Voyage au bout du monde...


"Il n'y a d'homme plus complet que celui qui a beaucoup voyagé, qui a changé vingt fois la forme de sa pensée et de sa vie".

Alphonse de Lamartine

mercredi 15 avril 2009

Crocodile Dundee

I will write this post in English for those who have tried to read the blog since the begining and don't understand French (I know I could have think of it before!).
I joined a group on monday to visit the Kakadu Parc near Darwin (in Austrlia near= under 400 km)
We started the adventure with a boat trip on the adelaide river to feed the crocos. I know you will think it's very touristic. But in reality wenn you are in the boat, the window is open and from the upper deck someone is hanging a piece of meat at the end of a rope and it's like 1 meter from you, you really have some emotions. Then the crocodile arrives, look at the piece of meat and jump to catch it. It's very impressive! Especially because it first has a look inside the boat and it's attracted by bright colours like my pink T-shirt for example :-)
Then we continued the trip to kakadu. During the 2 days we had swims in natural pools and water falls where 50 meters before you can see some signs preventing from the fresh water crocs or salted water crocs (bigger and more aggressiv). You just trust your guide and don't go where you don't really see the ground...well you try to.
we had a wonderful sunset at the top of a waterfall with crisps and dips for the aperitf (alcohol was waiting for us at the base camp).
Diner at the base camp with our camp fire. Sleep under the stars (in a tent but just to protect against flying insects so we could see the sky).
We had a small night walk near the water to see the crocs...but they weren't there (lucky me :-)
Next day, same same but different. Swimm in nice natural pools, walks and a nice lunch near a billabong (small lake) infested with crocs. But we didn't see them.
@ Olivier: you should have seen the way the guide drove on the slopes... I think we need to practice a bit. He droves like 60km/h on very bad slopes with our small van with 9 people inside and with a hangout (with all the food and material) and without using the 4wheel drive function. Just once (near the crocs billabong) we couldn't get out of the sand and had to push the car.
On the way back we saw some wallabies (small kangaroos). First time for me I saw wild ones alive!!

It was a very exciting trip!
I arrived this morning in Cairns, different atmosphere. The main activity is scuba diving and snorkeling. I'm thinking about doing my PADI license. The great barrier reef is a unique place for this!
Tomorrow I make a day trip with a boat to the reef. After that I will decide if I do the PADI.

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