After a harrowing 2020 due to you-know-what-and-let's-not-mention-it-ever-again, I flew to Darwin to spend Christmas with my children who earlier in December had relocated there.
Darwin, the tropical capital city of the Northern Territory, Australia, is the place I discovered I had the ability to sweat from my eyeballs, nostrils, and everywhere else. If you're keen for a road trip, from Sydney to Darwin it's a 3942km trip, by air around 3160kms. Either way, it's a very, very long way.
Excitement overwhelmed me when, after a four hour flight, my aircraft finally touched down on Darwin soil. I'd made it!
There are strict border controls throughout Australian states and it's no different in the Territory. Showing my border pass to airport officials and declaring I was infection-free, I was good to go and found my family waiting to begin a short but exciting, new adventure.
Greetings over with and luggage collected, the first stop was to a bottle-o - Aussie slang for bottle shop, a place to buy alcoholic beverages, chips and jerky, and where sometimes a free wine tasting event happens.
The bottle-o was understandably packed as it was Christmas Eve and shops closed the next day so I struck up a conversation with a mum and daughter behind me. We chatted about the virtues of prosecco and champagne as we inched closer to the checkout. At the checkout I was asked to show my photo ID, not for checking if I was of legal age to consume my bubbly beverage but because it's a requirement for residents of the Territory and visitors. So remember to pack your photo ID folks if you're heading up here.
Next stop, my hotel in Palmerston, a satellite city around 20kms south-east of Darwin and where the kids were also staying. Suitcase unpacked, balcony view checked out, we hit the road late afternoon for Darwin's fabulous Waterfront precinct.
From the waterfront we decided to walk to Stokes Hill Wharf, a short 1km walk. Luckily my eldest grandson had hired a scooter and offered me a lift which I gratefully accepted. We took off like the Fast and the Furious (kidding) until the front wheel began to launch itself upwards due to uneven weight distribution from the rear passenger 😉
Our group arrived at the wharf in time to watch a glorious and extraordinary Darwin sunset. The vibe here was one of pure joy and magic.
Maybe it was magical because of the changing colour palette of the sky with its blues, pinks, golds and yellows, the silky smooth ocean, or seeing low hanging white, fluffy cumulus clouds which appeared to be stationary (possibly hiding the Mothership).
Or, it may have been the mewing sound of opportunistic seagulls waiting to snatch the odd chip or two.
Or possibly it was the smell of salty sea air, heavy with humidity, and of the deliciousness wafting from nearby restaurant kitchens. It may even have been watching clever, huge fish who are literate up here and can read the 'No Fishing' signs and who therefore take a statement swim around the pylons with an attitude of 'Look at Me, you can't fish me'.
Maybe it was the groups of people eating, drinking, laughing and engaged in conversation enjoying this moment. To me it was a combination of all of the above including being with my loved ones, an open heart, gratitude to have been given the opportunity to make this possible, and much more.
While no coffee was drunk as the sinking sun disappeared over the Cox Peninsula, there was a delicious, cold and crisp piccolo in my hand to cheers with immense gratitude, the magic of a Top End Christmas Eve.
Cheers 🍹
