Arrieved (kind of)

Tamed kangaroos eating eucalypt leafs on the camping side, big bats are hanging like fruits from trees, half meter tall black cackadoes and a lot of unknown birds with unfamiliar noises. I am starting to comprehend that I am in some totally different continent.

Aboriginal Culture

On Sunday and Monday we have visited rock painting sites and an aboriginal center where we learned a lot about the aboriginal culture. Here is some pieces:
The Rainbow Serpent is one of the main ancestor of the aborigines. She tends to swallow people.
Mimi Spirit was the first who started rock painting and taught this art to some of the aborigines. She is quite thin and tall. There was a painting cca. 6-8 high from the ground. And this was Mimi's art. She just took the rock, painted it and placed back to its original place. It is also said that Mimi is invisible by the non-aboriginals, that must be true as I did not see her.
It is said that the act of painting is more important than the result. A painting is forbidden to damage as that could hurt the spirit. Though it is ok to paint on the top of an other painting so several layers of paintings are created.

Jumping Crocs

On Sunday we visited the 'Jumping Crocodiles' at Adelane river. The 'show' was run by 2 biologist who knows crocs as they friends. They told that the crocs has personalities. We saw cca. 6 of them and the biggest one was over 5m. The lady hanged fresh meal on a pole above the river and the crocodiles jumped to catch it, showing their chest and sometimes front legs. And tooth, of course. At the end the lady let them to catch the meat as their reward for the performance. We cold see the nest of one of the female one -- though without anything in it this time. We can also see the biggest bird,of the continent: macmac, that was also feed by the lady. And some smaller predator bird.

(photo by Csilla Chlebik)

Home, sweet home

So a campervan for 6 will be our home during the following 16 days.

Arriving to Darwin

Bus stop decorated with aboriginal motives. Unfamiliar trees along the street. And eucalyptuses. Driving on the 'wrong' side.
Waiting for the campervan renting company to open.
Tired. Happy.

Dubai Airport

Have you ever been in a prayer room at the airport? I was, in Dubai. And I was surprised experiencing the following: two woman was lying on the floor, most probably sleeping. Two other was sitting around silently. After a little while a phone was ringing and was answered and a conversation was started on normal voice-level. Shortly after a conversation was finished a mother with 3 little children entered. The children started to play and chat and run and this made the place feels more a kindergarten than a mosque. Soon a cleaning lady appeared and started her work.
I hope I did not disturb anyone by not covering my head in a mosque...

Later I checked the 'rules' on the wall and -- for my surprise -- there was nothing about keeping the silence. So my assumption seemed to be false. Neither was there any restriction regarding clothes -- for my relief.

Upside Down

Australia was not on my bucket list. But my friend convinced me.

Imi (my friend) is in love with Australia. He has been preparing to visit since his childhood. Eventually they (he with some of his friends) spent a month there last year and traveled the middle part of the continent ending up with visiting the most populated area and big cities like Sidney and Melbourne.

As appetite comes with eating he wanted more. This year he is visiting the remote and abandoned north-west area. Er..., did I say 'abandoned'? Indeed it is populated with 'cute' animals like poisonous snakes, gigantic spiders, scorpions, crocodiles and tiny jellyfishes that can go through the net installed against them and can kill you. Appealing, isn't it? Well, for me it is. I was always attracted by remote areas fare from the hordes of tourists and where the trace of human being is almost invisible.

So I joined the adventure to travel from Darwin to Perth in 16 days. A distance and places of interest that would worth 3 months. It will be dense...

This time Imi arrange & organise almost everything so I can lay back and enjoy the ride. ;)

With Zuzmóka we are preparing seriously as you can see in the picture.

(Zuzmóka is a plush salamander, who I usually travel with as I was warned that travelling alone might be dangerous.:))