We were lucky enough to be time travelers for a few hours. We left Bali in 2008 and we arrived in Darwin in 2009. If we had hopped straight back onto a plane to Bali we would have been back to 2008. I definitely think that is time travel. Because of the airline that Qantas had contracted our flight to we were unable to buy any duty free, which was fair annoying. Then we had a bit of an anti climactic new years eve in the air, not glass of champagne to be had on the whole plane.
We checked into our hostel and hit the streets of Darwin at 2am. We were sober as judges and everyone else was hammered beyond belief. I had about 3 drinks spilled on me in my first few minutes in the pub. We went to an Irish bar as we liked the sound of the band and stayed there for a few hours. We headed to sleep about 4am after watching two guys get manhandled out of the pub and then the police arrived and pepper sprayed the bouncers. Interesting.
The next day being a public holiday most places were closed but we decided to go on a walking tour outlined in the lonely planet. We wandered along smith street mall, where everything was closed but there were interesting information plaques along the street. We went to survivors look out and then went and peeked in the door of the WWII oil storage tunnels,(it too was closed). We strolled past the government house, the Supreme Court and Lyons Cottages. We then walked down the Esplanade. Terry was very disappointed that the deck chair cinema is closed during the wet season. We had a rest in the bicentennial park and then had a look at St Mary’s Cathedral and the aboriginal Madonna and the wounded Mary.
We checked into our hostel and hit the streets of Darwin at 2am. We were sober as judges and everyone else was hammered beyond belief. I had about 3 drinks spilled on me in my first few minutes in the pub. We went to an Irish bar as we liked the sound of the band and stayed there for a few hours. We headed to sleep about 4am after watching two guys get manhandled out of the pub and then the police arrived and pepper sprayed the bouncers. Interesting.
The next day being a public holiday most places were closed but we decided to go on a walking tour outlined in the lonely planet. We wandered along smith street mall, where everything was closed but there were interesting information plaques along the street. We went to survivors look out and then went and peeked in the door of the WWII oil storage tunnels,(it too was closed). We strolled past the government house, the Supreme Court and Lyons Cottages. We then walked down the Esplanade. Terry was very disappointed that the deck chair cinema is closed during the wet season. We had a rest in the bicentennial park and then had a look at St Mary’s Cathedral and the aboriginal Madonna and the wounded Mary.
As we had run out of things to do and it was still only mid afternoon we decided to go to the other cinema, ie indoor. We booked tickets for Frost/Nixon and then to see Australia. It was cool seeing Australia while we were in Darwin and Terry was pleased to see the deck chair cinema in the movie, if nothing else.
The next day was a bit of a housekeeping day. We sorted out our flights with Qantas, picked up a parcel in the post office, booked a trip to Litchfield etc. we are booked to be home on the 25th of February and terry is very excited to be flying on the new A380. It does mean we missed out on a stop over in LA but apparently flying on the A380 is better than LA. I am not so sure. We then headed to a pub to have glass of wine and plan our trip down the east coast. A glass became a bottle, a bottle became two and then terry insisted on another drink. So we got another bottle of wine and were out until midnight after about 6 hours of drinking and chatting to some lovely African lads, I think mainly about dreadlocks.
Apparently it was great. Terry saw jumping crocodiles including a 6 meter monster of a fella. He saw magnetic and cathedral termite mounds. He ate a green ant, saw a river with lovely waterfalls and went swimming in a billabong. I am not a bit jealous and I only mostly blame him for my not being able to go. It is all his fault, that’s all I am saying and I did not want to swim in a billabong or eat an ant anyway. We went to the cinema that night so that my entire day would not be a waste and saw the Curious Case of Benjamin Button.
Overall, despite incurring serious facial injury Darwin was a great place. all lovely and compact, with loads to do and was well easy to get around. Who knew Darwin only had 70,000 people. I reckon a good chunk of them are backpackers, including the lovely Roisin from Skib who we met in our Hostel.
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