Darwin

This time last year we were proudly declaring our love for Cairns, (that was, until we had a run-in with some of the locals!). Well, our first opinion was that Darwin kicks Cairns butt! Upon entering Cairns, they declare themselves the Garden City. We declared Darwin the Garden City. It's clean, modern, neat, with loads of nice walks around the aqua water of the Port. It's a small city with a country heart. The only thing I find a little strange here is that all the girls call me "mate". The girls here are tough. We've seen them driving 3-carriage road trains, and its nearly 50/50 men/women for the road works! Yet upon reflection, a week later, we both decided that No, Cairns was still the better city... 

We still love Darwin though!

The first couple of days in Darwin was spent sorting, cleaning, organising etc etc. at the caravan park. On one of these hot afternoons, I was happily engrossed in my book, when I heard a noise to the right of my chair. To my complete horror, 1 metre away from my chair was a 4 foot snake with its head reared up!!! Geoff said it was like watching a bull in a china shop as I frantically bolted from my chair, knocking over chairs and pulling out power cords. The snake then slithered its way under our camper trailer. Whilst keeping an eye on his travels, we called reception and they promised to send help. Just as the snake was approaching the open door of another camper trailer behind us, our snake catcher arrived and scared the snake away from the door. Only problem was he missed it as it darted into some nearby scrub. We learnt it was a harmless tree snake, that are usually very timid. For the rest of the afternoon, I could not read my book as I kept a trained eye towards the bottom of the camper and listened carefully to every rustle of leaf. It was not very relaxing knowing it was still somewhere nearby! As the week progressed and I did not see it again, I finally begun to relax and enjoy my book again.

On Saturday we excitedly drove into the city to check it out. This is the Wharf area... 

(We guessed the guy in the canoe behind us wasn't too fazed by crocs).

 Another view of the Port of Darwin.

There were nice canal areas with luxury homes and massive boats. You can also see the Marina in the distance.

In the mall area, Geoff met some of the locals hanging around. Very proudly, I got close enough to take this photo. Perhaps all these horrific snake encounters are helping my intense fear of them.

God's timing has been undoubtably impeccable on our travels the last year on the road. And Darwin was no exception. We happened to be there the weekend Geoff's Uncle Bill had a big 60th birthday bash. It was great for both of us to get to know his Darwin relatives better and we both enjoyed the night. (The party was at Geoff's cousin's place, in a town called Humpty Doo. Interesting name but still doesn't beat the clintcha of Dongdingalong in West Kempsey - I had a friend who lived there). 

We left the party around 11.30pm and on our way home along the Stuart Highway we were first on the scene for a car accident. It is an unnerving thing to be the first at the scene, just not knowing what you are going to find. As we approached the car and shined our headlights into the bush, a young guy stumbled toward us. He was confused, disorientated and had obviously wet himself. He couldn't tell us if anyone else was in the car or what had happened. I pulled a chair out of the car for him to sit down and gave him some water, whilst Geoff checked no-one else was in the car. Praise God he was alone as a tree had smashed up the passenger side of his car, making survival for any passenger impossible. He had also missed bigger tree's that were closer to the road. We called 000 and waited with him until help arrived. We learnt his name was Darcy. Suddenly, from the still quiet night sitting with Darcy on the side of the road, we were surrounding by the sirens and flashing lights of the Fire brigade, rescue, police and ambulance. Darcy was OK, he was under the limit, but had concussion from a bump to the head and his car was a ride-off. We waited until he was safely in the ambulance, then headed home amazed at God's timing once again. 

At church on Sunday, I met a family that were also travelling around Australia. The amazing thing is, they had 7 children!! She had the youngest whilst on the road. They lived in a bus and tents. Anyways, from her we learnt that a Navy shipped was docked in Darwin that was open to the public. So in the scorching heat (around 33 degrees) of the afternoon, we had a look. 

Yesterday (Monday) was a public holiday in Darwin - Cup Day for the horse races. Not being overly interested in horse races we relaxed at our caravan park, and kept cool in the pool. Today our car is being serviced, so we are just chilling again as we know the next few weeks is going to be full on. Tomorrow (Wednesday), we are meeting up with Geoff's relatives at 5am! and heading to their secret barra fishing spot in Kakadu for a few days. Excitedly, we have restocked our fishing gear and hope to both catch an infamous Barramundi! Kakadu here we come!!