Darwin

Darwin is to National Parks as Cairns is to scuba diving; they’re just places you stay until you go off and do those two things. Otherwise, not much there. We arrived in Darwin late afternoon on Wednesday, checked into our hostel and found out that it was Territory Day which meant markets down by the beach and fireworks when it got dark. Our friend Nina who we lived with in Sydney was in town as well, so she met up with us down at the markets. Australian market food is a lot like American fair food…various forms of fried dough and things on a stick, aka delicious. We ate dinner down there, shopped and watched the fireworks. Australians are really good at fireworks. It seems like they set them off for any occasion they can think of, and the shows are always long and elaborate. This was the 4th fireworks show I’ve seen since I arrived in Australia.

The whole purpose of being in Darwin was to go on a tour of Kakadu National Park. Our tour didn’t leaving until Friday so we had a day to kill. We went down to Darwin’s fake beach…fake because Darwin and all of the Northern Territory is saltwater crocodile heaven so you can’t go near the real water. We hung out there for awhile and then went next door to the wave pool. The wave pool was full of bratty kids. Australian kids are especially bratty because parents here are really apathetic. Katy and I like to play “guess the parent” whenever we see a kid by themselves. Little kids are always wandering around or doing something bad and appear to have no supervision. The parent usually ends up being the adult that’s furthest away from the kid with their back turned. A mom at the wave pool told her little girl that it was time to leave. The little girl stomps back to the water, turns around, and yells “SHUT!!! UP!!!” at her mom and her mom just shrugs and goes back to what she was doing.

We went back to the markets with Nina that night, ate more fried food, and said goodbye to her since she was leaving in the morning. Then we went to bed early to prepare for our 3 day camping trip to Kakadu. The woman who booked our trip said we might get one shower during the 3 days. I am nervous because I do not like feeling hot or dirty.