Top End Tales #1

8 October 2004

G’day all, Another hot &humid day here in Darwin where Catherine &I arrived last Sunday following an epic roadtrip (details to follow). We’ve been busy beavers this week: house hunting Monday, moving into a flat on Tuesday & I started work on Wednesday. So this is a quick g’day, with the advice that you’ll be hearing more soon.

For now, a couple of highlights from the past 2 weeks:

  • eating nutri-grain out of enamel mugs on the banks of the Mighty Murray at Renmark;
  • having rains of Biblical magnitude dump on us the night we arrived at Uluru (some very big wet drops).
  • Checking out Uluru the next day with water still cascading down the gullies.
  • Riding our bikes 30km from Alice Springs to Simpson’s Gap and then having to ride back again in unseasonal heat and among relentless flies.
  • Swimming and camping out at Edith Falls (within the spectacular Nitmiluk (Katherine Gorge) National Park). No danger of crocs, they told us. Though the local Murdoch rag, the NT News, seems to feature plenty of croc stories (crocs are apparently “on the move” as the wet builds here).
  • Going to the Sunday night market from some tucker & music at Mindil Beach.
  • Finding a flat(!) v.close to Fannie Bay and the Timor Sea.
  • Watching a 1.5m long goanna saunter casually past our front steps as we unpacked the car.
  • Approaching our dunny only ~1 hour after signing the lease, to find a treacherous, murky puddle of water inside... and then noticing movement from near the toilet rim... and then having a heart seizure as the unmistakable sight of a leg appeared from under the same rim... and recovering sufficiently to hurriedly flush the toilet... and suffering another heart seizure as 3 green tree frogs (the largest the size of a bread & butter plate) dropped out from under the rim and into the aforementioned puddle at the bottom of the bowl... and heroically calling the real estate agent with our problem... and having her arrive at our place laughing, sticking her hand up under the rim and evicting 3 green tree frogs... It kinda makes you view the toilet in a new way.
  • Meeting up with the NT Greens crew & helping out with letter-boxing (Catherine) and enlisting to hand out "how-to-vote" cards tomorrow. The Federal seat here is called Solomon & is the most marginal seat in the country held by a Country Liberal guy who, among other things, is proposing a nuclear waste dump for the NT.
  • Swimming in our pool at 10pm last night in the dark.
  • Eating brekky on the balcony this morning surrounded by palm fronds.

    Next:

    We’re off to see My Friend the Chocolate Cake play tonight at the Groove Café, Nightcliff (they play in Melbourne on Sunday).

    I'll be working here at Dept of Planning, Infrastructure & Environment til 3 December. Cath is talking with people at the hospital and health research places right now.

    So our address is:

  • 8/ 17 Bayview Street
  • Fannie Bay 0820
  • NT
  • Ph: (08) 8941 0383

    You can check out the location at: http://www.street-directory.com.au/aus_new/index.cgi

    stay in touch.

    ciao, darwin dave.