We weren’t able to book a camper van before we arrived in Darwin and now we are discovering that the start of the dry season and the beginning of the peak season on 1st April means that campers are in short supply. As a result we aren’t able to get an off-road camper and have to settle for a bog standard van through Wicked. Wicked specialise in backpacker vans which are characterised by lairy graffiti-like paintwork and fatuous slogans emblazoned across the bodywork. But they are the cheapest and, after ringing round a few other hire companies, the only company that has a van available. Even then the earliest we can pick it up is Monday; so we will be staying in Darwin for at least a week. We’ve now decided to take the van right through to Perth and allowed ourselves until 30th May to do the trip. But first we will go east to Kakadu National Park as far as Jabiru and then doubling back to visit Litchfield National Park.
Darwin has a very compact central business district (as the Australians call the town centre) and is very quiet (only 110,000 population) and few cars it seems. It’s also very cosmopolitan and…. extremely hot! The bars stay open after 9.30pm (unlike in Tas!), in fact some were still open and had people in them when we arrived in the early hours of this morning! There is a lovely park on the Esplanade looking out over the sea and we have a stroll through them passing a couple of groups of Aborigines sitting around chatting.
The hostel prices have gone up today reflecting the start of the peak season by more than 50%! So we have moved into a cheaper room until Monday. Superficially this place is much like the hostels in China, but far more security conscious. The swipe card keys also operate the lifts and restrict guests movements to certain areas of the building to prevent men accessing the women-only floor. There isn’t a common room as such but there is outside terrace bar with two pools and spa. The communal kitchen is a far-cry from those on the caravan parks in New Zealand and Tas, which by and large are clean and tidy; here the sinks are full of dirty pans and crockery left from the night before. Is it something to do with the backpacker profile perhaps????! The strangest aspect of the kitchen is that all the hob rings are permanently making the kitchen unbearably hot. Why??