The Final Chapters...

Hey there, Amy here! At home in Poulsbo as of last Saturday. I have been charged with updating this thing and it seems I have a lot of work ahead of me...

So yes, we did do some drinking. Although we were a little apprehensive about the whole situation, Karina being underage at this point and all... it really was a lot of fun. After Brandon walked us back to our campsite, the two of us stayed up a few hours more discussing the night, the rest of the trip, and life as we know it. You know... typical sleepover stuff. This whole trip was practically an unending sleepover... surprised we didn't fight? Yeah, me too.

The next day, we decided to go to the local crocodile park before meeting Brandon and Ephan for Coronas and limes back on Cable Beach. We walked in and there were these massive crocs completely stationary. At first it was hard to believe that they were real. Until they moved... A few fast facts about crocs:
1) There are two types of croc- Saltwater Crocs, which are the big nasties, and Freshwater Crocs, which are aggressive but not nearly as ferocious as their compadres.
2) They have three eyelids, the third of which allows them to see exceptionally well underwater.
3) The downward foce of an average "Salty's" jaw is 4 tons.
4) A croc has a 1 in 10,000 chance of growing to maturity, which is about 5m for males and 3m for females.
5) Eggs incubated at 32C or below hatch as female, whereas those incubated at 33C or above atch as male - always.
6) American alligators are docile when compared to their croc cousins - the guide actually got in the pen with about 12 alligators and sat down next to one, petting it like it was a dog. It responded like a dog too, and closed its eyes, enjoying the pat. It was kinda creepy.
7) Salties can sometimes be attacked by sharks while in the ocean hunting, and they usually win.
Pretty crazy huh? The biggest croc there was named Santa because it was caught on Christmas. He was about 5.5m long. No joke. They were all pretty lazy while we were there because it's during the "Dry" which are the cooler months. During the "Wet" the crocs are breeding and much more aggressive, so in a way we missed out. Bummer. We also got to hold a baby croc, and got pictures as proof for all you non-believers! Ha ha!

So, after the croc park, we met Brandon and Ephan for beers on Cable Beach. I didn't have any, but Karina assured me that Corona is much better than Heineken, we've come to a consensus: all beer is gross. After we said goodbye to them, they were catching a plane back to Melbourne that evening, we went to dinner at this fancy Japanese restaurant, called Matso's, with the Greyhound-Smirnoff gang.

For being such a pricy, upscale restaurant, the food was not great, and the service was worse. One highlight of the night: Karina tried kangaroo for the first time. Although I can't say I'm a fan of it, yes I tried it too, the meat tastes like steak but is leaner with a "gamey" flavor. Speaking of kangaroo... we met this couple in Coral Bay, and the girl was super excited to see one, but hadn't for the longest time. Anyways, they finally saw one from the van they were riding in, and they hit it. She was quite traumatized. I would be too.

Our final day in Broome, we caught an early bus out to Gantheaume (ganth-ee-um) Point a few kilometers south along Cable Beach, where we were treated to an absolutely stunning view of turquoise sea and fiery red rock. We climbed down to the tidepools, and found what we think is a fossilized dinosaur footprint (they said they were at Gantheaume they just didn't want people to climb down and go looking for them, which we did anyways), but can't be too sure. We climbed our way down to the beach and practically sprinted back to the main bus stop so that we would be able to check out of the caravan park in time before having to pay for an extra night. After successfully breaking down our lovely blue home, checking out, and storing our bags in the office, we headed back out to the town for some last minute souvenier shopping. We went back to Cable Beach afterwards and, once again, met the Greyhound-Smirnoff gang for the last time before we headed off on our separate ways. Everyone pretty much sacked out on the lawn in the shade, and after catching a few Z's, we took a final group photo, before saying goodbye to the Kims (from Canada and Utah), Norman, and Desiree.

We retrieved our stuff from the office before it closed at 5 (everything closes early in Australia, its rediculous!) and went for dinner at the Old Zoo Cafe, where we expanded our culinary horizons by partaking in the Kimberly taste plate for a mere $30 (food costs an arm and a leg there too, by the way). The Kimberly taste plate, named for the region in which Broome is located, consisted of Mother of Pearl meat, kangaroo, crocodile, camel, and barramundi. Yes, we tasted, devoured, and enjoyed the whole thing. The order of my favorites goes: camel (absolutely delicious, and it was kinda sad since they walked right past the restaurant, making me feel guilty that I enjoyed it so much), barra (it's like our cod, except more flavourful), pearl (similar to scallops in taste, but with a calamari texture), roo (it was slightly undercooked for my tastes), and finally croc. Weirdest thing about croc: it tastes like what it's fed on which is why it had a poultry-ish flavor (though not quite chicken or turkey as we were told), but it fillets like fish. So we ate a chicken flavored fish. Mmmm... not.

We left Broome at 7:30 (I want to say), and befriended Tyler from Calgary while waiting for the bus, which was only a few minutes (instead of hours) late. The bus ride, though uneventful was really cold, so the two of us pretty much got no sleep. I know I woke up every hour on the hour. Stupid Greyhound... We made a breakfast stop in Kunnunurra and ended up running into Markus, one of our Greyhound-Smirnoff gang members, who ditched Broome earlier than the rest of us. Turned out that we were staying in the same hostel in Katherine - not that that was such a big surprise considering there is only one hostel in Katherine... - and when we arrived, he was in our room! We were so glad to see Markus again, and we ended up spending all of our time in Katherine in his company. That night, we went to dinner at the Katherine Club, which is a family restaurant/bar establishment. The food was really good, and were able to get to know Markus better than before. After dinner, we snuck into the bar - Karina still being under age and all - and although we did not drink, we enjoyed ourselves, listening and dancing to the local band, watching everyone smoke and drink and carry on... It was great!

Back at the hostel, I crashed but Karina and Markus ended up staying awake until about 1 in the morning having one of those heart-to-heart, deeper meaning, life chats, which was cool for them. She later shared with me that they talked mostly about love, and how Markus is a hopless romantic - even more so than I am apparently. He sent her a very special birthday email, which we read when we got to Cairns (pronounced cans), and has really become a lifelong friend.

The next morning, Markus, Karina, and I caught an early bus out to the Katherine Gorge. About 20k's outside of Katherine, the gorge was beautiful - once we found it. We hiked along the trail, which was poorly marked, unfortunately, and spent an hour being lost on it. When we finally reached the gorge, after seeing a wallaby (totally cute!), we were hot sweaty, and ready for a swim. Karina was smart and wore her bathing suit (or swimmers as the Aussies call it) under her clothes, and jumped right into the water (after we practically rappelled down into the gorge - the trail was very steep). I, on the other hand, did not wear my bathing suit, but was too hot to care, so I took off my shoes, socks, and shorts, and jumped in in my T-shirt and underwear! The water felt absolutely wonderful! We wanted to swim across the slow-moving river to a little beach on the other side, but were advised against it as it was the location of some freshwater crocodile nests. Good thing we changed our minds...

After we hiked out of the gorge, and headed back to the hostel for showers, we said a sad goodbye to Markus, who was on his way north to Darwin, before boarding the Ghan train down south to Alice Springs. While we were waiting for the train to arrive, the company who operates it took us to this historic homstead (an Aussie ranch basically) on the outskirts of the city to kill time. It was really interesting to hear the history of the place, which had been around since the 1800's, and it was a whole heck of a lot nicer than waiting in the station. After we realized that it was a courtesy tour that we were on, we wondered: why don't companies do anything cool like that in America? The world may never know...

Around 4, we boarded the train which we were greatly looking forward to, and were rewarded not just with freedom to roam about the compartments, or a whole heck of a lot more footroom than on the Greyhounds, but with the company of Steve, an Aussie fireman and Ironman athlete, and his 3-year-old son, Sam. Karina was extremely impressed with Steve's accomplishment as an athlete - who wouldn't be? - and we both absolutely adored Sam, who was the cutest thing since sliced bread (yes, literally). It was also nice to get a chance to talk to a legit Aussie. It seemed as though we met more foreigners on this trip than locals, I'm telling you! The train food was actually decent, and it didn't cost us an arm and a leg (for once)! Although it was more comfortable than the Greyhound, the air conditioning was unfortunately left on all night, and they did not provide blankets, so the two of us froze, and got about 4 hours of sleep between the two of us.

I shall take a break, and leave you here as we entered Alice Springs the next morning...

how my interest in politics bought us dinner.

So, where Amy left you on a cliff hanger, I will resolve your angsty angst to find out what happened to us that night in Broome.

As noted earlier, Amy and I had spent a delightful day basking in the rays of southern hemisphere sun and swimming in the Indian Ocean. Out of lazy bliss, we agreed to stay for the magnificent ocean sunsets that the west-facing Cable Beach is so renown for. As we were snapping photos of the view, it became apparent that the two guys who had lain some 30 feet away from us all afternoon and had been hiding their eyes behind their sunglasses, were suddenly more interested in our existence. Once the sun had slipped behind the darkening waves, a voice asked, "So, where are you gals from?" *gasp* the voice was American!!! "The States," we replied together. "Seattle."
"Great!" the voice replied. "I'm from Ashton, Ohio."

Thus, we quickly became with Brandon (USA) and Ephan (Melbourne), the newest of our new friends in our saga. Within a few minutes of conversation, the four of us were chatting like old friends. Plus, to my amazement, Brandon & I share the same passion for politics! Quickly, we began discussing current political & social issues, and Amy & Ephan, used to the boredom associated with such conversations, retreated to discuss photography and sports.

In fact though, my conversation with Brandon was incredibly enjoyable. It was so nice first of all to connect again with another American as I've been getting tired of hearing everyone (even American loving Australians) bash my country. Granted, lately its been getting a little harder to defend her actions to the world... but it was such a relief to have someone who could understand the dilemma in loving ones country & the rights endowed upon its citizens, but be ashamed of its actions within the world community. Brandon, I quickly found out, was a poli-sci major who is stuck working for a financial investment group, disillusioned with the power politics that run the world. He (like me) became interested in politics in order to change global priorities but instead has found himself caught up in the very establishment he is morally adverse to. (sounds like a Steinbeck novel, doesn't it?). But of course, because he works for a large investment corporation means he also has lots of money. Thus, to make a long story shorter, our close connection caused Amy & I to be treated to dinner at an expensive Thai restaurant that night. Afterwards, we joined them at the bar at their hotel for some beer and we ended up talking till midnight. Great stories and laughter, all in a great fun evening. =]

more later.

2 Week Recap Continued...

Amy here!

So pretty much Coral Bay was amazing, although looking back, the two of us agreed that only a day there was really all we needed.

From Coral Bay we caught the Greyhound (grr) for a 23 (I think) hour bus ride up to Broome - sans air conditioning. Lovely. Of course, when we arrived in Broome, we scrambled for accomodations, which we were lucky to score at the Cable Beach Backpacker Hostel. It was pretty nice, considering we hadn't slept in beds for almost a week. We spent our first day in Broome cruising the "town," which is about the size of Bremerton population-wise. We caught the bus - on which the drivers were the nicest we've ever encountered! - and headed into Chinatown, where there are actually no Chinese restaurants whatsoever, but instead there's Som Thai (pun intended). Souvenir shopped for a bit, but really didn't get much considering the prices are outrageous. That night, we met up with our new Greyhound friends (Kim from Canada, Kim from Utah, Markus from Munich, and Norman and Desiree also from Germany) for dinner at this great little cafe called Blooms. It was here that we joined a gang complete with Smirnoff tatoos and everything! Kidding. Some drunk girl walked up to our table while we were eating and gave us all temporary Smirnoff tatoos which we stuck on our forearms and dubbed ourselves the Smirnoff gang. Sweet.

So we woke up on day two in Broome and found ourselves without accomodation for the next two nights as the backpackers was full. Brilliant. After making a few calls, we raced down the street (about 1/2 mile away in the blazing sun with our packs on which weigh about a ton) to secure the very last campsite at this nice little caravan park called Tarangau (Tear-an-gow). After setting up our lovely little blue home in the red dirt ("Hey, Karina." "Hey what?" "Red Dirt!" "Whoo!"), we headed out to Cable Beach, which is THE beach of all beaches. Miles of pristine white sand, warm sun, cute surfers, beach volleyball players (making you jealous again?)... it was great. We decided to stay for the famous sunset, which was surprisingly, the best we'd enountered. Molten red light just filled the sky... we got some great photos. So after the spectacular sunset, we received another bigger surprise, which had been lounging just a few meters down the beach from us. Can you say rich, attractive, young businessmen willing to take us out to dinner? Oh yeah!

So after I've whet your appetite, we must go for breakfast, but more on them later...

Cheers!
-Amy

2 Week Recap.

Wow, sorry guys. Amy and I didn't realize how long it's been since we've blogged for everyone...14 days?! Crazy! How fast time flies when you have fun. =] oh and believe me, we've been living it up.

so let me do just a "short" (haha) recap for everyone.

Last time we wrote we were basking in the rays of Monkey Mia and swimming in the Indian Ocean daily.

Since then we've traveled through Coral Bay, Broome, Katharine, Alice Springs, Ayers Rock (Uluru) and now, Cairns!

Our adventure at Coral Bay began at 3 am when we got off the Greyhound bus and collapsed in the lobby of the hostel. Amy curled up in her sleeping bag on the floor. While I was tired, it was freezing and I ended up seeking refuge in the girls bathroom for a few hours (writing in my journal) where it was still warm. A couple hours later we found ourselves meandering down Coral Bay's main street, helping our German friend Simon find a place to stay. Everything was booked up because of the weeklong student holiday, and lodging...even camping space...was at a premium. Unlike Simon, Amy and I were leaving the same day at midnight and thus had only 22 hours to explore and experience Coral Bay...BUT what little time we did have was definitely worth it! The rest of the day consisted of taking a snorkeling tour on the famous Ningaloo Reef and chillin' on the beach. Let me tell you, the tour was awesome! We were picked up in a glass bottom boat by our friendly Aussie guide and were dropped off at two different snorkeling sites. The water was cool but not cold and the hard coral was quite beautiful dispite it's blandness of color. One of the highlights was at the second location where we jumped into a school of friendly "Spangled Emperors" (aka. Snapper). The fish were so curious as to what we were, that they rubbed and bumped their slimy bodies all over us...it was really funny and both of us were squealing. Later in the evening, we dined in the hostel & made some more friends. The longer we talked, the more alcohol flowed and good times were had by all. Them by getting drunk and telling lots of crazy stories, and Amy & I laughing because we got to watch it all happen. We were bought drinks (Rum & Cola, actually) but to be honest, alcohol is disgusting so we only sipped on it to be polite. We ended up leaving a couple hours later, ready for our next place and adventures.

(to be continued...)

Two Tickets to Paradise

Hellooooooo!

It's Amy. As Karina previously stated, we are alive. I'll take you all back a few days... or a week more like.

So last you heard, we were in Sydney... We flew out to Perth last thursday where we me up with our travel companion from LAX, Pat. A lovely woman of about 60-ish, she took us all around Perth, which was super nice and a definite upgrade from public transit, let me tell you! She even treated us to lunch where she practically forced us to eat as much food as humanely possible. She tried to treat us to coffee later, but we interceded and paid for her. She was pretty much the closest thing we've found to home with her grandmotherly ways...

When we arrived back at the hostel, we discovered that our roomates were not quite who we expected... we ended up spending the night with two guys!!! It was a new experience for the both of us... Felix from Hamburg was super cute, and super sick. Poor guy had the flu. And the British Bloke (never found out his name) was rip roaring drunk during the brief conversation we shared. Oh well... Quite a character he was.

Our bus from Perth left 4 hours late (Seems to be a trend with us), but during that time we befriended a super cute Aussie named Kurt. Ahh... Ha! Anyways, he was a bit older than we are, but he was really interesting to talk to. He recommended that we try Vegimite!! Sick.

After being stuck in Cervantes for 4 days (Stupid Pinnacles) with little to do but watch rugby on TV, chick flicks (gotta love Miss Congeniality), and read, we have safely arrived in paradise in the form of this nice little town called Monkey Mia (pronounced My-uhh). Complete with dolphins and dugongs (similar to the manatees in Florida) this little beach resort is right on a beautiful turquoise bay with crystal clear water, white sand, warm sun (jealous yet?), and plenty of cute beach bums to go around! We've been camping to save money but we never really paid the entrance fee since we got in at like 11 at night so... we're pretty much living here for free - aside from food which costs an arm and a leg. How naughty of us...

Our past few days have been filled with lots of sunbathing and we're finally getting tans to prove it too! Karina has fed a dolphin and i'm almost done with my book. Other than that... we've been pretty chill!

Well... I shall leave you all now and just be warned internet is few and far between..

Until next time... cheers!

-A

yes, we're alive

Hey all. Still out in the boonies. CAn't write much except to say that we're now in Monkey Mia. Heaven. will write soon.

love

Climbing Mountains and Fording Streams

Hey all!

Amy again... Just wanted to keep you updated on the latest...

Though today wasn't nearly as exciting as receiving luggage yesterday, we certainly had quite a trip. We caught a 10 something train to a town called Katoomba just west of Sydney in the Blue Mountains. In Katoomba, which is basically like Poulsbo's downtown except on a Finn Hill, we got to see some awesome street shops and some of the locals. All unemployed of course... Ha! Kidding. Although it must be noted that Katoomba has (or once had) the highest unemployment rate in Australia. Anyways... We hiked our way into the Blue Mountains National Park and got some great photos of the Three Sisters, a series of three rock pinnacles basically hanging off these massive cliffs just inland of the big city. After hiking down the "Great Staircase" and back up, sweating like none other, and having a marvelous time, we conclude our day with take out from Chinatown and laundry. Sweet right!?

Tomorrow should be fun... we're spending the $100 that Qantas gave each of us for losing our luggage on something special... and we're going to be checking out Kings Cross - you know, the red light district - during the day of course! Ha! Really...

So there's a line to use the computer and I've run out of intresting things to report... I guess this is toodles for now!

As the Aussies say - Cheers!

Amy