Yes, it was nice to be back in civilisation. With a small caveat.
After being in the middle of nowhere for so long, we had an enormous list of things to get done while we were in Darwin. I should say that while they mostly all needed to be done, our schedule was, to say the least, fanciful. We came into town just before lunchtime, and having parked the van for the night, we made for the nearest and biggest shrine to consumption. The kids were really keen to have sushi, so we scoured nearby Casuarina shopping centre and found some nice but expensive fare. It was a one horse sushi centre.
We struggled on through our massive list and managed one of the largest supermarket expeditions we have yet undertaken. Yet somehow we managed to fit all the groceries in to some place in the van. It was just wonderful to have so much fresh fruit and vegetables to choose from. (We have since emabrked on 'a week of delicious dinners', and a lot of the produce is gone.)
We struggled on through our massive list and managed one of the largest supermarket expeditions we have yet undertaken. Yet somehow we managed to fit all the groceries in to some place in the van. It was just wonderful to have so much fresh fruit and vegetables to choose from. (We have since emabrked on 'a week of delicious dinners', and a lot of the produce is gone.)
After a couple of days of schoolwork and jobs, we were thoroughly sick of the pace and pressure of getting everything done, and managed to find some time to see and do a few things. We really enjoyed the Northern Territory library, for a bit of school work in the cool, after we had a picnic lunch at Esplanade Park. Then it was time for Grandma and Grandad to arrive, and we continued on with the jobs with them, until we'd (again) had it with jobs and just wanted to see and do some stuff!
First stop was a lovely picnic lunch at East Point Reserve, followed by an afternoon wandering around the Defense of Darwin Museum. It was a reall eye opener to see how similar the attack was to Pearl Harbour, and then see how differently the two nations handled it. I think I will be reading the book An Awkward Truth.
Grandad was in his element of course, and a few stories of his time "on the boats" and in Australia after the war were had.
First stop was a lovely picnic lunch at East Point Reserve, followed by an afternoon wandering around the Defense of Darwin Museum. It was a reall eye opener to see how similar the attack was to Pearl Harbour, and then see how differently the two nations handled it. I think I will be reading the book An Awkward Truth.
Grandad was in his element of course, and a few stories of his time "on the boats" and in Australia after the war were had.
The next day was a doing day! We spent the afternoon at the excellent and free Leanyer Water Park. Both Grandma and Grandad got into the action. Grandad got dumped on by the big bucket, and they both went down the blue slide. We all had a lovely afternoon, cooling off and expending some energy. One highlight for Isaac was seeing an enormous amount of black and whistling kites circling around in the distance. There would have been about 200 or more of these large birds of prey in the skies just nearby.
We had to get food....well you have to! It was off to Mindil beach markets for dinner, and scouring the length of the food alley to find a cuisine for everyone. I think everyone had something different. Some of the highlights being, a paw paw salad, laksa, a couple of good curries, Indonesian satay, and a selection of vegetarian delicacies. We finished it all off with an ice cream, a smoothie or two and a cuffin (a cake sized muffin). It was a great market to wander around and although the locals are a little jaded about it, I don't think you can argue about how special it is to watch the sun go down over the sea, even with thousands of others. It was a really special experience, and amazing how quickly the sun sank below the horizon once it touched it.
Darwin....tick.
Darwin....tick.