Day 11 - Blogabond

I awoke at about 3 a.m. to the sound of a major rainstorm but, as with most tropical storms, it was over in an hour. I waiting in the dark for the tour bus with several other people -- one guy who apparently worked at the hotel, up early for a barefooted jog around the block, a woman who worked as a tour agent up early because her boyfriend was driving a bus, and two girls from Seattle, Washington waiting for a different tour. (They were going to Thailand so I passed on a recommendation for Oot).

The tour bus, actually a modified landcruiser wagon, arrived at about 6:15. On it were two Japanese men in their twenties who spoke no English, a young girl, Sarah, from Manchester, a guy from Northern England, an obnoxious frenchman (who was at least somewhat entertaining), 2 germans, an older couple from Carlsbad, California (John and Joan), a young couple from London (Paul and Angela), a girl from Manchester (Joyce) and one other.

Our first stop was Fogg Dam, an abandoned rice farm turned into a bird preserve. Here we saw some wallabies and numerous birds.

From there it was one stop and through to Kakadu National Park, with lunch at our mosquito-infested campsite. Then it was on to a beautiful little swimming hole (Kubarma?) whose only problem was that it was a 3km walk there and back. In this heat, that was definitely a problem, especially since the truck has no air conditioning to cool us down after the return journey.

From there we went to Nourlangie Rock where Kim, our guide, did a fairly good job of telling us about the plants and aboriginal paintings.

Back to camp where we met up with another group led by Nick, a rowdy group of Australians who were fund when I wanted to stay awak, but a real pain when I was ready to fall asleep.

The mosquitoes were horrendous.

(Note: camp -- Manyallaluk or Googleyes)

written by

shoshtrvls on April 12, 1990 from Darwin, Australia

from the travel blog: Australia (1990)

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