Day 80 & 81 (Darwin)

I was so glad that Darwin airport wasn't a Ryanair stylee one (ages away from the city whose name it bore) because when we arrived and cleared immigration and customs we had a very short bus transfer to our hostel. I had expected customs to be a nightmarish ultra long process but instead I was through really quickly with the only question I was asked was about whether or not I had lollipops in my bag (I didn't). The lady didn't believe me so wanted to search my carry on bag – it turns out she saw my tripod and that's what made her think lollipop...crazy! Rather than let me pack my bag up again they started letting more people through so there was stuff all piled up on top of me..and I reckon this is maybe when things went wrong for me....

I lost my journal...I've been writing in it since I left Dublin on the 22nd of May. I've been making notes, sticking in boarding cards along with other bits and bobs, and was really happy with how it was coming together. It was to be my souvenir of the trip...I've stopped being the hoarder I normally am and have been chucking out things that I would normally keep along the way in favour of having one thing to remind me of the adventure...and now it's gone :( I tried to call the airline and airport along with the hotel in Bali to make sure I didn't accidently leave it there, but no joy with a response from anyone.... The saving grace is I have this blog, and though not an complete reflection of what I've written in the journal it's enough to spark my memories of what I did where and when. So all's not lost :)

The first stop for our first free day in Darwin was to drop my camera into a repair shop to see if it can be fixed up. The lady bumped me up the queue to get it tested overnight and I called back the next morning to check what the damage was. We went wandering around to see what there was to do in Darwin and I was surprised at how small the central area actually is. We didn't do any organised tour of the place, instead choosing to see what we could on foot – the heat was tough so we didn't go too far because of that and from being so tired from lack of sleep the night before. We checked out a camera shop to see what kind of prices and models they had on offer in case I needed a new one, and to replace Mel's one that had been stolen by some thieving gypsy in Bali. I didn't get too into looking as I was holding out hope that they'd have mine fixed by morning.

We could have cooked at the hostel but were too tired and lazy so instead went to Cafe Uno beside the hostel (Youth Shack). I had the tastiest pizza of the trip to date and Una had the most amazing gnocchi ever! It worked out pretty pricey but we're worth it ;)

The next morning I crawled out of bed to find out that the LCD on my camera is shot. Not really a surprise since there was no picture visible in shoot or review mode. Unfortunately, they couldn't repair it for me there and then - it would take up to two weeks which was useless to me since we were leaving the next morning. So again, off I went to the camera shop to see what kind of deal I could get on a new one. I struggled for hours trying to decide what to do...see everything other than the screen was functioning normally on my IXUS. The problem was that in order to change the shoot mode, turn the flash on or off or review the pictures to make sure I got what I wanted in focus I needed the screen to work. If I didn't get a new camera I was effectively going to be shooting blind ala 35mm camera, and I didn't know if I'd be happy to do this for the remainder of the trip. In the end I consulted my concience back at home to see if I would be splashing too much cash by buying something new or if I should stick with the retro 80's camera I now had. My concience replied to say to buy a camera..so off I went and got a Canon PowerShot D10...waterproof, dustproof, shockproof....NICE!

I went back to the Wharf to try out the wave pool that they have set up to allow people to swim in a simulated sea environment because it's too dangerous to use the beaches around the area. Saltwater crocodiles and Box Jellyfish are plentiful there so it's unsafe to swim. They also have a saltwater beach that they monitor for jellyfish all the time so it's a safe swimming area if the wave pool doesn't float your boat.

Later in the evening I headed to the Deckchair Cinema to see what it was all about. The movie they were showing was called 'Young At Heart' and it didn't tickle my fancy all that much so after soaking up the atmosphere for a few minutes I headed back to the hostel to get ready for our departure to Kakadu the next morning.

All in all Darwin was a nice intro to Australia, but the road ahead is what holds my attention. I didn't see the whole place, so maybe a few more days if I make it back to Oz will be in order :)