Darwin

30th May 2013

We woke around 6.30am this morning to the sound of literally thousands of Rainbow Lorikeets flying over the property and after the usual morning routine we drove the 90kms in to explore Darwin. The first thing I found was how easy Darwin was to navigate with only 2 main roads into the small, but very nice city centre.

We made our way to the tourist information centre and then onto the Smith St Mall, where we had a  nice brunch at a cafe and decided what we wanted  to see during our stay. We spent a number of hours just wandering through the mall and down to the Bicentennial Park, basically getting our bearings.

Smith Street  Mall

There was some night markets on at Mindil Beach tonight and given there was a 90km trip back out to the farm, we decided to really treat ourselves and book into the Sky City Casino Hotel for the night, which worked out great as it was within walking distance of the markets.

Not quite the Jayco - but it'll do

So we checked in and had a look around the hotel. As soon as the girls saw the pool, that was the rest of the afternoons activities taken care of, it was just fantastic. So after hours of just lazing around by the pool, overlooking the beach we got ourselves ready and headed to the markets at 5pm when they started.

Doing it tough in Darwin

The Mindil Markets were just fantastic, there was so much to see, lots of different food stalls from a huge range of countries along with clothing, jewellery, aboriginal art, didgeridoos, buskers and lots more. It really was a brilliant night, with lots of people and a fantastic atmosphere. We also bumped into Jim, Noel & their boys (Gus & Ziggy) who we had met along the Gibb River Rd which was great.

Mindil Beach Markets

After watching a beautiful sunset on the beach and exploring the markets some more, we had a delicious dinner (I had a Greek Yiros and Rach a sensational Seafood Paella) and then was treated to an amazing didgeridoo busker, he had 4 didgeridoos side by side and could play them so fast that the sound was amazing.

Darwin Sunset - Mindil Beach

It was a great end to our first day in Darwin, we walked back to the hotel and slept very well in the very comfortable beds.