Day 23 - Hotter than it is Beautiful

Inner Pilot
Jan 1, 2011
4 min read

Updated: Dec 11, 2024

Park in Darwin

“It’s hotter than it is beautiful”, I exclaimed to an older couple strolling nearby in an otherwise empty Darwin park. I’m fairly certain they agreed. The temperatures here are similar to other areas of Australia, which make me tired. But here in Darwin there’s the added humidity, and this makes me feel faint as well. You need to drink more because you sweat more (your sweat has less of a cooling effect, thus you sweat more - it's ironic).

My Aboriginal Acquaintance Andrew

On the plane from Perth, I had the pleasure of sitting next to an Aboriginal gentleman named Andrew, who works for the Aboriginal health clinic system. He was just heading back into a bush community NE of Alice Springs for a month and was enjoying his last beer until the next time he’d be back to the city. We talked about a number of things (I was happy to have the opportunity to speak with an Aborigine). Andrew is from Kalgoorlie (e.g. see Day 16). He pointed to things out the window as we flew. He said nurses from America and New Zealand have come to the bush to help the Aborigines, and after a couple of years they will be crying for the people.

Uluru

I got a nice photo of Uluru (one of the largest monoliths in the world) from 33,000 feet. Note that 90% of this rock is underground.

Corrine

A very energetic and positive woman named Corrine (who was my rental car agent at the Darwin Airport) gave me lots of pointers about where to go and shared some of her story. She repeatedly used my first name and touched me with her hand as we talked (very personable). She’s from Brisie (a demonstrative for the city of Brisbane) and is living here in a caravan (camper van), saving money for a couple years when she’ll tour around Australia. She said she never thought she could live like that, coming from a 5 bedroom house and all. But she said she’s never been happier. I told her I could relate.

I hate arriving in a new town at night (it's disorienting), but that was the case. A fresh thunderstorm was just rolling in also (apparently this is the lightning capital of the world and storms come in daily here this time of year). They have a wet season and a dry season – always a hot season.

I drove straight downtown and found people were still celebrating New Years. I immediately heard something strange – it was an aborigine singing or chanting in his native tongue. I went right to the area, which was on a busy street outside a movie theater. He was drunk and with a not-so-vocal companion. He held his hand out (like “high-five”) to everyone who went past and shouted “Happy New Year”. About half who passed by either paid him no attention or looked at him strangely. About a quarter said “Happy New Year” right back. I did not go undetected, and he and I exchanged “Happy New Year” too. A few times he yelled, “I love you”, repeatedly to certain people or groups. Another time he yelled, “black and white live together on earth”. (The white guy he directed this to said "yeah", without turning his head.) This aboriginal man was very happy and positive. At one point, an attractive, middle-aged woman in a pretty dress and with a spring in her step came by. As the aborigine started in with her, she turned around, went right up to him, and embraced his hands. She then returned every sentiment of good will and enthusiasm back towards that man. I love her for that.

There were people going into the movie theater, and I kept thinking, ‘are you kidding me? The real show is right here”. The aboriginal man then decided he wanted a cigarette and started badgering people for one. Finally, a white man quickly and like it was quite normal, dolled-out one to each aborigine present. He started walking away, but one asked for a light and he returned to light each with his own lite and half-used cigarette. The vocal aborigine kept trying to take the white man’s cigarette, and the white man was like, ‘no, I’ll hold it’, until it became apparent the aboriginal man was trying to take the white man's half smoked cigarette for himself. At that point the white man said, “screw you”, and walked away. I was done (15 minutes) observing this scene, and moved on. I then realized quickly there were drunk and begging aborigines on every other street corner. I began to realize why most people were simply walking by.

Darwin is named after Charles Darwin who visited here in 1839.

Crocodile in Darwin Aquarium

Photographing a crocodile is my biggest objective while I’m here (observing aborigines is my second – but my interest in that is now waning). I want a croc photo from the wild and will go on a charter tomorrow for it. But to hedge my bets, I took a photo of one in an aquarium in town. They also had crocodile skins available for purchase.

Aussies say, “that’s a bit flash”, for something fancy.

It’s extremely multi-cultural in Darwin. In fact, if you added many more people from most ethnicities, you'd actually make Darwin less multi-cultural. My lunch was authentic Chinese, which was nothing like the Chinese I’ve had back in America.

Perth was 3 hours behind Sydney. Darwin is only 1-1/2 hours behind Sydney.

Darwin was wiped-out twice. The first time was the result of 64 air raids by the Japanese during WWII. The second time was Cyclone Tracy in 1974.