Random Observations about Darwin thus far

1. There are Frangipani trees everywhere. I am a little scared that I will end up with frangipani stickers on my car by the end of the year
2.   Noone wears a bike helmet. I will have to investigate as to whether there is actually no law about bike helmets here or whether people are just super laid-back about their brains
3.  I live 3 minutes from an International airport. This still seems like a weird concept to me. I am also now closer to most places in South-East Asia than Sydney
4.  How can I avoid all cyclones in the next 12 months? Apparently the risk of cyclones is ‘very low’ for the next week. ‘Very low’ means 5%. 5% seems unacceptably high to me
5. There seems to be a large number of speed bumps on Darwin roads of variable sizes and shapes. Some are huge mothers and others are tiny and sit in the middle of the lane so if you time it right you can just drive straight over them.

6. There are also coconut palms everywhere. I wonder if my car insurance covers me for ‘coconut-related damage’. I also wonder how hard it would be to learn how to climb one. I have a heap across the road - perhaps I should start my Survivor training now 

View out my bedroom window. Coconuts galore!

7. Darwin has a wave pool. Mainly cos you cant go swimming in the ocean with all the crocs. Apparently the wave pool looks like this. 

When I drove past it looked more like a big lagoon. And there was only one old guy in there trying to swim laps. Apparently it does sometimes have waves so you can surf!! And there is a permanent life-guard – world’s most boring job. And although the water is free of crocs there is apparently no guarantee that there are no jellyfish.

Last weekend Mum and I went to visit the Jumping Cros of Adelaide River. 

The sight is about an hour out of town through some smaller suburbs and then a heap of nothing. Lucky I didn’t miss the turn-off and go to Alice Springs! We went to the Adelaide River Queen Cruises but there were a few different companies. You get out on the river for about an hour and look for salt-water crocodiles. Saltwater Crocodiles are the largest of all living reptiles and can reach up to 6m in length and about 1000kg in weight (Thanks Wikipedia). There about 250,000 living in the river system up here – hence the No swimming warnings that abound!

The crew from the boat feed the crocs steaks from the side of the boat so that you get a chance to seem them close up. It’s a pretty scary sight to have a massive crocodile head jumping up right next to you. It is the middle of the breeding season at the moment and there was quite a strong tide so we didn’t see too many crocs but it was still nice to be out on a boat on the river. The warnings to keep ALL parts of our bodies inside the perimeter of the boat did spoil the mood somewhat.