Darwinian Man

Darwin, Western Australia - Mar 4-8, 2007

To be honest, I found Darwin a tad disappointing. It's a city which in Aussie terms means it's the size of Market Harborough, but that's not the reason.

1. The outdoor cinema that I was so looking forward to after my previous experiences in Western Australia was closed for The Wet (i.e. the wet season...is that really what The Wet stands for?...yes, yes it is).


2. My withdrawal symptoms from sushi were far from being alleviated. There was one sushi joint in town...sorry...city and like the cinema it was closed altho' probably not for The Wet, it was just closed.


3. The backpackers hostel I checked into was decidedly rough around the edges (I shan't mention the name...as I can't remember it). It would have been tolerable but for the gang of Aussie meat-heads that sat around all day in the corrugated roofed, car-port like cooking area (see what I mean about a bit rough) drinking beer, smoking weed, playing Playstation, and waiting for work to start, which was always 'next week'. Generally a bit intimidating. Oddly enough the TV they tended to watch was predominantly gardening shows. I presume they were looking for tip on how to grow their own. "Darwinian man, though well-behaved, at best is only a monkey shaved." - W. S. Gilbert

However, every cloud has a silver lining and Darwin's côté positif was that I met Leo, another Brit post-30 year old wayfarer altho' he looked younger than the average GAPer. I suspect there's a painting in his attic in Lincoln ageing on his behalf. We mooched around, drank coffee, blagged our way onto the roof terrace of the Backpackers Hilton (where we should have checked in instead of our flea pit) and swam in the pool, strolled out to the pier, took sundowners at the Ski Club (more water skiing I suspect than Alpine...or indeed yogurt orientated). Leo also 'entertained' me with day long discussions (altho' I rarely said a word) on what price plan for his Aussie mobile he should opt for. I had to ration any mention of this fascinating topic for fear of developing a permanently glazed look.

Here's Leo the Lion, strutting his stuff in the jungle of a very dodgy bar. It almost looks like he's sporting a tash...or an affectation as Leo called any form of facial hair, particularly that solo tuft below the bottom lip.

The night progressed and Leo introduces his right cheek to a German girl's left. Nice move. I think you can see where this is going.

Ahhh, sweeeeeet. The funny thing was about 10 mins prior to this the lass, let's call her Helga, asked me if Leo was gay. It's a novel approach to gaining the affections of a lady, but it seemed to work for Leo on this night.

And here's a couple of snaps from around Darwin that show you nothing of what it's like but they simply amused me for reasons that I think need no further explanation here.