Destination.......Big Schmoke !!

Friday 30 June - Mon 3 Jul

We had a thoughtful drive after our morning in Arnhem Land into the big schmoke of Darwin. Such an incredible few days in Kakadu and I was certainly looking forward to a 4 night stop - which at this stage is our longest in one spot on our trip. 

Experiencing a Croc Tour of sorts on the way into Darwin was on the cards and the Woodies had mentioned Harry Morgan at the original Jumping Croc Tour on the Adelaide River. 

Mindil Beach, sunset.....

Young Kites practising flying

'The Dominator' !! 

Autumn trees with Croc in foreground !

'Charlie' The Kite ! 

What a hair raising time getting into what looked like a giant tinny with 25 others or so and a confident and gregarious Captain Harry at the wheel! For the next few hours we met quite a few crocs on this patch of the Adelaide River....Dominator, Brutus, Toothy, Blondey...and a few of their buddies as well as Charlie the Whistling Kite. The Salties size and power is incredible. When they were eating some slightly off buffalo meat off the hook....the sound of their jaws clapping together was fearsome and almost vibrated through you ! It's hard to imagine that per inch in a crocs jaw can punch down about a tonne of pressure....or something like that...a lot of pressure anyway! 

Mindil Beach Markets Territory Day !

We hit the jackpot with lots of Markets on in Darwin that weekend. The kids got some diaries and school work done with 'Sir' each morning we were there. Our first gallery was the Museum and Art Gallery NT. This was amazing and had the most extraordinary exhibition of Aboriginal Artworks named 'Tjungunutja -from having come together'. This incredible collection of artworks is the largest and most important group of Papunya paintings in the world. It was fabulous and I spent most of my time here. The kids also loved the Cyclone Tracey, as well as a Flora and Fauna exhibition - not to mention Sweetheart the 5 metre male croc who once ruled a billabong!!!

So it ended up I was dragged out of MAGNT and just as well as I could have spent the rest of the day there mooching round and soaking up info and the beautiful atmosphere. We ended up at the Parap Markets for lunch and just made it as it started to close at 2pm. We loved up some seafood laksa and the kids had a bucket load of Wontons in a soup.. lip smashing fabulous ! The lady who served us with Huges was a hoot! 'Yeh darl I know what you want - you want lots of wontons and no vegies you just like my son and he a tall boy too like you' in a broad Thai accent. And then there was the fresh mangoes - the best I've ever tasted so we bought some packaged fresh mango cheeks to have with breakys for the next few days.

Johnny Warrangula - 'Rain, lightning & stars at night' 1971

Some new Territorians....;) ;) 

After a drive around some of the CBD and coastal points in Darwin we joined the growing crowds at Mindil Beach for the 30th anniversary markets as well as a massive celebration for Territory Day. Oh my stars, the buzz, the crowd, the atmosphere - it was vibingly brilliant! So very awesome with great music from locals, and in between bands an awesome play list, with Killing Heidi and Pete Murray being the pinnacle acts before the fireworks!

Me & the 'Mrs' !

Sashy and her awesome parents!!

The kids loved their Burgers from the Roadkill Cafe and the Oysters - wowsers the Oysters were off the charts !! The only thing we didn't have was beer - as we didn't realise it was BYO (very poor planning really ;) ) ! The crowds grew and the fireworks were utterly spectacular....and then the fireworks across the city continued on until about 4am where we were staying. Such a shame we couldn't buy any as I think you had to have a Territory license to purchase!

Pete Murray

It was a wild ride home to the Tourist park we were staying at (which had the fabulous lullabies of airport one side and drag racing the other side) with fireworks whizzing off every where we looked out the car windows - just hilarious ! Stu reckons that given you can't swim in the bay for fear of crocs or box jelly fish - blowing off crackers once a year is pretty tame really. It was fabulous to celebrate Territory Day with loads of Territorians and tourists at such an incredible venue - they certainly know how the put on a great gig !! 

Amazing rock colours on the shores of East Point

Frangipanis - an all time fave ! 

Fanny Bay, Darwin

Our remaining time in Darwin we spent time at the RFDS & Bombing of Darwin which was fascinating, as the bombing of Darwin was something that I don't recall learning much about at school, neither did Stu. The kids loved time at the Darwin Waterfront wave pool for an arvo - especially after 'Sir' had worked them pretty hard that morning at school!! ;) ;) The Darwin Military Museum was also very informative and enjoyable with lots of hands on media resources the kids could listen and watch and learn from too. Darwin - such an interesting place with an eclectic history and a growing modern city. Lovely to have some time in town again before heading to Litchfield !