Tuesday, April 5, 2011

Eating a weetabix

March 31 - Daly Waters Pub

Oh my gosh! What a pub! As Juno says, there are lots of "Knicks and knacks" in this place! What memorabilia adorning the walls! There are collections of baseball caps, bras, panties, business cards, license plates, worldwide currency, antique car parts, and much more.

Rain keeps following us-- part of another cyclone.

Due to the long bus ride, we played games. One was to see who could eat a "wheetabix" the fastest. (This is similar to zwieback.) Each person had a chance to be at the front of the bus while Juno played a song. I chose "Waltzing Matilda" while trying to chew and swallow this piece of sawdust. It made a paste in your mouth which made it difficult to swallow. I did mine in 2 minutes, 16 seconds. The fastest was 1 minute, 19 seconds.

We also divided ourselves into two groups and played trivia. We make up 12 questions based on anything and everything. Winners had the evening free of dinner clean up. My team won!

Still raining and the campsite was a muddy and full of holes and stumps...not easy to see those holes in the dark!

Daly Waters Pub - lots of "knicks and knacks"

March 31- driving to Alice Springs

Did lots of driving. It rained all night and our clothesline broke which meant my shirt and bathing suit were drenched. Weather is hot, humid, gray, and rainy...I hate the rain!

We left the campsite and drove to Mataranka Thermal Pool. There was a cafe with a resident wallaroo named Dick. Her name means "food" in the Aboriginal language. She was quite friendly and approachable.

The area is quite green due to all the rains. In the toilet was a friendly green frog! Ah, the wilderness...

1998 flood marker; wallaroo stealing a man's sandwich; me holding a 3 year old python; salt water estuarine crocodile

Mataranka Thermal Pool at Elsey National Park - big cock, me and a wallaroo, and the thermal pool which was not very warm

March 30

I'm trying to reconstruct the past few days. While camping in the outback, needless to say, there was no Internet connection. I made some basic notes to jog my memory.

Although my tour was ten days consecutive, it was comprised of 3 short tours with different campers as well as drivers/guides. Our tour guide, Juno, age 24 from Alics Springs, drove us from Darwin to Alice Springs. This part involved lots of sitting on the bus, but Juno made it pass quickly with music and games. He got everyone to participate and we all enjoyed ourselves and got to know one another. He was also a fun character: bushy hair, wore different socks, had a great chuckle, and smoked at each toilet stop! He told us of the 1998 flood where stores were flooded 18 meters high and crocs would "have a munch" in the meat department. Along the way we had a water buffalo run across the road!

We had lunch at our campsite and then had a cruise to number one gorge (there were many) at Katherine Gorge. There we walked along the rocks to view 20,000 year old rock art high up on the rocks. Later we hiked along a pretty rough rock path to the Southern Rock Hole. Didn't swim here but enjoyed the view.

Rock path to the Southern Rock Hole, note the chain

Cruise at Katherine Gorge and Aboriginal Rock Art

Three wet women after a torrential downpour!