Australia, you will be missed

I cannot believe my six weeks in Australia has come to an end. I must have had some fun because time flew! As I spend my final nights here in Darwin (located in the northern central part of the country), I am reflecting on some of my favorite things Australia had to offer:

1.) Hot Men - Yes folks, Australian men are very good looking. Not to mention, most of them are my favorite types, they resemble lumberjacks, are tan, wear work boots, have scruffy faces and are pretty much tougher than Chuck Norris. (For those of you who don't know, when the boogie man goes to bed, he checks his closet for Chuck Norris)


2.) Gaytime Ice Cream - I don't know if I mentioned in any of my other blogs, but I recently picked up an affinity for ice cream. Although I didn't eat it much in the states, all that changed when I got on airplane and was told I was "on holiday." Needless to say, I went on streak of eating ice cream every day, which lasted for 43 days. This particular ice cream is not only delicious, but has a hysterical tagline - "It's hard to have a Gaytime alone."


3.) The "Yute" - I figure this is the Mullet of vehicles (business in front, party in the back.) It combines the sleek look of a sedan with a truck bed. When I first saw these cars I thought to myself "God, if you drove that in America you would be made fun of", but apparently they are super popular over here, as I see all makes and models everywhere I go!!


4.) "G' day Mate", "I reckon", "Heaps", "How ya Goin", "Brekkie" (Breakfast) - These are just a few of the common Australian slang words that I am going to miss hearing on a daily basis. Although the Australians don't say "throw some shrimp on the barbie" (they nicely told me that they call them prawns not shrimp), they do say all these other phrases. Here are all of them used in a sentence!

"G'day mate, how ya going? I'm so hungover, I reckon it's about time I go get heaps of greasy brekkie!"


5.) Road Trains - If you think driving a 16-wheeler might be tough, try a 64-wheeler! Because the territories are so spread out here in OZ, and there is NOTHING to see but dirt and bush for days, the Australians came up with the Road Train; a four car tractor trailer which is about the only vehicle you see while driving through the center of the country. At up to 150ft in length, they stop as easily as a regular train, so they come equipped with huge metal brush guards on the front which easily fling off the kangeroos, wallabies and even cattle that roam around the bush.


6.) 0% Gratuity - Need I say more?! Not having to pay an extra 20% at every meal is amazing.


Ahh, what fun I've had here in OZ. It will be missed. Well let me recap what I have done for the last 6 days, and what lies ahead:

After two nights in Adelaide, we headed out at 5am for our six day trek to Darwin and Kakadu National Park. Our guide, Wayne, described the tour from Adelaide to Darwin as a "glorified taxi drive", and in the scheme of things, there wasn't much to see compared to other three-day tours I have been on. We stopped at two old telegraph stations (apparently back in the day there used to be 1 wire that ran from south Australia all the way to England, which of course needed to pass through the center), the Mataranka thermal springs, the Devil's Marbles (large rocks that I lovingly called "big balls" for the rest of the tour), a beautiful waterfall and swimming hole near Katherine Gorges and the town of Katherine (which we only spent 15 minutes in because, unfortunately, most of us were scared of the drunk aboriginals roaming the streets.) As always the scenery was amazing, and although the fly population went down as we went north, the heat and humidity rose - on the day we did our hike through Katherine gorge it was 110 degrees with 80% humidity. Yes, the fro is in full effect!


After a one night stay in Darwin, we met our new guide Corey at 6am to head to Litchfield and Kakadu National Park. I never thought I would get picky about waterfalls, but after all the amazing waterholes I got to see, I liked some more than others (but of course, they were all seriously breathtaking.) We spent the morning swimming and rock jumping at the Mary River Wetlands and Florence falls. In the afternoon we took a crocodile tour down the Adelaide River (which has the highest population of Saltwater Crocodiles in the world). As i've mentioned before, there isn't much that scares me, but MY GOD having crocodiles this size right next to you, brings back flashbacks of the movie lake placid where the croc jumps up and bites a guys head off. It was pretty freaky!! After a night camping, we headed to look at some aboriginal art (which I am sorry to say, looks a little like something a 4 year old might do), looked at termite houses the size of trucks, hiked up to a spectaular look out, and then did some swimming in another plunge pool and waterfall. On our third day we got up at 6am and drove to the south of Kakadu National Park to beat the other tour buses to another waterfall, which we got to ourselves for almost an hour, headed to yet another waterfall, and then did the long 4-hour drive back into Darwin. And that concludes my 21 Adventure Tour!


So what's next? On Wednesday Tim and I meet up to fly to Singpore. Once we arrive, he is heading to the Phillipines for three weeks and I am going to trek through Malaysia with my friend Rego for 10 days. I will arrive in Bangkok, Thailand for their New Year on April 10th and plan on spending a month there, exploring the country and surrounding islands. Then another two months in Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, and possibly Indonesia and Bali (to do some more scuba diving.) I am hoping to head to South America around the middle of August for a 4 month adventure!! As much as it kills my mother to say, I am currently on the "no plan, plan", so all this might change depending on funds and who I meet along the way to travel with. I'll keep you posted.

All I can say is, "life is good"!!!!!!!