With the folks in tow, we couldn't believe we were heading for Darwin. It had seemed so far away on our map of Australia and we were nearly there. We were concerned at the prices of some of the parks here. One supposedly 'nice' park was going to cost us around $60 a night! On the way in we checked out a park at Howard Springs (on the outskirts of Darwin) and we went down the back to an area they had just opened up. It was great - heaps of space, green grass and the best pool we have come across yet on our trip. This for $34 a night and only 8 minutes from the other park. As it turned out some other travellers who had been at the other expensive one had heard of this park and upon coming for a sticky, packed up and moved over here!
In the city we caught up on the usual Macca's and Subway and nearly got ourselves lost in the Casuarina Shopping Centre - it was huge compared to what we're use to! We had heard about the Mindil Market and how they get 10,000 people there. Well I have no idea how many it was but it was shoulder to shoulder by the time we left. There were heaps of food stalls and local artists with a huge array of things to buy. Certainly worth going to. One night we went out to the Fisherman's Wharf with Mum and Dad and although we had no luck (Dad did get a Catfish) the girls were able to find us a Barra Burger and chips.
The local museum was fantastic. They had a great display on Cyclone Tracy, including a sound room with a recording of the storm that sounded incredible. The noise was booming and you could hear things crashing and scraping; it scared the kids just a little bit! The whole town was basically wiped out and the pictures looked like those of Hiroshima after the Atomic Bomb. We also heard from other travellers (we didn't read it) that there was a hippy community living along the beach that the council were sick of. After the cyclone no traces of them were found and none of their deaths were recorded, as if they didn't exist! I guess it fixed the problem for the council...Also on display was 'Sweetheart', a local 5 metre Croc that was attacking boats back in the 70's. It was huge, yet they get them even bigger with reports of 6 and 7 metre crocs from the past and present.
We caught up with Sharyn's cousin Ange, who is working up here for a few months and while she was out on one of the islands she got some sort of bite on the ankle and it swelled up into a huge blister like a mini golf ball. We drove her to the Royal Darwin Hospital and after a 5 hour wait she finally had it seen to. Luckily our kids are so good, they hardly complained at all. It wasn't the best circumstances in which to catch up but we got in some good quality chatting time and Rory took quite a fancy to her and added Ange to his 'Favourite Girls List'!
We also caught up with Jasmine, who taught our nephew Luke a few years ago in Lara. She was so nice, taking us into her classroom and having a big chin wag about travelling and life in Darwin. Some of the things she found quite different to Victoria included the education standards, which she thought were about 5 years behind Vic and the general education levels themselves were much lower than equivalent Vic kids. Probably not surprising with the laid back attitude up here. The lack of water conservation was a shock too, coming from drought plagued Victoria. The school had a water fun day, with things like the old 'Slip'n'Slide', water bombs and anything else that uses copius amounts of water. She was sold on the lifestyle though and we too have enjoyed the lifestyle in these places, with it starting around Broome. Anyway Jasmine was sweet and it's wonder Sharyn's family are so fond of her.
Mum cooked us another roast and it was just the best. Geez have I missed a roast. Dad and I thought we would try our luck again at providing for the family and went out on a half day fishing charter. They reckon the fishing is the best up the Top End but obviously old Darwing Harbour is fished out because not much was caught on the whole boat. The one saving grace was a huge Coral Trout, around 30 pounds, which was divided up amongst us and Dad cooked it the next day. It was 'oooh' and 'ahhh' kind of stuff (I'll have what she's having), just a beautiful tasting fish.
Since we were staying in Howard Springs we checked out the springs themselves. It was a small lake surrounded by tropical trees and you could feed the turtles and huge Barramundi and huge they were. Check out the photo of Sharyn feeding one. We went to Aquascene where you can also feed fish. It was a feeding frenzy with hundred of Diamond Scaled Mullet, Catfish, Milkfish and the occasional Batfish. Something to see. The Military Museum was really good too and the kids loved it. Being Southerners, we had no idea as to the extent of the bombings in Darwin and how a lot of it was kept quiet to the rest of the country so no-one went into a panic! The southern newspapers reported 43 deaths when it fact it was 243. Were they serious? Here we were being bombed by the Japanese and they didn't want the rest of the country to really know about it? Apparently Northern Queensland towns were bombed too but it was a case of "lets just stick our heads in the sand and pretend it isn't happening OK?". This museum is another must see if you're up here.
I've already mentioned the water waste above but it's just everywhere. Here in the park, when a van moves they put a sprinkler on its spot and let it run non-stop for 24 to 48 hours! The gardens are watered constantly, regardless if it's the middle of the day, the wind's blowing the water elsewhere etc etc. After we've had no water to do that in Vic for so long, we just can't get out heads around it, especially since we though the hot North would be dry. Not so thanks to the wet season, big rivers, Lake Argyle and the massive underground water table...it's limitless (or appears to be).
Speaking of water and weather, apparently Darwin is experiencing a cold spell. The local paper had a picture of a girl in a big coat and beanie and the story of how the night temps have dropped below 20 degrees! It hit 19 or something and the locals think it's freezing, it's so funny. They would die back in Alex or Ballarat where night temps have been hovering above and below 0 degrees. The girl in the picture said she was looking forward to camping with a camp fire to help keep her warm on those freezing 19 degree nights...
I have to add another character to our list of interesting people (Sharyn thinks I'm just jealous but he was a real tosser). One day in the pool in hops this youngish bloke built like Adonis with hair slicked back. Anyway he jumps in the water and when he comes up he brushes his hair back and sitting on the edge of the pool he looks across his arms and chest to see the sun glistening off his muscles and then looks up with lips pouted like he's in some fashion shoot. I can't help myself so I start laughing but then he goes even better. He gets out of the pool, drops down his board shorts to reveal his little speedo togs. Then he drops down onto the grass and proceeds to do some sit-ups and crunches! At this stage Sharyn was talking on the phone so she missed the speedos (thanks Ange!) and we were thankfully walking out, so he only had some primary school girls playing in the pool to impress. If I had of thought of it (and maybe after a few drinks) I would have dropped down next to him to do some sit-ups and made conversation like "isn't it hard to keep in shape when you're travelling", or "do you keep your tan up by sunbaking or using a solarium" or maybe "who can you recommend to do a Brazillian around here?". Next time.
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