Life in Darwin

So I thought since its been about a year since we left home, I'd have a crack at this whole blogging thing. So hang in there for my virginal blogging attempt.

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.

 

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

 

 

 

 

The Top End of Oz

We’re in Darwin and Darwin has turned the heat on. Well for us we think so, hasn’t been a day under 30 degrees in the 5 weeks we’ve been here and by night it hasn’t been under 20 degrees. We certainly haven’t had a winter and I’m not complainingJ Before arriving to Darwin though we did some exploring in the top end which I’ll tell you all about without boring you too much hopefully.

After the Devils Marbles we drove a good days’ worth through more country and made it to an apparent must stop ‘Daly Waters Pub’. We were not disappointed! This funky, eclectic, fascinating pub in the middle/ north of the Northern Territory was a cracker of a night. We got hand ridden to our camp spot and then made the most of happy hour with $3 pots (middies for the New South Welshman) before having a really nice feed in the beer garden. We were then very fortunate to have two live performances from local artists: one singing some originals and covers of some great country music and then a real good comedian/singer Dave ‘Chilli’ Chillcott. Chilli had us curled over in tears of laughter and on the other spectrum tears of emotion from his breathtaking bush poetry, an all-round memorable night not to forget on this trip.

Daly Waters Pub

Some of the eclectic souvenirs travellers leave behind

From our pub stop we drove further north and made it to Mataranka Homestead. Here we enjoyed thermal pools, a canoe down the river spotting freshwater crocs, happy hour drinks once again and more live music this time from a band called ‘The Giants’. We also applied (very casually over the bar) for our first jobs here….. unsuccessful though! Not to be down hearted we moved on to another spectacular place, Katherine Gorge, also stopping at Edith Falls for a quick dip too.

 

Swimming in Mataranka Thermal Pool

A little freshwater croc sunbaking on our canoe ride

Stevie's Waterhole, a tad murky for a swim

 

Edith Falls

Not a cheap place to stay but we made the most of the afternoon lazing around the resort style pool, using the free power to charge everything and using the free laundry! The next morning I wasn’t feeling the best but Ash walked 8km to Pat’s lookout which had stunning views high up looking into Katherine Gorge. By the time Ash got back I was feeling somewhat better and we had a drink and a Skype session with the Chaffey’s to celebrate our nephew Max’s 1^st birthday. We also did an afternoon canoe ride to the 2^nd gorge and went for a quick swim in the refreshing water. Definitely a must see place if you’re thinking about it or up this way haha.

The view from Pat's lookout

On the banks of Katherine Gorge

 

We were only about 2-3 hours from Darwin now but a right hand turn at a town called Pine Creek onto the Kakadu Highway saw us doing a minor detour to one of our favourite spots yet, Kakadu. Our friends Jude and Astrid had been through just a week or two earlier and gave us some great tips and hidden spots, our first night being one of the greatest. We drove Gina and Carmen up, down and around a very rocky but short track to find ourselves alone at ‘The Rockhole’. We had this amazing little camp spot to ourselves all afternoon, night and the next morning. We even had a sneaky skinny dip in the pool below the little waterfall and then hunted and gathered wood for our fire and dinner under the stars. The next day we set up camp further down the road and explored Maguk, down a corrugated road we weren’t expecting but so worth it. One of our favourite waterholes yet and we had it mostly to ourselves. We made a visit to the cultural centre later in the afternoon and joined some grey nomads and 3 French backpackers around a fire that night talking and looking over photos of their journeys. The next day was off to Gunlom, an even rougher track than Maguk but again stunning waterholes and views of the escarpment and land into the distance. We were once again out of power so we stayed at the Gagudju Lodge, Cooinda our most expensive powered site yet, $48. We made sure we used all their kitchen facilities, the pool and were delighted when a lady undercharged us for some souvenirs and icecreams! The next two days we explored Nourlangie, Bowali Visitor Centre, Nanguluwurr and Ubbirr where we saw some truly amazing aboriginal rock art over 20,000 years old. We listened to ranger talks, did some walking, watched crazy fishermen fish for about 4 hours at Cahill’s crossing (a brown river swarming with saltwater crocs everywhere) and a beautiful sunset. This ended our time in Kakadu spectacularly but we cannot wait to return to see it again one day. 

 

Clever little ants build these nests out of leaves high up in the trees

Our private swimming spot, The Rockhole

Floating around in Maguk

 

The view from the top of Gunlom

 

Spectacular rock art, 'Lightning Man'

More rock art

Crazy fisherman at Cahill's Crossing

The crocs with their paws up catching a feed

Listening to ranger talks as the sunsets at Ubirr

Sunset at Kakadu

 

It was finally time to head into Darwin. Three lane traffic, road trains, bad drivers, choice of petrol and groceries, suburbs, tall buildings and bottle shops were all a bit strange and overwhelming after living mostly simple camping lives in the outback for a month, but it was also nice to have some of these creature comforts around. Most importantly though we had friends to see especially Jude and Astrid before they headed overseas! We’ve been in Darwin 5 weeks nearly which is too long to talk about everything we’ve done so I’ll try keep out the boring bits and tell you what might hopefully be a bit interesting to you readers. Our first night we caught up with Michael and Lisa who we’d met at Kings Canyon for a few jugs of beer and to watch the footy in the city. We finally saw Jude and Astrid too, at Parap Markets (which are awesome Saturday morning markets with heaps of fresh local produce and cool market stuff) whilst also bumping into Jessica Mauboy. By late afternoon we all found ourselves at the Ski Club and not long after drinking mega jugs of beer, going out to shenanigans and getting back home to the caravan park at 3am. This was where Ash got lost. I’m not sure how but she left the toilet block without me and I had to go searching back to our camp, back to the toilet block and then with a torch around the park until I found her wandering I think with tears of joy that id finally found her and a laugh haha. It took the greater part of the next week getting over that night but we had some great food and catch-up with Jude and Astrid at Mindil Markets the next night and then went and watched ‘The Great Gatsby’ at the deckchair cinema. We filled our week with things like getting Gina serviced, eating 4L tubs of icecream on the beach, Frisbee, sunsets, uke and guitar jams with friendly grey nomad neighbours and frequenting events at the Darwin Festival Hub like live music, artwork and food! We also made a visit to some friends of ours Bree, Tom and their new addition 4 month old Ainsley (I use to work with both of them and Ash and I both went to school with Tom). Tom was away at training though and Bree kindly offered us a room which we were very grateful for. We have since been staying with Bree and Ainsley helping out with feeding, playing, chores, walking the dogs and outings where we can and also watching many Offspring episodes (nearly watched the first 3 seasons)!

Meeting Ainsley for the first time

 

Outdoor cinema to watch 'The Great Gatsby'

Stalking Jessica Mauboy at Parap Markets

Darwin Festival lights at the hub

We luckily heard an ad on the radio that there were some international squash games being played over the weekend so we decided to go watch some games and Ash even got to catch up with some old friends she use to play with back in the day. A lot of top seeded Aussies were there and it was great to watch.

Aussies mixed doubles beat the Scots

BBQ’s and catch-ups on the Nightcliff foreshore with Jude and Astrid became a regular thing. Sitting in the park, chatting, drawing, playing guitar and eating, it just felt like summer holidays. The smells, the sounds and the people were all amazing! We did a trip out to Berry Springs with the girls and Astrid’s brother Carl too which was lovely. A warm natural spring to swim in and picnic areas to eat and play Frisbee in. A few days later it was a sad farewell (or more like see you soon) to Jude and Astrid who were on the next leg of their journey to Indonesia to sight see and cycle their way up and across to Scotland. An inspiring couple we can’t wait to catch up with again!

Picnic at Nightcliff

Berry Springs mini waterfall

Cold Rock Extremists, our 3rd or 4th tub of the trip with these girls haha

 

Bree showed us around a bit of Darwin taking us to Leanyer Recreational Park which had awesome waterslides, the Darwin Museum and we even went on a Jumping Croc Cruise on the Adelaide River (probably Australia’s most inhabited crocodile rivers). We’ve also taken ourselves around town visiting Stokes Hill Wharf (where Japan attacked Darwin dropping their first bombs in WWII), Forts Hill Wharf, Cullen Bay, WWII Oil Storage Tunnels, the Wave Pool in the City and Lee Point Reserve.

This rainbow tree is all knitted on, clever ay!

A naval ship docked at Stokes Hill Wharf

 

A big salty about to jump for the meat

This croc had no arms but one very strong tail

 

We had a lovely breaky for Bree’s birthday with some of her girlfriends and then caught up with some friends of Ash’s from Evan’s Head who now live in Darwin (Danny and Laura). Plenty of beers, darts, a BBQ and catch-ups. I hit the pillow about 4am but I was woken by Ash snoring on the bathroom floor at about 5:30am haha wifey still knows how to drink.

We’ve since spent the last two or so weeks successfully job hunting (we’ll be cleaning in Darwin, just call us Sadie and Alice), catching up with an old Uni mate who passed through for a night which was lovely, celebrated Ash’s birthday (playing squash, swimming, going to the casino and eating her favourite Chinese for dinner!), watching a 20/20 cricket game, another night with Danny and Laura drinking till half past and trying to go to Litchfield unsuccessfully (turns our Carmen’s wheel bearings were shot on one side and she needed to be towed 120km, thankfully covered by NRMA).

The Perth Scorchers beat NT Strikers 2-1

 

Catching up with Sam at Mindil Markets

Some awesome live music at Mindil Markets

Trying to fix Carmen to no avail!

Carmen getting a tow back to Darwin, we nearly wore the wheel bearings down to the axel

 

We are currently building up cleaning clients day by day and we do our first clean on Friday. Adjusting to the heat up here is sometimes difficult with the ‘build up’ happening a little more everyday but air con is a nice luxury along with smashing 2-3 zooper doopers most days haha. With not much travelling occurring there may not be too much to write about but feel free to call, msg, facebook, watsapp, skype, or just stalk us if you want to catch up or find out what’s happening. Until next time fellow readers!