In the middle instead of just being there!

Friday, September 19, 2018

Tomorrow my toast bread expires, I just realized 😱! Luckily, we bought 3 kilos of rice, 4 kilos of pasta, and 3 kilos of yogurt for 19 days (and that's not all yet!!). Gianna takes her tasks very seriously and is occasionally a little overeager when shopping 😬!

She showed less motivation when we wanted to go on our first mini hike. In Kakadu National Park, we wanted to see a waterfall and maybe even swim there (or at least me).

Unfortunately, walking in 37 degrees is not very pleasant, and numerous flies made our lives hell. I don't know why they always swarm around our faces. Well, we passed a narrow path, and then there was a small creek with a crocodile warning sign to our right. When a snake crawled away from us just 2 meters further, Gianna's joy was over, and we had to make an orderly retreat 😬. I checked, they were tree snakes (non-poisonous!) and we even had the pleasure of encountering one again on the way back ;-).

At least we had the pleasure of driving on a gravel road for the first time on our way there and back, an unpaved gravel road. My heart really jumps for joy with such a road! Finally, an adventure! 😃

Wow, that was bumpy!! Driving on the road created a lot of small ridges, and when you drive at 80km/h, half the car falls apart 😅!

But the Toyota drives sensationally and is right in its element in such terrain, and as a car fan, I'm naturally happy when the lady doesn't want to drive 😀!

In general, all the cars here are super exciting because there are hardly any normal cars. Many pick-ups are equipped with all sorts of off-road gadgets, and the caravans are correspondingly raised and equipped with special tires.

The obligatory bull bar is mounted everywhere and, as the roads look, is often in use... Unfortunately, we have seen countless dead kangaroos and many dead cows.

On our way to Katherine, we stayed overnight in a small town called Pine Creek and were surprised by hundreds of flying foxes at twilight! These huge bats shot out of nowhere and made quite a noise! 🦇

We were still able to sleep and enjoyed our quiet night.

At that point, we didn't know what the next night had in store for us...

Arriving in Katherine, after the obligatory shopping, we visited the Katherine Hot Springs.

After the obligatory bickering (there are crocodile warning signs everywhere), even Gianna overcame her fears, and we were able to enjoy the crystal clear water 🙂!

The peaceful atmosphere soon faded as night fell. In Katherine and throughout the Northern Territory, many Aboriginal people live. Unfortunately, they stand out, as most of them smell incredibly strong of sweat or alcohol! Also, their faces look worse than waiters in Venice.. No, sorry, I don't want to offend anyone, but these people are so unfriendly and frightening, as their facial expressions and gestures have nothing positive about them..

From about 10:00 PM to 3:30 AM, things really kicked off. Everywhere, and I mean everywhere, there was shouting, arguing, and insults. The whole scene scared us a lot because it was sometimes quite close, and we really didn't know if someone would stroll into the campsite..

In Australia, this is a huge problem; millions of dollars are spent each year on the integration of these people, but it practically doesn't work. All the money is drunk or used for other drugs..

We had time to Google because there was no possibility of sleep. I have never felt such hatred as on that night; the Aboriginal people behaved like animals, screaming and hitting cars or slamming doors. Probably completely under the influence of drugs!

And of course, one of them had to sneak around our camper!! I was so scared that I almost peed my pants, but I still did my duty and hissed at him to bugger off. Luckily, he disappeared, and everything turned out fine. We survived and quickly made a move in the morning 😬!

All of this has really affected Gianna, and she found out that an indigenous person dies every 35 hours due to alcohol..

But now to the more pleasant things! At our new campsite in Timber Creek, about 70m from our car, there is crocodile feeding 😃! However, this time it's "freshies," the small freshwater crocodiles. They grow up to about 3m long and are rather shy and non-aggressive.🐊

Unfortunately, during the feeding, the crocodiles showed only moderate interest because they usually eat fruits and insects. I can't quite imagine it, but well, I guess it's true if the Australians say so 😬.

Now the remaining pieces of donkey meat had to be fed as well. Since about 10 hawks were flying around, we simply threw them into the air, and the birds skillfully caught them! 🦅

As you can see, our journey is quite exciting, and even today unexpected events didn't fail to happen. For one, we crossed the "border" to Western Australia. This time there was no drug-sniffing dog like in Croatia, but again quite strict quarantine regulations.

Since we thought somewhat naively that we would get through, we unfortunately didn't consider the lady from the border patrol.. In Western Australia, you are not allowed to bring in any fruits or vegetables or even potatoes 😱! So, off to the trash with our beautiful vegetables... I was quite angry that such rules even apply within Australia, but we were able to pass without fruits and vegetables..

In Kununurra, we are staying tonight at the last stop before the Gibb River Road. The sky here is quite cloudy, but that's because of a huge bushfire that is spreading rapidly!🔥 We have seen black soil and trees in many places, but we have never experienced a real fire up close before.

Before the fires, there are usually many hawks and birds of prey, as all the insects, especially grasshoppers, flee from the heat and run directly into the birds' arms.

In the next few days (until October 5th), we will most likely not be reachable because we have arrived at our actual destination: the Gibb River Road.

This is an approximately 700km long unpaved road through the wilderness, which was originally opened for cattle transports. It looks like we won't have any campsites, but we'll sleep in the bush and hope that the gasoline lasts until one of the 2 gas stations and that we won't be eaten by lions🙂! Don't worry, there are no dangerous animals like lions in Australia 😉.

On the route, we hope to visit many gorges and bathe in the clear water.

Dear moms, please don't worry, we will come back home safely!🤗