the long way round

it sounds so wasteful it’s almost ridiculous, right? we really have not seen anything like this for a few months, since our trip to the cape range (exmouth) actually. that’s exactly the other side of the country. literally. it came as a bit of a shock today to see the windscreen wipers turn on. it’s…

aka zippy’s resting place. it’s another of these ‘iconic’ aussie places in the sense that you have to be pretty determined to make your way there in the first place. as previously discussed we decided to take the easy (but boring) way from mataranka through three ways, barkly and then up from camooweal to adel’s…

it is with great sadness that we announce the recent passing of our friend and companion zippy the little camera drone. he died doing what he liked best, zipping around trying to get the best shot for this blog. but just like icarus he found that when you get close to the sun – or…

i did mention yesterday that we decided to take the chicken option: the long way on the smooth tarmac. as expected there was not too much excitement, except maybe for natalie who found another snake to pat at the little roper homestead. unfortunately for her she then had to use the 8 hours in the…

we spoke to some more people and the consensus is that the road between domagee and borroloola is not too good. we therefore decided to take the long way round: we’ll go south between the tanami desert and the barkly ranges, then turn east at three ways and hope to get to the barky roadhouse…

we spent our last day in kakadu trekking out to jim jim falls. we knew the falls were no longer running this late in the dry but we were keen to see it anyway. (above the trail into jim jim falls. can’t see the trail … isn’t that fun.) jim jim falls are massive: the…

we didn’t know what to expect of kakadu and to be honest the drive there from darwin doesn’t really prepare you either. that road takes you through what seems pretty normal australian bush. the first hint at what’s to come is the mary river billabong. it’s pretty unusual in a couple of ways, and only…

once upon a time, in the not too distant past, yet sufficiently long ago so nobody around today needs to feel responsible, farmers in north queensland were in trouble. their sugar cane was not being consumed by people waiting to pay decent money for it, instead it was devoured by the despicable and above all…

natalie has finally found her most favourite place in australia. sure, it’s really hot here: even in winter (right now) the daytime temperature is a serious 33-34 degrees, we don’t even want to think about what it would be like in summer. at least it is not as humid as it would be during the…

that’s apparently the best they can do. ‘crocs have been known to move into this area undetected.’ should we be worried? ‘we patrol the area regularly and set traps.’ reassuring. ‘saltwater crocs are removed when detected.’ we certainly hope so. the whole ‘where the bloody hell are you’ slogan doesn’t go down quite as well…

not quite what snap rapped about in 1990 but we can safely assume the only reason for this unfortunate slip-up was that they were unaware of the great bowerbird (scientifically known as chlamydera nuchalis). bowerbirds are quintessentially australian: their lives revolve around their bower, which they spend practically all their time building, maintaining, improving and…