INTERNET BLUE'S

So many photo's,so little time,or maybe so little patience.
Yeah i guess it's usual for me to have bugger all patience but anyway,
I friggen hate internet cafe's.I have hundreds of photo's and many more stories of my outback drive but i can not handle sitting in front of the computer for more than an hour,its 11am in darwin and it's driving me to want a beer.I guess at least its accepted to have a beer in the NT before 10am.
But yeah one day im going to have the biggest party and big screen slideshow night of all my travel photo's and your all invited.
Stay tuned for some indonesia action in the next few weeks.

THE SAVANNAH WAY

Cairns to Darwin, about a 2500 km trip along the road called the savannah way.
This road cuts accross the bottom of cape york,then hugs the gulf coast,from there accross into the NT onto the stuart highway then up to darwin.
A break down of the scenery.
Tropical QLD,through the foresty tablelands then levelling out to three days of bumfuck outback scrub,dusty roads,expensive beer and deisel.
Then you hit the barramundi and croc infested caost,pass through famous aboriginal community's like Borroloola and Doomadgee.
Then some more outback scrub,a few fires under the stary skie's, the weather heats up
then eventually afeter all this scenery has moulded into one big blurry timeless drive you hit the stuart highway.
Take a right and have the option to take another right into Kakadu or a left into Litchfield national park.
I went left into Litchfield to see and swim some amazing waterfalls.
So tropics to desert to tropics is the name of the game.
Four slabs in five days were drunk,my french counterpart (benjamin) drinks like an ozzy.
Brolga's,tigersnakes,huge eagle's,wild pig,emu,cows,wild horse's,ant hills,big feral cats,kangaroo's,barrumundi,cockatoo's and much more wildlife was the entertainment for the day.
A fire,bushcamp and cookups were the order of the night's.
Roadtrains (one roadtrain stopped on a dusty road to have a beer with us),countless retiree's with 4WD and camper trailers, the old one finger wave to every bloody car for 2500kms were all included.
All for a cheap trip as i was relocating a KEA 4WD for a dollar a day.
6 days on the road les hiddens style was one of my favourite trips around oz.
Savannah way, get out there.

Drive

THE KANGAROO COUNT

On departure from qld i knew things would get a little boring in the outback drive.
So i came up with the idea to have a betwho can get the closest to guessing the amount of dead kangroo's between cairns and darwin.
I guessed 230, and frenchy guessed 300.
On arrival the count was 235,not bad for me as i pocketed 10 dollars for the bet.One of the poor unfortunate fella's was care of my bullbar and he got included in the count.First roo ive hit driving around oz so i've done alright.
Anyway that was a lot of dead and smelly roo's for a 2600km drive.
Another game i came up with was to collect a heap of rocks and throw them at the signs we passed,well i won that one too.
Ah the things boredom drives you to do.

MATARANKA

Mataranka is a few hours south of Darwin.There lie some amazingly beautiful natural hot springs.The water sits at aroung 30 degrees and is so clear.
After four days of driving through the dusty ass roads and been pretty dirty we arrived at the springs at about 8 in the evening.
Naturally we went swimming, it was amazing,a clear night,hot natural springs surrounded by palm forests with the opening from the pools revealing a stary NT sky.
This was almost overwehlming with beauty.I swam for hours and enjoyed all of the beauty,a place you must check out if ever driving the stuart highway between alice springs and darwin.

5 THINGS I'VE DONE, and whats next

Well after three months in cairns im on the move again.
Im relocating a 4wd campervan to darwin, its costing me a massive $6, as its $1 per day and the fuel is paid for.Good deal huh.
From there after spending 3 days in darwin im off on a surfing trip with my boys binny and rory.
This is where i'll get back on blogger with photo's and stotie's for you all.
Until then here's 5 things that i have done in the last 3 months up here.
(in no particular order)
-1-Awoke from a beer induced sleep in the van out the front of lyndons house to find someone had broken into my car and was stealing things from the dash.Heavy,i swore and got out for the chase but was too slow (maybe too old)

-2- went to court for doing a doodle dash in public, got off ,charmed the judge, not even a fine

-3-cascaded down whitewater in tractor tyre tubes,smashing myself on rocks and surviving, all the while been watched in amazement by foreign tourists

-4-Had a classic crash on my bike into the back of a parked car,udl in one hand and my fone in the other.Six pack on my pack rack and only two stubbies surviving.
Only to do the same thing three hours later on the ride home,
Lesson learnt- don't drink drive/ride while on the fone tho claire cambell or Keefy

-5-Got lost on the walk home from the pub,(a massive 400 metres, only to awake at 7am on the train tracks 3kms from my house.

Good time's

MY GREAT SEND OFF

So im leaving cairns tomorrow,i drive to darwin over 5 days and then go to indonesia surfing.
Once again i have made my mark on a community and the have sent me off in grand style.The local council organised a big town party and send off to say goodbye and thanks to me.
There were rides, a show, speaches and all the usual stuff.
But i was suprised that they even organised fireworks for me, here's a few shots from the night.
I'd just like to thank all residents and councellors and most of all the traditional owners for allowing everyone to enjoy the local land.

The tablelands

For those of you that are not familiar with the layout of the cairns area i'll break it down.
On the western fringe of the coast is tropical forested mountains,behind them are what they call the tablelands.Here lye awesome waterfalls and catchments,good farming are's and cowboys.
East of cairns obviously is the beautiful Great barrier Reef.
North are the dreamy north queensland sunned up mile long beaches of paradise,and they lead to the daintree rainforest about an hour and a half north.
So as you can imagine there is plenty to do of a weekend.
Last weekend i hit the tablelands to see yet some more victorians visiting the north.
Beardie,anna and widdle and matilda who live up in mareeba.
We spent a night falling off chairs (well i was) and drinking beer and the last bottle of my home made tequila,(ive developed my new drink named "the tequila sundowner").It was an awesome night with intentions to go to the local rodeo but never actuially getting there.
On tour we swam with turtles at lake eachem,and visited the awesome cathederal fig tree.Good for climbing and had an ancient mystical feel to it like we were stepping into a set of lord of the rings.
If you hav'nt explored this area i would surely recomend at least a two week trip to see so many marvel's.

It's a VAN LIFE

So i moved out of my house to reside once again in the BEST VAN IN THE WORLD.
Sure it looks like the biggest shitbox on the road but as they say "it's what's underneath that counts".
I mean for the last two weeks, (or 5 years) i have been cruising around the top end living out of my van.
This usually involve's,cooking up dinner camp style in a lovely carpark away from civilisation.
After, eating dinner on a tropical beach,no people and watching the sun go down.
(gotta eat before dark so i can see when i do the dishes).
Then the after dinner entertainment is instead of watching shitty t.v,
greb ye ol guitar and watch the stars while playing a sountrack to the evening.
Yep thats just one day, it's a good ol life and i say
"EVERYBODY NEEDS A LITTLE TIME IN A VAN",
Plus australia was made to be seen this way.