Don't Touch That......It Might Be Poisonous

Sunday, August 8th to Monday August 16, 2010
Various locations in Australia including Darwin and the surrounding suburbs.

Number one: Of course it’s poisonous…..I’m in Australia.

Number two: The last thing I was thinking about doing was touching it.

Yes, it's official....I'm Australia bound.

So I have survived my first week in Australia and my first week living in a tent. Yes, that’s right I’m officially living in a tent (those dorms in Fiji are starting to look pretty good right now).

Home.....for the next little bit. My tent is the little green and white one on the right.

Let me go back a bit though. I left Fiji with much reluctance on Sunday. I very much wanted to stay and hopefully I will have an opportunity to return in the very new future. Fiji is absolutely one of the greatest places on the planet.

But it was time to leave and start the next leg of my journey here in The Land Down Under. I arrived at Sydney airport Sunday night, cabbed it to a local hotel, slept, got back up Monday morning and headed back to the airport.

Some of the vast nothingness you will fly over from Sydney to Darwin.

It was there that it was totally confirmed that it would in fact cost my bags more to fly to Darwin than it did me. I will never complain about the extra bag fees on North American airlines ever again. That $50 or $100 fee….peanuts compared to what I paid to get my luggage from Fiji to Darwin.

Brush fires. A common scene from the air.

My flight to Darwin was painfully uneventful…….just 4 and a half hours too long.

WELCOME!!!!

Eventually I made it and was met by Debi with flowers and a smile. Once back at camp I was quickly introduced to the space that Debi, Scott and I are currently calling home. It’s not so bad and as Scott let me know, I have the “pimpin” tent. It is quite nice. It even came with chocolates on the pillow. At least when I arrived. They haven’t seemed to have shown up since. I have been meaning to talk to the housekeeping staff about that.

My little 5 Star tent. The cot was a great idea. I did much better sleeping off the ground.

It didn’t take long before we were all back in the Range Rover heading off to the Wharf to grab my first meal in Darwin. It is important to know that there is a very large Asian influence here in Darwin so lots of noodles and rice and soups and all those great things. We also found a place that will cook you up some bara (as in barramundi) or chicken, or camel or kangaroo or calamari so take your pick.

Tuesday morning I got introduced to the bus….which I am becoming very familiar with at this point. It is about 20 minutes into town from where we are and just a short 5 minute walk to the closest bus stop. It takes us up right into the centre of town. Darwin is….well Darwin is small and pretty relaxed. Debi and Scott have only been here a short time so we are kind of figuring it out together. I have learned that at the State Library housed in Parliament House anyone can get 4 hours (or 100 MB) of free Internet access daily, either with your laptop or on their desk tops. As you can imagine it is a very popular place for backpackers and students a like. I have been using my share of the free Internet so far this week.

Of course I had to do a little bit of work on Tuesday. I needed to get back in communication with people (that means cell phone or mobile as they call it here) and I needed to open a bank account. Bank account rules here. In the first 60 (or 90… I can’t remember) days you arrive in the country you can open a bank account with just a passport. After that time you need 100 points of identification. So I now have a bank account…..but no job. Minor details.

I also have a cell phone again. Yeah!!!! I feel better now. The mobile phone network over here is intriguing to me. From my cell it costs me 5 cents a minute (plus a $0.25 connection charge) to call Canada or the USA but it costs me 15 cents (plus that same $0.25 connection charge) to call an Australian number. No, it doesn't make that much sense to me either.

With that taken care of you would think I would off to tour like the tourist I love to be. No, first I spent some days unpacking and getting settled. And well I did spend a few days catching up this blog. Still behind but getting closer. I keep running out of MB at the library which means I can only upload so many photos a day.

Deb and Scott of course both work during the day but the evenings we have been entertaining each other. Wednesday night we hit up some lawn bowling. Yeah, that’s right, lawn bowling. It really is just like curling except without sweepers and ice and rocks. Other than that.........just like curling. It was a lot of fun and for the next little while we will be adding that to our Wednesday night plans. We were quite a bit younger than the other bowlers but for 6 bucks and cheap beer it was a very fun filled evening.

Thursday night was the start of the Darwin festival so we headed to the Mindil Market for dinner and then off to the free opening night concert. The Markets here are pretty good. Lots of good food and clothing and stuff like that. The concert was fabulous. Lots of different types music but the last act was certainly the highlight. I made one video and then got to involved and stop filming. Totally sorry I did because they were great.

Enjoying the show. And Scott being a good Aussie and enjoying a beer.

A shot of Dunganda Street Sounds. This was their first real performance. They were really good and had a lot of family and friends who were there to support them. Totally the highlight of the opening night concert.

The one video I managed to take of them. It gives you a good idea of how the show went. So good!!!!

Friday evening was a pretty quiet evening for us all. Deb and Scott are both pretty tired by the end of the week so we got home, had some food and some drinks and just enjoyed the evening.

Saturday we went apartment hunting. We certainly have an idea of what we want and what we don’t want and looked at a wide variety of places but we will still be looking. Scott would really like a pool.

We also headed to the Darwin Convention Centre to check out one of the Darwin Festival Art Events. It was a showcase.....and sale of Aboriginal Art from all over the Northern Territory and a few other places in Australia. Lots of very interesting things.

Deb was very excited about her new designer wallet.

Hanging out by the wharf we spotted this.....a submarine. Turns out the Navy Games are on and there are ships and boats in from about 5 different countries.

Hanging out in the sun. I have a feeling I will be getting very use to the sun.

Saturday night we headed to the Rodeo. Old hat for Deb and I but Scott had never been to one. It was certainly not the Calgary Stampede……it wasn’t even Rodeo Royal but it was a good time.

Ahhhh Wrangler Butts. Now I remember why I like the rodeo.

Saw some good Saddle bronc and bareback, some mediocre steer wrestling and some always good bull riding. Getting home was a bit of an adventure as we missed the last bus and getting a cab to pick us up was a challenge. Eventually we hopped a ride with a few other people and did make it back to camp.

One of those bull riders.

Sunday was our busiest day since I got here. We got up and headed to a market (a common thing to do on the weekend) and then we headed to the lagoon. This is the controlled beach where the crocodiles cannot get in. It is salt water that is pumped in and out of the area. It actually was pretty nice. The skim ball that mom bought us was certainly a hit. We were all finding it quite addictive but I must add that I have not quite got the hang of it.

After that we headed back to camp so that we could wash up and then we headed to another Darwin Festival event. This was the world premiere of a contemporary dance called Goose Lagoon. It was really good and a great night at the theatre. Hopefully it will catch on and others will get to see this show. After the show there was a question and answer period with the choreographer and producer and costume designer and really everyone involved. It gave some great insight to the whole process of making the show.I have included a link to some video because of course I could take none while in the theatre.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z3uE2v4Bc08

Monday night, while Scott slept, Deb and I headed into Darwin to catch another Festival Event. This one was called Free Flicks and basically it was a collection of short movies and music videos and stories made by local Aboriginals. They were very entertaining. Lots of music videos with kids. Many of these were just put together on home computers but all considered to be some of the Territory's top emerging filmmakers.

We lucked out as well though because before the movies started we got to hear the end of a great concert by Ego Lemos. It was being held at the outdoor theatre known as the Lighthouse and you had to pay to get in.....but you could hear the music just fine from outside.

We also stopped by a visual art exhibit called 10 Swags.This is a very special exhibition initiated by Larrakia Nation Arts and HEAL. The grass and bush areas of Civic Square Park are home to many people living in the long grass, by necessity or choice. Artists were given ten street swags to paint or design how they wished. You don't have to live in Darwin very long before you hear about, and then see the people who "live in the long grass"......to most I guess you would just call them homeless but that isn't a true representation of the situation. Each Swag offered a very different insight to life in the long grass.

Festival Park all dressed up in lights for the nightly entertainment.

Debi awaiting outside The Lighthouse for the movies to start.

So my first week here is done and I have managed to get through it without any incidences. I am still getting use to a few things like all the noises the trees and animals make at night. I still seem to hear when the Wallabies (a small kangaroo) or perhaps it is a bandacout (a small wallaby) goes running through the camp site in the middle of the night. Every time the lizards jump......I jump. I still try to find the farthest route around every frog I see (Debi reminds me not to touch them……they are poisonous…seriously). So far things are going well.

I call him Lil' Liz and as long as he stays in his area and I stay in mine we will get along just fine.

A couple of the birds who could stop pooping on my tent already.

Ok, this is one of the funniest birds I have seen so far. They always seem to be poking around and digging at things. They always travel in pairs too.

This week I plan to be a bit more of a tourist. There are a bunch of things to see here and at some point I will have to get a job. But that can wait.

Julie