Going Down Under

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So my trip to Australia was beginning. On the way to Darwin my flight had a stopover in Manila which is where I had arranged to meet Laurent – who for the next year is my travel buddy.

We were booked on the same plan from Manila to Darwin and luckily were able to sit together.

We arrived in Darwin at around 5.30am By the time we'd gone through customs, collected our bags and got a taxi to our hostel it was 6:30am. Understandably we weren't able to check in to our hostel but luckily were able to leave our bags.
We walked down to a local beach and watched the sunrise there. At 11 we were able to check in to our room and so we napped for a few hours. I was tired. I'd been travelling for near enough two days, my body had just started to go from China time to English time and was now having to get used to Australian time. Plus Darwin is 8 and a half hours ahead of England.

After our nap we tried to get sim card for our phones, but all the shops had shut. They seem to shut early here.

We were told about an Aboriginal market which takes place close by so we decided to go to it. It was next to the beach and we were able to watch our first Australian sun set at a beach. It was beautiful. We walked around the market listening to a man playing the digeridoo and eating crocodile burgers and buffalo hot dogs.

Over the next couple of days we contacted people about vehicles for sale and test drove a few of them. Saturday we found one we both really liked and after test driving it we made an offer to the seller. We checked out of our hostel Sunday so decided to collect the van then.

We were the owners of a Mitsubishi Express Van!

After collecting the van we went to the Lagoon Pool. An outdoor swimming pool with a wave machine. After staying there a few hours we went on The Big Buoy - an inflatable slide and jumping platform in the sea. It was amazing.

Monday we tried to register the van as ours. Unfortunately we needed a permanent address to do so and was told if we opened a bank account we could use that address. We'd been advised on which bank we should choose and so went there and arranged a meeting for the next day.
For the rest of the afternoon we went to the Northern Territory Art and History Museum. They had a stuffed crocodile named Sweetheart. He was huge! Sweetheart was accidentally drowned when he was captured to be taken out of a river where he kept attacking boats. He never hurt anyone though.

Darwin is a small city and the next day we decided to leave and explore the rest of the Northern Territory.

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