rinjani volcano trek - lombok

once we got into bali - at 6am - we hailed a taxi with a fair amount of trouble and went to padang bai to catch a fast boat to lombok port (teluk nara) where our tour guide was waiting for us to drive us to senaru.  the boat trip was rather bumpy but beautiful. lombok turned out to be an incredible island. it's relatively untouched by tourism and so much more beautiful overall. it was a great way to see more of local life.  we embarked on a 4 day/3 night trek of the second highest volcano in indonesia (rinjani). it was one of the hardest and steepest treks i've been on but also one of the most beautiful. i saw my first shooting star on this trip which was exciting. our guide and porters were incredible. they carried so much weight and ran up and down the mountains in just flip flops, barely breaking a sweat.  this trek was one of my favorite parts of our trip. see more photos in this album

drive to darwin - june holiday

we're finally back after 5 wonderful weeks away!  i've broken up the trip into 6 sections.  the first part of the trip saw us driving from derby, along the great northern highway, to darwin over three days.  what an incredible drive. the first day we left at 6am and it took us 9 hours to get to kununurra where we camped at discovery park along the lake.  the drive was so beautiful. we saw all kinds of wildlife along the way like wallabies, cows, birds, snakes, goana's, lizards, etc. next day we explored kununurra for a bit and then drove to katherine where we stayed with friends of a friend. next day we explored katherine gorge which was fantastic and then drove up to darwin.  on the way we stopped to hike into edith falls - a really beautiful oasis. on the way from kununurra to darwin we saw wedge tailed eagles, wild pigs, wild horses, and lots more of the typical wildlife.  we also saw many beautiful mountains (hills really) and incredible sweeping vistas. left for bali at 2am...which was a bit rough. see more photos of our drive through the kimberley and into the nothern territory (to the top end!) in this album