Nomading - Darwin Part 1 - 15 - 22 June 2021

We drove from Batchelor to Darwin stopping off at Humpty Doo to meet Tracey, the sister of a friend of ours. We had organised to meet at the one cafe in this town for a coffee at 11.00am. The timing was perfect for us and it wasn't long until Tracey arrived. It is not always easy meeting up with someone you haven't met before but Robb and I thoroughly enjoyed this session. Tracey is an amazing and interesting person who had some great stories about work she had been doing in Tanzania and her hopes to work in a role in Darwin that will be of benefit to outlying indigenous communties. We will catch up again while we are in Darwin, either for another coffee session or perhaps we could visit one of the tourist destinations together as Tracey is new to the area and it will be an opportunity for all of us to have a look around. From Humpty Doo we drove to the caravan park we had booked for this first week in Darwin. We don't know how long we will be here as we need repairs to the van. We organised for a repairer in Darwin to order the parts we needed weeks ago and there is still one part they are waiting on, when this part is received they will let us know and we will drop the van off to them for the necessary work.

This is our story and it is one common to people spending an extended time caravanning around our country. Our first incident occurred when one day I opened the freezer flap to take that nights dinner out to defrost and the flap came away in my hands. There wasn't any fixing it as it was snapped off at the hinge and glues were not going to be strong enough for this pressure point. We have managed to fit the door over the freezer in the meantime and it is doing an adequate job until we can have the door replaced. Soon after this the lever on our toilet that operates the flushing mechanism came loose, we have also found a way to manage this until we can have it fixed. A couple of weeks after this when we were travelling between Elliott and Daly Waters, I looked in the rearview mirror while we were driving and noticed that the top air vent above the bed was flapping around, we pulled over to take a look and it turned out the Perspex was completely wrecked and was falling apart. There wasn't much we could do about fixing it so we have been travelling for the past week or so with a bloody big hole in the roof of the van. The problem is, there are so many vans on the road you can't get repairers to fix anything without booking weeks ahead and we don't have that sort of time. So after the second incident, the toilet, we called ahead to a repairer in Darwin, we weren't due there for a couple of weeks' and asked if they were prepared to order the parts in and then do the repairs while we were in Darwin, we offered to pay ahead for the parts, we just wanted to have them taken care of. And then of course we had the vent incident so I had to contact them again and they have now ordered that part for us. They were very accommodating and didn't expect payment until the repairs were taken care of. We arrived in Darwin today and after setting up and having lunch we drove in to take care of other business and then drove to the repairer to introduce ourselves so that they knew we were genuine. We are hoping the last part arrives this week and we can put the van in for the repairs on Tuesday when we move from this park to the other one in Darwin we have booked. If not we will just have to do what needs doing, we can't possibility travel around the south coast of Australia with a hole in the roof, for now it is just wait and see.

While we are here we plan to give the van and car a big clean out and also give the outside of the van a quick go over. We also have the above repairs to take care of, business we need to take care of, hair appointments we need to make and we are hoping to have a service on the car, if we are going to be here for an extended time it is the ideal opportunity to take care of these problems.

Our first full day in Darwin was spent cleaning the inside of the van from top to bottom, stripping the bed and washing all the linen, washing all the towels and floor mats and doing one other load of clothing. While I was doing this Robb was busy cleaning out the inside of the car which sounds fairly simple but when you think we use the back seat and back of the car as storage for odds and ends including out extra fridge/freezer then it is a much bigger job than you first think. Once this was finished we packed up our outside table that had broken through the week to drop off at the tip, Being country people and not used to the new beaut tip set ups we drove in and followed a truck along the line that was for commercial waste and we didn't realise until there was someone behind us and we couldn't back up to change lanes, anyway when it was our turn we drove up to the station window and explained what happened and the lovely man we spoke to asked what we had to drop off and we explained it was our outside table and he didn't charge us and told us where to go. We dropped this into the appropriate bin and then went in search of a Bunnings store to buy a new one. We found something suitable and we were soon on our way to find a supermarket to purchase a few items we needed, then back to camp for lunch. After lunch was taken up with ironing, making the bed back up and preparing dinner and then we finally sat down.

Our next day after coffee we drove to the nearest automatic car wash to remove the layer of red dirt on the outside of the car, it did a pretty good job but we will need to rub a couple of spots of it missed. From here we drove to Misubishi service centre as I had contacted them by chat yesterday but didn't feel really comfortable with the results. We walked in and introduced ourselves and tried to organise the service we needed which turned out to be a big one and they couldn't fit us in until the end of July, I hope we have moved on by then. I phoned back when we arrived home to see if we can at least have an oil change on the car and we are still waiting to hear back from them. We then drove into Darwin City to the Information Centre and picked up a heap of brochures for our stay, I asked the staff a few questions while I was there and then we took a quick walk around that part of town. When we were last here the first thing we noticed about Darwin is how small it is, peak hour in Darwin for the sake of our friends back home who haven't visited here is about as busy as Leongatha at peak hour. But there is something very charming about this city and if I wasn't very happy to live where we do this would have to be on my list of places to look at. We drove out of the city and drove to Lee Point Coastal Park, we are staying at Lee Point Caravan park so the coastal park was just down the road and it is a lovely beach area with a very wide beach similar to our home coastal area of Venus Bay but I don't think it looked as treacherous. We then drove home for lunch and to catch up on a few things before driving back to the Mindil Beach Market. This market is quite famous and we loved it last time we were here. We walked up and down the stalls, 90% of which are food trucks, and then before leaving we picked up some dishes for dinner. we love share meals so we came home with a mixture of seafood, Spanish and Asian, needless to say dinner was excellent tonight. We are planning to drive to Kakadu tomorrow so it will be an early start for us so that we are not too late returning home.

Well this is it, should we or shouldn't we take a drive to Kakadu. Originally we were going to stay at Jabiru on our way up to Darwin but because of the repairs we needed doing to the caravan and the shortage of camping sites in Darwin we took an extra day in Batchelor and then drove directly from there to Darwin, missing our planned stop off in Kakadu. I had then decided to drive down while we were staying in Darwin because we had plenty of time and when I searched in Google maps to see how long it would take it told me 1 hour 45 minutes which was pushing it but I thought Robb would be ok with it. We decided to go ahead with the trip but then when we put Kakadu in the GPS it showed a total time of 3 hours, bugger. I think the difference is google maps probably showed the time to the start of the park and our GPS was measuring to Jabiru. Anyway my long suffering, very tolerant husband agreed to go ahead with our big day out, so he ended up driving the full 6 hours to Jabiru and back again, needless to say we were both exhausted by the time we returned.

After entering Kakadu National Park we drove to the Bowali Visitor Centre to pay for our park passes and to have a look around the excellent display they have at the centre covering the historical, cultural and environmental significance of this beautiful part of our country. If anyone is interested our park passes cost $30 each for a seniors pass, the money from here goes to paying for the park rangers and maintaining the centre, I didn't read where else the money goes but there was a list on display so I am sure it would be on their website. From here we drove to Jabiru where we had a quick look around, we had stayed here last time we came to Kakadu so it didn't take us long to feel at home in the area. We drove to the golf club because they were advertising meals but when we arrived we found out they were short of staff and they were only doing dinner that night and the bar didn't open until 4.00pm so we drove from here to the supermarket where they do simple meals and they have tables and chairs set up at the front to sit and enjoy the food. After lunch there was not much else to do so we drove back home. I love Kakadu but if you want to come here and have a look around then you really need to stay in the area, everything that you would love to see is quite a long way away from everything else, unlike Litchfield where every attraction is within easy reach of each other.

A much more relaxed day today starting with a visit to the Parap Market. We noticed a lot of the same stalls here that we had seen at the Mindil Beach Market which I suppose is to be expected but on top of that I think there may have been more laksa and pho trucks and I think there was a bigger variety of craft goods for sale. We enjoyed the market and purchased dim sims which we ate there and a few fruit and vegetables items we needed for home. From here we drove to the WW11 Oil Storage Tunnels, we didn't have a look through these last time we were here, I think we just ran out of time but we thought this was a good opportunity to go though them today. They were quite interesting, we didn't manage to read all the information around the walls but I photographed all the boards and we can always read them later, we are glad we have finally had a look through the tunnels. From here we drove over to Stokes Wharf and had a walk around, we stopped and had a beer sitting looking out over the bay and it was very pleasant and then we walked back to the Ferris Wheel set up at the start of the wharf and and took a ride around the wheel. I didn't do too badly today for someone who has battled for years with claustrophobia and vertigo to walk through the tunnels and take my very first ride on the ferris wheel all on one day.

Today didn't quite go as expected. Our plan was to meet up with the Hop on Hop off bus at the Museum and Art Gallery of Northern Territory because it is easy to find a parking spot here and we can park for the whole day whereas if we meet up with the bus at the Information Centre in Darwin City it is hard to find a parking spot and then the maximum time is usually 2 hours, nowhere near enough for what we need. The bus was to arrive at 10.35am but it had not still arrived by 10.50am so I phoned the number on the brochure. Greg who I spoke to started off a bit annoyed, obviously he has had lots of these phone calls but they are not running on Sundays at the moment, I asked if that was mentioned on the brochure because I had searched and couldn't see it and in an annoyed voice he told me he was not prepared to spend what he needed to in having new brochures printed to say they were not operating. He must have realised he was acting like a dick because he settled down and in the end he offered to give us senior rates on the trip if we took it tomorrow, well obviously that wasn't going to make much difference to us as we already qualified for this, one free trip might have been nice haha. We were at a loss of what to do and then I remembered a marine display on Stoke Hill Wharf that we didn't get to last time so we decided to go here.

This attraction turned out better than we first thought mainly because of the passion of the owner of the facility for the preservation of the Barrier Reef. When you look around this facility you can see the need for lots of maintenance, even a good sweep and vacuum would have made a difference but apparently this building and land has been given to a local indigenous group and they have to be out by the end of the month. We only know one side of this story so we can't really comment. However, there is an excellent tank in the main room which is basically a small reef and it had been growing for the past 23 years, it was interesting in that the water was as clear as anything you could possibly see and they don't do any cleaning of the water it relies completely on the coral and fish that inhabit this tank, if they have to add water to the tank they use rain water. There are only a couple of these tanks in the world so it would be a terrible shame if it was dismantled, hopefully there is a good resolution to the problem they are facing. I think the current owner is a bit past looking after it though. I was fascinated in the fact that the longer you stared at the coral the more colours you could see, at first glance it looked like the whole reef was brown but then you would see a bit of pink, a bit of blue, green, purple and then you would see movement of the coral, easy to see why divers fall in love with it. It would be a shame if this display was lost forever. Tomorrow we will try the HoHo Bus again.

Our second try to catch the Hop on Hop off bus was successful, it was running a tiny bit late so we were starting to get a bit worried when it drove around the corner. We have taken this trip before and thought we would just hop off at the couple of stops we didn't wander around much last time, to that end we stayed on the bus until it arrived at the Cullen Bay stop. Cullen Bay is a rather exclusive area of Darwin that is situated on the water and has a large marina, the area around the Marina is mainly surrounded by apartments, the main street is lined by cafes, restaurants and bars and there is a ferry terminal at the end of the road. It is a very pretty area and it would be a wonderful lifestyle with the marina, beaches and cafes, I must admit it is very tempting. From here we hopped back on the bus and stayed on until we arrived at the waterfront area where we planned to have lunch but before lunch we took a walk around and over to the water park and watched here for a little while, we may get back here one day for a dip, entry is very reasonable at $5 each and you could spend a few hours here. Further around they have extended this attraction since last time we were here and there is another swimming spot blocked off from the bay and currently there is a large inflatable set up which you can hire for $20 (I think for half an hour), and then even further around is a large beach area which looks to be quite popular with people. There is a great choice of cafes and restaurants here too but we returned to the Fiddlers Green for lunch, the service is excellent and they have a great range of beers. We had another shared meal of BBQ glazed chicken wings and a bucket of prawns, it was most enjoyable and we left just enough room for an ice cream each. It was time to meet up with the bus again, there wasn't anything else we wanted to do so we hopped off at the museum and drove home. We are moving on tomorrow but we only have to go 20 minutes down the road we will leave all our packing for tomorrow.