Darwin, Australia (pre IBO)

Hey guys, I've returned from by far the best week of my life.

Will be posting pictures slowly; not all in one go because that would just be an overload.

So, took a trip with a few friends up to Darwin: JH, LW and TH.

I can tell you, Darwin was just as I expected it to be. Very hot, dry, and not very dense.

A beach we passed on Day 1 as we walked around, exploring.

Didn't really do much; just walked around in the local area. Walked past a beach, but was told that we can't swim in it because there are

1. Box jelly fish

2. Saltwater crocs

A nearby park.
(It looks a lot colder than it actually was)

Yeah, the weather was a lot to take. I understand why we had to acclimatise.

Within the first day we were all burning out and had to succumb to some nice gelato!

Peanut butter and hazelnut, I think.

Had a bit of time to kill before dinner, so just walked around the wharf area and explored a bit.
Can't exactly say that Darwin is the most /exciting/ place to go.

It was refreshing to just chill around though, and enjoy the area. You don't get places with so little people in other cities.

Nice view on the wharf during sunset :)

Walked around and explored a cliff area.
We didn't realise it said 'Do not enter, danger' until after we left, but the view was nice.

Friend JH being deep and looking over the cliff. We honestly had nothing better to do.

Dinner was nice, and explored a bit more here and there; nothing quite particularly worth mentioning.
The sunset was nice though! Managed to take this nice little shot.

Actually took this shot while crossing the road (living life on the edge)

 Day 2 and we drive out for an hour into the outback. Ahhh, this is the /real/ Australia that everyone has a stereotypical view of.

Went out croc-jumping!

Yeah, I was confused when I first heard the term. I thought we were jumping over crocodiles or something, but turns out we go out on a boat and watch crocodiles do the jumping.

The dock before entry

We were pretty safe in the boat, but I can tell you that it was still pretty extreme. Nothing I'd ever experienced beforehand.

The tour guide would dangle some meat on the end of a metal rod and bait crocodiles to jump up and snap it, while we watched in awe, safely sitting behind some aluminium metal bars.

In the boat

I can tell you that it was a photo-fest.
I went very trigger happy :)

They were salt water crocodiles, i.e., the dangerous kind. Some of them were legit massive sized (about 3 metres long) and they got up right next to the boat.

 Next, drove another hour or so to look at some termite mounds, also in the outback.

Termite mounds. They kind of look like a graveyard, actually.

I'll say that it wasn't as exciting as croc-jumping, but it was better than sitting around with nothing to do.

The toilet there was absolutely disgusting though, let me tell you that...

And the long car ride was pretty boring and unentertaining. Slept most of it.

Another view of a termite mound. Some of them were legit 5-6 metres tall :o

 With time still left on our hands and running out of things to do, we went to a nearby waterfall.

Yep. That's right. Crocodiles and humans. Together.
But, apparently these are freshwater crocs, so they're friendly and okay to swim with?? I still didn't risk it though (I also didn't have swimmers, so)

 The view was nice though, even though I was later told by my local friend, SK, that the one we visited was one of the smaller ones that weren't actually that /impressive/ compared to the other hidden gems.

I can't say that I wasn't still in awe, though. It's better than anything we get back down at home.

Also went for a little forest walk with the Team.

It was pretty tiring. A lot of climbing, a lot of wooden stairs, and very, very hot. I can tell you that we still were pretty unacclimatised, and getting eaten alive by mosquitoes wasn't exactly pleasant either.

But, I enjoyed the view! And managed to get some pretty nice video footage files, which I haven't gotten around to editing just yet.

LW wandering through the track.

That's about all we did in Darwin.

I'm not going to lie, it wasn't really /that/ exciting. It was just cool to be somewhere different, and to really experience what Darwin is actually like first-hand.

Definitely the highlight would be the croc-jumping.

Then, skip a little bit and we find outselves in Bali, Indonesia. Ahh, this is where the fun really starts.

But, that'll be a post saved for later. For now, a couple of photos as teasers. Will post the rest in a couple of days... Maybe.

Arrived at night

The hotel.
Ayoda Bali Resort.