Darwin and on to Indonesia

Darwin—what a beautiful city it has become.
It was hit by the devastating cyclone Tracy Xmas Eve 1994 which flattened the city killing a large number of people. There had been a population of 48,000 which diminished immediately after the cyclone and has now grown to over 90,000.
We had left for our overland trip to England from Darwin in January 1994 making the tragedy very real for us.
It had been a rough, ramshackle, tropical frontier town, the centre for mineral exploration and administrative capital for the Government of the Northern Territory. We loved the casual wildness of it which allowed us to enjoy Yellowknife in Canada despite the climate extremities of both cities.
Darwin today, lacking the rough, tough atmosphere is still very laid back and casual and we loved our short time there.
We anchored off the lovely Fanny Bay with about half of the 110 rally boats. This had also been a hang-out for us in the past where we used to stay in the gracious, colonial Fanny Bay hotel which sadly was destroyed in the cyclone.
After our arrival we started the frantic hustle to get everything done in the 10 days before we leave.
Going to shore requires a long dingy ride, the sea bed is very flat and the tides huge so to avoid sitting on the bottom at low tide we had to anchor a long way out. Upon arrival at the beach you had to make sure the dingy was well up the boat ramp, this meant that if you came in at low tide you had to drag it up a huge distance. We spent the time cursing our heavy dingy as we dragged but praising it as we carried the huge loads needed to equip our boat for Indonesia.
First was to visit Australian customs to advise that we would be leaving and the Indonesian embassy to apply for our tourist visas.
I then spent several hours over the next two days at Telstra, the inefficient telephone/internet provider of Australia. We have one computer with windows 7 and one would think that by now Telstra would have figured out how to connect it. The local store recommended that I book an appointment with a “tech”. I neither had the time to come back yet again nor was prepared to pay for the service which, as I felt they were already charging an exorbitant amount for so I persevered. After spending more than 1 hour on their phone with the “tech” I found out that I had not been given the correct installation programme in the first place!!!!!! I am sure they never would have told me that it was their error and would still have charged me. We had spent an hour in line in the Telstra store in Mackay just to purchase their internet stick so I really have nothing good to say about them!!! Once again, a sad state of a monopoly our “first world” countries seem to have allowed.
There was a great yacht club ashore which had an open air bar and restaurant—don’t forget we are now in the tropics and daytime temperatures are 30C and night time 24C –where most of the yachties hung out renewing old friendships. They had held mail for us and various packages awaited us. Huge meals—the Australian “club” way—and cheap beer.
We ferried in and out most times with Atlantia, using their smaller dingy for light loads and all of us hauling our big one for heavy loads making it easier.
The chandlery ashore was able to fix our new connector, attaching our 3 computers to our sat phone which means we will once again have our ocens email offshore. They also diagnosed the issue we had had with our SSB, which is only a connection. Darwin, the home of the Flying Doctor radio still has SSB experts which sadly are few and far between in most other places.
Ken tracked down the fan belts we needed and arranged to buy yet two more batteries. We had thought we could save money in NZ by just replacing the six house batteries but of course by now our starter ones have gone and once again the money saving plan came back to bite us.
We ordered the huge amount of alcohol which seems to be par for the course for an Indonesian departure. Indonesia, having the largest Muslim population in the world is dry—apart from beer. The rally organisers have done a deal with the local duty free store and you can order as much as you want for ridiculously low prices. One litre bottles of Gordons Gin is $12 if you buy a case of 12!!! Rum is 18 as was vodka and Bristol Cream $23. We all got together ordered many cases of all of the above!!! We ended up with 8 bottles of gin, 4 rum, 6 vodka, 2 Jamiesons and 2 Baileys!! Timing was great for us as we have depleted large amounts of Warren’s (my brother’s) home made alcohol we had left Wellington with 4 months ago.
The other strange rule in this odd country of odd bureaucratic rules is that if you purchase more than $300 worth of goods to export within a month of leaving they will refund you the 10% GST. Wine however, for some strange reason they will refund another tax which actually means they refund you 25%. This meant that of course we all bought over $300 of wine and yielded a further saving of 20% from Woolworths liquor store by buying more than 6 bottles. We are now fully stocked in the liquor department!!
The only hurdle to this is yet another strange rule to try and curb the alcohol abuse in the aboriginal community. They require ID which they scan with every purchase. Ken tried to buy a bottle of wine one day but had forgotten to bring his wallet so only had the $10 with him. They refused to sell it to him—I then had to go back alone—they will not sell it to you if you are even with someone with no ID!!!! I had my NZ drivers licence with me which after perusing carefully they accepted. They actually require an Australian drivers licence or passport but all of our passports were in the Indonesian embassy awaiting our visas!!
There were many strange stories coming out of this, Atlantia who had photocopies of their passports and British licences were refused even though another cruiser had a British licence accepted. One Canadian licence was accepted and another refused and one cruiser showed his Nuie licence—a colourful decorative one which we all got there for $10. Upon asking him what continent Nuie was on, he replied that it was a Pacific Island. The girl opted for Europe as the continent where you would find Nuie and it was accepted!!
We took our 200 litres of jerry cans aboard Atlantia and sailed further up the harbour with them to refuel. They have yet another odd rule for getting duty free fuel. There is only one wharf which will charge the duty free rate but they were limiting the number of boats they would fill. Fortunately we had sailed so much since leaving NZ we only needed to fill the jerry cans and Atlantia had managed to get a filling appointment. When we were there it was obvious they were not busy it was sheer laziness that they would not fill more boats!!!
The alternative is to pay the duty and rather than refund your credit card as they will with other purchases, this time they will send an Australian cheque to your home address for the refund amount. I am not sure who they hire to make up all of these strange rules!!!
We shared a car rental with Atlantia for a couple of days so we could buy everything and get it back to the boat.
Ken, trying to fill our propane tanks encountered yet another problem. Our tanks are too big—they are 35lb rather than the standard 20lb barbecue tanks!! Finally after being refused at three places a young boy, perhaps not knowing better (??) agreed to fill them. Not sure of the logic but this place seems to defy logic!!
We bought large amounts of groceries, the last place before Singapore for many items. No meat or dairy products available before then. Also ordered meat to be vacuum packed from the local butcher.
Our other frustration was getting Indonesian money which we had been recommended to do. Upon arrival at the bank they informed us that they had run out but would have more tomorrow. When we returned we got the equivalent of $200 each but they had run out again, there would be more tomorrow. We checked in many times the next day and were told the plane had arrived and it would be there any time, the following day, Friday, would be a holiday and then Saturday we leave. Although the girl had assured us she would call us the minute it got in we never did hear from her so will have to suffer the Indonesian ATM’s which only allow $150 at a time and charge an exorbitant withdrawal fee. The rally had left Darwin at this time for many years one would have assumed they would plan for this!!
We found time to go to the botanical gardens which is a wonderful legacy of a former resident who became mayor, after the cyclone. He decided to “green” the city as it was being rebuilt and it is thanks to him that there are so many parks and trees.
Went to the arts and crafts market where we both bought great cowboy style hats made from recycled truck canvas—photo to come later!!
We took a trip to the Esplanade where we sat on the wharf enjoying our last meal of fish and chips—yummy!!
We visited the excellent museum which housed the records of the cyclone, an impressive aboriginal exhibition and a great area where a lot of actual boats with local history were displayed.
The Indonesian embassy put on a welcoming cultural evening which was lovely.
A highlight for me was a trip to Kakadu with Atlantia in our rental car.
Kakadu is the National Park made after the discovery of the uranium in the area in the early 70’s.
We had spent several dry seasons and one wet season there at that time discovering Koongarra, a viable uranium deposit in our first season.
It was an amazing time in our lives where we drove the rough 4 hour 4 wheel drive road to Darwin once a month to replenish groceries. The road was only open in the dry season and did involve fording whatever water was left from “the wet”.
We set up camp in the bush by knocking down small trees with our bull bars to make our “roads” to the prospects and our camps.
We were on the Flying Doctor radio service and would drive the 1 hour to our friends at Jabiru, which was a more established exploration camp at that time to share happy evenings with them.
We had many encounters with wildlife and fortunately none with the crocodiles which at that time were recovering from almost being exterminated by hunting. Unfortunately they have been protected since and many horror stories abound.
There were a lot of water buffalo at that time. I actually took a photo of Tony being “treed” by one before driving it off with our truck the Toyota long wheel base. They have cleared them from the park as they are not native, they are Asian. This is a little sad as they added flavour to the region.
There still are the massive ant hills and billabongs teeming with birds. Green ants are still in the branches and brought back memories of hundreds of them dropping down your shirt as you brushed by a bush, all of them biting at once. It would create great mirth by those watching as they had all had the experience.
I did buy a pottery mug at the museum shop which had been cleverly painted with green ants—only to be appreciated by one who knows”.
We discovered the cave paintings at Nourlangie Rock—at that time there was no road there and the original aboriginals from that area had all died out. The only aboriginals near us were up on the escarpment at Arnhemland. We would see them as they hitchhiked to get liquor.
Now as we drove the 2 hours to Jabiru from Darwin on the paved highway it hard to feel the sense of adventure which we had felt.
We only had one day and the park is huge so did not have time for more than a cursory trip.
We revisited Noulangie Rock and I was heartened by the map at the “car park” (how times have changed!!) showing the Koongarra mining lease—not sure who owns the lease now as it is within the park boundaries. They carefully excluded Jabiru from the park so it is able to be mined. The amount of uranium found in the area is so much that it will be many years before it will be an issue.
We did get to a billabong teeming with birds and pandanus palms and got to listen to the never ending sound of the dove which always brings me back to a previous time.
Ken and I had overnighted here in 1999 and had found the location of the old Jim Jim store and motel where we had lived for one dry season.
As we crossed the Margaret River we saw a croc which was still there when we drove back. Margaret and I decided to walk over to get a photo but felt nervous as we walked the bank peering through the bush. When we discovered he was no longer in the water we beat a hasty retreat.
We lucked out by spotting several Jabiru’s, a stork common to the area.
The one thing that the highway has done is offer a more panoramic view which is very different from the old dusty dirt track winding through the bush.
The region is where they filmed the northern scenes in the movie Crocodile Dundee.
Finally on Saturday morning as we stowed the bikes and the last of the vast amounts of food and drink aboard we were ready for the 11 am start of the rally.
Everyone had their sails up and perhaps fortunately there was only 5 knots of wind as the 110 boats were at the start line. There was a festive air with local boats dodging through the fleet wishing us well.—farewell Darwin and thanks for the hospitality!!
We elected to stay back in the pack as we are not expecting a lot of wind and want to conserve fuel best as we can. Diesel is cheap in Indonesia but dirty and since the Bali bombings it cannot be transported in jerry cans and involves someone coming out to your boat with a fuel drum, to be avoided!!
Most of the boats are going to Kupang as we are, and a smaller amount going to Saumlaki. This second choice would involve a longer journey and as we have come so far we elected to do the shorter route. We will all meet up at Komodo.
The sail as expected had winds in the day—did several lovely spinnaker runs. At night it dropped and we were forced to motor sail.
The first night was freaky when I woke up to do a watch we were surrounded by navigation lights. As we had the motor going we left out radar on and kept the same speed as the fleet in the hole we had found ourselves in.
As each day passed the fleet spread out, some electing to motor faster and make the trip in 3 days. It is 470 miles the last 30 miles from Kupang you need to transit a narrow channel and we are hoping to arrive at dawn on the 4th day as the Indonesians are not known to have good navigational aids.
We are sailing now with our spinnaker, our 3rd day with several boats sharing our strategy.
One small Australian monohull beside us is rolling all over the place with the following winds and seas and once again we are thankful for our stable Cop Out.!! We have just asked them to photograph our boat with the spinnaker flying as we have only ever had one when Kristen was in the dingy in the Gulf Islands as we tried to fill the sail with almost no wind. This will be legitimate—as long as they stayed horizontal long enough to take it!!! If it is at an angle it is because they were, not us!!
We look forward to our arrival in the morning and to continue a new chapter in our cruising life.