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Published: April 24th 2023
DARWIN
Darwin sunsets do not disappointMonday 17th saw us get our flight from Adelaide at around 1.40pm and into Darwn 5ish, great flight and great service (never thought I would say this about Qantas again). A really lovely curry of beef and eggplant, wines, beers....then later on cheese and crackers and wines....then chocolates! Taxi Novotel Hotel on the Esplanade, just in time for an ice cold beer and then dinner in their restaurant, delicious kangaroo fillets and John had a steak which was good too! Tuesday an easy day having a walk around town and down to the Six Tanks Brewery for happy hour at 4pm, decided to sit outside coz such a nice day but soon realised not the spot to be! A couple of local indigenous people decided to take a liking to us and wanted to interview us and take a recording of us (rotten drunk of course), bar staff were quick to respond and came out to move them on and we sat away from the verandah! Ended up nice arvo and night but you just have to be on the look out. Wednesday was meet up day with my beautiful cousins who were flying in from Sydney, had time to take
DARWIN
On our descent into Darwin our bags to the penthouse apartment at the Argus Apartments and do some grocery shopping for the next three days before embarking on the Ghan. Their flight was bit late having to change a wheel at Sydney before takeoff. They arrived in one piece around 2.30pm which was great having had time to get the drinks icy cold and everything put away so we could just chat over a drink at The Cav before going out to the Darwin Ski Club for sunset drinks, did not disappoint a great casual spot to check out the sunset on a balmy night. Not too late of a night as Vicki and Kaz went to Kadadu on the Thursday for the day, we stayed with Reg and organised our itinerary for Friday. As we had been to Kakadu we had a leisurly day in Darwin. The girls left at 5.45a.m and arrived back at 7.15, had a fantastic day but were totally had it, luckily I had insisted I cook dinner in our apartment, worked out perfectly as they could just relax before dinner. We are so blessed to have my cousins with us, there's plenty of laughs every day between us all!
NOVOTEL DARWIN
Welcome drinks Friday we did the Hop on Hop off bus around Darwin, it was great to give an idea of the layout of Darwin, as Reg cannot walk too far, down to Cullen Bay, stop off at the Museum to see the cyclone Tracy exhibit, and they also had the touring Archie 100 on as well, was great, then to the Military Museum, down and round the wharf area where there was a huge Princess Ship in for the day. Then we had Lara's friend Daryl and his partners brother Charlie (gorgeous boys both of them I might add) around for drinks and nibbles before going to Ella by Monoli a must visit retaurant if you are visiting Darwin, run by Monoli Da Silva who was on masterchef it is a taste sensation, tucked away down a lane beside a carpark, you just wouldn't stubble across it if you didn't know about it. Daryl has been living in Darwin for two years so knows all the places, was a fantastic choice ....Sri Lankan food at its best....stand outs were the goat curry, eggplant and pork belly and their roti was the best we had tasted, not huge helpings but the taste
was superb! Another great meal washed down with great wines. Up at 5.00am Saturday for our 7.30am transfer to the Ghan, a short walk to the Oaks Elan and were met by Ghan reps who booked us in and tag baggage etc, the rail station in Darwin is at least 15klms out of town. Was all pretty efficient check in and we were shown to our cabins, you can only take a carry on bag to cabin and all big baggage has to be booked in and put into a separate carriage but as we were doing the Expedition with 6 days off at Alice Springs our luggage was limited to 16kgs so no worries for us. The cabin is tiny but it has all you need, toilet, shower, lovely bedding, John drew the short straw and got the top bunk. But really you only sleep in there so a lot of time spent in the Bar carriage and the restaurant. First up on the train it was lunch at 10am, could not have lunch without a couple of celebratory bubbles, then a lovely lunch, plenty of choices and it was delicious! By 2.00pm we had arrived in Katherine, so
NOVOTEL DARWIN
The rooms around an atrium all off the train and we were bused to Katherine Gorge which was our choice of tour, took about half an hour to get out there and we had a great afternoon, catching two different boats into two gorges. The countryside is spectacular, as they have had a very long wet season, so green and lush. Got back on board the train at around 5.30 then a 6pm dinner, 3 courses again very nice, the barramundi was so yummy! Then the rest of the night til about 10pm in the bar carriage enjoying a few nightcaps before falling into bed. The train continued its journey south through Mataranka and Tennant Creek before arriving in Alice Springs at 11.15am after a great breakfast. But we were awoken this morning with no water in cabin and no working toilet....there was absolutely no explanation as to what happened but John had said at time, they have run out of water, someone told us they heard someone had forgotton to fill water tans in Darwin.... surely not. Always there is a list of different tours you can do so we all opted for the Alice Explorer which included the school of the Air Tour
DARWIN SKI CLUB
Great spot to watch the world go by which was great and then a talk by a woman who did school of the air from her family station north of Alice Springs and was the first school of the air person to become a lawyer and she now lives in Alice Springs after living in Prague etc, and has written three books, she was a very vibrant, friendly and a gorgeous storyteller, Tanya Heaslip, the one I bought was Beyond Alice, when she went to boarding school, Tanya was a highlight here! Then out to the Desert Park for a beautiful buffet lunch, it was amazing, lots of beautiful salads with an array of meats including salmon... we all thoroughly enjoyed it....then onto the RFDS which was another great one to visit...all about how John Flynn set it all up and then interviews from people that acutally have used the service! Then across the road to the Reptile Park which was well worth the visit with a long talk about the snakes and reptiles in the area by a young girl who was so passionate about her reptiles, Anzac Hill on the way back to the Ghan, which we said goodbye to and were transferred to the Doubletree
by Hilton for 2 nights as we are having an off train experience for 6 days. Dinner we had to pay for tonight as we are in between tours and had dinner at Hanuman which is the sister restaurant to the one in Darwin but I have to say the one in Darwin is much nicer, though we did enjoy our curries and stir fries very much. No take away grog in Alice Monday or Tuesday so I guess we will have to pay the exorbitant prices at our hotel!!! We are doing our 6 day tour with Outback Spirit so looking forward to getting out into the red dust to see a few things on our way to Uluru!
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Murray Lanyon
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Memories
Love reading of your adventures, and the various watering holes, brings back many memories of our trips and experiences of our wonderful country. I do want to extend to you an invitation to my eightieth birthday party which will be held at 25 Rivergums Drive, Moama on Saturday the 3rd of June commencing at 6:00pm. I do not expect you to attend, as it would be too difficult, but I did want to send you an invitation, as you are our wonderful and sincere friends. MUZZ