I arrived in Darwin on the 4 th of November from Broome and during the first days I had to deal with some stomach problems and diarrhea which was probably from some bad water we had during our tour through the Bungle Bungles (Purnulu NP).
I spent my nights and also some days in the YHA in Darwin a nice hostel with pool close to the city center with several of the other guys from the last tour.
Darwin is not too big and there is not much to do but we had lots of dinners at the Vic's where we had dinner coupons from the Kimberley Adventure Tour and they also had a Jungle party one night which I joined with some others.
I went to the Mueseum and Art Galerie which was quite impressive and I really enjoyed watching the Aboriginal paintings which are quite different in Darwin compared to the ones in Alice.
The often paint in X-Ray style and have figures like kangoros, emus, crocodiles and goannas as well as other animals on their pictures and they use also often lines instead of the points and dots the Aboriginals around Alice Springs use.
I went to a market and also to the Doctors Gully in Darwin which is a fish feeding place and hundreds of fishes come to the shore to be feeded.
Baramundi as well as Stingrays and shovel nose rays and hundreds of milkfishes (I am not sure if the name is correct).
BTW. the night we arrived in Darwin our whole group from the Tour went to a place called "Tim's on the Bay" which I can highly recommend, a very nice Restaurant with a big seafood and meat buffet for 25 $ as much as you can eat.
That was really great and we had lots of Oysters, Octopus, mussles, shrimps crabs and many more different types of fish as well as some wonderful deserts. Later we went to the irish pub beside the hostel,drank several beers and I learned again how difficult it can be for me to say good bye to the people I spent such a great time with. Thank you all for these 9 days and I really hope to see you again somewhere here or in Hamburg when I am back there. So far I hope you have a great time.
Hovever on the 11. and 12. November I booked a tour to the Kakadu Nationalpark, which is ~400 km east of Darwin and we visited the Ubir Art site with it's old aboriginal paintings and a wonderful view on a lookout to Arnhem Land.
During the night we stayed at the Coolinda Lodge Campsite in big all year round tents and had a dinner at the restaurant.
In the morning we got up early to make a walk to the Gubara Creek where we had a nice swim and a waterfall. Then we visited the Nourlangie Artsite and the Visitor Center before we drove home.
Our group was not very big only 7 people and 4 of them french which didn't speak much englisch so we had some problems with understanding. But this tour from Aussie Adventures had definitive the best lunch package I have ever had on these tours. With lots of fresh salat and fresh fruits and it was also pretty expensive compared to the others.
Two days after the Kakadu Tour I went on a 2 day tour Darwin to Alice Springs which was also quite nice and just some dollars more than the greyhound.
We stopped at the Edith Falls were I already went to with the Kimberley Tour and had a little stop in Katherine. Our overnight stay was in Daly Waters which is on almost every map although it is only a small village where 18 (yes eighten) people life. I am always amazed how small these villages are and realize that I expect some bigger towns. So the most important place in daly waters was the pub, where the whole town and all tourists spent the evening and part of the night.
In the backhyard they had a little pool and our tour guides started a little Barbequeue that we enjoyed after sereval beers.
But it was a quite short night because we had to get up at 4 am in the dark because during the next day we had to drive about 900 km to Alice, and there were not many tops on the way except at the Devils Marbles where we had lunch in the middle of nowhere.
We arrived in Alice at 5 pm and nearly all of us stayed at Annies Place a very nice Backpackers with kitchen, pool free breakfast and a great restaurant where I had dinner nearly every day now for only 5$ for people who stay here.
At Annies place they also offer Tours to the red center Mulga's tours and so I did a 3 day Camping tour with Greg during the 18, 19. and 20 th November.
During the first day of our tour we all met at the reception at 6:30 am and since it is nearly 500 km drive to the Uluru and Kata Tjuta NP we only arrived there after lunchtime and because it was so very hot we first had a look at the visitors center.
During the evening we did the 2 hours walk arround the Ayers Rock which was really impressing. It is just one big rock, stone with holes and broken parts which lies beside and marks and Greg our Tourguide told us stories about the dreamtime. SO every mark on the rock has a story about Wanabi the rainbow serpant who was angry about another spirit who killed her nephew and so she hit this other animal and that's were the marks on the rock come from.
I only noticed with these stories who discribe the landscape and the places like waterholes and mountains how different the Aboriginies way of thinking is compared to ours so it was very intertesting.
We also went to the visitors center where they wrote down some of these stories and also say "we don't want you to climb the rock".
Some of our group wanted to climb it but because of bad wind conditions the climb was closed on the next day. But these stories were very interesting and the Rock itself was very impressive for me.
After our walk arround we went to the sunset parking area where hundreds of people were waiting packed with Champaigne or beer (like we) and cameras waiting for the change of colours when the sun went down and I have to admit that I made about 20 pictures which look pretty much the same here are they.
After I arrived in Alice Springs during the first night it was amazing cold and we could not even open the door of our room at night, because it was too cold. Then on the trip we camped in the bush, made a big fire and put all swags arround the fire put our sleepingbags on or in the swags and I had a beer until I fall asleep. Some people where talking but at least everyone was so tired that we all got to sleep very early.
Greg our guide woke us up at 4 am while it was still dark and because it was the night of the meteorite fly into the earth's atmosphaere (sure this spelling is not correct) we saw falling stars all over the ski. It was really amazing and a great experience.
On the second day of our tour we made a walk through the valley of the winds at the Olgas (Kata Tjuta). That was brilliant and the afternoon as well because we had a nice little swim at a waterhole.
During the morning of the third day we walked through the Kings Canyon which was very impressive.
We needed the whole aternoon to drive back to Alice Springs where I spent some more days. During one evening in Alice I met Peter the son of Catherine anothe 5W member in Adelaide who invited me. We had some beers and he gave me several informations what to do in Alice. I really thought of this ballon trip but at least didn't made it. But however, best wishes to you and thanks again for the nice evening.
One afternoon I went to the reptile center which was a bit scary, because I had a phyton called Scarlett arround my neck. It was a little weird when she seached her way though the visitors necks while we stood in a row . The pictures are on the next film which is not develloped so far, so more about that later.
On the 24 th I had a plane back to Broome where I have a little rest before I continue my trip to Cairns and down south along the east coast.
To all of you a great time and enjoy everything you do.
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