Day 25 Darwin

Lisa and I sat up late last night planning out how best to get to all of the attractions that we want to see whilst in Darwin and then set about ignoring those plans this morning.  We set off at about 10am, before it got really hot and went to do a bit of maintenance shopping (Caravan and Car) and then we went into Darwin for a bit of sightseeing.

  

Stop one today was the Oil Tunnels Tour.  It is interesting to see the quality of the concrete and steel workmanship compared with more modern formworks around the outside.  The tunnels were put in place to store oil and fuel stores for the ships in WWII. The long tunnel that we went through was 5m high and 4.5m wide, and 171m long with a capacity for storing 3,847,500 litres.  The tunnels had pictures of military significance from the era including shots of the town after the first bombing in 1942.

We climbed the stairs up to the Survivors Lookout which is above the Oil Tunnels, and read the story boards of what transpired during the course of the Japanese bombings. The kids were getting restless, so we didn't stay very long and returned to the car before mr Plod gave me a nice letter from the Darwin City.

Because the kids had misbehaved, we took them to the museum instead of the water playground.  Before entering, we sat on the grassed area out the front overlooking Fannie Bay and had some well deserved lunch.  Unfortunately we were not allowed to have our camera with us, so no pictures.

The Darwin museum was completely destroyed by Cyclone Tracey in 1974, so is relatively new and has some amazing exhibits.  My personal favourite was Sweetheart, the 5.1m Crocodile that is on display.   There is a brief video about her capture, and we estimate that he could have swallowed Rowan in a single bite.  The display on Cyclone Tracey was also very impressive / disturbing.  I have been through a category 3 cyclone (Hurricane in the US) and a couple of Cat 1 cyclones in Australia, but to see the carnage and destruction that Tracey brought was truly amazing.  Some of the images brought back childhood memories of news bulletins, or newspaper clippings, and although they were very distant memories, I vaguely remember seeing these images previously.

The sound stage was interesting, where you could hear the sounds of Cyclone Tracey as recorded on the night.  The Biology display was also very well done, and Lisa and I spent ages looking at the animals and displays much to the kids disappointment. 

We then went to Leanyer Water Playground with the kids almost bouncing out of their skins when they saw it.  This place is awesome.  3 big waterslides, a huge water activity playground, Large pool and spas with picnic areas, change rooms, kiosk and lifeguards.  FREE!!!  I reckon this sort of thing in the new Perth foreshore development would be just the go.  It was such a nice atmosphere, and the kids had a ball (big ones and small ones.)  I know that I will pay the price for the number of times that I climbed the stairs on the water slide tower, but in the end all 3 of the little ones were running up to slide again without us.  We stuck around there for an hour and a half, which was enough as Rowan was a deep shade of purple.  Poor boy cant handle the cold.

We drove back to Mindil Beach to go to the market and watch the Sun set.  Dinner was first on our agenda.  Unfortunately, Rowan and Emma didn't want to try anything unusual, so they got Fish and Chips which neither enjoyed, but Ashley was indulging in a bucket of squid, spring rolls and anything else we could find.  Lisa and I wanted to get some dinner and eat whilst the sun was setting, but we chose to go down to the beach to see the final moments of sunlight first. The sun boiled away into the sea a deep crimson.  Very pretty.

We realised when we were heading back to the markets that there was probably 2000 people watching the sun set who all made their way back to the market to get food and be entertained by bands, fire jugglers, acrobats, musicians and indulge in the many culinary delights from around the globe that are represented at Mindil Beach.  Being that the V8 Supercars are on this weekend, you can imagine the markets were complete chaos. 

 All in all, a fantastic day and my feet are blissfully aching from all of the stairs and walking, but I'm sure that the kids will sleep beautifully tonight, as long as their snoring doesn't force an evacuation for earth tremors.  :)