The Northern territories in a few key figures: 1 car (Toyota Yaris), about 1200 km, up to 37 degrees, about 10 kangaroos, 4 different accommodations, 3 national parks, about 35 liters of water, 300km between each petrol station and supermarket, 1000’s of beautiful landscapes, 1.000.000’s of flies and mosquitoes, … J

In order to avoid to make it too long… we wanted to share with you some “highlights” of our trip!

Time difference:

First thing to mention… the time difference!!!  1h30 minutes before Sydney time!!!!! ...  1h fine but the 30 minutes… never seen that before!!! … To be further investigated… until now, no Australian were able to explain that to us ;-)

Result of this time difference: If you change from 1.00 (AM) Sydney time to 11.30 on your mobile phone, you of course need to choose 23.30 and not 11.30….Which I (Marjan) did. Result: no alarm clock at 9AM the next day, so we only woke up at 11.30 when they started cleaning our dorm!

Kakadu National Park:

Blue sky, dry forest and red soil… for kilometers (without seeing anyone and driving on the left side of the road!) but also really nice point of interests like the sunset at Ubirr, the Yellow Water cruise to admire the famous SALT WATER CROCODILES (Impressive!!!!) and our safari tent in Jabiru… (If you read the Lonely planet, it seems it is a city on its own… being there, you have ONE central square with a small shop and that’s it!)

Katherine Gorges:

A fabulous walk to the Edith falls for a well deserved swim in a paradisiacal landscape… Second day, full of sport… first the legs with a walk to nice lookouts and then the arms with a few km of canoe in the gorges… again a small swim at the end J

Litchfield National Park:

Walking, swimming in a natural pool… walking, swimming in a natural pool… this has been the program of the 1,5 days over there! We were sleeping in a tent in the middle of nowhere… admiring kangaroos.

Flies and mosquitoes:  

We hate them… like the midges in Scotland ;-) !!!!  They are here by millions… and are bothering you all the time especially in your face, nose, ears,…. Grrrrrrr!!!!

Insect repellant is my best friend for the moment! ;-) (dixit Isa qui se prend toutes les vilaines piqures).

Aboriginal culture:

In Katherine, we have been confronted with the current life of the aboriginals … no job, alcohol, drug and hanging around in the street… not nice what Europeans did to them but question is: “Is there no way out of this life?”…

Hope you enjoyed the reading! J

See you to our next destination… the Red Centre to visit Alice Springs, the Ayers Rock (Uluru),…

PS1/ Another weird story…the first night at Darwin, a naked man entered our dorm at 1AM… until there, sounds not too bad but he was completely drunk… and not sexy !!! L

PS2/ @ Biloute : Merci pour ton sms… j’espère que ta vilaine grippe va mieux… Remets un immense merci à François pour les guides Lonely Planet… ils nous ont déjà bien servis J

PS3/ @ Ruth&Mike : We begrijpen nu volledig waarom jullie vliegennetjes voor het gezicht hadden, we hebben er een paar mee zien rond lopen, geen zicht, maar wel de enige manier om de vliegen uit je mond, neus en oren te houden!!

24-10-2010 om 15:09 geschreven door Marjan & Isa  

As you might now, we planned in our trip a small stop in Sydney (19/10/2010) in order to avoid making too much plane in a row… Our final destination is indeed Darwin (North Australia) in order to visit Kakadu National Park, the Katerine’s gorges,… before going to the Central territories… to see the famous Ayers rock!!!

Stopping in Sydney was also a good opportunity to meet some friends that have decided to live Down under!  Initial plan was to sleep at Laurence (a university friend from Isa) but unfortunately we could not reach her while being at the airport at 9:30 PM… L So we had to find an accommodation and reach the city centre of Sydney knowing that all trains were not working on that day … a small challenge… what we like in fact… the adventure!!

After knocking at the door of a few hostels we found out one with two beds available in a dorm… in an hostel located in an old train station (see picture below)! Youhou mission done! J … Euh until we went to bed… there, we discover that one of our roommate was an old Chinese woman that snored and made noise the whole night… Grrrrr impossible to sleep! … So early wake up to re-visit the places in Sydney that we loved when we passed by 2 years ago…

On the agenda: Opera house, Harbour bridge, Circular Quay,… and afternoon with Mathilde who is living in Manly in front of Sydney!!!  « C’était chouette de passer un peu de temps avec toi… on a retrouvé notre chemin jusque Circular Quay sans trop de soucis…  Merci ! »

See you in the Australian Northern territories… ;-)

PS1/ Laurence, if you are reading this post, I hope everything is all right with you … as I did not receive any answers to my messages… Just let me know that you and Chris are fine J

PS2/@ Graham : CONGRATULATIONS for your new job!!!! J

PS3/ @ Ma Biloute: J’ai bien recu ton petit sms qui m’a bien fait plaisir… Envoie moi des nouvelles ma poulette ! Toi aussi tu me manques ;-)

PS4/ @ Cath V. : J’ai mis ton super T shirt… un petit clin d’œil rien que pour toi dans une des photos ci-dessous !

PS5/ @ Griet & Ruth : Bedankt voor de Australian dollars. Ze zijn heel goed van pas gekomen in Sydney, hebben ons er meteen een nieuwe zonnebril mee aangeschaft in de City Market!

24-10-2010 om 15:06 geschreven door Marjan & Isa