Darwin

After my break from Cairns (pronounced “Cans”), I had one day to relax and pack my things for my week long trip to the Outback and Center of Australia. I was most looking forward to seeing what a hostel is like, and how Aboriginals as well as the “white fella’s” lived in the desert-like terrain. Aboriginals were called “black fella’s” and the Australians “white fella’s.” It’s not racist, its just what they called each other. Me and Amanda had a late night flight to Darwin. We arrived at the small airport, grab a shuttle bus, and arrived at our hostel, the Nomeds on Cavanagh, around 2am. I felt bad waking up the two people, Jasper and Rosanne from the Netherlands, who were there earlier in the day. We all slept in and after being able to take a shower, I hit the city of Darwin.



Darwin has about 3 main streets and a waterfront. The area is more up and coming in tourist attractions. The city was very small. I felt like I pretty much seen the whole city in less than 3 hours. Darwin is most known for the city that the Japanese attacked in WWII because of their large oil depots. Some of the only big attractions in Darwin were related to this attack. However, this attack really made the land what it is today as far as population goes. I’ll explain what I mean more later when I talk about Alice Springs.

We took the heritage walk around town. We passed this old outdoor movie park, which looked nostalgic and heaps of fun. However, they were not playing any movies that night. The told the story of the attack on Darwin and lead us to the waterfront. The waterfront was very modern and new. They had a wave pool you could pay to go into. I laughed inside as I thought I work next to a beach that gets better, natural waves and it’s free. It was a humid day.



Darwin had some funny graffiti. In fact so did a lot of the towns in the Outback. However, it was not vandalism. It was art made by young kids. I again saw more graffiti in Alice Springs. There were paintings of kangaroos, lizards, and cockatoos. At a first glance though you would think its “bad” or gang-related graffiti, but after look into it that was not the case.



We ended the night at a local bar called “the Tap.” I was talking to one of the locals earlier in the day and she said it was the place to go for a good “Fishbowl Drink.” She was right, it was very good!



The next day we had the whole day free to do whatever we wanted. So naturally, I wanted to go swim with the crocodiles and I did. After come hotcakes at McDonalds, me and Amanda took off to the Oil storage facility near the waterfront to pretty much look at giant oil storage tanks underground and learn some more history. The tanks were HUGE! Inside the tank, they had old pictures of Darwin back when it was first being developed and of the aerial attack on Darwin.



After the oil tanks, we were off to Crocsaurus Cove. This was a mini zoo found in the center of the city mainly designed for crocodiles and reptiles. We saw fishes, rays, lizards, snakes, and a whole bunch of crocodiles. The cages with the baby crocs were crazy! There were so many of them in such a small area. Baby crocs are pretty cool. They can even make their entire body jump straight out of the water to catch their prey. However, when they get bigger and heavier they won’t be able to. However, when you’re a full-grown croc not many people or animals are willing to mess with you. Just look at the video below.



Feeding time was the best time at the cove. We ended or visit at Crocsaurus Cove by getting into a glass cage and put smack in the middle of the 3 croc exhibits. The first one had a croc couple, Houdini and Bess. Houdini was the most fun because he actually swam around us unlike the other two that just sat there. Crocs are a lot of huge close up. One of the crocs, Denzel, had his jaw open so I was able to look inside. He’s got a big mouth, literally.



Knowing we were to be picked up at 5:40am the next day we hung out in our air-conditioned hostel for the remainder of the night. It was the first time I slept in an air conditioned room since I been to Australia. The hostel was very bland and the bathroom had ants. However, there was a working television with about two good channels so I was content.