DAYS 41-43 FROM SOUTH TO NORTH - TOP END (NORTHERN TERRITORY) TRIP

4-6 June 2010

DARWIN

We are enjoying Darwin. I really like the town. It is surprising how close to Asia you feel being here. I did not have that feeling when visiting the Kimberley. Adelaide and the eastern states feel so far away. The issues that matter are also very different.

We have really explored the town. We have wandered around the streets of central Darwin. This is the city for markets. There are so many different types of markets here. Besides Mindil markets we visited Parap markets. Both are very different.

We spent considerable amount of time at the Museum and Gallery of the NT. It has a lovely mix of arts and history. The Cyclone Tracey Exhibit was very good. The skeleton of a fresh water crocodile grabbed my attention because of the texture on the bones. The Year 12 final student works exhibition was fabulous. I dropped into the Craft Council Gallery for a look. Hubby visited the Australian Aviation Heritage Centre that was just up the road from the caravan park.

Saturday night we decided to have dinner on the wharf. We were lucky to get a table right on the edge of the wharf so could see the fish milling around the wharf as the seagulls kept swooping in competition for the food that we being dropped over the side by people.

We watched the boats sail by including this amphibian vehicle.

Barra, chips and salad was just delicious. Palmerston City Band was playing in the early part of the evening. When we returned to the caravan park we were just in time for a concert of country music and bush poetry by JBS.  It was very entertaining watching the young ones respond to the music.

Sunday we spent a good portion of the day in the Botanical Gardens. We caught the bus into town as we didn’t want to take the Oka. So after going to the Cathedral we walked to the botanical gardens. There was a Garden Spectacular on in the botanical gardens and large crowds milled around the entrance area. We wandered on to the quieter parts of the gardens. We walked through the lovely rainforest and small Tiwi section of the gardens.

I just loved the Banyan tree roots.

As we wandered through the gardens hubby remembered that when he lived in Darwin there were lots of Fan Palms on the streets of Darwin and that they were no longer there. We saw some Fan Palms in the gardens but they were not the ones he remembered. So I am intrigued what this ‚fan palm‘ that he remembers looks like.

Eventually we made our way back to Stuart Highway to catch a bus back. We ended up coming out onto the highway right at the gallery that I have been trying to get to for days – Framed Gallery. Even hubby enjoyed it. It was just great with a mixture of art from all Australia. It was a large gallery and the display was of a very high standard and just brilliantly hung.