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G'day mate and how ya going? Again it's been a while since we updated, almost a month we can hardly belive it! Well we left Cairns on the 11th of August headed for Darwin on the top road. Up here there are 200 million people and 270 million cattle!!!We spent 4 days covering almost 4000kms on the big red Desert Venturer bus. We set across the Atherton Tablelands and learn't the words to Waltzing Matilda (glad to give you a rendition when we speak!) and Emma's favorite 'A Home Amongst the Gum Tree's' Check out the pictures of the bus doing the moves!!! Our first night was spent in Croydon, not your typical Saturday night in Croydon, after meeting Russell and his snakes earlier in the day. Jay loved it, Emma held a Black Headed Python for about 3.5 seconds (long enough to get a photo) and practically burst into tears!!! We met Tipans (not sure if I spelt that right but it's phonetically correct!) the most deadliest snake in Australia, obviously we didn't hold these, thank god! After swimming in the lake and watching yet another fantastic sunset we headed to the Club Hotel, our home for the night in the remote town of Croydon. Word got around quite quickly that there was a fresh batch of females in town and the male contingency was out in force, we met people with names like 'Buckey' and 'Longbody'. Buckey, a local cattle station worker, had just got back from his holiday in the Philipines was women mad and delighted in telling us that he had no hairs left on his legs due to his holiday excersions!!! Charming! Played Killer pool with the locals and the rest of our group and Jay won a $20 bar tab, I love this city! There were about 28 of us on the trip plus our great driver Al and we had a great time. Stayed up late drinking, dancing and laughing until we remebered we had a 6 am start!!! Started crossing Lawn Hill Station on day 2 and the station (ranch) is so vast that it took us 1.5 days to drive across it! Really in the outback now, bush toilets for all (literally going behind a bush!). Had a BBQ lunch and swam in the river (croc free suposedly!). We saw a replica of a captured croc in one town (shot by a women of course) that was 23ft+. Visited Lawn Hill National Park and went for a canoe ride. 2 in the boat number 3 (you know who you are!) about to get in and the canoe went over spilling us into the river along with the camera! Jay ended up loosing a shoe that was never found and Emma a pair of sunglasses, probably some giant catfish swiming around in them!!! That night we stayed at Adels Grove, slept in tents and sat around the campfire sharing stories and jokes and singing 'gum tree's' and 'Waltzing Matilda'. Day 3 saw sooo many Kangaroo's and Wallabies (including a bouncing baby joey which was quite cute) some emu's loads of brahman cattle, that night we stayed at the Heartbreak Hotel (nothing to do with Elvis it just caused a lot of heart break to build it as it was so remote). 20 or so of us went out onto the highway and laid down for about an hour star gazing and learning to read south from the southern cross. It's insane, one of the major roads in this area of Aus and there was no traffic, this country is so vast it's remoteness has to be experinced to really appreciate. Danced the night away to contry and western (loving it!) and in bed before 11 for a 5 am start! In the middle of nowhere (have been for 2 days now) we happen upon the Variety Club Bush Rally, the 800 or so charity Bashers were driving from Sydney to Darwin, across all kinds of terrain over a 2 week period, difficult enough but they had the added challenge of only being able to drive cars manufactured before 1970!!! Saw some amazing cars, and had to tow a few out of creeks! We visited a sandstone formation (cant remember the name, sorry) and got caught in a bush fire. We were in the car park so quite safe as the dust wont burn, it was truly amazing to stand 15 ft from such and amazing and violent sight. We will get some pictures uploaded eventually but as we had no camera we are waiting for some to come through. Day 4 - Had an early morning pint at the Daily Waters pub, the most remote pub in Australia (bells' o'clock), we swam in the thermal pools (used for officers only in WW2) at Mataranka and had another lovely BBQ lunch at the side of the van. Stopped off at Adelaide River roadhouse a couple of hours north of Katerine and met Charile the water buffalo from Crocodile Dundee fame. Sadly he didn't say much as he was stuffed and mounted on the bar!!! We finally arrived in Darwin at 7.30pm very tired after our late nights and early starts, best cure...dancing on the tables and partying with the rest of the group at the Vic in Darwin!!! Suffered the day after and had to go back to bed in the afternoon for another 4 hours (would it have been that way at 18? I wonder!). Headed out on Thursday 4 hours south to Katherine to work at the Never Never Mango Plantation for a couple of weeks. We worked for 4-5 hours a day and we had food and board provided. We had a great time, Cheryl and Bob our host's made us so welcome from the very start and Cheryl was always serving up good ol' home cooking every night. We ate Pie and mash, Roast beef on a Sunday, Spag Bol etc etc etc all the things we were really missing all served on willow pattern plates (your not the only one mum!!). Everyday we would have a 'smoko' (tea break) at about 10.30 and Cheryl would cook scones for cream tea's or toasted cheese sandwiches. It's a good job we lost the camera really as we have gained (again) pounds! Our jobs included, painting, weeding, gardening, fertilising the mangos (eating the mangos) checking and fixing irrigation systems, feeding cosmos the horse and feeding the chooks and collecting the egg's every day. One chicken would lay green/blue eggs very strange and one was clucky and would attacj Emma every day when she went to get the eggs. There was also Rodger, the soppy Rottweiler who was lovely. The gardens are amazing, amongst this dry land (about 20 kms from Katherine) and Cheryl and Bob have created a lush tropical garden of eden, it really is lovely to spend time here. One day we headed into Katherine to check emails etc and Cheryl (who works at a local school looking after the children after school) gave us a lift home on the school bus with all the Aboriginal children. We had planned to have a dry couple of weeks whilst in Katerine but turns out Cheryl and Bob brewed their own spirts and there was always a supply of beer from Bob, trust us out of thousands of farms we could have choosen!!! One night we headed down to the Katerine River and had a bush BBQ, listened to C&W music and cast nets for prawns to use as bait when Barramundi fishing. That night there was a total eclipse and we watched the moon turn a bright red from the river bank beneath the stars. We are back in Darwin now and tomorrow we head off to Singapore with a view to travel into Malaysia and then Thialand, can't wait but will be sad to leave Australia, the Slim Dusty songs (check him out if you can), and the general ease of travelling in a country so like home. I guess we will just have to come back. x x x x x
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