Flight of the Bungle Bungles, Sat 29th Sept 2007

We woke up early, had some breakfast and were really excited about our flight. At the airstrip the pilot met us and showed us the 6 seater plane, but today the would be only us. our very own plane with pilot. After planning around and taking photos of us with our headphones and mics on, we were in the air. It started to get a little bumpy, at which point Hannah started to feel a little sick and become a little quiet. We were flying about 5,000ft over remote areas of OZ that we would normally not see. The pilot told us about the area and how it looks in the rain season. Then we got the Bungle Bungles. We dropped to about 2,500ft to get a better look. Hannah said later at this point she couldn't look over at me because she felt sick. But loved the views from her window. When we spoke the mics would crackle into life, like in the movies. The pilot told us about how the formations, which were circular hills with circular black and yellow zebra stripes. These were only found in the 80's so feeling good that we got to see some thing that most over look. Really worth it though.
After about 1h 1/2 we were back on the ground with Hannah starting to feel better with her feet back on the ground.
After we both got our stomach's back and had some thing to eat we were off to Derby on the coast. Only 55o km's today. Again nothing much to she, so we played the name game and Hannah made up song's to pass the time. We arrived in Derby just in time for our first Western sun setting over the sea. So we watched and chilled out with a beer.

Booked a plane ride over the Bungle Bungles, Friday 28th Sept 2007

Driving to Turkey Creek was really boring, looking at a lot of nothing. At Turkey Creek asked about a heli rides, the guide said we needed for people and we were the only 2. So no go with the heli flights so drove to Halls Creek, near Wolf Creek (if you have ever seen the film). Booked to see the Bungle Bungles and we thought we'd book a helicopter ride, but we the lady said it was a plane. Still really happy we booked into the only campsite in town.

Job hunting in WA and storker dodging, Thursday 27th Sept 2007

The sun came up at 5:15am and by 7am it was boiling. We drove up to Lake Argyle lookout, from where you could see for miles and miles. This was a man made lake that was once a home stead. Its was huge and we drove around for a while and then made our way on to Kunnunara. We had decided to look for work here, but changed our minds after looking for a couple of hours. We'll now work in Broome instead. After looking around and using the Internet, we went to the town lookout and took a wrong turn up a hill on a 40 degree angle and ended up in at a Telecom tower. Got views though.
We went to the pub for a drink and while sat in there, you will never believe who looked through the door into the pub.........yes it was Peter Kay (our neighborhood storker PK). He didn't see us and then he walked off to somewhere else. Back at the campsite we had a swim and got talking to some Aussies and a Canadian couple. While in the pool we saw PK again walking into our campsite. So we hid!
We've decided to head for Turkey Creek tomorrow, to try and get a helicopter flight over the Bungle Bungles.

Crossing over into Western Australia (WA), Wed, 26th Sept 2007

Today we had a long drive ahead of us. Our goal was to get to Timber Creek. we set off ready to drive "new" roads, that is roads we hadn't driven on yet in OZ.We decided at Timber Creek to carry on driving over the boarder. But stopped to give away our fruit and veg, as you can't carry it in to Western Australia(WA). We eat 6 apples today and still had some left, so we gave them to a Dutch couple. Cloud's came down and there was a storm ahead of us. At the boarder the customs/ police stop all cars, vans, lorries, everything. They check them all for fruit and veg and other plant materials. We had the guy check our van and we gave him a garlic and a lime and he sent us on our way. A camper next to us looked like it had been there for ages. The man they had to check there van must have got every thing inside the van out and even popped up the pop top roof and checked in the folds of the lining. Over the boarder there was lots of water on the roads, but we didn't see any of the storm. We drove into Lake Argyle, were we stopped for the night. It went dark at 5:30pm, which felt really strange. As it had not been getting dark until 7 in the Northern Territory. We had gained 1hour and a half by crossing the boarder.

Yellow water river cruise, Tues 25th Sept 2007

We got up very early again and went to catch our bus to Yellow river, we got on the bus and were driven to the boat. We got on the boat and waited until everybody was on, including our guide. She was half aboriginal and seemed to take a disliking to us because we were English. It was a bit of banter, but kept saying she was going to through us into the water and feed the croc's. That morning as we left the steam was rising from the river and revived a lot of crocs. Some small, some big and some really big. We got up close and personal with some of them and our guide told us that if the crocs really wanted to the could jump from the water into the boat we were in. She pointed out different wildlife, plants and birds and explained about how the aboriginals come to the river to catch snakes. It was a lovely morning, we learnt a lot and got some really good photos of our adventure down Yellow Water.
Back on dry land we packed up and made our way down to Katherine, were we had the fridge fitted properly. We went for a swim and got chatting to an English couple traveling the opposite way to us.

Kakadu National Park, Mon 24th Sept 2007

another early start today. We went to Nourlangie which is were there is an Ancient Aboriginal shelter and some more amazing rock art. We some some art work of the Lightening Man, who was not to be messed with or disturbed. We went and listened to the talk in the shelter about Geology and how long the shelter had been there. They believe Aboriginals have been around for about 25,000 - 50,000 yrs, either way a long time. Dam flies were doing our heads in today. We down into the southern part of Kakadu and went to the Warradjan culture centre to learn a bit more. We booked into Gagudju lodge, had a dip in the pool and booked our Yellow water River cruise for the morning. That evening we went to the bar and watched some films about the bush and survival.

Kakadu National Park, Sat and Sun 22nd-23rd Sept 2007

We said our goodbyes the day before and packed up the van, we then drove towards the National Park and spent the night just outside Kakadu.
We woke early and went to Mamukala which is known for it's wildlife. We walked up the platform to the observation area were we sat and watched the bird life, it was really peaceful and very beautiful. Our next stop took us to Ubirr were there's a of Aboriginal rock art. They have free ranger talks so we joined one with a ranger called Annie. She was full of info and told us a story about the Rainbow serpent. She talked about the different cultures and how it differed to ours. We enjoyed listening to her. We met her again later were she talked about the Aboriginal Ancestors, a story of two sisters who played tricks on one another.
We walked up to the lookout were we looked out over the wetlands (this was also were Crocodile Dundee was filmed).
We drove down to Alligator River were we saw a huge Crocodile, it was about 8m from us and believe me we stayed as far away as possible, he was watching us!!! It was a hot sticky day, with lots of flies so we went in search of cooler climates. We found the visitors centre and watched a film about the 6 seasons in Kakadu, in the comfort of an air conditioned room. we ended the day by jumping in the pool to cool off. it was about 38c today!!!

A weeks life in relaxed Darwin,Sunday 16th - Friday 21st Sept 2007

Over the next couple of days its a bit of a blur. We swam quite a lot because due to the heat and humidity were really high. But our pool was really nice and set with trees all around the pool side and it gave a lot of shade to the pool. We visited NightCliffe Saturday market, it was a smaller Mindel market, nice though. We visited East Point in Darwin. This is where the Japanese bombed Darwin in WW2. We stopped at Alexander Lake for an afternoon. We had a relaxed afternoon, watched the locals swimming and playing in the lake, had a late lunch and had a beer and watched the sun setting over the sea. We went back to Mindel Market on the following Thursday and Sunday nights. We made really good friends with Ron and Heather. They became our OZ mum and dad. They would worry about us if we got back to the campsite after dark, in the morning they would offer us cups of tea, at 11ish they would offer tea and cake/biscuits and then at about 5ish it was beer O'clock and Ron would shout Neil do you want a beer, Hannah would you like a glass of wine with Heather.
On Tuesday the heat was getting unbearable, so we got out of it and went to the cinema to watch Ratatoiue(can't spell it), really enjoyed it and after the heat was better. The humidity that day was about 80%. We met a older guy called Harry through Ron and Heather. He was from Victoria and left his wife in Victoria for about 3 months. He loves fishing and his wife hates travelling. He was a nice guy but he went fishing on the banks of rivers that have Salties (the croc's that could eat a human). He said he wasn't worried he took fire crackers and throw them at the croc's. Crazy man! Later on he found a picture of a croc and gave it to us and told us he was about 3 meters from this croc and the croc was about 6 foot long.
At the Mindel market the last time we went we tried Croc on a stick and Kangeroo kebabs from "Road Kill" food stall they say "you kill 'em, we grill 'em". The croc was like chicken, but a bit chewy and Hannah didn't really like the Kangeroo.
Friday came and the fridge should be here, then we're off on our travels again. We rang them and it all started going wrong, the girl told Hannah she would get someone to call us, they didn't we rang again and a guy said it should be here soon and would find out when. Later he still didn't know where it was. Harry over heard and took our full names and marched straight to the shop and gave them a mouthful and pretended to be our grandad. Later on the man at the shop said it would be in the shop by 4pm. We drove down and picked up the fridge and the people at the shop didn't say anything and took off $50 off the price. That's not much but we just wanted our fridge.
Back at the campsite, I got Ron to help with fitting our fridge as he had lots of tools. We fitted it and the it was beer O'clock and we sat and chatted with Ron and Heather, while admiring our brand new fridge!

Moved out of Darwin 15th Sept 2007

Moved campsites to Coolinga, about 25km south of Darwin. We got our site and started talking to our neighbours. It was so hot that afternoon and the humidity was really high, we both feel asleep in the back of the van. We got talking to our neighbours were called Ron and Heather (retired, travelling around Oz from their home in Perth). Chatted to them for the most of the evening.

Start of the wait for the fridge 14th Sept 2007

Having a lazy day, got to save some money, coz of the cost of the fridge. Just enjoying the sun and swimming in the campsite pool. We heard about a night market, so we in search of it, after about an hour we found it and it was closed. It doesn't open anymore and the tourist information needs to up date their materials. Thanks. Didn't want to waste the night so drove to Cullen Bay and watched the boats and strolled around the harbour.