After spending almost 24 hours on a bus and three planes, having perhaps three hours worth of sleep, I set foot on Australian soil the 20th of April, tired but happy. And officially 29 years old!
Great airport food in Singapore: noodle soup with eggs and ...?
Somehow I managed to miss the shuttle bus for Darwin city, but luckily a helpful bus driver who had just finished his shift offered to take me. My first experience with Australian prices: AUD18 for a 20 min bus ride!
Darwin is a rather small city, with parks everywhere, so after buying a SIM card, I whiled away the rest of the day amidst the local greenery. At one point, a bird of prey chased another bird not even 15m away from me, which was really cool!
Ants in Darwin have green behinds, apparently.
An ibis in the park just showing off with its awesome beak.
Around 4PM, Dave, my couchsurfing host, picked me up. Joining us was Kirsten, a couchsurfer from Canada. Dave and Dee, his fiance, live 50km south of Darwin, in Southport, which could most accurately described as the middle of nowhere. Their place is nice though, with nature all around and plenty of fans to cool down. They even have a small swimming pool :)! The four of us had a nice dinner which we finished off with birthday-worthy chocolate ice cream with nuts and fruits.
Dave watches approvingly as Dee adds the final touches to the birthday ice cream.
Awesome chocolate ice cream with nuts and fruit, and some weird things that go "pop" in your mouth :).
Day 52, April 21st, Kirsten and I went out fishing to the local estuary. Unfortunately a combination of low tide, no floater on the line, and the wrong bait assured our attempt at catching dinner was a failure. Still, it was good fun attempting to catch the big fish that was swimming right in front our eyes the entire time. Kirsten even managed to lift it one meter out of the water, but then it decided that was enough excitement for the day and it promptly let go of the hook.
Fishing for failure: great success!
Southport ants have a copper behind and a silver head, really cool!
In the evening two more people joined us, Alex, a lawyer from Germany, and Johann, a French Navy diver.
The next day, the four of us drove to Darwin, where Juan went looking for a job on a boat that will take him to Bali. Not much more happened that day, except in the evening when Dave set fire to his backyard to clear away some weeds.
Burn, burn!
This miniature (2cm) praying mantis was protecting the pool against intruders.
A big dragonfly which wanted to join us in the cool room. Not today, pal :)!
That’s it so far for my stay in Australia. Now excuse me as I have to lounge some more and go check whether any of Dave and Dee’s two dozen quails laid any eggs :).
Japanse quails everywhere. Super cute!