Well, its been nearly a week since I got back from Darwin, so an update is in order. The plane was late in leaving Sydney, so instead of arriving in Darwin just after midnight, it was closer to 130. By the time the tour bus made it to my hostel it was after 2, then I had to wait to check in as theres one guy who handles overnight check ins for multiple hostels. Ultimately, I got to bed (not sleep) around 3. 3 fitfull hours later I was up, getting my things ready for a 4 day/3 night tour of Kakadu. I had booked the shorter 2 night tour, but I was alone in that idea, so the tour company upgraded me to the 4 day tour for free. Of course, I would not get to see Darwin at all, but from all accounts thats not a big loss. Day one was probably the hardest to deal with - getting used to subtropical weather (think August weather) while seated in the back of a Landcruiser with 8 other travellers and guide for 3+ hours. The highlight of day 1 had to be the aboriginal rock art at Ubirr rock and the views of the Arnhem Land Escarpment. Beef fajitas and beer for dinner near the creek where some German tourist met her fate via saltwater crockodile last october capped off day1. The next day we were off to Jimjim falls. Kinda long hike but we were rewarded with an unbelievable freshwater pool at the top of the falls. Crystal clear water in the middle of a desert type environment (at least in the dry season) - it was something out of a film, and it would turn out to be one of several such oasi (is that a word? many oasis's must be oasi, right?).
The rest of the trip was dominated by 4WD trek into a remote area of the park, a short hike and another cool place to swim and get splashed underneath the waterfalls. And no crocs to worry about. Got some exposure to Aboriginal culture and art too, which is part and parcel of this part of australia. I hoped that I would be able to buy some artwork, what with the remoteness of the area and the favorable conversion rate, but I guess that was wishful thinking. No worries, prints will do.

The day to day routine here can be just that. A typical Tuesday isn't any more adventurous or exotic than a Tuesday in Rhode Island, but this place was great. I saw more stars at night than I've ever seen before, including all the camping in the middle of nowhere in the white mountains. Stunning place...And I've still got sooo much more to look forward to. Hell, I'll be at the barrier reef in less than 3 weeks!!!

I do have a few digital photos, but I haven't dropped off the 35mm rolls yet. Found out that my Pentax camera body won't adjust the aperture on my lens' anymore. Not happy about that at all. To put it in eyeball terms, the pupils of my camera were dilated, so the only control I had was to adjust the shutter speed. In the bright sun, 1/1000 sec is still going to let too much light in. Should be interesting anyway - sometimes a slight overexposure isn't that bad. Spent a good part of Saturday messing with html so I can build some webpages of my pictures. The pisser is that I left some good cheatsheets on building pages back in the states, so I have to relearn all that I've long since forgotten. A definite pain in the ass. Still aiming at getting pics up before the weekend is over.