We have now lived in Darwin for over 8 months. Why Darwin?? Firstly we were extremely broke, which does tend to happen when you don't work and travel Australia for over 5 months. And secondly, it was approaching the "Wet" season. We really like to take our time when on the road and didnt want to see ourselves rushing through beautiful country before the wet season hit. It really would have been an extremely sweaty experience living in Carmen at that time of year.
After living with the Wilsons for the first month or so and squeezing in a sneaky trip back home, we then moved in with the Samuels/Howe families out at Howard Springs. For Darwin locals, Howard Springs is out Whoop whoop. They feel that the 30 minute drive into the city is far too long. For us, the 30mins is nothing. We enjoyed the little town and especially loved the delicious pizza cafe, Karaoke night at the local tavern and the the little dirt track short cut to town before the wet season started.
Our backyard at Howard Springs
Including us there were 8 adults and 5 children living in the house and 2 caravans. As you can imagine there was always something going on and we celebrated many occasions together. We were made to feel apart of the family straight away and really appreciated having a "Darwin Family". There were many poker nights, dart games and drinking sessions. We have always appreciated a beer, but there was nothing more delicious than an ice cold beer after a long days work in Darwin. We started our own specialty days like "Red Wine Wednesdays" which occasionally led to red wine Wednesdays, Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays. Some of the others were "Five Crown Fridays"(Card game) , "Fettucine Fridays" and "Sausage sizzle Saturdays and Sundays".
Our Darwin Family:)
Soph enjoying some Chrissy celebrations
It really didnt take us too long to build up some regular cleaning clients (Private and agency clients). A cheap vacuum, some products and advertising on gum tree and we were set. Some clients even said we were the best cleaners they've ever had. All I can say is there must be some really bad cleaners out there haha. We even got a little cocky and started quoting our own bond cleans, only to fail big time and under quote both times. We made some beautiful friends cleaning which led to housesitting their gorgeous home and will now stay in contact with the whole family. But for now our cleaning careers have finished and lets just say we were happy to lay the old vacuum and mop to rest.
Our last day in this uniform...woohoo:)
We chose to stay here in Darwin in the Wet season but we really didnt quite know what to expect. So to be safe we just expected it to be bloody hot. All we knew was that there really wasnt much rain last wet and they were hoping for alot more rain this year. The "build up" was certainly the sweatiest part. Extremely humid days with storm clouds in sight but no rain for relief. Lets just say we have more understanding of the saying "Sweatin like a pig" and the old baby powder got a pretty good work out!
When the storms rolled in it really was an awesome show and when the monsoonal rains hit it was absolutely beautiful. The longest amount of monsoonal rain we had was 4 weeks straight. I found it quite funny though that during the build up everyone prays for rain and then when it rained constantly all they wanted was for it to stop.
Watching a storm roll in at Stokes Hill Wharf
We were even able to experience a Cyclone warning from Tropical cyclone Alessia but she couldn't pull through with the goods. I will never forget that Sunday night as we all assumed work would be cancelled on Monday so we decided to have a very decent Sunday session. Only to wake with a very large headache, a cancelled cyclone warning and work awaiting.
We really wanted to "Do" Darwin while we were here because we dont know how long it will be until we will make it back. We were able to check out several different markets like Mindil Beach, Parap and Nightcliff with the most delicious fresh juices, fruit, Laksas and awesome relaxing live music and happy vibes. We tried our luck at the casino only to leave with good times and full bellies. We found we were luckier at the local greyhound races backing the winner several times.
Greyhounds....winner are grinners!!
We joined the Darwinites and tried to catch a Barra in a drain and learnt how to throw a cast net. We had a dog named Tick, every man literally has a dog in Darwin. We had many picnics and enjoyed the incredible sunsets. A day trip out to Litchfield was a must and enjoyed the beautiful cool water at Buley Waterhole and natural massages from the waterfalls.
Soph caught a Barra using a cast net from a drain
Tick:)
Darwin Sunset
We were recommended to try several delicious local foods including Prickles (mexican), a japanese resturant in rapid creek, Crustaceans where we celebrated our anniversary eating beautiful seafood, Indian food at Hanumans on Mitchell St and Nirvana which is a a blues jazz restuarant with delicious asian inspired food just to name a few.
Anniversary sunset dinner at Crustaceans
We went to the NT Mud racing titles with 3000 other people which was definitely our kind of scene and were lucky enough to go 4WD just down the road from home. We also spent a couple of weekends out at Crab Claw Island fishing, drinking and getting eaten by sand flies.
Mud Racing
Ginas first day 4WD at Gunn Point
Crab Claw Island
Not many musicians make their way up to Darwin so we quickly jumped at the opportunity to see John Butler Trio, Pete Murray and Emma Louise at One Tropical Day. I was also extremely excited to see Jessica Mauboy perform in her home town at the Darwin entertainment centre. My god I love that girl:)
One Tropical Day Festivities
So now we really feel we have experienced The Top End, NT. We have planned an epic trip back to the East Coast including Blues Festival, a road trip in a campervan, a hens night, meeting our best friends new baby, a wedding, a 40th barefoot bowls party and just catching up with our beautiful friends and family who we miss so much. As soon as we return back to Darwin we will be jumping back into a new and improved Gina (Thanks to Dan and Mick) fully loaded and towing Carmen over to Western Australia for more exciting adventures.
So now we really feel we have experienced The Top End, NT. We have planned an epic trip back to the East Coast including Blues Festival, a road trip in a campervan, a hens night, meeting our best friends new baby, a wedding, a 40th barefoot bowls party and just catching up with our beautiful friends and family who we miss so much. As soon as we return back to Darwin we will be jumping back into a new and improved Gina (Thanks to Dan and Mick) fully loaded and towing Carmen over to Western Australia for more exciting adventures.
Soph fishing at Stokes Hill Wharf
Beautiful boy!!
Hello to you too:)
I was pretty stoked to hold this little fella at Crocodylus Park
A view of Darwin city from Charles Darwin NP
Love to all,
Chaff xxx
