rooeytoo in oz

Thursday, May 11, 2006

Concert at Cooinda


Last night we went to see Troy Cassar-Daly, an aussie Country Western singer. He was at Cooinda a pub about 50 k from Jabiru. It was great fun, his music is really good. Met some people visiting here from Texas, Karen and Stan, it was good to hear a yank accent again, especially with a Texas twang to add some spice!

Wednesday, May 10, 2006

G'day Mates



Hi Y'all, I was in Darwin to pick up stuff for the shop and I thought perhaps you would like to see some of the sights there. It is a small but nice city, good art galleries, both indigenous and other, great museum and because of the role it played during World War II, a fair bit of history. I love the architecture of the older houses but not many of them are left because of Cyclone Tracy about 30 years ago. She practically destroyed the entire city and houses built since then have a different look and feel to make them safer in a big blow, but in so doing, the ambiance and character are lost, the new houses are so generic, they look like you could plop them down in a suburb most anywhere and they would fit right in. The older houses were up on stilts for the breeze to cool and circulate air from below and had huge verandahs so you could virtually live outside in the treetops all year long, they were built of wood or tin with lots of louvres, a distinctly tropical attitude. Darwin also has some great Asian restaurants. I always eat either at my favorite Vietnamese or the Malaysian place while I am in. Anyhow, here are some photos.


This is Parliament House, Darwin is the capitol of the Northern Territory. I think it is such a beautiful building.

One of the typical modern highrises in the downtown area of the city.


Darwin has several gorgeous beaches, but look at the sign below, they are always there to spoil your fun and of course don't forget the crocs too!



This is Darwin Harbour, I have a run every morning I am in town and this is my favorite route. There is a walkway/bikepath that is absolutely beautiful, the harbour on one side and always a riot of blooming flowers on the other.


This is the Smith Stret Mall with its giant frangapani blossoms, also where my favorite Malaysian restaurant is.


This is one of the historical markers along the walkway at the harbour.


It is so hot here that almost everyone has a covered parking area. If you don't park under cover, you can literally burn your hands on the steering wheel not to mention other parts of your anatomy on the seats!


And last but not least is another absolutely gaudy Darwin sunset on Cullen Bay, happens every night folks and I never tire of watching and taking pictures!

Saturday, May 06, 2006

Ego Trip


Okay, you have to admit, this blog has really not been too much of an ego trip, I have tried to keep it as a sort of diary or journal of my experiences here in the Northern Territory. But since I did have to have a photo taken of me and the dogs and I kind of like this one, I thought I would just throw it in, heheheh, not bad for an old broad, hey!

Floods are finished!

Cyclone Monica hit here on the 24th of April and we have been cut off from Darwin until today, the 6th of May. It was possible to get in via the Pine Creek route but that added an extra 200 kilometers to the trip, making it a total of 450 kilometers one way! The big Red dog was bitten by an evil spider or fire ant and I thought I was going to have to take him in to the vet, but thank goodness he came around and is fine now. Anyhow at one point the water was almost 2 meters over the road at the Adelaide River Bridge, that is a lot of water!!! It is too far to go just to take pictures so I don't have any of my own but a friend in Darwin is hopefully going to be sending me some and I will post them when I get them. This picture was taken April 30. The spots are raindrops on the lense and the colors are absolutely amazing, I swear I didn't touch this photo at all, no filters, this is the way the sky looked!




The dry officially starts on May 1st and honestly the weather did change exactly on that day. We went from the post cyclone clouds and rain and humidity to perfect temps, no humidity and cloudless blue skies, it is spectacular! I am going into Darwin for a day or so on Monday but as soon as I get back, the top is coming off the jeep and will stay off until next December when the wet starts again.

Now the burning starts again and it will be serious burning this year because of all the trees downed by the cyclone. It is hard to believe that it is dry enough to burn but it obviously is, as you can see from the pics. The white spots on this one are the Corellas, who are foraging for insects and seeds after the burn. Another unbelievable sunset too!


BIG Trees Down

Here are a couple of pics to show you the size of the trees that were uprooted and knocked over.