First Day in Darwin

Today was our last day in Broome. We got up, packed, ate, and had checked out by 9:30am. This means we were out of our room and just locked away our luggage in a storage closet. We then went to the shops in Chinatown (the poor side of town in Broome). We were able to get a few souvenirs given the few stores that were open on Easter Sunday. After shopping we came back to the hostel and swam in the pool one last time. It was a high of 35 C again today (about 100 F). Everyone that we talked to this morning informed us that Darwin was going to be hotter and more humid than Broome. So needless to say we were dreading going to Darwin. We walked our butts to the airport at noon. We did this in our wet bathing suits as a preventative measure from over heating. We arrived at the airport and couldn't find a bathroom to change into normal clothes. So We covered up a little so we could check in, and hopefully get to bathrooms on the other side. The lady told us that we had to be properly dressed in order to get checked in (which was weird because everywhere else in Broome is all about the extreme end of casual). So we had to put our clothes on top of our wet bathing suits. We checked in, went through security and then immediately went to the bathrooms and changed. It was too late. We looked like we had wet our pants.

Boarded the plane, flew to Kunanarra for a quick lay-over (10 mintues) and then continued on to Darwin. Kunanarra looked to be about the size of Fowler. We were very surprised that it even had an airport. Yes that picture is o the entire airport. This was the gate that we sat at. It is all open to the outside. We boarded again, this time for Darwin.

We arrived in Darwin to a 2 1/2 hour time change and 29 C temperature (80's F). We were incredibly excited that it was no nearly as hot no humid. We are currently in a hostel called Chillis Backpackers. It is downtown Darwin! We are across the street from Baskin Robins, right beside the grocery store, and 1 block from the beach!

We were able to walk around and orient ourselves a little bit. We discovered a ramp escalator in the grocery store! So I decided to surf it.

We are waking up at 5:30am (3:00am Perth time) in order to go on a 2 day tour where we will camp out in the outback! I'm excited, Matt...not so much. So we will not get to post tomorrow night.

We did snap a few pictures of our much improved room. We get a bed, air conditioner, mini fridge, sink, and lockers.

Here is the dining area at the hostel. As you can see it is very open to the outside.

Here is the kitchen at the hostel. Matt is in the background using the microwave for our dinner.

It is a normal thing to see water heaters on the roofs of buildings here in AU. The wierd thing is, they don't use electricity, just solar heat. So, the heater is actually a tank; the water flows through the solar panel and is heated and stored in the tank. Greg told us that the energy commision of AU was now working on funding installation of electric heaters becasue the current ones are really quite worthless at night! The new electric panels would credit your electric bill becasue you are now using less grid power overall. It's moving to be more like what we have in the states!

We went to the grocery store to buy some food and bought a candy bar called a Wispagold. It is a textured milk chocolate bar with caramel in the middle. It was really good. Matt and I also bought a $4 chocolate bunny and ate it too.

HAPPY EASTER!!!!! I hope it is a good one!!!!