This time around I had a friend to travel with, Nicola (whoop) and we started our 2 weeks in Darwin.
We spent 3 nights in Darwin, staying at the Melaleuca on Mitchell, which is situated on Mitchell Street one of the main streets in Darwin. If I'm honest, I didn't really like Darwin too much, it reminded me of a Spanish holiday strip like Magaluf or Tenerife. We went out a few times to different bars but we decided to try and see and do more around the top of the Northern Territory, before heading off on our 3 day Cicada Dreaming Safari.
We did a day trip to Litchfield National Park where we started off holding snakes, going on a jumping crocodile cruise and swimming in various watering holes. That evening we went to Mindil beach and market in the evening, which is a really popular haunt, they have lots of food stalls and you basically grab what you fancy, get some beers and head to the beach to eat and drink and watch the sunset. We chilled out by the lagoon, which is a lovely part of Darwin and lazed around the hostel. It was nice, and it took me a good few days to fully relax and get into holiday mode! And if I'm honest (and Nic won't mind me saying this) - adjusting to travelling with somebody who embodies organised chaos. I kid you not when I say the minute Nicola put that 85 litre rucksack (don't ask how she carried it, I guess its the Scottish in her...) it EXPLODED to cover as much of the floor space and even my bed as possible. Now when you're travelling you don't have a lot of things which are 'yours' in terms of space and territory, you share a bedroom, a bathroom, a kitchen, a lounge, you share everything so the bed, 'my' bed is my space, that's my little sanctuary please don't invade it, its more than your life is worth. But once I'd learnt to look back and laugh (as opposed to pull my hair out at Nic's antic's) it all fell into place nicely and off we set on the first of our 3 day trips with Way Out Back.
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| Mindil Beach |
Way Out Back's, 3-day Cicada Dreaming Safari, was a really relaxed and chilled out saunter down from Darwin to Alice Springs. We spent a lot of time lazying around in (freshwater) crocodile infested watering holes, viewing gorgeous waterfalls, visiting the Devils Marbles, Katherine Gorge, Mataranka thermal springs, Tropic of Capricorn, the Daly Waters pub and first ever airport in the NT, staying at a Banka Banka cattle station and having my first ever experience of sleeping in a swag.
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| Devil's marbles |
Now if you don't know what a swag is, let me explain ... a swag is basically a waterproof canvas sleeping bag, with a thin mattress built into the bottom, into which you place a sleeping bag and a pillow and then yourself, and sleep (peacefully) under the stars. Unless of course you are Nicola and then you cocoon yourself inside it so tightly and pull the flap up over your head, almost suffocating to avoid and creepy crawlies getting you in the night. A slightly hilarious sight, but one of the reasons we all love her for it.
On the third day we arrived at Alice Springs, a random, tiny town in the center of Australia. I really liked Alice for its simplicity and oddity, I guess. It helped we stayed in a really nice hostel - Annie's Place. We had a little issue when we first checked in that basically a guy hadn't checked out of the 4 bed dorm that we went into and so we got upgraded to our own private room! It would have been funny if we hadn't established with the guy who's bed Nic had stolen, the fact that there were five of us in a four bed dorm, we had images of her crawling into bed with him after our night out! Any who after the kerfuffle we adopted this guy as our little pal and took him out with us when we got so drunk on the second night. Note to you all - be careful drinking a lot, not eating properly and being out in 40 degree plus heat the next day - its a killer. I was quite ill because of it. Nothing that a bit of watermelon and a sleep didn't sort out but it wasn't my best moment. Anyway Annie's was great and I'd recommend it. Also a note, if you go to Alice after about 7/8pm DO NOT walk around on your own, even if you are in a group - always get a taxi, its a small town so never too expensive and there are too many troubles to be had with ostracised aborigines that its not worth getting mugged or attacked for the sake of an $8 taxi ride.
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| Drinks in Alice |
On our last night we said our goodbyes to a a friend we had made on the 3 day tour, made dinner and then hit the sack for the second part of our adventure - Alice to Adelaide and most importantly ULURU!!
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