Made it to Darwin a few days ago. With Steve and Sam I booked a tour with Wayward, a 3.5 day camping trip. What a mistake! Worst trip so far, the drivers were pretty crap (for one of them the c-word was certainly appropriate) and the food was bad as well. However, camping is always good and we spent some time in Litchfield, which is really very pretty. But with no airco in the bus and 35 degrees and high humidity, even that was not as good as it could have been. Oops, I sound almost like a whinging pom now! The good parts of the trip: camping at the Devils Marbles was pretty special, we swam in loads of (thermos) pools with waterfalls, surrounded by frogs and lizards. One of the pools was closed due to crocs, do I figured that would be a good crocspotting opp. Couldn't find one unfortunately. Katherine Gorge was pretty spectecular as well.
Anyway, we're in Darwin now! Darwin's pretty small and everything happens in the main drag and the mall. The good thing of this is that I keep bumping into people I met before which is really very nice. As it's incredibly warm and humid, I spend most of the time by the pool or in the room (that was airco'd until yesterady morning). Sam and I usually run an errand or two and have a coffee but that is about it. Being lazy for a while is lovely. I am flying to Cairns on Saturday morning, and yesterday Sam booked a flight for Sunday, so that should be good.
Not a whole lot to tell as there is just nothing happening at the mo!
Easter Sunday and the weather is awfully Dutch (though apparently it's quite nice there at the mo). According to the hostel staff it started pouring down yesterday, just when I arrived. Lovely! As there is about as much to do in Cairns as there was in Alice and Darwin I am now really getting bored. Planned to do a cablecar thing and go to the reef for some snorkling but both won't be a lot of fun in the rain. Will go to Cape Trib tomorrow, hoping the weather will be better soon.
And it's sunny! Wow. Last night it was still pissing down, but today it seems to be dry and sunny!
I am back in Cairns, staying in Travellers Oasis, which is one of the loveliest hostels so far. Beds in stead of bunks and the owner is a lovely guy. There was even a towel on my bed. Super. Got back yesterday from Cape Trib and met with friends from home (Harmen and Eugenie) how arrived in Cairns on their honeymoon. Fantastic to see them, hadn't met friends from home since October!
Cape Trib was really good. Stopped at the Daintree River on the way up and did a cruise. Managed to spot four crocs! One was only the size of my hand, the biggest was about 8 foot. Pretty impressive. I stayed in a resort in Cape Trib: the Beach House. Very luxury and I was very lucky to have a dorm to myself (and en-suite bathroom!). The house was smack in the rainforest, very special. Loads of enormous spiders and some lizards (see photos).
Today will just be a day of chilling again. Will check the weatherforecast to see if it may be a good idea to sort out my reef trip.
Oops, it's been ages since I last wrote! Have been up to loads. The Great Barrier Reef to start with, that was just magnificent. Was on a boat called the Falla, with about 18 others, and did about three hours of snorkelling. Saw the most amazing fish, a seaturtle (incredible!) but unfortunately no reef sharks. Ah well, can't have it all! From Cairns I went to Mission Beach, where I stayed at The Sanctuary. This is a resort in the middle of bloody nowhere with bugger all to do. Just what I wanted. Very serene, a great lounge where you sit and read and relax. My hut was made of wooden poles and musquito net-fabric. Smack in the rainforest with loads of interesting noises. Two nights was just enough, was ready for a bit more action after that.
On to Townsville, where I had a nice night in the hostel with some other backpackers. The next morning I went to Magnetic Island, or Maggie, as the bananabenders call it. Fantastic! the island was gorgeous, the resort really nice and I met some fantastic people who I won't easily forget. Did some hiking and spotted two koalas and saw loads of green tree ants. The next morning I went sea kayaking. The sea was quite rough, which made it really cool. Didn't see turtles or dolphins, but still had a very good time with the Irish lad I was sharing the kayak with. Beautiful scenery.
And now I am in Airlie Beach, the gateway to the Whitsundays. It's been raining and storming heavily last night, hope it'll get better soon, as my boat leaves tonight! Will spend three nights on the Banjora and do some snorkelling, maybe a dive, and loads of sailing of course. There' ll be up to 14 of us, which should be just good.
I can really feel time ticking now, only a month before meeting Eelco and Merel in Sydney, and a few days later I'll fly back home. A tad scary, but summer in Amsterdam is still very appealing.
