Festival in cans

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The journey to Darwin was only 3.5 hours and on stepping out of the coach I could tell it was too warm and muggy for my liking. Darwin is the capital of Northern Territory, which was clear from the number of bars, restaurants and hostels nearby, the like of which I hadn't seen since Perth, though it's population is only about 100,000.

I'd had a lot of trouble finding somewhere to stay in Darwin, and from Kununurra had phoned round every hostel in my guidebook before I finally found accommodation for my entire stay. One problem was that I'd originally only intended staying a day or 2 before heading out to a couple of the national parks, however various e-mails I'd received had indicated that a lot of people from earlier in my trip would be converging on Darwin at the same time, so I'd only recently changed my plans to stay in Darwin for several days, figuring some chill-out time with them would be fun.

Mitchell Street is the main drag in Darwin, and my hostel was located on it so I had no trouble tracking it down. It wasn't great, with the idling ceiling fan insufficient to deal with the dorm's stuffiness. My first interaction with my dorm-mates was strange, as I found them sitting on the terrace squinting one-eyed at each other in front of a table filled with playing cards and half-empty bottles of booze - it turned out they were playing some sort of drinking game.

After a sweaty and ultimately unsuccessful search to find a restaurant still serving food at 10PM, I got a text from Daniel (whose tour had arrived from Broome a couple of days ago) suggesting meeting up for a beer. On the way to meet him, I again bumped into Laurent from the Bungle Bungles trip, who was meeting his wife and children here. Daniel was with some of his tour group, one of whom was the Welsh girl from the urinal dorm in Broome, and I recognised one of the guys (who later turned out to be from Billingham!) from somewhere. We went to an English pub, and with due deference to the surroundings I drank too much too quickly, resulting in me eating some strange chicken and potatoes dish in a 24 hour food court and not getting to bed until 3AM.

I moved to a different hostel the following day. There was initally a problem with moving in, as there was a pair of (clearly used) underpants and sheets on my bunk, but the reception sorted this out. Unfortunately there was a strange smell in the room, so I guess I've drawn the short straw again. When speaking to one of my dorm-mates later, she said that it was the worst hostel she'd ever stayed in (meaning she's clearly led a charmed life, though it's probably in my top (bottom?) 5).

A day of sight-seeing ensued, taking in the Chinese temple, Tree of Knowledge, and Mindil Beach. Darwin doesn't seem particularly lively during the day, but then again the sun is really scorching and the humidity is high. I found myself dropping into supermarkets and shopping malls simply to take advantage of the aircon. During the day there is the occasional breeze to cool you down but at night the breeze drops, the temperature doesn't (much), and it's extremely steamy.

I tried out Stokes Hill Wharf for dinner, as everything I'd read about it indicated it might have something of a Barcelona vibe, i.e. a succession of restaurants and bars along a marina. That turned out to be wishful thinking, though the area was completely heaving. There were a couple of food courts plus hundreds of tables and chairs overlooking the water (though the view was nothing special). I had a fine crocodile burger and chips, which I'm sure is a traditional Northern Territory meal - it's not every day that you get to eat crocodile done deliciously (ahem). There was a hint of fishiness about the meat, but the flavour was delicate and I was glad to have finally seen a crocodile, even if only in burger form.

I received an e-mail from my mother enquiring as to what "bugger grips" were - a term I'd used in a previous blog. I expertly handed this off to Google as I didn't feel that this was a question that I, as the youngest member of the family, should be answering.

My time in Darwin coincided with the Beer Can Regatta, an annual event attracting contestants and spectators from all round the country. As could perhaps be deduced from its name, the craft in the regatta are constructed in accordance with the third of the Ten Canmandments (sic) - "Thy craft shall float by cans alone". Various other events take place at the same time, such as tug of war and thong (flip-flop) throwing, with a large market nearby for buying souvenirs, didgeridoos, food, etc.

The regatta was held at Mindil Beach, and I arrived first thing in the morning, which meant I was able to inspect some of the entrants that were already on the beach. There was one stand-out craft, constructed from Castlemaine XXXX Gold cans (apparently the team had drunk 10 a night for the last year). It looked solid, its design was interesting, and it had consistency due to containing only one type of can. Many of the other vessels looked flimsy, or had combined several types of can to detrimental effect, or simply just weren't impressive. The weediest one, which was no doubt built as a joke after a drunken night out, consisted of an inflatable sheep (?) to which 4 cans had been attached.

I spent the day sitting in the shade watching the ebb and flow of visitors through the market, with occasional trips to the beach to watch events or see if any interesting beer can boats had turned up. The whole thing climaxed with the Battle of Mindil. I couldn't quite grasp what the rules were, but it seemed to involve all the boat crews paddling their craft out to sea, then searching for some golden ball. Whoever could return the ball to shore would win the battle, with apparently no holds barred in terms of obstructing rival teams.

Of course, there'd been a fair amount of drinking throughout the day (by some people) and the festivities continued well into the night.

I'd already concluded that the centre, east coast, and Tasmania weren't going to be achievable on this trip, so they were pencilled in for September, after my return home for a couple of family events. This left me with the problem of getting down to Melbourne to catch my flight home, which meant a 1AM departure from Darwin on an expensive Virgin Blue plane. I said my goodbyes to various of the people who I'd met along the west coast, and was in pensive mood on the bus to the airport, realising that I had only a couple of days left in Oz.

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Photos

Tree of Knowledge
A large banyan tree

Entry for the Beer Can Regatta
With cheesecake

The XXXX boat again
They could at least have lined all the holes up