Jon and I are back in Melbourne after our first Aussie holiday to the “top end” of Australia. When we were getting ready to leave on our trip, we engaged in one of Jon’s favorite activities… speculating. Much like CNN, Jon does not need to know the facts before going into great detail on a topic. Here are a couple of things we were wondering about beforehand:

What would it be like to fly domestically in Australia?
When flying in the US, we got quite used to having our identity checked multiple times before boarding a plane and the usual shuffle to get ready to go through security – after waiting in line for ages of course. I am both happy and terrified to report that in Australia, NO ONE checked my identity on any leg of our trip. Jon handed over his license to check in for our flight home, but we are pretty sure it wasn’t compulsory. We could also leave our shoes on and went through a regular schmegular metal detector so no getting patted in awkward places by the TSA after something shows up on the full body scanner screen somehow. And the cherry on top? The whole process, curb to gate, took about 5 minutes.

What did people mean by crowded?
In reading about Kakadu and Litchfield National Parks, we couldn’t miss being warned that both parks are subject to be very crowded in the dry season and you almost have to rent a 4WD vehicle to avoid the crowds. Well… I am very pleased to report that is a whole lot of stuff and nonsense. The most crowded place we went had what I would guess to be less than 100 people and that was with the parking lot almost full, meaning it really couldn’t get much more crowded. The place we stayed at in Cooinda did have heaps of people staying there, mostly in campas, but I am not sure where they all went during the day because we never saw more than a few people on any given bushwalk.

We are slowly adjusting to getting back to reality after a week of having our most pressing decisions be about where to eat and when to start drinking so there is lots more to come about the trip. Eventually.