The Red Center...continued

Its a rare quiet moment on Mill St.  Not for long though, I'm on baby duty and Julia is doing a lot of gremlin'ing over in her car seat.  Anyways, since I have a moment I thought I might work on some of those back logged blog posts.  I've had a fair amount of time since coming to Boston, but between adjusting to the energy of toddlers and the sheer number of pictures to blog, I haven't had the stamina to post yet.  I'll work on that.

I'm going to try..try to go in order.  Which means I have to go all the way back to July.  You thought I was exaggerating?

This was our 3 day drive. From Kakadu in the Northern Territory to Alice Springs (also in the NT) in the center.

Moira and I during a sexy dance party on the bus.

We stopped to see some animales...

In case you haven't heard my rant before...I loath cockatoos.  I respect them for being an ancient bird that lives for something like a hundred years, but their squak is THEE most annoying sound in the world.

I ain't afraid of no snake!

Dingo paw print.  I never did see dingos in the wild, though many people apparently do.

Parrots are cool.

Fresh water croc on the croc cruise, seen from the safety of a pontoon boat.

Daly Waters Pub is well known tourist stop in Australia.  Mostly because its the only stop on this stretch of road for hundreds of miles (or kms).  Since they are the only stop, I guess they decided to have a little fun with their pub:

Don't know what a Sheilas Dunny is?  Well this sign will help ya out:

Inside the pub they have collected little tokens from the tourists that stop there.  Tshirts, ID cards, cash, anything.  And they hang it up throughout the pub.

Who travels with an old IL license plate?  Not me, but I appreciate the reminder of home.

This picture was taken for Jessica, since I left her with Lincoln, who I convinced her to adopt with me then I moved away.  It was very serendipitous for the Jessica guitar to be propped up against that sign, like I was meant to buy it.  Then I saw that it was $11, and decided to take a picture instead. 

Danielle took a fancy to all the old antique farm tools (??) hanging in the pub.

Back on the bus for more antics.

  

Gotta stop and get firewood...why not take a jumping pictures in the middle of the road.

 On to Devils Marbles, which I think I mentioned before. Big rocks shaped  like Marbles in the middle of desert.  I sadly do not think I am in this jumping picture.

 I was too busy holding up this marble I guess, lol.

The first day on this leg of the tour we went kayaking on Katherine Gorge.  I was extremely hung over all day from our night out in Darwin the night before.  I won a free bar tab for being able to say Supercalifragilisticexpealidocious (sp?) with 16 marshmallows in my mouth.  Undoubtedly the worst hang over of my life.  Though surprisingly, even though I spent the entire morning absolutely miserable and nervous I was going to spew all over the bus, getting in the kayak on the river actually made my hang over go away.  (I did spend the whole morning working through my list of hang over cures.  Skipping lunch for a cold shower probably had more to do with the recovery).  I'm in the kayak with Moira who doesn't know how to swim and is terrified of water.  Did I mention that Katherine Gorge is totally croc infested.  Winning.

You could swim at any of the beaches along the way as long as there wasn't a sign saying croc nesting area here.  We didnt actually see any beaches that weren't croc nesting areas until this one, which was our final destination anyway.

Next stop:  The Roswell of Australia.  Don't remember the name.  There's a US weather station in this town and some strange occurrences, so their pretty sure 'weather station' is equivalent to Area 51. 

Naoko in this photo cracks me up!

Alcohol abuse? bug bites? allergic reaction? heat rash?  I believe it may have been all of these.  Whatever the cause, I was a hot mess on this trip.  I think I was injured part of the way too.

Last stop before Alice Springs...Thermal Pools.  Where chicken fighting ensued, and under water modeling/photography.  The water was so warm, it was awesome!

I would be holding my nose, LOL

A quick stop at the Tropic of Capricorn (or maybe Cancer).  Julie on the south is cold in winter, while Latetia on the north is in the tropics and toasty warm.

Welcome to Alice Springs.  Our guide thought it was funny to make the sign say something else. I have to say, we went with it thinking it was going to be a whole lot funnier on the flip side.  Lame sauce.

Most of the Darwin crew at the only bar in Alice Springs after our leg of the trip together.  R-L" Naoko from Japan, Mike from Perth, Moira from Ireland, Brecht from Sweden (oy, I don't think thats right?) Doc the tour guide, Uschi from Sydney (also seen in previous posts!), Kevin from Switzerland (now living in Chicago), Julie from Canadia, and Martina from Germany.