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The twelfth and final leg of my 'Easyrider'adventure was to be the trip to Darwin. We headed out from Springvale Homestead early doors as there was a lot to see on our up to Darwin - namely Edith Falls, the Adelaide River Inn and probably the highlight of the trip up from Broome - Litchfield National Park. As we headed out of Katherine, Daz, our driver, took us to one of the Gas stations which he had built up the previous day as having "the best toasted sandwiches in the world". High praise indeed. I had already decided to pass on these world beating toasties as it was a little early to eat, however my fellow three travelling companions were eager to see what all the fuss was about. So, we pulled up at the Gas station, only to discover it was shut. A bemused Daz couldn't quite fathom out why the servo was closed as it was 7.15am and it's opening time was 7am. I had overheard on the radio about half an hour before the radio presenter announcing the time as one hour earlier than I thought, but I put this down to being half asleep. However it became clear that we actually had the wrong time. How did this happen? It stated on the sign entering the northern territory to put the clocks forward one and a half hours. However what we didn't realise at the time was that the Northern Territory, for one reason or another, does not participate in Daylight Savings Time and as the clocks went forward one week earlier, Darwin was actually only 30 minutes ahead of Western Australia. So we had the wrong time! It actually crossed my mind the Daz might have known this but kept quiet just to make sure we got up early! Unlikely though. Anyhow, you'd think our Rep/Driver extraordinaire would be able to know the right time wouldn't you?! We'll let him off though as he was a nice guy……The upshot of this was that we missed out of the toasted sandwiches. We'll never get to find out if they were the best in the world or if Daz just got a good commission us all in to buy one!
So, first stop of the day was to be Edith Falls, which is situated in Nitmiluk National Park. Edith Falls is a stunning set of waterfalls which was reached after a half an hour walk in the burning sunshine. Lucky we were there in the morning, otherwise the heat would have been intolerable. It was worth braving the flies and heat though as the waterfalls were stunning. Some of us went for a swim, but the story of salt water crocodiles sometimes frequenting the water put me off a bit and I kept near the water's edge!
After seeing Edith Falls, we made a stop at Adelaide River to see Charlie, the water buffalo who starred in Crocodile Dundee and Crocodile Dundee II. Charlie is now sitting proudly in the Adelaide River Inn pub. For anyone that has seen the film, Charlie is the water buffalo sitting in the middle of the road preventing Crocodile Dundee from driving past. Mick Dundee uses the two finger hypnotic trick to send Charlie to sleep so that they can pass. Or something like that! (it's been a while since I have seen the film!).
Following a quick schooner of beer in the pub we moved on to Litchfield National Park where we saw and swam in Buley Rockhole, Florence Falls and Wangi Falls. Litchfield National Park is stunning. Beautiful waterfalls, idyllic waterholes - a fantastic place to spend the last few hours of our Easyrider tour before heading into Darwin. After spending the afternoon in Litchfield, we had one last stop before heading into Darwin - the magnetic termite mounds, also situated in Litchfield. One of these mounds was created by termites over a period of probably 30 years and was about 15 foot tall. As can be seen in one of my photographs in which I am dwarfed by the size of this monster termite mound.
So into Darwin we went and the final hours of our easyrider experience. After five days of camping and national parks it was a bit different to see civilisation again! Back in a place with pubs and nightclubs again. A second invitiation was not required as we were invited out by Daz to the Irish bar Shennanigans, located conveniently next to our hostel - the Youth Shack.The night ended up at the Vic Hotel. More about the Vic later! It was a great end to an absolutely brilliant tour. I would put this down as one of the best months of my life - I've seen some absolutely stunning sights, met some brilliant people and can say that I have enjoyed every minute. The Easyrider tour was definitely the best way for me to see the west coast. We had some great drivers on the way and for a solo traveller in my opinion it is the best way to travel. Although the Easyrider experience was over though the Darwin experience was only just starting.
We were staying at the Youth Shack. I thought the hostel was really good and really well situated close to all the action. Darwin is quite a small city and most things are within walking distance. It is very much geared up for backpackers and there are some excellent bars there. I especially loved the Vic Hotel which became a regular 'haunt' almost every night. They have a very good initiative with all the youth hostels where they supply vouchers to backpackers to go to the Vic Hotel and claim a free meal. The meal isn't the best but it fills a hole and gets the backpackers in to the venue. The bar provide entertainment to keep you in there and by the time you know it the bar is packed and everyone is getting drunk. The live music or disco then kicks off downstairs and you find yourself there until 4am. Very clever. The types of entertainment they laid on when I was there were quizzes, pool comps and my personal favourite - female jelly wrestling. One night they gave out raffle tickets and said that if your number was pulled out you would win three jugs of beer. By chance my number was pulled out so I went up to claim my prize, only for the guy to tell me to stand on the stage for a minute."What's going on here?" I thought. Whatever it was I had the feeling I was being stitched up. Slowly but surely more numbers were being drawn and I was joined by 5 or 6 other blokes on the stage. The host announced " So this is called 'So you think you can dance?!'" "We have got seven different type of dances and we'll draw them out of a hat and you have a minute to impress us with your dancing skills of that genre". How do I get myself into these things I wondered? One by one the other guys went on stage and danced to the differeny genres - R and B, dance, techno. One guy even had to do a lap dance. And then it came to me - and what did I get? Ballet. The worst of all. So for one minute I had to prance about the stage in front of a packed bar doing pirouettes and the like. And not very well I would add. Possibly the longest minute of my life! After all of us had 'danced for our lives' the crowd had to decide who was the best. Ineviatably the winner was the person with the most mates in the crowd as they could cheer the loudest. I didn't win, but disturbingly I was told by my mate Shari that four guys behind our table cheered very loudly for me. Not really the attention I was looking for! I'm pretty sure that my dancing skills are limited to drunken dancing with my eyes closed. That's my genre and I think the ballet shoes will be hung up for good after that display. Other nights in the Vic were similar, although luckily it was other people getting humiliated rather than me. The Vic is a really good night out and Darwin as a city is great for nightlife and I hope I get the chance to go back for that reason alone.
Darwin wasn't all boozing and nightclubbing though and we managed check out the Museum & Art Gallery of the Northern Territory while we were there. This was situated in Fannie Bay, a short bus ride out of the city. The museum has an excellent collection of aboriginal art and the maritime gallery is also very interesting. But the most interesting area of the museum for me was the part dedicated to Cyclone Tracy, the cyclone which hit Darwin on Christmas Eve 1974 and devastated the city with many people dying and most of the buildings destroyed - all over the Christmas period.
We also visited the open air deckchair cinema in Darwin to watch 'Jeda' a film about an aboriginal girl who was brought up by a white family. Jeda was the aboriginal girl struggling to grow up in a different culture to her aboriginal roots.
I also managed to do a few hours work stuffing brochures which paid for a couple of nights out - exciting stuff it was! I decided though, that the heat and humidity up in Darwin - which was getting worse every day - would be too tough to deal with and decided not to look for a regular job. The heat and humidity has to be experience to be believed!
Speaking of the heat and humidity, it was just coming into the wet season in Darwin when we arrived, so humidity was very, very high - around 70 percent I think. It was difficult to get used to, but I think after a while you do eventually become acclimatised to it. The first time I had seen rain was actually on 'Melbourne Cup' day. The Melbourne Cup is the big horse race in Australia and the country comes to a stop to watch it, with events going on everywhere. It is strange to see everyone getting dressed up for the big horse race, though, only to watch it in the pub! A 50-1 shot won it, I didn't bet on it unfortunately. Later on the rain came. The first time Darwin had seen rain for months and it was a strange but wonderful sight to see everyone dressed up dancing around the streets drunk in the pouring rain. Obviously the people of Darwin hadn't seen rain for so long they didn't care about getting soaked in their best clobber!
I spent around 10 days in Darwin but it was time to move on and start looking for a job before Christmas. Adelaide was my next destination by plane. I would be missing out Alice Springs and Ayers Rock for now with a view to doing the middle of Australia properly when I had some more money behind me. My plane was booked and it would be an early start in the morning, but I couldn't resist the bright lights of Darwin for one last night out……..
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