No real plans today as I checked out at 10:00 and my bus to the airport isn’t until 23:40. I realised I’d lost my cap (it was a freebie) so decided to head into town and get a replacement. On the way, I stopped off at another hostel and sat on the pavement outside. Leeching someone else’s wireless is so satisfying! That’s where I’ll be uploading this post from.

I found a cap shop and bought one of their cheapest ones for $3, as well as a sew-on patch for my rucksack, two postcards and the first souvenir t-shirt of my entire trip. I also found a bookshop, but managed to stop myself going in.

The plan for the aftenoon was to go to the museum with Jeanine and Jason, but we all split up in the town centre and I never found them again. I need to locate Jeanine at some point as my bags are stored in her room!

Well, I’ll sign off from Darwin for now and hopefully will have time to post from Sydney tomorrow, before making my way over to Christchurch. Right now, I’m off for a drink. Just water, I’m parched!

Also: update to the Accommodation Page.

Also: photos of Bukit Timah national park added to Fotopic.

 One annoying side-effect of getting back to the hostel at 2:30am was the fact that I wasn’t going to get much sleep. I had to be ready to get on a bus at 7am that morning for the trip I’d booked. Jeanine (apologies for spelling), a German girl in our group from the night before and also in my dorm, was going on the same tour but had elected to leave the pub an hour before the rest of us. Smart thinking.

We were both exhausted when we were picked up by our guide, who apparently used to work at the hostel the last time Jeanine stayed here, so they got on like a house on fire. After a quick stopoff to pay off the balance of the tour and to collect the entire group, we drove out to the Park.

It’s only an hour or so outside of Darwin to the park outskirts and it’s a fair size once you’re inside. We stopped once for drinks/loos and the next place we pulled over was the Jumping Croc tour. Here, we got to handle a swamp python called Medusa. Lovely thing and she really took a shine to me. Every time they handed her on to someone else, she started working her way back over to me! Must be my deoderant.

The croc trip lasted maybe 45 minutes. With us all packed onto a fairly small boat, we rumbled up and down the river waiting for crocs to spot us. When they got near the boat, one of the staff dangled some meat on a stick over the water, dipping it in occasionally to create vibrations. The crocs would then swim underneat then launch themselves upwards – often their entire body bar tail – out of the water in a bid to get the meaty snacks.

 This actually wears the croc out, and the amount of food it gets as a “reward” once it’s done this just about makes up for the energy it expends. It’s also something they do naturally – crocs will “leap” out of the water to catch birds and animals on low overhanging tree branches. For this reason, the rules clearly state that all limbs should be kept within the boat otherwise they would be labelled “lunch”.

After the trip on the river, we got back into out bus/tank/thing and drove deeper into the park. Next stop was an area with many termite mounds. There are three distinct types – two build by termites which eat plant material and one by termites that eat wood – the ones you don’t want next to your house!

The first mound we saw was roughly 6m tall, which means there is also about 2.5m of mound below ground. At a rough guess, this makes it almost 100 years old, which means that the original queen must have produced a queen egg, allowing her to be replaced. Queens have a lifespan of around 50 years and when they die – unless they “replace” themselves, the mound decays as there is no way of producing more workers, soldiers, etc once they themselves die. The mound itself is very tough despite being made of nothing but dirt, dead vegetation and termite saliva. The wrinkles in its structure are designed to regulate the air temperature. Regardless of what time of day it is, the interior of the mound is always the same termperature and of the same humidity. As an estimation of scale, were humans to build something similar, it would cover a base area of 8 city blocks, reach a height of 3km, and all the workers would be blind and following instructions that one person keeps in their head.

 The second termite mound was much smaller and attached to the base of a tree. These were the wood-eating termites, and their job is to either detroy your home or make didgeridoos. This native Australian instrument isn’t carved by man, but eaten out by insects – or at least it is if you want a genuine one. The trick is to find a tree with an attached family of termites. Bang the trunk with a rock and see if you can hear termited and eaten wood crumling and falling down inside. If you can, you chop the tree down and you have a long piece of wood with a hollow interior – this interior will remain untouched by tools of any kind. Only the exterior is carved, polished and painted.

As an aside, the word “didgeridoo” was coined by a German who heard them in the distance when he visited Australia – it’s onomatopaeic, describing the sound it makes. The instrument itself has over 100 names, depending on which Aboriginal nation you’re visiting at the time. Each have their own language and therefore their own word.

Termites of type three build what are known as “magnetic” mounds. Again, these are not wood-eaters, instead munching on other vegetation and soil. Their mounds are much smaller than the first ones, but still stand maybe 1m to 1.5m tall. Rather than being rounded, they’re shaped like a “blade” which always points magnetic north/south. It’s unnerving to look at a field containing maybe 100 of these, all pointing the same way. In experiments, the top half of one of these structures has been chainsawed off and replaced pointing east/west. The termites destroy the “wrong” part, and rebuild it pointing north/south.

 Termite mounds, as I said, are extremely durable. During WWII, they were gathered, crushed, mixed with water to make a paste and laid down for use a runways. When they dried, they made an extremely durable surface, several examples of which still exist in the area today despite having hundreds of aeroplanes taxi up and down them.

Enough of insects, and we jumped (well, oozed – it was very hot) back into the tank to go to our first swim of the day. The park has many waterfalls and pools with very clear water. This first one was spectacular with two waterfalls and a lovely deep pool to play in. It can also be home to freshwater crocs… These are not dangerous unless threatened, so they are left alone in the area if found. It’s the saltwater ones you have to be scared of! So, technically – or at least potentially – I have been swimming with crocodiles. Possibly.

Lunch was served after the swim and then we moved on to two more waterfalls for more splashy fun.

The day ended at around 7pm when we were dropped off at the hostel in time to freshen up before going out for our free dinner – as part of the package, they pay for the Vic’s dinner. OK, it’s only a dollar but it means that aside from ice lollies, I didn’t pay for food all day.

We came back soon after dinner – being tired was the main factor – and I sat up till after midnight talking to a Danish girl who had arrived that morning and who was trying to stay up late to beat jetlag. 

 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. 

The budget terminal at Changi Airport was a pleasant surprise with a free laptop connection and fast internet available. The connection was good enough that I managed to Skype home and talk to my mum for the first time in… erm… ages.

After converting all my remaining US and Singapore dollars to Aussie ones, I had just enough left (with a small donation from the girl beside me) for an orange juice and a Toblerone on the plane. Whoop. Sleep was hard coming as it always is on a flight, at least for me, and I probably managed a total of 45 minutes’ sleep during the journey.

We got to Darwin slightly late, but no big deal. It was a pleasant 20-ish degrees and 3am. After filling in the immigration cards – that were more bothered about nuts, wood and bananas then they were about Semtex or Kalashnikovs – we queued up for passport control.

Guess who forgot that everyone entering Oz, apart from residents, needs a visa. Whoops.

Fortunately, the airline got the blame as they shouldn’t have let me on the flight in the first place. The immigration chap asked me how I got on the plane. “Well”, I told him, “I kind of just… walked on. Like you do.”

It seems my passport hadn’t been checked and I wasn’t on the flight register or anything. So Tiger Airways are in for a hefty fine. Myself? Visa sorted at no cost. Cool. And it’s multi-entry, lasts for a year and allows me to stay for up to 3 months per visit.

After all that, I needed some munchies, so after working through the rest of the immigration procedure (two lovly dogs sniffing the luggage before it was x-rayed for rogue rambutans and Al-Quaeda pumpkins) I wandered to a vending machine.

Drink. Hmm. Orange juice looks nice. Insert money, press E…7… and watch machine go ape. Arms goes up, conveyor belt moves, arm goes down, belt moves. Up, down, shake it all around. At one point, the drink I’d ordered even moved slightly. Then my money was refunded in small change. You wonder why these machines always have “exact change only” on them? It’s because when they refund you, they don’t give you your actual money back. They chuck out the same amount in really small bitty change, just to be annoying.

OK, give up on a drink. Crisps. Salt and vinegar! B… 3… insert money. Oh. The coins just stuck in the slot and didn’t go down. I managed to hook out a 20c piece, but had to leave the rest in there. Grr.

I finally found a machine that did want to part with its contents after wandering to the other end of the terminal, by which time the shuttle bus was ready to leave.

20 minutes or so later, I was dropped off at the Gecko Lodge. Typically hostelly, just with a small pool at the front and a lounge area open to the elements at the front. Oh, and a locked gate with a combination to which I hadn’t been given the code.

Luckily, another guy on the bus was stopping here and he’d been given the keycode. I wandered in, dropped my stuff and went for a walk as he crashed out in his room. A quick wander back the way the bus had come in located a 24-hour foodery. Chips, sausage and a pint of full cream milk. Oh yes! Real milk after all these weeks!

I walked as far as the nearby bay just as the sky changed from black to dark blue. The number of people out jogging at 5am was surprising.

Back at the hostel, I got in no problem as I’d made a note of the keycode. A young couple were sat on one of the couches having arrived from Bali in the early hours. Like myself, they hadn’t been given the keycode but were in luck as someone else was arriving back at the hostel just as they got there.

So, I’m now sat here with no internet. It’s 7:08am (having discovered that the time difference between here and Singapore is an hour and a half) and I’m struggling to feel tired enough to nod off. This is going to be an interesting, and possibly expensive, couple of days. The trips around here are very pricey compared to Asia!