Blogs from Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia, Oceania - page 7

Geo: -12.4611, 130.842As we sat in the saloon car and whiled our way into Darwin we reflected on the spectacular and diverse landscapes we had covered and the amazing holiday we had experienced so far. On pulling up at the station it was raining the temperature was 34 degrees and the humidity 98.7% (oh boy)!An array of buses awaited to take us on our 30 minute trip into the city and we were surprised by how clean and modern it was and at the very nice room we had at the Mantra on the Esplanade which had a view of the harbor and also backed onto Mitchell St the main restaurant and bar precinct in town.We decided to do a little exploring and to find a restaurant called Hanuman but headed in the wrong direction and ... read more

Tuesday 20th October 2015 The morning was spent cleaning the boat. Windows were washed, chrome polished up and the decks were scrubbed and cleared of bladders and pumps. Once again it looked like the boat that left Airlie Beach. The crew numbers increased dramatically just after 1400hrs with the arrival of Diane, Jen and Judy, Barry, Ian and Rags’ wives respectively. Originally they were joining us until Friday, by which time the boat would have had its engines serviced, and then fly home. It has now been decided that they would stay on board with us until we reach Broome, giving them the opportunity to see the waters of the Kimberley. As this area should be the highlight of the trip it was an opportunity that was too good to miss! Judy and Rags caught up ... read more

Arriving into Darwin at half five in the morning with hardly any sleep, it was a welcoming sight to see my mate Will waiting with a sign welcoming me to Australia, even though he had spelt my name wrong. I have known Will for years through the British Army and he had taken the jump to transfer to the Australian Army last year and had only been in country for 7 months. In fact Will was the one that persuaded me to go travelling for 2 months around South East Asia towards the end of last year and given me the travel bug.For me this was a temporary move back into normality as I moved into his spare room, for Will it was a chance to catch up and find out all about my adventures so ... read more

Darwin. It is a laid back place, mostly friendly and people seem to have time to relax. We didn't see anyone in a big rush all the time we were here....although the heat may have something to do with that! Seriously warm - of course, mid 30's every day and then down to low 20's overnight. We visited quite a few locations around and in Darwin City. Of these, probably the Darwin Botanic Gardens and East Point were our favourites. The Botanic Gardens has a nice coffee shop, trees, birds and other stuff to look at. We went there regularly. East Point is a recreation area not far from town with water (and sunset) views. It also has the WW2 museum which we found very interesting. One of the many highlights of the WW2 museum was ... read more

Amazing, it is six months since my last blog and hard to believe that it has taken me so long to, once more, put words to type. Working full time again certainly makes time fly by exceptionally fast but I think maybe it helps that I am still enjoying my job as assistant manager at the book store. The job as manager did arise but I turned it down as I am happy to just cruise these days and leave the responsibility to someone else. Pete has been working in Darwin and also WA as a fly in fly out sheetmetal fabricator and cryogenic insulator (ability to work on hot and cold pipes) and is currently back working in Darwin at the Gas Plant here and still making ridiculously high wages so we are certainly not ... read more