So to carry on from where I last posted...
Checked in to the YHA (which is a bit skummy by YHA standards, but it does have a pool thank god). Spent the arvo swimming, wandering around town and buying some groceries. I was hesitant to head back to my dorm room as there were some strange guys in there who were perpetually on their beds in the dark (but not asleep)? Had a greasy meal of Mcdonalds for dinner then pretty much just went to bed. Woke up fairly early the next day, had a swim and breakfast and then walked the esplanade of Darwin city. Checked out the government buildings, a new harbour development further north complete with an artifical swimming beach and wave pool, then headed to the WWII oil storage depots built under the city. A strange city centre with high rise buildings but only three main streets. By now I was buggered by the heat, walked back to the hostel for lunch and a long swim. In the evening I started talking to the strange guys in my room; one was an Estonian, one a German (he always wore a US army uniform complete with replica backpack... No idea why), one was an Aussie labourer/compulsive weed smoker who was renovating the next door hotel, and finally there was one middle aged, tattooed Aussie kitchen hand come aboriginal art dealer who was drinking vodka every time I saw him. We were all sitting outside the room talking (the German guy and Estonian guy are pearlers off on leave, so both of them were plastered) when a car drove up to the hostel parking and out jumped two guys. They were Swedish and German and they had just come from another town which they had been kicked out of. Firstly they had been kicked out of the caravan park because they were listening to music too loudly at 7 pm, the funny thing was they were listening to the music on their laptop which must have some of the loudest laptop speakers in the world. It turned out there were some bikies near by watching tv and they didn't like the foreigners or their music so they called the police. The bikies must have had some friends in the police because while the guys were getting drunk with the local aboriginals that night after being kicked out of th caravan park the police came over and told them to get out of town right then and there. They said they were drunk so they couldt drive, so the police gave them a defect notice for their car saying that all the wheels were bald (which they aren't), that the car was leaking oil (it wasn't) and that the rear brake light needed replacing (it did). The problem for these guys is they need to have the car inspected in the state it's registered in, meaning they have to drive back to WA somewhere. To me it seemed the cops were just out to screw the backpackers around... Who knows. Anyway that evening Denice and I checked out the night markets held a few kilometres away. Was very touristy; lots of aboriginal artwork, jewelery bangles etc and quite $$, but there was one aboriginal band there mixing up some digerydoo beats with music which I thought was pretty cool.
The next morning I decided to head to Kakadu by myself so I bought some supplies and off I went. Only one problem and that was one of my water containers bumped it's nozel into the on position spilling about 5 litres of water into the back of the car. Hopefully nothing was damaged but I will see with time. Other than that I arrived at Kakadu without a problem, drove to the northeast end of the park to look at the aboriginal art (which is way beyond anything I had previously seen). Watched the sunset from a hill and then off to camp. The mosquitoes were something else. The next morning on my fly I counted 50 Mosquitoes waiting to suck my blood. Spent the day doing numerous short walks and lots of wresting. When I got to the camp site for the night the camping fee collector guy said the temperature was 37 (and it was cooling down in the evening) and
humidity must be close to 70%. Not the kind of weather to be walking around under the sun in. More walking and driving tomorrow I presume, here's hoping for a cold change (do they get those here?)
Checked in to the YHA (which is a bit skummy by YHA standards, but it does have a pool thank god). Spent the arvo swimming, wandering around town and buying some groceries. I was hesitant to head back to my dorm room as there were some strange guys in there who were perpetually on their beds in the dark (but not asleep)? Had a greasy meal of Mcdonalds for dinner then pretty much just went to bed. Woke up fairly early the next day, had a swim and breakfast and then walked the esplanade of Darwin city. Checked out the government buildings, a new harbour development further north complete with an artifical swimming beach and wave pool, then headed to the WWII oil storage depots built under the city. A strange city centre with high rise buildings but only three main streets. By now I was buggered by the heat, walked back to the hostel for lunch and a long swim. In the evening I started talking to the strange guys in my room; one was an Estonian, one a German (he always wore a US army uniform complete with replica backpack... No idea why), one was an Aussie labourer/compulsive weed smoker who was renovating the next door hotel, and finally there was one middle aged, tattooed Aussie kitchen hand come aboriginal art dealer who was drinking vodka every time I saw him. We were all sitting outside the room talking (the German guy and Estonian guy are pearlers off on leave, so both of them were plastered) when a car drove up to the hostel parking and out jumped two guys. They were Swedish and German and they had just come from another town which they had been kicked out of. Firstly they had been kicked out of the caravan park because they were listening to music too loudly at 7 pm, the funny thing was they were listening to the music on their laptop which must have some of the loudest laptop speakers in the world. It turned out there were some bikies near by watching tv and they didn't like the foreigners or their music so they called the police. The bikies must have had some friends in the police because while the guys were getting drunk with the local aboriginals that night after being kicked out of th caravan park the police came over and told them to get out of town right then and there. They said they were drunk so they couldt drive, so the police gave them a defect notice for their car saying that all the wheels were bald (which they aren't), that the car was leaking oil (it wasn't) and that the rear brake light needed replacing (it did). The problem for these guys is they need to have the car inspected in the state it's registered in, meaning they have to drive back to WA somewhere. To me it seemed the cops were just out to screw the backpackers around... Who knows. Anyway that evening Denice and I checked out the night markets held a few kilometres away. Was very touristy; lots of aboriginal artwork, jewelery bangles etc and quite $$, but there was one aboriginal band there mixing up some digerydoo beats with music which I thought was pretty cool.
The next morning I decided to head to Kakadu by myself so I bought some supplies and off I went. Only one problem and that was one of my water containers bumped it's nozel into the on position spilling about 5 litres of water into the back of the car. Hopefully nothing was damaged but I will see with time. Other than that I arrived at Kakadu without a problem, drove to the northeast end of the park to look at the aboriginal art (which is way beyond anything I had previously seen). Watched the sunset from a hill and then off to camp. The mosquitoes were something else. The next morning on my fly I counted 50 Mosquitoes waiting to suck my blood. Spent the day doing numerous short walks and lots of wresting. When I got to the camp site for the night the camping fee collector guy said the temperature was 37 (and it was cooling down in the evening) and
humidity must be close to 70%. Not the kind of weather to be walking around under the sun in. More walking and driving tomorrow I presume, here's hoping for a cold change (do they get those here?)
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