sittin' around cairns

well, it was good to get away from the crazy german girl who brushed her teeth for over 10 minutes and washed _all_ the car windows at every gas stop and, well, countless other things that i ended up biting my tongue on lest i get too critical. the few times i made suggestions that she might do things otherwise i was generally confronted by a flat out refusal to believe that what i was saying is right.

on our second to last night out she complained to me about how i never complain about anything. oh boy. i could have let loose on her but she hadn't taken to suggestions and hints too well in the past,... i just wanted it to end and only had 2 days left. shit. maybe i need to be more confrontational and stuff. i guess i would be if i knew i'd be stuck with her for a longer time but knowing it was quite limited i just kind of sat back and treated it as a disasterous movie while watching her drive around town making sure to ask every used car dealer but seemingly no tire shop whether they had used tires... and asking obvious out of towners for directions rather than just checking in with a local. i guess i'm into efficiency and time management. i don't think i over-do it, but i think she took the diregard of the concepts to a whole new level...

anyway.... vent... vent... breathe... breathe...

the Thorsborne Trail was awesome, it was a 4 day, 32km hike on Hinchinbrook island. Rainforst meets beach. Camping near waterfalls. I started the same day as John and Emily, father and son, who were doing the trail on her university reading week. It was good to have some sane people around me, usually you meet some good people out on the trail. Sometimes you get characters, but they're good. These ones were great. John even paid for my ride on the bus back to Cardwell (the starting point for the trail) without me even getting a chance to do it... and then they gave me a ride to Cairns in their rental car... I mean, they were going there, but still, good people.

Now I'm hanging around Cairns. I need to find some people to rent a car with to head up north to Cape Tribulation and Daintree Rainforest with, maybe I'll just go alone. Snorkeling or Diving the Great Barrier Reef also needs to be done.

I've got about a week before I fly to Auckland, New Zealand on November 2. That'll be a different world. Hopefully a bit cheaper. The US dollar hasn't quite plummeted against the NZ dollar as much as it has against the Ozzie Dollar.

over and out for now....

almost to cairns

well, i got a ride from darwin to cairns. well almost to cairns with a semi-autistic ocd german girl who noone dared get in a car with but me. why do i do these things? fair enough, it was ok but sometimes there were some time management issues and a complete lack of musical taste compatibility which is shitty on long road trips.

i got to see litchfield national park, uluru, mataranka hotsprings, porcupine gorge, henbury meteor craters, and some other stuff for sure. i think my head is still ok after all of it.

headed out to do the Thorsborne Trail on Hinchinbrook Island tomorrow. Itll be good for clearing my head... then up to Cairns and the Great Barrier Reef and Ill probably be in New Zealand in about 2 weeks.

well see...

'nother quick update

i'm sitting here at an air conditioned internet cafe in Darwin, Australia figuring out where to go next. Wait around for car rides with other travelers or fly somewhere... We'll see what happens.

Since Broome I stopped in Kunnunura to do a sweet 3 day canoe trip down the Ord river. Then I headed to Katherine to hike the 66km Jatbula trail in 4 days and three nights. Awesome camping by a waterfall or nice pond each night. Flies were bitches for the whole walk. Grr.

I got a ride from Katherine Gorge to Darwin via Kakadu National Park and now I'm trying to figure out where the hell I'm headed next. Such a big country and I'm way out at one tip.

I'll see what kinds of rides materialize or maybe I'll just fly somewhere. East coast bound I guess.