We're off ....... or are we? There is some debate between us to whether our journey has actually started, as we're still in Australia and it doesn't feel like the start of a 18 month trip, so we'll let you decide if this is the first travel entry of our blog or whether it is just a precurser. Anyway here goes.....
We've been in Darwin for a couple of days and the weather has been less than spectacular. We knew that we were coming in the 'wet' season but we didn't realise that we'd have to circle Darwin for 30 mins waiting for the wind to die down and then another hour on the tarmac because the ground staff were too scared to operate the 'airdeck' until the threat of lightning strikes had passed. I'm sure we'll have plenty of delays to report along the way, so we'll leave this one at that and label it 'minor', it's not like we're pushed for time!
The weather has held out on occassion for us to see some of Darwin's attractions, the number one attraction being......... feeding fish!
What seemed like the entire travelling population of Darwin turned up for a one hour window to each feed the fish two half slices of bread, with the guide feeding meat to the carnivores and whoa betide you if you threw one of your crumbs into her section of water. Ok, so i'll admit it was more interesting than it sounds, fish have been coming to 'Aquascene' to be hand fed over the past 50 years and watching fish fight over whole bread rolls and flipping each other out of the water to get at them was entertaining.
Darwin is small compared to other cities in Australia but has a bohemian, relaxed atmosphere and would be a great base to explore the NT, but with only 2 days we'll have to save those trips for another time.
The second highlight of Darwin was coming 3rd in a local pub quiz and winning a prize, although we won't mention that there were only 6 teams taking part!
Anyway, just a short one to get us going, next stop Bali, Indonesia.
Ryan & Jo
