18 - Darwin

18 – July 2016 - 3/7/16

Leaving Douglas Hot Springs we drove for about half an hour till we obtained phone reception, where we propped and utilized the internet to acquire information for a dentist. A phone call was made obtaining an appointment with a dentist and we were on our way to Darwin a month earlier than initially planned.

About three hours later we were in Darwin at Lee Point Caravan Park. Most of the occupants around us knew one another as they all stay at this location each year for 2 – 3 months enjoying the lovely weather and they were very passionate about their afternoon happy hour where about 20 people congregated together partaking in plenty of banter for a couple of hours and more.

Mary’s dentist experience went better than anticipated where she was all patched up without the use of sedation within half an hour (a sudden appearance of a vertical crack on an eye tooth which allegedly turned out to be a raised edge from a previous filling) which was polished out.

We found driving around Darwin to the various attractions reasonably easy once we got use to road designs and traffic conditions.

We visited the Military Museum, Museum and Art Gallery, Mindil Beach Markets, Darwin Waterfront area, Aviation Heritage Centre and various shopping precincts including Darwin’s CBD.

Our good camera was in need of repairs (appeared the shutter sensor was not operating correctly) and a lengthy discussion with the Darwin camera specialist revealed that repairs could only be performed by technicians in Sydney with repair costs possibly in the vicinity of $500. We were quoted $1200 for a new camera body which they were currently out of stock. An overnight discussion / thought session resulted in the decision; we do enjoy obtaining those special photographs at the many special locations we are travelling to. There were plenty of cheaper options available but we eventually found a new camera body (we already had the lenses) at an electrical store and once again we were a little poorer monitory wise but anticipated being richer from the pleasure of obtaining great photographs during our travels.

The below photos are from the Museum & Art Gallery.

It looked like the new codes for building construction included the ensuites at the caravan park.

Caravan Park ensuite

 We enjoyed the Aviation Museum which was overshadowed by the impressive size of its B52 bomber.

No photograph could show how big the B52 bomber is

Mindil markets so crammed with people

 The below action photographs were taken with our new camera and they reiterated how good the camera was. We were happy we had decided to spend the money on this camera.

Jabiru in flight not far from caravan park

Also quite a few wind surfers out. Not sure where the croc's are?

This fire we came across near the caravan park we were staying at. There seemed to be so many whistling kites utilising the updrafts from the fire and were seen to swoop onto any morsels of food trying to escape the fire front.

A week at Darwin was enough of suburbia for us and we decided to move on to explore some of the quieter outer areas within a couple of hundred kilometres from Darwin, so we headed for Berry Springs and nearby areas.