On 27th September it was finally time to leave Indonesia and to fly to Australia. I would have liked to have stayed longer but I’d left it as long as I’d dare as my ‘initial entry’ date for my Australian visa was fast approaching. I walked through Passport Control at Darwin airport at 5am and emerged an Australian Resident.
Darwin
Darwin is the capital city of the Northern Territory (NT), which stretches from Darwin in the north to Ayres Rock in the Red Centre, and is basically as far north as cities go in Australia. It was named by John Lort Stoates whilst on the ship “The Beagle” after a former shipmate – Charles Darwin.
It’s a small port city (the British ship HMS Gloucester was in while I was there – a reminder that Timor isn’t so far away) and was almost completely flattened by Cyclone Tracey on Christmas Day 1974 and subsequently rebuilt.
From that you can probably guess the weather conditions in the NT are pretty variable with Wet and Dry seasons as opposed to Summer and winter. The Wet lasts from Oct-Mar and has some of the most powerful and spectacular thunderstorms on the planet with the Dry running from Apr-Sep. Year round it’s hot (30-40 degrees C)- with variations with the humidity increases dramatically from Oct-Dec in what is called the “build up” I.e. Before all hell is let loose in the Wet season proper. It was at the beginning of this time that I was in Darwin.
The National Parks
In the northern part of the NT (the Top End as it’s called) are several National Parks the most famous of which is probably Kakadu which is a World Heritage Area of Natural and Cultural importance. It’s bigger than Wales and is renowned for the variety of its plant and animal life. It is separated from Aboriginal Arnhem Land by the Arnhem Escarpment which at a height of between 100 to 200m forms a natural boundary over which flow some spectacular waterfalls during the wet. The wet has a dramatic effect on the landscape with the previously bone-dry river flood plains becoming submerged by up to 3m of water. As the waters recede during the dry the pockets of water that are left, the Billabongs, attract an amazing array of bird life which becomes more concentrated as the dry continues.
Other parks in the area include Nitmiluk – also called Katherine Gorge – a series of 13 water filled gorges; and Litchfield which has some nice waterfalls and lot of Termite mounds. There are two main types: Meridian (or Magnetic) which are like large solar panels orientated North / South so that their flat sides capture the sun during the day to regulate their internal temperature; and Cathedral which are basically like giant Heat sinks up to 3m in height.
You can’t be in the Top End without being aware of Crocodiles – it’s simply impossible !! There are two types: Salties, who wouldn’t think twice about having you as a variation to their diet; and Freshies, who are considered “generally harmless”. Bit of a bugger though if you’re the person that made them “generally” harmless as opposed to “completely” harmless.
Whilst in Darwin I took the opportunity to do a 6 day camping tour of the parks: 1 day at Litchfield; 1 canoeing at Katherine Gorge (we sank – twice ! Toll for the day: 2 t-shirts, 2 paddles, a hat and a pair of sunnies !!); and 4 days in Kakadu.
It was a great experience and some of the sights were breathtaking. We had really good time and had a good group but it was “Hot, real HOT, DAMN HOT” to quote ‘Good Morning Vietnam’.
Cycads
Another excursion that I undertook was doing some voluntary work for the Parks and Wildlife Commission counting Cycads. Cycads, for those of you that don’t know, are palm-like plants that have been pretty much unchanged in 240 million years. They occur as distinct male and female plant and are a protected species.
The work involved camping out in the Bush for 5 days and assessing the Cycads at several pre-marked sites. There were 5 of us that went: Dave our scientist (of the big beard variety); Marleen and Veerle, 2 Belgian girls and Phillipa (Pip) an Australian girl. We all hit it off immediately and basically had a ball. The work wasn’t the most interesting that I’ve done (after the 50th Cycad it looses something) and being out working in the Bush in 39 degree heat wasn’t easy but we made it good fun. The camping was pretty basic – trekking in Sumatra had fortunately prepared me for shitting in the open, although this was a bit more up-market: we had a hole and a trowel (no pigs to clean things up). Great fun though and a chance to do something useful for a change.
Language
Being in Australia also involves learning a bit of the lingo – “It’s English Jim, but not as we know it”
Words like Esky. I had to ask about this one. I saw a sign at the entrance to a bar saying “No Eskies”. I wasn’t sure if I unwittingly had one or not – or maybe I was one ??! Turns out its a cool box !
A few more examples are:
| Spitting | Angry |
| Stoked – | Happy, Chuffed |
| Spewing – | Fed up, Annoyed |
| Rapt – | Happy |
| Crook – | Sick, ill |
| Okky – | Red Neck |
| Dunny – | Toilet |
| Slab – | Tray of beers (usually bottles) |
| Block – | Box of beers (usually cans) |
| Stubbies – | Bottle of beer |
| Stubby Holder – | Neoprene sheath to keep your bottle of beer cold |
| As….as – | Unqualified superlative/diminutive E.g. As hot as, as shit as, as mad as |
Moving On
Dame Edna Eve ridge once said:
“Darwin is a virus, not a city; there is no cure !”
There is a lot of truth in that. I ended up staying in Darwin 5 weeks (seems to be a bit of a record with non-working backpackers) and even then found it hard to leave. I appear not to be alone. Most of the Australians that I met in Darwin came from elsewhere. They were just passing through and never got around to leaving !!
So why did I stay so long ? I think partly because I suddenly had no imminent deadlines to meet. Through
Asia and particularly in Indonesia, I was always very conscious that I had to be in Australia by the beginning of October because of my visa. Now that I was here, all urgency and motivation to move on left me – my only other deadline in life is getting to South America by mid-April 2000, when my round-the-world ticket expires.
The other main reason were people. I met and re-met quite a few people in Darwin from different places in Asia, including Manoj (it was great to see him after 4 months and good to see that he was getting on well), importantly though, I met some locals with whom I became good friends. I love travelling and meeting lots of people but the downside is that shortly after every “Hello” is invariably a “Goodbye”. People become friends very quickly – there is no time to loose – and you very quickly feel close to people, but just as quickly as you get to know each other your time together ends and you go your separate ways.
After 6 months of traveling I guess that it was staying in one place with people who would still be there the following week and with whom to go to BBQ’s and restaurants; to drink nice wine with and just to do normal things. Basically to break out of “Backpacker” mode and to be a “Normal” person for a while. Well, as normal as I could ever be.
Apart from that they were special people who I’ll keep in touch with for a long time. (You know who you are – I love and miss you loads) !
Eventually, though, it was time to move on. My Ozzie tour starts with the west coast from Darwin down to Perth – but that’s for another time !!
Take care and I’ll talk to you soon.
Iain
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