Still here chilling out in Darwin, walking miles and losing my sanity.
Walked to East Point Reserve the other day and was shocked to see that the tide was in on Mindil beach in the middle of the afternoon. That was bizarre! The whole 3.5 months I was here the first time and I never saw the tide in during the day. 'Abnormally high tides according to the paper'. Too scared to cross the river due to jellyfish and crocs so had to walk around. Went to the museum again. Must be the 7th or 8th time I've been there but they had a new
exhibition called 'The Stolen Years' about Australian POWs of the Japanese in the 2nd World War. Pretty interesting stuff! Gave Cyclone Tracy a miss as I've seen it too many times but had to get a picture of Sweetheart the 5 metre stuffed croc.
Anyway, read about the wallabies that come out at sundown at Lake Alexander, East Point Reserve so had to wait 2 hours for sunset. Annoyed a few hermit crabs on the beach. They're didn't seem impressed by their homes being picked up and turned upside down. Eventually had a cool sunset but couldn't see any stupid wallabies. Waited more, hello where are they? Eventually it was almost too dark to see and they hadn't appeared so decided to wonder back.
Unfortunately, the path back wasn't lit up and the main road was too long so got a bit freaked out and almost fell over some Aboriginals having a 'picnic' on the path. Had to run once I got to the walkway over the mudflats as I thought a croc would be there. Spotted a few mud crabs earlier but started to sink when I walked over to get some close ups so gave up. And yes, crocs have been spotted in Darwin. A few years ago, a 2 or 3 metre one was spotted walking across the highway in Coconut Grove and last year a baby one was found on the
main street, Mitchell St.
They pulled out 208 from Darwin harbour last year. Just read that the poisonous Cane Toad has invaded Kununurra in WA but that they have found a native frog in NT which can eat it without dying. The bloody cane toads are killing goannas and even crocs.
Read that the fire jam was on on the Esplanade so went over at 10pm but nobody there. Contacted the website and they said they have no plans to start it up in the immediate future. What's that all about? I'm sure it'll be back on in the winter, dry season.
Walked to Charles Darwin National Park last week thinking that it wasn't too far away. The only other time I had been there was last year for some simmultaneous worldwide peace party rave thing. Word of warning, if you're going to go on a long walk, take water. It must have been about 10Ks from the city and I didn't have any water. Luckily, as a fit healthly young man, I made it there before completely drying up and got to a drinking fountain on arrival. Good
job as there wasn't an ice cream van in sight.
Good views of Darwin from there over the mangroves and loads of bunkers. One had an exhibition with non-live ammo and info on the Japanese invasions in
1942 to 1944. I had no knowledge on the wars before now and it pretty damn interesting I tell you. The bunkers have trees and grass on top so they looked like hills from the air. Port Darwin, as it was known then (the city being called Palmerston) was bombed in 1942 by the same fleet that bombed Pearl Harbor 10 weeks earlier. Didn't make a film of that did they? Not Hollywood enough! Enough on that, I walked back and bought quite a lot of water and rehydration fluids.
May have bought some wine but I'm drinking less alcohol up in the Top End. It's no fun drinking or my own or with Tony. So far he's told me that:
'Room number 1 double bed, room number 2 double bed, room number 3 double bed, room number 4 double bed, room number 5 double bed, room number 6 double bed, room number 11 double bed, more people more money'. Funny that I thought number 6 and 11 were dorm rooms. And surely a full dorm room brings in more than a double room. Anyway, also 'monkey good to eat' and 'that animal [a wombat] good to eat' and 'elephant good to eat'. And you know what else he told me? Well:
'Room number 1 double bed, room number 2 double bed, room number 3 double bed, room number 4 double bed, room number 5 double bed, room number 6 double bed, room number 11 double bed, more people more money'. And 3 days ago he told me,
'Room number 1 double bed, room number 2 double bed, room number 3 double bed, room number 4 double bed, room number 5 double bed, room number 6 double bed, room number 11 double bed, more people more money'. Yesterday he told me,
'monkey good to eat' and 'that animal [a wombat] good to eat' and 'elephant good to eat' and
'Room number 1 double bed, room number 2 double bed, room number 3 double bed, room number 4 double bed, room number 5 double bed, room number 6 double bed, room number 11 double bed, more people more money'.
I don't know how much longer I have to hear about which rooms have double beds. And it's not like he's forgetting things as he asked if I get money from the government and I told him I'm from England on holiday. He can't pick up on accents but then I was chatting to an Ozzie guy in the videoshop and he couldn't pick up I had an English accent. Weird!
Anyway, Tony asked about the English money and I explained. The following evening he said 'friend from England' and asked about the money again so he knows I'm from England now. Sometimes he quite happily sits watching a film and other times he'll say he wants to watch a film but then talks through the entire thing about double rooms or eating wombats or the new subject of English money. I'm going to have to find out how many cans of VB he gets
through during the day and how many glasses of wine in the night. Sometimes he stays up till midnight and other times he is plastered drunk at 8pm. He was playing with the nuts and bolts under the TV yesterday. Haven't seen him doing that since last year. He's got quite a collection going. So long as he's happy!
Number 3 (as Tony refers to him - guy in room 3) is driving number 2 mad as number 3 plays his Metallica and Pearl Jam (it's scary that I even know who the bands are as I've never had any of their stuff. Mind you it was The Corrs this morning - don't know which is worse!) on full volume for the last week and number 2 calls him a pisshead. This is the number 2 who has a huge beer gut and goes to the pub everyday. The same number 2 who had a new tattoo on his right forearm to cover up another one and was ill for 4 days due to it
getting infected and blood poisoning. He was telling me about some steel imports etc etc last night. I think he's some kind of failed gangster or something of that ilk which is quite amusing. He said he likes music like Rodriguez. That sounded familiar, Rodriguez! I had one of his songs which David Holmes (Scottish DJ type guy) mixed. That's cool! It's that Sugarman one - Ben, you've got the album. I want to listen to the original. I'm still convinced Beck ripped off
samples from David Holmes' 'Let's Get Killed' album.
Can't type much more, my eyes are going all funny from looking at the screen. From all this typing I've been doing for the last 15 months, I've progressed into touch typing-dom.
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