Our favourite buffet, Sunset Buffet at the Skycity Casino, decided to designate Tuesday nights as Schitzel night. The price was 1/2 their normal rate so L and I decided that we'd go on at date to try out the new offering.
Upon arriving the the casino the sunset was going down and we captured this video. This is about as good as it gets in Darwin as we are going into their winter and the sun sets over the ocean.
A loveely sunset
At this buffet you pay before you eat. At the cashier they asked us what schnitzel we wanted; pork, chicken or beef. I chose beef, L selected chicken. They explained that they delivered the schnitzel portion of the meal to the table and you can buffet the rest. That seemed unusual but fine.
We were shown to our table and as soon as we sat down a waitress was there with our schnitzel on plates to give to us. I was a little unprepared for the main part of meal so so but we accepted them.
Then I thought "but I wanted a salad first".
So we decided we'd do things the way we always do and have a salad and then commence with the main part of our meal. So we would just have to settle for cold schnitzel.
Overall I would say things weren't up to the usual quality but the price was certainly right. The next day I felt like I was poisoned, which really isn't hard to do to me.
Here in Darwin we have 2 seasons wet and dry. This years wet was unusually dry which for us, as new to Australia, was great. We didn't have to deal with to much mould growing on things.
But the dry has officially started because lots of events are ahappening. The one that makes it really official is the Mindil beach market. This happens every Thursday and Sunday night and is a place to buy food and trinkets. The big draw of course is the sunset. The big downer is the mosquitoes and I usually get poisoned from the food.
But the dry means that it probably won't rain for another 5 months. Another thing that comes with the dry is cooler nights. This is the first time we didn't need any air con and we actually needed a blanket on the bed. We have the windows wide open. This has an unfortunate side affect of letting all the smoke from the brush burning into the house. That is the other thing that comes with the dry, the brush burning. They do this for 2 reasons; to reduce the chance of a big fire that would threaten cities and to rejuvenate the foliage for the next upcoming wet season.
Last night we saw the barking owl, but this time it wasn't barking. It was sitting on the pole and would fly around catching big bugs. It was special to be able to see this bird at all, but to see him in action was amazing. Since our first sighting we're always on the lookout for it every time we take out the garbage.
By the way the background picture of the blog is taken at Mindil beach.
Well the dry has started, so they say. The dry is where it won't rain
for 6 months. With that comes cooler nights. So much cooler we don't need
ceiling fans. They have been running constantly for 7 months
and we actually can use the top sheet on the bed. In fact last night was
so cool I could have used a blanket. Tonight I'll be better prepared.
But what also comes with the dry (Darwin's Winter) is controlled burning
of the brush. They do this as buffers between areas just in case they
get a big brush fire, this prevents whole place doesn't burn down. Well at least that's the theory.
So for the last few days the place has been so smokey we could have
smoked bacon in the house. With the burning there is all sorts of white
ash falling from the sky. I know it's not nuclear winter because N
Korea's missile didn't make it this far ... yet.
The smoke is so bad it's pointless taking up smoking as you can get the
same effects just going for a walk. So much for healthy living in the outback.
If you don't know already I have a new job. The job is IT support for a construction company here in Darwin.
It seems that as a part of their safety requirements they perform random drug and alcohol testing. So you can't cheat the tests are unannounced ... I guess that's where the RANDOM part comes it.
So today after being with the company only 4 weeks someone poked their head around the corner and said "oh by the way you have to give a sample".
Well normally I don't like tests because I am really lousy at studying, but this test didn't require pulling an all nighter in front of a load of books. Just a clean lifestyle.
So I confidently knew this was one test I was not going to fail. I mean if they were to test for something like Chocolate Cookies then that one I would normally fail in a heartbeat but I've been on a bit of a clean eating kick for the last few weeks. So even the cookie test I could pass.
The only thing that was stopping me from acing this test was ... um ... like ... motivation. Well no problem I'll drink lots of water.
Well 4 bottles of water later and ... still no desire to be tested. People kept asking me, "ready to test" and I'd tell them I was working on it.
Well after about 2 hours I was ready to take the test. Oh by the way this test is performed in the presence of a referee (for lack of a better word). To make sure that you don't cheat. I mean that fact alone is enough to put someone off being motivated.
So off I went to find the person from the testing company, I said "I'm ready" and she said "oh we just wrapped up, I guess we'll have to get you the next time around". No problem I said and waved her goodbye and promptly trotted off to the mens.
Well we just got back from Cairns, spoken as "CANS" ... I have no idea where the R went ?
If you don't know anything about Australia, Cairns is where the Great Barrier Reef is, it also is in a tropical rain forest.
To start it off our flight was at 7:30am so we had to get up at around 4am. I noticed a text message on the phone and it was from the airline stating that the flight was delayed slightly .. until 4pm, yikes. We made the best of it we went to Skycity for a buffet lunch, came home and calmly left for the airport (just like pros). The plane was completely empty so I think they overbooked the 7:30 flight.
Empty plane 17 people on board.
When we arrived it was 8:30pm and shopping here in Australia closes pretty much at 5:30pm so there was no chance of shopping. Also hanging over us was that we had a 6am pickup for the diving cruise.
Our chariot awaits.
So we made the best of it by grabbing a McD's Chocolate Frappe, my new favourite drink, and went for a walk. But as you can see L is holding an umbrella so it's already raining.
Tourist area of Cairns by the P pool (so some call it), in the rain.
Our diving operator was ProDive, we were luck because we had one of the only double bedded cabins in the boat. Luckily most people weren't couples.
Completely bagged and that's before we even started diving.
The ride out to the reef was very rough. The boat was a single hulled boat, many operators use double hulled. Needless to say it was pretty rocky. Many people got sick. L got sick too, but she just placed her business in the supplied paper bags and kept smiling. We were smart we went to the back and centre of the boat where it wasn't so rocky. She took sea sickness pill and it settled her stomach. Many people did not fair as well as L, lots looked like they were pretty ill. When the boat was stationary it wasn't so bad and most people didn't need the pills.
It was funny every time we went to go diving it was raining, ok it wasn't funny. This was a problem because your equipment never dried out and we had to put on a stinger suit (because of the jelly fish). It's like a big lycra suit that covers you from head to toe, hands & feet included. That was the worst thing in the world to put on because it stuck to you and it was cold & wet. The diving was a different concept for us, when we dove we only dove L and I. We did not dive as a group. This was good I guess because as a group 10 people swimming at a fish tends to scare them away. Although we had to navigate ourselves and a GPS doesn't work underwater. But with my keen sense of direction we didn't get too lost, often.
We saw lots of fish, turtles, many odd looking sea cucumbers and sharks. One dive L and I were swimming around this big column of coral looking at what was inside it and around coming the other way was a shark. Well if sharks can sense electricity he would have known that I jumped in my skin. The shark just calmly swam between us and the coral, very close. It was scary and amazing. It turned around and kept swimming near us I guess being inquisitive. After a while I swam directly away from it.
I also did a night dive, but with night diving I had to go with a group as I didn't have the night dive certificate. The boat was shining lights into the water at the stern (back of the boat) and many fish were swimming around as well as many sharks. The night dive itself was pretty uneventful except for one lone shark sighting but it was really cool when we returned to the boat as that's where all the action was. We sat underneath the boat for about 15 minutes just watching the frenzy. The lights had attracted some small fish and the bigger fish were chasing them, which made the little ones jump out of the water.
Here is the only video I took on the trip. I put new batteries in the camera when we left Darwin but they died soon after we got in the water. This video at least proves L scuba dives.
Out dive boat had 2 doctors, 2 nurses from Darwin, a dentist from the American army and 2 medics from the Australian forces. Needless to say we didn't need any of them ... although my tooth hurt after a few too many Cokes.
After 3 days and 2 nights we headed home. Let me tell you 3 days on a boat when it rains every day is definitely character building.
Oh yeah on the 2nd night dive L hurt her leg jumping in the water. She thinks she may have bumped a fish when she jumped in the water, here is the bruise she got. It actually looks like a fish.
L's bruise it actually looks like a fish
From the Pro Dive shop we were picked up by our new friends Magda and Tom.
Some free advertising for Pro Dive
They took us to their house which is situated on a small mountain. These small mountains sit back off the coast around Cairns and to the north as well. As L said they have a million dollar view.
Million dollar view
Their love for animals is 2nd to none and they have 2 dogs and 2 cats.
Everyone of them was in need of a good home and they sure do have one.
2 of the our hosts
We checked out Rusty's Markets and the fruits and veg were a lot cheaper there in Queensland than here in the NT
Bananas 1/2 the price of Darwin
That night we went out to a favourite restaurant of out hosts, can't remember the name or what type of food it is, I'm so bad at that sort of stuff but all I know is that I had to belly dance with the belly dancer. Maybe cause I have a better belly or a big belly.
Belly dancing in Cairns on the strip
The next day we set off for a trip to the Daintree Rainforest with a side trip to Port Douglas. The roads on the way were winding all along the mountains and the coast. At one point there was a boulder sitting in the road that had come off the mountain due to the amount of rain. Let me tell you a boulder that size would certainly ruin your day.
We made it to Port Douglas which was a place we imagined that we could stay if we ever moved to Australia only to find out that it's really a very expensive tourist destination. A nice place to visit but not much to do if you live there.
Port Douglas beach
We were only 14000+ km from Toronto
Out hotel in Port Douglas as beautiful we stayed on the 3rd floor, it was like being in the canopy of the rain forest.
In the canopy of the trees
On our last day in Cairns the weather finally cleared up, sun came out and stayed out. We found out that the rain they had experienced was quite heavy even for Cairns.
The sun came out and the view was a 2million dollar view.
We packed up our stuff thanked Magda and Tom, promising them that we would return because we loved Cairns so much and got on the plane to Darwin. Luckily for us the trip is only 2 1/2 hours away so it was a short flight.
On the way home
Magda and Tom had a magical place and the creatures outside were amazing. We have green tree frogs here in Darwin but nothing like they have in Cairns. Look at this beauty. It is huge and a beautiful green color. They were all over the place, stuck to walls and sitting on things.
Big frog
They were everywhere
So a quick summary, it rained in the rain forest. Maybe next time we'll go in the dry.
Why am I a hurtin' unit. Well two days ago a guy from work convinced me to come out to soccer to play with some old guys. I figured hey that's cool hang out with some Blokes and kick a ball around. When we get to the soccer field, which by the way looked more like a small outdoor hockey arena, our competition was a bunch of 17-20 year old kids. Now our game started at 9pm. This for any old dude like me is a bad omen as I'm usually in bed by 10. Well the opposing team had been playing soccer since 6pm and needless to say they ran rings around us and did this barefoot.
