The Darwin Letters No. 2

By Trenna, Intro by Greg

It’s been a long time coming, and then it is only a short piece! The whole Chapter is only three paragraphs long.

Future installments will be in a different format, as you will see.

If you missed Chapter One, you can find it here.

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By Trenna

Chapter Two

Leaving home

Finally, after months of consideration and anticipation, and weeks of preparation, departure day Thursday 10th November 1994 has thankfully arrived.  The past couple of weeks have seen us in perpetual motion.  We’ve attended more social functions (not all in honour of us) during the past couple of weeks than we have during the preceding couple of years.  We’ve had friends and rellys through the house snapping up discarded plants, crockery, cuddly toys, tools and all manner of paraphernalia.   We’ve been to barbecues, lunches, dinners, breakfasts, Halloween parties, wedding anniversaries, and now at 9.45am we are about to board Ansett Flight 394 due to touch down in Darwin at 3.45pm.

Apart from the occasional turbulence and seeing some specky salt lakes somewhere in the north of Western Australia, the flight was relatively uneventful.  We landed for a 15 minute refueling stop at Kununurra, giving us a welcome opportunity to stretch our legs on a quick walk across the stinking hot tarmac from the air-conditioned plane to the air-conditioned arrival and departure lounge.  The temperature was reportedly a scorching 41 degrees, but I reckon amidst the dust of nearby earthworks, the smell of fuel and the reflective heat of the tarmac it was probably in excess of 45 degrees. 

Once back on the plane, it only took us about 50 minutes to get to Darwin.  Margie (Greg’s boss) welcomed us at the airport. The Darwin humidity certainly hit us when we got outside.  We could already see that air-conditioning was going to feature heavily in our lives here.  Margie took us on a brief but informative sightseeing tour of the city and around the University.  She then very thoughtfully bought us a street directory, took us to get some essential food items, and then delivered us to our hotel.