Stepping out of the air conditioned airport, the humidity hits you like a big hot, sloppy wet kiss. If you didn’t know better you would have thought the 3 hour flight from Adelaide had landed you on a remote tropical island. Welcome to Darwin, Northern Territory.
This was a work trip, however I managed to find a bit of time for exploring.
Darwin is the capital city of the NT, of course with only around 150,000 people living there it isn’t really a city, just a big country town that happens to have 3 Hilton hotels, a big casino, some of the worlds most incredible natural environments on it’s doorstep, ancient indigenous culture and literally the most perfect weather for 6 months of the year during the dry season (when I was there, it is still classed as the end of the wet), the tourists come in their droves.
So, of course the north is also one of the worlds top 4wd destinations. You don’t have to have a 4x4 up here, but if you plan on getting out of town, it’s a must.
{I am digging the new ‘Lux’, especially like this. Steel wheels, no bling and it would seem this is the colour to have a current Toyota 4x4 in?}
So, a lot of Toyota’s then? The reality is, in country Australia Toyota is the dominant brand, by a long way. Be in no doubt this is no bullshit country, so read that as you will. In terms of vehicles that are set up for proper 4x4 touring, the other brands you see are Nissan and Land Rover.
{Sometimes I feel the only Defenders I see these days, are highly polished new shorties, driven by wealthy hipsters. This is how a Defender should look}
On my day off I just picked the green areas on the map near Darwin to go and explore. But first, breakfast! Of course you can get bacon and eggs, otherwise what would all those English tourists eat? However when you are in such a melting pot of cultures and cuisines it seems a shame to squander such opportunities. Malaysian roti for breakfast? Sure. Indonesian? Hit me up.
The produce available at the many local markets are also a bit different to your local supermarket.
Plenty of good coastline.
Busy little boat launching area. Fishing is a big deal up here.
A Prado with a serious maintenance program, check out the big rig like wheel nut ‘identifiers’.
The beaches round Darwin are nothing special, with brown almost dirt like sand (although there are absolutely cracking night time beach markets in the dry season, a real carnival type atmosphere). As with everywhere up here though, they teem with life, something makes all these little sand balls.
I made my way out to Buffalo Creek for a swim.
Ha ha, not really. Although I did catch girlfriend of the year parking the tinny on the boat trailer, like a boss. She must be a keeper!
I found a jungle walk nearby. Pockets of monsoon rainforest are still prevelant up here. Bit greener than my normal pics!
The battle for light!
Of course, old mate too.
Bushfire been through here. Probably at the end of the last dry.
Plenty of water round here.
Oh good, the path has almost disappeared, there is no way there is any snakes in there...
So Darwin is tres cool in my book. Want to come to Australia? You wanna pick one place and you are not bothered by bright lights, big city (let’s face it they are all much of a muchness...), this is a great launching pad to one of the great explorable wildernesses, and worth a few days of your time on its own. It’s a place without pretension, and welcoming of visitors. So hire a Hilux, Prado, 200 series or 70 series truck (all available from Hertz here) and enjoy one of the best parts of the planet for people like us.
Anyway, what was I talking about? Oh yeah, trucks...
Of course I was driving around in tough old Land Cruiser the worlds best selling car. I was actually really impressed. Between the soft touch textured pleather on the inside and the eager VVTI engine, coupled with a 7 ‘speed’ (7???) CVT gearbox, this thing was great. The ‘rolla’ has come a long way. No wonder so many people buy these things, it excels at being a car.
Oh, and did I mention this place was multi-cultural? Love Darwin.
