Singapore & Northern Australia
Posted by Kirsty on October 24th 2007
Written on the 2007 London to Sydney expedition
Leaving behind the bright lights of Kuala Lumpur, we headed to the very end of the Malaysian Peninsula and onto the island of Singapore. It is a cosmopolitan city/country with diverse Chinese and Indian communities. Highlights here were visiting the famous Raffles Hotel and indulging in a Singapore Sling or two and spending the day at the world class Singapore Zoo featuring animals such as orang-utans, chimpanzees and polar bears.
We then said our farewells as a group to embark on our independent travels while the truck was shipped to Australia. People dispersed to a variety of locations including the Philippines, Hong Kong, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Borneo, East Timor and Japan. By all accounts a fantastic time was had by all. The main activities were beaches and diving, wildlife spotting (orang-utans, komodo dragons and proboscis monkeys) and experiencing different cultures.
We celebrated meeting up as a group again in Darwin with a traditional Aussie BBQ on the ocean front – overlooking the Timor Sea. We had the quintessential ‘shrimp on a barbie’ (aka prawns), snags (aka sausages), skippy (aka kangaroo) and, of course, cold beer…
Setting off the next morning to Kakadu National Park we took in sunset views over the flood plains teeming with bird life. About half the group rose very early the next morning to cruise the Yellow Waters wetlands and spotted ‘salties’ (aka estuarine crocodiles) and yet more birds. We also did a number of bush walks and visited aboriginal rock art sites. It has been estimated by archaeologists that aboriginals have lived in the Kakadu region for between 40,000 and 50,000 years – a truly ancient culture.
Next stop was Katherine Gorge – an amazing geological formation forged by the Katherine River over the millennia. Here we marvelled at the breathtaking scenery by boat, canoes, bush walking and swimming. Onward down the Stuart Highway we stopped off at Mataranka Thermal Pool for a quick dip before a pub lunch at Daly Waters Pub – a good ole` outback watering hole.
Devils Marbles, a collection of granite boulders precariously balanced on top of one another in a seemingly impossible arrangement was our next stop where we encountered a group kids from a local Aboriginal school on an excursion. They were more fascinated by us and our truck than they were in the big round rocks.
We have been sharing the Stuart Highway with all sorts of weird and wonderful looking vehicles – the Solar Car Challenge from Darwin to Adelaide is currently on with entries from all over the world.
We are now in Alice Springs – the red centre of Australia looking forward to visiting Uluru and Kata Tjuta (aka Ayers Rock and The Olgas).
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