Going Troppo!
Trip Start
Sep 13, 2006
1
29
108
Trip End
Ongoing
Darwin,
Australia
Monday, November 6, 2006
How long are you here for? 4 months;
Where are you going? Probably go down the west coast, then follow the cricket?
How are you getting about? (WTF) Have you booked bus tickets or flights? Probably buses and I've booked one flight.
How many times have you visited Australia before? Twice.
Where are you working? I'm not working.
Oh, so you're here purely as a tourist? Yes (that's why I'm here on a tourist visa you dimwit!)
These are the questions I can remember and these people aren't at a desk, they just approach you as you walk through the terminal. Also bare in mind that this is around half five in the morning having had no sleep and very little sleep the previous night. They are deliberately trying to catch you out and in my opinion they are pure scum! I would have loved to give them sarcastic answers to their questions, but as they have the power to refuse entry, you have to 'play the game'. Once through, I caught the airport shuttle bus to the YHA in town and fell straight to sleep.
Darwin is the most northern city in Australia and like the rest of the Northern Territory it has a very high indigenous population. It was also the place where I took time out to relax and do nothing for a few days after finishing my SE Asia leg in a bit of a hurry. To be honest, I didn't do too much in the first few days I was in town, just relaxing by the pool and playing Tiger Woods on the PSP.
After arriving from the airport I'd checked into the YHA (Youth Hostel Association - a network of certified hostels), which had been recommended to me. However, unknown to me, the YHA had moved and it's new location wasn't up to much. That said the people in the hostel seemed ok, so I decided to stay there for a while. This didn't stop me changing rooms though. I was initially booked into a four-bed dorm, which consisted of me and a very strange bloke. I didn't trust him, so moved into a six-bed dorm. Here I met a couple of normal people, Craig and Simon (aka Steve Irwin's cousin).
After I couple of days I decided I needed to plan a couple of trips. Darwin is situated close to the Kakadu National Park, which was made famous by the Crocodile Dundee films, e.g. this is where they were filmed on location. I duly booked myself onto a three-day trip to the national park and a separate one-day trip to the Litchfield National Park, which I was told was well worth doing.
My initial plan was to chill in Darwin, see the aforementioned national parks, then make my way overland to Broome, via The Kimberleys, before continuing overland to Perth in time for the Perth Ashes test match. However my plans were ruined by the weather. Apparently I'd arrived at the start of the wet season, which means the weather was getting hotter and wetter.
From late October there is a period known as 'Build Up' where the temperature raises, clouds accumulate (e.g. it starts raining) and people who don't drink enough go 'Troppo' as the combination of heat, humidity and non-working air-con gets to them. It is impossible to get dry and you just have to accept that you'll be sweating all day.
As I arrived in early November, a few big storms were starting, which meant areas of The Kimberleys were being closed. If a big storm happened, you could get trapped for anything up to a week waiting for the flood waters to recede. In addition, the temperature was anything between 43 and 46 degrees in places. This meant only one travel company was running tours and they were booked up until the end of the month. Therefore, I booked a flight from Darwin to Broome instead and an overland trip from Broome to Perth.
This was quite annoying as The Kimberleys are probably the best things to see in Western Australia, but there was little I could do about it. Maybe I should have done more research before I came out, but I'm restricted on the cricket itinerary, so hay-ho.
