Darwin

21/6/16 - 23/6/16

Spent 7¹/₂ hours in Darwin city while the Land Rover dealer looked at our car, thankfully got a courtesy ride. Headed for the water as it was too early for much to be open. Lovely parklands here in Darwin, plenty of shade and beautifully maintained grass. We followed our map around to the official ‘Waterfront’ to the wave pool but it didn’t open until 10am. Had a coffee and rethink about what we should do for the next 6 hrs, thought we’d see a movie and go to the Crocosaurus.

Too late for one movie session so went to the Crocosaurus, deciding not to do the cage of death due to cost. Spent a couple of hours looking at the croc and reptile displays which are pretty well set out, glad we didn’t pay to go in the ‘cage of death’. A more docile croc you'd find hard to come across, it’s so well fed that they have to coax it into any action. I’d have been very disappointed if we’d paid to do that, not that I was so keen but Ray would have liked to. 

This is the view opposite our van.
We're wishing we were kids again

By the time we left there and had lunch we missed the next movie session and would have been too late for our pickup if we’d gone to the one after that. So we went down to the waterside again and sat or laid in the shade in the park for a while then went back to sit in the Library and read some magazines, as it was too hot to go to the wave pool. Those librarians earn their pay, it’s so busy in there, so many tourists using the photocopier and the computers to check emails etc.  It was very interesting people watching! We then went to the shops to try and get some souvenirs before meeting our lift. The trouble is the good souvenirs are expensive and the cheaper ones are tacky or we could find something for one and not the others, so again came away with nothing. Got our lift back to the dealer and $400, a clean car and apparent fix later we came back to the van before Ray went off to table tennis. As soon as he started the car the same thing happened so I guess we have to pray it gets us across to the coast without the computer shutting off power. 

Feeling very tired after all that walking and feel a bit deflated after wasting a lot of time and money when the problem isn’t fixed. 

We have decided we shouldn't be let out without a minder. I got the camera ready (with card in) for our trip into the city and left it on the table so again all photos are from my phone which went flat by the end of the Crocosaurus. Apart from the few things we left at home, we both keep misplacing or not seeing glasses, phones, keys etc. and turn me around and I have no idea where I am, thank goodness for Apple maps and Siri.

23rd - Ray did enjoy his night of Table tennis last night but his back is not too good today, probably good that we aren’t doing too much today. Laundry done and dried in a couple of hours in this weather and stocked up on groceries for our trip across the Savannah Way. 

We will set off early to go back to Mataranka tomorrow. It’s annoying that we have to go back over almost 400ks to get to the start of our trip across but we will hopefully find some more nice free camps on our way to spend a few nights in.