Kakadu letter from Kel:

:) i miss you guys a lot too.

things are busy, but you would love it here and i keep thinking that. maybe someday we can come back and i'll show you all the cool stuff. it was nice to talk to everyone last night, but since people were waiting i didn't get to tell anyone too much about the trip. i'll give the quick run down and then once i get pics back, i'll be able to tell you more about everything...

well, it started out when half of our group took a bus about 3 hours to kakadu national park (which is the size of israel or new jersey!). i was half asleep, but i woke up when our driver took a big u-turn, bus and trailer and all, and hopped out. we all looked out the bus and he told us to come out. for about 10 minutes, he picked up this snake and played with it, trying to catch its head. at some point, he took of his shirt to try and grab its head. he told us how dangerous it was (the second most dangerous in the world!) and someone said, your'e the real croc hunter, and he said "that stever irwin is a wussy, but he said something a little different, i'm the honest croc hunter." right after he said that, he jumped back, threw the snake away from us all and said, get in the car. none of us knew if it was a joke and something he does to all the tourists. to make a long story a little shorter, we realized he was serious when he drove away in a ranger car when we got to a gas station about 2 miles away! luckily he's fine because he got the anti venom, but if he hadn't he definitely would have died, or at least lost his finger or arm! another guy drove us to a water hole and we hung out there. it was crazy!!

the 3 days were insanely busy, but incredible!!! we saw a lot of aboriginal art painted on rocks. the guides were really informative and i asked them a lot of questions. they told us all about the culture, history, everything. we talked about how they use the plants and eco tourism a lot. how europeans treat aboriginal people (since i took that native american lit, i talked about the similarities a lot). they were all crazy too, just what you'd think of outdoors australians to be. we saw incredible waterfalls (jim jim and twin if you look up pics in the web). i had to swim pretty far there and we hiked a bunch. camping was fun too but we all passed out as soon as we got to the sites. i'll tell you guys more about everything later. oh yea, the other exciting thing was taking these little boats where there were crocs everywhere! mom, don't worry we were all safe. i'll have a ton of pics to show you guys. i should run. we leave for canberra tonight (at 1 am!!) and i have to start my next paper and turn a summary in before we get there.

i love you guys!! and i miss you a lot! love, me

Itinerary 3 Days Jim Jim Falls & Twin Falls, Magela Wetlands

Kakadu Web Link