And the journey continues up North-Darwin

I arrived in Darwin and checked into my hostel immediately. I had wanted to book other hostels but Darwin is the place to be right now as it is Australia’s winter, and southerners are making their way up north to escape the cold. I checked into ‘Banyan Bay’ which felt much more like an institute than any of my other humble abodes. My roommate (a 50-some year old woman) on the first night was not impressed when I had to wake up early the next morning for a tour. ‘A little loud are we?’ when I was trying to get my stuff together in the morning. Then last night, we had another roommate who was sleeping on the bunk above her. This new roommate is a snorer and at one point, the cranky lady hit her bunk and exclaimed ‘what the hell! I’m trying to sleep!’ I have been avoiding this woman as much as possible. Maybe she should NOT be staying in a hostel. My tour was awesome. First, we took a river boat cruise on the Adelaide River, which is home to hundreds of saltwater crocs. I have seen crocs in the zoo before but it is completely different seeing them in their natural environment. We cruised around for an hour, spotting the crocs, and watching them jump at the meat that was dangling on the side of the boat. I went to the main deck, which was about 2 feet from the water, and open to the outdoors. They warned us not to stick limbs out the open windows, but I thought it was pretty amazing to stand there, so close to the crocs, with nothing between us. Next we went to Litchfield National Park, where we swam in waterfalls, swimming holes, and checked out some of the biggest termite mounds. Today I am going to find the swimming lagoon, and get ready for my flight to Singapore tomorrow. My second segment of this trip has come to an end as I join Jennifer and Michelle for a month in Asia. Australia, until we meet again.