Northern Territory

I am writing from underneath the watchful glare of the Holiday Inn receptionist, who knows that I am not staying here and am just using their internet.  At $10/hr, they could be a little nicer.  Yesterday I got thrown out of the town library in some little town back up the road.  "We don't offer internet to travelers."  "Ah," I said, looking at the empty bank of computers.  "You do seem very busy."  He didn't think that was funny.  Take heart, Aussies, I think he was English.

The trip underwent a change of pace back in Broome.  Upon picking up my 4WD rental camper, I had to sign several contracts.  The relocation contract basically said that the company would have my head if I took it on a 4WD trail and something happened to it.  I could have paid $3000 and had free reign.  But I paid $250 and was thus restricted.  The route I was planning was about 600 miles of Outback, which is a bit more than a casual drive.  As I looked around at others who had just finished it, their tricked-out machines covered in red dirt, I figured that it was probably prudent to just take the highway around.  I will admit, however, that I was intensely jealous when I talked with some young German guy in a super-equipped Land Rover (two spares, jerry cans, and a couple of babes in halter tops).  But campervans are the way to go here.  Everyone is cruising around in one, from cheap ones filled with backpackers to big plush ones.

I drove the highway from Broome to Katherine, which is a bit like driving I-80 across Wyoming, then turning around and driving I-80 across Wyoming again.  The scenery was an unending flat scrubby country with the odd termite mound or grass fire.  There were a couple of places to pull off, where I filled the vehicle from the jerry cans I was provided (really handy).  The flies assaulted my head before my foot even got out of the car onto the road, so I did the job as quickly as possible and jumped back in. I mashed the pedal to the floor and watched the fuel gauge go down.

Before I left, I got some music from a French guy at a backpackers in Broome.  He was the first random guy I walked up to with a laptop, and I asked him if he would copy some music onto an SD card.  He asked me if I liked techno.  I said sure, whatever you have.  So I got 8GB of awful French techno music for the trip.  He also included Queen's Greatest Hits.

I arrived in Katherine where there is a famous gorge.  You paddle around in a kayak with the vaguely uncomfortable feeling that there might be a crocodile.  The waters are allegedly surveyed to be crocodile-free, but I didn't take a dip.  The crocs are a big deal in the Northern Territory.  As I was driving away from the gorge, I heard on the radio that a policeman was killed by one the night before.  A drunk lady fell into the river and was hanging onto a log.  The policeman jumped in to save her.  A crocodile joined in on the fun and... it didn't end well.  

I drove north to Litchfield National Park where I parked my camper in a great campground next to a waterfall and swimming area.  It was really idyllic.  I went for a dip in the morning and the evening.  As you cruise around the park in the daytime, looking at the sights, you can pull off at these cool "rockholes" and jump in for a swim to beat the heat.  There are a lot of other families swimming there too so I figure the odds were OK as far as crocs or snakes. 

I retire to the camper and cook up some grub.  Everyone has a campervan around here and it's by far the most popular way to travel.  There are cheap ones rented by a group of backpackers, rugged offroad ones, and big plush ones.  The really great feature is the little fridge.  At night a wallaby came to inspect the campsite.  He was the size of a dog but had a head like a mouse and jumped instead of walking.  The next night the mom came instead.  She was smaller and as I looked closer, there was a little joey's head poking out of her pouch.

There is plentiful wildlife.  A lot of it is of the six-legged flying variety.  The flies bite vigorously, the mosquitoes suck your blood, palm-sized spiders spin webs across trails, and ants are absolutely everywhere.  Other denizens include the largest dragonfly I've ever seen and thumb-sized cicadas.  It's hard to concentrate while sitting on the pot and a bat-sized wasp is flying around with you.  Then you look up and there's a bat-sized bat.

Today I drove up to Kakadu National Park where there is a lot of Aboriginal heritage.  Tomorrow I am going to take a tour, camp another night, then head to Darwin where I return my vehicle.  There seem to be a number of things to do in Darwin but I'm playing it by ear.

The Katherine Gorge

Croc trap in the gorge.  Hopefully it isn't full very often.

Big nightlife in the campground

Falls and swimming hole in the campground.  Notice the guy at the bottom left for scale.

Broome

Hello from Western Australia.  I arrived in Broome last night after a rather epic travel day across New Zealand, the Tasman Sea, a continent, and something like 27 time zones.  Australia is big.  Out the plane window there was miles and miles of flattish, red, bushy type country which looked hot.

After filling out the form at the Qantas counter at the airport for my lost bag, I walked down the street to my hostel, which is the cheapest place in town.  It's still not cheap.  There was some sort of techno dance party going on, which I wasn't overly excited about. It's full of young and old, although it seems to be dominated by young attractive tanned types with pedicures.  I think you probably have to have a pedicure if you're in Australia, since you wear sandals all the time.  

I walked into town to buy some sandals and some food.  It is pretty muggy but there is a breeze from the ocean so it's not too bad.  There were a few cafes where tourists sat outside and ate and drank.  There are also lots of Aborigines huddled together in alleys and behind buildings, drinking and/or sniffing gasoline and looking ruined.  It was really sad.  

Today I went on a daylong photography tour run by this English guy named Nigel.  He has a big burly truck and took us out to a few places around town.  There was much camera instruction, and I learned a few things about apertures and ISO and the like.  I was a little bored, though, as Nigel was really interested in things that I found uninteresting, like twigs and sand dunes and abstract bands of color.  I thnk I took away some tricks for the future, but it was a tedious day in the searing heat taking photos of sand patterns.

Nigel is also a real eco-warrior.  Apparently there is a gas company interested in building a drilling facility here and Nigel spent most of the day railing about the injustice of it.  He was full of nuggets of information about ecology which seemed rather dubious or obvious.  "See these vines?  Without these vines here, this sand would just blow away.  It would be gone.  GONE!"  Umm, no shit buddy.  But he was a nice guy and was genuinely interested in our success as photographers.

Tomorrow I pick up a 4WD camper and am going to drive it to Darwin across the wastes on the Gibb River Road.  It's a pretty sweet rig, a Toyota Hilux with a fridge and BBQ and pop-top.  I got a really good deal on the vehicle because it needs to be relocated from one place to another.  The fine print on the contract said that due to the cheap price, you aren't supposed to take it off the pavement.  I figure they have a car wash in Darwin and nobody will know the wiser.  In the morning I will stock up with a week's worth of food and water and also a map or something.  Maybe a pen and paper since my laptop computer keyboard stopped working and they don't have coin-operated computers with sticky keyboards like I'm using right now.

This is a camp of protesters out in the middle of nowhere.  It is hot and there are lots of flies.  Nigel knew them and raised his fist in solidarity.

We spent a lot of the day in the burning sun taking pictures.

In the evening we went to Cable Beach, near Broome.  It was a huge beach, with lots of cars on it, and the locals are out grilling and watching the sunset.  It's a really nice spot to hang out.

Camel tours!  Cue the Lawrence of Arabia theme.

My grocery store thongs still have the tape on them.

I imagine I will have some stories after the next week.  There may or may not be some internet at a roadhouse out there, powered by a kangaroo on a treadmill and run through a satellite dish or something.  If there is, I'll send another update. 

The Arrowsmiths