Day 21 –Darwin

Nice to have a bit of a sleep in this morning and not have to rush off. A short 20min drive into Darwin city, and to Doctors Bay - so named during WW2 as this is where a temporary hospital and staging station was set up to recuperate all the POW serviceman coming in off the ships from various Pacific Islands. When they were well enough, they were all sent home down south.

Today (since 1950), the bay is set up as a natural fish feeding sanctuary, where depending on the tides, various species of fish come in from the outer sea, right into shore where they are fed daily (on bread). It was a great experience, wading down in the water (no crocs or stingers here at present), throwing out bread to them. It was a funny feeling having the big fish swim across your feet, ticking you with their fins while they gulped down the bread. The kids had a ball, and it was quite fascinating seeing all the different species.

 

Next stop was the Defence of Darwin Experience at the Darwin Military Museum at East Reserve, quite near the city centre. Wow, what a terrific museum this is. There is an outdoor section where you visit the underground bunkers (which are full of displays), and lots of military equipment (Willies jeep, anti aircraft guns, various trucks and tanks etc). Then inside there is a large gallery with different rooms mainly depicting the defence of Australia in 1942. As the air raid sirens went off we were directed into a cinema where we watched a very clever, and fascinating movie of that  fateful day in February that Darwin was bombed and mostly destroyed. It was very cleverly edited using original old photographs of the day, and using modern technology made them come to life with overlays, special effects and people telling their actual stories of the day. It was so very well done.

 

For lunch we had a picnic in the park nearby, overlooking Darwin Lake (a man made saltwater lake that is filtered (of stingers and fish, etc) then pumped into a scenic lake where the Darwin resident can then swim. It is so strange to see beautiful city beaches, on hot days, with no-one on them (due to crocs and stingers).

 

Our last stop for the day was out in the outlying suburb of Palmerston (only 10 mins from Howard Springs where we are staying). The council run a terrific, free, waterpark, with a big slide, and several play areas for smaller children. Brendan and the kids had a wonderful time on the big slide, trying to race each other down to the bottom lying on their tummies. You can guess who won everytime – Brendan’s weight was an advantage to propel him down blasting past the kids, no matter how much of a head start he gave them. My back is playing up a bit still, so I didn’t want to risk the lumps and bumps, so I was happy to watch and be the official photographer.

 

This afternoon we came home to find we had new caravan neighbours, a couple of very old grey nomads that are here for three months. Unfortunately when they arrived at 11.00am this morning, and plugged their power in, they unplugged ours, which meant our fridge and freezer had been off all day. Very helpful! Not!