After snoozing on the sofa for about 45 minutes, reception opened and I booked in. Provided with a sheet, a key, the keycode (finally) and a bag of plates, I dumped all my stuff and headed for breakfast. Despite having eaten the sausage and chips earlier, I’m never one to pass up free food, so I tucked into the pancakes (smearing them with chocolate sauce) and had a cuppa.
I got talking to a few people who’ve been in Darwin for some time, and at midday decided to go for a walk. There’s a small beach nearby, so that was the direction I headed. The weather was very hot, but dry. Strangely this got to me more than the humid Asian head I’ve become accustomed to. The beach was a pleasant stroll, ending with some curious rocks with pools. My feet got a mud bath and I almost lost my sandals when I found some very boggy ground partway towards the distant sea (tide was out), but I washed them in one of the rock pools.
Overhead, a couple of birds circled. I found out later that they’re some type of Kite, a bird of prey. They’re quite common in this area.
On the way back I stopped off at the nearby bottle shop and bought myself one beer, a bottle of passion fruit flavour pop, a chocolate Paddle Pop (I ate a load of these in Bangkok) and my first bag of salt and vinegar crisps in a long time!
Back at the hostel I napped for a little over an hour before waking to get ready for dinner. A local pub/club – The Vic – provides meals for a whole dollar on production of a voucher provided by most local hostels and tour operators. They’ll also “upgrade” it to a full portion for $6. Mindful of the dinky servings at Nomads in Aukland, I made sure I had some cash on me and went out with four other hostel residents. I fully expected to return around 10pm (dinner’s served from 8 till 9), but someone mentioned there was a pub quiz.
Which we came second in. And won a $50 bar tab. I managed to gain us five points in one of the between-rounds games by licking a baby’s nappy clean. Panic not, it was smeared with peanut butter rather than genuine baby poo. I also thought tactically and pretty much just rubbed the nappy violently into my beard, hence cleaning the baby underwear faster than anyone else.
Frankly, however, we were robbed as we certainly had more correct answers than we were being awarded points for. Having said that, if we’d won another $50 I don’t think we’d have made it back to the hostel! As it was, several beers, a strawberry daquari slushie and a Jagerbomb was enough. 
