Brisbane


We arrived in Brisbane at 6 a.m. after our red eye flight from Darwin. We took a cab to Piers's place in Paddington which is a nice suburb west of the city. Piers is a Deathstar player who played at World's and was also the Australian Junior's Coach for the past World's in the U.S. After some breakfast at a nearby cafe we took a nap until noon. Somewhat more refreshed we were ready to adventure into the city.

Piers recommended a great jog (left) for us to do in the city through South Bank which lead us along the river and gave us a great view of the skyline. After the run we swam Street's Beach pool (below), which is a man-made white sand beach in the city. An awesome idea since you can't swim in the river. We visited the library and then headed home to meet up with Piers for a kangaroo BBQ dinner.

Piers made a gourmet dinner with roasted garlic, potatoes, yams, onions, BBQ'ed kangaroo with a cranberry sauce, and super fruit plate for dessert. Fantastic!

After dinner they took us to a nearby mountain which gives a great lookout over the city and also a great view of the stars since you are above the street lights. This was our first time to locate the Southern Cross star constellation which is depicted on the Australian flag. We then headed into "The Valley", the extremely popular bar strip, for a coffee and to people watch.

We were up early the next day to pick up our tour bus to start our 11 day Adventure Tour up the upper east coast to Cairns.

We're headed back to Brisbane for another day after the tour since that's where we fly out to Auckland, New Zealand. It's a really awesome city, so we're excited to spend some more time there!

Darwin is Reptile-tastic!
**Check the next post for updated pictures of our time in Darwin!!

When we arrived in Darwin on The Ghan we expected to find a huge thunderstorm waiting for us because everyone has told us that in the "Wet" season it is really wet. It was cloudy but no rain, we thought maybe we had lucked out. Not for long. For the three days and four nights we spent in Darwin it rained off and on every few hours. It wasn't terrible because it actually cooled it down for a second. With humidity near 90% and temperatures over 30 degrees Celsius it's pretty much a sweat box.

We stayed at the Gecko Lodge because it serves fresh pancakes for free every morning. They were huge and delicious and worth it. We met some nice people from Montreal (French Canadian), Germany, Holland, and of course Australia.

Our first full day in Darwin, Cara and I went to the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory. It was a great museum that had an 18 foot taxidermied crocodile named Sweetheart, an exhibit on the poisonous/venomous animals of Australia, and an art exhibit showing aboriginal basket weaving...my favorite aboriginal art so far. For dinner we walked into town, which is about 2 km away from the Gecko, to The Vic for their $3.50 dinner special. A salad and meal for about $3 Australian is by far the best dinner deal we've found while traveling. The food was good enough to not complain about after spending so little. We headed home after dinner because we were waking up early for a one-day tour to Litchfield National Park.

Our tour to Litchfield was great. Our first stop was a crocodile jumping tour. After holding a water python we all loaded into a boat to head out onto the croc infested Adelaide River. In less than 5 minutes we saw our first jumping croc. From the second balcony of the boat they hang a piece of raw meat over the water to entice the crocodile. We only saw the biggest ones in the area because they are very territorial and even cannibalistic and won't let a smaller crocodile hang out in their hunting grounds. These crocs were huge! Some were over 4 meters and had monstrous heads and jaws. After our awesome croc jumping tour we headed for Litchfield NP.

Our first stop in Litchfield was to check out termite mounds. We saw two types; cathedral and magnetic. The magnetic termite mounds are only known to exist in this small section of the park. They rise vertically from the ground about 2 meters and are thin resembling head stones in a cemetery. They are called magnetic because they all face north/south. Pretty amazing.

Our next stop in Litchfield was a beautiful waterfall where we ate lunch, but we could not swim here because of the possibility of saltwater crocodiles. Our next stop was another waterfall with a great plunge pool we were allowed to swim in because we had climbed onto a plateau where crocs would have a hard time getting to. Still, it was easy to spook yourself after the mornings events to think a crocodile could be swimming with you.

Our last stop was at a set of natural pools were we swam with a water monitor lizard. It was not shy and came very close to Cara and I as we were trying to take it's picture.

The next day we awoke early and went for a run on the beach. We checked out of our room and were allowed to hang out with our bags at the hostel all day because our flight to Brisbane wasn't until 1:50 am that night. We went into town for another great Vic dinner and met up with Nelo and George our Portuguese friends we met the day before on our Litchfield tour. They both are military police from Portugal who are currently working in East Timor. They had some very interesting stories and were great to talk to. The first people I've met from Portugal on any of my travels. It was a great end to our travels through the middle of the country.

Darwin and Litchfield National Park...Pictures

"Sweetheart" the crocodile, a local legend standing in at a mere 5.7 meters.

*He was notorious for trying to eat the boats, and contents, of local fishermen on the Darling River, so the parks deptartment captured him to take him to captivity and he died in the process.

Yugir Falls, Litchfield National Park.

During "The Dry" you can swim in the pool, but not during "The Wet" because of crocs.

Darwin beach at low tide. Can't swim this time of year because of the stingers (a.k.a. deadly jellyfish).

A water monitor lizard in Litchfield NP. There were two in the stream pools we swam at.

Magnetic termite mounds, Litchfield NP. This was pretty incredible. There's fields of hundreds of these termite mounds and they all face north to south. It has the look of a perfectly N-S aligned cemetary.

* Scientists aren't exactly sure why, but the main theory is to regulate temperature. In the morning, when it's cooler, the broad east side has the full light on it to warm it up. At dead noon and in the hottest parts of the day with the sun directly overhead, the mound is only receiving partial sunlight to keep it cooler. And again in the evening, the west side receives full light to keep it warm. Sweet, eh?

Cathedral Termite Mound, Litchfield NP

*3 meters of of grass, termite lugees/spit, and feces. Yum! The termites that make these eat only grass. The other type of termites that eat wood are responsible for didgeridoos! They hollow out entire tree trunks and branches and people hunt down the completely hollow ones to make the oh-so popular Australian instrument.

Estuarine Crocodile, a.k.a. a "salty"

*One of the crocs we saw on our one day Litchfield NP tour. Mike got this great picture.

Swimming hole in Litchfield.

*We got to swim three times in tropical pools and waterfalls on our one day tour to Litchfield NP. It was amazing, and at one with a 7 meter waterfall, it was pouring rain...a true wet season experience.

Mike holding a water python.

*Like other pythons, they aren't poisonous, they simply hug their prey to death...isn't that cute?