Well we did pick up a fair bit of the red dirt this morning on the unsealed back road where the are also doing roadworks. It was pretty corrugated in sections - but a good drive with little traffic this morning for us to contend with.
Tumbling Waters Caravan Park is a little gem of a place - with lovely shady unpowered sites to choose from and a reasonable camp kitchen. We were camped right near the Crocodile enclosure that they have here - so had plenty of opportunity to watch the crocs moving around and sunny themselves during the day.
There are also these Rufous Night Herons that come into the park in the evening - they seem to like to hang out in the heavily foliaged croc enclosure!!
The park has a very very friendly vibe with free croc feeding, outdoor cinema a couple of nights a week and quite a few other activities for the large number of regular caravanners that come here every year it seems. The have a new liscenced cafe - with great food and free live entertainment on Fridays.
A park ranger comes Sunday mornings (at the cafe) to show animals to all.
Here is Millie the baby Frill necked lizard that I got to pat!'
I am no doubt raving on about this park but it was great - did I mention the big pool they have - I did spend a fair bit of time in it and met many friendly travellers cooling off there.
In particular, was the couple who helped us out after we broke a camp chair (just after setting up camp here). For some unknown reason I did not bring any extra chairs this trip. Over at the pool chatting away - we mentioned that we needed to find a camping store because we needed to replace the broken chair. Well this couple very generously insisted that we should pop over later and borrow a chair from them until we could find what we wanted over the next couple of days.
The next morning we set off early to get into Darwin and check it out before the day got too hot. We parked the car and wandered around the waterfront precinct of Darwin.
What a lovely area this is - with lagoon swimming area and a wave pool and lots of eateries. We had a coffee and checked out the waterfront areas before heading up into the city to take a wander around.
We found the Supreme Court building (which is a Cyclone Refuge centre),
NT Paraliament House - and
the ruins of the Old Town Hall which was destroyed by Cyclone Tracy where the ruined walls serve as a backdrop for outdoor theatre.
Government House erected in 1883 (as was the town hall) is a stone replacement for the original timber structure built 13 years earlier which was irreparably damaged by white ants. With its gabled roof and all round timber-louvred verandas it has a very 'colonial' look to it.
There is also the site of the the first Overland Telegraph Pole - erected in Darwin. Here they have placed a replica of this pole.
I was interested in seeing the WW2 Underground Oil tunnels that were built under the city of Darwin towards the end of WW2. The entrance is down near the waterfront area and we found it almost by accident.
Darwin played an important role as a strength base for the allied defence forces. It is still plays a role today with a large RAAF, Army and Naval presence - as well as U.S. Marines being based here as well.
After the Navy Oil supplies on Stokes Hilł were bombarded and destroyed a decision was made to construct underground steel lined tunnels from the wharf running under the city- to store and protect the oil supplies. Tunnel 5 is open to the public.
We spent probably an hour walking through and reading the informative and interesting storyboards, set along the length of the tunnel, which detail the history of the tunnels and wartime Darwin. It's a fantastic display that has recently been upgraded for the Anzac Centenerary.
As it happened the Tunnels were never fully completed (the plan was for 13) and never used for their intended purpose as peace was declared before they were finished.
After this we decide to head of to Stokes Hill Wharf for a lunch time experience at this iconic Darwin waterfront area.
After lunch we headed back to our camp - with a bit of grocery shopping on the way. We also managed to find a decent camping store at Berrimah and replaced the camp chair.
Next day I returned the borrowed chair ( along with a couple of beers) and we spent the day just swimming, washing and reading at the campsite.
We did also head to Berry Springs Swimming holes - a great little recreation area that we were pleased we got to early and enjoyed the swimming there before lots of day trippers starting heading in for the day.
Our last day we had a lazy morning and went back into Darwin after lunch to visit the Museum /Art Gallery - and to go to the Mindil Beach Sunset Markets.
We enjoyed the museum - it's small but very well set out. We especially loved "Sweetheart" - the Top Ends most famous Crocodile!! In the 1970's he gained notoriety because of several attacks on aluminium dinghies. He was eventually trapped but drowned when attempting to haul this huge croc ashore. He is immortalised now in the NT museum for all to see!!
The Cyclone Tracy exhibit was great - although I came away feeling pretty sick after experiencing the sound bites of people's actual experiences that night and also the sound room where you are in the dark and hearing an actual live sound recording made during Cyclone Tracy. It was a pretty scary experience hearing the wind and the noise of things hitting the building - even thought you knew you were safe. It must have been horrific to have been there when it hit.
In the exhibition is an actual obsolete Railway Signal tower that was destroyed by Cyclone Tracy - 25th December 1974- it is made of riveted wrought iron. The 200km winds of this cyclone bent it right over as can be seen in the photo below.
We also had a bit of fun at the "Legendary Fring Pages of the NT News" exhibition - it seems I have now been added to the exhibition.
Mindil beach is renowned for its magnificent tropical sunset over the beach. The markets are a vibrant friendly atmosphere with lots of different culinary delights on offer along with live entertainment, street performers and arts and crafts stalls. We tried many of the Culinary delights!! - before heading down to the beach for sunset.
Digging in to the yummy food on offer!!
We were stunned how many people gathered on the beach to watch the sunset - we think perhaps 1000 people could have been there with us experiencing a sunset that did not disappoint.
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