Australia: Darwin to Litchfield National Park

After an uneventful travel day and a flight on what should have been a BA flight but was instead an affiliated Quantas flight, but actually ended up being a Jetstar flight from Singapore to Darwin, we landed at 4:00am Oz time.  We queued as usual at the immigration desks and prepared ourselves for the monotone questions by the typical idiots that make up immigration officials.  We stepped forward and the official with a beaming smile booms out “G’day mate, how are you?!”  He then proceeds to have a 5 minute conversation with us whilst sorting the paperwork about where we where from, what we where planning to do and how much we where going to enjoy Oz.  I stood open mouthed not knowing what to say….a friendly, intelligent normal person.  I looked round to see if this was a one off…..nope, they were all normal!

We caught the airport transfer bus into town which dropped us right outside our hostel, which if it hadn’t wouldn’t have been a big issue because Darwin is not a big place.  We went to check in with all our fingers and toes crossed for an early check in as it was only 7am and we’d had no sleep again, but we were told there was no chance and couldn’t get into our room until 2 pm.  As we could see signs that said checkout was 10am we weren’t sure if this was due to logistics or that this was just the rule and they weren‘t being very sympathetic.  Nonetheless, we still tried to check in at 12pm but with no luck.  So we joined the aboriginals and sat on a park bench grabbing 15 minutes sleep when we could.  We passed on quaffing the super strength larger though, as it was much too early for that.  The wait for our room was made extra difficult as we were both suffering from a slight stomach bug which we think we got from a Subway sandwich in Singapore.  Very ironic to say the least, as this was our first western meal for weeks and we did not suffer at all in the rest of South East Asia.

Darwin is the largest city for nearly 4000 kms and is closer to Indonesia than the rest of Australia.  It has a frontier town feeling to it with everyone driving 4x4’s or trucks and by the look of the place I got the feeling that most of the work here would be manual.  The main shopping drag has a 1970’s Basildon feel about it probably due to the fact that the place had to be rebuilt after a hurricane completely destroyed the town in 1974.  I’m not sure what Basildon’s excuse is.

One of the challenges we had when planning this trip was what season it would be when we were visiting the different countries.  With the UK enjoying one of the best summers in recorded history, we unfortunately have to endure the Australian winter.  Darwin being at the Top End (as the Aussies like to call it) and close to the equator, we are already suffering a typical winters day in Darwin.  Yes, a balmy 32 degrees and not a cloud in the sky (you pomms call that a summer?)  The Top End does not have seasons like we would know it, but is simply split into the Wet season and the Dry.  We are here in the dry, with wet season arriving in the Ozzie summer (our winter), bringing extremely high temperatures and humidity, monsoon rains and severe flooding.

After finally getting into the hostel it soon became evident that it was frat party hell with a rooftop bar and deck that was frequented by large numbers of teenagers getting drunk and doing what teenagers do.  After joining in for a while we left happy to be only staying one night.  The next day we made our way to pickup the campervan.  We had booked this months ago with the same company we plan to use in New Zealand so securing a discount.  It took about an hour to do the paperwork and be shown how to operate our home for the next 5 weeks.  As you would expect we had the safety talk about turning the gas off while driving, not to drive off road or on unsealed roads and how to run away from a crocodile!  Yes, the Top End is full of salt water crocodiles, ironically found in both the sea and also in many of the fresh water rivers/billabongs where they have managed to get during the floods in wet season.  Salties (as they are affectionately known) can be up to 5m long and 1.5m wide, very intelligent and will kill just for the sport.  Hopefully, we will not have to use the useful advice given to us by the campervan lady of “if one comes after you, just run!”

Once we picked up the van we went shopping for food buying all of our favourites that we had missed over the past 3 months and stocking up for being on the road.  So, like tortoises, we put our home on our back and made our way 150 kms south for our first night in the van and our first national park.  We arrived at our campsite by accident choosing to stop because we could not be bothered to drive anymore and wanted to get unpacked.  The first nights cooking was something simple and an old favourite of ours, Spag Boll.  With only 2 burners on our gas hob and about a meter square to operate in I’ve a feeling that most of our meals will end up being a simple affair.  Settling down for the night we were both hoping that our new home would facilitate a good nights sleep.  With no other light for miles around and nothing but the gentle noises from the creatures of the night, it was looking good.

Next: Litchfield and Kakadoo National Parks.