It's very early morning here in Darwin, the sun has just come up. Just me and the ducks at the moment.
The early mornings here are alive with the sounds of birdlife, and it’s a wonderful natural alarm clock to greet the day with. We're staying in a very leafy, very tropical caravan park we're there seems to be an over abundance of ducks, magpie geese and plovers. I forgot how much I love living outside. We have our caravan of course, but mostly we spend our home time sitting outside under an extended canvas annexe awning and its great being surrounded by and so open to nature.
We arrived in Darwin a week ago and are currently being drenched in buckets of humidity and an easy going laid back way of life. We're loving both. We've spent an amazing week catching up with one of my oldest friends Rob who is having a similar mid life crisis to me and has chucked it all in to travel around Australia. He scored a job working on the pearl boats off Western Australia and is flown there by sea plane from Darwin for each swing. It's a true "boys own" adventure and he's been entertaining us with the stories of his trip so far. He's sleeping in our annexe for the next few months when he isn't at sea. 20 years ago Rob and I worked together and we would spend our days discussing when we were going to chuck it all in and travel around Australia. Neither of us can believe we're actually doing it.
At every opportunity we have been heading down to Mindil Beach to watch the spectacular sunsets that Darwin has to offer. There is something about watching a massive burnt orange sun go down over the ocean, and seeing flocks of magpie geese fly in formation against a backdrop of a magical colour changing sky, that makes you think about your life, and we all usually sit there on the beach and stories easily abound.
Earlier in the week we went for a trip down the Adelaide River to see a spectacle known as "jumping crocs." The crocs jump out of the water as buffalo meat is dangled from a bamboo pole. This is not unnatural behaviour as crocs will lunge out of the water to attack anything they see as prey. I have never seen crocodiles so close up in the wild. They are truly majestic, endlessly fascinating and bloody scary.
After our week of lounging around playing tourist we thought it was time to go out and become gainfully employed. Neither of us has worked since February and Since we have decided to stay up here and experience “the wet” we figured it was about time we earn some money as beer funds are rapidly dwindling. I'm happy to do anything that doesn't involve working in an office, although I do draw the line at selling AMWAY. I have a job interview this morning at Bunnings. Yeee Ha! You never know folks I may end up making one of those ridiculous TV commercials. Jen saw an ad in the paper for staff wanted at a local croc farm (no experience required). Where else could you apply for a job like that... I love Darwin.
