When we think of Darwin, we think of a green, tropical place that is very hot and humid! Honestly, it was sweltering...mostly because there was a mix up with our tickets, and we waited a couple of hours in said weather for our bus. In the sun. Without a breeze. Next to a bunch of other people. Once on the bus, glorious wind cooled our faces! Just like everywhere else we went in Australia, there were signs of Christmas...right next to signs of summer.
Considering how much time we had in Darwin, which was just hours, we learned and saw quite a bit. Downtown, the beach, the Northern Territory museum. We saw trees growing out of water - we are pretty sure it was saltwater. There was also a fascinating exhibit at the museum that had a dark room and you listened to sounds of Cyclone Tracy - actual sounds that were recorded during the storm. Horrifying what those people must have felt during that time.
It was really in Darwin that we began to understand a little bit more about Australia rather than our thoughts of it being defined by what we have seen and heard (on TV mostly). The Northern Territory, which includes Darwin, has the largest amount of Aborigines. There are also over a hundred different tribes of Aborigines (maybe hundreds), mostly based on where they live and the language they speak (I think they said each tribe has a different language). Anyways the map in the museum of all of the different tribes was mind blowing. We even saw an Aboriginal artist, Leslie Nawirridj, at work. Makes his own paint.
