Australia - Darwin

Some of you may recall that my initial plan for Australia did not include a trip to Darwin, which I had decided would be good to leave for another time, when I could do a loop including the west coast, the outback, the northern territory (Darwin) and southern coast, which I thought would be best to do with one or two others, camping gear and a rental car. But when I started looking at flights from Cairns to various locations in Asia, it became clear that it would be cheaper to fly to Asia from elsewhere in Australia (Perth, Sydney, Darwin or Melbourne), and so even though I was more or less ready to leave Australia after Cairns, I hopped on a flight to Darwin to check it out for a few days and was excited to check out the neighboring national parks that I had heard good things about.

In a word, Darwin was hot.  It wasn't that hot by some standards, and really not any hotter than South Carolina or Florida in the summer, and actually a bit cooler than Vegas in the summer, but after spending the previous 2 months in much milder climates (and winter in the States before that), it felt really hot. Part of it was probably that I spent a couple of days camping, where I was either outside in the heat (it stayed pretty hot at night as well) or traveling around in a poorly ventilated SUV without the benefit of A/C. And then the hostel I stayed in (another YHA) only had window/wall A/C units which weren't terribly effective, so it stayed pretty warm in the room. So, I was pretty much sweating non-stop for like 5 days. The Darwin YHA was the first YHA in NZ or Australia that I wasn't highly impressed with. But it was undergoing renovations while I was there, so perhaps in a few months they'll have it up to YHA standards. In case you want to know more than "It was hot and I sweat a lot," more details about each day in Darwin below... 

Day 73 - Wednesday, April 4

I had an 1130am flight (from Cairns to Darwin), so I was able to sleep in until a normal time and had no issues with alarms or buses or anything. But about midway through the flight I realized I didn't have my fleece and immediately realized I had left it at the security checkpoint. I guess it must've gotten caught inside the the x-ray machine, but somehow I left without it. Unfortunately, unlike the US airports I've been in, they didn't bother making an announcement that someone had left their fleece at security. So now I don't have any jacket at all, and the fleece was also serving double duty as my travel and camping pillow, so now I'm pillow-less as well. Not good. 

The fleece was definitely the most expensive item I've lost so far, but certainly not the first. Perhaps it's worth recounting what I've lost to this point: 
- at least 4 other articles of clothing: 1 t-shirt, 1 pair of underwear, and 2 different socks 
- two things of sunscreen (not counting the one the dingos ripped up)
- a container of bug spray (perhaps the most sorely missed, though it's since been replaced, but not soon enough)
- shampoo and face soap (stolen from showers after I forget and left them behind.
- my only flashlight
- my AmEx card

I think that's it so far, though I've tried to give my iPad away a couple of times. The first was when I left it on the counter at a Bread Top bakery store in the middle of a mall in Surfers Paradise for about an hour, and then realized I didn't have it about an hour later and went sprinting back for it to find it exactly where I left it.  The second was in Cairns when I left it just sitting beside a computer in the Peterpan's travel shop and again realized I had left it about an hour later (and 10 minutes after they had closed) and had to sprint 2 blocks from my hostel and bang on the doors and luckily they let me in and it was still there. Any bets on how long it is until I lose the iPad? or perhaps my passport?

Anyway, it was like 95 or 100 degrees in Darwin when I got there, so I certainly wasn't missing the fleece there. I had heard the best thing to do in and around Darwin was a multi-day camping trip to nearby Kakadu and Litchfield National Parks, so I asked around about that and found out that my only option with a tour company was basically doing a 2-day trip leaving the next day to Kakadu and then a 1-day trip to Litchfield on Saturday, because the other trips around the weekend were full on account of it being Easter and most people having Friday and Monday off. I spotted a posting on the hostel's message board that was looking for people to split the costs of renting a car to go camping in Kakadu for the weekend, but when I called the guy he said he wasn't sure what time they'd be back on Monday, and my flight to Bali was at 3 on Monday, so I needed to be back pretty early. I think that sort of a trip would've been preferable, but unfortunately I only had about an hour before I had to book the trip with the tour company that left the next morning if I wanted to do that, and the guy organizing the unguided trip said he'd need to get back to me about when they were leaving on Monday, so I just went with tour company (Kakadu Dreams).

The tour company was picking me up 7am - another early morning. So I walked around what there was of a downtown Darwin (it's a pretty small area) and called it an early night. I took no pictures. No part of Darwin's nightlife seemed photo-worthy. 

Day 74 - Thursday, April 5

Unlike the east coast of Australia where the sun was up by 530/6, when I woke up a little after 6, Darwin was dark, which is always a little weird, especially for people like me that aren't keen on waking up early. It was another hot and sunny day - with temps in the 90's. The first stop was at the Adelaide River, just outside of the park to check out some saltwater crocs. While we were waiting for the croc cruise to start, we played with a few different pythons native to the Northern Territory:

From Australia - Darwin & Kakadu

While dolphins have previously given me fits, I faired a little better getting photos of the crocs in action.

From Australia - Darwin & Kakadu

More photos of crocs in the album.

Apparently Darwin has a very distinct wet season and dry season, with April generally marking the end of the wet and start of the dry. Based on the wether, it seemed dry season had set in, but unfortunately, most of Kakadu, including many of its top attractions aren't open until a few months into dry season, usually around July because after the flooding of wet season they have to rebuild roads and check for misplaced crocodiles, etc. So, unfortunately, most of the park was still closed. For this reason, most tour companies that do overnight trips to Kakadu don't do anything longer than 2 days there this time of year because there really isn't too much to see until they open up more of the park as things dry out. 

I also didn't realize quite how far Darwin was from the sites in Kakadu. Kakadu is the largest National Park in Australia, and though the edge of Kakadu is only a little over an hour from Darwin, you have to go a couple of hours into the park before there's really much to do/see, so it's a good bit of driving/riding, especially if you're not planning to camp for at least a few nights. Though we did stop along the way to check out this termite mound that was significantly taller than I am:

From Australia - Darwin & Kakadu

I spent the 3-hour drive from Darwin crammed in the back of a tightly packed SUV, with minimal air flow, a worthless A/C unit, and eight other people that didn't seem to want to be very social. It was not exactly fun. That afternoon we checked out some aboriginal art at Nourlangie rock, and then we did a pretty cool hike up to a lookout that provided a nice view of Nourlangie rock and panoramic views of the park.

From Australia - Darwin & Kakadu

From Australia - Darwin & Kakadu

From Australia - Darwin & Kakadu

And a group photo:

From Australia - Darwin & Kakadu

Despite it being quite hot, camping wasn't too bad because we stayed at a campground with a swimming pool, and had a nice big fan to blow on the tents to keep us from sweating to death at night. Luckily one of my travelmates let me borrow some insect repellant, otherwise it might've been Fraser Island all over again - mosquitoes everywhere. Have I mentioned yet that I hate mosquitoes?

Day 75 - Friday, April 6

We were awoken (before sunrise once again) by loud sounds of the guide playing a didgeridoo We wanted to get an early start  so that we could do most of our hiking during the cooler morning hours. We headed over to the trailhead for a walking track to the Gubara natural pools. Along the way, we headed off the track and up some pretty steep rocks, through a little passageway that seemed way too reminiscent of scenes from 127 hours 

From Australia - Darwin & Kakadu

and up to a pretty cool lookout, where I snapped some more photos:

From Australia - Darwin & Kakadu

and we got another group shot:

From Australia - Darwin & Kakadu

After we came down, we went for a refreshing and heat-relieving swim in a naturally formed swimming pool fed by a few rivers and waterfalls and then eventually headed back to Darwin (another sweat filled ride in the heat of the day), arriving back in time to catch the sunset:

From Australia - Darwin & Kakadu

That night in Darwin, virtually everything was closed because it was Good Friday, and I had to be up at dawn once again for the 1-day tour of Litchfield National Park, not to mention being utterly exhausted after the long day, so it was another early night. 

Day 76 - Saturday, April 7

I was up and waiting outside the hostel to be picked up by about 6:50.  It was yet another hot and sunny day. I sat outside and waited patiently, reading my book; finally, after what seemed like quite a bit of time with no sign of the bus, I went in to reception to have them call and see what the deal was. The story I got from the tour company was that they had me booked for the Litchfield tour for the previous day (which makes zero sense because I was on a different bloody tour with that same company the previous day.) In any case, I wasn't really that upset because I realized during the Kakadu tour that the Litchfield tour also does the same stop on the Adelaide to check out the crocs in the morning, and my guide for the Kakadu tour said Litchfield was more like a place to go for a picnic and not as cool as Kakadu. Also, some guys at my hostel had mentioned they were leaving for Litchfield on Saturday and we had talked about how it was unfortunate that I was booked on the tour because otherwise I could've just tagged along with them. So really, I was somewhat happy to get a refund for the Litchfield tour. But when the  hostelmates got up around 10, I found out that they had changed their plans, and instead of going to Litchfield for the day, they were planning to camp there until Monday. So again I was foiled by my Monday flight.

With my plans for the day derailed, I explored the city a bit more, and then lounged by the pool most of the afternoon, trying to avoid the oppressive heat. No bad days when you're a jobless backpacker. ... Unless of course, dingos tear open your tent, rip up your belongings, get sunscreen on everything and then you get insect bites all over your face and body because your tent won't close. Or you spend 15 hours on a 90+ degree bus with stinky people and no A/C. So, maybe very few bad days is more accurate.

Day 77 - Sunday, April 8 - Easter

Another very hot day. I spent most of the morning in an air-conditioned building on the internet - skyping, emailing, researching Asian destinations, trying to keep up with what's going on in the world, etc.  Then I spent the afternoon relaxing by the pool again. That evening, I went for a jog over to the west side of the city, and found  the Cullen Bay area to be quite nice, and it's a great place to watch a sunset as well. I didn't take my camera, but luckily someone else has been there with a camera at sunset before:

From Australia - Darwin & Kakadu