Witness to a Collective Ritual

Ohhh Darwin. This is one of the best places for lazy days with no crowds and good times. It has all the convenience of bigger cities but all the charm of a small city. Ahh, Darwin! Maybe it's just that compared to Ikuntji it's quite cosmopolitan? Who knows.

Anyway - the trip up was LONG! we drove into Alice one night there. Went to a caravan park where gary and chris's mates were staying. Went to the $10 roast there - this place was populated by the grey nomads it was a sea of short grey hair and knee socks. But a good night they had a man with snakes and then a singer with a guitar singing bush songs that are slightly rude and cheeky which is the type of entertainment that goes on alot up here. All good fun. The oldies loved it.

Me at Bojangles pub in Alice

Gary and Chris

Had a big drive from Alice to Daly waters which is a town that was the first international airport in Oz - basically flights coming from asia and Europe had to land here to refuel before heading onto sydney etc. Daly waters consisted mainly of an airstrip and one small street which housed the pub - It had a whole lot of stuff stuck to the walls from previous customers - bras, footy t's bus passes etc. It had collections of bottles, rabbit traps and toilet seats. Paraphernalia is big in the NT. Its like someones old garden shed exploded - like a dirtier crazier version of chillis (a alligator with sunglasses? Number plates in doors!) Had a steak bigger than my face for tea.

The entertainment that night was a man that sung cheeky songs but he had a rooster on his head. That bloody rooster kept me up all night.

The chook man who has a house across the rd from the pub and who was the entertainment. (The one in the blue singlet)

Daly Waters Pub

The performing rooster.

dinner.

Off early the next day stopping quickly at the thermal pools in Maderanka which were bliss!

Thermal pools

The campervan that ryan will want to hire.

Burning off is a big thing too:

A few little stops for fuel and the loo then Gary and Chris dropped me off at my hostel - I have a private room but shared loo. While most things are reasonable in Darwin - beer, food etc - accommodation is a bit pricey - its not like to gold coast with lots of high rise - (however it looks like this might be how its heading) and by the time I went to book this was all i could afford. Its a bit dodge but ok. I hired a bike to get round which has been the best! Nearly came a cropper this am when some dork opened his door on me and nearly pushed me into a bus - lucky my cat like reflexes and after years of training on the sydney circuit I managed to avoid disaster - .

My darwin ride

We set up for the Art Show on Wed - it was at the convention centre a lovely building that is about 3 yrs old right on the waterfront. The carpark was full of troopies covered in red dust as about 40 or so artcentres from all around came to show their wares. There site is here: Basically it's like any trade show - we were trying to sell works but also establish contacts meet up with other art centre workers and the governing bodies. Also for Ikuntji it was about re-establishing itself as the works that the artists are creating now are quite different in scale and price than before - smaller and more affordable.

So that was really interesting! met some gallery owners from all round as well as selling about a third of the works we took up which will make the artists happy!! (50% of the sale price goes to the artist - 50% back into the centre)

Telstra award opening.

We spent our nights looking at the great places that darwin has to offer. One thing that i noticed was the lack of crowds - They have the darwin festival on at the moment and went to see corrine grant last night in a great open air theatre which was in the main festival precinct. It was decorated with lanterns and lights - amazing - but the best thing was even though it was full - there were no lines for the loo, enough places to sit, great food - normal priced beer and tickets to most of the shows were $25. Compared to syd festival which is of course bigger - it was just relaxed easy and open to all. Nothing is crowded here which includes the wave pool i went to yesterday, IT WAS THE BEST!! - I think this lack of crowds is what makes it so relaxing here. No hussle, no bussle.