Motto: Ultilizing tomorrow’s technology, today, to solve digital problems, on buses. 

Problem: Song present on Girl #1’s iPod.  Girl #2 wants it on her own.  A void and DRM lies in between.  Solve using tools present only on your netbook.

Solution: Take iPod (exhibit 1).  Boot into Ubuntu and view iPod’s hidden files, which include all mp3/m4a/etc, invisible in Windows.

Find song in question by selecting by date, because the song has been added in the last two weeks.  I should mention that all songs are randomly named.

Take song off, and reboot into windows.

Open VLC media player, and convert m4a song (which Girl #2’s mp3 player does not play) into mp3.

Transfer into Girl #2’s mp3 player.

Profit.

Yellowwater is part of the wetlands in Kakadu, and is so named because of the weeds and algae that are in it.  We just went on a little “cruise” on a motorized boat that let us get really close to all the wildlife in there.  And it was pretty awesome, because we got to see three crocodiles!

The best sighting was the first, where we got about 10 feet away from a 3.5 meter one just staying cool in the water under the shade of a tree.  He blinked at me.  We saw some really great birds of prey as well, including a freaking gigantic version of a Seagull who was eating a fish as big as my arm up on a tree.  There were some water lily walker birds that have gigantic toes and lily flowers for hundreds of meters around.

The water level of the wetlands apparently varies an incredible amount – in 2007 they had such massive flooding that most of the trees that we saw today would have been completely underwater.  Which means that the lodge and roads surrounding would have been under as well… they needed to do a massive evacuation.

Absolutely fantastic stuff so far.  Pizza tonight by the pool at the “hotel” (commune-like bungalows scattered across a compound)!  Yesterday I tried the most popular fish around – Barramundi – and it was delicious.  The kangaroo… not so much.  But I did have a jump in my step today.

Nothing like starting a day ready to take pictures and realizing the battery that you charged last night is now sitting in your hotel room without you.

So – looks like I’ll have to rely on my brain for once to remember today!  Go go brain!

We first stopped off at a watering hole/billabong, which is a temporary wetland area that forms when The Big Wet comes around once a year… usually.  Its really a striking difference, entire trees get submerged, including the viewing platform.  At least its a good way to clean it.

We then went to go see some more rock art, some really detailed paintings from a now extinct tribe of Aboriginals (the last one passed away in the 1970s).  The neighboring tribes, as per tradition, are now taking care of their land.  The hike peaked at this incredible rock outcrop where you look around and you’re surrounded by mountains that look like they’ve been painted in piercing blacks, browns, ochres and whites.  In between the peaks of these, forests spill out over the edge like a waterfall of green.  That’s something to remember.

Kakadu national park is a world heritage site for both its natural beauty and the historical culture that you can find there.  After a bit of a drive we went for a hike to one of the most serene peaks in the area – and also the one that was in the Crocodile Dundee movie…

Well, it was pretty impressive anyways.  Along the way for the hike we saw lots of very very old rock art from the Aboriginals, including a place under a large overhanging rock where they once lived.  The art itself was incredibly detailed, and it was actually the process itself of painting that was important for them, not the art itself.  Which means that they often painted over previously drawn paintings – but you can still easily make out lots of interesting things.  For instance, there is a category of paintings called “contact paintings” which depict the interaction between the Aboriginals and the Europeans, usually with a musket…

On top of Ubirr, our destination, you can see for miles in every direction, and the difference in the scenery as you turn is breathtaking.  You go from rocky crags in one direction, to wetlands in another, to endless grass in another.  And you could most definitely find something in each direction that could kill you…

With such impressive things to see you’d expect that even driving along between places would be distracting – they are, but that’s mostly because of the raging fires that are actively burning along the roads.  The government actually sets these on fire regularly to avoid a massive buildup of grasses that would completely destroy everything in a 1000-degree inferno.

Up next: Kakadu national park proper!

Quick post to recap Darwin!

The minute I arrived at my hotel I met one of my roomates who was on his way to feed some fish… needless to say 15 minutes later I was walking with him in Darwin to get to the place.  Its really cool, all the fish swim at your feat and eat the bread you shove down their throats.

I met the new roomies afterwards and we all walked around Darwin afterwards, its really very small.  One main street and that’s it.

Yesterday we went to Lichfield national park, and saw THREE waterfalls.  I also swam in one of them, it was surreal.  Absolutely beautiful.

The heat is not as bad as I thought, and its just supposed to get cooler as we head further south.  So looking good so far!

No time for pictures today… but maybe later!

Having a blast so far :)