Camille’s Big Adventure

After leaving the family I rented a small SUV and hit the road traveling west to Kakadu National Park. As  I got out of the city the road began to be surrounded by wildlife. I drove by hundreds of wallabies, as well as, flocks of kites, black and white cockatoos, magpie geese, brogla, herons, and many other creatures. I made it to my campsite for the night at a small brewery where I had a turmeric ginger beer and tucked myself into the back seat of the car for the night. I got up early the next morning and drove the rest of the way to Kakadu. I visited the really fantastic visitor center which had a great array of different displays talking about the history, wildife, and ecology of the regions and got some advice on places to go. I went for a short walk before heading to the east alligator river for a cultural boat tour. Along the tour an aboriginal guide told us about the geology of the region, his local customs, and showed us lots of wildlife. We saw a few sea eagles, which are ...

The train trip ended in Darwin, NT. The northern end of Australia. We settled into our accommodation for a few days. It was really lovely to spend a few days with all of us in one house together. It was so nice to visit a variety places around town, but also to spend time in the backyard with our feet in the pool watching birds and chatting. In the remaining days of my time hanging with the family I enjoyed exploring Darwin a bit. As always visiting a botanic garden is the top of my list and the Darwin garden didn't disappoint. It had a beautiful orchid and epiphyte house, as well as, nice rainforest gardens. I love how the botanic gardens in Australia are free and well taken care of. They are always fun to explore and I am always happy for a calm and relaxing place to walk about. In evening we went to the harbor for a sunset cruise, included as part of the train trip. Overall, the buffet was a bit underwhelming, but I did enjoy sitting on the deck and watching the sunset over the ...

The next portion of the journey was a train ride called The Ghan (pronounced like Afghanistan, the namesake of this portion of the journey. Afghani and other middle eastern immigrants used to be the primary travelers along this route using imported camel trains across the desert).  We had a few hiccups with the booking, my single room was going to be in a different area than the rest of the family, which we didn't realize would mean that I could not socialize with them the entire 3 days. My dad was kind enough to upgrade me to a double room in their carriage, which was really great. The rooms were small with two singe beds. During the day, the lower bunk folded into a couch and the upper bunk folded into the wall. The bathrooms were small and contained a shower and toilet in the same small space, not unlike many I experienced in Vietnam. Each room had a nice big window and a small table. I spent little time in this room though, other than sleeping, as my main intention was to hang ...

We spent the next few days in Adelaide where we enjoyed moving slowly, eating delicious foods, and spending quality time. Our first morning in Adelaide we headed downtown to the museums. We wandered through the immigration museum which was really interesting and full of information on the history of immigration in Australia. From the displacement of indigenous people to the placement of criminals then eventually the English promises of it being a land of opportunity. It discussed the Australia white policy which gave immigration preference and encouragement to white immigrants through the 60s which changed with the definitions of whiteness over the years. Then into the current immigration schemes, British are still the highest proportion of immigrants here, but Chinese and Indians are coming in growing numbers now. It was really fascinating to read the history over time. After the immigration museum we went to the art museum and looked at lots of cool art. Especially some really intere...

 Driving west towards Adelaide we had a few big days of driving. The first day we drove through the city for a while before stopping in Canberra to get lunch and have a quick squizz around the botanic gardens. We had a delicious lunch and hit the road again. We drove along stopping at few spots along the way to see some street art before ending up at our Airbnb in Wodonga. It was kinda funny town. It seemed quite large, but we hardly saw any other people despite being a weekend night the downtown area seemed abandoned and even the neighborhood of our place all the houses had their lights off. It was a great stop over though to rest up before another big day of driving.  Next we drove southwest stopping in a cute town of Warangatta along the day. It was a beautiful little town to stretch our legs in before continuing on to Melbourne where we had lunch with Hope and Scott. They were lovely as always and it was good to have a catchup with them. Next we headed south t...