5/17 – Arrived in Darwin at 6am – lost 1.5 hours in time change. Booked a 6 day Kakadu/Catherine’s Gorge tour but my credit card was over the limit. Called Citibank in South Dakota collect and found out Barclays charged me $2610 for travelers checks, not $2525, which could have been exchange rate fluctuations and this was billed late while plane ticket bought in Bangkok came in a timely manner. They gave me an extra $1,000 credit limit and I was OK. Shared a taxi to the youth hostel, checked in, slept for a couple of hours. Bought some things, talked to my friend in Melbourne, left a message for a friend in Sydney, booked my dive trip in Cairns, booked cheap ticket for AUS $440, changed money, bought a newspaper and walked around the town a bit. Took a nap in a park then saw movie Sirens. Had an Aussie roommate from South Australia, talked for a while, exchanged addresses, then crashed.
5/18 – Left for tour at 8:30am. Guide’s name was Ben – we were in a big four-wheel drive vehicle called an Oka, made in Australia. Picked up a British couple, Richard and Diana, then headed for Lynchfield Park. Swam in one pool, called Wongi Falls, with two waterfalls. Many kids with snorkels and life jackets on some kind of school tour. Went to second place called Toma Falls and walked into a pool in a narrow gorge. Great place to swim. Walked over a small land bridge over the gorge then to a lookout with a fantastic view back to the gorge, and over all the surrounding landscape. Finally walked into another gorge called Florence Falls with two waterfalls and pool at the bottom. A couple of people were jumping into the pool from the top – a couple of hundred feet above. Collected firewood on the road and made it to Douglas Hot Springs in the night. Had steak dinner and set up the swags – sophisticated, comfortable bedrolls – under mosquito nets. Went down to springs at a spot where hot and cold water met and was able to change temperature just by moving around. It was pretty cool.
5/19 – Went to springs again, ate breakfast and off to Butterfly Gorge. Walked in to sandy beach area and swam across one pool, through a narrow water passage, across a small pool and climbed over some rocks to a third pool. Very pretty with a small waterfall that we could sit in. Richard talked about the geological work he and Diana were doing in Oman. They worked for a French contractor doing work for Shell Oil. They both analyzed and processed raw geological data. Back at the first pools we saw a small area with swarms of brown butterflies. Drove to roadside diner and had fantastic, huge steak burger. Pulled into Katherine late in the afternoon and met Mike, the owner of Back to Basics. We went to a small farm and camped after Mike showed Ben where it was.
5/20 – Went on morning ride up Katherine Gorge. Had to walk boat over one set of small rapids between first and second gorges. Stopped for a bit in small, sandy crevice with water dripping down like rain and went for a swim. Second gorge had sharp, steep walls. Made it back around 1pm, met Ben and had lunch. Drove straight to small campsite just inside Kakadu, near a small rock hole called Moline Hole. Richard caught a small fish, which he returned. Saw small aborigine painting and a poisonous brown water snake.
5/21 – Swam at a rock hole, saw good sized lizard slink through water and over rocks. Went to Barramundi Gorge. Ben rested, we swam. I sat under a small waterfall for a while. Except for 3 Germans we were by ourselves. Stopped to look at huge cathedral termite mounds in middle of slow moving brush fires. Camped at site near Jim Jim Falls. On the way met backpacker walking in on a four wheel drive dirt road. Gave them a lift. Climbed to top of some rocks for a beautiful sunset over a canopy of trees with birds sounds echoing throughout.
5/22 – Walked into Jim Jim Falls. Went through dark tight cave that only Ben knew about. Last pool had the falls. Beautiful, but very cold water in steep gorge with no sunlight. Went back to previous pool and swam in the cold water and laid out in the hot sun on the sand. Very refreshing experience. Drove to top of Nawurlandja Outlier and saw spectacular sunset aided by champagne Ben brought. Fun climb down in growing dusk. Camped by Sandy Billabong.
5/23 – Woke up to beautiful sunrise against billabong. Drove to Nowlangie Rock and then long drive to Ubirr, both of which contained aborigine art. Saw mimis, which were sprits which created the world and helped man understand the world. Saw fish, turtles, white men and rifles, and bad spirits. All used to teach traditions, give power over enemies and give strength to food source animals so that they will always be there. Drove up to Shady Camp Billabong and cruised towards the ocean on a flat boat and saw scores of crocodiles in the water or on muddy banks. One even had a snake in its mouth and wrapped around the top of its snout. Went on a second boat away from ocean in area with beautiful water lilies and scores of birds. Saw another great sunset. Made it back to Darwin around 9:30.
General notes from this trip:
Ben’s brother is the lead guitarist for Yothu Yindi, which means mother children and symbolized that mand are children and earth is the mother. I ended up seeing the band in the House of Blues in Los Angeles a couple of years later.
Different tribes had different cultures and languages. Could tell the path of original creative dreamtime spirits by the way local tribes customers are related.
Dreamlines trace where the spirits stopped and how they influenced each tribe throughout Australia. In painting the process is important and there are layers of paintings in the same place over time. The artist determines when the time is right to paint. They have a strong oral tradition carefully preserved.
Bush fires were intentionally set by rangers just after the wet season so that grass is still moist and firs burn slow. They are therefore under control and the slowness allows time for may animals to escape the flames. They try to have all areas burned every three years. This is what aborigines have been doing for tens for thousands of years. Many plant species need the fires for their seeding process. By setting fires in wetter times it prevents out of control fires as the season becomes drier.
The wet season has three phases: lightening, the most in the world; constant rain and sometimes heavy storms; and finally Knock Em Down winds which knocks down the tall grass.
5/24 – Woke up at 3:30am to catch AUS $5 shuttle bus to airport for 5:50am flight to Cairns. Went to info center and booked Taka II dive boat. Went to STA travel and paid for Cairns-Brisbane-Sydney-Melbourne air ticket for AUS $459. Wandered around town, ate, bought some things and ran into Sophie and Nick from Lovina Beach. Promised to get with them Saturday night for Nick’s birthday. Got picked up for dive boat around 5:30, boarded boat, got my equipment and took off. Crashed after dinner – tired after early morning flight.
5/25 – Made 4 dives, all with Almas, a crazy school teacher from Quebec. First one we had a big grey cod stay with us. The second one everyone fed the fish. We swam off and of the cod followed us. Saw a 4-5 foot white tail shark. Third dive we saw another shark, a sea turtle, 2 poisonous scorpion fish and a clam open and close. The final dive was at night and included a 180 degree navigation exercise for me with Paul, one of the instructors. Ended up seeing 2 more sharks, a stingray under some coral and a sea slug crawling. Was very dark and eerie. At one point the sharks were swimming above us and we needed to wait for them to pass before we started to surface. Spent most of my time between dives resting and studying the PADI advanced dive course book. Was not feeling well; light fever and light diarrhea; maybe a bit dehydrated. Saw video and pictures of our dives in the morning.
5/26 – First dive was to 30 meters with Almas and Sushi – a Japanese instructor. Compared depth guage readings, watched the yoke of a peeled raw egg hold together under the pressure (and at 20 meters watched it fall apart), and wrote my name and did a math problem on an underwater slate. Felt a little giddy from the depth, but no lack of control. On the way up we saw some nice clams, a stingray and actually swam into a large clam. Second dive was navigation – I did the straight line and the boxe well, but had problems on the triangle. He still OK’d me. Nice dive afterward but nothing spectacular. Third dive was at a small reef with beautiful coral and tons of wonderful fish. Final night dive was at a place called the Beer Garden with Almas and Wayne from Sydney. Very dark and eerie. Just moved around slowly and saw more coral and fish through our underwater lights. Saw a sea tutle near the surface. Relaxed, read and went to be early.
5/27 – Woken up at 5:30am for 6:20am dive. Had two beautiful, peaceful “Zen” dives with Almas – one at Beer Garden and the other at Temple of Doom. After the dives the boat headed for Cairns and we arrived at 3:30. I picked up my plane tickets, reserved some trips at the tourist office, then checked into Captain Cooks, a huge hostel for $10 per night and decent dinner. Met some of the divers and crew at a bar around the corner. Had beers and talked until 11pm. Paul from Florida, Fred from Denmark and a Danish couple and I went to a disco called The End of the World. My first Western disco in a year. Walked into rave music, someone dancing on a stage in front of four big screens showing ice hockey fights. I lasted about 20 minutes and left. It wasn’t my scene at this point.
5/28 – Did laundry in hostel’s machines, and the spent 3 hours on the grass near The Esplanade laying in the sun, reading a book and watching people fly kites. Met Sophie and Nick and some of their friends. Spent the night watching a “Man O Man” contest at the hostel. Unbelievably bad sort of a gong show for guys and the losers of each round get pushed into a pool. If it wasn’t Nick’s birthday I would have left. Finally crashed around 1am.
5/29 – Took bus to Kurunda, saw an interesting one hour Aborigine dance show, the best part was hearing a guy explain how he played the digeridoo. Wandered around the market, ran into Paul. He was here for a couple of days with a girl form California he met. Took a nice old scenic train through the rainforest, gorges, and waterfalls back to Cairns. Ended up wandering into a multicultural festival in a park and saw some belly dancers, some Italian dancers and a tribal dance troop of mostly children from Papua New Guinea. Met Paul at dinner; he had only gone for the day. We went to Lori’s room and watched The Godfather III on Australian TV.
5/30 – Took 8am tour bus up to Crocodylus. Stopped at a nature walk then a one hour boat ride on the Baintree River. Saw a few crocs and a lot of lush rainforest. Arrived at Corcodylus in time for lunch. Went for a 1.5 hour walk on a marked trail in the rainforest. Saw a big black 6 foot high bird pecking through the bush, called a Cassowary. Saw some small fowl, some colorful small birds in some trees and some turtles and fish in a small stream. Beautiful, multiple, lush vegetation. Went on an organized night walk after dinner. Saw big ugly brown toad, a centipede, a lizard with sharp claws (which I caught and played with a bit after everyone walked by), a thin green stick bug, a small bat, a small kangaroo like animal and tons of spiders and crickets.
5/31 – Went on a walk to top of 900 meter mountain with Thomas from Switzerland. Beautiful walk with nice views of Cape Tribulation and surrounding forested hills. Went to nearby environmental center where I saw a couple of films and took a short walk along their nature path. The rainforest is really beautiful and constantly alive.
6/1 – Went to a beautiful isolated beach with Jen from Scotland. Saw tadpoles and these land fish I think are called mud puppies. They looked like half formed frogs but when I caught one it had gills and what looked like hind legs were actually fins. Took bus back to Cairns and Captain Cook’s. Had dinner and went out with roommates. One was a Swiss helicopter pilot looking for work in Oz and the other two were an Austrian couple who work for a premier ski boot company. Went to Jono and saw a good local blues band. Then a Melbourne band that just finished a European tour call The Sharp came on. A guitarist, a drummer and a string bass player. Great, hard, semi-punk music. Place only held a few hundred fans, so it was very intimate.
6.2 – Caught 11:20 plane to Brisbane, arrived at 1:30 and met Fabian’s brother Peter. Went to bookstore to buy some books, changed money at a bank, strolled around a local mall, then to Fabian’s house where we cracked macadamia nuts, had some beers and played some pool. Fabian and Anita [friends from Europe trip] arrived around 5:30 and we caught up a bit, had dinner later and told our travel tales to each other.
6/3 – Went to train station with Anita on her way to work and I caught a commuter train into the city. Walked around, saw the movie Geronimo, wandered over a bridge and saw art museum and small mixed museum. Met Anita again around 5pm at same train station and rode back to their place. Went to South Shore and had a wonderful BBQ at a public park on the river with the view of the city in front of us and rock climbers practicing on a lighted cliff wall behind us. Walked over to old Expo Center, walked through a nice night market, then had a beer at an old renovated pub and watched the end of an exciting rugby match.
6/4 – Drove a couple of hours down the Gold Coast to Byron Bay. On the way we saw the built up tourist resort of Surfers Paradise. Byron Bay had a score of new age clothing and jewelry shops. Went up to a lighthouse on the easternmost land extension of Australia; the closed I’ve been to home in almost a year! Had a nice, large kebab lunch then to a beach where Fabian taught me how to throw a boomerang he bought at last night’s market. There was no wind and a somewhat constant stream of people walking by so we didn’t get many throws in; none of which did a successful circle. Drove an hour an a half back through some mountains to Natural Bridge, a small park where water went through a hole in the rocks to a pool below; very pretty. Stopped for hot chocolate at a nice scenic café nearby. Got home, grabbed a pizza and rented the video Rising Sun. Crashed around 11:30; we were all tired.
6/5 – Slept in and watched their video of our time together in Portugal, which brought back some good memories. They went to an engagement party so I read and watched some videos. Had a great pasta dinner with Fabian’s mom’s home made sauce. Watched the movie 1492 on TV. Nice mellow day. Said goodbye to Fabian before he crashed; he would leave for work early tomorrow morning.
6/6 – Woke up and said goodbye to Anita. Peter came by, we played a couple of games of pool, then he took me to the airport for my flight to Sydney. Arrived in Sydney around 1:30, took shuttle bus into town. Called Marc and we was out, so I waited at a café area at the bottom of the building he worked in called Circular Quay. After about an hour he was in, so I took a look at his office. Beautiful shared office complex with a fantastic view of the Opera House and the harbor. Took ferry to his place, met Nira, had good Chinese meal they cooked and sampled some great homemade beer Marc had made [friends from business school].
6/7 – Rainy, cold day. Wandered into town, bought umbrella and saw Baraka. Great movie about the diversity of the planet. Wandered around town. Ended up at King’s Cross where there were a handful of strip bars, seedy bookstores and some prostitutes, a couple with dazed, drugged eyes. Also a lot of gambling rooms. Went back to downtown and caught ferry back to Marc’s. We had a nice turkey dinner, then went to a nice local pub for a couple of beers. Marc is the Australian GM for a hotel pay per view video company, which is big in the US. His US boss is a control freak, their product is way overpriced, and he’s not too happy, though he is learning a lot. Nira is a brand manager for SC Johnson and is pretty happy.
6/8 – Another cold, rainy day. Took a long time doing laundry at machines in their apartment complex. Got into town around 11:30 and went to Powerhouse Museum. Great place; spent three hours wandering through hands on exhibits. Made it back to Marc’s place around 6pm. We hung out and talked, then I walked to Dave’s [friend from Europe trip] place and we watched the State of Origin rugby match between Queensland and New South Wales with his two roommates, an Aussie guy selling computers and a British girl doing computer work. NSW won 14-0. It was a boring game, but they turned on some hilarious announcers on radio, while watching the TV picture. Dave is doing bidding for demolition jobs and working long hours, but he’s happy.
6/9 – actually had no rain today. Walked all around beautiful botanic gardens, spent a bit of time at The Rocks – with nice restored buildings and pretty shops – and met Marc for lunch. Went over to Sydney Aquarium which had wonderful, huge exhibits. Went out with Dave that night, first to The Oaks, where we bought raw meat then cooked it over a grill. Then wend to a bar built out of an old church on the North Side; I think it was called Greenwood. We got nice and drunk, caught up some more on the past few years and watched and talked to some of the cute girls wandering around.
6/10 – Saw Tchaikovsky’s 5th Symphony at the Sydney Opera House at 11am. Wonderful sound and beautiful concert hall. Went to top of Sydney Tower where there was a fantastic view of the entire city. Went to Australian Museum where they had a couple of temporary exhibits, one on ancient prehistoric fossils from Russia and the other on art from Tibet and Nepal. Also had good natural history stuff on Australia. In the evening saw Marc and Nira’s slides of New Zealand; beautiful pictures of what looks like a wonderful place. We went to a Chinese restaurant and had a ton of food, including a heated bowl of water where we put raw, thin pieces of beef in which cooked instantly and tasted great. We then went to Pumphouse bar and brewery. It was cold outside and inside was good, except for a dark beer I bought which tasted flat. The bartender was a bit arrogant when I brought this to his attention, so we left.
6/11 – Dave took me to the airport, even though he was very hungover. We had some pastries there and talked before parting ways. Landed in Melbourne around 11:30am and Mark [friend from business school] met me and we went north for a couple of hours through beautiful farmland to the place his race was at. It was an 8k cross country race in the middle of nowhere. Mark finished in about the first quartile with a time of 27:15. He was marginally happy with his running. We went back to Melbourne, showered and changed. We ended up on a street with a bunch of restaurants and had a great Indian meal. Then went to an area called St Kilda, but nothing much was happening. Finally tried to get into a bar, but only “members” were allowed in. People seem to be a bit too serious with the night scene here. We ended up having some coffee nearby and going home.
6/12 – Went to a huge market – Victoria Market – with all kinds of stalls. I bought an aborigine designed t-shirt. Had a great lunch at a restaurant called the Veggie Bar with huge portions. We went by Mark’s office to get a big golf umbrella and met a couple of his co-workers. We then went back home, got some warm clothes and headed out to Phillip Island. It was about an hour and a half drive. Saw beautiful coastline on the island where a large blowhole would shoot a stream of mist out when a large enough swell went in. Went to Fairy Penguins area. Walked around exhibit then sat outside on a small amphitheater. After sundown little groups of tiny penguins would venture on shore from a day of fishing in the ocean. They would come hesitantly across the sand in little groups called rafts and then scurry up to their nests. Once at home you could hear them coo-ing to each other and see them scurrying about. Drove back to Melbourne and had dinner at a very small, crowded fantastic Greek restaurant called Jimmy’s. Went to Redback Beer bar/brewery, but the beer wasn’t that great, not many people were there and it was closing at midnight, so we got out of there around 11pm.
6/13 – Today is the Queen’s Birthday holiday. Mark retuned the rental car and went for his morning run. We took a train to Southside which is a restaurant and shopping complex across the river from the main train station and had lunch. Walked to the Melbourne Cricket Grounds (MCG) which was the main stadium for the 1956 Summer Olympics and seats about 90,000 people. We saw Richmond play Collington. Richmond destroyed Collington, which was something of an upset in Australian Rules Football. Each time the ball is kicked through the middle goalpost a goal worth 6 points is awarded. Each time it’s through the outer posts a point is awarded. It’s a fun fast game to watch. We wandered back to town, had dinner at an Italian restaurant and saw the movie The House of Spirits. It was long and slow. Ended up at an old traditional bar near the train station and had a few beers. Earlier we had stumbled across a place called Pellegrini’s. We were going to have a beer there after the movie, but it was closed when we got there.
6/14 – Did a load of wash, then made it to the zoo by 10:30am. It’s a beautiful zoo. Stayed until 2:30, went back to town and saw movie Up In The Air. Brought back memories of Africa. Called Mark and we had a mediocre dinner at Pellegrini’s. Had some beers nearby afterwards and Mark actually had to go in and get some more work done that night.
6/15 – Slept in, went to State Library in town and caught up on some magazines. Wandered around city and ended up seeing movie Four Weddings and a Funeral. Called Mark and we ate at a decent Greek restaurant in town. Had a few beers afterwards and celebrated my last night on this long trip.
6/16 – Took cab to airport. Flight left around 11:30 and arrived in Sydney at 12:30. Left Sydney around 2:30pm and landed the same day at LAX at 11am. Sat next to Sydney couple that was flying to Vail for a wedding. Only got about 1.5 hours sleep on the plane. Saw Four Weddings and a Funeral again and Red Hot about Russian rock and rollers in the 1950’s. My brother picked me up at LAX. It’s good to be home again.