In Darwin

EDIT: I have added an awesome wildlife sighting to the bottom of this post!!!

This morning, after a scare wherein the airport shuttle literally forgot about me, I managed to get to the airport with plenty of time to spare and actually slept through the three hour flight from Perth to Darwin. I am now up in the northern part of Australia, where there is no winter. Today it was around 90 degrees, and it is a little humid, although I have heard that it is nothing compared to the Wet, where it is not only 95+, but rains pretty much every day and the humidity soars.

I am so happy to be in the warmth. I stepped off the plane and the sky was blue and the sun shining. I had no issue getting to my hostel, which is right in the middle of the city (not like Darwin is much of one, but eh). There is a tank with a young crocodile in the lobby, and at nights they take him out and let people hold him. The hostel also has a huge pool and deck, with a bar and restaurant. As soon as I checked in and purchased sunscreen from the drugstore, I ran to the pool and just lay out there for a good two hours. It was really nice, although I won't even go into the kind of complex I am currently having about the way I look (see: HUGE).

Tomorrow I am going on a two day excursion into Kakadu National Park. My greatest wildlife wish for this trip is to see a frilled lizard; we are going to be hiking right in their habitat. I am SO excited to be going! Unfortunately it will be another early day, and I am exhausted, so I'm going to head to my room soon after this.

Sadly, this hostel doesn't have any facilities that let me hook up my laptop to the internet, so you will have to wait until I'm in Alice Springs to see the pictures I'll be taking. I'll still keep you updated, though! Assuming I don't get eaten by a crocodile.

I also wanted to point out that I have now been to three of the eight Australian states: South Australia, Western Australia, and Northern Territory. Exciting! I can already tell that it will be a total (and unpleasant) shock to go back to school after all of this.

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So after I wrote that, I decided to get a drink on the patio, as the sun was just going down, it was pleasantly cool, and the deck looks over the ocean. I was reading my book and ended up in a conversation with a really nice guy who is in the New Zealand army and is on a break from a six-month peacekeeping mission in Timor. ANYWAY, there is a big tree that has a spotlight on it next to the deck, and as we were talking I kept seeing these huge black birds flying past the light. I assumed they were crows or ravens; they were GIGANTIC and had a huge wingspan. At a lull in the conversation I actually looked over at the swooping figures, and noticed something really... odd about the wings. They weren't big and feathered, they were leathery and had fingers running down the legnth of them.

"Wait... that's a BAT!!!" I said, once again flailing and appearing twelve years old.
"Holy *&$@, that's a BAT!!!" the guy I was talking to yelled, and ran off the deck. I do not know exactly if this says anything about NZ soldiers.

So I saw my first flying foxes. They apparently are all over the place here. If you don't know what a flying fox is, look up a picture of one. They are really, really cute, with doglike faces, and they eat fruit. They are, however, ridiculously huge. Like, however big you think they are, they are MUCH bigger when they are flying around your head. Amazing animals. I am so excited about them.

Okay, now back to finally get some sleep on my girls only floor, which I am very grateful for after sharing my last dorm room with three Irish blokes. Then, tomorrow, rainforest!