Darwin
After flying through Cairns, where we hung out at the Lagoon (e trendy pool area near downtown) and walked around a bit, we landed in Darwin the other day. Ani’s friend Katy picked us up from the airport and is letting us stay with her and her bf Gregor. They’re really cool folks. The first day, Katy had off work, so she met up with Ani and I after we’d been walking around downtown. Darwin is very small so it didn’t take long. We did see the wave pool and Tree of Knowledge near the university and then went to some Aboriginal Art Galleries.
Katy has a car, so we three drove out about an hour to Berry Springs which was really cool. It’s a beautiful natural spring where the water was nice and warm. It’s a cloudy clear water where Crocodiles roam during the wet season. I’ve been assured that they’ve all been flushed out for now. Finges Crossed. 
Darwin is known for its salt water crocs that get upwards to 15ft long! The spring has three sections in between which are tiny plant covered streams which you swim through. After swimming up to the waterfall and back for a couple hours, we headed out to Nunumah, where there is one pub and that’s it. It’s the true outback experience, where you get real bogins (outback types, like Australian hics). On the way, Katy saw a Northern Territory News van (she’s a reporter for NT News) and so we stopped and one of her coworkers had a blow out but were just finishing fixiing the tire, so we could do nothing but supply a friendly gesture. 
That night, we went out to a bar/club/restaurant called Wisdom for food and drinks. This guy, Tom, came and sat next to us and just started talking. He was already pretty drunk, but he kept buying us all shots of tequila once he was sure that we were cool. It was pretty hilarious. he was so excited about meeting his freind at the bar that he hadn’t seen in forever, but his friend Nick was only there for like an hour before Tom got kicked out of the bar for being too drunk!
Katy knew the guitar player at the club named Max and he was really good, so when his set ended and he went over to Kitty OShea’s to play with his band, we sort of followed him over there and had more drinks and danced the night away. it was loads of fun, but we were all pretty hung over this morning.
The next day, we went to the local beach, Mindil, and then on to the Museum to see Sweetheart, a stuffed 12 foot croc which terrorized much of the NT one year until they caught it. There was also a cool exhibit on Cyclone Tracy which flattened Darwin in 1974. Darwin has actually been rebuilt twice, once after WWII and the second after Tracy. It’s pretty hot here right now, I can only imagine what it’s like in the ’summer’. Apparently, they just have a wet season and dry season, now it’s the dry season. We got kind of lost in the museum, but found each other later. We took the bus back to town, went to see the movie Bruno and then headed home.
Oh, on the way home, we stopped by the night market and there was a guy doing magic there so I bought some tricks and we came home and Ani crashed out while I shilled until Katy and Gregor got home from work (they work together).
Not sure what we’re doing today, but we’ll find out soon enough.