Darwin

Darwin was the embarkation site for the Mercy and the end of my amazing Navy journey. Thirty five days seemed to have flown by and at other times seemed like they would never end. Such is life – we should never hurry through today as this may leave us wishing for yesterday back. Live life to the fullest every day.

Australia is great and once again I am a fan of the country more than the busy the city. Darwin has a great marketplace that local vendors and artisans set up every Thursday and Sunday evenings down by Mindil Beach. Anything you could think of is sold there. I love to shop and browse items like this so it was a shoppers paradise for me. The best part of the evening was eating dinner on the beach and watching the amazing sunset. Nearby an aboriginal man was singing a haunting song which totally fit the beach scene filled with people from all over the world altogether watching the red ball of sun set into the ocean.

Five of us rented a car and decided to visit the National Park -Lichfield Park. I drove for my first time on the left hand side of the road. It took a lot of energy to drive as you have to think hard about where you are turning and where the other cars were. I think driving is kind of of a no thought process and I really had to pay attention so I did not drift onto the right hand side of the road or turn into oncoming traffic.  I did get to drive 130 KM – it sounds fast, but in reality I had no idea how fast I was going. The most frustrating park was the blinker was on the right hand side of the steering wheel so each time when I went to put on my blinker I switched on the windshield wipers instead.

Funny story:  As I was driving through a small town of Batchlor I was stopped by a policeman who was doing random road checks for people who were drinking under the influence. He pulled me over and asked me when the last time I had any alcohol to drink. I told him never and asked him if he had ever heard of Mormons. He said yes and was astounded that I had never even tasted alcohol. What a blessing to be able to say this. Then I got to do a first – I took a breathalizer test. He asked me to blow in this tube like I was blowing up a balloon. I did so quite forcefully and he laughed and told me to blow again, but a little slower as I had about blown the straw thing off. Yes of course I passed my breathalizer test and hopefully left a lasting impression of Mormons on this policeman.

Lichfield Park was very surprising. It is a National Park for Australia and I was expecting some sort of rainforest jungle, but Darwin is really like a desert. I reminded me a lot of Utah. The forest consisted of sparse trees and dry grasses and interspersed among the trees were hundreds of termite mounds about 6 feet tall – which were rounded and bumpy. They looked like huge stalagmites to me. It was crazy to see these. In the park were wonderful waterfalls and by the water the landscape drastically changed to lush green in was uncanny the difference that water made. We were able to swim in the waterfalls and the water was pretty clear and cold. We went on an amazing hike under a green canopy of trees all occupied by thousands of giant bats. This was a little freaky to me, luckily it was during the day when they were supposed to be sleeping. Every once in awhile one would stretch out his wings, but not one bat took to flight. That was fine with me. We ended the day at Berry Springs which were natural warm springs and a nice contrast to the cold water of Florence Falls. 

The springs consisted of a stream flowing down to a small waterfall and then 3 pool areas connected by narrow jungle like areas where the streams connected each pool. It was a beautiful paradise. We started in the lower pools and swam through up the stream to the large pool area. The swim up the stream was a little freaky as the vegetation was thick and reached down to the water. I was waiting for a crocodile to surface any moment.  Luckily this did not happen. I did get to see a whole field full of wallabies on the way to our car.  Very cute!