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Australia! Difficult to believe we are actually in Australia. We have been to so many amazing places already and here we are getting towards the furthest point from home and very nearly halfway into the 97 days. And back to the English speaking world (well, sort of) and developed economy. And heat, lots of it. Generally reckoned to be around 34C today, that is well in to the 90s for us. Not much breeze, not much shade, but surprisingly quite green with trees, grass, flowers growing abundantly. Now there's a good bit of geography hidden in there, lost on the catering team of P&O, as we shall see later.
Nobody would call Darwin a big city, around 75000 if you include outlying areas and the odd passing crocodile, of which there are many. I suspect if it weren't for the fact that it lies halfway along the 5 day haul from Bali to east coast Australia then it would not be on the itinerary, but you need to break the journey up. Even the Tours Dept. were struggling to come up with money making trips, and they can generate income from anything and anywhere. The best they could come up with was a crocodile safari (definitely not on Janey's "to do" list, remember the lizards in Florida?) or "Leisurely Darwin", you don't do anything fast in this heat.
Darwin reminded us very much of parts of suburban Virginia or Florida, with it's wide two lane highways, strip zoned commercial development and low density, very attractive housing zones. But did I mention the heat? We caught the shuttle to the city centre, about 5-10 minutes only from the port. After about 30 or so minutes wandering around, getting orientated we realised that there was no way you could spend the full day out in the heat, did I mention how hot it was?
Simple choice then, spend the day in air conditioned shopping centres, and there aren't many of them, or spend the day in air conditioned car. Easy, we rented a car, A$60 a day for a very nice Toyota Camry, automatic (whatever you do don't use your left foot on the brake pedal, it thinks it's the clutch, slaps it straight to the floor and the passenger nearly goes through the windscreen, you only make this mistake once!). Slight hiccup with the credit cards, rejected because of lack of use etc etc and being abroad and also because we foolishly suggest we sign the chitty rather than chip and pin it. Nice conversation with Liverpudlian gentleman who seemed a bit put out to be interrupted from his busy schedule at 1.30am and wondered if we could ring back during office hours. Brief exchange of views, apparently his parents were married and he wasn't special needs at school and I am pleased to correct that misunderstanding. So, anyway, we got this nice cool (temperature wise, that is) motor and off we went to sample the delights of downtown Darwin and the Top End.
There is a lot of Top End, which you can't really sample in about 6 hours, and not too much of Darwin, which you can. First stop was the East Point Reserve, a protected nature area with mangroves, many birds etc and walking and bike trails. And some beautiful beaches. Quite a lot of military relics also around the place, Darwin was attacked and bombed during the Second World War and there are a lot of preserved artefacts which reflect that period in terms of defensive structures, storage tunnels etc.
We then undertook a quick tour of outer Darwin and the start of the Stuart Highway into the interior, not far though. Stumbled across a shopping mall, Woolworths, K-Mart, Subway, KFC (get the link?), but, bless them, free wi-fi, so once again 2 lonely little Europeans huddled over their iPad and iPhone downloading many junk emails but, more importantly, the much appreciated updates from family and friends back home, where apparently it is still pretty cool, did I mention how hot it.... sorry. We needed to stock up on a few bits and pieces, P&O swimming pool has perpetrated a vicious chemical attack on Janey's swimming cozzie, strangely, Ian's cozzie is fine, almost like new in fact; wonder why that is.
Found the Post Office for stamps, Liquorland for fresh orange juice(!) I think it was, and other odds and ends. From there we took ourselves off to Minlis Bay - getting the idea about the limited number of attractions? Here we had a quick paddle. I was all for a swim; can you see me, loping down the beach, orange trunks, do they call them budgie snugglers, life saving float tucked under the muscular arm? No? Nor can I, anyway it is the box jelly fish season (evil little b*****s apparently), and there are saltwater crocodiles around, so reason prevailed and Ian wouldn't let me!!! That's got you thinking! But seriously another beautiful beach with excellent facilities, not quite up to Cleethorpes standard, but they are getting there and I'm sure, in the future, when they have worked out the remaining criminal genes things will improve ( and remember we only sent over the dozy criminals who got caught, we kept the bright ones to become politicians).
Getting in to mid afternoon now, so back to town, drop off the car, do a bit of research to plan for Whitsunday Island and Sydney(still thinking of car hire to get to the Blue Mountains from there), a drink and a nice little cake. Got dropped off back at the port where, in the Terminal stalls are set up selling all sorts of decent Oz souvebirs, not least some Aboriginal paintings, jewellery and teeshirts. Couldn't resist.
Impressions of Darwin? Clean, take away Government offices and it would shrink mightily, many open spaces, very similar to small town/suburban USA, a lot of apparently impoverished Aboriginal (can you still call them that) people hanging around in public places and parks, and the climate.
Talking of which, the geography lesson cometh. If you have long, very hot days in the Tropics you will nearly always get heavy rainfall in the late afternoon or early evening; it's called convectional rainfall, but I won't bore you anymore than I am already with the precise details. Which cruise ship company's catering department (sorry fine dining department) decided to have a Gala Barbecue on deck at 6.30pm? You got it? You could stand on deck and watch the rain advancing across the harbour, cue torrential downpour at 6.40pm, barbecue extinguished, diners soaked, total wipeout. Told you so!!
The ship was due to sail at about 6.45 but Cap'n Bob came on the tannoy to explain we had a little problem, one of his circuit breakers was broken!!! Poor man, this is his first boat as captain apparently, and it keeps on breaking down. It must be like opening your toys at Christmas only to find nobody put the batteries in. Apparently we were dead in the water so to speak.
Didn't fancy going then anyway as it would have meant following a rather shabby looking boat out to sea, it looked almost like an old cross channel ferry, which was not a bad guess. It was a cattle transporter taking lord knows how many thousand cows off to Indonesia, where they are very much not sacred, with attendant odour.
After a few hours we were, however, ready to sail. One slight problem, the pilot, whom Cap'n Bob seems to rely on wherever he goes, and the dockside crew, had all gone home for their tea. Slight operational delay ensues. Depart around 10pm headed for Whitsunday Island on Sunday, wonder if it will be hot there.
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Clairey But what was the weather like? You forgot to tell us! Am seriously disturbed by the mental image of my father in "budgie snugglers" - think I may not sleep well tonight!!