Outback Odyssey - Darwin to Adelaide

---

In early 2009, the nice Australian government decided to give us all a "stimulus package" to kick start the economy. So we thought we'd do our bit to support rural Australia and the domestic tourism industry and started planning our outback family holiday. After lots of research, including reading travel blogs like this one, I planned an itinerary that covered all the major outback tourist destinations and a couple of well kept secrets! I booked the car and 90%!o(MISSING)f the accommodation in January and I'm so glad I did because when I went to try and make an adjustment to the car booking later in the year, they told me that all the cars had been fully booked out in February. 😱

Day 1 - Getting there...

We managed to get a midday flight from Brisbane to Darwin by flying on a Thursday. It meant that we had to take the kids out of school a couple of days early but since most of the flights land in Darwin around midnight, it was worth it. The flight was about 4 hours and since flying over outback Queensland is not terribly exciting, I'd suggest taking a good book. The last part of the flight was okay though as we flew over the Gulf of Carpentaria which is a beautiful aqua colour from the air. We also flew over the stone country of Arnhem Land. My first impressions of flying into Darwin were that it was incredibly flat compared to Brisbane and very dry since September is the dry season there.

We picked up a sedan from Budget car rentals at the airport and drove to our accomodation at the Darwin Boomerang Motel. I'd had a bit of trouble getting family accomodation in Darwin itself - plenty available if you've got 4 people or less - but not so easy for 5 people for some reason. So we ended up at a motel about 20mins out of town in Virginia, just near Palmerston. The motel itself was quite clean and next to the Virginia Tavern, which I'm told has great meals, but it was a bit far to travel back and forth into town. However, once we had booked in and unloaded the car, we drove back into town for the Mindil sunset markets. Well worth the drive as the markets are a cornucopia of tastes, sights and sounds. There were dozens of stalls with Thai, Viet, Indian and other foods and lots of jewellery, clothing and other nicknacks. However, we were there for the sunset and what a sunset it was - vibrant blazing orange in a purple sky - truly amazing. Another highlight were the buskers - there was a fantastic Spanish guitarist playing near the food area and a rock bank with an awesome didgeridoo player down a bit further. The Mindil sunset markets are only on Thursday nights on Mindil beach. If you're driving, make sure you get there early because the carpark fills up pretty quickly.

---

Photos

Mindil Beach Markets
Wandering around the stalls, there is so much to see

Waiting for sunset
On Mindil beach just in front of the markets, tourists wait for the fabled fabulous sunset

Almost gone
Awesome!

Picture perfect
Spectacular sunset from Mindil Beach, Darwin