Roadtrip Australia: Van-Tastic Northern Territory - WILLIE & ANDREW

Video - FINAL DOCUMENTARY

vantastic_nt — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 08:33:00 GMT

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Video - MEET JENNI

vantastic_nt — Thu, 13 May 2010 10:24:00 GMT

Roadtrip Australia: Van-Tastic Adventures Northern Territory

On their roadtrip through the Northern Territory of Australia with van-Tastic Adventures, Andrew's Australian friend joins in on the fun in Darwin!

Follow the adventures at http://www.vantastic.worldnomads.com, or on Twitter @Van_Tastic.

courtesy of worldnomads.com

Video - DAILY DOSE OF DALY WATERS

vantastic_nt — Tue, 11 May 2010 09:56:00 GMT

Roadtrip Australia: Van-Tastic Adventures Northern Territory

On their roadtrip through the Northern Territory of Australia with Van-Tastic Adventures, Andrew and Willie leave their legacy at Daly Water's Pub and cross the Tropic of Capricorn.

Follow the adventures at http://www.vantastic.worldnomads.com, or on Twitter @Van_Tastic.

Video - HOME, HOME ON THE RANCH

vantastic_nt — Mon, 10 May 2010 10:27:00 GMT

Roadtrip Australia: Van-Tastic Adventures Northern Territory

On their roadtrip through the Northern Territory of Australia with Van-Tastic Adventures, Andrew and Willie take cowboy lessons at Kelly's Ranch in Tennant Creek.

Follow the adventures at http://www.vantastic.worldnomads.com, or on Twitter @Van_Tastic.

PARTING WAYS

vantastic_nt — Wed, 5 May 2010 13:17:00 GMT

During the six weeks that I knew Geoff we grew close. When I first met him I was intimidated with little to no experience driving manual. But within moments he made me feel comfortable even on the opposite side of the road (not to mention the opposite side of a vehicle).

I drove Geoff for hours upon end. His seat molded to the shape of my rump. That is how close we became. He knew me. At night we stayed up late together sharing our thoughts and the rumbling of his refrigerator.

We had each other’s back. When he was thirsty I gave him petrol and when we were being attacked by mosquitoes he shielded us from their malaria. That’s the kind of campervan Geoff was.

If you asked me to describe him in one word? The little campervan that could. He was karmic. And just when you thought you had Geoff figured out he would surprise you with a button that triggers the sink that you didn’t even know existed.

He was wise. He taught us that parking in a space with low clearance will result in a moderately sized hole in the roof that will allow rain to seep through for two weeks.

Geoff was selfless but he wanted you to be prepared for every situation. That’s why sometimes he sacrificed his battery so that we wouldn’t become complacent. He used tough love and forced us to push the envelope or in most instances just push-start him.

We are all sad to watch Geoff go but he will always live in our hearts and 16 videos that are plastered all over the internet. He always told us, “If you drive it. And you film it. Then you will win it.” That is something that has always stuck with us.

Before we returned the keys to Traveler’s Autobarn Geoff made one final request. He asked me to tell his story and make sure that everyone voted for the Northern Territory team in the Van-tastic competition.

So please vote for us HERE. July 2^nd – 25^th. If not for us. Then at least for Geoff. It’s what he would have wanted you to do.

On a more serious note, Andrew and I would like to sincerely thank everyone that is reading this and has been following us along our six week adventure. We even want to thank those of you that reached this page by accident while looking for some other Andrew Adams and Willie Concepcion.

This trip has been an unforgettable experience and during our travel we fell in love with the beauty, culture and people of the Northern Territory. Our goal was always to share this love with you while showing our experiences in the most fun and interesting way possible. We hope you learned some things about the Northern Territory and if not at least had fun watching us embarrass ourselves.

We owe so much to Katrina Greeves, Alicia Smith, Tara Parsons and the rest of the World Nomads team. We also want to thank Kellie and Kate from Tourism NT, Phil from Traveler’s Autobarn for always looking after us and everyone we encountered along the NT that appeared in our videos.

TOP TEN OF THE NORTHERN TERRITORY

vantastic_nt — Mon, 3 May 2010 16:22:00 GMT

With our Vantastic Adventure coming to an end I couldn’t help but look back at the best moments over the past 6 weeks.

10) Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park

Our first official stop in the Northern Territory! Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park was quite literally breathtaking. Uluru is the largest intact rock in the world standing at 1,142 feet. There was so much to see at this national park that we stayed for two entire days from sunrise to sunset traveling by foot and Harley-Davidson. The park was an incredible lesson and experience in geology and Anangu culture. Plus I ate a wasp. Our only regret was not having enough time to do the Valley of the Winds walk.

9) Quad bikes at King’s Creek Station

Our quad bike ride started at the station (despite being delayed slightly by a long train of caterpillars) and took us out a few kilometres to a beautiful lookout. Along the ride we encountered spiders (probably from the Zelda video games) that spun golden webs. These webs were so strong that they could be plucked like a harp. But the real adventure started on the way back when we tested the speed of the bikes. Traveling at 60kph we rode over rocks, through turns and jumped hills. The highlight of the ride, however, was definitely watching Andrew FLY off his quad bike and into a bush. Thankfully he was unscathed (like a total badass) and had a great story to tell.

8) Horseback riding at Kelly’s Ranch

One of the biggest surprises was horseback riding at Kelly’s Ranch in Tennant Creek. Not because we thought we wouldn’t enjoy it (even though Andrew incorrectly assumed he was allergic to horses… since he’s allergic to everything else) but rather because it wasn’t originally on our itinerary. Jerry Kelly, the owner of the ranch, took us on what was supposed to be a one-hour ride. Three hours later we returned with a working knowledge of horses and an acquired taste for bushtucker. And if that wasn’t enough Jerry made us real Bushmen by teaching us how to lasso. Also, the man makes the most incredible homemade chili. Which leads me to…

7) Eating anything but a PBJ

Bread. Crunchy peanut butter. Varying flavors of jelly. That is what we ate for 6 weeks so that we could afford to continue traveling. 3 times a day. Sometimes we switched it up with a Muesli bar or tuna. Therefore some of our favorite memories include anything but a peanut butter jelly sandwich. Some of these memorable meals include: steak, oysters and pork with never-ending beer at The Char in Darwin, The Pub Challenge (it would take me forever to describe all of the food in this plate) at Daly Water’s Pub, and kangaroo, crocodile, emu at Outback Pioneer. Also, chicken at KFC.

6) Swimming at waterholes/Bathing

These two things are synonymous. Some of the best baths we took were at Ellery Creek in the West MacDonnell Ranges; Southern Rockhole at Nitmiluk (Katherine Gorge); Buley waterhole and Florence Falls at Litchfield National Park. The best memories though were swimming under a waterfall and nearly dying after jumping/slipping from a 30ft. rock into the water.

5) Wildlife

Camels. Velociraptors/Emus (same thing). Feeding a wild wallaby. Holding a python. A singing dingo. Procreating with a kangaroo (watch this before you arrest me http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aUIWqryeepg). Need I say more?

4) Encounters with Territorians

I will never forget the people I have met in the Northern Territory. They are kind and passionate about what they do. I would like to say something about some of the people who stood out to me in the hopes that they are reading this. Jimmy, from Coober Pedy, is truly the most interesting man alive. It is worth visiting the town just to meet him. He has so many great stories from his days as an Olympic runner in Greece to changing his life drastically and mining for opal in Coober Pedy. When we first arrived he made sure to look after us as though he had known us for a lifetime.

When I grow up, I want to be like our good friend Troy. He is a knowledgebase of all things Australia. If you have a question, Troy has the answer. I asked him what his favorite animal cracker was and he said the crocodile because they were the most perfectly evolved animals. They haven’t changed in millions of years. Crocodile animal crackers can sense the electricity in your spine. Troy is intense and it’s awesome. He told us he disarmed a gang with knives and disarmed them again when they got a second wave of knives. It is a proven fact that all dogs love Troy. Every year Troy throws one lucky kid into the sun.

Just don’t listen to him if he tells you mosquitoes carry malaria in Australia.

Jerry Kelly is easily one of the kindest individuals I ever met. In addition to offering us a horseback bushtucker tour, Jerry taught us an excess of information on Aboriginal culture. Jerry’s commitment to his culture is unmatched and he even offers a pastoral skills training program to keep young people out of trouble.

3) UFO’s at Wycliffe Well

You just have to go there to experience it. Wycliffe Well is the UFO capitol of Australia and people have sightings daily. But hearing the stories isn’t the same as living it. Andrew and I had a lot of fun investigating alien life in the rain and just the next day Andrew saw some lights in the sky. If you are driving through the Northern Territory you’ll want to stop here for the night and if you get the chance speak to Lew about some of his encounters.

2) The Cage of Death at Crocosaurus Cove

Swimming with crocodiles is by far one of the coolest things I have ever done in my entire life. You have not seen a crocodile until you have been underwater with it. Throughout our 6 weeks in the NT this is what I was most excited about and it did not disappoint. Right before entering the Cage of Death we saw some of the crocodiles being fed and nothing could be more terrifying. The force of a crocodile’s bite is more than 5,000 pounds per square inch. This is 5 times more powerful than a great white shark or the equivalent of being run over by a semi truck. And 4 inches of plastic is all that separated us from this deadly dinosaur. If you consider yourself a thrill seeker then you MUST enter the Cage of Death.

1) Andrew and Geoff

This goes without saying but I’m going to say it anyway. Traveling for the last 6 weeks making short films with one of my best friends is something I could do for the rest of my life. Throughout college, Andrew and I talked about doing something like this incessantly but never did I think it possible. Until it was.

Every morning we woke up in awe that we were inside a campervan named Geoff in the middle of Australia. We couldn’t believe that our wacky and sometimes strange ideas were being encouraged. Sometimes we were paranoid that the people at Vantastic thought they had made a terrible mistake.

Most of the time we never had any real plan of where we were going or what we were doing. Instead of plans we followed the fundamental rule of improvisation: “Yes and”. The concept is simple. Agree with your current situation and add something to it. With this concept nothing could go wrong. Even when something went wrong. We flew by the seat of our pants and it was quite the flight.

This journey is something I will never forget. Some people never get the opportunity to travel like this and I am incredibly thankful that World Nomads and all of their partners allowed us to do this.

I am also thankful to be able to share this experience with someone as great as Andrew Adams. He was a better wingman than I could have imagined. We shared a lot of laughs, lessons and he helped me overcome one of my greatest fears (heights). I think we made quite the team and I am excited to continue our adventures all the way to our first full-length film. Because after that we’re through. Just kidding.

By: Willie Concepcion

DEGLAMOURIZED: WHAT TRAVELING IS REALLY LIKE

vantastic_nt — Sun, 2 May 2010 16:17:00 GMT

Ah, the allure of traveling. Hopping from one country to the next, coloring in and crossing off entire landmasses on your world almanac. Never knowing where you’ll be the next evening, maybe even the next morning. Seeing a spectacular sunset over the Indian Ocean twelve hours after you watched it rise over the Pacific. Meeting new people every night, fleeting personalities that disappear by the morning but stick with you for a lifetime. Throwing yourself head over heels into a new culture, trying foods you didn’t know were edible, finally being understood in a language you’ve only just learned hours before. What could be more glamorous?

ANYTHING.

ANYTHING IS MORE GLAMOROUS THAN TRAVELING.

Don’t get me wrong, I love traveling. Specifically, I love backpacking. Throwing yourself into a world with nothing more than the possessions strapped to your shoulders and praying that it’s enough. But it’s a rough and difficult lifestyle, a grimy, dirty, and overall smelly change of pace.

On this trip, Willie and I have been lucky enough to have a campervan. Which means that we always have a bed to sleep on – though not always a place to park it. When we’ve slept in parking lots or alleys, we’ve been assaulted by drunks in the middle of the night or police at the break of dawn. If you sleep too close to the road, the passing traffic keeps you up all night. Especially if there happens to be a biker’s parade in town the next day. Which is something we have experienced.

So normally we spend our nights at rest stops. This is easy in the Outback. Because ‘drowsy drivers’ are so dangerous, rest stops can be found about every 50km. It’s safe to park there. Of course, you’re not supposed to drive through the Outback at night. Kangaroos and bilbies and pterodactyl wannabes rush into your headlights at every opportunity. So we have to get there early, around sunset.

Which is great. Because we get to watch the sun sink into the desert horizon, usually over distant mountains or rock formations. And with so little else around, you can see every single cloud in Australia from your one perch, and every single one of those clouds captures the light and sends it back in strange and vivid colors.

But once the spectacular sunset is over, we’re left in the dark. There are no streetlights around. But there are plenty of snakes. Somewhere. We’re told. The idea of traipsing through the desert without being able to see two feet in front of you has never quite appealed to us. So from sunset on, Willie and I camp in the van. This usually means that we play cards. Sometimes a game that relies on speed, like Spit. Other games rely on strategy, like an addictive game we learned in hostels: Shithead.

After a few hours of card games and rambling, strange conversations, the van is hot. Ridiculously hot, forcing us to sweat more than some saunas. Our clothes stick to us. They’re damp with sweat. We remove our shirts to sleep, stretch them out to dry. And in the morning, they’re still soaked through. But now they’re smelly.

Also, there’s no laundry at these sites. And there’s no showers, either. In the past six weeks, I’ve been able to wash my clothes twice. And I only have five shirts with me. So when the smell becomes too much to handle, we put on our backpacks and go to a hostel. But we don’t stay in one. Oh, no. We simply march past reception like we’ve had a room for weeks and then proceed to scout out the place. This is how we find showers. This is how we brush our teeth. Which is what we usually do when we put our laundry out to air-dry, since paying for a dryer would be ludicrous. Instead, we hang our shirts and underwear all over any piece of furniture we can find, and we wait. Our clothes get crisp and hard.

Then we leave, trying to ignore the looks from receptionists who can’t comprehend the shift we’ve made from haggard, stubbly, and stenchy to clean-shaven, shampooed, and crisp-shirted.

Oddly, cities are the hardest places to be in. It’s harder to get permission to park behind somebody’s shop, or to find rest stops that don’t mind you staying. Harder to find showers and laundries. But it’s easy peezy lemon simple in the country.

And yes, for the first five weeks, we ate peanut butter and jelly sandwiches every day. By the sixth week, we couldn’t stand it. Now we frequent the cheapest bakery in town.

This is what it’s really like to travel.

It’s the least glamorous lifestyle I can imagine.

But I love it. It’s easy to embrace, especially when every other traveler is just like you. Nobody cares. It’s a big, smelly community full of people with stories to share. Would I suggest it? In a heartbeat. But know what you’re getting into.

By Andrew Adams

Video - WEIRDED OUT IN WYCLIFFE WELL

vantastic_nt — Fri, 30 Apr 2010 10:20:00 GMT

Roadtrip Australia: Van-Tastic Adventures Northern Territory

On their roadtrip through the Northern Territory with Van-Tastic Adventures, Andrew and Willie hunt for signs of alien life in Wycliffe Well, the UFO capital of Australia.

Follow the adventures at http://www.vantastic.worldnomads.com, or on Twitter @Van_Tastic.

courtesy of worldnomads.com

A LOAD OF CROC

vantastic_nt — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 23:03:00 GMT

Perfectly evolved.

This is how the saltwater crocodile has been described to us. A mean, intimidating, snaggle-toothed killing machine that’s older than the dinosaurs. That could compete with the dinosaurs for territory, even.

A creature whose jaw is twice as powerful as that of the T-Rex.

A beast that never stops growing, and tends to reach at least twenty feet long. Yes, that’s right – top to bottom, at least three humans could fit inside it.

And this is one of the most common animals in the Northern Territory?! What in the what?!

They’re not hard to stumble upon, either. Willie and I have seen so many wild crocodiles in the past two weeks that we’ve literally lost count. Thankfully, we’ve seen most of them from the safe interior of a cruise boat.

The croc has very quickly become one of my favorite animals, if only because of the amount of fear and respect it demands. They can hold their breath for hours underwater, so that if they pull you under they can simply keep you there and drown you. They have a sixth sense, which allows them to read electrical frequencies in your spine so that they can always pinpoint your location.

These things are terrifying!

But they’ve also subverted some of my expectations. They’re incredibly lazy, for instance. Some of the crocodiles in Kakadu are so lazy that they simply sit at river junctions with their mouths open and wait for fish to swim straight into their open jaw. Sometimes so reliably that the same crocodiles can be found at the same junctions day after day after day. Sometimes they don’t even bother attacking – as Willie and I found out when we swam with four live crocodiles.

This was in a controlled environment, of course. Crocosaurus Cove, in the heart of Darwin. We slipped into a giant cage and were dropped into tanks with the crocodiles. And even with live bait only inches away from them, they didn’t move.

Which was still terrifying.

We were only inches away from its massive jaw, able to see every snaggled and crooked tooth. Its feet were as big as our head – those that had them. One crocodile, Chopper, had lost both of his front feet in territorial battles years before he found his way to Crocosaurus Cove; they were simply stubs.

We also went to the Adelaide River and went on a Spectacular Jumping Crocodile Cruise. There, employees held raw meat out over a boat and crocodiles came flocking toward it. They would slink through the water, spot the chicken, and then leap up for it – sometimes coming so far out of the water that it seemed their whole body was exposed. Terrifying, electrifying, and enough to keep me in only the largest of boats when checking out crocodile-infested waters.

It should be mentioned, also, that the crocodiles wander all over the territory, so most swimming holes don’t allow visitors to swim in them. There are certain areas the croc can’t access, however – they’re terrible climbers and can’t go up waterfalls or rocky areas. So the swimming areas in the NT tend to be rockholes and waterfalls. They’re gorgeous and amazing and totally worth checking out – Lichtfield’s Florence Falls and Buley Rockhole especially.

by Andrew Adams

Video - KANGAROO FEVER

vantastic_nt — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 09:40:00 GMT

Roadtrip Australia: Van-Tastic Adventures Northern Territory

On their roadtrip through the Northern Territory of Australia with Van-Tastic Adventures Willie falls in love with a kangaroo. This one gets weird.

Follow the adventures at http://www.vantastic.worldnomads.com, or on Twitter @Van_Tastic.

NIGHT TERRORS: THE SEQUEL

vantastic_nt — Fri, 23 Apr 2010 22:59:00 GMT

This makes twice now that we’ve been woken up in the middle of the night and forced to drive through the darkness. What happened is this: Willie and I have spent much of our trip out in the middle of the desert. Finding places to sleep is easy there – every 50 km or so are designated rest stops. They’re absolutely essential in the Outback. Because towns can be so far apart, any traveler who finds themselves nodding off while driving might still be forced to drive for two more hours before arriving at anything resembling civilization. To do so while fighting off the Sandman is incredibly dangerous. So the whole desert is riddled with free places to sleep. And even if it wasn’t, it’s not like we’ve seen a single police cruiser in the past five weeks. So who would stop us? But things are different now. Now, we’re in the biggest city in the Northern Territory: Darwin. And Darwin does have police. Before arriving in town, Willie and I got in touch with a fellow traveler who warned us that camping in Darwin could be dangerous. The police are very strict about making sure nobody steals any Z’s on private property, and if they catch you, it’s a $130 fine per person. Luckily, said our fellow traveler, there’s one spot in Darwin where the police don’t hassle campers. It’s an unofficial free camping area just north of the city, called East Point. Right by the beach, at the edge of Darwin’s main harbor. So we headed there for the night, arriving at about 11:30, and went to sleep, perfectly content to be surrounded by six other campervans, the sound of the ocean lapping up onto shore just 20 meters away from us. And then, in the middle of the night: a banging on the window. Someone shouting: “Hey! Hey, are you in there? Get up!” Lights were flashing. Yellow, blinking lights, blindingly bright, flashing in and out of the windows, over and over. Completely disoriented, we slid Geoff’s doors open. And a police officer leaned in, shining his flashlight straight into our eyes. “You know you guys aren’t allowed to camp here, yeah?” he said. Great. Let me paint a picture for you. Geoff is, although a delightful place to call a home for six weeks, not necessarily a cool place to stay. Quite literally. It has a tendency to get incredibly hot inside Geoff overnight, to the point where Willie and I sweat more than we would in a sauna. So we tend to sleep in our underwear. So there we were, in our underwear, barely awake, staring down a police officer. We immediately apologized. He said, “How long have you two been here?” And, it being early, my brain was not quite firing on all cylinders. I didn’t think, “Man oh man, he wants to know if we’ve been camping or not!” I didn’t think, “Man oh man, I should tell him we just arrived, so that we don’t get fined!” No. Instead, I thought: “Ow, wow, what a friendly and adept conversationalist. Let me contribute.” So I said: “Since about 11:30 last night.” He said: “You camped here.” Oh. I get it. Yes. He added: “You know there was a sign that said you can’t camp here, right?” I did. It was very large. But now my brain was firing on at least one cylinder. So: “Ooooh. No. I’m very sorry.” He said: “Well you can’t. And as it so happens, tonight, we’re conducting a raid. You guys been here more than one night?” I said: “No, we just came from Kakadu.” He shined his flashlight into Willie’s eyes. Testing if he was drunk. “You know,” said the officer. “Most people lie to me. Most people say that they only just got here. That they’ve been here since 4 am.” “What time is it?” “5 am.” “Oh. No, we’ve been here a while.” “Huh. It’s warm in here.” It was. It was very warm. Thanks, Geoff. So the police officer said: “Tell you what. You guys get to a hostel. And if any other officer asks, you got here at four. The van’s warm enough to prove it. You have a nice night.” And that was it! He handed us a brochure explaining Darwin’s camping restrictions and let us off on our merry way. In order to drive out, we had to pass through a maze of other campers. And all of them were upset. Furious. Some paced, others shouted. They were all getting fined. One even waved us down to figure out where we were going – but he only spoke French, so we couldn’t say a thing to him. We left. The only campers not to get fined. Because, evidently, we were the only ones to admit we’d stayed there all night. So I guess honesty does count for something. Even if you only tell the truth because it’s too early in the morning to come up with a lie. By Andrew Adams // April 23, 2010

Video - THE DINGO LINGO

vantastic_nt — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 11:10:00 GMT

Roadtrip Australia: Van-Tastic Adventures Northern Territory

On their roadtrip through the Northern Territory of Australia, Andrew and Willie visit Stuarts Well Roadhouse, where they meet Dinky the Singing Dingo. Who is a dingo. That sings. While playing the piano.

Follow the adventures at http://www.vantastic.worldnomads.com, or on Twitter @Van_Tastic.

Video - TALES OF SCALES

vantastic_nt — Tue, 20 Apr 2010 10:41:00 GMT

Roadtrip Australia: Van-Tastic Adventures Northern Territory

On their roadtrip through the Northern Territory of Australia with Van-Tastic Adventures, Willie and Andrew visit the Alice Springs Reptile Centre. Andrew plays with lizards. Willie runs from them.

Follow the adventures at http://www.vantastic.worldnomads.com, or on Twitter @Van_Tastic.

Video - AN EDUCATIONAL VIDEO ABOUT ULURU

vantastic_nt — Tue, 20 Apr 2010 10:39:00 GMT

Roadtrip Australia: Van-Tastic Adventures Northern Territory

On their roadtrip through the Northern Territory of Australia with Van-Tastic Adventures, Andrew and Willie attempt to be genuinely informative for the first (and last) time ever.

Follow the adventures at http://www.vantastic.worldnomads.com, or on Twitter @Van_Tastic.

Video - THE ROCK

vantastic_nt — Tue, 20 Apr 2010 10:37:00 GMT

Roadtrip Australia: Van-Tastic Adventures Northern Territory

On their roadtrip through the Northern Territory of Australia with Van-Tastic Adventures, Willie and Andrew struggle to find things they're allowed to film at Uluru.

Follow the adventures at http://www.vantastic.worldnomads.com, or on Twitter @Van_Tastic.

A MESSAGE TO ALL GNARLAKS (or A Bad Jack Handey Joke)

vantastic_nt — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 15:13:00 GMT

On our way to Tenant Creek, Andrew and I stopped at what we envisioned would be our favorite place in the Northern Territory: Wycliffe Well, the UFO capitol of Australia.

While we were en route, we couldn’t help but feel giddy at the prospect of seeing an extraterrestrial. Our conversation was filled with quotes from E.T, Star Wars, and The X-Files. We simply couldn’t fathom what we would encounter. Closely. Of the third kind.

Crop circles? Ray guns? Probes?

What we found would shock you. Well, it shocked me. Wycliffe Well is a caravan park with alien paraphernalia and an Elvis statue. There are no aliens in cages. There are no working UFOs offering free tours of the Milky Way. I was devastated. No Space Invaders? Maybe my expectations were a little farfetched.

We entered the park and wandered around, trying to come up with an angle for our sketch video. We decided that we would do an over-the-top in-depth investigation of the strange occurrences in the park, all while dressed like members of The Village People. We would ask the Elvis statue if he had phoned home recently. High-brow comedy at its best. We started the project by interviewing Lew, the owner of Wycliffe Well. We spoke with him about our idea and asked if he would briefly act as an alien for one absolutely hilarious (I swear) punchline. Instead, he just stared at me. I wasn’t sure if I had insulted him or if it was my cowboy outfit.

It was both.

He kindly refused to play the part stating that doing so would make a mockery of what happens at Wycliffe Well.

So we asked: “What does happen at Wycliffe Well?”

That’s when our quick sketch idea became a 20-minute interview. Lew proceeded to give us an abridged version of his encounters with UFOs during his 26 years at Wycliffe Well. He explained why UFOs are drawn to the park in a way that I couldn’t understand and will paraphrase as: “Wycliffe Well holds special energy. Aliens like energy.”

He told us of his many personal experiences with aliens at Wycliffe Well. He’s sighted UFOs and portholes, and he’s experienced the phenomenon known as ‘missing time’ (which I can only imagine refers to time that was misplaced by aliens). Lew even told us of tourists claiming they’ve seen tall, silvery bodies moving at Wycliffe Well.

Andrew and I went back to the van with a renewed vigor. Were we really going to see a UFO? We scrapped the comedy and prepared our equipment for a legitimate investigation. And then… a storm broke out over the park. The sky was black and nothing was visible.

Disappointed again, we decided to stay in the van and play our favorite card game: spit. We played for hours waiting for the storm to pass before Andrew came up with the brilliant idea to drink the Darwin Stubbies that TourismNT had so generously donated to our cause (a Darwin Stubbie is two Litres of beer in one single bottle). At this point, we had been saving these drinks for a special occasion for over three weeks. And before we knew it they were gone.

The storm was at its worst. Heavy rain was falling and we could see lightning in the distance. But we couldn’t leave without seeing a UFO so we went out on an odyssey. 2001 comma Space.

We headed to some of our favorite places in the park hoping to see something we couldn’t explain.

“Would anyone believe us if we saw a UFO?” we thought.

Our shoes were digging into mud, flashlights turning on and off as we tried to scare one another. We even created a code in case one of us was being abducted. The code, which we borrowed from LOST, was 4,8,15,16,23,42 .

But still we didn’t see anything. Defeated, we turned back to head for the van. And that’s when we noticed it. In the distance we could see a large unidentified object. It was not flying; it was on the ground and it looked silver or chrome. We flashed our lights at it and it flashed back at us. We didn’t get any closer – there was a large puddle in the way, and that was a good enough excuse not to. We ran back to the van half scared and half giggling, jumped into our respective beds, and fell into a deep, beer-induced sleep.

The next morning we woke up and immediately went to the same area to figure out what we had seen shining in the night. It was an empty field but in the back there was a shed made of aluminum.

It was probably the shed that was reflecting the light. But if you ask if we saw a UFO that night? My answer will always be yes.

I’m not really sure why I felt the need to share this story with you but I think there is a moral in here somewhere. Earth girls are easy? Always bring a towel? In space no one can hear you scream?

Or maybe what I am trying to say is: if you are drunk and you see what is probably a shed, don’t discredit the idea that it could be an alien.

The truth is out there.

By: Willie Concepcion

ROCK OUT WITH YOUR CULTURE SHOCK OUT

vantastic_nt — Sat, 17 Apr 2010 20:39:00 GMT

When I first arrived in Australia, I knew what to expect in terms of sites and attractions – my Lonely Planet guidebook took care of that for me. What I didn’t know is what kind of culture shock I would experience, and what kind of customs would go straight over my head. I was warned that Australians loved to ‘take the piss’ out of somebody – essentially excessive teasing. That’s all I knew.

But all in all, it’s been the easiest culture transition I think I’ve ever had to make in all of my travels. There haven’t been any big shocks anywhere along the road – nobody is eating live koalas or lassoing strangers for fun and profit (why these were my big fears, I’ll never know).

But because the transition has been so easy, it’s made the little things stand out. And so what follows is a list of all the little things that threw me for a loop.

1. Green Toilets – One of the first things that I did when I reached Australia was run to the bathroom. Partially because I just got off a fourteen hour flight, yes. But mostly because I couldn’t wait to see a toilet flush in the wrong direction (although, come to think of it, I can’t actually remember which way toilets flush in the States. Is it clockwise or counterclockwise?). Regardless, my experiment was a failure. Almost all toilets here flush straight down. So that’s no fun. But what is interesting? All toilets have two flushing options. One for the piss and one for the poo. If you press the smaller button, you’ll only get a half-flush. The toilet won’t put much effort into it. But if you pres the big button? That’s when the toilet goes all in. It’s fantastic; the States need to catch up!

2. Bathrooms and toilets – In Australia, a bathroom is literally the room where you bathe in. If you don’t say ‘toilet’ then people might not understand exactly what it is you’re looking for.

3. Driving on the left side of the road – For us, driving on the ‘wrong’ side hasn’t been too much of an issue. Since the steering wheel is also on the right side of the van, we’ve just been trying to keep this piece of advice in mind: “Always stay in the center of the road.” If we catch ourselves near the shoulder… we’re in the wrong lane. The only time this is actually hard to remember? Sometimes, on turns, our gut instinct places us in the right lane by accident. Thankfully, we usually correct.

4. Gas – Is sold in liters. In the Outback, liters tend to run about $1.70. Which, at first, seemed remarkably cheap, compared to the $2.50 most US gallons go for! Then we remembered that there are nearly four liters per gallon. So gas here is really $7 per gallon. It’s been taking a toll on our wallets, to say the least.

5. “Cash Out” – If you ever use a debit card, you don’t receive Cashback like you might in the states. Instead you receive “Cash Out.” I discovered this at a pub while buying lunch. The man offered me cash out and I said, “I don’t know what you mean.” And he said, “Cash… That comes out.”

6. CANDY!! – Hershey’s and Nestle don’t dominate the candy market here quite like they do at home. There are some of the most popular ones – Snickers, Twix, Kit Kat bars. But most of the other candy bars are brands we’ve never heard of. Milo, which is a chocolatey-brownie type candy bar. Several candies come with honeycomb inside it. There are Turkish Delights, which are fruity-jelly candies dipped in chocolate. (Willie and I couldn’t finish them.)

7. Moneys – Everything here seems to be slightly more expensive than it is back in the States. The money itself is plastic-y and extremely colorful and you can see through the bottom right corner. It’s bizarre. Also, the lowest bill is $5. They have one and two-dollar coins. Which means you could be holding ten dollars and it would feel like you’re holding fifty cents. You can burn through cash easily that way. It must be great for the economy. Also: no quarters, but they do have twenty cent coins. And there are no pennies. Everywhere rounds up or down to the nearest 5 cents. It’s lovely.

8. Job Wages – An American expat came up to me one day after hearing my accent and said, “You! You! Are you moving to Australia?!” and when I said I was working with Tourism NT, she told me that I’d probably never go home. The average wages here are twice what they are in the States, according to this completely reputable source. She told me most Starbucks baristas make $15 an hour, minimum.

And I think that about covers it. So if you can handle that amount of culture shock… Come to Australia!!

-by Andrew Adams

Photos: Ellery Creek

vantastic_nt — Sat, 17 Apr 2010 03:19:00 GMT

Photos: Royal Flying Doctor Service

vantastic_nt — Sat, 17 Apr 2010 03:05:00 GMT

Photos: Reptile Centre

vantastic_nt — Sat, 17 Apr 2010 02:52:00 GMT

Andrew and I play with reptiles!