The morning after saying goodbye to Josh in Darwin was likely one we will all never forget. It was filled with lots of laughter stemming from miserableness. None of us had much sleep, so when we ended up having to wait for our new guide who was late, we already started out not impressed. He then took us to the new vehicle we would be driving in – a 4 x 4 with no air-conditioning, the seats in the back facing sideways, and seats that were so hard they hurt your butt after half an hour of sitting on them. When we found out we would be driving for five hours just the first day in this metal box, I seriously considered asking to stay behind in Darwin and missing out on the next three days. I stuck it out, but I still think this tour went three days too long…
Our first stop was luckily only about an hour away. When we pulled up to a buffalo field and our guide starting trying to call them by making cow noises, we all lost it – who was this guy, and why were we here? We then got out of the car and quickly realized that our fly nets would be a permanent fixture for the next three days (ok, maybe it was just me that decided this!) – just when you thought the flies couldn’t get worse, they had. There were more of them, and they were way more annoying. Up until this point, once you put the fly net on you were good to handle the rest of the flies that hung around you. These flies had to be on steroids or something – you could feel them all over you and the need for a full-body fly net had become real. You couldn’t even shake them off because your body was drenched from the heat and humidity, so they just stuck to your sweat – I wasn’t sure I was going to survive the next three days!
Yup...that's 13 flies, just on one side of my foot! Imagine this all over your body. (Dad, you would have gone crazy!)
Being just an hour in, and already an hour too long in my opinion, we waited for a crocodile cruise where while you wait, they give you a binder full of newspaper articles about people being attacked and killed by crocodiles…just what you want to hear when you are about to get on a boat to go searching for crocs. The cruise was probably my favourite part of the these last three days, so the fact it was over within the first two hours of these three days left not much to be desired afterwards. These crocodiles are massive and so strong – seeing them brought whole new thoughts to my head about the crocodile hunter…why you would put yourself in a situation where you purposely came face-to-face with these monsters baffles my mind! They brought up the point that while Australia has many deadly animals, most will only attack when provoked. Crocodiles, on the other hand, will actually seek you out to attack and eat you, not just attacking if you make them mad...great to tell us as we are staring into the eyes of these powerful dinsoaur-like creatures! We saw about 8 crocs in the span of no longer than a kilometer. The biggest one we saw, ‘Stubs’, had no foot on his back leg because it had been eaten off by another crocodile…his stubby leg served as a great reminder as to why you don’t mess with crocs! It was then on to Kakadu National Park…
After the crocodile cruise, it was back into our heat box where we would enter into Kakadu National Park and stop at an Aboriginal Center where there was a theater that had air conditioning! We could learn a bit about the Aboriginal culture while also cooling our bodies down…or maybe not! Part of the center was closed off, and the air-conditioned theater was under construction. Thankfully, we were lucky enough to stumble across the library where we all sat to soak up the somewhat cool air while Ian read us stories to pass the time…”and the kangaroo played his Didgeridoo”.
After story time, we got to do some more driving before we went for a little hike to see some Aboriginal rock art. We weren’t told a whole lot about it other than the obvious – the art was used to tell stories or send messages and had been here for thousands of years – our guide was not as enthusiastic or interested in his job as Josh had been. It was cool to see nonetheless, with my favourite of the pictures being the kangaroos. We didn’t walk for long, but the sweat on me had reached a new level – my sunscreen was beading out of me and every inch of me was soaking wet. The fact that we were getting back into a vehicle with no air-conditioning to cool me off made me start to regret my decision to not stay back in Darwin like I had originally considered doing once I found out this was the vehicle we would be driving around the most hot and humid part of Australia in.
Yup...that's all sweat. You could wipe it off, and it'd be back 30 seconds later. I felt grosser than these pictures are!
From here, we went to a swimming pool near our campsite for the night. I am not sure we were actually allowed to swim there, as it was at a resort that we weren’t staying at, but no one questioned us so we didn’t care. Although the water was warm, it was refreshing enough to have a swim and we stayed in until we heard thunder. Getting dressed back into sweaty clothes (we could only bring little bags so we all had limited clothing for the three days) was uncomfortable and put you right back in the ‘I wish I had stayed in Darwin’ mood.
It was then off to the campsite where we would prepare dinner, play some strange name game our guide had come up with, roasted marshmallows over candles, and headed to bed at 8:30 – I don’t think we were tired, but it was our only attempt at escaping the heat and miserableness that we were all feeling. With rain pouring down all night, the humidity at a new high, and us in a tent infested with spider webs, I got very little sleep and added to my sweatiness throughout the night. Waking up after a restless night to no running water in the washrooms meant none of us could shower, only adding to our pleasant moods and feelings of happiness! The best news of the morning was that the road to get to the 10km hike we were supposed to do was closed due to flooding – HOORAY!
We hopped into our oven with wheels and drove for about an hour to a hike we didn’t even end up doing because our guide said there were too many people there. We instead went to another area that ended up being closed due to flooding (it was wet season here, and because there are so many crocodiles, they close everything because areas get infested with crocs and become unsafe), so did a little hike to a nice lookout where we ended up re-enacting the Lion King, confirming that we had all gone a bit crazy in these conditions!
From there, it was more driving to more places that ended up being closed, until we came across a waterfall that was apparently ‘safe’, despite having a big warning sign about fresh and salt water crocodiles inhabiting the area. Some of the crew were brave enough to go in – I watched from the rocks, keeping a close eye on anything that looked remotely like it could be a hungry croc. Luckily, unlike our first night in swags, everyone made it out safely with no attacks from Australia’s crazy wildlife! Afterwards, we headed to our accommodation for the evening in Litchfield National Park where all 8 of us would sleep in a little cabin with an air-conditioner that we would fight over all night – some were too hot, others too cold…and 8 people trying to be comfortable all at the same time just didn’t work, especially after the past two days where we had all been stretched to our limits and were ready for the comforts of home! Before bed, we played a few games of ‘Mafia’ and then all read ourselves to sleep – Ian’s newfound love of all the Harry Potter books had inspired us all to do some reading of our own.
The next morning, we woke up, some annoyed with others over ‘The Battle of the Air-Conditioner 2016”, and got back into the 4 x 4. Knowing this was the last day we would have to put up with it made it a bit easier to get into it – the shower and a somewhat decent sleep in a bed probably helped too. Because so much in the area was closed due to flooding, we did very little on this day. We headed to a waterfall that once again had signs saying you couldn’t swim there, but most swam there anyways amongst the other people who were also disobeying the warnings. We were supposed to make a few other stops, but apparently our guide decided not to stop at those places, which I wasn’t about to complain about because it meant we got back to Darwin sooner.
Upon arrival back in Darwin, we all showered, soaked up the air-conditioning, and enjoyed one last sunset and dinner altogether before saying goodbye to a few on our trip. The next day, many of us were still in Darwin – it was a day of making plans for the remainder of trips, hanging out in McDonalds to steal their free Wifi, and swimming in the hostel pool. After making dinner in the hottest kitchen ever with stove-tops that hardly heated up (great when you are trying to make chicken fajitas!), it was a late-night goodbye to the crew as I was off to the airport to head to Sydney for the week.
Although the last three days of this tour may not have been my favourite, I know I will look back on these 19 days as some of my favourite memories of my time spent in Australia. The people I met on this trip are friends I will keep in touch with and the memories we created together will be with me forever. Thanks to all of you for helping to make this trip a blast, and for helping to keep me laughing even during the times when the flies were bugging the heck out of me, I was dripping sweat, and was trying to survive on no sleep.
And that, folks, marks the end of my journey through the Australian Outback! What a ride!
And that, folks, marks the end of my journey through the Australian Outback! What a ride!