How we ended up in Jabiru

As a result of our Facebook and Instagram posts over the past two weeks, we’ve gotten multiple questions regarding where we were and how the keck we got there. I’m writing this post to hopefully give some background on where we are today and how we got here.

Where are we? Well, we’re in Australia. More specifically, we’re in Jabiru, Northern Territory, Australia, just outside Kakadu National Park. How did we get here? Well, let me tell you, it’s been a long trip so far.

October 24 – 29th

We left from Toronto on Oct 24th, flying through Chicago and Los Angles on the way to Melbourne, Australia. With the long flight across the Pacific Ocean (16 hours) and crossing the International Date Line, we ended up landing in Melbourne on Friday the 26th. After we were situated in our hotel, we spent the rest of Friday and Saturday exploring Melbourne. Here’s a city that is not at all what we expected. It’s an interesting mix of old and new with quaint streets and blocks of skyscrapers. This is a clean city with a wonderful mix of architecture and culture – a fantastically friendly city.

On Sunday the 29th, Julie took an all-day tour of the Great Ocean Road. Me, I stayed in bed with flu symptoms. The Great Ocean Road was going to be one of the highlights for me, but Julie did a great job of capturing some stellar pictures for me to pine over.

October 30th – 31st

Fortunately, I got to sleep in on Tuesday as we had a mid-day flight from Melbourne to Hobart in Tasmania. After landing, we took a nice walking tour of Hobart’s historic waterfront district. (see Hello Tasmania ) It was ironically, Halloween the following day when we got to see our first Tasmanian Devil at the Tasmanian Conservation Park, en route to Port Arthur. These are cute little creatures until you get close enough to see their teeth. Then, watching them tear into their lunch consisting of a leg of some animal…, well. I can tell you that they lost any semblance of cuteness.

The story of Port Arthur and the life of those interned there is interesting. This place housed repeat offenders and political prisoners. There was no escape. The one land-bridge to the rest of Tasmania was guarded by a line of chained dogs. Regardless, the terrain is so challenging that most that made it past the dogs returned hungry and dehydrated after a few days. The community was close to self-sufficient out of necessity. If they wanted a new building because they needed to store more food, they designed the building. Then they quarried the stone and built it.

November 1st – 2nd

Adelaide and Kangaroo Island were our home for the next few days. The city of Adelaide is a small town with a bigger city feel. Our group took a ferry from Cape Jervis across to Penneshaw on Kangaroo Island. There were loads of seals at Seal Harbor Conservation Park and loads more land animals in Flinders Chase National Park. The winds were blowing and it was cool, but an awesome day.

November 3rd – 5th

Saturday morning we flew over 1,000 miles traveling from Adelaide to Alice Springs and then on to Ayers Rock. The flight provides some perspective to the size of this country. While we saw Uluru of Ayers Rock from the distance, we spent the afternoon exploring the area and getting used to the heat. We stopped at a viewing sight at sunset, but the weather wasn’t cooperating. We saw a colorful display of lightning across the desert, but the clouds kept the sunset hidden. We did, however, enjoy some wonderful snacks and champagne while we watched nature’s lightning show.

Several of our traveling companions elected to strike out at 4:45 AM on camels to see the sunrise. Julie and I chose the ‘sleeping in option’. We got up sometime after 4:30 AM and had breakfast before heading out on a 9 AM tour of Uluru. The weather was fantastic with clear blue skies and temperatures in the mid-90s. In addition to learning about the geology of the area, we saw the rock up close, viewed 12,000-year-old cave paintings and learned of the cultural significance the rock holds for aboriginal people.

We traveled most of the day by bus on November 5th. After passing through Collins Station, Alice Springs greeted up late in the afternoon. There are several notable galleries of native art in the city that we had time to browse through. Before we knew it, the time to board the train was upon us. Dinner time saw us heading north out of Alice Springs on the Ghan Train en route to Darwin.

November 6th

There were a lot of miles to cover overnight. Traveling on the Ghan Train is somewhat like traveling in a 19th-century book. The train has a wonderfully classic look-and-feel to it. Our compartment had stacked bunks, but it was an interesting experience. The linen tablecloths, hot coffee, and breakfast all added to the nostalgic experience from the day before. After a stop of several hours to cruise the Katherine Gorge, we were back on the train heading for Darwin.

After a quiet morning in Darwin, we headed for Jabiru outside of Kakadu National Park. This brings you up to date on how we ended up in Jabiru on the US Election Day, 2018.

We’ll get more photos and blogs posted in the coming days.
.