Darwin. For those who’s Australia geography is a bit lacking!
It’s a funny place when you arrive. The railway station is 25kms away and to get into the town you pass through industrial areas and get a feeling there’s not a great deal to see here. It feels different. Humid and warm; it brings back memories of Mediterranean holidays wandering around in shorts and T-shirts in the evenings. At night, it’s made worse and can be quite an intimidating place. Overhanging trees, minimal street lighting and there’s a feeling that there’s something in the bushes…
It took us a while to realise Darwin’s charm. For the first week, our attention was on ‘Stan’, our home for the next 10months, so for good reason frequented the industrial parts of town for the bits and pieces needed to kit him out. Timber, cabling, tools etc Bagot Road and Coconut Grove became our regular hangouts rather than the touristy Mitchell and Smith Streets in town. “We’ll go tomorrow” was our usual saying realising that we’d forgotten something and needed to get something else.
Five days sorting out ‘Stan’ and our only touristy bit to date was the Mindl Beach Sunset Market. It’s an incredible place with an incredible location at an incredible time packed with drum n’ bass didjeridooers, food vendors, whip demonstrations, fire dancers with all manner of crafts on sale. Who would have thought that the lure of trying to ride an unbalanced bike would draw the crowds? But what an amazing sunset! You can’t get much better!!!
Some good people we met soon became good friends and whom without would probably have been stuck in Darwin for much much longer. Big thanks to Brad, Ben and Sarah for sharing the beers and for getting ‘Stan’ ready for the adventure..
The suburbs became known to us but just as with foreign vocabulary you pick up, had no idea of how to use them without knowing the roads and grammar to get to them. There was a charm that we knew was there but hadn’t quite got to see it yet.
There was no time to spare. Kakadu was calling…
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