Disastrous Darwin

Our bus up to tropical Darwin wasn't due to depart until 19:15 so we had a full day to look around Alice Springs before we could leave. The cricket that had been chirping away before we went on the tour was still going when we woke up, as we had been placed in the same 2 beds that we had vacated 3 days before. We had to check out of the hostel by 10am and then had to vacate the premises by 11am, otherwise we would have to pay $5 each for the privilege of using a sofa. We checked out and sorted our bags and then used the last hour to scoff a loaf of bread we had got for free that was left over from the tour we had been on. 11 came and we shouldered our bags and then braved the morning heat to walk to the office of the tour company we had gone with, as they had told us they would keep our bags for the day until the bus went. We dropped them off and headed out into Alice Springs to have a nose around. We had been recommended to visit ANZAC Hill, which has a memorial to members of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) who have lost their lives during wartime. The hill also provides great views of the town of Alice Springs and is only a very short walk from the centre of town and up a gentle incline. We sweated up the stairs and appreciated the views and also took the time to wander round all the plaques covering the various wars. While we were up their we spotted 2 girls climbing the hill who had been on tour with us, we greeted them and then headed down before it got too hot. After our hill climb, we walked to a shop called Harvey Norman, which is like a mixture of Currys and Debenhams from home, it seems to sell absolutely everything. We were after a decent waterproof camera to use in Cairns and possibly a few kayaking trips somewhere down the line. We were looking mainly at action cameras and weren't really sure what we were after so we told the assistant we'd be back after discussing it over a coffee but we knew we wouldn't return. We did go for the coffee though. We found a place on the central Todd Mall and sat and watched the world go by. Well, as best as we could in the very quiet day time of Alice Springs, everyone is obviously clever enough not to go out in the heat of the day. We managed to make this last about an hour and the time was flying by. We spent some time weaving in and out of the occasional open shop and making use of the public toilets just to kill some time. Eventually, the evening started creeping in so we purchased some early dinner and then sat in a park opposite the bus stop. We were making use of the free wifi in the town when all of a sudden an email pinged on to my phone from the accommodation we had booked in Darwin. I'd emailed them telling them we'd ordered a couple of books to be delivered, so we are expecting a reply to that but it was something slightly different. The proprietor, Mitch, had emailed us, the day before we were due to arrive saying the hostel was closed down and he would refund our deposit within the next 2 days. We were slightly shell shocked, bearing in mind we had booked when we were in Edinburgh in September, so we could have had notification earlier. We now had to panic about securing a weeks accommodation in Darwin and how we were going to get the books we had ordered. We managed to get the accommodation sorted easier than we had anticipated, so that was one worry of our minds. I emailed him back about the books but we'd have to sort that out when we arrived in the city. This was all happening just as our bus was pulling up at the stop, so it was a bit manic. We picked up our bags and thanked them for looking after them and hopped on the bus, taking 2 seats almost at the front. We steamed out of town heading north into the night. Our first major stop where we could stretch our legs was a place called Barrow Creek. The driver said over the tannoy that it was funny little pub that was well worth a visit. When we entered we were greeted by a very nice lady who asked where we were from. We replied England and she took us to a wall where numerous people had scrawled various messages on the wall and this wall in particular contained British Football teams. I said we supported Brighton & Hove Albion (rather than Man Utd) but she didn't know where it was. We searched for a short while but unfortunately had to settle with Southampton. When we'd finished admiring the wall the lady and the bus driver told us how this was the roadhouse that the girlfriend of murdered British backpacker Peter Falconio had got to after she had escaped from her attacker. It was pretty clear they were trying to scare us, they even admitted trying to do it to every British person who went in the pub but with so many people around, we felt pretty safe. We looked around the rest of the pub and saw that every wall was crammed with writing and photos from various visitors from around the world. We were invited around the bar to have a photo holding a bottle, so we obliged, gave the dogs a stroke before they were sent to bed and then headed back out to the bus ready for departure.

Friday

For the rest of the night the trip was uneventful. Apart from the stop at the town of Tennant Creek where the petrol station looked like it had been taken over by a swarm of huge green insects that had a tendency to fly into windows and people. It wasn't until morning that the fun started to begin. Our driver had been with us since Alice Springs the night before and had pretty much been driving for 12 hours. Charlotte was watching the driver struggle to keep his eyes open for any length of time and she was understandably worried about our safety. The driver had even put on a pair of headphones and was singing and almost dancing in an attempt to keep himself awake. Eventually, Charlotte went down and tapped him on the shoulder and asked if he was okay and he replied that he was fine was just listening to some rock and roll. We weren't convinced but from now on he kept looking at Charlotte in his mirror and it was clear that the fact someone had noticed had woken him up a bit. It was only a short time after that we stopped at a roadhouse and there was a driver change, so it was a big relief. At this stop we picked up a coffee each and admired the large pythons that were in glass cages in the cafe area. Apparently, the man who owned the place had captured them from the bush outside and then put them on display in his roadhouse, as you do. Our new driver was very much awake and seemed slightly obsessed with cleanliness. For miles and miles we passed thousands of orange termite mounds protruding from the ground before arriving for our last long stop in the town of Katherine. From here onwards we were treated to a history of the area by the driver which was actually really interesting and funny and he didn't really have to do it. When we were about an hour out of Darwin we could see a wall of water in the road, which was part of a downpour that was heading straight for the city. The driver seemed perplexed and told us that it hadn't been forecast, yet he'd take it, as despite it being the wet season, it had been very dry. We were now in a race with the rain to make it to Darwin first as the driver said that if we beat it there, we might just have enough time to run to our accommodation before it hit. We drove through the centre of the city and the roads were dry, so it hadn't got there yet which was a relief. As we disembarked the bus though, it was just starting to spit and by the time we had made it to the end of the road it was pouring. We managed to find some cover down the shopping street, so we worked our way along the road under shop awnings. After that, it was a mad dash down one road then onto another to get to our hostel not too wet. We weren't too wet and it was so hot despite the rain we figured it would only take a few minutes to dry off anyway. After checking in to our room, where we were left with the 2 top bunks, we sat outside in the dining area while the rain died down. It didn't take long, so we went for a short walk along the Darwin promenade area. There isn't really a beach in Darwin and the walk was fairly high up a small cliff. It probably best that it's like that as you wouldn't want to swim in the waters around Darwin anyway. There's Saltwater Crocodiles year round, if they don't get you, the Box Jellyfish will, so it would be sensible to use the man made lagoon down at the harbour front if you fancied a swim. We could see the storm that had passed over in the distance and it made for a lovely evening sunset. After our short seaside walk we popped into Coles supermarket to pick up some things for dinner. We already had a curry sauce, so we only needed to get some rice and chicken to go with it. After sweating constantly during dinner we were desperate for a shower. They were good while they lasted but the second you'd turn the water off you'd be sweating again because of the humidity. We got ready as quick as we could so we could get back to the air conditioning in our room. We had found out earlier that the hostel was currently going though the process of getting free wifi installed. For some reason though, they had decided to get rid of paid internet before the free wifi had been installed, so this left us with no internet for the entire weeks stay. This was a huge annoyance, as we had intended to do a lot of planning and research while in Darwin. Our original hostel did have free wifi, which was another reason the cancellation was such a nuisance. We would just have to read a book to keep ourselves entertained for the week.

Saturday

Due to being fairly busy in the preceding weeks we were going to plan what to do in Darwin, but with no internet we knew we would struggle. There were a few spots around town such as a 24 hour convenience store but you could only get an hours worth and you had to buy a drink in order to receive a code, so it would have got expensive fairly quickly. There was also free wifi available in the shopping precinct but we wouldn't have felt comfortable sitting around with our tablets and phones out and about. It was also pretty bad wifi to boot. Anyway, with nothing much to do we treated ourselves to an extended lie in and then once up headed out to do a big shop at Woolworths. As we were in town for a week we thought we might as well make sure we had stuff in to save constant trips to the supermarket in the heat. We managed to keep a large trolley down to around $60 (£30), so we were pretty pleased with our efforts. We rushed the shopping home as it was incredibly hot outside and we had a few perishable items that would go off in no time at all. The rest of our day was spent relaxing around the hostel, almost at a loss of what to do with ourselves. The lack of Internet was really becoming a problem and we were starting to get fed up with making visits to the coffee shops and convenience stores. We made ourselves a chilli for dinner with some spices we had picked up from the supermarket, hoping that they would see us well into New Zealand. After sweating through dinner, we had a sweaty shower and finally made it to the refreshing air conditioned room.

Sunday

We decided we really needed to have a look around the city this morning, as we had nothing much else to do and we really needed to give it a try. We wandered to the promenade area where we had a quick look at the day we arrived. There was a cenotaph commemorating fallen soldiers from the wars and a couple of tiled areas with the names of famous Northern Territorians written on them. I'll be honest, we didn't recognise any of them but I'm sure they are very well known in that part of Australia. A lot of them were farming families who had obviously made a fortune and become famous. We followed the edge of the prom along until we found a bridge followed by a lift that took us down to the modern looking waterfront area. To counteract the crocodile and jellyfish problem, a wave pool has been built so the locals and tourists can enjoy a swim without worrying about getting their heads bitten off or being stung to death. We wandered round the pool amazed at just how choppy it was in there. It seemed like it would have been a real struggle to move anywhere with the size of the waves the thing was producing. We left that behind and found the lagoon, which is also there to be a safe place to swim, it just didn't seem as popular as the wave pool for some reason. There was one man making his way round on a lilo but that was it. The heat was awful. The humidity was cranked up to the high nineties and it was unbearable a to spend any time in direct sunlight, we had to dash from shaded area to shaded area just to try and cool down slightly. We had a nose around the bars and restaurants in the area but they were all very expensive so we left them alone, opting to get something back at the hostel. We followed the same route home and were absolutely sapped of energy by the time we got back. We got lunch at our hostel as we had plenty of salad left over from our dinner the night before. We picked up some bread rolls and had chicken salad with rolls for lunch which were absolutely delicious. Eating was fast becoming the highlight of our time in Darwin. After lunch we decided to venture out in search of the original hostel we had booked in hope of finding someone to help out. Nobody was in sight though and we decided to leave it for Monday. We briefly connected to the city wifi to send a message home and then returned to the hostel once more in a pointless attempt to try and cool off. We didn't stop the sweating but we did manage to catch up with a load of washing and a bit of blogging which helped a bit. That, as well as the continuous football repeats on the TV took us through to dinner time, which was Chilli and rice.

Monday

Yet another lie in was ended when we got far to hungry to wait any longer. We continued to plow through the large box of Wheaties we had bought from Woolies. We had picked them up as we had expected them to be like bran flakes but they turned out to be more like crumbled bricks of Weetabix. After breakfast we headed to the coffee shop to obtain some wifi and try and get a bit of planning sorted. We only had an hour and got a minimal amount down, so it was very stressful. Once our hour was expired we broke for lunch and visited the bakers next door. A pizza slice and a vegemite scroll (half scone, half roll I guess) later we found a different coffee shop to access wifi at. This one only allowed in half an hour, so we got even less sorted than we did at the previous one. It was all really starting to get us down and we decided to call it a day and get some more admin done back at the hostel. Dinner was left over chilli and rice and by now we were becoming pros at cooking pretty good rice.

Tuesday

This was another frustrating day with no wifi. We normally wouldn't have a problem with it but as I've said, we were relying on it being available. Had we got everything sorted previously, we wouldn't have had an issue. We decided to try some sightseeing for a change and walked to a place called Mindil beach, which was a thirty minute sweaty stroll away from our hostel. We swung by the closed hostel on the way to see if there had been any postal action yet but there was nothing. We decided to try the post office to see if they could help our predicament but with no tracking number, we couldn't get anywhere. Downhearted, we decided to walk to the beach via the hostel again and encountered the postman on this trip. He had one of our parcels, so we managed to get one but we were still waiting on the second. This escapade had taken up most of the morning, so we decided to leave the beach for the next day and grab some lunch. Cheese and onion rolls and a mars bar went down pretty well while we considered what to do for the rest of the day. We decided to take the bus out of town to the shop, Harvey Norman. We had visited one in Alice Springs but hadn't made a quick enough to decision on what we wanted. We were after a waterproof camera to use everyday but more specifically for a trip to the Great Barrier Reef we had planned for when we were in Cairns. The bus was a dirt cheap $3 flat fare for 3 hours riding, so we were confident we'd be able to return within that time frame. This time we were in and out of the shop in no time at all. The assistant had been really helpful and had guided us towards better but cheaper cameras than we had been looking at previously. Our new camera in hand we hopped back on the bus and were back in Darwin in just over an hour after starting. We put the camera in a safe place and popped to the coffee shop to try and get some admin sorted. It was closing at 5 so we only had 45 minutes in which to work, so it wasn't very productive. Tuna salad for dinner followed by a couple of beers we had left over from Uluru.

Wednesday

We were still having postal issues and the hostel owner wasn't responding. We were having issues with our credit card and Halifax wouldn't accept reverse charge calls despite saying they would. We were getting stressed and starting to niggle at each other. To let of some steam we walked to Mindil Beach. It was almost a wasted effort as you aren't allowed to swim there due to crocs and jellies. There was a lone sunbather who had placed herself as far away from the water as humanly possible (she was pretty much in the car park). It was good to get out and about though, even for just a short while. We browsed and planned our trip in Tasmania during the afternoon and then dined on Pasta and baked beans in the evening.

Thursday

This last paragraph will be short and sweet. We had no more luck with the postman and had nothing to do during the day. We printed our plane tickets off for the journey the following day and popped to the post office one last time with no success.

Thankfully, Darwin was almost at an end. We didn't enjoy it, despite really wanting to