darwin

i arrive at the darwin airport at 3am.
i was lucky enough to find a couchsurfer in darwin named dan.
dan even offered to come get me at the airport at that outrageous hour, which i was so happy for.
on the flight to darwin i met a canadian girl from quebec, who was planning on staying in darwin for a week or so, while she tried to figure out where to go from there. since we had similar plans, and hit it off really well we decided to exchange information and hopefully met up. so over the next week in darwin gabrielle and i met up in the city centre and contacted many different people who were looking for travel mates for an aussie adventure!
one day we met up with an irish guy named kai. unfortunately for gabrielle and i, kai could only take one person. and since gabrielle's main focus was to travel the west coast, and kai was heading east, i decided to say farwell to gabrielle and leave with kai.
i met kai on a monday and we left for the outback the following morning. kai owns a beast of a landcruiser, which was perfect for the terrain we were about to face. i told him thats my plans were wide open and i was game for anything. and he told me that he really wanted to get to australia's most northerly point before wet season hit, so we set off for cape york.
kai and i spent almost three weeks camping in the outback. this was by far my favorite part about my trip to australia. we slept somewhere new almost every night. and 99% of the time it was just a spot we picked in the bush on the side of the road. highlights include waking up in my tent being stared back at by 19 kangaroos, seeing all of the indigenous communities, and of course making it to cape york, the northern most point of australia.
i needed to make it to sydney by the end of november, and kai was looking to head west, to central australia, so we split paths in rockhampton. and this is the part i waited to tell my mom about till after it happend. i decided i wanted to hitchhike!
kai was not thrilled about the idea, so we picked a decent looking spot on the side of the road, and i made a sign saying 'south', although i knew it wouldnt last long since it was POURING rain out! and kai parked a little down from me, so he could see who picked me up, and get their plate numbers. within two minutes of standing out on the road, a white suv stopped, and i jogged up to the side to see where he was heading. his name was ian and he was heading five hours down the road to maryborough. ian was the first of the four guys that took me from rockhampton to sydney. this was the thrill and experience of a lifetime. although i must admit, im not in any hurry to do it again.