I have put one new picture on the picture page, check it out, Christmas in Oz ;) It is taken at the Pinnacles in Western Australia, really beautiful with millions of those rock formations and we saw emus running around. Enjoy the holidays.

Finally I am in Melbourne after a very very long train journey from Perth (2 1/2 days). It is very cold here, only around 20 `C and that is a big change from last month. On my way from Perth the temperature went up to 46 `C and I think that must be the hottest I have ever experienced. I want to wish you all a Merry Christmas and a very happy year.

Nicole, Seamus, Debbie, Anne Marie, Donna, Julia, Piet and Yan: I miss you terribly, enjoy Christmas in Perth

Elsku allir sem hafa lesid bloggid mitt, takk fyrir oll kommentin, tad er otrulega gaman ad lesa tau. Gledileg jol og eg hlakka til ad sja ykkur a nyja arinu ;) Og super gellur, syngid extra hatt fyrir mig i fridargongunni a Torlaksmessu.

Long time since I wrote and I warn you, I have a lot to write ;) Western Australia is definately a highlight in my trip, it is so big but long distances between places so we spent a lot of time driving, 9 people living like sardines in the two cars. Some of the places we stayed in were so small that we had to camp. We had two tents which fitted max 6 people so when we camped some had to sleep outside or in the car. That was a very interesting experience, I got badly eaten by sandflies one night and spent two days 'tryingnottoscratch' but it is better now.
We left Broome with bittersweet memories, the robbery was a big shock but we also had a great time there. Next destination was Port Hedland which is small but we stayed at a lovely backpackers and the next day we drove to the Karajini National park.

Karajini
This national park is beond description, definately one of the most amazing places I have seen in Australia. Spectacular canyons and gorges with fresh water which we were never tired of bathing in. To get to one of the gorges we had to go through cracks and caves and it was so fantastic to bathe there, in the middle of a canyon with rocks all around.

Coral Bay
Coral Bay is known for having corals stretching all the way to the shore. Unfortunately a cyclone made a big damage some years ago when the corals were spawning. The cyclone swept all the spawn into the bay which resulted in loss of oxygen in the bay. Most of the corals died but they are still alive a bit outside the bay. I did a tour in a glass bottomed boat to the living reef. A whole new view of the reef seeing fish swimming with and under the boat. I have snorkled a lot but I have never snorkled with so many fish before. They were countless, and all sizes, from very small to meter long fishes, very relaxed and I swam among them patting them. Completely amazing experience.

Monkey Mia
Monkey Mia is a tiny place where dolpins are fed and researched. Dolphins have been fed there for over 40 years, uncontrolled at first which was bad for them because they lost theire ability to hunt for themselves. Now it is different, they are only fed in the morning so they need to hunt to survive. We were lucky to be there at this time of year because two mothers had just had baby dolphins, only 1 and 1 1/2 weeks old. Incredibly cute and they swam with theire mothers right to the shore so we saw them very close. Wish you could have been there Helga :)

From Monkey Mia we drove to Kalbarry National Park. It is a beautiful place with gorges and the famouse Natures window, which is a rock formation, a hole in the rock. When we drove out of Kalbarry we passed a pink lake, yes it was bright PINK !!! We also saw Stromatolites, which are thought to be the oldest living beings in the world. They are cyanobacteria who gather clay and mud and make very strange formations in lakes and shores. The last destination before Perth was the Pinnacles, spectacular limestone formations. There is saw my very first emus, ofcourse I chased them to get a better look and photos. Really funny birds which can get very bad tempered and attack so I didnt go too close ;) I have been playing my didge alot and it is fantastic to play in the middle of nowhere, on empty beaches at sunset or in the bush. Driving into Perth made us all very sad, we all wanted to go back to the outback, not be in a crowded city. Coming to Perth also means the end of our trip together, five of us have been traveling for 4 weeks together, day and night and we are very close. I will be leaving Perth tomorrowmorning, taking the train to Melbourne and that will take 2 whole days. It will be very hard to say goodbye to my friends but I am also looking forward to spending Christmas in Melbourne.

The paradise Broome turned into a nightmare yesterday evening as our dorm got robbed :( Almost everything valuable was taken, my minidisc player and my sisters camera (sooorry Helga). They even took my toothbrush !!!! My videocamera and passport were in a safe in the reception so the most important things are ok, and I am so glad they didnt take my didge, too heavy propably. One girl was sleeping in the room when it happened and one walked into the room while the thief was still there, so we are just glad that nobody got hurt. Today is very strange, but we are slowly recovering so dont worry about me. The thing I am mostly frustrated about is that the camera had almost a full film with pictures from Kakadu and Darwin which cannot be replaced. We are comforting ourself with the thought that it could have been much worse, they could have taken everything. I promise more fun blog next time...

One word for Darwin: HOT !!! But I had a great time there and I would have wanted to stay longer. I met Dan's brother Barry and he showed me around, thanx again Barry and Claire ;)
Driving into Western Australia I saw a very heartwarming sight, the Baobab (Boab) trees which I havnt seen since Madagascar. They are also called "The trees god planted upside down" because in the dry season the branches look like roots. These trees are only found in Madagascar, South Africa and the northern parts of Western Australia. We were 9 people traveling together in 2 cars from Darwin and now I am in Broome. The trip was horribly hot because the cars have no air con... so we sat there boiling for 2 days. But the people are great and it was a beautiful drive. Broome is lovely, very very hot and untill now our favourite place is our cool pool at the hostel. I say cool, because most pools are hot like in a bathtub and not very refreshing in this extreme heat. We went to a marked today and now we will go to the famouse beach of Broome and see the sunset.

Cairns-Darwin
This 5 day trip was amaaazing thanx to my group and Toni the guid. We all became very good friends and that made the trip so memorable. We did so many things, swam in lots of lakes some of them inhabited by freshwater crocs. They are called freshies and the saltwater crocs are called salties. The main difference between them is that the freshies are usually harmless and wont do anything unless you poke them or disturb, the salties on the other hand are extremely dangerouse and will attack and can kill if you get near the water. Nb. I did NOT swim with salties ;) !!! We also did a boat tour in Nitmiluk (Katherine) Gorge and that was absolutely amazing. It is in Katherine National park and it is a river in a canyon with aboriginal paintings and beautiful rock formations. It has been extremely hot since I left Cairns, no breeze from the sea anymore but it has its charme. On our way we stayed in 4 places, Croydon, Mt Isa, Cape Crawford (Heart Break Hotel) and Katherine. Our favourite was Heart Break Hotel which was so tiny and had a real country atmosphere. We saw some interesting animals on our way, frilled lizards, goana lizards, kangaroos and wallabys and some snakes. The most memorable animals i saw were the glowing worms in Katherine, they are bioluminiscent and we found them in the grass when we were looking for ghosts in the Springvale Homested, my hand was glowing after I picked one big up ;)
We were nine in the group and we got along very well. Six of us went in the 3 day trip to Kakadu and we will be five going to Broome together, Debbie, Ann Marie, Nicole and Seamus.

Kakadu
We only had one day in Darwin before we took the Kakadu tour. Kakadu is spectacular and it was fun to see some of the places where Crocodile Dundee 1 was shot. We swam in waterfalls and creeks, saw aboriginal rock art, danced with aborigines and did a boat trip on Mary river and there we saw a lot of crocodiles, both freshies and salties, some of them very big. The aboriginies were so much fun to talk to, they danced and played for us. Me and four others were painted in aboriginie style and we danced all kinds of dances with them. Kevin was one of the aboriginies and he masters the didgeridoo, we became special friends after I played for him and we decided to make a film together about Kakadu ;) Adorable man. Unfortunately Twin falls and Jim Jim falls, the main attractions in Kakadu, were closed, Jim Jim falls closed the day our journey began. But the guid took us to other places which were amazing as well, one of them was the place where Crocodile Dundee hunted the fish in the first film, and that film is one of my favourite films so I was very glad to see and swim in that place. We also witnessed crazy thunderstorms which can only be seen in the wet season. I had a very extraordinary shower experience in Kakadu where I was acompanied with couple of hundred cockroaches, huge hairy spider, frog and a praying mantace... it was one of those very quick showers !! I also got myself cought in a monstrouse spider web hosted by the huge Golden orb spider, it was bad enough feeling the web in my face and body but when the spider herself crawled up my leg i felt a bit uncomfortable, specially since I did not know what spider it was untill afterwards. These spiders are not deadly but have very painfull bites, I was lucky and afterwards I felt sorry that I ruined her big web. Other animals we saw were wallabys, wallaroos, freshwater shrimps, freshwater snake and termites. Termites build hug castles which look like tomb stones covering large areas and we were so extremely lucky to see them in the mating season. All of a sudden the air was filled with flying termites, the newly hatched kings and queens, the day after they were all gone. They crawl in the ground two and two togher and start a new family.