Darwin and the Stuart Highway

The nice thing about staying in isolated places in Australia, is that you are never alone, even if there is no other person around you. You share the toilets and the showers with light green frogs (not poisonous), and on the way there you try not to step on toads that are spread on the grass. While eating dinner a strange noise usually comes from the refrigerator, those are the geckos. And we can write a book about the different sounds that woke us up at 5am every morning. The bird variety is truly amazing. There is the Laser bird, the Reverse driving bird, the disappointed bird, the bird from the video games from the 80's, and many many others. Too bad it was too early for us to think to record all those fabulous sounds.
We got to Darwin after dark while it was drizzling. We found a 4 bed dorm room for the three of us in a backpackers hostel. It was nice to have a room with beds and air-conditioner after spending so many nights sweating in tents. While drinking the after dinner tea a guy we didn't know invited himself to join us, which was fine by us. He claimed that he was from Africa, Ethiopia, to be more accurate, which was a little strange, since we haven't met any Africans in Australia so far. After 5 minutes, after he found out our origin, we discovered that on his long (very long) journey from Africa to Australia, he stopped for few (about 15) years in Israel. The talk became much more fluent in Hebrew. He spent the last couple of years in Australia, he's even an Australian citizen now. He works as a security guard in one of the detention centers in Darwin, and apparently makes good money out of it. It seemed that he was very keen to tell someone his story, so he talked and talked, and we were a good audience, and listened and listened. The parts regarding his work were interesting for us, not often you get a view from inside on the Ausi immigration policy, but at the end we were pretty exhausted. Sometimes people are so anxious to tell their own story that they forget to ask your name first....
On the following morning we went exploring Darwin. Someone told us about Darwin: "You either love it or you hate it". I guess we belong to the first group. But it wasn't instant. We wondered around the town center, window shopping, visited a Chinese temple, saw few 1st and 2nd World war memorials (Darwin was bombed by the Japanese in WWII) and got close to the sea. Darwin is surrounded by the ocean from 3 different directions, however, if you want to dip in the fresh ocean in the middle of a hot day, you can't, mostly because of the crocodiles. The only other option is to visit the public pool which is located close to the ocean. They even have artificial waves every half an hour.

After visiting the pool we visited the Northern Territory High Court which has a huge Aboriginal mosaic on its flour. That's considered to be very interesting from some reason. Outside the court, next to the local government building, there was a small demonstration of Aboriginal families who wanted to raise the awareness to the Aboriginal youth problems and the very high suicide rates.
On our way to our hostel we had to arrange a sign for Shira's (Lilya's friend) birthday. We designed a sign on Aviv's computer and then tried to find a place that will print it for us. It was more complicated than you can imagine, but at the end we made it. The plan was to pass through Larrimah on the way south and ask the nice wallaby that tasted Lilya's trousers (see Outback post) to take a picture with the sign.
Later we visited the local museum. Even though it was quite small it was very fascinating with lots of Natural history displays. Unfortunately, we came too late and spent there less than an hour.
After being deported from the museum we headed to the local market that was held two times a week. Next to the market there was a huge parking space that reminded us the parking next to Ganey HaTa'arucha in Tel Aviv. In the market there were lots of different stands. Some sold crafts, and the other sold food. We wanted to explore the place before deciding what food we were interested in. One of the places that caught our eye was named "The Roadkill Cafe" and their motto was "We kill it, we grill it". They served all types of grilled meat including kangaroos, wallabies, crocks and you name it.
While we were making our mind, a huge cloud approached and we already knew what that meant. Oren immediately ran towards the beach and started to photograph the dramatic scenery. Half a minute before the wall of tropical rain reached the market we were sitting in our car, enjoying the sight of a wet running crowd. Since we were already experienced with tropical rain we knew that it won't last for long, so we waited patiently in the car. Meanwhile, we answered an interesting questionnaire by Aviv (you can find it in his blog). When the rain was over we returned to the market ready to taste some skippies (kangaroos and wallabies) but to our great disappointment the stand was already closed. Most of the visitors of the market were probably less experienced with tropical rain, so they fled and the dealers started to fold their goods. We did get to buy other tasty things for the last minute prices.

At night we wanted to explore the city's night life. That is, to have a beer in a local pub. The main street is full with places to have a beer in. After Oren was not allowed into an Irish pub, since he was wearing working shoes (his hiking shoes), we went to another place and had few beers and a nice conversation. During the week together with Aviv we found lots of common interests, and really enjoyed each others company.
In the next morning we left Darwin and started our journey south. We stopped for a rest in thermal springs near Mataranka. It is a bit strange to swim in thermal pools when the temperature outside is 35 degrees, but those were the mildest water we've ever been in. It wasn't too cool and it wasn't too warm. Oren spent the whole time photographing the bats that were flying around because huge sprinklers disturbed their afternoon nap.
Afterwords, we stopped in Larrimah, in order to photograph the wallaby with the sign for Shira's birthday. But the wallaby must have taken a day off, so he wasn't there. Luckily, there were 3 small emus that were more than happy to help.

We spent the night in an empty caravan park in a tiny town called Elliott. When we say empty, we mean empty from people. There were two crazy dogs that wouldn't leave us alone and about a dozen of peacocks. In the morning we woke up from the dogs that were jumping on the sides of our tent, and the peacocks wouldn't let us eat our pancakes quietly.

Later that day we visited the Devil's Marbles, which are round red rocks that no one knows how exactly were they formed. The skies were very blue that day, which made very classical photos. After spending few hours wandering among the strange rocks we said goodbye to Aviv, who wanted to go to Western Australia, and continued our journey south.

Tip 1: The museum in Darwin is worth visiting. Allow at least few hours.
Tip 2: On Thursdays and Saturdays (not sure about the days) there is a very colorful market in Darwin.
Tip 3: It is well worth spending an hour or so on the way in Devil's Marbles.
Tip 4: The hot pools in Mataranka are free and very fun.