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We've been in Darwin for a week now and we really like it up here, the hot and dry weather helps! Darwin as a city is really small and compact so you can get everywhere by foot in no time at all. As there is no swimming allowed in the sea up here due to jelly fish (stingers) and crocodiles (salties) they have a man made lagoon by the waterfront. For the first couple of days Davie and I made ourselves at home by the lagoon and 'got our tan on!' Feeling suitably tanned up we decided it was time to do some exploring outside of the city and we hired a couple of bicycles. Now as many of you know I have the 'Jackson Pin Head' so imagine my horror when the small helmet didn't fit me and my only choice was a child sized helmet which came in a funky pink flowery design. Davie was bent over double laughing at me and my tiny head!!! There was only one thing to do...dig my pink shades out and rock the pink princess look! On the bikes we headed North out of the city to Fannie Bay (did you snigger?? I did!) along a scenic coastal cycle path then onto the East Point Reserve. ....................... Hi all, Lauren has got bored and is know doing her 'social media' so I will try and continue. To set the scene.... It was a balmy 35degrees when we set off on our bike ride, so we watered and creamed up and as Lauren said headed towards Fannie bay. To be brutally honest I was a little disappointed, it was the most blatant case of Miss advertising. Since the film the never ending story. Anyway, we followed the cycle path from Darwin to the east point reserve, home to the raaf base from WW2, a lot of the bomb sites, bunkers and airstrips are still there from the war with the Japanese. It was actually a lovely cycle along the coast, and every time we stopped there was always someone friendly to talk too. I think that's what I find most amazing is that random strangers just stop and talk to you, so friendly. I've digressed again. We passed the Darwin museum, the labour prison( which we were told was the worst in Australia) and a huge saltwater lake, and because there were no croc signs I jumped straight in and started splashing around. Eventually when I turned around to see what Lauren was up too, I noticed she had perched herself on a bench getting her tan on. Must not have fancied the lake. On the return leg of our ride Lauren decided that she wanted to stretch her legs, and she shot off. I couldn't keep up, but that was only because of the rusty chain on my bike. Haha. When we eventually got back it was around 6 an getting dark. So it was an early night, and I slept like a baby. The next day we had an early start, hired a car for a few days, packed up our things and headed off to litchfield national park for a bit of sightseeing and camping. We both really enjoyed litchfield, it was full of cool things like 2meter high magnetic termite mounds, rapids that we jumped in and swam around and a abundance of beautiful waterfalls, the last being wangii falls which we swam around the falls and lake, and again there was rocks for me to jump off. As it started to get dark we dried off and set up camp, as there was no light around sleeping under the stars is spectacular, and a view I'd probably never forget. The second day we had the car we headed to the vast Kakadu national park, after setting off early morning we got there around 4ish, so decided to have a little look around the little town before setting up camp, leaving all the sightseeing for the following day. (Everything is so far away from each other.)We arose bright an early and set out on a few walks the lonely planet recommended.......Lauren back again (Davie's turn to play on faceyb!). The first walk took us past lots of ancient rock paintings that the aboriginal people had created aswell as taking us to a lookout which offered a great view of the park and the surrounding cliffs. The second walk took us around a pretty billabong but once again I was on high alert for crocs because we were welcomed with a big sign that warned that "crocodiles have been known to come close to the footpath" fortunately we didn't bump into any crocs but we did see lots of birds and lots of lillies and it was all very beautiful. The third and final walk took us through some wetlands (which were dried out because we're in dry season) but too be honest this walk was really boring, once you've seen one tree you've seen them all and the flies were driving us crazy!! Davie got so annoyed by them that he took his tshirt off and tied it round his head Rambo style just to keep them away from his face. He looked like a right plank but I looked like an even bigger plank doing Madonna Vogue dance moves to swot them away.
After the walks we headed back to Darwin and camped up just outside the city, the V8 supercars were on that weekend so it was impossible to find accommodation. I'm going to go off course here and tell you a little bit about the car we hired. It was an automatic car and if I had a dollar for every time either myself of Davie went for the gear lever or pressed the break thinking it was the clutch, I'd be a very rich lady by now! So not only did we have that to adjust to but in Australia the indicator is on the opposite side so everytime I came to a junction not only would I want to change gear but I'd also put my window wipers on instead of my indicator! Then to top it off I'd get completely confused about which way to flick the indicator so 9 times out of 10 I'd indicate the opposite way I wanted to go!! Thank god there isn't much traffic on the roads!
So today is Monday and we have had a "sort our lives out" day! I have finally got my CV sorted and applied for a couple of jobs and we have also found some permenant accommodation in Darwin (for the next month at least!) Tomorrow we will be moving into a lovely flat with another couple and a girl all of which are our age. The flat is beautiful, it's a five minute walk from the centre and we have a balcony and a swimming pool. The sofa looks amazing, I literally cannot wait to sit on it. We're both very much looking forward to living like 'normal' people for a while rather than hobo's!
Much love to all,
Lauren and Davie xxx
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