Northern Territory

Sunday 20^th July 2008

Banka Banka Station, 18 47 33 S, 134 01 34 E, (440 Km).  Another good night free camping in a rest area,  having decided to have an early start this morning we were on the road just after 7:00 am and we had done 180 kilometres before we stopped for breakfast and a shower at 9:00am, the Barkly Tablelands remains rather sparse and the road, without corners for many long stretches at a time, only one car overtook us before the Three Ways Junction some 320 kilometres.  We took  Lyn’s advice (one of our Billy Tea friends) at Three Ways Junction and turned left to Tennant Creek and drove the extra 26 kilometres to the “United” Filling Station there to fill up with diesel the  saving being $16.80 on the cost of buying at Three Ways Junction, “thank you Lyn,” an  excellent  savings despite the extra 52 kilometres, which we didn’t waste using the “dump site” in Tennant Creek and visiting the old Telegraph station. We also had a great yarn for about 30 minutes with the tanker driver delivering fuel at the filling station and he told us all the cheaper fuelling points up to Katherine and some places of interest, he was also telling us the politics of  the Australian and World fuel prices.  Tonight we are at Banka Banka a cattle station on the “Adventurers Way” (the Stuart Highway), it is a little “oasis” the water coming from an underground spring and the camping area is really green,  in contrast with the rest of the area which, not having had rain for several months is really dry.  To-night we had a open air slide-show on Station life (UK = Farm, USA = Ranch), which was very interesting and enjoyable, it is certainly a tough life for the Jackaroo/Jillaroo’s on the stations but it does look like fun too.  I wouldn’t do it, I don’t like horses.  Forgot to mention we have gained a further ½  hour back from the 24 hours we lost crossing the dateline, Northern Territory is ½ hour behind Queensland,  hope it doesn’t upset my sleep pattern!

Monday 21^st July 2008

Daly Waters, 16 15 20 S, 133 22 12 E, (310 Km).  The drive today saw a dramatic change in the features of the landscape, gone is the grass and stunted trees, the ability to see over miles and miles of the dry centre and Barkly Tablelands to be replaced by different taller trees, grasses and bush of the wet Top End similar to that of Cape York, the more Northerly we go (again), we should see even more interesting scenery and Hot Springs and Gorges beckon, we might even see a creek that isn’t dry!  We stopped at a ”ghost town” just off the Stuart Highway, “Newcastle Castle Waters” was an old drovers town, which with the rise in road transport  was no longer populated, there was some old builders with information boards with the history on which were interesting. Tonight’s stop is at the Daly Waters Pub Caravan Park, the pub is reputed to  be one of the most eccentric in Australia with an unusual array of mementos left by travellers, just walking in to the reception/bar today we have seen bras, banknotes, business cards and even an old rusty bomb shell and there is still more to see.  We have booked for the “Beef and Barra’ barbeque tonight, could be interesting.

Tuesday 22^nd July 2008

Mataranka (176 Km).  What a great night at the Daly Waters Pub, we had a 7:30 pm sitting for our steaks which were delicious with Salad and Damper, we sat down as “Frank Turton the Chookman” started his nights entertainment singing, reciting poetry and telling jokes and wait for it…………… with a house with a drinking bottle attached as an hat complete with………..2 chooks sitting on the top (which he insists are Wedge-Tailed Eagles).  This guy is a nutcase and is well known for his eccentric behaviour, but he did make everybody laugh.  We had a good look in the bar, there was so much to see that I could not mention it all, Hats, Badges, ID cards, Bra’s, Thongs (UK = very small panties) all sorts of Bric-a-brac, a wall of Thongs (UK = Flip Flops) all signed by visitors to the Pub.  What did we leave as a memento? Use your imaginations!   After 3 days of  travelling high kilometres today was a short drive and we arrived at 11:00 only stopping at a World War II aerodrome to have a look round, however there are better examples of the strategic importance of the defence of Australia against the Japanese as we get closer to Darwin.  We “chilled out” and had lunch before we had a short walk to the Roper River which adjoins the campsite, tomorrow we will walk to “Bitter Springs” and swim in the thermal spring water which is a constant 32 degrees,  must remember not  to simmer as long as we did in New Zealand, I was a bit “overdone” there!

Wednesday 23^rd July 2008

We were woken at 6:30 am by some idiot on the campsite playing loud music, then we realised it was our new Telstra mobile phone, we had not heard the ring tone before.  By the time we found it (does this sound familiar) THAT PERSON had rung off, guess who?  Yes our daughter Rhiain, she does know that we wake normally at 7:00 am, what she didn’t realise (and I got the blame for not telling her) is that we had moved back a ½ hour when crossing in to Northern Territory,  It was nice to talk to her when we rang back  before she flew to some place in Europe called Monestar (well it’s something like that).  No hard feelings at waking us up early, but I hope the passengers today are all grumpy old men.  We have had a  really lazy day, the lady at the campsite told us about a Red Goshawk that was nesting in a tree in one of the paddocks nearby so we had a short walk to try to spot it, but to no avail.  We continued along the road to the Elsey National Park where the Bitter Springs Thermal Spring is, the water of the creek looked so inviting so we returned to the campsite to have lunch and we returned for a swim.  We swam over to the other side of the creek from the steps where there were rocks and sat up to our necks in the lovely crystal clear warm water, I then suggested we swim down the creek about 200 metres (with the current) to the bridge and then swim back, however the current was to strong to swim back so we climbed up the ladder and walked back to the start. Jenny refused to go back to fetch my thongs (UK=Flip Flops) which I thought was a bit mean, so I had to walk back along the gravel path in my bare feet, ouch.  We are having such a relaxed time here we are staying for an extra day and no doubt tomorrow will do something similar, i.e. not a lot.  Don’t bother to ring us we have turned our phones off, might be able to have a lie-in in the morning!

Thursday 24th July 2008

Could sum up what we did today in one word, nothing!  Well perhaps not quite, housekeeping was on the agenda or rather vankeeping,  Jenny busy with mop and bucket whilst I attempted to clean the windows, except it was to hot and there were more streaks on the glass when I finished than when I started.  We did discover not to park with the motorhome touching the leaves of a tree, a army of ants had decided to march along the rain gutter, go down the windscreen and underneath the bonnet, then not finding anything to eat, retreated back from the bonnet up the windscreen and back along the rain gutter.  We soon sorted them out, I moved the van to block their retreat, then swept the gutter to dislodge them, before spraying along with insect spray. UKGreyNomads 1 – Ants 0 and we were numerically outnumbered.  After such an exhausting battle we needed lunch before once again walking down to the creek to relax in the warm water, most of the people there are staying at the campsite so we had a bit of a yarn before walking back and having a shower.  There are a few more people on the campsite tonight as evidently a 2 metre long Saltwater Crocodile has decided to become a resident  at a campsite up the highway and they have had to close it.  Well at least he’ll have plenty of room to pitch his tent!  We will decide tomorrow morning whether to stay another day, problem being we have nearly run out of Milk (more importantly we have run out of Chardonnay) and there isn’t a Spar shop around the corner.

Friday 25^th July 2008

Katherine (106 Km).  We took the decision to the board and decided that we needed the Chardonnay Milk and voted to carry on to Katherine, not before I had walked down to the Creek early to take some photos before people arrived, it was quite photogenic with the mist on the water and walking back I nearly tripped over the tail of a Wallaby sitting in the road.  We must have chosen the right position to park in, as we left there was a caravan waiting to move into the same spot.  All good things must come to an end and next on the agenda was shopping for supplies at Katherine which is the only place of any size before Darwin and we are going to Kakadu National Park for a few days before then.  I have also left the waterproof camera for the photos to be printed (not strictly true as they are putting them on a CD), they are mostly of our time in the Cook Islands so take a look at them on the Cook Islands photo page when we have uploaded them.  The Katherine Hot Springs are only 500 metres from the back of the Holiday Park so we went for a walk to see what they were like, unfortunately we went the wrong way, (I should say I went wrong, because if I had listened to Jenny we would have been there 15 minutes earlier).  They were not as good as those at Mataranka’s Bitter Springs, they were a lot less natural with concrete walls and steps and the water was not as warm, still we will probably still come down for a soak tomorrow.

Saturday 26^th July 2008

Decided to have an extra day here and go to Nitmiluk Gorge which is approx 26 kilometres away from Katherine, the intention was to visit this part of the National Park on our return this way in a few weeks time but we thought we would take a look while we were here.  We do want to do one of the package tours from here so we visited the Visitor Centre to pick up a brochure to see what is available.  After lunch in the picnic area in the shade of the gum trees we thought we would do one of the walking trails, we decided on the “Baruwei Loop Walk” a 3.7 km 2 hour walk which takes you to a lookout with views along the No1 gorge (they are numbered 1 to 8) and 17 Mile valley.  We returned along the top of the escarpment and back towards the visitor centre and car park, it was extremely hot but very rewarding and the scenery spectacular.  Stopped at Woolworth’s on the way back for some wine, because of strict alcohol  restrictions in the Northern Territory we were only able to buy 1 x 2 litre carton ,so we bought one each and we had to show photo ID.  We thoroughly deserved the soak in the hot spring on our return to the campsite and had a yarn with a man on holiday from Taunton, Somerset.  We also collected the CD of our photos from the underwater camera (one of those Kodak disposable one’s) don’t bother looking on the website for them after all, they were rubbish!

I intend to live forever.  So far so good.

Sunday 27^th July 2008

Gungural Campground, Kakadu National Park, 13 17 30 S, 132 20 00 E, (246 Km). First stop this morning was at the Red Cross book exchange in the old Katherine railway station run by volunteers, it cost us $7 to change our 3 paperback books for 3 others, we have not bought a new book now since New Zealand and on some campsites it has cost us nothing, just one exchanged for another.  We then drove 26 kilometres off the Stuart Highway to Edith Falls in Nitmiluck National Park, we were rather disappointed when we got there the falls not living up to our expectation, we will however take another look at them on the way back and walk the trail to the top. Our lunchtime stop was at Pine Creek where the road to Kakadu branches off from the main highway to Darwin, we did take a look in the railway museum but being Sunday the inside exhibit area was closed.  After a “comfort” stop at Mary River Roadhouse and an ice-cream we continued to the “free” campground a kilometre off the Arnham Highway at Gungural, what a wonderful spot surrounded by trees and bush and only 4 other vehicles here, a peaceful night is on the cards.

Monday 28^th July  2008

Jabiru (106 Km).  A few people have asked us whether we will miss our garden when we are in a motorhome, waking up in Kakadu National Park after a night “free camping” in the bush, the answer is an emphatic no!   After over twenty years of having Kakadu on “my wish list” of places to see I had a lump in my throat when I finally realised I was here.  There was no moon last night therefore we were in total darkness the night sky was amazing and I had another try at taking photographs of the Southern Cross and other constellations but for reasons which I cannot yet fathom I have a red light source in the top left corner of the image, I will have to keep trying. We also saw a satellite orbiting only  the second time we have seen that, the last time at Lake Waikaremoana in New Zealand again on a totally moonless night.  Our first photo stop this morning was a picturesque creek which we don’t know the name of and for the first time we both saw an Estuarine Crocodile (Saltie), I spotted it as I walked across the road bridge but it submerged before Jenny had seen it, fortunately it resurfaced near some water lily’s about 20 minutes later and we were able to see it more clearly, we also saw a Sea-Eagle and Jabiru during our stay there.  Second stop and “smoko” was at Mirrai Lookout  a 1.6 km, 50 minute walk up a trail to the lookout for a 270 degree view over the Park, it was hot and arduous and we nearly gave in before reaching the top, we both needed to  wring our shirts out when we finally arrived at the shelter at the summit, however it was worth it.  We are staying in the small township of Jabiru, yes, the same name as the bird we saw earlier today, also known as the Black-necked Stork (but I guess that would be to long for a town name as well).  Kakadu Lodge Resort is another little oasis with a superb swimming pool which was very welcoming this evening for a refreshing swim, there is also a Bar and Bistro next to the pool so we might have a meal there tomorrow night, we have also booked a couple of tours which we will tell you about later.

Tuesday 29^th July 2008

First job this morning a quick foray into the township to buy some bread and milk and post a photo CD to Grace and Ian.  Grace had forgotten her camera when we went to Thursday Island so Jenny lent her the Nikon Coolpix and we downloaded those and others that I had taken of our Cape York trip and transferred them to a CD, (bet she immediately deletes some of them).  After a short walk around  Jabiru Lake we drove on to the East Alligator River at Cahill Crossing, we did part of  the Mangarre Walk in the morning seeing 4 large Estuarine Crocodile, (yes I know it’s called Alligator River but the explorer that named it many years ago didn’t  know the difference) sunning themselves on the bank, luckily the opposite bank from our track.  We also had to negotiate 4 trees full of Fruit Bats, what a stink!  A lizard amused us while we sat for lunch at the picnic table, bet his ants weren’t as appetising  as our pork sandwiches.  The afternoon we spent walking along the Bardedjilidji Walk (try saying that after a ginger beer), and it was the first time ever we have seen Mud Skippers which were walking/swimming/ sliding around the shallows of a billabong. We didn’t complete the walk because of the time, wanting to have a swim and relax around the swimming pool at the campsite.  We finished the day having a meal at the Bistro overlooking the pool, Jenny having the Barramundi in beer batter and I had Prawns with garlic and chillies, lovely meal and enormous helpings.

Wednesday 30^th July 2008

An earlier wake up this morning as we needed to be at the Reception at 7.30 for a pick-up to the airport.  We have booked a scenic flight with “Kakadu Air” in a light aircraft (at least it was light until Jenny got on board) over  Kakadu National Park and Arnhem Land.  Richard the driver and pilot picked us up in a mini-bus for our 15 minute drive to Jabiru Airport to board the Cessna C207.  What fantastic views, the dramatic escarpments, rivers, creeks, floodplains and forest, we knew this place was vast but only flying low and slow in an aircraft can you get a true perspective of just how large it actually is, driving “the park” even on the 4WD tracks you would only see a very small percentage of the area.  The pre-recorded commentary over our head-phones worked well with Richard “talking over” some of the important features of the landscape, pinpointing and flying round for views from both sides of the aircraft.  A fantastic flight and one we would thoroughly recommend. After arriving back at the camp site we decided to just have a day relaxing so took our books down to the swimming pool and “chilled out”. Tomorrow we shall be driving to Cooinda back tracking approximately 50 kilometres down the Kakadu Highway for our next  booked tour, this tour promises to be very interesting, watch this space!     

Thursday 31^st July 2008

Cooinda (56 Km).  Just a short drive back along the Kakadu Highway to Gagudju Lodge at Cooinda, we are meeting our tour at 1:00 pm Kakadu Animal Tracks Safari to “experience the real taste of Kakadu”, away from all the other tourists, “the tour is for open-minded people looking for an earthy, eye-opening, unique and non-commercialised experience”.  So Sean our driver and guide collected us in a mini-bus and drove us out to the bush, first stop ( and probably the most important) was to pick up Patsy an Aboriginal lady who was to accompany us, then we stopped at the Billabong on her land to try our first “bush tucker”.  Sean and Patsy waded into the water for Water Lily’s or actually the seeds and stem and they tasted very nice too! Next stop was in the bush for root tubers which once we had identified the type of plant we were able to dig up ourselves (these were for our meal later on).  Next a real test???? Green Ants! Patsy got bitten a few times as she crushed the nest  in her hands handing a bunch around the group, dare we say it, a nice taste of citrus.  After a short drive we reached the flood plain were Asian Water Buffalo grazed, they looked a bit mean so we didn’t add one to our food cache, Patsy did grab a handful of fruit  from the side of the track with the help of a couple of young children who were on the tour, the fruits tasted a bit like Apricots our last stop to collect bush tucker was at a lagoon where we dug along the bank for Water Chestnuts, the “mozzies” were ferocious there so we didn’t get to many. Gindjala (Goose Camp) was our final destination to view the birds in the lagoon (there were thousands), watch the sunset  and cook the food in a gungehdi (ground oven).  Sean made Damper and brewed billy tea, while Patsy with our help (Oh yes I did) plucked the Magpie Goose and Whistling Duck she had bought with her before roasting it on the fire, with the root tubers and Water Chestnuts being cooked separately.  Watching the birds and the sunset we ate our bush tucker and enjoyed ever morsel of it ( you can stick your MacDonald’s were the sun don’t shine, unless they produce a Greenantburger with Water Lily  stem fries). After dropping Patsy off at her home and saying goodbye in her language (which Sean had taught us) we returned to the campsite at 8:15 pm, having had a truly memorable experience.

Friday 1^st August 2008

After a terrific tour yesterday an experience we will not forget, we were at the pick-up point at the camp site at 6:25 am (I kid you not) for the short shuttle-bus ride to Yellow Water Billabong for a 2 hour sunrise cruise along the billabong and South Alligator River.  A lady we spoke to at Mirrai Lookout on Tuesday told us that the early morning  was the best time to go on the cruise and she wasn’t wrong.  I could write a long list of the different birds we have seen this morning, from the tiny Azure Kingfisher to the mighty Jabiru and everything in between, the colour of the water, trees and vegetation in the early morning sunlight was a delight and we also saw some very large Croc’s. Tricia our Aboriginal guide and driver of our boat (a large aluminium punt with electric engines) was so enthusiastic and passionate about “her” river and her knowledge of the flora and fauna was staggering, and at times quite amusing and whilst the other boats seemed to go along at 20 kph and disappear up the river, we glided slowly, silently along and saw I am sure much more than the people on the other boats did. Like Patsy yesterday who spotted a large grasshopper on a tree as we were driving along, Tricia also pointed out so much that we would have missed. Digressing slightly from the tour, again it was so noticeable, like Patsy yesterday and Chocko on our Cape York trip how respectful they were of the parents and grandparents and how important the knowledge of their ancestors is to them. After having breakfast Jenny caught up with some washing  and we spent the rest of the  day relaxing at the pool side, this campsite having a “lagoon type” swimming pool with again some grassy areas to lie on.  We were going down to the Billabong to watch the sunset but by the time we had eaten our tea (no bush tucker tonight, boring Spag’ Bol’,) we missed it, still there’s always tomorrow although we are not sure what time we get back from our “Kakadu Waterfall & Gorge Tour”

Saturday 2^nd August 2008

Another early start this morning  7:30 pick-up for our “Kakadu Waterfall & Gorge Tour”, Jared was our driver and guide today for the drive to Twin Falls and Jim Jim Falls, actually perhaps it should be called just Jim Jim because the actual waterfall stopped about 2 weeks ago.  The drive first of all to Twin Falls was approximately 12 kilometres of bitumen, 50 kilometres of gravel and the last 12 kilometres 4WD.  The way in to Twin Falls was interesting at one time people were able to wade or swim up the gorge to the beautiful sandy beach at the base from the track end, however the Fresh Water Crocodiles (not the “Salties) started to become aggressive so nowadays there is a free ferry up to the base in an aluminium punt with an electric engine which is summoned by a “walkie talkie” left on the bank side.  There is about  a kilometre to walk  in total from the car park to the track and then from the ferry landing to the falls including a walk along a pontoon, negotiating the large rocks on the way was very tiring so we deserved our Muffins that Jared had bought with him for our morning smoko.  As there is no swimming allowed in the river or the waterhole at the falls ($5,000 fine and probably a eaten limb) it does mean a decent photograph can be had.  If we thought it was tough reaching the base of Twin Falls then we had not reckoned with the walk into Jim Jim, we stopped for lunch at a pleasant slab of rock on the waters edge 400 metres from the car park, you are allowed to swim in Jim Jim Creek as there is a Crocodile (“Salties” in this one)  removal plan at the start of the dry season, however if they removed them all why was there a trap in the water right opposite?  The further 500 metres to the “plunge pool” at the base of Jim Jim took us over a hour of climbing around, over and through a massive boulder field along the side of the gorge.  When we did eventually arrive we were knackered  exhausted, I told a lie earlier the falls were not completely dry, there was a trickle still coming over the escarpment at the top but nothing like the flow over Twin Falls, (Jim Jim Falls catchment area is only from rainfall in the wet season from the Arnhem Plateau , whereas Twin Falls is fed by a spring also on the plateau).  It was tough walking  stumbling back to our transport but we finally made it, luckily we could replenish our water bottles in the creek which was far more pleasant than that from out of the tap at  Jabiru which was heavily chlorinated.  We did get back to Cooinda in time for the sunset over Yellow Water Billabong so that finished off a tiring but very enjoyable day.  Might have a lie in tomorrow!

Sunday 3^rd August 2008

Annaburoo (225 Km).  What a great start to the day, free Pancakes with treacle and cream at the campsite before we left, (good job really as we have run out of fresh fruit).  The first stop today was at Mardugal Billabong walk only .5 kilometres along the forest track to the edge of the water, other than the forest birds there was no other signs of life so we walked back to the car park.  The Nourlangie area is only 22 kilometres away so we decided to spend some of the day there, having a morning smoko at the picnic area at Anbangbang Billabong before walking the perimeter which was about 2.5 kilometres.  I did extra distance because we spotted a bird we had not seen before (a White-necked Heron) so I walked back to get the super-zoom lens, I did tell Jenny to go but she refused preferring to sit in the shade waiting for me, (what happened to those wedding vows?).  A great walk lots of different birds, colourful water lilies and very photogenic with Nourlangie Rock forming an impressive backdrop, no wander they say that this is one of Kakadu’s most attractive Billabong’s.  Time for our lunch and while Jenny (who was still feeling the after effects of yesterday’s walk to Jim Jim falls) prepared it, I climbed the 600 metre Nawurlandja Lookout which gave me an excellent view of the Arnhem Escarpment, Nourlangie Rock and Anbangbang Billabong, we ate our lunch sitting in the shade of the picnic area’s covered seating having a yarn to another couple of visitors from Adelaide.  Our last stop today was at Mamukala Wetlands, what a fantastic place, a observation platform allows you to view the bird life across kilometres of wetland, there were thousands of water birds there and when something “spooked” them (probably a raptor of some sort) they took off with a roar, it was most impressive.  We were there a lot longer than we intended so we were rather late finding a campsite the sun was well on its way down when we finally left Kakadu National Park and arrived at Annaburoo Billabong.  What a lucky find, doing a slalom along a short stretch of gravel road using Wallabies as “gates”, we arrived at a superb bush camp site, right on the side of the Billabong, no power but for $15 it was a great location, I even found a lady in the mens showers cos’ she said there were Cockroaches in the Ladies (no, I did not put them their).  It is a pity we can only do without power to recharge the leisure battery for the fridge, etc for approx 16 hours otherwise we would have stayed there an extra day.

Monday 4^th August 2008

Darwin (106 Km).  No wonder some days we don’t get far, we had only done 3 kilometres before we got to the Mary River Rest Area and stopped for a cup of tea! We did want to look at the river walk there but it didn’t look to interesting so we decided to continue to the “Window in the Wetlands” Visitor Centre.  The centre provides an overview of the wetlands, with information on the wildlife, seasonal changes and the problems of feral weeds and animals (Buffalo and Pigs).  The top floor of the centre commands fine views across the floodplains so we stopped quite some time looking at the interpretive information boards and using their binoculars, we spotted a Cattle Egret on the back of a large Bull Buffalo so when we left we drove along the gravel road to take a picture of them.  This road leads to the “Jumping Croc” departure point for the tour up the Adelaide River, we decided not to go on the tour preferring to see these magnificent reptiles in their true environment and not being used like “circus animals”.  The cupboards are rattling a sure sign that we need to replenish the larder, our “blue book” had a long list of shopping requirements so we stopped at the first Woolworth’s we saw on the main road into Darwin.  We are stopping at the Big4 FreeSpirit Resort for at least the next couple of days, we are still a few days ahead of schedule so we will decide shortly how long we want/need to stay in the City, hopefully we will also be able to get the website up to-date with some of our “Kakadu” photo’s, a special place that we will never forget.

Tuesday 5^th August 2008

As you can probably gather we have not been able to access the Internet whilst in Kakadu National Park so today we caught up with updating, this is quite time consuming especially the uploading and then editing of the photographs as it is a slow process. However, sitting by the pool sipping a Rum & Coke while working on the laptop helped.  Also we checked all our emails and if we have not done so already we will answer them as soon as we can.  We did have some good news, we have won the UK lottery again, the second time in a month.  No begging emails please it was only 2 tenners and NO, I’m not telling you our numbers!  The motorhome was looking a bit dirty on the outside, didn’t notice until we were parked next to another of the same type (actually with the Rego’ only 2 numbers  away from ours) which  obviously had just been collected from Darwin, so I decided to give it a wash down with a bucket of water and a broom.  Curry night at the campsite Bistro tonight, oh no it isn’t, Jenny (oh yes it was) had misread the information sheet.  With no meat taken out of the freezer we really enjoyed the Tuna salad sandwiches, honest.

Wednesday 6^th August 2008

Our third visit to Darwin, albeit all we saw on the 2 previous occasions was the inside of the airport terminal when we disembarked while the plane was refuelled en-route  from Cairns to Singapore.  The first job this morning though was to find a Hairdresser for Jenny to get her hair cut, the receptionist at the camp site suggested “Cutterz & Minx” in Palmerston a suburb of Darwin and gave Jenny a 10 per cent off coupon, Palmerston is only 4 kilometres away and the bus stop was right outside the camp.  The No8 bus duly arrived on time and it was a nice surprise that “senior’s” had free transport for the next 2 weeks, we must be looking older because he didn’t ask for proof of age!  After Jen’s haircut (the hairdresser made a far better job of it than I would have done), we caught the No8 bus again, Darwin city centre  and main shopping area is a fair distance from where we were staying so the “free fare” was a even bigger bonus and we arrived just in time for lunch.  After a stroll around the shops we walked along the Esplanade a nice quiet parkland along the harbour looking at the information boards at different points.  Darwin has 2 main pieces of history, 1942 when the Japanese bombed it using 188 aircraft and 1974 when Cyclone Tracy devastated large areas of the city on Christmas Eve both regrettably with high losses of life.  We also spent some time at the information centre deciding what to see before leaving Darwin, we will probably visit the Aviation Museum tomorrow and we have already booked the mini-bus which takes us to the famous evening Mindil Market from the camp site.  

If you don’t think pushing 63 is hard, wait till you start dragging it.

All images on this website are copyright of Alan and Jennifer Morris and may not be used without prior written permission.