June 25th, 2019
Today was a travel day for us. We said goodbye to our rental car which served us well as a car and a home on Australia’s East Coast. I was so thankful we covered all those miles without any incidents. Even a door ding or a chipped window would have been crappy since we declined all of the expensive insurance on the car. We turned in the keys and got on the plane. It was just over a 2-hour plane ride from Cairns to Darwin. We only have 3 days in Darwin before we fly to Singapore, but we debated on renting another car and camping some more as there are a couple more National parks in the area. I made an executive decision though and decided to go for a hostel in a central area of downtown. We took an airport shuttle to the hostel and checked in. We got a private room and it’s funny how now, just a hostel seems to be luxurious compared to sleeping in the car. The hostel was nice and had a pool, bar, and rooftop sundeck. It’s right on the main street in Darwin that has lots going on. It’s also just one block up from the water. We even have a little mini fridge in our room on top of the hostel’s community kitchen. We walked to the grocery store and got some fresh food for the next couple of days. Brendan has been wanting to try kangaroo and we were told the best way was to just buy the meat and make burgers out of it. We got some kangaroo burgers and cooked them for dinner.
I’m not exactly sure how to describe the taste of the meat. Not super different tasting from beef, but definitely not beef. A really mild sort of game meat maybe? I don’t know, but I wasn’t a fan. I had a couple of bites and gave the rest to Brendan while I ate half of the bun and cheese. We also tried Vegemite and that was horrible! We had it on toast with butter and it tasted like rotten, black, salt spread. I really don’t understand how that is a thing people like. We had a pitcher of happy hour cider from the bar and chatted with some people who just drove the Western part of Australia. It was nice to retreat to a bed at the end of the night.
I can’t believe B wanted to EAT kangaroo after feeding and playing with those adorable little wallabies. LOL… I’ve never heard of the rotten black salt stuff “vegemite” but if you make it to Iceland I think they have similar tasting cuisine in their typical diets. People evidently adapt their taste buds to conform to their culture. I’m so happy and thankful you had no rental car incidents, thank God and skillful driving chops!