Northern Territory

After three days of lounging around by the pool in Darwin the capitol of Northern Territory, I decided to be a bit more active and go on a two day, one night camping tour of Australia's largest national park, Kakadu. The first day we spent with Aboriginals learning about their history and culture. We learned about the different plants and animals they eat, how to play a didgerido, how to basket weave, and how to spear hunt. Even though Aboriginals have a strong presence in the west and north, I still felt as though I hadn't learned anything about their culture, so I really enjoyed this opportunity. The next part of the day was spent in Ubirr, a part of the park known for it's many rock paintings dedicated to mimi spirits, or Creation Ancestors. When we got to our campsite, I realized we were "glamping" (glamourus camping) not camping... we had a full kitchen and were staying in tents that were big enough to fit two bunk beds in them each. At first I was disappointed, but when it rained all night long I was happy to be sleeping in a bed and not on the ground. The next day we went to two different waterholes to go swimming. You aren't advised to swim in the ocean here because you may become a crocodile's next meal, so instead all the tour companies take you to safe waterholes to cool off in the scorching heat and humidty. I was hoping we would see Jim Jim and Twin Falls, the two most famous and photographed waterfalls in Kakadu, unfortunately these spots don't open until late June.

Didgeridos are made by termites and only men are allowed to play them. If a woman plays a didgerido she will be cursed with many children.

A short video of two Aboriginal men playing traditional music.

Kakadu National Park

Motor Car Falls.

The next day, I went on a tour of Litchfield National Park with a different tour company. I had the most wondeful day. We started out with a croc cruise on the Adelaide River. We saw about five different crocodiles! Not only did we spot them, my amazing tour guide was making them jump by holding delicious raw meat over their heads. I couldn't believe how close these ferocious animals were to me; it was insanely awesome. Next we went to Florence Falls to have lunch and after that to Bluey Rockhole and Wangi Falls, both beautiful swimming holes in the park. The best part of the day, besides the beautiful scenery, was meeting the nicest Australian family from Perth. I was getting a bit lonely after spending the week by myself in Darwin and I felt as though they adopted me for the day. I've kept in touch with them and they've offered to put me up if I ever make it over to Perth again... I may just have to take them up on the offer some day!

Nero, the king of the jungle. I believe he was around eight feet long.

A young lady croc jumping for her morning snack.

Florence Falls, which are apparently known for their fertility powers. While Nicole Kidman was filming the movie Australia she swam in them... a few months later she was pregnant with her daughter Sunday Rose. Coincedence? I think not.

Enjoying one of the swimming holes with my new friends!

Broome

After three weeks of traveling up the coast I reached Broome, my final destination in Western Australia. To be honest, a part of me felt relieved to be done with WA. I loved the beautiful, secluded beaches but I was beginning to feel a little too secluded. Not to say that Broome isn't also isolated-- in fact the closest city to Broome is Bali. Yes you read that correctly: the closest city to Broome, Australia is not another city in its own country, rather an island in Indonesia-- but the town is big enough to have Vodafone (my Australian phone provider) signal, two supermarkets, and a McDonald's which offers every backpacker's favorite thing: FREE WIFI!

What started as a pearling town in the 1880s has turned into a popular vacation spot for Australians during the dry season, which lasts from April to September. Broome isn't huge, but the major attractions aren't ideally located and I also wanted to learn more about the town's history, so I decided to do a sightseeing tour. I visited during the first week in April so it wasn't very busy yet, which explains why I was the only person on the tour (again). The guide took me all over town, stopping at the courthouse, Cable Beach, Gantheaume Point, Chinatown, the Broome Museum, Town Beach, and finally the Japanese cemetery. My favorite stop of the day was Gantheaume Point, which is where the lighthouse stands. The orange cliffs are strikingly beautiful and it's here where 120 million old dinosaur tracks were found. I mean, how cool is that? I also enjoyed the Broome Museum; it focused on the history or pearl mining and the dangers Japanese and Chinese divers faced during the early days. I very much enjoyed the tour and learned a lot more than I ever expected.

The next day I decided to relax on Cable Beach. I had heard from many Australians that Cable Beach was their personal favorite and I have to say I was not disappointed. The water was the warmest I've ever put my feet in, but I didn't dare go swimming, my tour guide had sufficiently scared me to death at the possibility of being stung by a jelly fish. That evening I went on a sunset camel ride on Cable Beach and then saw a movie with a few of my greyhound friends at Sun Pictures, the world's oldest open air cinema. My last day in Broome, Kelly and Jen (the girls I traveled with in Perth and Margaret River) arrived! Although we only had one afternoon together it was so nice to see them and catch up.

*** Sadly, I do not have any pictures from my day tour. My camera was acting up, so my guide insisted that I use his camera and then brought me to a Kodak shop at the end of the day to get a photo cd made... but when I went in the next day to pick it up the store was closed. Luckily, Kelly picked it up for me, so I will be able to post pictures when I get the cd form her (most likely after I get home in June).

The one and only Cable Beach.

As my sister Jackie would say, I decided to "treat" myself and rented an umbrella and chair for my day at the beach.

Hanging out with my camel, Harley.

It's hard to pick a favorite Australian sunset, but this is one was definitely in my top five. I'm not sure I've ever seen the sky to red (although it looks more orange in this picture).

I've been to outdoor cinemas before, but never an open air one. I liked that they had canvas chairs for us to sit on and that we could see the stars and a few airplanes fly above us.

Coral Coast

I had been getting on and off the Greyhound for five days by the time I arrived in Coral Bay and had met some very nice people already. My French friend Stephane who was on month nine of his year long around the world trip and two German women, Andrea and Stefanie, who were taking time off work to travel for three and six months respectively. We met three more French people and one Swiss at our hostel that we hung out with as well. It was nice to have so many people to lie out on the beach and snorkel with, in addition to eating meals together.

The soft white sand and crystal blue waters were quite similar to Monkey Mia, but Coral Bay was so much larger. The beach went on for miles and was extremely wide during low tide (which this picture does not show).

Just past this rock was the best spot for snorkeling.

I taught the French boys Patrick, Stephane, and Benjamin how to play beer pong. I obviously won-- after all, what kind of American would I be if I didn't dominate in drinking games?

A few days later, Stephane and I both headed to Exmouth for Easter weekend. There isn't a whole lot to do in Exmouth (this tends to be the case in many west coast towns) if you aren't into scuba diving. Lucky for me, I am. Now, I hadn't been diving in four months and I was a little bit nervous my scuba skills would be rusty, but as it turns out diving is a lot like riding a bike, once you know how to do it you never really forget! I did two days of diving, with two boat dives each day. The first day we went to Cod Spot and Whalebone, just off the coast of the Muiron Islands. On the first dive I went down 17M (55 ft) which is the deepest I've been to date. The second day were both reef dives at Lighthouse Bay. I saw a lot of blue spotted rays, a sea turtle, an eel, a puffer fish, lots of crabs, etc... In addition to the great dives, I met some very nice people on board. I really liked my instructor Vicki, she was only 19 years old, originally from England, and had been a scuba instructor for a year Thailand before moving to Exmouth in March. I also met three Americans, which never happens! One woman originally from LA who has been working in Sydney the past two years and a couple who relocated to Perth a few months ago.

On Easter Sunday it was Stephane's birthday, so I took him out to dinner to celebrate. The next day, I was sad to leave because I was heading off to Broome by myself and Stephane was flying to Bali. I am very happy I met him; I had fun teaching him American expressions, practicing my French, talking about anything and everything, and just having someone to eat meals with and go to the beach. I was worried about doing the west coast by myself and by the Greyhound instead of an organized tour, so it was definitely a pleasant surprise to meet nice people along the way.

Exmouth Harbor

On board the Pro Dive boat.

Muiron Islands

Monkey Mia

The first thing everyone should know about Monkey Mia is that there aren't any monkeys on the premises. Weird, right? I've thought about it and decided that Dolphin Haven would be a better suited name. The resort puts on three daily feedings to a group of wild dolphins they all know by name. Guests are allowed to walk into the water, take pictures of the dolphins, and listen as the volunteers give about a thirty minute speech on the mammals. Even though the dolphins are incredibly friendly (one even swam up against my leg) as a precaution no one is allowed to pet them. The staff put it this way: how would we feel if twenty people came up to us three times a day to pat us on the head? We'd probably get annoyed and eventually bite back. Other than enjoying the dolphin feedings, I spent my two days in MM sunbathing, writing in my journal, getting to know Joanna, my German roommate who was also a dolphin volunteer, and Stephane, a Parisian who became my west coast Greyhound bus buddy.

My camera isn't even on zoom in this photo, that was how close this dolphin was to me!

Joanna wasn't working the feeding I went to, so unfortunately I wasn't "randomly" picked to feed the dolphins. Still fun to watch.

Life as a professional beach bum... it's a tough job but somebody's gotta do it!

Monkey Mia soared to the top of my "Australia's most beautiful beaches" list.

My first emu sighting!

The Pinnacles

After three days in Margaret River, I was ready to move on. Kelly and Jen had decided they wanted another day in Margs (as the Aussies affectionately call it) and a few in Scarborough, another beach town outside of Perth, before looking for work half way up the coast in a town called Carnarvon. So sadly, we parted ways. I had made a booking on the Greyhound and my first stop was Cervantes, home to the Pinnacles Desert. Cervantes has a population of 503 (smaller than my high school graduating class) so these famous limestone structures are really all the town has going for them. A sane person would only stay in Cervantes for one night, but because of the greyhound schedule (or lack there of) I stayed for three. There was one hostel, a post office, a news agency, two restaurants, and one bottle shop. Exciting, eh? As you can imagine, there weren’t many people staying at my hostel the weekend I was there, so I had a room to myself, a real treat for a backpacker! It was here I started my new career as a professional beach bum. I spent all three days on the beach and also did a sunset tour of the Pinnacles.

It is extremely windy on the west coast at this time of the year, so many people come out here to kite and wind surf.

The Turquoise Coast

I was the only person on this sunset tour. The guide was incredibly informative and to be honest I couldn’t follow most of what he told me. I do know that these natural limestone structures were created from ancient shells.

As you can tell, it was quite cloudy that night. My guide was pretty amusing when he told me, “I can’t guarantee the quality of the sunset but if it doesn’t set at all I’ll give you a full refund.”

Perth

After finishing up Kiwi Experience, I met up with my friends Kelly and Jen in Perth, the capitol of Western Australia. Just to refresh everyone’s memory, Kelly use to do gymnastics with my cousins Kendall and Bridget, and Jen was Kelly’s roommate while living in Bondi Beach. We spent the first two days exploring Perth; wandering around Murray St. Mall, walking down to Swan River, and trying desperately to find the “botanical” part of the King’s Park Botanical Garden (we never did succeed at the last one). If I were to compare Perth to an American city, I would say it reminds me of Indianapolis or Cincinnati. It’s much smaller than Sydney and Melbourne, has a modest skyline, and people seems to genuinely happy to be living there.

The only town hall that was built by convicts. I've found that Australia has a lot of buildings that were built by convicts.

St. George's Cathedral

The Bell Tower down by Swan River

A view of the city from King's Park.

For St. Patrick's Day we went on a "booze cruise" with our entire hostel. It was an unforgettable night!

The city skyline at night.

A few days in Perth and we were ready to move onto the surrounding suburbs. Our first stop was Fremantle. Lonely Planet said the Fremantle Markets are a "must- see" and although I wasn't particularly impressed with the clothing, crafts, etc. they had a great farmer's market.

The Fremantle prison

We stayed in Cottesloe Beach for a few days. It was a very beautiful and relaxed atmosphere.

Our last day in Cottesloe we made a day trip to Rottnest Island, just off the coast of Western Australia. It's called Rottnest because the Dutch explorer that discovered the island saw what he thought were enormous rats roaming around (the name literally translates to ratt's nest in dutch). They are in fact called quokkas and are apart of the marsupial family.

We rented bikes, rode around to different beaches, and spent the day sun bathing and snorkeling.

I like this picture because if you squint hard enough you can see Perth in the background (it might help if you click on the actually picture to enlarge it). Also, isn't the color of the water amazing?

We heard so many good things about the famous "Sunday Sesh" at Ocean Beach Hotel, we decided to extend our stay in Cottesloe just to partake!

We had a bus to catch bright and early Monday morning to Margaret River, but ran into many obstacles along the way. The receptionist told us the train station was just a ten minute walk from our hostel... well it turns out to be a lot longer when you're carrying over 30lbs of luggage on your back. Needing to rest and refuel, we stopped halfway at a deli. Assuming we missed the train that was supposed to take us to the bus station, we split a $35 (a lot of money to a backpacker who relies solely on public transportation!) taxi ride to the bus station missing our ride by five minutes. We had to buy new tickets and wait for four hours at the station for the next bus. Normally, I think this would have put all three of us in a foul mood, but we had so much fun recapping our previous night and laughing about what "bad" travelers we were that it was hard not to find the situation funny!

Kelly and Jen's roommate Todd was also staying in Margaret River. The four of us went on a fabulous wine tour together. We visited four vineyards, one brewery, one cheese shop, and a chocolate factory. It was a delicious day!

Margaret River, a very famous surfing beach.