Advertisement
Published: July 30th 2023
Edit Blog Post
We didn’t quite know what to expect of Darwin, with again, a lot of unfavourable press coverage clouding our vision. We were pleasantly surprised at what a colourful, multicultural city Darwin is today. Darwin's proximity to South East Asia makes it a key link between Australia and countries such as Indonesia and East Timor. The city has been almost entirely rebuilt four times, firstly following devastation caused by a cyclone in 1897, another cyclone in 1937, Japanese Air Raids in 1942, and Cyclone Tracy in 1974. Darwin endured over sixty air raids during WWII.
We set out to explore the Darwin CBD, and met up with our 2022 traveller friends Mandy and Glenn from Lakes Entrance for lunch overlooking the harbour. After farewelling our friends later that afternoon, we enjoyed a swim in Darwin Harbour lagoon. There is a great wave pool nearby that we unfortunately didn’t get a chance to swim in.
We had booked the last of our extremely generous travel adventure vouchers from Kim’s former work boss, Sonia, for Monday. This included a Jumping Crocodile Cruise on the Adelaide River, where we were confronted by a 6 metre long saltwater crocosaurus named Dominator. I said to
Kim “we are gonna need a bigger boat”. Dominator is the boss croc on this stretch of the Adelaide River, and he came right up to the side of the boat, to snap ferociously at a chicken dangled on a wire. The snap of his jaws was like lightning right net to the boat, and the sound was chilling.
After the Croc Cruise, we drove into Litchfield National Park, where we again cooled off in Buley Rockhole and Florence Falls. We had held off on swimming at Wangi Falls due to the saltwater croc attack that took place there a week earlier, but with the shooting by rangers of the croc responsible, I was happy to go in for a swim. Kim not so.
We again headed into Darwin CBD the next day, to explore the WWII Tunnels that were built to store oil following the Japanese Air Raids on Darwin in 1942. We then walked over to the Royal Flying Doctor Service Museum located on Darwin Wharf, and watched the bombing of Darwin, a patient’s journey in a RFDS plane and a pilot’s view over some of Central Australia’s iconic locations via a Virtual Reality headset.
A change of pace and location the following day, with a visit to the Territory Wildlife Park at Berry Springs. We spent around four hours in the park, experiencing wildlife talks and feeding of Raptors, freshwater fish, rays and wallabies. We also visited the walk through bird aviary and nocturnal animal house. Being a hot day, we decided to visit nearby Berry Springs, and loved sitting under the waterfall and floating down the creek.
Darwin Museum and Art Gallery was our destination the next day, followed by the extensive Botanical Gardens. A visit to Darwin would not be complete without driving to Cullen Bay, the aspirational location that Darwinites would like to call home. Cullen Bay was very impressive, with cafes and restaurants along the beach, behind which lay a maze of exclusive apartments and grand houses on canals, with luxurious yachts moored at private jetties. With nightfall approaching, we headed to the famous Mindil Markets on Mindil Beach. We met up again with our friends Mandy and Glenn, and enjoyed a Sri Lankan Curry whilst sitting on Mindil Beach, watching the sun set over the water.
Darwin Aviation Museum was a surprise packet, with a huge range
of planes on display, including a Tiger Moth, each of jets used by the RAAF down through the decades, and a massive B52 G Series Bomber. The B52 was so large, that extra hydraulic wheels had to be fitted to each of the wings to support the weight of the plane, with the B52 being the mainstay of the US Air Force over several decades.
Coolalinga Tourist Park was a great place to stay, with the park putting on two music concerts whilst we were there. The park pool was also great to cool off in. The eight days we spent in Darwin was just about right, and we feel we covered our northernmost capital reasonably well. Would definitely recommend Darwin as a great place to visit during the dry season.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.097s; Tpl: 0.014s; cc: 8; qc: 24; dbt: 0.0765s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1mb