but especially nice that she and Joe could talk
about things.
As we came out of the appointment, we noticed
Jojje had called. We went to fill
prescriptions and they picked us up, stopping off at a grocery and liquor store
in the process.
We got on the road. During the whole month that we had traveled
up the entire center of Australia, we never once hit any animals. That night on the way to Kakadu we hit a
wallaby. It darted out so fast and so
suddenly that Jojje didn’t have enough time to hit the brakes enough and he hit
it. The boys went back with flashlights
and the shovel to finish it off so it didn’t have to suffer. I cried just a bit for the poor thing. What a traumatic thing for him.
We spent the night at 2-Mile Waterhole, which was
a free spot inside the park on a side road.
It was a little ways out, but completely free and sanctioned by the park
service.
The next morning we stopped at the visitor’s
center, where they had lots of information and an amazing video that had
everything in it. That’s my kind of
thing, coupled with seeing the nature for myself. I love getting the context though.
We had paid online for tickets ahead of time, but
when we got to the visitor’s center, we found out Jojje could go for free, as
the registration to his car was technically in Northern Territory. He had to fill out some papers, but eventually
got the money back.
We stopped at the first set of cave paintings,
which were honestly breathtaking. They
were the prettiest cave paintings I have ever seen. They may have been very recent, I’m not sure.
Especially because the Aboriginals
believe that the act of painting is more important than its product, so older
paintings would be covered up as newer ones were created.
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| Panorama of cave paintings |
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| Super cool depiction of a warrior stick figure |
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| The appearance of the white man on the scene |
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| A kangaroo! So lovely with the patterns of bones painted in. |
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| Cool cats, overlooking the plains |
We heard that this spot that looked over a plains
was lovely for sunset, so we decided to go check out the campground in the
meantime. We found a spot we liked and
paid the fee. Just after we gave him the
money he off-handedly said, “Oh the mosquitoes get a bit bad here.” Then we headed back to the place where we
would watch the sunset.
This spot was amazing. It was what I thought much of Australia would
look like—dry open plains with a few green spots and the deep orange sky
behind. It sort of reminded me of the
plains in The Lion King.
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| The four of us watching the sun sink |
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| One of the rare photos where we both look normal |
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| Joe looks out as the sun dips behind the horizon |
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| The boys (say goodbye to Jojje's hair) |
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| Daw, he's so sweet |
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| A romantic view of the plains just before the sun sets |
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| This is the bold color I envisioned of Australia--so lovely |
Marco had the crazy idea to stay and take a
time-lapse video, even though they would be closing the gates to the place
within minutes of the sunset. I thought
he was crazy, but we left him anyway and headed to the camp.
Meanwhile back at camp the mosquitoes that were a
“bit bad” were actually unbearable. We
covered ourselves in spray and put all of our long clothing on (despite the
fact that it was still hot as hell) and they were still so bad you couldn’t
even get a sentence out without shivering in over-irritation. After a bit, Jojje got in the car to see if
he could find Marco and Joe and I took cover in our tent, where we thought we
might stick it out for the night.
Once Marco got back though, Joe braved the
mosquitoes to hang out a bit. Jojje said
he had always heard that the mosquitoes leave you alone if you get drunk enough
(something about the alcohol coming out of your pores). It seemed unlikely, but better than doing
nothing. And at least if we got drunk
enough we would stop noticing or caring about the mosquitoes.
So we got wasted.
Joe and the boys got there first because I wasn’t sure I could handle
leaving the tent. But when things really
got rolling, I knew I should be out there.
First we did one of the things we set out to do
during the Red Center trip with Gwen, but never made time to do: silent dance
party. We each picked three songs to
dance to, popped headphones in, and danced to the (seemingly silent) beat of
our own drums. We caught this magical
moment on video, but it is hard to see most of us dancing. Good memory anyway
Second, we lit Jojje’s hair on fire. Jojje gets a little fearless when drunk (and
he wore a tank top all that night, even with the awful mosquitoes). So, yeah.
He had been talking about needing a haircut and joked that we should
light it on fire… so we did. Joe was in
charge of the water to spray on his head if the flames went nuts. I was in charge of the wet towel to
extinguish the flame. Marco was in charge
of the stick used to light said hair, as well as the camera man. It is a cherished video that will give us
laughs until forever.
The next morning we found out that the alcohol
trick had NOT been effective at keeping away the “mozzies,” as Aussies call
them. Joe’s knees were covered in hundreds
of bites where his pants had been stretched tight while kneeling at the
fire. Our hands and ankles were
bitten. Basically anywhere that was
remotely possible to bet bitten, we were bitten.
And I guess in that respect, the alcohol
worked. If it hadn’t been that we were
pretty drunk, we would have gone mad. It
saved us from insanity anyway.
Jojje spent the morning walking around with a
sheet over his head, quite embarrassed by the charred hair. He is a very confident dude, but this seemed
to push him over the edge of embarrassment and he spent a lot of the morning
going between his backpack to find scissors, the front seat to turn the car in
to plug the trimmers in, and the side mirror to try to get as much hair off as
possible. He had a nice sized scab where
his scalp had been burnt, maybe about the size of the end of your finger from
the top knuckle up. He had gotten away
with little damage, considering we lit his head on fire.
Needless to say, we packed up as fast as we could
the next morning to get out of there. On
our way out we heard other campers cursing loudly at the unbearable mosquitoes.
The ranger had told us where to go to see
crocodiles in the morning. Joe and I had
only seen one in the wild before and it was from a long way off. This river crossing (a cement road that is a
bit above the low water level) that links the rest of Kakadu to the part where
indigenous Aboriginals live (a normal town, I think, but a place you need a
permit to visit) was a good place to see the crocs. As the tide comes in, the salt water rises
into the estuary, to the point where it flows over the concrete road and
inland. This is crossed by the crocs,
who sit and watch all the fish that are swimming through the inches-deep water
across the road to get out to sea. They
snap at the easy prey.
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| Creepy little sneaks |
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| He floats his way across and crawls the last few steps over the cement |
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| Cool shot, eh? Joe snapped it of a bird catching a frog. |
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| He lies in wait for the fish that attempt to swim over the road |
It was so cool. Crocs are creepy animals. They lay just on the water and watch you. They sneak up on you and can move super
fast. Joe got a few great photos and
Marco a few videos. It was one of the
coolest things I think I’ve seen.
We had lunch in a park in the next town, where
Jojje and Marco were still hungover and moped around. I made beans for lunch, but didn’t know that
they were so low on fuel or that Jojje was planning on using the burner. I felt bad about that.
We found a swimming hole and the map and headed
to it. It was a medium hike, and once we
got there we realized how disappointing it was.
It was sort of just a stagnant pool.
I mean, it had enough water movement to not be truly stagnant, but if
you stirred up any sediment in the water, it didn’t flow away, just sort of sat
with you while you tried to enjoy the water.
It was also a little scary because they had a
croc warning sign nearby, but I think that is only in the wet season and very
rare. Plus, we were too hot to care.
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| The swimming hole, while lousy for swimming, was lovely. |
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| The moon coming up that evening |
On our hike to the hole and on the way back, Joe
and I were trying to get a bit of sun on our shoulders, so we decided to carry
the backpack by doing exercises with it.
We did bicep curls and forearm raises, as well as lunges, since we were
feeling zealous. In two days we would be
so sore we couldn’t extend our arms past T-Rex length.
We stayed that night in a place that was
supposedly better for mosquitoes, but we didn’t wait to find out. Joe and I went to bed (or at least read for a
bit) as soon as our tent was set up. The
next morning we moved to the day use area and made amazing burritos with a
bunch of ingredients.
We visited a really green marsh area that was
teeming with life even in the dry season.
Jojje and Marco found a garden cart that they played on when we headed
back to the car. It was fun to play
around with them like I would play around with my brothers. Things had so calmed down for me now that my
PMS had passed and Gwen was gone. I
think we all felt a little more relaxed without the sexual tension that she
brought to the two single guys. Then
again, that may have been a much more minor cause to the rough go, and PMS was
almost entirely to blame. Either way, I
felt so much better in Kakadu.
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| Marco and Joe at the idyllic marsh area |
We found an AMAZING swimming hole that afternoon,
called Maguk. The water was gorgeous and
the falls were big and gargley. Better
yet, at the top of the falls there was even more amazing areas. There was a plunge hole that had a
swim-through archway in it. And there
were many pools that seemed to be caused by the massive amounts of water that
must run through there in the wet season.
It was so magical. We stayed and
played there all day.
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| Maguk--magical |
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| Marco about to dive into one of the many pools above the waterfall |
Joe and I went down to check our bags after a bit
and we sat and read in the shade for a while.
Before too long this big family came to swim. There was mom, dad, and five kids, with
apparently one more on the way. They
were amazing! The mom was happy and
involved, the dad had a limitless amount of energy to swim the kids from one
end of the pool to the other and back.
They were utter chaos, but they were inspiring. Those kids were going to grow up so happy
because their parents exuded nothing but happiness and patience.
We found a campsite near the swimming hole, which
ended up being right across from where the family we had just met was
staying. There was some tired crying
going on at several times in the night, but otherwise they were awesome
neighbors. That night Joe and I burnt
tiny holes in our tent because we made the dumb mistake of setting it up just a
bit too close to the fire.
Gunlom Falls was our next stop, but it was a bit
of a letdown after Maguk. Gunlom must be
amazing in the wet season as well, as it is the most well-known of the Kakadu
waterfalls, but it was sort of dirty when we were there, and definitely less
magical. Joe and I got to talk to a very
young couple from Darwin who told us a bit about Bali, where we would be headed
next.
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| After a swim at Gunlom, I stand in front of the valley where huge uranium deposits lay, a controversial subject of conversation in Kakadu. |
We drove out of the park that afternoon, found a
place to have a beer and charge the computers, then took off again to find a
place to camp. Finding outback campsites
at this point was old hat to us, and we found a good side road and a nice spot
to pull off the road in a burnt-out young bit of forest.
The next day we headed in to Darwin. Our first stop was the post office, where I
was supposed to pick up my credit cards that had been such a hassle to get
her. Only when we pulled up in an empty
street did we realize it was Sunday and the post office was not open. We left for Bali that night. I sat down and had a small cry to mourn, and
then we moved on.
We spent the late afternoon exchanging photos and
videos, then the boys took us to the airport a few hours early so they could
find a place to camp. We got our bags
sorted out, ready to be checked in and then just as we were going to check in,
we saw Marco and Jojje again! They had
found a place to camp, but had needed to use the bathroom and the airport was
the closest and easiest place to go. We
agreed that we would check in our bags and then they would take us to go for a
beer.
They took us to the place they had staked out,
which was in a parking lot. There was
another guy there, who said he had been living in his van bouncing between a
few different places to park every night.
This spot occasionally got checked by police, but was an okay place to
stay. Sadly once we started drinking, we
realized that Jojje and Marco shouldn’t drive us back, so we headed off with
enough time to make the walk safely all the way to the airport. It wasn’t so bad.
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| Saying warm goodbyes to our month-long travel friends. We'll miss you! |
With our bags checked in, our bellies full of
beer, and our eyelids drooping, we went to the waiting area. Just after midnight our plane boarded and we
were headed to Bali! We were so excited
for the South East Asia phase to begin!
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