Darwin,,,Hot ! One simple word with huge meaning to describe this far northern end of Australia. Hot!
Leaving the confines of our plane and our warm comfortable clothes, feeling a little tired, having left at 5.30am the familiar territory of home … to walk out through the air-conditioned doors of the Darwin airport into a changed world of heat. Such an adjustment! Yes I know we normally reside in a warm environmental paradise so different from the southern part of Australia of other relatives and friends and should not be commenting upon the heat, nor complaining … but this was definitely quite a change. What was even more amazing was that this was officially their ‘dry’ season, their winter here! Waiting in line for the shuttle bus, we were caressed even more by the confines of the heat in our trousers and jackets and layers began to peel off. By the time we got to the hotel, we were feeling exceedingly warm! As I felt the sun burning through my clothes I reflected I would so hate to be here in summer!
Darwin is very hot and I certainly experienced it as we went for a ‘small’ exploratory walk (oh yes again Laura and Margaret- one of those…) to get our bearings and work out where we were and to simply have a look at the main street of Darwin. Initially, we headed towards the Darwin Convention centre where Marc will be and walked the waterfront stretch soaking in the sights and the greenness of the water surrounding us, and then so Marc like…’where does this go” deviation, as we meandered vertically up a windy tree-covered staircase and found ourselves on an open road . Then the ‘let’s see where this leads“ look from my wonderful husband and we headed down the road in CBD Darwin. For a dry heat, I was certainly ‘slightly … cough cough..” little wet by the time we returned. No sunscreen, face red, feet blistered, hot and uncomfortable, but I have to admit, we did see some great sights.
The most interesting thing I found in our little walk was that the City of Darwin has so many churches … and I mean … huge churches. They all seemed to be centralised in one location – not too far from the other. You could certainly have a choice of where you would like to go if you attended church! The most fascinating one structure-wise was the Anglican Cathedral which held the remnants of the original stain glass window from the church before it was hit by Cyclone Tracy in 1974 … it takes almost one side of the front facing wall and looks like a sail or waves … not sure which … ( we only knew because we read it on the brochure within in the church…) but it was a huge feature of this church. Not only was this there but the church itself was also enormous, three sided and I wondered if they do actually fill it up on Sundays? The Catholic Church immenseness of size was amazing and we took the photographs of the steeple bell and the stained glass windows … sadly we could not enter as they had a wedding there … but this time we did see the church packed with people. Next was the Uniting memorial church and this was unusual as it was a completely different shape from all the others with its blue roof and trimmings in colour. The roof almost looked like an army barracks upside down U shape roof but so much bigger. (Yes, the obligatory photos were taken for the visual memories and the photo book Helen!). And then of course there was the Greek Orthodox church….and another impressive building to be seen,
Woolworths, a shared huge bottle of ice coffee and a few groceries later (what we could physically carry), we headed back to the hotel to rest a while and cool off … from this so called ‘dry heat”. I am glad that we left the air-conditioning on before we went out as it was a welcoming sudden sensual sensation of cold air attacking and swirling around the hot sweaty curves of our bodies. One word …. Ahhhhhhh!! As dusk looms the luxurious appeal of the waterfront lagoon met our eyes as we exited the door of our hotel to view the world of our next few days here in Darwin and we find ourselves privy to an unknown to us outdoor concert of performances by Darwin Symphony Orchestra and tenor David Hobson. As night fell, we found ourselves soaking in the cultural ambience of this free concert, eating fruit and shouting ourselves to ice-cream, and enjoying the subsequent fireworks display (with the other few thousands that were here) for a few hours, on the grounds of the waterfront arena of my home for this next period of time.
Ah – you ask – why am I here? Simple … my husband is attending a Rural and Remote Medical Conference for four days at the Darwin Conference Centre and he asked me to come with him. Of course I said, “Yes!” Now why would I say anything different? He will be attending various sessions in the time we are here and I guess I will just have to suck it up and sit here by myself under the palm trees overlooking the waterfront lagoon and “ do my work” from here.
Oh yes, rest assured, I will still be checking in each day to see how work is going- basically the big brother aspect of remote connections, but apart from that aspect, I guess I shall just have to simply swallow my disappointment of not being able to attend the medical conference seminars with my husband … or about not being physically at work! As I look out from under my own personal vantage view point of shade at the luxurious palm trees swaying in the slight breeze, the sun shining down brightly, releasing its generous rays of beams and shadows, the children and adults happily swimming in the saltwater lagoon which is surrounded by resort and privately owned apartments on one side and the ocean on the others….oh yes I am seriously feeling my disappointment of my next few days scenario so much.
Can’t you?