cloud 9 adventure tours australia tour

ayeeeeeeeeee!! this is the last part of my trip... enjoy!! I apologize about the uber uber longness

March 13th:
So I had a freak out of a start this morning haha.. but this was in no way an indication of what was to come on my trip. I woke up in a frenzy looked at my phone and it said 6:30 (my trip was suppose to leave at 6:20 :S) I asked Dutchie (Michiel) and he wasn’t 100% sure of the time either but he was still there which was a good sign.. and he though there was a 30min difference between Darwin and Brisbane which I had no idea about baha. Also I had set my alarm for 6:50 instead of 5:50.. good on me mate!! Anyway Michiel was right and I made the tour. In my frenzy I forgot to say goodbye to Alexi but luckily she came down to say good bye at 6:00 am.. what a trooper J.
Met our driver Adam and made our first stop maybe around 9am (oh and a bit before when Adam found a dead snake (king brown snake) on the road to show us, ) at Florence Falls which was gorgeous and refreshing. We saw a few rock wallabies and swam up the falls.. and just relaxed until the fish came along and started “biting” me.. which I realised after was them biting my scabs off EW EW EW. Next stop Buley Rockholes, a bunch of little rapids to “relax” in.. ok not very relaxing because I felt like I was going to be swept away down the river at any second. After that we did a quick visit of the termite mounds… pretty impressive, the biggest one we saw was about 6 metres high (each metre takes 10 years to build), I think the highest ever was 9 or 10m high. After that a quick stop for lunch and then off for a drive through a swampy plain (Fogg Dam Wetlands) where we saw lotsa cool birds (some Jabirus etc) and then we went for our crocodile cruise on the Adelaide river led by our driver Steve.

We saw about 3 saltwater crocs in the water and 2 laying on land. We got one of the crocs to come get a hunk of meat from a rod and he jumped about 1 metre out of the water just like 2 feet off the boat… a little scary (and now im sorta more freaked out after seeing the movie Rogue). The birds we saw were I think Whistling Kite that feasted on our meats a bit, White bellied sea-eagle (2m wing span, which circled our boat a few times and came down for some meat)

Finally we made it to our campground in Litchifield national park at the Point Stuart Wilderness Lodge (which is where we spent the entire day). It was higher class than I expected, I though it would be tents and little blue mattresses like fraser island but no… tents with frames and doors and even beds inside woohoo. The dinning shelters were also fully covered and equipped with fridges and stoves and all. Happy days. We all helped out with dinner, which included some kangaroo which wasn’t bad (sorta tastes like steak but not as good). We then stayed up to chat during the rain downpour and have some goon which I bought with david and fay. Good nighttt, oh ya our tent was leaking quite a bit but I just flipped the mattress and pushed my bed up against Prescilla and it was ok.

Tour group: Michiel (holland), Leanne (Scotland), Roman (Switzerland), Wilhem (germany), Bo Mi (Korean, David and Fay (England), Morten and Gette (denmark), Kat and Chris (Sydney and Toronto), Priscilla (spain) and 2 more Danish (these 3 last ppl were only with us for the 3 day Kakadu and Litchfield trip)

March 14th
Up at 6am for some simple Breakie and then headed north to enter Kakadu national park via the north-west entry of the park. We drove quite a way and then visited the Bowali information centre to learn a bit more about the area and so that Adam could see what would be open and where we could go due to the downpour the night before. First stop a leisurely walk at Nourlangie Rock (Namarrgon the lightning man, anbangbang shelter and gallery ) to view some of the aboriginal art (some over 20000 years old), Adam was very knowledgeable about the paintings and told us quite a bit (although he only knows as much as say a 4 year old aboriginal would know because to know more you have to be initiated and we’re not allowed to know more details). We tried some little orange fruit (kakadu plum, that apparently has like 5 times the vitamin C than an orange. We then drove to Nourlangie Lookout (I think…or some look out around there) where we first did an about 20 minute hike to a 1st look out point and then we went all the way to the top.. I don’t think I’ve ever sweat so much in my life (ok maybe a little less than Darwin), it was disgustingly hot and so humid. But, it was all worth it, the view at the top was incredible, you could see like 50km away and the gorgeous escarpment (boundary between Kakadu and Arnhem Land and stretched 500km south from the sea). Oh and we saw a black wallaroo (yes it does exist we saw it on a post card later).Next some lunch
And then off for an about 50 minute hike through a flooded path, we had fund times trying to cross the many rivers going through the path without getting our shoes wet. We passed a sign that said beware of crocodiles but Adam convinced us that we were safe!? So the boys and I ventured off with him to find this neato hidden waterfall.. it was gorgeous and so serine. Then off to our permanent campground within Kakadu national park, here Prescila and I went for a nice swim in the pool and then had a much deserved shower after so much heat. For dinner we had some chicken stir fry which included some carrots a la dutch style (aka not cleaned or rasped). Happy times, more goon and I learnt tons about swiss politics (swiss german), what a crazy ass country.

Oh ya we also encountered 2 dingos on our walk to the bathroom.. luckily Michiel was with us.. not that he was much help lol, the dingo decided to sit between us and the washrrom but we covered our nipples a la fraser island and calmy went on our way and michiel decided to join us women instead of venturing to the male toilets (our guide said that in the last few weeks many girls had been cornered off by dingoes… scary!)


Big willy: “ I give it to you!!!”, “ once I met a boy…”

March 15th
Off again at 7am to unknown places… I know we headed south and out through the southern end of the park but first stopped at 2 lovely waterfalls. The first one was sorta like a layered cake where you can climb up to the different levels along the side. I climbed up to the top with the guys where Adam threw a frog down the waterfall that landed on Michiel haha. Did some jumping off the rocks woot.
2nd waterfall was also gorgeous, it’s Adam’s favourite one with nice ledges to jump off into the water.. I didn’t have the arm strength to climb dayum.
We had lunch at Mary River and then our 4 hours or so drive to Darwin.
I was in a dorm with Fay, David and Michiel and 2 randos. We did some joint laundry, showered and then headed down to the bar to pass the time before heading to The Vic where we had vouchers for free meals. Happy days.
On the way to the Vic Roman asked a girl to take a group picture and she ended up having to take about 10 cameras haha, lucky her.
We entered the vic and there was a table reserved for us and a lady came to give us tickets to enter the chance to win a 50$ bar tab, David asked to have a second one and then we were all like what we want to.. which uped our chances of winning by a ton wooo. (some rice and some fries). We ordered some 7$ pitchers of northern territory beer, tequila shots and then we put all our tickets together and obvi ended winning seeing as there were like 10 other ppl in the bar. It was Prescilas ticket that was the winning one so first up was tons of Sangria for everyone, tequila shots followed and that night is when our hole group bonded haha. Everyone got up to dance, Leanne pretended it was her birthday and sang 500 miles up on stage with the band, we had balloons tied to us all night. And we headed back around 1am. There was a poor old man staying in our room who we woke up at 8pm when we went in to fold our laundry, 1am when some got in, later when the other roomie got in and then we had to get up at 5am haha.. not a good night for him.

-“do you have any german in you? No.. would you like some”
-“would you like some german in ya?”

March 16th
Woke up at 5am and everyone was still drunk and giddy. Our new driver Jordan (the man of happy days and fuckin’eh) musta though we were pretty dull but he realised fast that we had just had a harsh night and quickly joined into our inside jokes and teasing of each other.
Michiel: I’ve realised that I say actually a lot and I’m starting to annoy myself
Cat: I didn’t notice but now I will probably pick it up everytime you say it, I can pinch you everytime u say it if you like?
M: ya I’d like to find another word to you instead… maybe like infect?
C:haha ya why not just purple or something
M: -looks at me confused -, oh maybe I ment in fact haha
Needless to say infect and actually stuck for the rest of the trip and then everyone started over using it on purpose, happy days(I need to stop using happy days).

Stopped at a grocery store and while looking at easter chocolate (lindt for swissy) it was revealed that according to Michiel the Germans go to the east coast beaches of Holland to dig holes for unknown purposes (perhaps shelter from the cold.. perhaps because the dutch put beer and bratwurst in the bottom of the holes so they fall in).

We finally made it to Katherine Gorge, packed up some sandwiches and ventured into the information center. The 4 people who didn’t go out last night decided to do helicopter tours and boat cruises in the gorge while the rest of us stupidily decided to go on a 3 hour hike in the boiling heat… although it was worth it in the end. We first had a gorgeous view of the gorge, which is when we realised Davids hiking boots were gonners, the rocks were so hot they melted the glue between his sole and boot and the sole was slowly coming off :S. needless to say we made it to the water hole and waterfall which was gorgeous.. made me think of the lion king… only thing was that Jordan was semi scared himself of going in.. he wasn’t sure about the crocodile conditions (ok well I hope he was just trying to scare us).. roman got in and I was so hot that I jumped in pretty fast.
The gorge has many different level along the river and when the water is high the salt water crocs get in and then one the water level goes down theres formation of many sections in the gorge in which all the now hungry crocs get stuck for a while. That area is definitely a no swimming area. (apparently crocs are quite smart, I was told MANY times during my trip that if you camp near water never go to the same place to say wash ur face and never go at the same time because crocs will stalk your every move) After a nice afternoon of relaxing we finally headed back and for some reason we were all craving a nice cold coca cola from the information center… but luck would have it that it was closed by the time we got back.. dayum. Anyway finally left to go back to our campground which we decided to ditch because there was no door on our kitchen shelter and no lights or fans.. woot! So we found another camp ground and set up.. relaxed before dinner.. had some beers and then downed our delicious stir frys. More talk about dutch beaches and Germanys comeback is the fact that Holland invades Germany with their caravans.
Oh also there was a black headed python chilling on the back of one of the tents… luckily there were 12 tents for 4 ppl each and we were only 12! Night w/ leanne

March 17th
What a surprise, up at 6am. Drove about 3hrs to the thermal springs (at Mataranka) that Jordan was almost certain would be closed cuz the road is always flooded.. but luck be it it was open (which ended up delaying us the rest of our day :P). We had a little walk around where we saw rock wallaby and then went swimming in the thermal pool, so warm, and threw a nerf ball around. Back onto the bus for a long drive ahead… but luckily kat and chris decided to buy us some dvds to watch (stitch first). At one point along the way while we were probably sleeping Jordan stopped the bus abruptly on the side of the road, turned around and said “I’ll be right back”, we all had confused looks on our face as we looked out our windows and watched as Jordan ran about 100m down the highway into the bush. Back he came holding frill-necked lizard, what an amazing driver (hail to the bus driver, bus driver bus drive), he had spotted it in a tree and brought it back for us to see. Ok short break, back on the bus for another few hours down the long straight road where some sang some karaoke (in swiss, german and dutch)
We made it to Daly Waters Historic Pub for lunch in a town where the first international airport is, drove by some famous tree?, enjoyed some chicken burgers and play by the pool in which I got soaked before even entering or having my bathing suit on.
At a random gas station we saw a truck train with 86 wheels waaaaa and there were snakes in the gas station we could hold.. they scared me. Watched hooke sorta and played a sweet ass card game with Michiel
Finally, finally we made it to Tennants creek at Junos horse farm in the dark around 8pm. The boys went to make a fire for the kangaroo tail we had all pitched in for. We prepared some Moroccan lamb and then sat down to enjoy it along with some Tooheys before trying the kangaroo tail (taste like greasy lamb) which we enjoyed in a caveman manner.
We then gathered around the massive campfire for some amazing times. Leanne, Roman, Michiel, Willy and I all slept in swags (like bigger sleeping bags with a mat in them that covers everything but ur face) by the fire.

Situation: massive stick coming out of the fire that once burnt will fall on us in our sleeps
C: “michiel can you re-arrange that stick please”
W:” oh it’s been burning for the last 30 minutes and hasn’t broken off yet”
C: yes but the fire will eventually burn upwards on the stick and then we will all be on fire in the morning”

Actually, definitely, absolutely, make a photo (germans and dutch make photos, we had a good time with that one, for them it’s a direct translation), for sureeeeeeeeee

March 18th
Woo we got to sleep in till 7am.. although the flies on my face woke me up a little earlier. There was a Red back spider (verr poisonous in the girls bathroom and apparently some had taken a shower with is.. fun times. Off we went an aboriginal music centre where we watched a group of musicians play us a few songs for 2 hours, not really with traditional instruments (drums, base, guitar, singing…), Leanne joined them on the drums for a bit and some of them did some dancing. This was really our only big stop all day. We stopped at a place called the Devils marbles for a while, gorgeous red round rocks with a striking blue sky as the background, made some photos and then back on the road until lunch at a gas station with a bbq and pool for some lunch (some hand made gooey tuna burgers). Other highlights: sleepless in Seattle, card games, gas stations (where the boys played some footy barefoot on the pavement and poor David developed massive blisters on the bottom of his feet :S) crosswords, telegraph centre, tropic of Capricorn before getting to Alice springs around 5pm. Showered and got ready to go out to Bojangles for our last outing with the whole group L (the people doing a longer than 9 day tour had 2 days off in Alice Springs and we were leaving the next morning for Uluru tour). The only ones left would be Michiel, Fay, David and I, sill a solid crew of fun. Enjoyed some overpriced focaccia meal and a bit of Fays crocodile (tasted like chicken) and then chilled with the group until we 4 party poopers decided to leave since we had yet another early morning while the rest of our group had a break.

March 19th
Happy days, up at 5:40am for some breakfast and then went to catch our bus with new tour guide Christine aka Chris. First stop was a little farm with camels, dingo, kangaroos.. and well mostly camels!! We played some fun games on the bus and she had window writers so everyone wrote there names and drew something on there window.. after Michiel took up most of our window I got to draw a map of Canada and fill out a few German holes and a caravan on his map of Holland! We also played that game where you’re a celebrity and you can only ask questions with yes or no answers. Next stop overpriced liquor store where Michiel and I picked up some wine for the sunset not realising champagne would be provided and also admired some lovely birds in cages at this stop.
Saw Fuluru or Mt-Connor on the way.
Got to Yulara (where u camp or stay when visiting Uluru, you can no longer stay at the base of Uluru) for 1pm to have some chicken burgers and then took off for the national park and a hike (had to bring all our booze because there used to be lots of problems with aboriginals coming in and stealing the booze). From now on our tour was much busier than the calmness and having nature to ourselves like the rest of our tour. We were also a full 24 person bus so it was hard to get to know everyone and we couldn’t spread out crap around the entire bus that we would have lotsa leg room.
We drove to Kata Tjuta (mount olga, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kata_Tjuta) for a lovely stroll in the deathly heat and crowds of flies. Despite this it was gorgeous.. apparently a section of the hike is closed if it’s over 36o and well we hiked it at 34o. good times.
We then headed to Uluru to enjoy a gorgeous sunset.. the sun though did not set behind Uluru.. instead in front and changed the colors of the rock so that we took about 5 million pictures of it. We had a good time though, enjoyed some champagne out of plastic cups and a few chips and dip. Then back to our camp for another kangaroo dinner and then off to bed quite early to enjoy the stars and shooting stars from our swags.

March 20th
Up at 4:45, I heard other people zipping their swags and I just thought it was because everyone else was cold, until my whole bed was shaken by Michiel meaning crap it’s actually time to get up (and the stars were still out).
Went to see the sunrise at uluru.. although I think the drive to uluru with the sun peering between the trees was the nicest part. We were sorta disappointed and trashed the whole thing oops, because we were expecting to now at least get to see the sun rise behind the rock for something different.. but no the sunrise viewing area is on the other side of the rock from the sunset… dayum! And well I guess we were sorta mad about the getting up at 5am and then just seeing a rock… yes apparently we had to be in a more spiritual mind frame to fully enjoy it haha.
We then did the hike around Uluru ( I think about 9km flat).. we started this probably around 7am. We could either chose to climb uluru or walk around it, although the guides are obliged to give us a big talk from the aboriginals how to them this walk is very spiritual and they ask that we please do not walk it and so we did not…. It’s mostly all the Japanese and Chinese that do it. So anyway our guide did part of the walk with us explaining paintings and different locations on the rock and then we went off on our own into the blazing sun. It was nice.. but again the rock was now just a rock to us.
Back for some delicious frozen orange slices and then off to the visitors centre… although we were all to exhausted to read or concentrate on anything so back onto the bus for some lunch at our campground and then off we drove for a long while to Kings Canyon. (we made lunch in record time, it was crazy)

I can’t really remember if we did anything of semi exciting on the way, I think a quick stop to go run up a deadly hot sand hill to view a giant salt lake and also mt-connor (fuluru). but we made it early enough to kings canyon so we did a nice hike (I just typed halk apparently putting hike and walk together… just in case you wanted to know :p).. um yes it was quite gorgeous looking up at this canyon and taking in the scenery. Then back to a campground for a quick swim, shower and over priced cold coke from the bar.
We finally made it to our campground after viewing a sunset on kings canyon to prepare some spag bo (aka spaghetti Bolognese) and some yummy desert and then Chris wanted to show us a possum at S.I.S (safari in style) which ended up being a stuffed one.. she liked the lame jokes haha and laughed like Janice from friends. Off to bed in our lovely swags.

March 21st
Up again at 5 am, quickly packed up to start our hike of Kings canyon by like 7am.. twas a little crazy but for sure the best way to do it (before the sun is killing you and eating you alive). This hike was only 6km long, but took us forever which was ok because Chris stopped along the way to explain to us how the aboriginals used everything that was around us (clip on Koalas in the trees). I loved this hike with all the bee-hive formations, I would rate it as cooler and much more pleasurable than Uluru. (Amphitheatre, the Lost City, the lush and ancient Garden of Eden and the North and South Walls).We also stopped at a lovely water hole to enjoy a small snack. Back to the same camp ground as yesterday for a swim and lunch and then the long journey ahead of us back to Alice Springs.
Along the way we stopped at a restaurant to see Dinky the singing dingo. We were finally back in Alice springs and ready to check in at Haven for our last night.. when they claimed I hadn’t paid them yet which I had.. anyway there was a massive ordeal and finally she called her boss and they let me stay (although they didn’t have an over balance or anything that night.. and apparently the girl working was the one who I paid.. effed)
Got ready, we downed our wine before meeting up with the rest of our group at Annies for some 5$ meals and cheap beer. A little slappy happened and some good fun until we all said our goodbyes to everyone but mostly big goodbyes to Fay and David staying at the YHA so Michiel and I wobbled back to our room for a good nights sleep.(M: “ where’s my bed?”)

March 22nd
We were able to sleepin somewhat and then took the shuttle to the airport where we had some last goodbyes to the English girls (Kat and Ashia I think), checked in our luggage and waited until the last second before checking through the tiny airport. And well at the last second Fay, David and Bruno showed up for their flight for some last sad goodbyes. We checked in fast and rushed to our plane because for some reason they were announcing final boarding 15 minutes before the plane left. Michiel and I settled onto a pretty empty quantas flight (which means we get fed woohooo) where I watch an utterly boring movie (the day the earth stood still). Landed in Melbourne WOOHOOOOOO!!! This is where Michiel and I said our big goodbyes not knowing if we would have the time to meet up. I was sad to no longer be a nomad… but excited about having my bed and room again, not living out of a backpack, and seeing the children and my “family” again :D.
I would have to say the highlights of my trip were probably the great barrier reef, Kings Canyon and I would say at the top all the wonderful people I met. The travel bug has now hit me hard and I really wanna go visit everyone I’ve met.. mostly from Europe. Europe road trip here I come… hopefully in the near future.