Well we're back in Darwin, we both got our old jobs back more or less (Rachael's job is a bit different this time), and so we're living the dream in the top end.
We drove the bus back up here and stayed in the bus for a while, but now we've finally sold it (a big turning point in our lives) and we're staying in an apartment with a friend until we can save enough to buy a house (or maybe a bigger bus)...
Solar Cars in Darwin - Having the most sunlight of anywhere in Australia every year the solar cars kick off their race to Adelaide from Darwin. We watched them go down the highway which was pretty cool. They look like heaps of fun racing them down the Stuart Hwy. Some of them apparently can get up to 110Km/hr, we didn't notice any doing that when we got stuck behind them in traffic...
Frilled Necked Lizard I found when I was climbing up a mango tree. It's mango season at the moment, and I'm loving the free mangoes growing everywhere
Kakadu Plums. They are growing everywhere at the moment with the wet season starting. I'm trying to learn about bush foods and am finding a few just cycling around the bush around Darwin. It's good living in the tropics. Kakadu plums (or Billy goat plums) don't taste too bad (a bit dry though).
Magpie geese on an oval - you might have to zoom on this photo to see them all. These are an annual visitor to the NT, and they have a lot of character. You usually see them hanging around mango trees eating the fruit falling to the ground. There are literally thousands of them. They are a tasty bird as well, a lot of people eat them during magpie goose season. Apparently some aboriginal people got admitted to hospital recently because they were shooting magpie geese with lead buckshot and not picking it out properly and had to get all the lead removed surgically, and were admitted with lead poisoning.
Brian the snake getting his mexican hat on
More of Brian getting legless on vodka
The shittiest solar car I saw on the day. It cracks me up, it was only going about 40Km/Hr, makes you think it might be possible to enter your own car into the race if you didn't mind travelling 3000Km's at 40Km/hr
Another crappy looking solar car (I really liked the shitty backyard cars)
Tawny frogmouth hanging out in the walk in aviary at the Territory wildlife park
Freshwater croc hanging with a turtle
Wild Guava - one of the bush tucker plants growing naturally around Darwin. Not nearly as good as a real guava, but still a cool plant to find growing around the place
Not much new is happening really, we're just hanging in Darwin. I got a new push bike last weekend and had a crack at riding some of the tracks around Darwin, it was really good. Some people in Darwin complain that there isn't anything to do in Darwin, but there is always HEAPS to do, you just have to try something different if you start getting bored. We're playing a lot of sports too (soccer and netball) and probably drinking too much (which comes with the territory). Lifes pretty good.
