Boy's Trip!!!

Okie Dokie let’s get this under way!!!

So since Rick and Ant had already left for Halls Creek the day before so Ale and I left on our own at a fairly comfortable time around 11 or 12 but got to Halls Creek in record time with Kanye blasting in the car. So at Halls Creek we spent most of the time in the sports bar playing pool watching the rugby and it was a little funny but more embarrassing that by about our 4^th game, these two burly men came over and put their $2.20 on the table which I assume is pub etiquette for, “We’re next.” But naturally, as soon as that happens, we start playing the worst we have all night! I’m talking 14-16 shots before the first ball is sunk. Ale and I blamed it on the disappointment of just seeing England win but the others didn’t have an excuse!

The next morning we headed out to Purnululu National Park to go out camping at the Bungle Bungles. However, we got there and the gates were locked… we didn’t have phone reception there but found out when we got to Turkey Creek, the park was closed due to fires. So that was that plan gone but then Rick suggested El Questro, a cattle station west of Kununurra on the Gibb River Road with heaps of camping and nice sights which I really wanted to go to so that worked out well. We arrived close to sunset but I found on a map this 4x4 only trail to a lookout which I thought would be nice to get to for sunset. Turns out it was very extreme 4x4 driving up ridiculously steep hills and scary tight corners. Rick however handled it with pure class and we enjoyed the lovely sunset with a panoramic view over the whole park.

Doesn't quite look as steep steep as it was

Up top

My camera

Ant's camera

We then headed back down and back to the ‘public camp sights’ which was like an inner city caravan park with way too many people and facilities so we booked into a ‘private campsite’ which was a little weird and still didn’t feel very campingish but nonetheless, when we arrived, we had a beautiful open area alongside a river. Yes it was all a dirty sort of sand but still, very nice! So we got into the usual routine, Ale on cooking, me collecting and starting a fire and Rick and Ant setting everything up. We had a very good night talking and what not and there was a few moments the lights reflecting off the river were crocodiles eyes but either there were other reflective surfaces in that river, or there were over 50 crocs with us.

I cut my hair!!!

In the morning we had a kind of random visit from the park rangers who almost seemed to pop in to say good morning but I guess it was nice of them! We then went off to some hot springs which were meant to be a short stop but we ended up staying there for a few hours, slowly scaring family’s away from us and upgrading pools until we were happy to sick with the third from the top. What started as sort of joking/Smeagol impersonation but it then became a very fierce competition using extreme patience and skill seeing who could catch the most. In the end, I was the Catcher… the others were simply the Rye.

We then moved to Emma Gorge which was a nice about 1 hour walk through fairly thick bush along a river which then opened up to a waterfall into a big pool. It really was spectacular but I felt a little bad because after going to Kakadu, it just didn’t measure up! Damn Kakadu… Anyway, highlights include the water monitor hanging out near the wall of the opening which had hot spring water coming from it, Rick lost his balance but the cry he gave out I would have sworn he was bitten by a snake while breaking his ankle while falling off a cliff... It was a little over dramatic, oh and I ripped my pants J

After that we made our way to Kununurra and checked into our room. We all had an early night because the next morning at 6am, we were picked up to take off on the much anticipated fishing trip. Or as Rick described it to anyone who asked him what his holiday plans were, “Oh, doing a bit of barra fishing, out on the Ord.” Ale and I were very much left with the grumpy instructor but we still had a good time. Everyone caught at least 4 fish although if it was a catfish, they were given a quick ‘love tap’ and bashed over the head and then thrown to the awaiting whistling kites. There was a fair bit of wildlife along and in the river. There would have been hundreds of wallabies along the banks, heaps of kites and one dingo which as we pulled up along it, it literally just sat and watched us for a while before running away. There were also heaps of crocs in and around the water. I saw one which would have had to been at least 4 meters long and as soon as we passed it, we turned around. I assumed we were going to have a closer look but then our leader pulled up and anchored about 2 meters from where it had just gone underwater. He then proceeded to throw fish guts and heads into the water surrounding the boat. I asked him if he had seen the croc and all he said was, “Mate, I’ve seen hundreds of crocs today!” so that was comforting… I was really struggling catching firstly only 1 catty for the first 3 of the 4 stops. Luckily at the last stop, I caught 2 little barra before my last one of the day which was a nice healthy 89cm barramundi J  Three fish were kept and when we got back, the guys expertly filleted them and gave them to us to take home. Admittedly we only ate one of them 2 nights later but the other two were left at a good home.

My Catch

The only proof Ale's catch... I swear he caught a bigger one

To everyone else at the backpackers, we would have looked extremely weird! We seemed to spend a lot of our time in the room, lights off and curtains closed. If we ever did leave the room, we would leave, walking in single file, usually silent and then return a few hours later, usually with random purchases such as top hats or Mexican wrestling masks.

Some fat cows at Turkey Creek

Yeah, thats right. I live down the road from Nicole Kidman

So that was our super amazing boy’s trip to El Questro and Kununurra!

My Badd...

Oops…

So I totally wrote this months ago but funny story, I forgot to press send so it almost looks like I havn’t blogged for a while. How hilarious right?

Anywho, Kununurra was a grand success!!! Basic wrap up: 3 days, 5 Medals, 6 champions! But more on that soon.

The trip up was very eventful! I was put in the back with 5 of the kids and a lot of the trip was trying to get the kids to listen to more than 5 seconds of a song before they said they hated it. Believe it or not, Elvis and Bob Marley were the big winners so there were some moments of general happiness. While I was driving, I heard from the back Mindy telling one of the kids to put on her seatbelt. The conversation went a little like this:
Mindy: “Put your seatbelt on!”

Shania: “It is on!”

Mindy: “No its not!”

Shania: “How do you know!?”

Mindy: “You’re on the floor!!!”

This was only out done by when we got back in after a stop at the Turkey Creek Road House and as I was getting in the driver’s seat, the kids yelled out, “Nahh! We want Mindy to drive!!!” Naturally, I was a little hurt… but then when I got in the back one of the girls said, “Yeah! We hate Mindy’s singing!” So that made me feel a bit better.

Dried up Sturt Creet

Sturt Creek

 When we arrived we went to QUANTAF which was an organisation running within Kununurra High School and they let us stay in their building during the night which was great because they had a kitchen, toilets and showers. Not to mention 2 ping pong tables, a big TV and a basketball court.

Jordan and Naomi watching an AFL biggest hits DVD

The next morning we headed over to the oval to start proceedings off. The kids were really shy and didn’t want to mix with the other students despite our efforts so we found our spot in the shade and listened to the announcer. There were 5 schools; Balgo, Warmun (another community about half way between Halls Creek and Kununurra), Wyndum which is about 100km north of Kununurra and then the two Kununurra High Schools, including the super humans from Kununurra District High School.

I won’t go chronologically but instead go through all the athletics first and then all the fun in between.

The first event was the 200 which let’s just say was a lot longer than they thought it was! That being said, every one of them gave all they had for at least 100m and two of them were really up there both coming 4^th. The next race was the 800 which Mindy made them all run but it was very evident that most of them had not been asked to run that far non-stop for a long time but still, again was very proud of their efforts! There were also a few field events which I didn’t see while watching the races but at the presentation at the end of the day, Kion was stoked to be given a Bronze medal for his triple jump.

Stretching Up

Kion's first sign of emotion after getting his medal

The girls really enjoyed the throwing events and Heidi would have won her discus if she wasn’t throwing 2 years above her but 4^th place in that situation wasn’t bad at all! It was great to see the 400’s just because for Kion, who I had worked with a lot before the events it was a good distance for him because it was only just further than he can run quickly so he was really stoked with himself when he finished only just 4^th. Then Josie (my super natural athlete/future Cathy Freeman) ran an awesome race and finished very strongly to hold out a late challenge for the Bronze medal.

Perfect Technique! Good work coach!

At night almost all of the students had long or triple jump under lights which was fun to watch but my favourite bit, possibly of the whole meet was hanging out with Josie. We were speaking to each other having a full conversation in this language the Secondary Girls have invented and there was a group of Kununurra girls looking at us weird because they thought I could speak an indigenous language.

Naomi doing tripple jump.

On the last day it was a fairly short day including the 100 which most of the kids really enjoyed because they all had people to push themselves against even if it was just another Balgo student. It was funny because about an hour after her race, I was talking to Josie and she asked why she didn’t get one of those place sticks and I asked “Didn’t you come 4^th?” and she said, “No, only two people were ahead of me I think.” And I could tell she was pretty sure she came 3^rd but was too shy to say anything.

Kion - 100m

Naomi and Shania - 100m

Josie and Heidi - 100m

Probably the best all round event was the u16s Javlin because I took under 16 literally so I entered out 15’s, 14’s and 12’s J This was one we weren’t able to practice at Balgo but they were naturals! In the end, Shania who had been a bit disheartened was happy not to come last competing 4 years above her age. She also took the best photos! Josie had won the event by a fair bit but while we were walking away, another girl walked up and asked, “Can I make a late entry?” so we had to watch from a distance as she took Josie’s title away!

Josie

Shania - told you she took good photos

The day ended with a relay which I almost got roped into running but ended up just watching before we went to the final presentation.

Josie's presentation

So proud!

So now onto the unathletic aspects of our trip! Our first visit was to Ivanhoe crossing which was running with some vigor which was a nice sight to see but more entertaining was Jordan’s bamboo spear throwing and Kion’s fishing with a coke bottle on the end of a fishing wire he found.

Jordan, Naomi, Josie & Kion

Another adventure we took was out to Lake Argyle which was about an hour out. It was a pretty nice drive and when we got there we went to the caravan park and Mindy guilt tripped the owner to let us go in the pool. It was an amazing ‘infinity pool’ which over looked the Lake… only problem was that it was absolutely freezing!!! In the end only Mindy and I were swimming so we had fun!

We went upside down for a second, it was so wierd.

Infinity Pool

While others went shopping, young Jordan Gordon and I went to put in the flat tyre for repair. In the half hour we had to fill before we could collect it, so we decided to go on a bit of an adventure on our own. First of all we went to the roadhouse and got a slushie. Then I saw the lookout called Kelly’s Knob and thought it would be nice to check that out quickly. It was very nice and Jordan and I had a very nice time. It wasn’t until we got back to the car that I realised I didn’t have the keys with me and then looked inside and saw them firmly in the ignition. Basically I had shown my Balgo side by leaving the keys in the ignition when I get out but then showed my ‘big city’ side by locking the doors and double checking all the windows were locked as well. Jordan was more devastated by the fact that his slushie was locked inside. He still comes up to me at least once a week saying, “Hey, remember? Us been go up the big hill. Remember?” so that’s always fun.

Young Jordan

Thought we'd enjoy the sunset while up there.

Our last adventure before leaving was to ‘Zebra Rock’ which turned out to be just a type of rock found at the place with black and white stripes so I couldn’t work out why the kids were so keen to go! Then they went down to the jetty and started throwing bread into the water feeding the hundreds of catfish waiting for them. We then started back to the car when Shania said “I wanna talk to the cockatoo!” so we all followed her and sure enough there were about 4 cocatoos who greeted us and asked how we were, twas very amusing. The kids then all grabbed as many half ripe mangos as they could carry and hopped into the car to go home. I was actually very impressed at their ability to skin and eat a mango with almost no mess! The only thing more impressive than that was their ability to bite all along the rim of a coke can to completely take off the top. It just looked painful!

Cat Fish!

Talking Birds!!!

The space in the back of the troopie

So I think that pretty much sums up the trip. I really hope the meet becomes an annual event and Balgo continues its involvement because although there is a massive difference between the communities and the town schools but I think the more regular it becomes and the more they get used to the idea of competing in athletics, the better they will get!

Congratulations Balgo Athletics Team!!!

Quick Note Before I Go

Hi there!

So tomorrow morning I’m heading out to Kununurra morning with some secondary kids for a Kimberly athletics carnival which I have been training them up for during their sport time in the afternoons so I thought I should do a bit of catching up before I go.

First thing I can remember that you missed was the Air Force coming to Balgo with a hot air balloon. The night before we had a fire at the prac students’ house and the new youth worker told us that it was coming at 5am in the morning, leaving at 12 and wouldn’t go up if there was any wind… what they obviously didn’t know was that at that time, there were massive winds every day in Balgo. I woke up at 6, heard an absolute gale blowing outside so went straight back to sleep.

We had a PD about ‘restorative justice’ over a Saturday which was a bit of a killer but it was really interesting. It was a new approach to discipline and behavior management which the school is looking to adopt for the students.

Out at the pound, Ale and I invented a new game called ‘rock chicken’ where basically you stand back to back with someone with rocks in each hand, throw them up into the air and whoever either runs away or gets hit the least is the winner! Great fun!

Because of helping out with Primary D while Anthony was in Spain for world youth day, I was invited to go on their bush trip with them. We were meant to go catch sand frogs which I had heard from every other trip, we were certain to catch over 20… we caught one.

But I must say, it was still good fun out at the dam. We then set out to Old Lady’s Bore and when we arrived, we waited for the other car for a while but they never showed so Cathy lit a fire either side of the troupie and we headed back to the dam before we got totally closed in. Apparently they lost us so they turned back.

The pool is now open 3 days a week and its good the kids are back enjoying themselves. But one highlight so far has definitely been training up the secondary kids for athletics. We don’t exactly have the best equipment around but we are making do. So far key events have been:

- The 50m sprint

- The shot put (using a lead ball found in the shed in a ‘V’ made of a sprinkler hose)

- High jump (jumping over a skipping rope on the grass)

- Distance running, where there is actually a lot of potential!

- Long jump (jumping as far as you can on the grass/rocks)

- Discus (My personal favourite, in the same ‘V’ as the shot  but with a home-made discus made of two ceramic plates duct taped together, filled with dirt and rocks and a bit of foam between them to delay shattering. They did shatter after only about 4 throws but it did keep shape).

So I think that leaves you rather up to date with my Balgo happenings thus far, I’ll be sure to report back after Kununurra J

For those who only use me for your Balgo news :)

When we arrived back in Balgo from Broome, Yagga sports was going on. Yagga Yagga was a place a bit away where all the people living there left one day (I have heard a few stories about why so not sure exactly) but apparently if you go there, it is still fully built, just empty. Anywho, since a lot of people originally from Yagga now live in Balgo, we hosted their sports carnival of men playing footy and women playing basketball. There were probably an extra 500 people in the community for those few days and because they started a day late, the carnival went late meaning that for a few days, we had almost no one at school. There were a lot of disputes about results, one at the basketball final where half way through the game, there was a protest about a game the day before and there was a lot of yelling and one woman took the score sheet, ripped it up and set it on fire. In the end, the Eagles from Balgo won the footy and Yagga took home the basketball trophy.

This term we have started jump rope for heart with the kids during my P.E. time with them on some days and they are really taking well to it! And some good news, the weather's getting hotter so the pool is officially opening next week! I think I have worked out how to run the two programs simultaneously but we'll see how I feel next weekend.

This week I was given a break from afternoon sport thanks to a Hip Hop dance group who came and taught the kids dance routines and tried to teach lessons such as respect, confidence and taking opportunities to the kids through dancing. The kids absolutely loved it and really got into it which was good because this hopefully will inspire the girls especially to step outside that one dance move they love (da booty).
Last night, they had a big disco where the hip hoppers danced for the community and then held dance battles between crews made up of the kids. They were still a little shy but a lot of them can really dance and I think this week has given them a new confidence.
After the disco, we had the hip hoppers around for a fire which turned out to be a really good night. I even got out the fire twirling pois I bought online which arrived yesterday. We weren't game to light them yet but still provided a good hour of entertainment.

Yesterday, for something like National Indigenous Children's Day, youth workers and community workers came in to the school and we helped them run a sports day for the kids including relays, egg and spoon races, sack races, 3 legged races, tug of war and sprints to find the fastest kid in Balgo. It was a really good day and I am really considering trying to organise an athletics carnival because at first I thought it would be impossible but when I saw how if you got the staff from each class helping as well, it's very possible. I was just discouraged by the difficulty of running sport classes with only one or no other staff members.

So that’s a good wrap up of the past 3 weeks in Balgo :) this was fun. We should do it again some time.

Exploring The Top End (For people interested in me)

Well I guess it's pretty safe to say I'm not back into the swing of things back in Balgo but I must admit, it took me a while to get out of holiday mode this time.

So where I left you last time, I was actually being hurried as I uploaded all the photos by Nola who was in by the car eager to get away. That's right. I upset a nun to please you people. I hope you're happy!
Anyway, we got away earlier than expected and made great time driving up to Kununurra in around 7 hours with only one stop in Halls Creek but when we arrived in Kunners, I met all the nuns at the convent where I was staying who were all lovely ladies. We then went for a fun night at the Kununurra Agricultural Show before heading home to watch a game of AFL with some of the most passionate fans I have been present with.




Near Argyle Diamond Mines


The next morning my alarm went off at 1:30am to give me time to grab some breakfast before being picked up by Robert, Louise and baby Anne-Marie from school at 2am to drive up to Darwin. Unfortunately they didn't come until 3:30 so there was a long wait where I couldn't make any noise and was setting 3 minute alarms to give me some power naps. The drive to Darwin in the end took about 12 hours, Anne-Marie providing most of my entertainment. The highlight was probably when she basically emptied a whole pump water bottle down her front over the period of about 45mins by taking big sips then letting 97% of it dribble back out.

On my first day in Darwin I didn't really know what to do so I went out to the main beach and was quite disappointed that it was much like Broome's Cable beach in that the tides went out a thousand meters and there were no waves but this time the 'sand' where the water is is more of a mud. I don’t know why but I was expecting some tropical paradise.
The next day I headed out back to Mindle beach for the Annual Beer Can Regatta which was good fun and after a few hours of wandering the beach all by my lonesome before a lovely group of semi-locals (only go back to Darwin for 'the season') invited me to hang out with them.

Add caption

Pure Blonde Croc



Coke-adile



Mindle Beach

That afternoon, Roy, me big old brother turned up which was great to see a familiar face again for basically the first time in months. In the following days, we went to the Darwin Military Museum, got the school bus window fixed and then two very nice road trips.
The first was out to the Territory Wildlife Park which was like a massive zoo/animal sanctuary. A childhood dream was made reality with our first encounter with an Archer Fish (a fish that spits water at its prey). Oh and the awesome bird! You'll see in the video.

Me being artsy :)

Zac look-alike

There was also a very nice kangaroo having a nap in the shade of a tree and he made for a very nice picture... little did we know that he wasn't too fond of us for waking him up so a part of me was thinking, "This is awesome! Boxing kangaroo!", then there was the other part of me thinking, "I think I'm just about to get my ass kicked by a kangaroo..." so we decided to leave him be. Although it was a bit of a disappointment when I was subtly filming a family of tourists approaching the same roo, in some hope I would have a winning entry to Australia's Funniest Home Videos, fortunately for the family, they walked away safe.

Kangaroo Sleeping

Tourist Wakes Kangaroo



Kangaroo Fights Back!



Suprise Attack!!!

On the way home we stopped off at a hot mineral spring I had read of which turned out to be a lot of fun! A little weird with some girls covering themself in mud and telling everyone how amazing the exfoliation was and how much you pay in a salon for this but besides from that, very nice.

When we saw the croc's at the wildlife park, it was then that I knew I wanted to go on one of the many 'Jumping Croc Cruses' where basically, they dangle meat above the water and 3-6m crocs jump up beside the boat to get it. It is actually a genius idea because although the feed they get could last them a few days or weeks even, they make them use up so much energy jumping that they need daily feeding, therefore, guaranteed business.

So basically, that was insanely awesome! I feel as though I could have a future in croc cruises considering I spotted the first croc before the guide. My greatest achievement of the trip at that point.

lol

6+ meter croc

Could have been an awesome shot...

Shows a big croc but no jump :(

Actually jumps here :)

It was then time to begin our tour of the top end beginning very early in the morning and when we first met our tour guide, he said "Hey guys, I'm Henry." and when I replied "Henry" he sort of just stared at me so that was the start of a lovely relationship. The first drive out towards Litchfield National Park was a little awkward with most people just sitting silently with a few brave people asking where the person next to them is from.
Our first stop was Florence Falls which was our first experience of beautiful freshwater waterfalls. The water was just ridiculously clear and a beautiful temperature! Little did we know that this would be the standard activity of the following 5 days.

 At the first lunch, we just had hot dogs but out tour group of Germans, French, Japanese, South African and Dutch were in awe of the Australian's of the group's abilities of 'cooking a barbie' in the words of Astrid, our German friend.
We then went to Bluey Rockholes which wasn’t quite massive waterfalls but it was here that we realised the beauty of the water holes up north and how a tiny hole can be over 5 meters deep so perfect for rock jumping!

Next was a cultural experience with the local Wulna people where we were treated to a traditional welcome to country before lessons in bush tucker, basket weaving, didgeridoo making and spear throwing.

We then headed off to see some giant termite mounds before we went to Mary River where we went on a cruise. Unfortunately it was a little overcast so crocs weren't EVERYWHERE but we still saw about 5 or 6. We also saw a few wallabies, eagles, brolgas, egrets and a whole lot more wildlife.

That night out permanent camp site was right at the back of a big caravan park so that night, we went up to the pub and got involved with the locals in a game of Trivia. Our team came in 3rd but due to one team being made completely out of staff members and another not really fancied by the adjudicator, we went home with a bag full of 'Pale Ale' merchandise.

The next day was a very early start which started the trend for the following few days. Drive an hour or more, swim at an amazing waterfall, lunch, drive another hour, go to another amazing waterfall, then another drive to the campsite. Today's stops took us into Kakadu for the first time, firstly to Twin falls which required a walk, then a boat ride through a gorge, then another walk before we came out an a perfect white sand beach under two huge waterfalls. Unfortunately, a croc had been caught there 2 weeks before so that meant that no swimming was allowed for at least a month after that.

Henry leads the way

We then made our way to Jim Jim Falls, which I think was the most spectacular of them all. It was 20km 4x4 down some very rough terrain and then a long walk over big rocks which Roy and I loved thinking back to the old days of doing the same along the central coast beaches. The water was a tad chilly so I was pretty happy to just look from a distance and sit on the beach but eventually when we decided to actually go to the falls, they weren't just on the other side of this big rock like I originally thought, it was a good 150m swim away and surrounded by towering cliffs at least 70 meters high, the water there was freezing because the sun had not hit the water at all that day but when we got out there, it was definitely worth it!

We then went to the Warradjan Cultural Centre but were only there for about 5 minutes before closing. It was amazing how quickly they kicked us out of the centre, yet were so friendly in the gift shop.
After that we went to a Gunlom where we enjoyed the Kakadu sunset. It was pretty spectacular but let’s just says, the pound sets a VERY high standard.

The next day we set out to Ubirr, a large rocky area where there was layer upon layer of amazing rock art which was completely different to anything I have seen around Balgo. There were some ridiculous things like paintings some how painted on the bottom side of a cliff roof over 20 meters high but I think the most amazing things were firstly a painting of a Tasmanian Tiger which was proof that it once existed in Kakadu, and secondly, a painting of a gun which was obviously done after first contact with white settlers.

Spot the rock art

Tasmanian Tiger (just right of the water dripping mark (finger is blocking the sun))

Spot the gun

War scene

We then headed to Maguk, another awesome waterfall which once you swam out to the falls, there was an awesome ledge you could sit on right next to the falls. It also quite possibly had the best rock jumping spots which we just had to take advantage of considering basically about half a meter out from the cliff faces were waters possibly over 10 meters deep (I couldn't touch it despite diving off about 7m cliff and almost killing myself of oxygen deprivation). We then went to the top of the falls where there were more swimming holes were the highlight was a deep hole about the size of a spa bath that you pretty much could only get out of by swimming under a small opening about 2 meters under the water which made me even more claustrophobic than the small cave we climbed through at the Balgo rock art.

That night we got the swags out for the first time which were actually genius because unlike camping out in the pound (mostly) mozzies are ever present in Kakadu so they were just giant mosquito nets with a small mattress in it.

Swag Up.

**Note: Waterfall names may not be correct after this point... I got a little confused**

The next morning we had a quick dip in the very quiet Waterfall which I look back now and at the time, was quite disappointing but it's still an amazing place, just the previous two days had set an unrealistic standard! Although in all fairness, it had an awesome jumping rock as well.

Henry jumping

We then went to Gunlom which was an even longer swim than Jim Jim, probably about 200-250m but it had a neat little ledge right in front of the falls which not only made for a nice back massage but not a bad photo either.

The final falls we visited were Edith Falls which were well and truly in the running for my top location! It was a decent walk but you came out to a nice clearing with big rocks to sit in the sun, then in front of you was a nice big waterfall and nice water temp. Thinking now, this impression could well be influenced by the fact that that day was possibly the best weather we had that late in the day but still it was awesome!
There were some obviously seasoned visitors because these two guys seemed to know all the places to jump and knew about this ledge right under the falls which you had to swim at underwater from about 5m away, come up and immediately find the ledge with your eyes closed, find a possible rock to grip onto and then try to fight against the water and get up onto the ledge. It took me about 45secs of swallowing water and slipping but luckily the water was some of the best water I had ever tasted and I was a little dehydrated so everything was coming up Henry! Once I finally got up there, it was probably one of the coolest part of the tour because you could sort of open your eyes and look up at the water going over you. Only one problem but... the water was so strong that it basically pummelled all the dirt out of my hair so it was all fluffy like I had washed it. Not cool.

Little dingo friend

I felt it was appropriate.

The next day we headed to Katherine where we went early on we went to some thermal springs, which Hans, our Dutch friend really was not impressed with. "Ziss isn't hawt. Zey say it iz hawt springz but ziss is only a little warm! Don't you sink?" (Apologies for the bad Dutch accent).

We then went to Katherine Gorge where unfortunately an estuarine croc (not 'salt water' because they can survive in both salt and fresh waters, just a little fun fact) was found there a few weeks before so canoeing was no longer an option so it was really going on a 2 hour cruise or nothing so we went on the cruise. It turned out to be the best option easily because not only was the cruise amazing, but while we left the canoe starting point, I realised how far we would have had to paddle before the sights really got spectacular. I think pictures can talk for me here.

Oh Hans..

That night we arrived back in Darwin and had a nice dinner together with most of the tour group. It was nice that night to finish the 5 day challenge (basically, no showers for 5 days but its not that bad, we were swimming twice a day. Don't judge me.)
The next morning, I had an early start to hop on the Greyhound bus from Darwin to Halls creek which took over 16 hours but when I arrived in Halls Creek, I was met by the smiling Sri Lankan, Mindy and we caught up with a few guys from Balgo who were there for a drink before starting our drive to either Broome or Fitzroy Crossing, depending on how we were feeling. We were driving along at a good pace with not many roos around but then one small roo jumps out onto the road, hops away from us so we slow down. It then decides to turn around and jump right into the front left headlight. We stopped and checked it and it definitely wasn't moving so we checked the car. Just before taking off, it started breathing. Then about a minute later, it put its head up and then slowly and awkwardly gets up, stands there for a while before hopping off, firstly on the spot and then sort of side to side into the darkness.
At about 2am, we decided to make a quick stop so we quietly pulled into a caravan park, I jumped on the roof with a swag and Mindy got in his in the bottom and We would have been in swags and going to sleep within about 2 minutes. I was rather impressed with our efforts!
The next morning we woke at about 7 and I was met by some very happy camper who was sitting outside his caravan and said "Morning mate, want a cup of tea?" But we headed off and made it into Broome mid morning, met the new prac teachers and then went to Cable beach for that day's bathing. That night since our accommodation still wasn't ready, we pulled the same manoeuvrer at the Broome Caravan Park with expert precision. Over the next few days, we went to the beach a few times, did some shopping and one day Mindy and I tried to find a place called Coconut Grove or something and we still don't actually know if we found it or not... we went where we were told, went down a really thin sand road for a good half hour expecting something amazing on the other side of every hill, eventually we ended up at this sort of swampy mangrove place. We went back and tried somewhere else and possibly found it. It wasn't exactly the beach paradise we had described to us but it was nice.

This might have been it?

We left very early on Saturday morning and Mindy and I shared the driving duties back to Balgo with Steph and the prac students squashed in the back.

It a truly amazing trip and I am definitely going to try and come back in my life and I strongly advise all of you to do that same. Just don’t make any impact on the places or I will hunt you down and give you a slap on the wrist because these places are so untouched and beautiful!

Plus with winter weather like this, who could complain!