While Lexie
was having a ball in Melbourne, the rest of us were having just as much fun in
Darwin. Ironically, we thought that Darwin would have been Lexie’s favourite town. On the way in to Darwin, I
had been trying rather desperately to contact the ‘big rig’ accommodation at the turf club “Robbie Robbins Reserve”. It was rather difficult considering we were in Litchfield NP with very
little phone service. I kept getting voicemail and left a few messages. In the
end I got through from a payphone at the kiosk in the NP and was told in no
uncertain terms that they were full due to an upcoming rodeo and there would be
NO POINT in ringing again until after it. Eek! All of a sudden we had to find
somewhere to stay the NEXT NIGHT in a capital city. Some frantic wiki searching
had us decide on the FreeSpirit resort and Dunc rang and booked from the same
payphone.
FreeSpirt
was wonderful, with 3 pools, a jumping pillow and a kid’s club, but it was also $63 per night for the three of us. So you can
imagine how frustrated I was to get a call back from Robbie Robbins while we
were unloading the RAV. They had a space for us. And we had only just paid for
4 nights at the expensive resort. Fortunately they were happy to hold it for us
and we were able to move there after our expensive little holiday at the
resort. It gave Angus the time to appreciate the pool and do a dinosaur hunt
with the kid’s club. The daily cruise-by from Mr
Whippy was pretty good too!
We spent
our Lexie-free time indulging in ‘boy stuff’. A day out to Crocodylus Wildlife
Park (seeing the ocelots was Angus’ favourite part), a trip to the Aviation Heritage Museum, new tyres on
Baby Bertha (no more fears about unroadworthyness…), a trip to the Darwin Museum and Art Gallery, a day trip to the
Jumping Crocodiles on the Adelaide River (which included an unexpected detour
to the town of Adelaide River – 2 hours the WRONG way), 2 different free
waterslides, and all the while, we stopped twice a day to watch in awe as
military aircraft of all different sizes flew by in operation Pitch Black.
Darwin is NOT a quiet town. The noise of the massive jets and enormous
refueling planes were HUGE. Dunc’s day was well and truly made when we happened to be driving right by
the runway when the Antinov took off. We were actually on our way to collect
Lexie, and I’m rather glad we had time up our
sleeve, as I’m sure he would almost have made her
wait at the gate so he could rubberneck with the rest of the crowd!
My
highlight was going to the Mindil Markets on Thursday night. We got there just
before ‘opening time’, which meant we got a park in the actual carpark itself. The markets
were full of the usual crafts and products, but also jam packed with delicious
food vans and amazing street performers. We made our way to the beach to watch
the sun set over the sea.
Along with
a million other people! And can you believe they actually applauded when the
sun set?! The guy in front of me said “Yeah… coz that sun puts on quite a
performance, hey?” LOL
We also made our way to Darwin's waterfront to see the Vietnamese Water Puppet performance, which was part of the Darwin Festival. We had a lovely little picnic while watching the show, and Angus was completely enthralled the entire time. The fact that the songs were in Vietnamese made no difference what-so-ever.
Angus’s highlights were ALL the animals – Crocodylus,
Jumping Crocs and then… the RODEO! It was such fun that it
deserves a post all of its very own.
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