After a hop skip and a jump (about 2 hours) we had arrived in Darwin, Australia. We were really thrilled to be on Aussie soil, and excited for the adventures that we would have in the land of “everything deadly and dangerous”. As our plane landed at about 3am, we spent the entire morning in the airport sleeping on the floor! We were exhausted from our time in Indonesia, and were not ready to brave Darwin in the wee hours of the morning.
By 10 a.m, we had gotten some shut eye, eaten breakfast, and realized that we were no longer in Indonesia. We quickly figured out that out money would not take us nearly as far as it did in the previous destinations (our breakfast alone was more than $15 per person!). We braved our way out of the airport, catching a taxi with some other travellers. Our eyes almost popped out of our heads as we watched the meter on the taxi go up, and up… and up. Gone were the days of bartering for everything we needed, including cab-fares.
Ten minutes and $50 later, we arrived in the heart of Darwin. And we weren’t all that impressed. Other than the lagoon at the Northern edge of town, it looked so… normal.
And it was hot, very very hot. Jono and Tim took the lead, and set out to find a hostel for us to stay in for a few nights, so that we could get our time in Oz planned out. They came back about an hour later, and rather disheartened. They could not find anything in our price range! We ended up shelling out $30 a person (thats $120 all together!) for four bunks in a dorm, shared with six other people! There were a few redeeming qualities though. First off, there was a pool, which came in quite handy, especially in the afternoon when the heat was almost unbearable (and it was still winter then!). Secondly, the hostel provided free breakfast, so we were able to eat as much as we possibly could. Thirdly, we found out from some other travellers about a pub called “The Vic House”, that gave a way free dinner coupons every night.
So, every night that we spent in Darwin, we went to the Vic house for a decent FREE dinner, and even free drinks (if you were lucky enough). We also ended up meeting some really fun Irish guys (Gili & Simon), who kept us in stitches the entire time that we were in Darwin.
We didn’t do much while we were there, other than plot how to get outta town. Going swimming at the beach was off-limits due to salties (salt water crocodiles). We were looking at every possible way to escape, including buying someone’s old, beat up car and driving it out of town. We were spared the hassle though, as we were offered the chance to relocate a camper-van from Darwin to Brisbane, which just happened to be our final destination in Australia. We were given  ten days to get there, and were up for the challenge. Imagine our surprise the next morning when we were about to head out, and Jono and Aimee pulled up to our hostel in a beautiful big, Mercedes Benz camper-van. We had really lucked out, as it came fully equipped with a gas-range, bedding and linen, a bathroom, shower and even a flatscreen TV and DVD player. We hopped in right away, and left Darwin behind in the dust!