LOCAL TOURISM

It's a pretty common experience for many of us - but playing tourist closer to home is something a lot of people don't always get around to doing. For people who like travelling, the allure of the unfamiliar is often far more tempting than poking around the corners of our own back yard.

OF WINE AND SUNSETS

I'm the first to admit that while Darwin beaches are quite lovely from an aesthetic point of view, they're a bit of a let down in the recreational sense. It's not that it's completely impossible - I've certainly indulged in the odd dry season paddle - it's just restricted in seasons (from October to May we have some rather nasty poisonous box jellyfish lurking in our seas) and generally considered to be a calculated risk with all those crocodiles swimming about looking for some human hors d'oeuvres.

DECKED OUT

If you had to ask me to list the top 5 best things about Darwin they would have to be (in no particular order); the sunsets, the bird life, the weekend markets, the foreshore bike path and the Deckchair cinema (oh, and the evening smell of flowering milkwood - which makes 6...but hey, who's counting?..anyway I can't blog about a smell so, whatever). As the dry season is back again (and I'm still here. How am I still here? I was meant to be not here by now but the interstate job offers are doing a remarkable impression of chirping crickets).

BEACH STILLS

Another image series from some recent beach walks. Gorgeous as it is, I've started some different circuits recently as a break from routine is always welcome, so my next walkabout image series should be a little different.

FESTIVAL DAYS

Ack! It's the Darwin festival again - already! And for the third year in a row I've managed to arrange things so that it's during the month I'm feeling least inclined to do anything with my cash. The first year I was still looking for work, the second I was saving my pennies for a trip to the USA and this year I'm doing the same for an impending NZ departure...and all going well I won't be here for it next year. So, better take my chance to give a nod to Darwin's largest art and culture event.

BOTANICAL WANDERINGS

I'm not sure how I've overlooked talking about Darwin's beautiful Botanic Gardens yet, but I guess the delay in getting around to it now means I can also throw in a mention about the recently opened cafe that sits within the grounds.

HIP HAPPENINGS

So, I don't know quite how this has happened, but Darwin seems to be getting a little trendy these days. There's raw/paleo cafes popping up, cold drip filtered coffee, wheatgrass shots, drinks in jars, hipster beards - and I even recently read about a local microbrewery starting up.
Ok, so we don't have cat cafes yet, nor have I spotted anyone reading Haruki Murakami under a 70's shade umbrella on the beach. There's also a distinct lack of the types of venues, clothing, eco-friendly, retro-vintage, paper goods, sign writing and book stores that are simply de rigeur if you want to make the trendy town cut...

But still...

DOWN THE TRACK

I don't come down here nearly often enough.

Litchfield National Park is about 100km south of the city, just past the small township of Batchelor. I've been coming here for about as long as I've had a car (and once even came close to a nasty accident during the freewheeling days of my youth when I decided my tiny tinny car and lack of driving experience could totally handle a bit of off-road adventuring). It's a prime spot for a little weekend getaway or daytrip.

30 MINUTES

I'm taking a look at one of my daily activities with a new lens (haha) and have put together a little photo essay on one of my most common dog walk routes  that I often do of an evening. Rapid Creek is a gorgeous little natural oasis in the middle of Darwin's northern suburbs an is an area that's certainly a semi-regular feature in my photographic pursuits. It still amazes me how much variety there is to see in 30 short minutes; suburbs, parklands, a river, horses, cattle, playgrounds...not to mention some of the regular dog walkers I stop and chat with on the way.

DE LA PLAGE

There's a newish cafe on the scene for us northern suburbanites, who tend to spend our leisure beachtime around the beaches of Nightcliff and Casuarina. Although there are a few pop up food and coffee shacks along the foreshore these days, on the whole there's been a long-standing dearth of places to grab a drink and a snack.

A self-proclaimed 'Turkish-Belgian inspired beach cafe', De La Plage is a laid-back beachside establishment whose casually ramshackle setup alongside the Surf Lifesaving Club belies its delicious and not-unreasonably priced menu. Sitting in the cool shade of the foreshores wispy casuarina trees, it's the perfect spot to wile away the hours over the weekend - and often puts on some juicy tunes to boot.

Mostly staffed by a crew of the fairly constant flow of cute European backpackers that Darwin attracts for most of the dry season, the service is....ok, well to be honest it's a little on the slow side but then again this is not an eat and run kind of space either. It's a lazy day kind of cafe, where you'll get the most enjoyment by relaxing on the grass; at a table, in a hammock, on a beanbag or on your own rug, and watch the waves and the gulls until your order arrives...

SPECTACULAR

A few weeks ago (somehow, already) I chipped in a little elbow grease to the annual Tropical Garden Spectacular down at Darwin's beautiful botanic gardens. After taking a little time out during the week to help prepare some pop up garden beds (and remembering that while shoveling soil is good dirty work, due care is needed to avoid unwanted muscle twinges - or complete spinal displacement come to think of it), I also lent my barista skills over the weekend at the community cafe.

KING TIDE

Over this side of the globe the phrase 'king tide' is just another way of describing the biggest of our high tides. As I recently mentioned, Darwin doesn't get much surf. What we do get though are some substantial tidal variations - approaching 8 metres in height. King tides happen a few times a year, but aren't especially noteworthy during the dry season when the winds are relatively calm. However a monsoon season king tide accompanied by stormy winds is the kind of event that gets people to the beach in droves. The evening's entertainment feature of recent days has been a churning sea accompanied by 10 metre high seawater plumes slamming into the rocky shore.

LEADER ON A LEASH

This is my average spaniel walking experience for the first 20 minutes or so of our daily wanders (or at least until I can let him off lead somewhere).

Believe it or not though, this is progress (aka he's finally hit middle age in dog years and is finally giving me and my shoulder a bit of a break), I've even been able to dispense with the 'anti-tug' harness (yeah, that's in air-quotes for a reason).

Anyway, this isn't a post about trying to walk a headstrong spaniel, but rather the lovely nature walk I finally got around to exploring this week, tucked in behind the beach and running through pockets of very lush coastal vine habitat and mangrove thickets...

(whatever, they can call it whatever fancy name habitat assemblage they like, it's jungle as far as I'm concerned. Pure coastal jungle. All that's missing is some monkeys. And some sexy Indiana Jones type).  

Although the (very likely outdated) online map from Parks and Wildlife appear to have this track listed as not allowing dogs, the signposts in the area specify that dogs on a leash are permitted. 

Walkers can either follow this path back out to Casuarina beach - exiting near to the nudist beach area (we have one of those, apparently) or keep going the full 5.5km up to Lee Point and Buffalo Creek (where dogs definitely aren't allowed)

PARK LIFE

Snapshots from the Jingili Water Gardens, a meandering and semi landscaped park space that runs alongside Rapid Creek between the suburbs of Jingili and Millner. It's a grass, tree and freshwater alternative to the sun, sea and sand of my habitual beach walks.

A RAINY EVENING AT THE BEACH

Highlights from an evening wander at Casuarina Beach.
I've been on many lovely beaches around the world, but this sandy strip of coast has a very unusual energy about it. Wandering with my hound in the evening, I often feel like I'm caught between two worlds - between this realm and the next. It's a relaxing way to finish off the day, floating between realities.

FOUR BIRDS

I've basically been totally useless when it comes to some previous (clearly non-binding) assurances that I'd review coffee and food and other such things that Darwin has on offer. This is partly because my lunch and dinner outings have been feeble these last few months (apparently there's some primordial part of my brain that still thinks I'm broke and shouldn't go out and treat myself to a damned overpriced cheese toastie once in a while) and partly because I feel like a tragic hipster whenever I take a snap of my food. Or y'know, most of the rest of the time.

Anyway, speaking of hipsters - Four Birds. This quirky little cafe in the Star Village arcade is about as close as you can get to the Brunswick experience in downtown Darwin (and is my current preferred lunch spot).

So screw it, I ordered my favourite vegetarian bagel, took a picture of my food and read a copy of Frankie magazine.

SURF'S UP

I know, I know...How could it get more cliche than an Aussie blogger living by the sea and using a lame surf catchphrase?

But I promise you, Darwin is stuck in one of the corners of Australia that gets almost zero surf. I suspect Darwin would be a much different place if we did (crocodiles and toxic jellyfish notwithstanding). And as such we don't have much of what would be considered stereotypical Australian beach culture up here.

GO-TO MEDICINE

I planted a small gotu kola runner in a pot back in September of last year when I was doing a series of gardening workshops. Although one of the two I planted suddenly died, the remaining plant is bounding along nicely. They do very well in the tropics and, as well as having many medicinal benefits, they're also a pretty plant for garden borders. However, they do best in swampy areas so it's important to ensure they're always very well watered. Popular in Chinese medicine, I'm not sure how well known it is in Western herbal lore as neither of the two chunky herbal guides on my bookshelf make any mention of it.

Referred to as the 'fountain of life', gotu kola (Centella asiatica) is purported to cure everything from depression to shingles. Our garden instructors assured us that a few leaves taken every day would treat rheumatism and arthritis. As nothing was mentioned in my herbal books, I checked online to see which of these claims has some evidence behind them.

OASIS

This has been my little oasis for the last few days. We hit record high temperatures of over 36 degrees for several days in a row last week. Add in the stonkingly high humidity and it's been pretty unbearable. A big storm system came through by the end of the week so I was finally able to get a good night's sleep. Once upon a time you used to be able to survive this town without an air con, these days it seems even the old stalwarts that have been around for years can't cope without them (I'm admittedly not too far off myself, though my current quasi open air setup doesn't allow for it right now).

So mostly I loll about in the plunge spa. And the walking carpet is generally not too far behind.

mmm, delicious human infused spa water

wut? No, I wasn't drinking the spa water

EARLY ARRIVAL

You know those mornings when you get your first real impression that the season has turned? My favourite has always been autumn, with its first hint of crispness and the fragrance of woodsmoke in the morning air, the first browning of a leaf and blush of purple in the blackberry bushes.