Darwin, an extended stay...

Wow, it's hot up here. It's the middle of winter, daytime average has been around 34 degrees, which we love. The nights we're not loving so much. Two nights ago the temp didn't drop below 28 degrees until 5am...and when you're sleeping in a tent, that's not much fun! Last night was slightly cooler...and we were probably so tired from the night before that we all slept a bit better. Grant even bought another tent which is entirely screen...Harry and Charlie slept in there, grant even joined them for a while!


So we arrived here in Darwin on Sunday, expecting to leave this morning (wed)...but the tyre which we had been assured was in stock, it turns out has to ordered and sent from Adelaide, and won't arrive until Friday. This was disappointing news as we are really looking forward to spending some time in kakadu, and would prefer not to spend so long here in Darwin...but we have no choice of course. We have already gone without a spare tyre for a week.

Darwin is actually quite a beautiful city. It's had more than it's share of disasters with the bombings and attacks during ww2, and more recently the devastation of cyclone Tracey, which saw almost the entire city evacuated in 1974. The cyclone hit on Christmas eve, so I'm sure Christmas day is bittersweet for many of the residents who returned and live here today.
We have visited the museum/art gallery, which contains a haunting display from the cyclone disaster, including a dark room where you can listen to the sound of the cyclone howling above you. It must have been terrifying.
Yesterday we also visited the old gaol, the conditions that prisoners lived in were appalling -I guess prison isn't meant to be comfortable, but corrugated walls and ceiling, no windows and no trees must have made the extreme temperatures unbearable. The boys were surprised that there was also a children's section in the prison...we threatened to lock them up and leave them there if they didn't behave...but they just laughed at such a ridiculous idea!









We have also had some added excitement with a military operation called 'pitch black'. Fighter jets have been roaring overhead during the day, and sometimes at night as well. A local guy told us where to watch them taking off so we stopped off on the way back from the museum...or we lucky to see seven aircraft taking off over our heads!









Today the car is having some repairs (new mudguard), then we will visit the war museum, which Thomas has been very interested in. Later today we hope to get to the waterside park to cool off.

Cazz and boys xxx


- please leave us a message, we love to hear from you!
Posted using BlogPress from my iPad.

Location:Northern Territory