Days 14 - 18

Thursday - Litchfield to Darwin
No rush this morning to pack up as it wasn't a long drive to Darwin. We let Chantelle go and play with her new friends she met the day before while we slowly packed the camper up. Left the campground around 10am and resisted the temptation to stop in at all the waterfalls we passed again as we left Litchfield. A quick look around Batchelor and we were soon back on the highway heading north towards Darwin which didn't take long at all. Dotted throughout this northern region are remnants of WW2 locations and they are signposted, some of which are accessible and others not. They range from base camp sites, hospital sites but the predominant that is seen are the air strips, especially around Batchelor and along the highway itself. All that remains are the bitumen of the strip itself but it does give an indication to the extent of military operations that took place during that period when Australia was literally under attack. We hope to learn more about this while in Darwin.
 

Remnants of one of the buildings hit by a bomb in Darwin city.

 
Soon we were turning into the Shady Glen caravan park and once the camper was up lunch was had and the first thing on the agenda was to find a medical centre as Fiona has had a persistent cough that has been waking her up at night. The ladies at the reception desk were very friendly and soon had us on our way to one at the Casurina shopping centre where the wait wasn't too bad. A bit of shopping done as well then it was back to camp for a quick stop before heading to the Mindil beach night markets. If your going to come to Darwin during the dry season then make sure you are here on a Thursday or Sunday night as these markets are fantastic. All sorts of food stalls are available with a generally Asian feel to a lot of them while situated right next to the beach. The number of people who buy their dinner and head to the beach to watch the sunset in unbelievable and we joined them there on our little patch of sand with camera at the ready. Chantelle wasn't too interested in the sun setting but was keen on building sand castles and couldn't wait to get her bucket and spade out which we have carried all the way from Sydney. She was now in her element. Once the sun had set we returned to the camp site for our first nights sleep in Darwin.
 

There was even a stall selling puppets.

Sunset never seemed so popular .

 
 
Friday - Monday
We had planned to stay in Darwin for a total of 4 nights but on the 4th night we decided to stay one more day as there was a couple of other things we wanted to do before we left and we could adjust our itinerary to fit it in.
Rather than explain what we did on each day we will list the things we did while in this northern capital.
 
Wave pool - this is a relatively new feature to Darwin, opened in 2009, it's located on the waterfront near the wharf area and is a must for anyone wanting to cool down, especially with kids. It's pretty cheap and we had heaps of fun for a couple of hours bobbing up and down in the waves in the red tubes.
 

Fiona and Chantelle enjoying the waves.

 
Military museum - located at East Point this should be a must for anyone interested in Australian history (actually anyone who is Australian at all) as this is predominantly built to house information and artefacts from the period when Darwin was bombed during WW2. Its now housed in a new building which was opened earlier in the year to mark the 70th anniversary of the bombings. I think the biggest misnomer is that Darwin was bombed once like Pearl Harbour, in fact it was bombed on 64 separate occasions in nearly a 2 year period. We found it totally captivating to learn what actually went on up here as we were never taught this while at school.
 

 
Art gallery with cyclone Tracey exhibit - there is a permanent exhibition here focussing on the cyclone that destroyed Darwin on Christmas eve 1974. It has quite a few photos and a room which you go into which in black and only has the sound of what the cyclone sounded like (audio taken while the cyclone was actually happening). Again this was interesting and the rest of the gallery was quite good too as it had fishing exhibits and other things which took our interest.
 
Mindil beach night markets- as mentioned earlier, these are a must for anyone who visits Darwin and needs to eat.
 

 
Oil storage tanks - during WW2 it was determined to build underground oil storage tanks as all oil stored in Darwin was in the one area right by the water waiting for some planes to fly over and blow them all up. All up 6 large tanks were built but never actually got used for storing oil. One of these tanks is now open to the public to view and it is the longest of all the tanks (not sure of length). Access to it is through an entrance tunnel which itself is 42 metres long. Along the walls of the tanks are picture boards with images from the war time around Darwin as well as large fans to help circulate the air. One of the other tanks is viewable but only through a small opening as it now has water running though it (which wouldn't be any good for oil).
 

 
Fish feeding at Doctors gully - this has been a feature of Darwin for years. Basically on each high tide the fish come into this location to be fed by anyone willing to stand there and throw some bread in the water. It's fun watching all the people and Chantelle loved it. She was a bit cautious at first about standing with her feet in the water but before too long she was down there going through bread like there was no tomorrow. Lots of fun.
 

 
Crocodylas park - there are 2 places in Darwin you can go to see crocodiles. One is in the centre of town while this one is near the airport. We were advised to see the one out of town and here there are hundreds of crocs of all sizes and quite a few big ones too which get a feed every few hours during one of the guided talks. Fiona and Chantelle even got to hold the large stick to feed a croc at one stage.
 

These crocs are about 3 years old.

 
Dinner on Stokes Hill wharf - we thought at first there were these swank restaurants out on the end of this wharf but when we finally got out there we only found one flash place but a few others that did were more like a take away which suited us fine. So our last night was barra and chips on the wharf.
 

The flash restaurant at the end of the wharf.

We went for the take away fish and chips.

View back towards Darwin city.

 
While in Darwin we also did the domestic things in life like catch up on all the shopping including souvenirs etc, as well as a big load or 2 of washing. Best part was there was hardly a cloud in the sky the whole time we were there combined with temps about 30c and the washing dried in no time. Also with a strong Internet connection it gave us a chance to catch up on quite a few days of blog entries.
 
 
Even with 4 full days in Darwin we still left with things on our to do list. Some of those include:
Air craft museum with B52 bomber, sunset cruise on the harbour, ferry to mandorah, fishing trip, visit Melville island, see a movie at the deck chair cinema (we would have done this now but there were no movies that would suit a 4yo)
We would also like to make mention of the the friendly staff at the caravan park who helped out on all occasions. Even when Fiona asked about where to get good barra for dinner the lady working there said she had plenty at home from a fishing trip to the roper river and brought us a big fillet. Yumm.
 

The barra fillet we had for dinner.

 

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