Chillin' in Darwin

The gang and Will from Home and Away

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Darwin is the capital of the Northern Territory, which is not actually a state, rather a territory, so doesn't have the same rights as the rest of Australian states, which is all rather weird...which kinda of sums up everything Darwin and NT in general - weird but in a good way!! The city has a population of 100,000 which is half of the NT total. From what we could see, the majority of these appear to be backpackers, weirdos and hicks! I couldn't get over how many backpackers, especially Irish, are in Darwin. You bloody can't get away from us. Its worse than any town on the East Coast! Out of all of our group, I seemed to be the only one who actually like Dariwn, the others thought it was too weird and full of backpackers, but I liked the chilled laid back feel to it.

Anyway, we checked out of the dodgy Cavenagh hostel Friday morning, after the big session with our group Thursday night. Getting up for a 10am check out wasn't the greatest cure for a hangover ever....either was lying by the pool drinking cordial in 35C heat for 3 hours, but it was about all we were capable of!

Lou at Fannie Bay

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We checked into the much better Chillis - well much better in that it was clean, we had our own room and shower, and air-con that worked, oh and 2 jacuzzis on the roof. However, we soon found out that most of the people in the hostel and English backpacker junkies who like to do crack (spotted by Mark, I'm way too naive) in the kitchen and on the roof. And cause havoc to the place! Oh well, it was a bit of drama!! Although Mark's head was wrecked - he's not the most tolerant of junkies!!

While the point of our stay in Darwin was to rest and recuperate before hitting the madness of Asia, we did manage to get in a few activities (and beers) in our few days. We had loads of goodbyes (and hellos) to say, so "had" to go out every night. It felt like the Big Brother house again saying goodbye to all our group, a different person being evicted each night...until eventually it was just me and Mark left! There were some tearful (or drink induced) goodbyes along the way, and we are adamant to keep in touch with the gang. We were lucky to meet such great people!  On the last day though we got to welcome some new people. My friend Peter arrived back from his tour and Mark's friend Bob arrived over for a holiday, so it was great for us both to meet up with familiar faces and exchange travel stories! We also got to meet (well stalked) Will from Home & Away (years ago) which was a big thrill given my H&A obsession!!

Sunset at Mindil beach

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In the city itself, i think we managed to see most of the main sights. We went out to the museum, which is famous for its Cyclone Tracey exhibit. Darwin was destroyed by Cyclone Tracey on Christmas Day 1974, and all 50,000 inhabitants were made homeless. The exhibition was interesting, but somehow I was expecting more, like to simulate the cyclone or something! We also made the walk out to East Point reserve and found a really nice lake to swim in.

We made it to the famous Mindil night markets twice - it was torture to be at a market and not be able to buy anytihng - but my bag (and Mark's thanks to my stuff) is already well over the limit. We also got to watch the sunset over Mindil beach, and even though we thought we were "so over" sunsets, I still managed to take about 20 photos and sit there in awe (with the other 1.000 people watching the sunset on the beach at the same time!)