The accomodation was really good. The rooms were basic but after seen what we've seen in some other places, no complains there. It has a nice and very popular swimming pool. If you wanna meet people, this is the place!, yes I know it sounds weird but trust me I met more people in one day at the swimming pool that in 7 days in Perth. At one point or another everybody goes to the swimming pool...
Darwin is a strange place. The town by itself is quite small (at least the centre of it). There are 2-3 streets.
so really not a place you would go to visit by its own merits, everyone is here to visit the national parks of Litchfield and/or Kakadu, that's why people come here.
You have the people coming from Broome and some other people coming from Alice Springs so by the time you get to Darwin you already know some people, then you have to share your room with another 3-11 people depending of your accomodation so after a couple of days there you know people who knows people, in other words you pretty much know everybody, some at a better level than others, unless you prefer to keep to yourself and talk to nobody of course.
As with an arrival to a new town, priorities first. Where is McDonalds!!!??? We had been told the local McDonalds didn't have Wifi in Darwin, so we went there to investigate...and the rumours were true... it is the first McDonalds in the whole of Australia that we've seen without Wifi. They claim it is been repaired...but it's been months since it hasn't been working so I doubt that is the case.
We also heard you could use the internet at the local Library so off we went to check it out.
Let me tell you, this is not just "a local library", this the Nothern Territory parlament with a library attached to it so every time you get in you need to go through a metal detector and the building is amazing!
and this is how we spent all the afternoon. The library was full of backpackers, not sure there was anyone interested in any books, everyone was using their laptops and conecting to the internet. The facilities at the library were fantastic. I would like to thank all the Nothern Territory tax payers for this fantastic investment. The hundreds of backpackers from all around the world that use it every day thank you! :-)
When the library closed, we went back to our accomodation to meet Alan, Laura and Sharon. Sharon was also at the Cavenagh but Alan and Laura were in other places. So we managed to secured some free dinner vouchers at a place call "The Vic" which fit in really well with out backpacker's budget...free is a magical world in the the backpakers world! :-)
All we had to do in order to use our vouchers was to purchase some drink at the bar which we did and then for our amazement, the food was quite good, although, after a stric diet of 9 days eating cold sandwiches for lunch, your expectations are not the same you would have otherwise, but we all enjoyed our meals and when were were about to leave they started a quizz so we decided to stay a little bit longer and play. We didn't have any other plans so why not.
Apart from the typical quizz questions in between rounds a member of the team would have to go to the stage and do some kind of test, we didn't know which kind of "test" they would be so we asked the organiser and he said (pointing his finger at me)...if I were you I would pick him!... and that's how I was volunteered for these tests... =8-O
The first test was to throw a ball into a basket and you would get one point per ball you manage to land inside the basket.
Me warming up
Apologise for the photography, it seems the beer was starting to take its toll on the photographer...
I didn't do too bad on that one and managed to secure a few points for the team. :-)
There were other tests after that one and in one of them I even had to play the didgeridoo (the australian aboriginal instrument)
Didgeridoo
But the twist (as that wasn't difficult enough) was that we were to use a vacum cleaner tube instead!
I've got it all in video...a pity I can't upload such a big file. :-) But believe it or not, I managed to get a few points there too. :-)
All in all it was a great fun night
Tomorrow we start our last tour, the 3 day tour to the national parks of Litchfield and Kakadu. I can't wait!
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