Darwin

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16/1/13

We landed in Darwin at around 3.20am, and went through immigration and customs, hoping to be delayed as long as possible, seeing as we had no hotel to go to until later on. We were through to arrivals by 4am, and found a table near the only cafe in the arrivals area. We got a caffeine based drink to try and keep us going, and a managed to sign on to the wifi at the airport- which kept us occupied for a while! We got something to eat after a while (first taste of how expensive Australia is!), then decided to get a taxi around 7am to our hotel. It cost us $27, exchange rate about $1.5 to £1. To our surprise and joy, the lovely lady on the reception desk at our hotel let us check in straight away and go to our room! We were in shock and just kept quiet in case she'd made a mistake and went. To our room! It meant we could have a little sleep and then still be able to have a look around later on without falling asleep! We managed to have a few hours sleep, and got up very groggily when the alarm went off. We showered and headed out to explore what Darwin has to offer. Not much it appeared! We found a Coles supermarket and bought a few essentials- wow, not cheap though! We bought some TimTams which were on offer though, and we had been told by lots of people we had to have some. We bought a SIM card each for our little Nokia phones thanks to Chantelle's dad. However, the sims didn't work seeing as they expired in 2011...helpful! We took them back and had a look around Darwin centre- mainly just shops! And lots of Aborigines- mainly walking around barefoot or just sitting in the street like a homeless person! We went to Red Rooster for dinner, where even the fast food is expensive! Just bought small items that were the cheapest and got a drink from a shop, then headed back to our hotel looking forward to a good night's sleep in a very comfy bed!

17/1

We had a good sleep, then got ready to head out to Crocosaurus cove- we were told that crocs are what darwin is famous for, and as we didn't plan on seeing any in the wild, we thought this was our best bet! We had a voucher for it too, so we paid $24 each to get in. It wasn't the biggest of places, but the crocs were gigantic! We looked around so,e fish, and smaller crocs and went into the reptile house during feeding time, where we saw a snake being fed a dead rat- it took a long time to attempt it eat it, as the rat was a bit big for the substitute snake (the snake they originally brought out didn't feel like eating today!). We gave up on the snake and looked around the rest of the reptile house, then looked at all the big crocs, including the resident celebrity- Burt- who was used in the filming of crocodile Dundee. There were 2 crocs called William and Kate (lovebirds!). We listened to a little turtle talk and had an ice cream and then watched the big croc feed and talk. We heard the bite force of their jaws, which was extremely loud and scary sounding. There was then the opportunity to do 'fishing for crocs', which we didn't partake in but took photos. This was where fishing rods with bits of meat were held over the side of a juvenile croc enclosure and the 'little' crocs jumped right out of the water to grab the meat. It was very funny to watch but they said the crocs were getting a bit big, as they almost came level with the top of the barrier! There wasn't anything else to look at, so we headed off to find a SIM card for our phones. We went to a Telstra to get it sorted. After a quick trip back to the hotel for our passports, we got our SIM cards so that we could speak to people back home- especially now the wifi is fleeting in Aus! We had dinner in good old Mcdonalds and then headed back to our hotel to do our washing (in a machine not a bucket-what a revelation!!)

18/1

We decided to head to Casurina today, seeing as there was nothing else to see in Darwin centre. It was basically just a big shopping mall, but we wet told to go there if we didn't have a car to go anywhere else further afield. We got the bus (with some Aborigines) and headed to Casurina, which took about 20 minutes. The Aborigines all sat at the back of the bus, and were pretty noisy. We got to the shopping centre and had a look around, looking for a birthday present for Jaxon, who were seeing in 2 days in Perth! We found a city beach shop with a good sale, so managed to buy some board shorts there. We were going to get some food, but it was a little early to have dinner, so we thought we'd get the bus back. It took us a long time to locate the bus stop for getting back into the city, but we eventually did and got on a busy bus. There wasn't many seats left, and the ones free were quite far back, so we sat as close to the front as we could, but were surrounded by aborigines. A rather rowdy Abo lady got on at a stop down the road, and the driver had to stop and ask her to be quiet. This didn't work and it just riled up all the other Aborigines! As we were close to the back we seemed to bare the brunt of the racial abuse- even though we were just trying to be discreet and looking out of the window. After being called white ****s we were so ready to get off the bus, but we weren't close to the city yet! After a little while, the key abuser must have realised he had been quite harsh and that we were just mixing our own business, as he came up to us to apologise and made us shake his hand. What a lovely experience!! As soon as we knew where we were, we jumped off the bus and anti-bacced our hands! We found an Italian restaurant to have dinner in, trying to shake off our deli guff bus ride, then headed back to the hotel and did another load of washing.

19/1

We were given a free late check out at the hotel, so we didn't have to be up too early. We packed up all our clean washing and checked out at 2pm, them had yummy lunch at the hotel restaurant, before getting a taxi to our motel for the night. The motel was fine, and had free wifi which was a bonus, but it was in the middle of nowhere! There was a garage next door, so we walked there later in the evening to buy a drink and snack but luckily still full enough from our lunch. We spent the evening in the room watching TV, looking forward to getting out of Darwin and to Perth!!

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