Return of the Cankles
Trip Start
Jun 05, 2007
1
92
131
Trip End
Jun 2009
Darwin,
Northern Territory,
Australia
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
Our seats on the train were right at the front, which was great for leg room, but bloody awful as the toilets were right in front of them as well as the door to the next carriage and people were up and down all night long. The seats hadn't become any more comfortable either so by morning we felt dreadful.
We had a planned stop in Katherine on the way and you could have taken a tour on the river either by boat or canoe, but we would be coming down this way again so decided just to look around town and do a bit of didgeridoo pricing as we heard they were cheaper here than Darwin.
Stepping off the train in Katherine, no-one prepared us for the intense heat we would feel or the increase in humidity. We were in jeans and was not at all comfortable with the amount we were sweating. We stopped in to use the internet to try book some accommodation in Darwin, our attempt to use the net yesterday was somewhat hampered by the power outage after the storm of the century. We took a bus out to an old Homestead and were led to believe that we would have a tour, but 30 minutes later still no-one had been to see us and we just sat there waiting to be picked up to go back to the train, probably a good job as the heat was quite debilitating.
Back on the train we watched the changing scenery from desert scrub to ever growing greener and lusher foliage. Darwin is in the tropics and as such, has a great deal of water in which to draw from, therefore we started to see trees with bright green leaves and bushes that no longer looked anorexic.
The rising heat and uncomfortable seating had continued to have an impact on our legs, our Cankles had not only returned but were the worst I had ever seen them. Kev likened my legs to a bedridden old ladies with severe fluid retention! I have never seen anything like it, Kev's were bad but I really didn't think I would ever distinguish my ankles or toes ever again.
Our train journey was indeed an experience, we did look out in wonder occasionally but overall, my advice would be - if you can't afford a first class cabin, then don't bother. The scenery wasn't amazing enough to warrant the discomfort.
Darwin was a pretty busy place this week, not entirely sure why, but the only hostel we could get was right at the edge of the town, but still only a 15 minute walk from the centre, so wasn't too bad. It was a dorm room for the night and a free meal at a city centre pub, we were really knackered and couldn't be bothered to do much else so were in bed by about 9pm. The next day we meandered around town and did some more didge shopping. We went into one shop and met the owner Walt, who was determined to get me playing, Kev is a born natural, playing the tuba as a child (try not to laugh!!) Our teacher was great, I was just about making a sound but it was much more enjoyable to hear him playing. We visited lots of shops and finally decided to come back to Walt after picking up the van tomorrow.
Once we had the van, we decided to get the necessary supplies and stay around in darwin for the day and evening as it was the last night in the season for the Mindil night market. Set on the edge of the beach, the market starts in the late afternoon and sells cothing, jewellery and food - lots of delectable naughtiness as well as some healthy options. Also at the market was a drums'n'bass duo, one playing drums and the other had an array of didgeridoo's in front of him, some of the sounds he was able to produce were almost primal. It was great to watch them and Kev could barely contain his wriggly hand and need to jump. We treated ourselves to some chinese food and took it to the beach to watch the sunset. A huge sun slowly descended throught the sky until it reached the horizon, then seemed to sink like a stone, the sky illuminated oranges and pinks but the lack of clouds meant that there wasn't a particularly spectacular light effect, but that didn't matter, we had made it up to the far north, we were in the tropics and nearer to Indonesia than Australia's capital!!
