Tuesday, June 12, 2007

Darwin-June 8th-Day we Arrived Journal Entry

We arrived in Darwin in the mid afternoon. One thing that I immediately noticed was all these clouds of white smoke we saw upon flying it. It looked fires everywhere! It was not until a lot later that I found out that this is normal for Darwin. Every year during dry season, they purposely light fires in the woods to keep the grass from growing too high and it also has been proven to attract fresh animals and vegetation to the area. This technique has been used by the Aboriginal culture for thousands of years, so they continue to do it. The other season is wet season here and it is constantly raining and most places in the outside city area are too wet to even drive on the dirt roads.

When we arrived in Darwin, we went to our hostel called Elkes Backpackers. This hostel was definitely not as nice as our Sydney hostel, both with hospitality and cleanliness but we survived! We went out to explore the city which we found to be beautiful. In the city, they have something called the Esplanade. This is just a park that lines the water where people can walk around, sit on benches, etc. There is much history here as well from during World War II, and many beautiful memorials surrounding it for this. The first thing we read and we were told about Darwin is Beware of the Crocs! Avoid all water! So, Pedro and I were very hesitant to go near any water areas because of this! It’s unfortunate that they have this beautiful water but they can’t swim in it.

In the evening we went out to Mitchell Street. This is the main street where all the action is happening. And, there were people everywhere! All the pubs and restaurants had their doors open for dinner and just hanging around. We grabbed some dinner at a place called “Duck Nuts”—yes, a weird name. Pedro got a new kinda white fish called Barramunde. It’s a very popular fish around here and it’s very delicious!

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