12 Days of Darwin and 12 things it offered us:

1. People that love the town,

2. Amazing Asian influence food,

3. Warm days and comfy nights,

4. Getting to stay with beautiful people,

5. Yard work (moving sticks and leaves around)

6. Daily puppy love and cuddles,

7. Snakes (which no one cared about, not even us),

8. Possums and rats that held nightly Olympic events on our roof

9. Giving Pumba the best clean of the trip

10. Birthday celebrations

11. Chicken training (we could pat them by the time we left)

12. Ate vegetarian and don’t even miss meat (never thought we would say that)

Read below for our day-by-day journal of our Darwin experience. Our time in Darwin was a work away. John & Justine gave us a play to stay in the studio in the garden and dinner, in return we do jobs for them: gardening and look after the dog.

24th July – Darwin Day 1

We made it to Darwin.

The day started with meeting Lara from Foretem to organise us conducting a photography workshop for Foretem. After a few hours of getting to know each other we worked out the workshop is going to be nibbles then photograph by the boat club. We just have to work out the when.

From Lara we headed to the tyre shop to get Pumba’s tyres changed. It didn’t all go quite as smoothly as we had planned. Pumba is currently fitted with tyres too wide for rims (285/75r16) so we were faced with a choice, change the rims to keep the current chunky tyres or go a size smaller. Not wanting to spend any extra money on rims we opted for the smaller, correct size (265/75r16). Pumba now looks slightly less chunky, slightly less cool 😞 Poor Pumba. Although, while waiting for the fitment it did give us our first lunch in a café in a very long time… first café lunch in 6 months! What a treat!

Tyres fitted we headed to meet John, the guy we will be staying with for the 12 days for work away. Our accommodation is funky, it is technically a shed roof, timber floor and the walls, there aren’t really any walls (two are loovers and two are drop down bamboo screening). It’s funky. We have never stayed in a room with no walls before. This studio is nestled in his overgrown back yard so feels private. The coolest thing, we have an outdoor shower! Love this. I mean I think I’m going to pass on using the broken and falling apart compost toilet though, it looks terrifying!

Not really sure when we are going to be working today. Yesterday he mentioned tree lopping. So I think our jobs while we are here are cutting down some trees (he likes to leave the branches on the ground to decompose though, so no tip runs).

Haven’t met the partner yet but John seems super alternate and laid back. And the dog, Billie, is incredibly affectionate. A week and a half of puppy cuddles coming our way 😁.

Oh and food, they are Vegequarian. I don’t really know what that means but I think it means fish and vegetarian. Either way, he made a curry last night and it was yummy (and I had tofu for the first time, Astrid however skipped on the tofu).

Another cool thing about the accommodation: there are some weights so we can mix up the workouts to include weights. This will feel like a nice change.

One last thing, there is another guy staying here Paulie, a guy cycling around Australia to raise money for mental health and awareness for the youth.

25th July – Darwin Day 2

Todays job: Tidy the backyard & chop big branches of a gum tree

With the gym next to John & Justines room we didn’t get stuck into the weights, even though it was tempting. Instead cruised for the morning then got stuck into the garden as John left for yoga at 8:30am.

I mean there were two goals: chop the big branches off the big gum and tidy the back yard. Uncomfortable about the gumtree job, we raked and tidied the backyard. John wanted to keep all the leaves and sticks, all we could do was place them into the garden beds… lets just say the wind and leaves did not respect our wishes.

A few hours in and we have done the backyard. John then turned his attention to the big gum tree in the front yard. With the tree large and its branches high and also quite large, we told John we weren’t comfortable climbing a ladder with a chainsaw to cut branches down. The branches he wanted removed are very large and very high. John set the ladder up & went up himself. Feeling its unsteadiness, he tied the top of the ladder to the tree and went about hand sawing a branch. One down, then the big one. We expressed our concern about if he chopped through it, the way it fell: either destroying the fence below or (most concerning and probable) it would take him out as it fell (chainsaw in hand and all). He reckoned he was fine and up he went. Nervously we watched as the small chainsaw struggled to cut in. As he made the relief cut, he decided that his efforts were futile and gave up. Thank god. No calls to the ambulance today.

Happy the big branch was left untouched, he then explained to us tomorrows job: the large pile of branches in the chicken pen was for us to cut up & spread. Can do, ground work.

Turns out the mornings are for working, after lunch is ours.

We spent the rest of the day working on the Send it for the Strays project, tax (unsuccessfully) and photo edits.

Come the night, we sat and chatted to Paulie, a guy cycling around Australia to raise money and awareness for mental health in youth. It was interesting to see what he has done for his campaign and how we can learn from this for ours.

3am. Woken by the dog barking. Billy had found a snake in where we were raking leaves today … it was just trying to get out of her way but enough for us to realise we are going to have to be careful when gardening.

26th July – Darwin Day 3

Todays job: Break the sticks into smaller sticks.

John had asked that all the branches and sticks that had been chopped down, be broken down into smaller bits and laid across the floor of the chicken pen to break down naturally. Understanding the concept behind it but struggling to see a lack of progress as hours of work made it look just slightly less messy, I did as I was asked but in all honesty, I did struggle with the goal to spread the mess instead of clean it up.

The chicken pen situation

John had asked that all the branches and sticks that had been chopped down, be broken down into smaller bits and laid across the floor of the chicken pen to break down naturally. Understanding the concept behind it but struggling to see a lack of progress as hours of work made it look just slightly less messy, I did as I was asked but in all honesty, I did struggle with the goal to spread the mess instead of clean it up.

But work for the day done, we collected our camera equipment we had been waiting for: the new 16-35mm lens, wireless mics, on top mic, filters and torch. Getting back home we tried out the lens, at wide open 16mm… incredible, like a GoPro in wide but without the distortion and of course looking yummy.

Driving into Darwin city … kind of like Brisbane but not as taller buildings or as hectic busy.

The afternoon being ours, Astrid continued to work on FreeRoamChicks and Send it for the Strays. She has now drawn up a logo for FreeRoamChicks on the iPad. The drawing looking therapeutic and calming for her. While she was in design mode, Bec edited photos.

By nightfall, Justine had cooked dinner for everyone and we all sat around the table chatting for dinner. It was really nice & we enjoyed getting to know them a bit better. Justine then asked about us being photographers and spoke of needing some photos for her socials (she is in politics). We jumped at the opportunity, happy to help out. So tomorrow we head to the markets to take some photo’s for the website, social media and possibly record a video for website or socials. We are really looking forward to it, being back behind the camera.

27th July – Darwin Day 4

Todays job: photograph Justine. Perfect, not to spend the day breaking up sticks, instead we get to photograph! We loved it.

Come 9am we walked down to the local markets to find Justine. She had a stall setup (she is an independent political member for Darwin). We spent some time photographing her by her stall, unfortunately the lighting was a mix of dark with artificial light but we did our best. From here the photoshoot moved to the life drawing art studio (they were drawing food), another poorly lit room.

We got onto a winner when the artist, Tish, stepped outside with Justine for a shoot by the mural Tish had painted.

Justine and I then walked through the market while Astrid photographed us. The natural lighting and busy setting was perfect. As we walked, we talked, asking about each others lives.

Photoshoot over, Astrid and I walked through the markets to photograph, street photography style. This was my first go at this. I really loved it. It felt great to capture people and in a busy setting where we had lots of options to photograph.

A beautiful happy woman selling her vegetables

Grabbing some delicious take away Thai food, we walked back the house for a swim, lunch and to cull the photos.

The rest of the afternoon was spent coming up with designs for the Freeroamchicks logo. Until Justine and John asked if we wanted to join them for drinks and nibbles. Green mango and chilli … this is added to apero! It was incredible. The evening was so nice, we genuinely enjoyed sitting and talking to them. Polite chit chat is less, the conversations now having depth. We like them, they are gentle, intelligent and worldly. They also spoilt us by getting take away Thai and we sampled 5 delicious dishes. Thank you for the enjoyable evening Justine and John.

Although I did have a bucket load of energy (all we can put it down to was the coffee I had in the morning), which resulted in me doing yoga at 10:30 at night while Astrid finalised her logos.

The nights sleep … there was not much sleep. Between the possum, the rats and the birds… it was a loud night. These guys decided the roof was a race course and they should make as much noise as possible to celebrate the forest they live in.

28th July – Darwin Day 5

Todays job: move things in the yoga studio, errand run around for Pumba

Morning yoga session

Today started with yoga (much to Astrid’s dislike) then move furniture from a top loft to another studio. Moving things is what Astrid and I are good at. Nice easy job for us.
The rest of the day was consumed driving around Darwin looking for an isolator, a tap, crocs, bucket hats and groceries.
By the time we got home, their was only a small chunk of time before John excitedly showed us how he cooked using the tajine. Veggies, yummy home-made sauce and fish. It was beautiful! Even haloumi and beans for Apero. Poor Justine is exhausted; she is in parliament this week and it is draining her.

Johns delicious Tajine!

For us, the free time we spent brainstorming ideas for a logo for freeroamchicks. So far no outstanding winners.

Astrid's turned into more of a bath 😂

The only way to drink water. In tiny cups with the aim of not making the little ball inside rattle.

29th July – Darwin Day 6

Todays job: finish breaking up branches in the chicken pen.

A delayed start for Bec, as first she went to the dr to get a skin check. All clear, nothing to worry about. Then we got stuck into the chicken pen.

This time breaking up sticks into smaller sticks didn’t phase us. We spent the day chatting away in the chicken pen, naming the chickens until the big sticks were then smaller sticks. Turns out 3 of the chickens had gone broody and were hiding under the piles of sticks on eggs. Jenny (one of the broody hens) was quite shattered that we took the eggs and have re-arranged their pen.

Bec proud of herself for finding all these hidden eggs.

Rather proud of our work, we used some of these broken up sticks to screen in their laying house to encourage them to lay in there. Success, before dark one hen had laid in the new and improved chicken laying house.

John worked tonight and Justine worked late with Parliament yet John still made us dinner, the yummiest frittata.

30th July – Darwin Day 7

Todays job: Move things in the yoga studio’s

Waking and getting very distracted in the world of logo design left us just enough time for breakfast before meeting John at the yoga studio to give him a hand taking things down from loft, moving large items around and taking the screening down at the yoga studio. We even scored 2 yoga mats that were being binned.

A few hours here and the day was ours. Photo editing, logo design and Astrid getting a phone call to the girls.

Come night fall, Johns other guests arrived. A pair of musicians that are travelling Australia in their Electric Car. We sat chatting to one of them for a few hours before turning in for the night.

31st July – Darwin Day 8

Todays job: Deconstruct the front garden bed.

Ahhhhh the therapeutic feeling of going from messy, to tidy. A few hot hours in the sun today, we went from the front garden bed all messy, to taking it apart and spreading the dirt. Sounds boring and simple, this one felt good.

While we cooled and wound down, Bec worked on planning where we go in the NT before we head to East Arnhem Land. Astrid continued to work on logo’s and FreeRoamChicks. More logos, each one better than the last. Then Oriane came through: you don’t need a logo, you need a font: you just need Freeroamchicks. Suddenly we felt calm about it. Computers went down and we went out for a workout while we talked about it. We got this. Thanks Oriane.

The rest of the evening was spent getting to know Bron & Sophie, John and Justines guests. Rice paper rolls on the menu, we prepped and chatted and shared our love stories. It was really heart-warming to hear theirs, see them light up and to share ours. John got home and we all had dinner together, laughing and story sharing.

1st August – Darwin Day 9

Todays job: No job, house and dog sit.

Today we didn’t wake to gardening. Instead we woke to Justine doing naked yoga then a skinny dip in the pool. Love it, she is so true to herself. Bec has decided, she wants to be a combination of her Mum and Justine when she is older.

John and Justine are off for a festival, we are dog and house sitting for a few days. What totally cracks us up, Bron & Sophie aimed for 12 to leave (knowing it would be more like 2pm) … turned out to be nearly 4pm before they left. Come 4pm, we had the house to ourselves for a few days … no more scared pooping while someone sat on the lounge on the other side of the wall (hoping they heard nothing)! Ahhhh comfortable pooping for a few days 😁

We spent the day working (fuelled on chocolate croissants) on the Send it for the Strays project: choosing sponsors for the dogs and contacting a few shelters. While Astrid contacted shelters, Bec worked on the sponsor list for the farm truck then where to next before headed to Arnhem Land.

After a deflating rejection by the Darwin notice board, not accepting our volunteering services, we took Billie for a long walk. What to do when the energy levels feel low: margarita, carrots and dip 👌.

The night took an interesting and such a positive twist. Unimazing responded about his growth on Instagram. This started a conversation that went all night about our project and doing up the truck. He volunteered to help and said we can come and work at his workshop to do up the farm truck, that he will help us. Many back and forths, looks like we get the farm truck and fix it in Victoria. Oh and now we have a support car for the Cape, he is coming in his Patrol (with his partner Jess and dog, Jack). Lukas was the beacon of light tonight. We are very grateful!

YouTube binge

Watching some of Lukas (Unimazing) YouTube video's.

2nd August – Darwin Day 10

Todays job: House sit. Clean Pumba.

Well the most important job today was neither of those things. Today is the 1st day of Astrid’s birthday celebrations. House to ourselves, birthday just around the corner … I mean why have just one day of birthday, lets make it birthDAYS!!!

What does the first day look like: champagne and cake!

But before this we did have to get jobs done, to the shops to get groceries for dinner and cake (and buy party hats). Party hats … straight on our heads they went and didn’t come off. Grocery shopping, cleaning Pumba, dinner, cake … party hats are the must do fashion accessory for the next few days.

No shame, shopping, party hats and all.

Back home we got to tackle a job that we have been dying to do all week: wash Pumba. Wondering if the red had been baked on and stained … nope, 99% of it washed off (I mean there are a few tiny bits of Pumba that look like they have a red tinge now). This therapeutic task lasted for hours.

Would you trust this woman washing your car?

The birthday girl got home and straight to brownie cake making. Lactase down she could sample the goods as she made the mixtures. A beautiful brownie cake and Brazilian balls (Brigadeiro de leche) later, Astrid proudly came out to show Bec her creation. The hard part: not to eat them till cake time.

Astrid proud of her delicious chocolate cake, topped with Brigadeiro de leche

What does the first birthday evening look like: champagne, cake & dancing with the dog, Billie, of course. Wearing all the birthday hats we could we sang and danced away, sorry neighbours.

How good does 31 look?

3rd August – Darwin Day 11

Todays job: Pumba & iCloud

Some days, you blink and you miss them, today was one of those day. Wake, workout then to the chores: Bec to fix the winch and rubbers on the flares, Astrid clear the iCloud and sort the hard drives. Today was not exciting.

There were wins: Astrid has finally downloaded everything off the cloud and can now cancel the subscription & Bec got the winch working. There were casualties: Becs knuckle now lives in the front grill with the winch isolator.

The rubber on the flare …. it almost a do not talk about it. Lets just say after lots of fighting with it, Bec decided to take off the flare, Sika Flex (glue) it on, the reattach the flare … immediately worse. The fix: remove and go for a run then head to the markets.

Mindle Beach markets. An evening market on the beach. Possibly the most people we have ever seen on a beach in Australia. Come sunset, I think the whole of Darwin flock to enjoy the view. The smell of the beautiful foods cooking, the sound of live music and the views of a gorgeous sunset… one of the best markets! We scoured the food stalls and went to meet Jessie & Emma (@vancieandthetrio). And what was for dinner: Laksa. Turns out Darwin is mad for Laksa. Who would of thought a hot tropical place and the most recommended food to eat is Laska. So Laksa it was. Laksa on the grass listening to live music and getting to know Jessie and Emma. To be honest, we mostly talked drones and filming but it was great catch up. Chatting till the markets closed and headed back to our Darwin home.

4th August ASTRIDS BIRTHDAY – Darwin Day 12

Todays job: Wash everything, pack Pumba, grocery shop, clean the house to leave by 1:30pm to go get into a boat in a croc infested river (happy birthday my love)

Okay the to do list was long today. Set the alarm for sunrise (7am) aaaannnnnd GO!

The loads of washing were pumped out. We cleaned the house and the studio for John & Justine. Packed Pumba, grocery shopping, fuelled up ... I felt like we were stuck in double speed for the day. Timewise, we were cutting it close. Managed to get back in time to pack our clothes away & remake the bed (Astrid left a cute note for John & Justine). No time to pause.

2:50pm we arrived at the Adelaide River, 10 mins before boarding the boat.

The introduction to the croc jumping tour … the man with the Aussiest sounding accent with all the classic dad jokes. Rules: body parts inside the boat or the crocs will eat it, fair rule.

The boat started up, within the first minute or two of the tour, crocs were swimming up the river towards us. Neither of us expected the number of crocs, they were everywhere. How the tour worked, Dylan (the Aussies sounding tour guide) tied a chicken frame to the end of a stick like a fishing rod & dangled the chicken above the crocs. Being this close to the crocs was incredible. It felt totally different to discovering them on the river banks. The sound of their jaws as they chomped at the chicken was so loud and powerful sounding it was scary. Some of the crocs launched in the air & fell against the cage of the boat. Others waited in the water until the chicken came close to them and CHOMP. The crocs the “jumped”, well I can’t even call it jumped, the slowly wiggled while their bodies almost slow motion left the water.

We did learn a few things, the female crocs never get bigger than 3m. The males however keep growing. The big boys we saw were Brutus, an 80-year-old 4-5m croc and Dominator, a 100-year-old croc that had almost all of his teeth missing. They were huge. Coming within 30cm of us (just the cage separating us and these humongous creatures), gave us a whole new appreciation for the animal.

What the inside of a 100 year old croc mouth looks like ... almost toothless

The hour boat ride went fast, now exiting and off in search of camp in the land nearby. What we required for the birthday girl: a nice private campsite, Apero, margaritas and a prawn salad. Delivered.

Unfortunately, nature also delivered a complete mosquito invasion! Covered in Bushmans to enjoy Apero and margs until the swarm of mozzies was so bad I feared they would carry us away and we retreated into Pumba.