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Published: October 16th 2009
Breaking new ground here!
I’m actually typing this in the car with Chris at the helm doing all of her allowed 130 km/h. We are on the way to Mt Isa (in Qld) having spent the night at the delightful Safari Lodge Motel in Tennant Creek.
I don’t need to report on either TC or the motel, since both were adequately covered on the way up.
I do however owe you on Darwin. In summary, we loved Darwin. Magnificent in the morning and the evening - but you did need to be inside or swimming in the middle of the day. The car was a good refuge as required.
Our stay at the Palms City Resort was excellent. Our cabin - we really had almost the best cabin for once in our lives, was excellent. Surrounded by palms and other tropical foliage, we had almost total privacy - even on the balcony. People in the pool could see our balcony thru the bushes if they looked really hard.
Although we had promised ourselves to lash out for dinner while we were there, that didn’t eventuate. The private BBQ on the balcony meant steak and vegies one
night, and garlic prawns, Barramundi, and salmon the next.
On the first night we got there in time to go to the Mindil Beach Market (sp?) on the beach next to the casino, where most of Darwin seemed to go. Comes alive at sunset and covers all of the markety things normally associated with tourism, but in this case, there is a heavy Aboriginal and Asian influence. It was a great experience, and we even partook in the food that was on offer. $6 all you could eat prawn cocktails were the highlight, and we followed up with some normal and forgettable Asian fare. The highlight (well actually lowlight) was that we were able to find a nice bit of lawn that nobody else had claimed despite the general crowding. I was soon to find out that that was because it was on an ants nest - which took me all of ten minutes to clean from my deteriorating body. They were bitie little devils - but only while they were attached - and once I ridded myself of them, there was no ongoing affect.
We spent one day looking around Darwin City, and a second looking at
the sights including the delightful Fannie Bay area.
One highlight was that we contacted an old workmate (known to some of you) - Meredith Dunne, and the three of us had some delightful drinks or three at a very nice outside bar on the last night. Meredith really loves it here (and we can understand why) and she hasn’t really changed very much from when I last saw her 5 or so years ago. Two bits of news tho - she has given up smoking and secondly, just last week, became a Grandmother for the first time - thanks to youngest Kayne and his partner. She is thrilled - and gushy as you can imagine. Cute little boy - we’ve seen the photos!
Incidentally, those of you who know me well would be aware that I am not generally keen to pay bar prices for alcohol - despite whatever ambience might be attached to it. Now if I lived in Darwin, that could be a totally different story. A shout of 2 rather generous glasses of Chardy (no such things as plimsoll lines on the glasses in Darwin) and a full Pint of Draft comes to the princely
sum of $14. All this in one of the trendier bars in Darwin. It was a great start to the night.
Its timely to speak of the Darwin weather here. On the cusp of the wet, we expected some rain here. At the bar, as storm clouds loomed, the waitress ushered us under cover as she had looked up the radar on BOM and the skies were about to open up. Hooray. Looking forward to it.
Not a drop. Zero! Zilch!
Meredith assured us that unfulfilled promises (weather wise) are normal for this time of the year.
In fact it did rain later that night - but only for 5 minutes at about 10 pm, and that was the sum total of rain we saw while we were anywhere north of Coober Pedy
The drive down to TC the following day was uneventful although at 980 kms, a little long. There wasn’t anywhere sensibly in between to break the journey however, and TC is (roughly) the junction point for the Barkly Highway - and the journey eastwards into Queensland (and Mt Isa).
I will try to post this in Mt Isa. No guarantees however
…..
New update
We didn’t stay in Isa. Pushed forward to Cloncurry and got a really good cabin there for $90. Excellent!
Today we pushed on thru Winton and Longreach to Blackall. A delightful little hamlet in sheep and cattle country.
Nice motel room - a bit pricey but worth it.
No mobile but at last we pick up some internet and as such, can post this.
Winton too was very nice, and Longreach - 2 hrs driving back, was our original destination for tonight. We are doing well and propose now to pop into Sydney on the way back to Melbourne.
Longreach looked really good, and we stopped there on the way thru to take some pics and have a look at the QANTAS museum. What we could see was fine - the original 747, 707 and DC3 (I think) but the actual tour of the museum was ridiculously expensive, and these weary travellers let it pass by agreement!
The Mobil charge card is throwing up some interesting challenges but we are generally persisting. When trying to find the servo in Cloncurry, I called into the BP to ask if she
knew where the Mobil was (in the same street) and the young girl there said hey, that’s our address - and then revealed that they do take the Mobil Card. Like pulling teeth.
Incidentally, some of the more interesting countryside we have traversed on the trip was between Mt Isa and Cloncurry - then we realised that that was the site of the original Mary Kathleen uranium mine. Very attractive hilly countryside. A lovely drive.
Will close now and we hope to hit NSW by Sunday and Sydney on Monday.
All remains well.
Regards
Chris and Ian
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Audrey
non-member comment
Hi
Sounds like a great holiday. Glad you are good and enjoying yourself. See you soon. Audrey