It's been more then 3 weeks since I left Sydney to go off traveling. In the meantime I've seen and experienced a lot. I bought my first car and already had a flat tyre. Seen so many kangaroos (dead and alive), crocs and stunning views. Time for a new travel story about the past weeks!

Where it all started..

I started my adventure in the middle of the outback. Uluru and Kata-Tjuta national park including Kings Canyon. Pretty much everything around you there is red sand. And with the heat of the sun it definitely felt like a desert. We watched the sunset and sunrise over Uluru which was pretty much stunning. Even though the sunrise was at 5:30am and it was bloody freezing. Because yea the temperature can easily drop from 36 degrees over the day to 4 degrees during the night. And sleeping in Swags with those temperatures is not always fun! - A swag is kind of a small tent build around a mattress where you can lay in with your sleeping bag. It's, apparently, an Australian way of camping and they do use it a lot. -

Our tour group was a mix between the Asian colony who might have misunderstood the meaning of a dessert, wearing dresses and heels while carrying a Louis Vuitton handbag. -Oh and we're sure they didn't need water- But also an 65-years old British man traveling around the world alone. His wife didn't want to travel that far anymore so he chose to do it by himself. Every twice a year he goes off traveling for a couple of months. Finding the best places on earth. He told us about his children and grandchildren, but also about the most beautiful places he has seen. Once he started talking he couldn't stop anymore. Such an inspiring man!

Although we did had an awesome tourgide, Chop. A real Aussie who grew up in the nature and could tell us pretty much everything about either the landscape as the aboriginals. He didn't only taught us some handy camping tricks like But also what to and not to do. At least we knew for sure we were not swimming in the ocean in Darwin or anywhere on the coast or in nature pools because of the crocs. Apparently they are really clever animals and will watch you for 3 times before attacking. And I mean if you see a 6M salt water croc the change of surviving is very small- if there is even a change. So far we got pretty scared but, Chop said, we should be aright if following the signs. Oh and never make selfies on the edge of a cliff because you might fall down and die..

Aboriginals

I've been warned for aboriginals like hundreds of times. Neither Sydney and Melbourne have that much aboriginals in the city. But the people who live their, even though they have never experienced anything, will tell you aboriginals are dangerous. Just because they have heard stories. Even though I don't really believe they are dangerous, I did have experienced some moment where I did not quite felt safe.

Alice Springs has a lot of aboriginals. They hang around on the streets and parks. Probably because don't have much else to do. I know of stories that they don't really get treated fair compared to the white Australian people. Even though the past years they have got more support of the government to build communities with schools and other facilities. They still won't easily get a job and government support is not a lot. A lot of the aboriginals I've seen and met didn't look healthy at all. Some of their legs were even skinnier than my arms and some of their eyes turned even yellow. Bit scary to see.

Two aboriginals I've met hang down the streets all day. They made arts and crafts out of trees for living and were pretty proud of it. But I wasn't really happy with the fact that they carried a kitchen knife in their shirt. I didn't see them as a threat but who knows. However the only thing I had to offer them was a fresh strawberry as I didn't had money with me.

Car expert

For traveling the west coast you'll really need a 4WD. A lot of roads are not sealed and a normal car won't survive the rough roads to the national parks. The cheapest option for us was to buy a car. So that's what we did.. easier said then done as there was so much to think about. After a lot of discussions and phone calls to everyone that might know something about cars, we decided to buy the Land Cruiser Prado. I mean how cool, I've just bought my first car and I don't even have a drivers license... Our trip from Darwin to Perth will take around 5000km including off road tracks. So the car need to be reliable. So far so good as we have "only" had 1 flat tyre. Guess it's not too clever to say it A new tyre coast us a hell of a lot money, but hey at least I've learned how to change a tyre now.. And let's just all hope this was the first and last time for this trip.

Border crossing

One of the weird things about Australia is probably the difference in states. Each state has different rules and laws. While traveling from Darwin to Perth you'll have to cross the border of WA. All good until we heard stories about the strictness at the border security. Even though it's the same country we were not allowed to bring in any fruit, veggies or honey. Mistake number 10? We just bought groceries for the week.. so clever as we were. We stopped literally a couple meters before the border to eat as much as we could to not waist that much of our veggies. It must have looked really weird but hey we are just some poor backpackers.. Another weird fact about crossing the border was the time. Western Australia is 1,5 hours behind of Northern Territory which meant as soon as we crossed the border we went 1,5 hours back in time.

On the road again

We drove down from Darwin to Katherine including Kakadu and Litchfield national park, followed the highway down to Kununurra. We've visited Lake Argyle and Purnululu national park before we headed off to the Gibb River Road. What was supposed to be 660 km 4WD track through the roughest outback places of Australia. It's also known as the worst road for your tyres and people usually waist 2 or more tyres while driving down the road. We had to skip it for our own safety. Most of the Gorges and waterfalls were closed due the massive bushfires. We discussed our options and safety with the rangers and pretty much no one recommended to get on the road now. In stead we have done the Fitzroy crossing so we were able to see Tunnel Creek and Windjana Gorge.

We had to drive straight through a couple of huge fires to go back to Kununurra. Pretty much everything burning down everywhere around us. Trust me it will leave you a bit speechless... The blue sky was turning black of the smoke quite fast. A couple of lost kangaroos jumped hopelessly around looking for a place to hide. It's such an unreal view. I've never realised what a huge impact bushfires could have.

While driving on, sometimes endless, roads with nothing but trees and sand, pretty much the only worry you'll have are the animals. Never ever have I seen so many dead animals on the road. Most common are definitely the kangaroos. Massive birds who are eating everything that's left of those poor things. It is not surprising though. Kangaroos aren't that clever and will just jump in front of your car while you're driving. Not only kangaroos are that stupid, we also have seen heaps of cows crossing the street while you're driving 120 km/h on the high way. It's sometimes so hard to avoid an accident as their behaviour is so unpredictable. Will have to knock it off but we have, so far, not hit any animal. Ok, except for the twenty frogs in Litchfield..

The second part

Two and a half week in the middle of nowhere without running water, fresh food or any kind of facility in combination with the heat is sometimes though. The nature was beautiful but because it's the end of dry season most of the Gorges and Waterfalls are all dry. Windjana Gorge for example only had a couple of meters water left. The good thing (well, it's what you can call good) about it was that we were able to see heaps of crocs as they all stayed at the same spot. We could just walk in the middle of the gorge as there was no water. A meter away of all the freshies (don't get me wrong) I'm still not a big fan of them but is was a cool experience. In the meantime all our clothes have turned brown/red of the sand. But not only our clothes pretty much everything that can change colour changed.

So after two weeks we decided we have had enough of the outback for now and drove to Broome. A pretty small place (but way bigger then we've seen in the last weeks) with stunning beaches. Finally! A beach and an ocean to swim in. I just can't describe how happy it made me to swim in the ocean and relax on the beach again.

Broome is also known of the camel riding on the beach, as I've never been on a camel before I had to do it! Not only the ride was fun, the view was even better. The (pre sunset) sun shined on the beautiful turquoise water while the camels walked slowly on the white sand. It was just stunning.

We also spotted some rare dolphins (Dugongs) on a boat tour we did. It wasn't the best tour but the water colour (and maybe all the cakes and fruit we got) made it definitely worth it.

This was just the beginning of the new part of our trip. I'm really excited about everything we will pass the next following weeks. Including Karijini national park and lots coral reefs. With just 3 weeks of traveling left I'll try to enjoy every second twice. I've said it before, pictures and stories won't even come close to what it looks like in reality. - Even though it doesn't stop me from taking photos and writing stories to share at least a little bit with you all.

Be back soon.