Ozbus11 - Darwin to Daly Waters

At 4am local time the 26 passengers part of the mammoth 92 day OzBus11 London to Sydney journey, left Darwin Airport in the Northern Territory state of Australia. This was it. This was the country of my destination. This was the last leg of a long and interesting experience. This was my goal.

Everyone of the OzBus11 passengers had got on board Martin's bus at Cleopatra's needle on that first day back on the 6th September for different reasons. For some it was the novelty mode of transport, for some it was the fact we were traveling through the rarely seen country of Iran and Pakistan, for others it was India that was the main draw. For me OzBus was a safe and fun filled carrier transporting me to Australia, one of a few countries I decided I was going to spend time in as part of my 'round-the-world-without-a-plane' adventure. It was my half way point, half way around the world and as far removed from anything I'd ever known before.

Australia had always been a mysterious other land where everything was opposite. My very small family in Britain had always had close connections with our reletives in Sydney. Every Christmas it was traditional for us to make the once a year long distance phone call to talk to a few of our clan. In the blistering winds of a Yorkshire Christmas, or the cold dull rain of an East Anglian one, I would always hear of how un-naturally hot it was that year, how the barbie was just getting going outside and no one had managed to get to the beach yet. This complete opposite fascinated me. And even though a few of the family members made it to UK every now and then and many things were sent over from Australia to keep me interested in the country it wasn't until my Aunt, Uncle and Cousin came back from meeting the family in Oz that I suddenly had an urge to go. Before that I could experience what I considered the best of it through Neighbours, Home and Away and Round The Twist, knowing that all those creepy crawlies the country boasts were something I didn't have to encounter.

But making up my mind to some how get to the other side of the world without using air transportation and finally meet the other side of my family was the reason I climbed aboard OzBus11 that first day. And now, I was so close.

It was only a short transfer to our hostel in Darwin where after a short introduction to how everything worked, the tired OzBusketeers made their way to their alloted dorms. I was sharing with ASBO dis-liking Elli, Positive Sam and Dr Tara of all things intelligent. In our small, hot, hot hot room we were over-run with slightly mad excitement and instead of falling straight to sleep in our bunk beds, we amused ourselves for the best part of an hour talking absolute rubbish that caused us to lapse into raucous laughter. We did eventually fall asleep and Phil the Bus God had organized a luxurious late breakfast for us at 11am. It was the best spread we had seen so far – it had toast, tea, coffee and the stunner of the table – Cereal! It was fabulous.

I spent the best part of that afternoon searching for computer shops to fix my computer. Hint – Acers are just like Dells. As in once there's something wrong with them no one except their warehouse people back in country of purchase can fix it. Hmmm, slight problem then being the other side of world. This is the main reason why you're just reading about Darwin now – almost 5 months after I arrived. So I didn't have much luck getting it fixed but as I was walking around the surprisingly wide and cris/cross streets in the warmth of the first summer sun I felt awakened and welcomed to the country. Darwin is sleepier than I imagined it to be and a nice little introduction to an Australian town.

The next day I took myself off to one of the tourist attractions. I visited BAT (British Australian Telegraph) house or Lyon's Cottage as I wanted to view it as a snapshot of what a first Australian settlement must have been like. Thanks to a childhood of being dragged round the historical houses of Great Britain by my parents I now seem to seek old residences where ever I go. But BAT House was mildly disappointing. I was looking for a 'this is how people would have lived in year …' but it was set up more as a gallery of old photographs that had been found of the house and life during the war amongst a few other exhibits. But it was interesting all the same. At 2pm a few of us headed to Darwin's newest attraction – the Wave Pool. Darwin is on the coast but it's waters are fatal so no one can swim in them. So instead of natural surf they created machine made surf. It was a completely fun filled afternoon and I loved being able to splash about in the water.

After a brief noodle dinner in the evening us youngens crashed Jo/Ian's/Linda's nice sophisticated dinner. The waiter didn't really want to let us in to 'the' place to eat in Darwin but under the guise of all their children, we succeeded. Managed to have a decent Martini at this place.

Day 82 saw us having to leave Darwin at 6am. It was the start of a jam-packed almost non-stop drive to Sydney. We boarded the specially Australian bush adapted bus of Adventure Tours who OzBus had teamed up with to give us the best that the outback could offer. Our first introduction to the bush was at Fogg Dam where we were to walk along the dam road until I sign read 'Road closed due to Salt Water Crocodiles in area'. 'Nuff said. So we had a quick jaunt around a rain forest board walk instead. Then at 11am we were at the river getting up close and personal with the crocs on a crocodile river cruise. No not tea and scones on this little boat but a kind request from skipper not to rush from side to side unbalancing boat that could lead to being dumped in water. Somewhere we didn't want to be with one of the oldest and fastest swimming reptiles on earth.

The crew did a grand job of tempting salty after salty to jump up the sides of the windows for meat where we got to see just how large and prehistoric they really are. It was all fun and games with a hint of danger until Skipper told us story of how a mum was holding up her baby to window for closer look and instead of meat it was window Mr Crocodile aimed for hoping for a baby like snack. Shiver, shiver. A bit shaky back on dry land it was the experience of holding a large snake that entertained some and purchase of crocodile by-product memorabilia for others.

We headed to a traditional 'roadhouse' for lunch and after we were back on the road before stopping at the Kakadu National Park Visitor's center. This was a fairly interactive set-up and was a good part of the park to see. By 8pm we were having dinner at our Kakadu Park campsite. Our accommodation now was all in tents with the exception of Adelaide and our finishing point in Sydney. But these tents were proper structures in permanent campsites and because Adventure Tours might have been hoping for a few bookings after OzBus, we had access to the full range of camping facilities.

At 6am on day 83 and by 7am we were on our bus heading for Nourlangie Rock. Here we had an informative talk about Aboriginal art work and were shown some incredibly ancient exhibits painted on the natural landscape. It was incredible to see and I'm glad that the first real information I received was to do with Aboriginal culture – it felt orderly and chronological. At 12pm we had stopped at Pine Creek for lunch, another roadhouse. Then it was on to Edith Falls, a natural swimming hole with a waterfall. No crocs here, well none that would come out and 'get' you according to Mark our tour guide but lots of fishes in the shallows that were working the Thai 'eat your feet' thing pro-bono. But a lovely swim was had by most who wanted it.

At some stage in the afternoon we arrived in Katherine for some supplies before heading to our campsite. It was out of town this one and had turned dark by the time we sat and ate. We rose again at 6am the next day and had packed up and left by 7am and headed for Nitmiluk Park in the Katherine Gorge. Here, myself, Rob the Geography boy, Lara the German, Jimmy from Melbourne, Lou the Irish lass and Phil the Bus God all paddled down the Katherine river in 3 different canoes at varying paces. It was a great way to see a bit of Aussie nature and the natural landscape that seemed to envelope us. At 11.30am it was time to leave to head back to campsite for luncheon. After this we were on the bus again to head to the Hot Springs just off the Victoria Highway. Here the crystal clear waters pumped from the earth's surface at a lovely 32C make it a fabulous place to relax. I was at a welcoming calm in the pools and savored every brief moment of being there, before this experience had passed and it would be just another memoir jotted down on a page in my diary in 2009.

On the bus again and we rolled along the highway before turning off into a strange one man town just as we were losing light. There was a pub with a massive traffic light outside, a couple of odd signs that were clearly out of place, a few empty looking buildings, a couple of cars, a campsite next to a well lit pub. This was Daly Waters. A backpacker's must see in Oz.