7th – 11th November 

At The Top End

A short 4 hour flight took me to the capital of Northern Territory, Darwin. I knew Australia was going to be a completely new change of pace and I was really happy to start off in an area that still felt veeeeeery different to the UK. It was very hot & humid in Darwin and I’d been warned of this several times, luckily SE Asia had prepped me, I was very used to sweating 😂.

The first couple of days were about catching up and finding my bearings. The flight from Singapore departed at 11.30pm and landed into Darwin at 5am, but was only 4 hours long. Due to the time difference this left me with very little sleep and I was exhausted! So I checked into the YHA and had a nap. Followed by a food shop and a hunt for a SIM card deal. All the admin! I was very much prepared for the difference in expense between SE Asia & Australia, but at least the hostels have kitchens to cook your own meals, which helped a lot. (Of course it was way cheaper to eat out than cook in SE Asia so I’d been spoilt!). I was actually a little nervous arriving in a new country, as have been most times on this trip. I’d almost got used to Asian customs and had made friends I kept meeting again and again, there’s always a bit of fear in the unknown. I always tell myself ‘give it a few days, let yourself feel a bit blah and all will come good’ and so far it has! Great advice to myself there 😂

The 2 things I really wanted to fit in whilst I was in NT was the 2 big national parks not too far from Darwin (in Australian distances), Litchfield & Kakadu. I’d made arrangements for Litchfield, so stuck a note up on the notice board to see if anyone wanted to join me for Kakadu.

Social Fishing

I’d decided to join the evening fishing trip on the Thursday night, having always claimed fishing is boring this seems a bit of a random choice, however I figured it’s got to be sociable right? It was, and they brought free beers and cans of G&T, win win!! I met a mixture of people, from 2 Aussie nude models to a Londoner and a guy from Leeds!! Whoop whoop 🙌. I don’t think anyone had caught anything by the end of the session, but we’d made some friends, learned a little and watched a stunning sunset! (Which is also been pre warned about several times).

By day 2 I had already been roped into the Aussie drinking lifestyle (not that it took much persuasion), we went back to the hostel and had jugs of beer before hitting a pretty mediocre night club a few doors down. The models were really interesting, they seemed to have money to burn and one of them took us to the supermarket before we went to the club and we literally bought all the snacks we could find! Crisps, hummus, 3 toblerones, mince pies, crackers, Brie, biscuits….. it was an epic feast!

TIP: When you’re travelling, especially solo travelling, join in activities you would and wouldn’t usually do. This is a great way to meet people. Pretty obvious tip, but I’m going to mention it anyway.

NT epic storms!

I left the club around 1.30am, pretty late for me these days 👵🏼, and felt ok the next morning. I had a bit of a lie in, then made my way to the esplanade to use the fake wave pool & chill on a sun lounger(& nap). My napping was rudely awoken by huge crashes of thunder. At this time of year it’s storm season and most days around mid afternoon an epic storm would hit, this was no exception. Everyone was ushered out of the pool area. Me being me then attempted to get a cool video of the fork lightning and loud thunder, across a bridge and in an exposed area close to the sea…… bad move, suddenly torrential rain hit and the eye of the storm was practically above me. I had to run across the bridge and under cover outside a restaurant for safety, a couple sheltering in the same place said they were watching and said I made it just in the nick of time! The storm was incredible, if a little scary. The loudest thunder I’ve ever heard, crazy rain & wind and gigantic fork lightning – what a show!

I decided after a storm was the perfect time to go for a run, the weather had cooled down a tad, so I had a nice run across the waterfront, beautiful views and interesting reading the war statues. Darwin was bombed during the Second World War and had to be rebuilt. After I had dinner and whilst the guys were back on the beer, grandma here went for a brew & mince pie 😋. I did, however, manage to catch a couple of hours of a local folk festival one night! It was great!

True Aussie Experience at Litchfield

I’m very lucky to have such a network of people in Australia, after doing Asia completely solo it brought a nice change. My amazing mate Emily had previously lived in Australia for 2 years and hooked me up with a few of her friends. Emmi lives in Darwin now, we’d met once before in the UK and she very kindly offered to take me to Litchfield National Park with her, her boyfriend Nick & their friend Rachel. We had a blast! It still makes me chuckle at their bottle shops, Australia don’t sell alcohol in the supermarkets, they have separate shops cleverly named ‘bottle-o’ or something similar (Australians have been pretty simple with their naming systems, in fact Tom’s shown me a great sketch about this one from Australian comedian …..). Of course they have the drive through bottle shops, despite the fact drink driving is illegal. So this is what we hit on the way to Litchfield and the 3 passengers for straight on the beers on the way!

It was a stifling day, I was glad the main stops we were visiting were rivers and waterholes for swimming! We had an awesome day drinking, swimming, reading croc signs and trying to get through a 4WD diet track that had already flooded.

TIP: If you’re in Darwin definitely try and do Litchfield & Kakadu National Parks, they are so beautiful! Renting a car is the best way to go, but hostels and tour shops will offer tours, a little on the expensive side. If you drive yourself ALWAYS look out for the croc signs, especially in the wet season and if you don’t have a 4WD check where you can & can’t go.

We stopped at a pub in the middle of nowhere on the way back for food. Emmi and Nick offered me to stay with them – amazing kindness & hospitality! I had one more night booked in the hostel and Emmi picked me up the following morning. That day I’d been contacts by two people about the Kakadu trip 🙌 and agreed to meet Jennifer at the market the next morning.

Love a good market

Asia as I’ve talked about many times is famous for its street markets and this tradition has made its way across the water. There’s many markets in Australia, the markets in NT are dominated by Asian food and fruit juice stalls 😋. Weekends are the best time to catch the markets, so I went to 2 different ones with Emmi & Nick on Sunday morning and had some goodies. I also met up with Jennifer to have a chat about the Kakadu stuff and it sounded like it would work! I was so excited 😆. I messaged the other girl who got in touch right up until we left but she never responded, rude!

We then went back and I got settled into Emmi & Nick’s. As my last couple of days in Darwin were going to be filled with Kakadu, I really wanted to get to the free natural history museum. Emmi lent me her car to drive the 15 mins away and I caught the last hour, they also had an aboriginal art display, which was really interesting!

In the evening we had a lovely dinner with a couple of Emmi & Nick’s friends. We had really lush fish that Nick had caught with salad and wedges. The fish in Australia tastes amazing! Plus a couple of glasses of vino, of course. Yay good vino! It had been very much absent in Asia. Darwin is known for some of the best sunsets in the world, and with the big birds (can’t remember the name atm) on top of palm trees in its silhouette, this evening did not disappoint.