Blogs from City of Darwin, Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia, Oceania - page 9

Day 80 Darwin (Tues 21st Sept) So we reached the shores of our final country in the early hours of this morning, some time after 0230. At that time of morning, immigration and customs and I didn’t have to wait very long for everyone else to come through. We then got a shuttle bus from the airport to our hostel on Mitchell Street, arriving by 0400. Darwin was still dark, of course, but we could see it was a nice small city. While checking in, Stephen realised that he had lost his wallet and so he ended up heading back to the airport. The rest of us lugged our stuff up to the third floor and settled in - all the girls in an 8-bed dorm. By the time I had my shower and got to ... read more

Halls Creek was seen as a stopover and indeed it was. We were told to consider other options as the town might be a little unfriendly. We did not find that and although the caravan park was all red gravel, we found it a convenient spot to stay. The weather was warming and so the air conditioner was beginning to come into play. We love the warmer weather and are really looking forward to it. The rig is going well. We are closing in on 20,000 klm in the car and 10,000 klm in the van. The car is due for a service when we get to Darwin. HALLS CREEK As we said, Halls Creek is an overnight stay. We arrived early afternoon and after setting up we went off to check out the sights. China ... read more

Darwin is a little busy outpost on the northern coast and felt like a metropolis after 5 weeks of one-road towns. It was a charming place, not least due to the hospitality of Fizz, Tani and Phoebe (still calling me Sandra). We went for fish, chips and ice cream on the harbour, and then the next night were treated to homemade stew, which, although it was about 30 degrees outside, was magnificent. Paula was really desperate to see the WWII gun emplacement at East Point (I think it was one of her “must do’s” for Australia), so we went and had a look. Now, notwithstanding the massive sacrifices of Australian troops overseas in various conflicts, I think it’s generally fair to say that Australians over-egg their domestic wartime experiences a little. This was one exception however: ... read more

Sun 11th July, Hi there, we are back on air again. We spent most of the week sitting around in Wyndham, spending time chatting with our neighbours in the caravan park. Pam had the bejesus frightened out of her one morning as she was reading in her chair under a tree, when the local resident ass/mule snuck up behind her and nudged her shoulder, then laughed at her. I couldn’t stop laughing. Mon 12th July, Left early and headed for Kununurra to do some shopping and make some phone calls while we were in range of Telstra. It was still difficult to get a camp site there, so we continued on to Victoria River for the night. A nice little park at the roadhouse. We camped alongside a couple from Seaford in Melbourne. Small world isn’t ... read more

I decided to fly to Darwin as just to show how vast Australia is the bus journey from Cairns to Darwin takes two days. I was pretty excited to go to the national parks here as I was looking forward to seeing another side of Australia which would be very different from what I have seen so far. I arrived at my hostel Cavenaghs in the late afternoon to discover it filled with Aussies here on holiday as Darwin is one of the few large towns/cities in Australia that stays warm all year round. The hostel/hotel was different from all the others I had stayed in before as it had dorms on the bottom floor but the rest of the place was more like a holiday hotel with nice rooms and a pool. However I was ... read more