Take-Aways

My gateway to Australia is Darwin. A timezone away from Bali and an obnoxious airport search later, I roll into town at 3 am. It’s dead quiet and I seem to be staying in the back of a parking lot. Next day, I realise that I am in the heart of Darwin at the beginning of the “Wet”. First things first, Australians have a funny habit of shortening everything. “The Wet” is the wet season, a crocodile is a “croc” and a barbeque is a “barbie” . Then there is the new words, “tucker” is dinner and “grog” is alcohol. A whole new language to grasp if I want to mingle with the natives. There is a lot I understand about Australia and Australians by being here. It’s a harsh land with extreme conditions and a very unique fauna and flora. And its HUGE! The people that come out of here are a pure product of their environment. Australians are expansive, friendly, noisy, larger than life. They seem fearless and foolhardy and know how to take it easy. It is so vast, so vast a place that if you don’t make all the noise you can you would disappear. And when you are likely to be eaten by crocodiles and bitten by poisonous snakes and spiders at every turn you too would be friendly as hell with every living soul. In Darwin especially there is a crocodile obsession. They regularly make the front page and where in other places you might see signs that warn you to beware of gales or falling rocks, all around Darwin you are asked to beware of crocodiles. They are everywhere and they are fierce as the Jumping Crocodile Cruise I took very amply demonstrated. They are prehistoric monsters that come at you by stealth and turn you into history. In a part of the world that looks like a dessert and is an arid and semi-arid region it is amazing to see what wealth of life there is. Lizards of the likes and size I have never imagined in my life. Some look like little tanks i.e. the “thorny devil” a creature straight out of Mad Max, some have a frilly neck worthy of a Henry the VIII portrait, others all silver and long like a naked iguana. Flies that are just as in your face as the people are only more literally and a million times more unpleasantly. They go straight for the moist bits – eyes, lips and nose – and do not move unless you actually shove them off with your fingers. . Fruit bats the size of hams. Dingos that are feral dogs, wild horses and camels – yes you heard me, camels – brought in a long time ago by Afghan traders. Insects and snakes, birds of every shape, colour and size. Even the pigeons are different, crowned and wilder looking. And then there is the kangaroo. What a gorgeous animal! Graceful, fast, quiet and intelligent looking. It is everywhere and yet so easy to miss as it has perfected the art of camouflage. Just outside of Darwin in Kakadu park you can enjoy the impressive outback nature to the full. I went there for 2 days and one more into Litchfield park. The parks offer fantastic treks, natural pools the size of lakes, waterfalls, and of course loads of sacred rocks and caves painted with Aborigine art. Knowledge handed down from generation to generation about what is edible and not, what is sacred, how the world began and how to live in it with honour. Sadly, the only Aborigines I saw where drunk and begging on the streets of Darwin. A culture shock as great as any in the history of mankind with the habitual pattern of the local and preceding population bearing the brunt of it. No different to the impact of the whites in North and South America. What has shocked me most is how incredibly recent the clash was in Australia, after all, the 20th century is not that far back. It is in Kakadu park that I first came across another marvellous Australian invention (other than the Barbie), the swag! It is like a cross between a tent and a sleeping bag that you sneak into and settle for the night, a pocket over the sleeping bag, nothing as pansy as a tent for the Australians. They sleep in the open air, not counting sheep, but stars. And so did we in our little group of hardy tourists, trying not to think of the scorpion and the spiders we had spotted on the red earth earlier. And so, we settled in our swags, in a circle, with our feet towards the centre and the dying fire we cooked dinner on. A night out in the Australian Outback. You guessed it! I love it here!