Both my primary school and secondary school have long since been demolished making the chance of a school reunion highly unlikely. I imagine reunions to be quite a daunting occasion, I was anxious enough catching up with Woody, a long lost friend from Gully Tech when we were in Gladstone. He instructed us to stay with his wife and kids in Darwin and with the budget coping a battering the prospect was just too good to refuse. However the question was always in my mind, “What if none of us get along at all”. There will be that awkward moment of trying to leave before schedule, the kids may fight, the adults may fight and worst of all Chris may learn something of my past! Thankfully this was not the case, Nicky was just gorgeous and we all got along brilliantly. The Woods welcomed us into their house and shared all that they had with us. As a result we left behind more than our usual collection of empty bottles.
I love Darwin. It’s beautiful. I’d shift there in a minute if it wasn’t for one little problem. Wildlife, and when I say wildlife I emphasise WILD. Anyone who knows me knows how much I love my sport, in particular long distance running. Sadly as the heat has increased the opportunity to run has decreased. However on my first morning in Darwin we had a good cover of cloud and the temp was only 30degrees. Off I headed for a quick 5km run. 45 minutes later Chris rang to check if I was OK. It turns out that the map I gauged my run on was not to scale. I ended up running 10km and the cloud cover had cleared within 10minutes of me leaving the house. Now I’d be happy to cope with all that if it wasn’t for the bloody snakes. One struck at me from the roadside and 50m up the road I had to hurdle another as it sunned itself on the bitumen. Further on I located a lovely little lagoon and was tempted to cool off. It was only when I returned to the house that Nicky told me that the authorities had removed two large salties from the lagoon earlier in the year. Lesson learnt, when in Darwin, increase drinking, decrease running.
Full of tourist activities, it was hard to decide where to start in Darwin. Day one was rapid fire tourist campaign. Off to the pool and waterslides (all free, apparently as a deterrent to the tourists swimming in the lagoons or beaches, people getting eaten by crocs and sharks is no good for tourism). We dried off and headed to the museum which was fantastic. The kids loved the cyclone Tracy exhibit and I loved the photo display of indigenous communities. Our third leg of the day took us to the Mindil Beach Market. This market is well known by tourists all across Aust. As far as markets go it wasn’t anything brilliant but it had certain other drawcards. Firstly it’s set on the beach so snow cones in hand we head to the beach to watch the most amazing sunset in the company of literally thousands of other people. Wander back into the market and we’re greeted by the smell of a thousand cultures all cooking at once and it’s delicious. The kids all headed off in different directions, Ry went for seafood, Taz decided Indian smelt best, Chris went Greek, Taj tried Asian tofu and I settled on Indian. Just as we were leaving one of my holiday dreams was realised. The rodeo was in town and I was prepared to move heaven and hell to get there.
Now for those of you who have been following our blogs you’ll be familiar with our frustration over landing the elusive big barra. At this point I’m convinced that it’s a mythical creature that doesn’t actually exist. SO with very little enthusiasm we head out in search of this aboriginal dreamtime icon once again. We’ve even been given a lesson by a professional and been provided with the best lures but still I’m not convinced. We draw straws and Taj is handed the rod first. Twenty minutes later and nothing. Ry took over, nothing. He hands it to Taz, no luck. Taz passes it to Chris and finally he lands a 65cm Barra. We’re stoked. Enthusiasm restored I cast in, it’s so quiet that Taz joins me. Now we have two lines in which can be dangerous because as Ry can confirm snagged lures will penetrate your shin deeply when they are released. Just as I’m ready to give up Taz and I both hook up at the exact same time. The fight is glorious. Taz’s little spaghetti arms were pulled to the limit as she tussled with her catch. What a relief to finally get them up on the beach. Ry knew he was just moments away from his first big catch. He cast in but nothing. Under his breath he started mumbling things that I refuse to print. Finally he hooks up and pulls it in with relative ease. The profanities that boy used don’t bear mentioning as he summed up his catch. It was 50cm smaller than my catch and barely put up a fight. That was it, no more fishing for Ry.
Taj was next to hook up and our excitement lifted immediately. Poor Taj was almost pulled into the water as the barra took off. So with me acting as his anchor he worked the rod until his 65cm catch lay gasping on the bank. Ry continued to swear in the background. Light was fading and we offered Ry the last cast of the day. He begrudgingly accepted cursing about fish the entire time. At the highest point of drama Ry finally hooked up on literally the last cast of the day. A seven minute tug of war ensued and as God is my witness I promise I would have jumped in and wrestled the beast myself if it looked like getting away. Finally Chris got a hold of the line and beached the 68cm fish. Although not the biggest fish, in my eyes it was the catch of the day. We couldn’t slap the smile off Ry’s face; he probably did deserve a slapping though after all that swearing.
With my cowboy hat firmly in place we headed to the Noonamah Rodeo. I was so excited, ohhh all those rugged cowboys, beautiful horses and deadly beasts, I was in heaven. I even drank XXXX from a Noonamah stubby holder. The crowd starter was a group of boys doing tricks on their motorbikes, “big deal” I yelled “bring out the cowboys”. I was not disappointed. The amateurs and juniors were first and we watched young man after young man get pummelled by these 600kg bulls. Finally we had an 8sec ride. We were all on our feet screaming. Yeeeehah, my inner cowgirl was released. The big fellas came on a little later and the action increased, still very few 8sec rides but these bulls seemed even angrier if that’s at all possible. As the competition closed in four riders were in the running to win. In their last round three out of the four went home in an ambulance. Tough gig! What a night, another bucket list item ticked off.
Crocosaurus Cove provided us with a brilliant day out. It has a fantastic hands on approach and encourages the kids to get up and personal with all sorts of Australian natives. The kids had a ball fishing for crocs (even at 18mths old their predator instinct is impressive). They fed varieties of turtles that they never even knew existed. They watched archer fish shoot their dinner out of thin air. They got close and personal with massive crocs but the highlight was watching them swim in the tank with all the baby crocs that were desperate to eat them.
So Darwin is done and dusted. We survived the wildlife, we conquered the elusive barra (he was delicious by the way) and we got the Patrol all sorted for the second half of our lap around Australia. We bid farewell to the beach views and look forward to beautiful views of mountain ranges and floodplains.
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