Surprising Darwin

---

We are scheduled to take three days to get to Darwin, a city named to honour Charles Darwin. But the Captain announces that we are going to arrive a day early and have two days there as a compensation for missing Bali.



Now Darwin is the Capital of the Northern Territories (NT) a vast part of Australia, which itself is huge. (Australia is actually almost the same size as the continental USA.) yet the whole population of the NT is only about 250,000, 120,000 of whom live in Darwin. It is in short more a mid sized town rather than a city and once you get outside the town, settlements are few and far between. Darwin itself was largely destroyed by Japanese bombing in WWII and then levelled again in 1974 by Cyclone Tracy, so pretty much all of the city is brand new.



Our plan is to visit the Military Museum (makes Ian happy) and the Botanic Gardens (makes me happy). We are going to get a taxi to both venues. The problem is, a city of 120,000 only has a given number of taxis and when up to 2600 tourists arrive and want taxis they are in short supply. So no taxi.



We walk into the commercial centre and buy a few pieces and find a hairdresser for Ian. (He has his hair trimmers with him but they don’t function well with the ship’s electricity system so he plans on one cut for the entire trip.) The barber is doing the necessary and asks him “want your eyebrows done?” Before he can reply the right eyebrow has been trimmed! So he has to have the other one done as well. Doesn’t look bad if I’m honest.



We then make enquiries and discover that while there are no buses to the museum we can get the number 4 to the gardens. Better yet, as ‘seniors’ it is free. We catch the bus and are deposited at a shelter near the Gardens just as the heavens open. (Darwin has the same climate as Bali.) The rain hammers down for 5 minutes or so then stops and we walk into the Gardens.



They were established in the mid 19th century and are quite small relatively speaking but beautifully laid out and cared for. It is a truly pleasant experience looking at the various plants in what is at the time, warm rather than oppressive temperatures. We have a cool drink and Ian gets some salted plums (??!?) a local aboriginal delicacy they tell us. He eats one and declares it “OK” but both his fingers and lips are now bright orange, so I give them a pass.



On returning to the ship I discover I have lost my security card. No card no entry to the terminal or ship. Ian offers me A$50 and says I’ll have to stay here while he and the ship sails. When I refuse his offer the ship’s security officer is called. He identifies me from the ship records and accompanies us both onto the ship (missing out some quite long queues of people waiting to board) and to the Pursers Desk where a new card is issued. The security officer is a retired police inspector from Kent, so he and Ian have a long chat and get on well.



The following morning Ian decides to go for an early run while the heat is bearable. So at 6am while it is pitch black off he goes. He returns about 45 minutes later with his right knee and elbow spectacularly grazed and blood running down his leg to his foot. In the dark he had tripped over a kerbstone at the start of the run but carried on regardless. Men !



On our second day we are going to the Litchfield National Park. It is 60km out of town, to put that in perspective we pass a road sign pointing to Alice Springs 1443km, another just says Adelaide with no distance but it must be coming up 3000km. There is only the one metalled road from Darwin south, so you can’t get lost.



The outback is green and lush with streams, rivers and pools everywhere, they have had 4 months of monsoon rains after all and have another 2 to go. During the dry season we are told the grasses die back and everything becomes much harsher.



The first stop is a termite area. There are two types visible. Towering 5m tall mounds made by cathedral termites and ones that look like very large tombstones, all perfectly aligned north - south to present the minimum surface to the sun. These are magnetic termites and are unique to the Northern Territories. Interesting we discover that the vast majority of termites live permanently underground and do not make mounds at all.



Then it is off to see a series of thundering waterfalls. Parts of the walks are fenced off because due to the high water levels it is entirely possible that crocodiles are in the swimming pools and they could take unwary tourists on the trails or in the water. Reassuring. Happily we all make it back to the coach and even see some wallabies as we drive on.



It is a longish day and finally ends in an outback pub where they have their own collection of animals to interest patrons. You know, chickens, goats, deer, emu and their very own 4m crocodile in it’s own double fenced enclosure. The feed the crocodile while we are there, throwing a large joint of meat on a rope into the deep pool, the reptile suddenly erupts and grabs the morsel, they really can move quickly.



Then it is back to the ship and we are bound for Airlie Island on the Great Barrier Reef. A lecture en route informs us of all the deadly animals which inhabit the reef. But we are reassured that they haven’t had a crocodile attack there for the last five days !

---