Oh my goodness....

Its been so long since I've written, I'm useless. The truth is that I actually haven't had time, in the last couple of weeks I've travelled approximatel 6000km by bus, plane, helicopter and foot! Where shall I start... Soooo much to tell so going to make it as brief as possible that you don't all fall asleep. I'm surely going to miss something out but will fill you all in of the details along with t he hundreds of photos that I also haven't had time to put up!!!!

Sooo.... Arrived in Alice Springs, a hot little town/city, more or less in the middle of this huge country. Picked up my 11day tour of the northern territory there. The first leg was a 4day adventure tour around the red centre. To cut a long story short, it was a camping and 4 wheel drive trip that introduced us to the hot red sand, lots of gigantic rock formations and lots of natural wildlife. Awesome! Highlights of the first 4 days were ayers rock, kings canyon, valley of the winds and sweating! Lots of walking and climbing up rocks which lead to non-stop sweating. We saw sunset and sunrise over ayers rock, climbed up heart attack hill on kings canyon and did 4 wheel driving through a river bed at palm valley. On the last night of the trip we stopeed at a beautiful little place called glen helen gorge, where we got to swim through the gorge and i decided to treat myself to a helicopter ride. It was sooooo fun, however I was slightly nervous as they decided to leave the doors of the helicopter!!! Haha.

Erm... So back to alice springs, had a day to chill and have a shower and feel human again. So the group went out that night to a place called Annie's and got a little bit inhebriated and then a few of us decided to combine a bbq and a pool party and hair of the dog! Never done it before, but it works! (Sorry nan, I didn't drink that much, honest!)

After that drunken couple of days it was back on the bus for the next 3 days. Better group, great tour guide again, however not such a fun trip! This was just a connection tour that takes people up from alice to darwin. It was better than just getting the greyhound because there were lots of stops, plenty of food and a loads of banter! Stopped at a beautiful town on the way called Katherine, which is home to Katherine Gorge where we went canoeing! We were told afterwards that the gorge is home to plenty of freshwater crocs, lovely. They dont like us humans though... I wasn't too reassured really. Erm... other best bits about this little trip were stopping at natural thermal springs, holding a snake (very scary!), daly waters pub.... etc... really don't remember!!!

Then arrived in darwin, stayed in a brilliant hostel called cavenagh's. Great atmosphere, good bar, comfy rooms, cheap! Loved darwin a lot, as soon as we arrived there most of us had a good feeling! Apart from the heat which didn't drop below 30 degrees, even during the night, and the humidity of up to 85% during the daytime, the city is lots of fun! We had our end of tour night out in a place called The Vic. We got a free meal and had lots of games and dancing with our tour guide Wozza!

Up early again for the last part of the tour: A 3 day trip to Litchfield National Park and Kakadu National Park. It was so weird driving up from Alice to Darwin, the change in the environment was soooo slight, but so quick. One minute its raging hot red sand in the distance, then gradually more and more trees, then more leaves on the trees and then once you reach the top end its soooo green! I guess we're in the tropics so it's to be expected! Got a great photo of me straddling the line which means we entered the tropics!

Erm... so the two national parks, pretty hot, pretty dence with trees and wildlife. Loads more rocks for us to climb, but also loads of rock pools that we could swim in and walk across and explore through. Plenty of tiny pools that were metres deep so you could dive inside!!! Not such a good idea to forget to put your contact lenses in first thing in the morning. Result: Diving into a rock pool with your glasses on and losing them to the bottom. NO problem though, always a german guy nearby to dive down and pull them out. So I'm now the proud owner of a pair of glasses with one lens missing! (Just to top it off, the 4 wheel driving after that caused one of the arms to break off!)

Other than that though, swam through rock pools, plunge pools and waterfalls. Sooooo beautiful out the in the rainforest. We were walking for an hour and then all of a sudden it opens up to a stunning waterfall that you can swim through. My favourites were twin falls, which had water flowing, and JimJim Falls, which wasnt flowing but we could still swim in the plunge pool. Also went on a boat trip in the Mary River and saw around 12 crocodiles in their natural habitat, both saltys and freshys, so some dangerous and some not. They all looked pretty big and stern to me! This tour was a bit more interesting as the truck kept breaking down on us and we had the real 'outback' experience! Had to change a tyre on day 1, not so easy when the truck had 6 big big big big wheels! The girls were there preparing dinner and I was helping with the tyres... haha! Then on day 2 we had to stop on the side of the road as we smelt burning rubber... tour guide just said we needed to let it cool and drive home at 60km/h. Took us a very long time! Then we discovered that the alternator had broken, so on day 3 we were driving with no lights, no music and worst of all... no air conditioning. It was only 34 that day though so not too bad!!!!!!!!! All lots of fun though, we all coped and had a fun time.

Once again back to Darwin for our end of tour night out, however it didn't last too long as we were all so tired! Had a day to chill in darwin which included washing my clothes and swimming in a pool/bath at the hostel! Didn't move for the whole day. Then that night I flew to Cairns. Bit of an odd journey as the cheapest flight stopped at Brisbane on the way... anybody familiar with Australian geography will see how pointless this was but I got here. Have been here since Sunday now! Great city, more of a party city than anywhere I've been so far, but thats all good! Its made for backpackers, so loads of free meals and lots of cheap drinks!

On monday a couple of the girls that I was on the last tours with arrived here, so we've mainly been hanging out together. Right on the beach front, there is a lagoon/swimming pool out in the open. So the first day we just did nothing and relaxed by the pool! Went to the travel agent on monday to book my diving course... as it happened, I've booked everything for the next 4 weeks! Because my time is limited and I have so much that I wanted to do, it worked out easier to plan it all and get everything all organised!

So first stop, learn to scuba dive! For the last two days I've been back at school and have been learning all the basics and thoery of scuba diving!!! Theres loads to learn but its heaps of fun and im having a ball! Tomorrow we go out on the barrier reef for a 3day/2night boat trip which includes 9 dives in the reef!!!!!!!! Sooooo excited!

So that's about me up until now... have probably missed out plenty but all good! Next week, mission beach for skydive and white water rafting! Ace! Missing you all loads, would love to hear all your gossip and everything back home! Sorry for the long message, will try and write more often next time!!!

Lots of love everyone xxxxxxxxxxx