Kakadu was fantastic. Due to the recent rain and the passing of Cyclone
Steve (it made it all the way over here from Cairns), most of the park was
flooded. But we came up with an alternate itinerary that was lots of fun.
We had to take a three-hour detour to enter the park from the other end, but
we finally got in and made the most of it.

Kakadu is about 80% savannah woodlands and 20% monsoonal vineforest. Tons
of wildlife, and lots of beautiful scenery. The only thing I didn't like
were all the flies and mossies (mosquitos). Camping and eating was a pain
in the butt.

Travis, our friendly and knowledgeable driver and tour guide, was fantastic,
right up there with Clarke on the tour guide scale. He really knew his shit
and had a great sense of humor. He led us on a few nature hikes through the
forest and up rocky embankments, and he answered every single question I had
about the history, geology, and biology of Kakadu.

I then returned to Darwin for one more night. After dinner, I met up with
the Kakadu crew at the Victoria Hotel, got drunk, played some embarrassing
bar games on stage, and then went back to the hostel to catch a few hours
sleep before boarding the bus at 5:40am the next morning.

The bus stopped at Katherine Gorge later that afternoon. We did some
serious hiking up and down the gorge in sweltering heat. After getting lost
a few times, it ended up taking an hour and a half to get to a scenic
waterfall for a swim, then another hour and a half to get back. It's
amazing my sandals stayed on my feet the whole time with all the heat,
sweat, crumbling rocks, and twisted ankles. Kudos to Nike.

The next morning we stopped at a small town called Larrimah for a toilet
break. A friendly black dog named Zoe came up to me with a yellow sandal in
her mouth, and we tustled for a bit before boarding the bus again.

We stopped at Tennant's Creek, a tiny town with a horse farm, for the night.
It had been raining there as well, getting a year's worth of rainfall in ten
days just before I arrived. The flies and mossies were horrendous, worse
than Kakadu. I went to sleep in a swag (portable mattress) in my tent very
early since there was nothing worthwhile to do with all the bugs outside.
All of the English travelers were freaking out at all the crickets and
grasshoppers. Apparently they don't have them back home.

We hopped on the bus again this morning and stopped at Devil's Marbles, a
scenic spot with lots of cute little round boulders stacked on top of one
another. While waving flies away from my face, I managed to take a few
pictures.

We stopped at Ti (pronounced TEE) Tree for lunch, and I bought a painted
kangaroo figurine carved out of wood. The guy behind the counter then
offered me his collie for $21 plus $45 shipping to the States.

We passed the Tropic of Capricorn and finally rolled into Alice Springs this
afternoon. It's very hot and very dry here. And no flies or mossies. Yay.

The bus ride, booked through Oz Experience but run by Northern Territory
Adventure Tours, was treacherous. Too many bugs, eating every meal out of
rusting metal plates got old, the music on the bus was always loud techno,
and our driver, a native Australian, had a hard time understanding me when I
spoke.

Most of the landscape was hilly, with small trees and patches of tall grass
all the way down, a lot like New Mexico or Arizona. They say that the area
is uncharacteristically green because of all of the recent rain. Normally,
this is called the Red Center because of the rust-colored sand and barren
landscape.

In the next couple of days, I'll be touring Ayers Rock and King's Canyon,
the main attractions of central Australia. Then I board the Oz Experience
bus and travel down to Adelaide.

I'm considering extending my trip once again, to the full stay that my
current ticket allows for (six months). That would have me home in mid-June.
I just feel like I might need a little more time in Melbourne. I have some
friends to visit there, and from what I hear it's one of the nicest cities
in Australia.

Many wrote explaining that coffee was a diuretic, making me pee more. But
perhaps I wasn't being clear. I've been having more number twos lately,
and I was wondering it *that* was caused by the coffee. If I was just
peeing a lot, I wouldn't have cared so much about the piss-drenched toilet
seats. But I was pooping a lot more, and that's why the wet toilet seats
were an issue. Kristin mentioned that coffee is indeed a laxative, so I
guess that means that I'll be cutting back on my cappuccinos.

Also got a lot of interesting responses about the rainbow effect caused by
my polarizer when taking pictures out of an airplane window. Lots of
creative guesses, but I think Rick nailed it:

> Taking photos through an airplane window is weird because the window
> is made of Lexan and has two pieces sandwiched together. Between the two
> pieces is a small vacuum. The Lexan is a very strong polymer that probably
> reacted with the polarizing lens. What you were seeing was the "structure"
> of the Lexan.

Thanks Rick. Please forward all polymer-related questions to Rick at
kendall@net1.net.

Liam: I think you would be happy making a living as a tour guide down here
in Australia. The guides that I have had all love what they do, love
nature, meet lots of interesting people, and apparently get laid as much as
they want to. Forget about research and all that crap. This is the life.

Ghita: Just after leaving Katherine Gorge, we drove by a small town named
Beswick.

No Regrets.

Jeff