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Published: July 30th 2009
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The Administrator's Residence
Last time we were here, Ted Egan was the Administrator. Nice old residence We spent our first day in Darwin at the repairers where they had a terrible job which took hours removing the water tank in the motor home. Everything is so compact, there was one boy inside under the lifted up bed and another sitting in the storage area underneath the bed. The tank was corroded so we must wait for parts - but of course - so have extended our week here for another couple of days. It also means no hot water which means either cold showers in the motor home or warm showers in the amenities block. Still, we must be patient - everything moves at a slower pace in the Top End and it's said the NT of the Northern Territory stands for not today, not tomorrow, not Tuesday, not Thursday.
Once we had our motor home returned, sans water tank, we had a good look around Darwin. There has been a terrific lot of development in the six years since we were here, residential units on the waterfront and a few high rises, sad to see, but you can't halt progress. They do have the huge Casuarina shopping mall where we spent some time - all
the usual brand shops you find in these malls.
Yesterday afternoon a bus came to the caravan park - Howard Springs is a few kilometres out of the city - and took a crowd of us to the Mindil Markets. These are great fun and very popular. I love all the different food there - we mostly stuck to satays we could eat as we wandered - beginning with crocodile and kangaroo from the Roadkill Cafe, then Thai, Vietnamese and Japanese, followed by a container full of the sweetest watermelon wedges - tropical fruit tastes so much better when you're actually in the tropics. It is a multi-cultural city and there are also many backpackers from all over the world here.
As always, the crowd moved over to the beach to watch the amazing sunset, then back to the markets once the show was over. There were quite a few who had brought tables and chairs which they set up between the beach and the markets. Besides all there is to buy there, there are also entertainment, digeridoo playing, whip cracking, a man with all sorts of snakes and baby crocodiles etc. I was watching an aboriginal woman
From Stoke's Wharf
New units and the conference centre is the new low building painting in the traditional way, doing the most intricate fine lines rather than dot painting. She was from Arnhem Land and possibly that is the way there. Her brother and I got talking and he was trying to teach me what all the animals were in his language - I couldn't get my tongue around most words which amused him no end! The bus was waiting to take us all back by 8.30pm, a happy little bunch after a great afternoon.
The rest of our time here has been lazing under the awning or in the pool. The caravan park is full and everyone says it's more crowded than it's ever been in the Top End this year - who's at home keeping the country running? We have a young family next to us travelling around Australia - as we've met many young families doing - the children do their lessons by correspondence. We found the father came from Coffs, Kororo actually and not far from where Doug's parents lived. Doug's cousin, the one who we found near us at Woolgoolga caravan park last year, searched us out when he recognised our motor home when we passed him when
we arrived. Doug's sister and brother-in-law arrive on Sunday so it will be a big get together with all the rels.
Today we must tear ourselves from the pool and do a food shop. Monday will be a holiday in Darwin for Darwin Race Day - last weekend it was a long weekend too for the Darwin Show. Driving up here from Katherine, we passed many big rigs towing all manner of rides - the carni crowd from the Show. I also want to have some photos developed in Big W to start scrapbooking our trip. I think it's going to be a big job, it will be hard to condense our so far almost 3 months travelling.
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