Darwin
 G'day. Well I've really done
it now! I've promised to write about Australia, so I suppose I better get it over
with!
(Just kidding - I hope it
will be a lot of fun.)
HERE WE GO...!
Australia has a comparative
area slightly smaller than the US as you can clearly see below:
The main areas of population are the major cities which are situated around the coast, and
these are mainly the capital cities of the various states. The capital cities are quite
large, all with populations over 1,000,000, except for Darwin which has less than 100,000.
More on that city later.
The continent is mainly arid to semi-arid, with tropical areas in the north, especially in
Queensland in the North-East, and temperate zones with fertile plains in the South-East
and South-Central.
We are subject to severe droughts and flooding in Australia - it is a harsh environment
for the most part, but there are some truly beautiful places too. Even the bush and
outback have an incredible beauty of their own which needs to be experienced to
appreciate.
Well so far you could have read all this from an atlas for
yourselves, so what can I add to make it a bit more interesting for you?
Here is my personal story....
Let me outta here!!
I flew to Darwin 15 years ago,
alighting from the plane to be met with a blast of incredibly hot air. I had fore-warned
my travelling companion that I was not very good at enduring humidity, but up until that
day I had never experienced anything like the humidity and heat of Darwin. As I dragged my
protesting body across the tarmac, I had my first inkling of why some people have been
known to 'go troppo' in this city, and literally go mad with the desire to get away from
the incessant heat and drenching humidity. Now I may seem to exaggerate here, and I am
sure other places on earth are worse, but to me it was akin to approaching the gateway to
hell!
I cannot endure humidity, and the thought of a 2 week holiday in
this place would have had me turning on my heel and re-entering the plane forthwith, but I
held onto the hope that we would find the humidity lessening as we moved inland, and such
was the case. The scorching heat was still breath-taking, but it was a dry heat as we
drove down the highway which runs through Alice Springs and eventually reaches Adelaide,
and I quickly acclimatised.
Australia experiences cyclones along the coast, and Darwin had a massive one back in 1974
- on Christmas Day. It devastated the city which was 90% destroyed, and 50 people lost
their lives. The city was quickly rebuilt and was completed in the late 70's. Darwin has
had a difficult history, as it was also bombed during WW2 by the Japanese. I can't give
you much of an account of the city from first-hand as I was in no condition to view the
sites. It was all I could do to buy some provisions to stock the campervan, and we
were on our way outta there!! We stayed overnight in a small settlement miles out of the
city, where it was still humid, but I could actually breathe there, so I survived!
So there you have a little bit of an idea of Darwin, the capital city of what is known as
the Northern Territory. It is not a fully fledged state like South Australia, Western
Australia, Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria and Tasmania, but it is still quite
separate. I have realised in writing this that I cannot remember my primary school Social
Studies lessons, so I must find out what it means to be a territory and not a state!
I did warn several of you that this would be an amateurish sort of writing effort, but I
understand you are generally starved of information about Australia so you just might get
something out of my bits and pieces. Next time I will let you know a bit more about
Adelaide, and South Australia where I live, but first we will continue down that 890 mile
highway, as far as Alice Springs, and take a quick trip out to Ayers Rock and the Olgas.
For a special treat we will spend the night at the Olgas (against the law,
"but it was unavoidable, officer!" ). We will get bogged in some bulldust, and
then do a quick (!!) climb up the Rock to see the spectacular view from the top!
Grant has just finished reading this final draft and has asked why I had to spend the
night at the Olgas - how did we get bogged... Aha, I said, you will have to read the next
instalment to find out, and so, my dear friends, will you!
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