Australia - Darwin

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Hello ello..

Sunday 13 June - Broome to Darwin continued
I got more and more worked up waiting at the airport as the flight approached and in the end had to take a Diazepam, which really helped. I had a nice chat with a Sri Lankan guy who'd been living in Australia for 25 years. He told me all the political history of Sri Lanka which was really interesting as I'd never understood it. It was a 55 minute flight to Kunukurra (only found we were stopping there just before the flight, if I hadn’t known I’d have thought I was on the wrong plane!) which is a small town just outside of the Kimberley's. The Kimberley's looked amazing as we flew over, that's the one bit of Australia I really wish I'd been able to do this time around. I just didn’t have enough time and it’s really expensive. It was a small airport and we had to get off the plane and go back through security. I did take a little walk outside of the airport, just so I could say I'd really been there. It was nice; there was a real family atmosphere (had been like that when we checked in at Broome too, I think I was the only person in the queue who didn't know anyone else). One Aboriginal family that was flying onto Darwin had friends come and meet them at the airport for a quick chat in the 5 minutes we spent there. Once we took off again it was then 40 minutes to Darwin, the man I'd been sitting next to let me sit next to the window, think he could see I was more interested in looking out! It was a nice flight overall, with Air North. They gave us free soft drinks and sandwiches and snacks and a Mars bar! The view coming into Darwin was impressive, you could see the mangroves (wonder how many crocs were down there!) and the sea was so clear, can see how the spotter plane can spot the Whale Sharks and Manta Rays in Coral Bay if it‘s like that. The way the sun was shining on the water and sand was really nice.
Sarah picked me up from the airport, was so great to see her! I'm so glad I've had the opportunity to meet up with her again as we got on so well at Uluru. The first thing that hit me was the heat; it was so hot. And humid. I was glad I wasn't carrying my usual 4 jumpers that I usually take with me on plane. It looked really different too, didn't feel like Australia, so so tropical, much more so than Cairns. Sarah drove me towards Fannie Bay, the area in Darwin that she lives in, and for a drive along the Bay. We could see the sun setting which was really nice. The beach looked nice but you can't swim anywhere there due to the crocodiles....! We stopped off at Sarah's flat to drop my stuff off then went straight out to Mindil Beach Markets (which are every Thursday and Sunday night and well worth a visit). I wasn't sure what I was expecting, but I definitely wasn't expecting it to be so lovely. There was a friendly, bustling and warm atmosphere. There were so many people there, Sarah reckoned the majority were locals but it's also a big tourist pull. We got some vege takeaway food from the Lucky Cow (there are amazing food stands all over the place) and sat on the grass watching street performers and an impromptu firework display which we guessed came from the nearby Greek festival. Then we walked around the stalls; there was so much nice stuff; I could have bought loads if I'd had the money, and if I'd lived in Darwin. You could easily do all your Christmas shopping there and re-stock your wardrobe. We then went on into town; although it was a Sunday it was busy because the next day was a National Holiday. Would you believe they were celebrating the Queen's Birthday?!!!!! I don't understand why Australia and New Zealand get a holiday for it and we don't??!!! We had a couple of drinks in one bar then went to Shenanigans to watch a bit of the football and have a bit of a dance. We went home about 12ish, although Australia were playing that night neither of us fancied staying up till 4am to watch.

Monday 14 June - Darwin and Litchfield National Park
We were up earlyish and headed to Litchfield National Park. I was really pleased Sarah was taking me here as thought I wouldn't get to see any of the National Park's outside of Darwin. I knew I definitely wouldn't get to Kakadu and the locals prefer Litchfield anyway. As we approached there were loads of the 'Beware of the Croc' signs!! The Freshwater Crocodiles in Australia are not dangerous to us but the Saltwater Crocodiles are very dangerous. They live in salt and freshwater and during the Wet Season travel up the streams and through the floods into the National Parks. Therefore the swimming holes are closed during the wet season and only opened when the water has receded and the rangers have captured and moved the Saltwater Crocodiles. Even then, you can only swim in designated areas, some of which are closed and the others only just re-opening. There were also Liquor and Pornography Prohibitation signs. I'd seen the Liquor ones before; they are common in the Northern Territory and designed to ‘support’ Aboriginals, who struggle with alcohol (I've talked about this before, for various reasons they turn to alcohol but don't handle it very well as they don't have the enzymes to break it down). I didn't understand the Pornography ones though; it seemed you got fined different amounts depending on whether the Porn was classified (i.e. legal) or not classified. We asked Heath (our tour guide when we went to Uluru, he now works out of Darwin) when we got back and he explained that Pornography had been becoming a problem for the Aboriginals, so the Northern Territory Government decided to impose restrictions on anyone travelling to certain areas. I'm not really sure what to make of this.
Our first stop in the park was the Magnetic Termite Mounds. It's the first time I've been up close to one. These ones are really big (built tall to survive the flooding of the wet season) and really hard, didn't expect them to be so hard. I took an up close picture and if you didn't know different you could think it was the side of a mountain. Sarah was a great tour guide, pointing out various plants and what they are used for (one of which was a Pandanas, Aboriginals wrap chicken in it and make baskets from it). As we drove on through the park we could see bush burn offs where the fires are set so the fires happen in a controlled way (the fires will start anyway, it‘s part of the natural life cycle of a Eucalyptus forest); interesting to see the rangers controlling them with a hose pipe. We stopped off at Florence Falls which were beautiful, so busy though due to the National Holiday (imagine that, having a day to spend swimming at beautiful waterfalls for the Queen‘s birthday!). The forest here is different to anything I've seen before; swampy mangroves and very different trees. There were so many pretty little creeks with people lazing and swimming in them. Next stop was Tolmer Falls which were impressive. There were really good information signs around the place and one told us about a type of bat that lives there, that has a 'complex face'. I thought that was a nice way of saying it, I would have gone for 'butt ugly'. Bless them. I saw a flowering wattle there as well. I'd seen a wattle in the Blue Mountains and remember thinking it was a shame it wasn't in flower, so was pleased Sarah pointed that out. We then went onto Wangi Falls which is Sarah's favourite, I can see why. The last time Sarah came the water was much higher (is interesting how it can all change so much depending on the season) but it had receded this time, was still too high to swim though, still too much of a danger from crocodiles! On the way back we stopped at Batchelor, a little town where they have a replica of a castle that’s in Czechoslovakia. The guy that built it was originally from Czechoslovakia. There were crossed paths with a really lovely Aussie bloke who sad "G'day" to us. I now have a thing for Aussie bloke’s accents, not just Kiwis! He followed us out and waited ages to overtake which Sarah thought was nice and then we saw him stop up ahead to help someone who'd broken down!!! A nice accent and a nice bloke! We’re so gutted we didn’t see him again! On the way back to Darwin Sarah and I stopped off at Berry Springs. It was closing (the gate was even half closed) but we decided to go for it just so I could see it. The Rangers stopped us so I asked if we could just go and take a quick photo (Sarah said it had to be me do the talking, she thought my accent would help) and they let us. Sarah went in for a swim. It was lovely and warm but I didn't fancy travelling back to Darwin in wet clothes. We picked up loads of rubbish there, empty beer and Bundi cans; why would people do that!
When we got back we went to the restaurant on the water by the Ski Club for dinner with Heath. I had a lovely Garlic Prawn pizza but OMG the garlic was so strong!!! Luckily we all had some! We used the time to pump Heath for answers to the questions we'd thought of during the day! He really does know a lot. It was nice to sit there, with the water lapping by our sides. Then we went back to Mitchell Street to watch Denmark vs Holland. There were a lot of Dutch in there! Then it was home and to bed.

Tuesday 15 June - Darwin
Sarah was working today so I got up and watched Australian TV. I've missed that and all the adverts and shameless product placement. I've concluded they get actors in to play real people when they’ve got a selling slot, imagine that on GMTV. I then fell asleep at about 10am and didn't wake up until 12.30pm! So so lazy!!! I jumped up quick, got ready and went out to town. I walked from Sarah's which is right by the sea to the bus stop; proud of myself I found it. It was only $2 return into town which I thought was great. In town I went to the YHA as they do discounts on Lonely Planet and had to wait 15 minutes listening to the receptionist on the phone to someone trying to book a room, she was so rude and her tone so grating I wouldn't have stayed there if I was them. Then I walked down the Esplanade to the Cenotaph which was pretty but it was too hot for me, I had to find somewhere cool so I took advantage of Global Gossip and uploaded some photos. When Sarah had finished work she picked me up and took me to the Wharf for dinner. It was lovely there (there are always so many nice places to go and see and do things at in Australia; it was like that in New Zealand too). There are tables all along the Wharf and nice Takeaways that you can go and choose from then eat on the tables. The Pearl boats are harboured on the Wharf. The sunset was awesome, a really really red sky. We had a great chat and watched the wildlife, of which there was plenty. The first thing I saw were some huge fish (flat like stingrays but at 90 degrees). They frightened me! I was crouching near the edge with my camera on the thing the boats are tied to and I heard all this splashing! I nearly went in! There were also huge bats, again! (I hadn’t seen them since Melbourne, but saw another in Broome; the Darwin ones are probably the biggest I’ve seen though). There were coming in really close, one came right down onto one of the tables nearby after the food. And there were Dolphins, out there for ages, guess they were fishing, they were big pale coloured ones. And then we actually saw a Shark, it wasn't a big one but it was definitely a shark!!! It's the first time I've seen a proper one in the wild, other than the Reef Sharks. After that we went on a bit of a drive to the Fisherman's Harbour to see the fishing boats and then back to Sarah’s' where we watched TV and Sarah booked flights to Singapore!!!! She is coming to meet me, Maff and Emma there for her birthday! The flight was $160, about 100 pounds. I couldn't believe it; I'd paid double that to fly from Broome to Darwin!

Wednesday 16 June - Darwin
Sarah was at work again so I slept in (didn't even hear here leave) then spent the morning watching Aussie TV again and uploading photos. It was a bit lazy, but I have done a lot recently 😊 The lazy morning turned into a lazy afternoon and I didn't leave the house all day. Which was lucky, as when Sarah got home she said it was really hot again, phew!!! I did venture out of the house to go to the supermarket with Sarah to get stuff to make homemade Pizza. The local Fannie Bay supermarket was really nice, loads of great fresh produce. Some girls in there were choosing a football, they picked up a Greece one and then this Aussie guy said to them "There is an England one in there if you want it girls; you might not though as they're not doing very well"! The cheek of him!! I told him so. When we got back the Brie we'd been eating had actually melted coz it was so hot. We watched Home & Away whilst eating dinner and the State of Origin which was really exciting, there was a lot of fighting, and it got quite heated at times! I'm actually turning into a bit more of a Rugby fan, really need to learn the rules and have no idea of the difference between League and Union. We had a nice rice pudding type thing for pudding and then Tea and Tim-Tams for only the second time I've been in Australia! It didn't go great though, as the chocolate melted so quick because it was so hot you couldn't do the whole bite the corners off and suck your tea through it. I was gutted!!!

Thursday 17 June - Darwin
I got up when Sarah went to work and partook in my usual Darwin morning of watching Australian morning TV. I am fascinated by the adverts. In an hour they had 4 different financial services real life/actor adverts on! I've got into a bit of a habit of watching Kerri-Anne, then the news, then Ellen then The View. The addiction was so bad today although I was desperate to get out in the sunshine and head to the Museum I had to wait for The View to finish! I tried to convince myself I was packing for Brisbane tomorrow, but really I just wanted to see how a man got on hosting it! And he was very good. I did drag myself away from the TV to go to the museum, which was well worth it. Even with the 5 minute boiling hot walk to the bus stop, and the 2 minute hot bus journey, and the 5 minute boiling hot walk from the bus to the museum. (I was knackered by the time I got there; humidity is so high in Darwin!). It was worth it though, the museum is pretty good. They had lots of displays of Northern Territory animals, and plants and minerals. And a stuffed Sweetheart, which is a freshwater crocodiles that was found in Darwin's waters. It's 5.1 metres long which seemed huge (but my Whale Shark was 2-3 metres longer!). He's called Sweetheart because of the name of the creek he used to live in. It was a 780kg fiercely territorial crocodiles that became a danger to humans (it turned over two small boats, nobody was hurt) so they decided to capture it and re-locate it. But he sadly died whilst they were trying to capture him. There was a really good video playing with actual footage of the capture, it was quite sad to see this awesome animal being overpowered like that. There was a good display on crocodiles which showed the skull and jaw of a saltwater crocodile and the skull and the jaw of the super-croc (which lived thousands of years ago) and the difference was HUGE. I looked at a lot of Aboriginal art which was all impressive; I was most impressed with the more modern art, it was so bright and colourful. It's very distinct but consistent at the same time, was beautiful. The display included a picture of the oldest rock painting in the world, which from what I could tell is in the Kakadu National Park, a couple of hours from Darwin. The Larrakia people live in the area and are currently making claims for land to be returned to them, some claims have been successful, some not and some are ongoing. There is also a section on Cyclone Tracy, which hit Darwin on Christmas Day 1974. There was an information video on that and photos which showed the devastation, which was pretty complete. It looked like a disaster zone; well I guess it was a disaster zone. The winds were so strong they broke the measurement equipment and the sound was described as iron being scraped across the ground and thumped against flimsy buildings; "the most terrifying sounds 40k Aussies have ever heard". The majority of the city was destroyed and 30000 of the 40000 inhabitants were immediately evacuated. They were moved to a place called Palmerston, which is still there, whilst Darwin was re-built. They have a sound booth you can go into where the noise is re-created. I went in there and was on my own and it was horrible. It sounded awful, so so scary and just like they described. It sounded like the world was ending. I got out of there quick. Whilst at the Museum I learned that Darwin was named after Charles Darwin but not by him; by a friend of his. And Darwin never visited his namesake port. On the way back to Sarah's I rang Georgina and we had a good chat, which included a 3 way conversation with the chap in the service station and why Georgina was wearing a (SHORT SLEEVED!) jumper to work in the summer. It was so hot again on the walk back I needed a good rest when I got home! Sarah and I had a Milo when she went back to work then we headed on down back to Mindel Markets. This time the sun was still up so we were there for sunset on the beach, which was lovely, eating our Mexican takeaway. We had a wonder round, Sarah realised that she'd lost her necklace. She was going to forget about it then I had a brainwave of looking back at the photos I'd taken to see if she'd lost it at the market and she'd had it on earlier so we re-traced our steps and eventually found it. She was so pleased 😊 After the markets we went out to Palmerston where Sarah plays Volleyball on a Thursday so I watched that whilst talking to home. It was a great set up, lots of different courts for Volleyball and cricket. I wish we had more stuff like that at home, especially more things to choose from if you are a girl. When we got home I finished packing and it was early to bed, as had to be up early for my flight. We had a good chat then off to sleep.

Friday 18 June - Darwin to Brisbane
We were up at 5am for my 6.10am flight to Brisbane. I was amazed I could get up at that time and still make the flight! I only had to be there 30 minutes before and it was a 15 minute drive. I was so sad to say bye to Sarah, we'd had a great time and she'd looked after me very well and it was like I'd been living there for ages! I could get used to it! I'll see her in Singapore soon though 😊 The airport was quite busy for the time but nice and simple, until I took a fold up knife through security (it was in the cutlery set Drew had got me for Christmas) and they took it off me (it must have been in there on the way from Broome to Darwin and they didn't spot it) so I was gutted about that. Am glad I was allowed to keep the fork and spoon! I'm sorry Drew 😞 The flight seemed to go really quick, it was 3 ½ hours but only felt like about an hour. I think I must have slept for most of it! When I woke up the older Aussie couple next to me started talking to me about Australia, where I’d been etc. The man asked me what I thought about the Aboriginals and we talked about that; again a lot of what he said made me feel very uncomfortable as it was so not politically incorrect and so not what we’re used to. It’s been really interesting learning about the Aboriginal culture and the integration in Australia society between them and the descendants of the European settlers. I’m still not 100% sure what to make of it; whilst I find the context in which some of the views are expressed very offensive I do understand the background to them. There is a lot of resentment bubbling under the surface. I’ve concluded it’s just one bit huge very sad mess. I hope Australia finds its way through it.

Next stop Brisbane, for 1 last week with Hannah and Anthony and Katie and Danny before I leave Australia, for now.

Lots of love

Xx

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