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Wow, time goes on quickly. Heard that one before, right.. Well, what's even quicker than time, and sadder, is how fast you get used to the old routines when you move back home. And it sucks.

Melbourne waterfront.

The Jim Jim Falls in Kakadu.

I have now been back in Finland for about a month, lazing around while waiting for uni to start again. This summer has been cold and rainy and I really miss the +30c "winter" in Darwin. But this post is not about Finland, it's about the past July I spent travelling around Australia before flying back home.

Flinders Street Station.

Yarra River flowing through Melbourne.

This is my last post about Australia (for now at least), and I hope the photos I have posted during the past six months have served as an inspiration for anyone who's planning to go abroad or travelling in Oz. I'm quite happy to conclude my Oz blog posts to these photos, as I think they're some of the best I've taken.

Evening in Adelaide.

Adelaide River.

As more experienced photographers can tell, there's a lot of photos in this post that have been produced with the HDR technique. For me, and I think for most other HDR photographers as well, my style evolved from subtle to exaggerated and then back to toned down again, trying to find a natural look in the images. You can see examples of all these styles in these photos.

Railroad track for the world's biggest train.

A pub in Parachilna.

Rock wallaby.

What are you looking at!?

Another technique I got really into is shooting panoramas. I use a freeware program called Hugin to combine the single photos and it seems to work quite well. I wish I had done this when I was climbing the Cradle Mountains in Tasmania!

The Rock.

A walking track in Kata Tjuta.

Tea time in King's Canyon.

Naturally anyone having done both of above is thinking whether it's possible to do HDR panoramas! Well, yes, but it's a bit tricky. I do have some raw footage for that but I haven't still had the time to learn the best workflow to do the HDR panorama combination. That's definitely on my to-do list though.

Mt Conner, just like Uluru.

Sunset near Flinder's Ranges.

So finally, to the trip. I guess when in Australia, one must see The Rock, Uluru. In addition, I wanted to see some real saltwater crocodiles (outside the zoos that is), as that was one of the last of Australian fauna I hadn't already seen. For that, the Kakadu national park is the place to go. Third, some of my friends I wanted to hang out with were in Melbourne so I had to go there as well.

Morning in King's Canyon.

Coober Pedy and the Pitch Black spaceship.

Last sunset I saw in the outback.

So I combined all these three goals and did a long three-week trip to do everything. I flew from Newcastle to Melbourne and from there to Adelaide, where I went on a tour to Uluru, which ended in Darwin and visited Kakadu along the way. 

The Daly Waters pub.

Leaving the campsite.

Inside the Daly Waters pub.

Now, for the most of my travels, I didn't like taking tours, but this time I thought I'd do an exception since I was travelling alone and a tour seemed to be cheaper than hiring a car on my own. Besides, it's a bloody long way to drive from Adelaide to Darwin if you see Uluru and Kakadu along the way, I think we drove about 4,500 km altogether.

I got the balls!

It's my new desktop background!

Looking for crocs in the Mary River.

Florence Falls in Litchfield Park.

Fortunately we had a great time on the tour, with a good group and nice guides. It was really relaxing not to have to keep track of the days for once. Just see the sunsets, sleep under the stars and go swimming and hiking in all these cool places.

Best spot for a swim!

They're just kidding, right?

Err, no.

Yea, lots of these around.

Near Jim Jim Falls.

I could write in more detail about all the things my trip included, but I doubt any blog reader is *that* interested, so I think I'll finish short.

To the Twin Falls.

Not much water in the Twin Falls.

The Nourlangie Rock.

It was fun while it lasted!