A Darwin Interlude

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Our time in Darwin has come to an end - tomorrow we leave for Kakadu before continuing our journey west. We have had a lovely two weeks here, despite the heat, and this is largely thanks to Patrina for allowing us to stay on her property. Complete with pool and a cool deck area, Patrina and Summer’s home has been a very welcome, and relaxing, respite from our travels, and we feel we are now up to the challenge of the last two months.

While Paul was freezing his butt in New Zealand (and enjoying games from the luxury of a box - his butt may be freezing, but it always lands in the butter!) my mother came and joined us. This was the first time she stayed with us in the caravan, so it was all quite cosy, but it worked well. We explored the sights of Darwin and then on Sunday headed out to Litchfield National Park, planning to swag for a night. Naturally as we arrived at the first rock pool, it started to pour, but we swam anyway and then, when the rain stopped, headed off to Wangi Falls where we planned to set up camp. We arrived, and it rained again. We found a small shelter, brought out the wine, snacks and cards, and decided to wait out this ‘shower’ as well. Over an hour later, the rain stopped, and we thought we would be brave and haul out the swags. Needless to say, half way through, it started to rain again, so we hurriedly packed up, and, very reluctantly, headed out of the park. By then it was already past 7pm, so it was dark, and we were worried about kangaroos. On the drive out we didn’t see any of them, but very nearly ran into three huge water buffalo. As we were all rather depressed at the thought of driving all the way back to Darwin, we stopped at a caravan park and were able to secure a cabin for the night. The boys thought this was cool, all sleeping together in a cabin - a huge adventure for them. To my mum’s credit, the next morning she suggested we try swagging again. So we did, and we ended up having a wonderful day swimming in rock holes and under waterfalls, and then set up our swags again (fortunately, we set the swags up early, as this gave our duvets enough time to dry as our swags proved not to be as water resistant as we expected). That evening was dry and beautiful - though not without its little surprises (ie a huge wild pig that spend most of the night snuffling around our tents, and a moon so big and bright it felt like day time in the middle of the night!) My mother enjoyed the whole experience so much that, on her last night, she decided to swag in the garden (which Paul has subsequently done, as it is much cooler outside than in the caravan - though it does have its drawbacks; the frogs are extremely loud, reaching a deafening crescendo at about 5.30 in the morning).

Paul has been back for about four days, and we spent the time swimming at Darwin’s wave pool (a huge hit), going out to Litchfield again, and basically just trying to keep cool. Darwin is an interesting city, very multicultural and very laid back. It has also been surprisingly cultural: while Paul was away the boys and I went to see Shaolin Warriors, we were in town for another rodeo, and then tonight I have a girl’s night out with Patrina to watch Jimmy Barnes and Cold Chisel in concert. What great timing. Unfortunately this means I am going to keep this blog short, as I need to get ready, and before that, I want to have a swim in the pool to cool down. 34 degrees and humid!

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Comments

[Jeanette and Tom]

Will Ina take up swagging?
Thank you Alexa for taking the time to send us a blog. I was so excited to get two postcards today, one from Oliver and one from William. I will write to them. Hope you enjoyed your show. Lots of love. Jeanette