Work
I seriously loved my many and various jobs. I worked at Darwin Convention Centre, Darwin Cup Carnival, Darwin Sailing Club, and Ducks Nuts restauraunt. Between my jobs I was a bartender, waitress, and part of a "bump in" crew where I set up and teared down for various events. Somehow I was able to work between the jobs and have full weeks of work. I actually enjoyed the jobs...maybe it's because I only worked for 6 weeks. Ha isn't that amazing! I ultimately loved the jobs because I was able to make enough money to finally do our west coast trip!
Darwin Cup Carnival ...horse races!
Working at the Darwin Cup was my favorite job. It lasted from July 3 til August 2 with races every Saturday as well as certain races during the week. Every weekend I would go to the Darwin Turf Club and spend the day behind the Brinney bar in the Grand Stand. It was fun because the same people came to the races each week so I got to know many of the members who always made the days interesting. The members were fun but the best ones were the people I worked with. The staff was a mixture of full-time and casual workers (like me). We were all working on the same schedule, atleast during the weekends, so after work we would all get together which was always fun.
These get togethers bring me to another Darwin highlight...
Darwin Nightlife
More specifically...Deck Bar Happy Hour followed by Kitty O'Sheas Irish Pub and The Tap fishbowls.Every Friday and Sunday one of the many Darwin bars, Deck Bar, would hold a happy hour from 5-7 with 4$ pints. So on many Sunday nights would start at Deck Bar and then end up across the street at Kittys. Which usually had live music and was also where Condon worked! Score! Free drinks! Just kidding, she would never?Another great hang out was at the Tap Bar, which was home to fishbowls which came in many flavors and mixes. Every night there was something to do, so I was always kept entertained.
Mindle Beach Market
Darwin wasn't just about night life... Every Thursday and Sunday you could go to the Mindle Beach Market. The market had all types if food...Mexican, Thai, Chinese, "roadkill" where they had kangaroo, crocodile, and other Aussie cuisine, and a great selection of Seafood just to name a few choices. The market also had stands which sold clothes, jewelry, and other knick knacks. Finally there was musical entertainment, a didgeridoo player, who sounded like electonica type
ish music because their was a drummer with him. Really cool to listen to. I loved going to the market because after walking around, you could go to the beach and watch the sun go down. Darwin had the best sunsets!
Wicked Upgrade
No I'm not trying to sound like I'm from Boston and say wicked. The van company, Wicked, upgraded us from a three person van to a five person van. Which they should have! As you know we came to Darwin to pick up a van and travel but that plan crashed and burned. However
Wicked and our pathetic travel company booked us for an automatic van, to be picked up in August. Well August came and no one called us to tell us there was no such thing as a three person automatic van. Liars! But after some serious phone calls invloving lots of disappointment on our part, wicked upgraded us to accomodate our needs and keep our business. Good thinking Wicked!
Litchfield National Park
We picked up our van on Wednesday and that same day took a pre road trip to Litchfield National Park. It was about a 2 hour drive from Darwin. It was Jill, Sarah, myself and two boys Sarah worked with at Kittys. It was a cool park with lots of swimming holes and waterfalls. We spent two days seeing the sights and learning how to camp...haha we learned how to build a fire, set up our tent, and even got some cooking ideas. The two boys were very big woodsmen! It was a taste of what was to come when we would leave Darwin and travel down the west coast for 3 weeks.
Fishing trip
As a last hoorah in Darwin, right after Litchfield, I went on a spur of the moment fishing trip. I went with Lucy (who I worked with at the Turf Club), Lucy's friend Scott, the true fisherman and Jill.
We went about 2 hours away from Darwin and fished from 9am til 2 pm. We did not catch a single fish...Scott did actually catch one but threw it back. You are probably thinking what an awful trip...but you are wrong! All day long we saw crocodiles everywhere. Basking in the sun on the edge of the water, in the water next to our boat, in the marshes! Everywhere! It was so cool and also pretty scary at times! They are huge and look so lazy! However, at one point our boat beeped which caused the croc to come tearing into the water after us! They really do move quick. So no fish...but lots of crocs! It was an appropriate ending to Darwin, known for crocs. (see below, typical newspaper headline)
Western Australia here we come!
