Australia Northern Territory Aug. 1 - 8

We didn't spend very much time in Alice Springs ...just a few days to do laundry and catch up on sleep. We did a tour of the Royal Flying Doctors outpost. This organization flies doctors and nurses out to the remote areas of the outback... a lot of the places we visited on our 10 day trip. Sorry, I don't have any photos of Alice Springs.

region	lodging	$US / night	rating	notes
Alice Springs	Annie's Place	$28.6		friendly staff, very accomodating
	Elke Outbackpackers	$23.4		kitchenette & bathroom shared btwn 2 rooms

We took a Remote Possibilities 2 day tour from Alice Springs to Darwin. It was cheap and it seemed better than just taking a coach bus straight down without stopping. Well, ya get what you pay for. This wasn't the most professional outfit, but we made it Darwin!

The first day was a long driving day...we drove almost 1000 kilometers. There were some really nice stops along the way. We stopped for gas in Barrow Creek. There was a neat building with aboriginal designs on it. Further up the road we came across Jesus and Christ. Jesus is a camel and Christ is a donkey. They were both orphaned when they were small, so a local woman ended up raising them together. They roam around the side of the road greeting the cars as they come by. They got their names because when a driver comes across the camel on the road at night, they scream "Jesus!" ...and when they see the donkey, they scream "Christ!".

We stopped at Devil's Marbles. This area has hundreds of round shaped, large stones. We climbed around on the rocks a bit, then drove on to our destination for the evening - Daly Waters. We ended up changing drivers and sleeping on the side of the road in swags. We kept saying ..."if only our mothers could see us now - homeless, unemployed, and sleeping on the side of the road!".

We spent most the of the next day in our bathing suites...we stopped at 2 hot springs and 1 swimming pond. The first hot spring, Mataranka, was a bit too contrived ...but we did see a wallabie and her baby nearby. The second hot spring, Bitter Hot Springs, was really nice! It was a very natural setting ...right down to the spiders hanging over the water. We ended up floating all the way down the spring ...smelling water lillies and avoiding the spiders. Edith Falls was our last swimming stop before we arrived in Darwin.

region	lodging	$US / night	rating	notes
Northern Territory	Remote Possibilities	$102.96		not very professional

We liked Darwin more than we thought we would. It's still very tourist-y ...but it's right next to the harbour. Also, because it's in the Australian tropics, it feels like vacation. We were only here for a few days ...and most of that was spent getting things in order before we flew off to Bali.

Darwin is an area of high traffic for backpackers ...it seems that everyone at some point passes through here. We ran into several people that had met in New Zealand and Australia. Our hostel was very central and we found ourselves hanging out a lot under the "possum tree".

We had many problems trying to update our website in Darwin. We were fortunate enough to come across a very helpful Swiss man at the Didjworld Internet. He helped us out a lot! Not only do they have the fastest speed connection in Darwin, but they were also the friendliest and most helpful.

We'll see the rest of Australia sometime in the future, but now we're off to Bali!

region	lodging	$US / night	rating	notes
Darwin	Chili's Backpacker	$26.0		adequate