Darwin - Part 8

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August is a very special time of the year for both Hillary and I. For starters, both of our birthdays are at the end of the month. Then, we both have family and friends with birthdays in August as well. And not only that, but our anniversary is in this very same month too! It’s always an eventful time for the two of us.

The first of our three big dates would be our anniversary. But how to celebrate? Being in Australia would surely make this an anniversary to remember, but we still needed to do something special. So we decided to treat ourselves to a nice dinner! It may not sound like anything out of the ordinary, but since arriving in Australia we hadn’t really eaten out except for take away (which is take out for those back home, like fast food). We were due for a treat. I asked my new Aussie friends for some local suggestions, and got two good responses (one of which we’d use for Hill’s bday). The one we chose was the Rooftop Restaurant in the city. At the top of a hotel, we got a great view of the city, the golf course and the sunset all the while enjoying a nice meal. We had a great time. One funny thing I noticed though was that the men’s washroom had a lot of full length windows. I don’t know, but it seemed odd to be using the urinal only to realize that if I had a pretty good view of the apartment building next door, they must have had just as good a view of me… lol

During the weeks, we continued our movie watching. I saw Coraline one evening while Hillary was at work. I really liked it. It uses stop motion animation, like The Nightmare Before Christmas, and really looked quite amazing. Funny too. Hillary and I later saw Public Enemies, which was average. I found the way it was shot a little distracting. It just looked a bit too real, if that makes any sense. On the 18th, I saw District 9, and then saw it again later that week with Hillary. Amazing movie! I loved it so much. It’s been a while since I had seen such a smart sci-fi movie. Back at our house in Karama, Hillary and I had been watching a mini series called From the Earth to the Moon. It was about the space race of the 60s (focusing on NASA) and showed off the Gemini and Apollo missions. Amazing series! Each episode detailed one specific mission, but recreated it as if it was a movie (like Apollo 13 with Tom Hanks). Educational and super interesting!

Don’t worry though; we haven’t been just watching movies. On the 22nd, Hillary and I took a day trip down to Litchfield. This was something everyone had kept telling us we had to do, and it was easy to see why once we got down there. But to start off, the first thing we did after leaving that morning was check out a crocodile cruise. Unfortunately Hill and I had just been a couple of weeks earlier, so we didn’t partake (cost extra anyways) and hung out at the info center. Next we grabbed a nice lunch and then checked out the termite hills. These things were huge. I couldn’t believe little ant-sized creatures could make something so big, but it’s a fact. Finally we came to what we all wanted to see, the waterfalls and swimming holes! Really beautiful. To think this could exist in such close proximity to the dry, dry Australian outback. We went to two different falls and got to swim at both. It really is so much nicer to swim in fresh water rather than salt water. lol

It was a long day, but it wouldn’t be over when we got home that evening. It was John’s bday (as well as my cousin Matt’s)! He’d spent the day out with friends enjoying a drink or two (dozen I should say), and I knew I had to drop by. Surprisingly though, by the time Hill and I got to the pub he’d already gone home. After not being able to reach him on his mobile, we were going to call it a night. But then my phone rang and we were off to John’s place where the party had shifted! Hill and I had a great time drinking the night away with John’s family and a few close friends. I think a digital camera was present at the time, so hopefully no embarrassing videos of us “dancing” will find their way to the web anytime soon. And as for getting home, well it looks like all my experience had finally paid off at the end of the night, since Hill was the one leaning on me as we took our short walk home. Lol

Kevin (and Hillary)

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Photos

Anniversary
Good thing we actually had a set of nice clothes tucked away in the bottom of our bags.

Restaurant
It really felt like a rooftop restaurant with windows on all sides.

Sunset
A little bit cloudy, but still a nice sunset.

Dinner
The food was great! We were really impressed.

Washroom
That's a lot of window, and not a lot of privacy.

Bus
The great thing about double decker buses is that if you're lucky, you can really get a front row seat.

Bus - 2
Sometimes we rough it in the outback, sometimes we travel in luxury.

Croc Cruise
We didn't do another cruise, but this was the cute little cafe where they left off from.

Paparazzi pic
Hillary taking pictures of me with my own camera. How the tables have turned!

Termite mounds - 1
These were the cathedral mounds. Some were huge.

Termite mounds - 2
These were the magnetic termite mounds, and supposedly they make them flat in the axis of north/south. In other words, they're flat and look like big tombstones.

Stream
Hard to believe such lush scenery is so close to the Australian outback.

Waterfalls - 1
Let's play "Where's Hillary?"

Jumping
Although it's not recommended due to safety reasons, you always get a few daredevils who want to climb the cliff edge and jump from the top.

Waterfalls - 2
View from the top of the hill.

Wangi Falls - 1
Another waterfall we went to check out.

Wangi Falls - 2
There's some really nice swimming to do in these areas. Also, you can imagine how much more magnificent the falls would be during the Wet season (when it actually rains).

Bats
Or flying foxes as people tend to call them around here. There were thousands of them right near the water!

To continue or turn around?
We turned around. Lol We got to see a nice view, but the trip didn't call for hiking, so we didn't have any water with us.

View
The view we saw before turning around.

Bus - 3
Our bus during the waterfall section was a bit smaller, but cozier.