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We headed onto Katherine from Darwin on the Greyhound coach. Journey was as good as could be expected on an overnight jounrey on a standard coach with air conditioning -cold!!
Katherine came round early in the morning (just gone 10am!!), and we were ready to see the gorge, the main feature of this small town. So we enquire about this local bus that we've been told does a couple of drop offs a day to the gorge. First mistake... we didn't read the invisible fine print! The bus only runs ONCE to the gorge a day now that we are 'off season' (ie less backpackers than usual!) Anyway, we met this lady, and her intentions were the same as ours and she shared a taxi with Dip and I (approx 30pounds!!) for the half hour journey. This was a much valued acquaintance... Our keen interest to kayak through the gorge was quickly grounded when we stepped out into 48 degrees, and almost passed out! A river cruise seemed like a trial enough, as we had to endure a 15minute walk to the river from the reception. Best way to appreciate it is through the pictures. Imagine tall cliffs with water and wildlife meandering through them. After this we got a lift from a lady who works at the attraction, and she took us mango picking en route to our hostel. Hmmm hmmm!!! It ws like a free all you can eat buffet!! Except we limited ourselves to 3 because we had to cross to Western Australia from Northern Territory the next morning and weren't allowed to carry any fruit with us (because of fruit flies). So Dip and I were pretty pleased with ourselves as we walked up to our rooms in our hostel. As i opened the door to our en suite... there's a gecko staring up at me! Aaaarrrrggggghhhhhh!!!!! I scream and run back into the room, while the gecko dances around my feet!!!! NOOOOOOooooo!!!!!! Up on the bed i jump, while Dip is in hysterics, 'it;s too funny to help!!!' she says in between tears while i run around on the beds trying to find it's new hiding place! 'Enter lady we met this morning'. I managed to track her down, and she helped free it from our room after about 10 minutes of her calming me, so that she could calm the gecko!! This episode led to us parting with one of our mangoes!! We quickly ate the other two!!
Broome was pretty cool, busier than Katherine, but not as much as Darwin. We went to see Anastasia's rock- such a sweet story! A lady, Anastasia, who used to live in Broome had severe arthritis. She loved swimming but coudn't get down to the sea because she couldn't climb down the rocks, so her husband built her a pool at the top of the rocks, from the red rocks that were found there. This pool would then fill up when the tide came in, and Anastasia could sit in it. Awww... We also went to an open air cinema, to watch an aussie film. I can't remember the name, but it was 'toilet humour'! It was about a man who's job was to organise and operate portaloos at public events like concerts- he even went to portaloo exhibitions! Anyway, i thought most of it was funny enough, dip fell asleep!
Coral Bay- We arrived at our hostel with the Greyhound coach at 3:20am on 15th November, and thought we were well on the game seeing as we had booked that night's accomodation. Sadly not, as it had slipped our minds that we couldn't check in until 12noon, which meant we had no bed until then! Tired, hungry, and very very cold, we decided, along with the two lads who were with us that our best option was crawl into our sleeping bags (with a few extra layers of clothes on) and to occupy the poolside deck chairs!!! Hm..... thankfully no one kicked us out!!
That day we spent the day at the beach, without a doubt, it's the best beach i've seen by far! The sea meets the sand, and then comes round through a part of the beach so there are layers of sea, sand, sea, sand! Amazing! Only the photos can do it justice. Further along this beach is a well-kept secret- a baby shark area. They volunatarily come in 5-10 metres from the edge of the sand to swim. Check out the photos!! I also went quad biking. It was my first time, and i begun by doing a re-run of my first motorway drive- about 20miles an hour less than everyone else! It did however have it's advantage, as i managed to see a kangaroo hopping by through the sand dunes! Was unreal! Also conquered a HUGE sand dune drop. Photo just doesn't do it justice!! Saw the turtles at sunset (i made it there not long after the rest of the group in case you were wondering!!) Lastly, tried out snorkelling with the matarays - their whole body looks like the heads of stingrays, and they were at least a metre wide!
Monkey Mia- This is the place to go to see the dolphins. No one told us we had to get there at 9am for feeding, so when we turned up at 11am (straight from the greyhound bus), it was no surprise that they had gone! Except i managed to spot a sneaky one about 2hours later!
Onwards and er... downwards to Perth!
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