Thursday
It was only an hours drive from the Adelaide river into the centre of Darwin. I’d booked us into the Adina Darwin Waterfront Apartment Hotel, which is located in the middle of the extensive ‘Darwin Waterfront” precinct. This area is lovely, somewhat similar in style to Darling Harbour in Sydney, it’s set on Darwin’s waterfront lagoon area and has a multitude of restaurants, the Darwin Convention centre, and a couple of hotels overlooking a green waterside park and beach and a big Wave Pool. Our room looks out over the wave pool and across to Stokes Wharf. The current wharf, ( the third in the same location) was built and completed in 1956 and was the main wharf for Darwin until the Darwin Port at East Arm was completed in 2000.
We only spent a little time in the room unpacking and admiring the view before heading out again to go to the Mindil Beach Sunset Markets. During the 1980’s some local businessmen decided they wanted to bring the type of street markets that flourish in south-east Asia to downtown Darwin. They were a huge success but soon local shopkeepers in the city mall were complaining that the markets drew their trade, so the Street Markets were moved to their present location on Mindil Beach, where they have thrived ever since and have become a ‘Must Do” activity in Darwin. I’d planned our entire top end itinerary around making sure we were in Darwin on at least one fo the two nights that they operate, Thursday and Saturday. We’d read that the parking could fill up on a busy night and knowing how many tourists were up here at present we decided to get down there shortly after they opened at 4pm. Wise move! We strolled around the stalls of gifts and clothes and arts etc first and I picked up a few bits and pieces to take home.
Later we moved on to the long line of food stalls, selling almost any kind of tasty street food that you can imagine.
There were a small selection of buskers scattered here and there but the big entertainment draws were the Australian Army Band and a duo belting out some indigenous inspired melodies on didgeridoos. The Army band were the blues/rock section of the band rather than the full orchestra and they were really good!
The didgeridoo player was extremely good too, he was playing 4 at once, accompanied only by a guy on drums.
We were grateful for some of the lovely cool fresh smoothies from the fruit stands and tucked into some tasty curries for our dinner.
As sunset approached we walked out to the beach to join the HUGE crowd of people along the sand waiting for the sun to dip into the sea. I think the crowd were just as much a spectacle as the sunset.
Finally wandering back through the stalls again we headed for our car… and realised just how smart we’d been arriving early. the car park was chockers and there were still streams of cars crawling in trying to find a spot. Back at the hotel we sat on our veranda and enjoyed the ( relative) cool of the evening before heading to bed. Lots to see tomorrow!
Friday
A little bit of a sleep in this morning was a nice change. I’d not booked breakfast here so we wandered down to the Coffee Club downstairs for brekky, fresh fruit and banana bread for me made a nice change from all the eggs I’ve been eating lately. The first sightseeing spot for today was the Museum and Art gallery of the Northern Territory. The main thing we wanted to see here was their exhibit about Cyclone Tracey, which hit Darwin in the small hours of Christmas Day 1974, killed 71 people and devastated 80 per cent of the city. In the days and weeks following the disaster, most of the traumatised population left the city. I can still remember as a 13 year old, watching the news broadcasts on TV and feeling horrified at the vision of the destruction of an Australian capital city. The exhibition was excellent, particularly the sound booth where you stand in the dark hearing an actual recording of the cyclone roaring around you.
From the Gallery we drove around past the Botanic Gardens to Dudley Park to visit the Darwin Military Museum and the “Defence of Darwin Experience”. The original part of the museum records the Northern Territory experience in all Australian conflict but the ‘Experience ” is a newer high-tech exhibit devoted entirely to the bombing attacks on Darwin in WWII which started on February 19 1942. The experience had a series of interactive exhibits as well as a movie running every half hour.
The bulk of the Museum’s original exhibits are housed in original bunker buildings that occupied the site during WWII.( I never have a holiday with Neil withpout ending up in a WWII bunker somewhere!!) There were also a number of artillery exhibits scattered around the grounds under the shade of some magnificent fig trees, In one case a fig was growing right up through the bottom of a rusting old army truck!
We stopped at Dudley Point Lookout which has 360 degree views from the Darwin Skyline around the beaches beyond, and also drove to the end of Stokes Wharf which gave us a view back to our hotel across the lagoon.
Time for lunch! We liked the look of “The Precinct” , Craft Beer & Food Cafe which we had spotted from our balcony. The BLT & Chips and local craft beer didn’t disappoint.
It was really getting steamy hot again now but we were still keen for a little more exploring. We used the “SkyBridge” which connect the Waterfront area with the oldest section of Darwin city where the government buildings are. Here we could see the ruins of the old stone Town Hall which had been destroyed by Cyclone Tracey.
Our final stop quite close to the hotel were the WWII Oil Storage tunnels. IN 1942, Japanese air raids destroyed the above-ground oil tanks at Stokes Hill, Darwin. After these losses, crews set about building 11 bomb-proof underground tunnels below the cliffs of the Australian city. But by the time the war ended, only six of the tunnels had been completed, and none had ever been used.
The completed tunnels never housed any oil by the time peace was declared. But some use was made of them during the following half century. During the Indonesia-Malaysia confrontation between the British Commonwealth and Indonesia, jet fuel for RAF and RAAF bombers was stored in tunnels 5 and 6 for three years. Then, in the 1970s and ’80s the Australian Fire Brigade filled the tunnels with smoke for training purposes. The tunnels were later opened to the public on February 19, 1992, to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Bombing of Darwin.
There was a lot of water seeping through cracks in the walls into the tunnels and I swear it was 100% humidity in there and sweltering, so it was quite a relief to get back out into the “cool” of the fresh 33 degree Darwin air 🙂 Late in the afternoon we chose one of the nearby restaurants to cool off with a couple of drinks, and ended up staying there for dinner. My lovely chilled Mojito was just what I needed to cool off!
Saturday
Our last morning! On our way down to breakfast at the Coffee Club we noticed lots of stalls were being erected on the parkland lawns – it turns out today was the day of the Annual Mothers Day Art & Craft Fair. We strolled around to look at the range but I wasn’t tempted by anything.
Now we’re at the airport ready to head home. This holiday has definitely exceeded my expectations, I hadn’t really anticipated it with the “high” of our overseas trips but the Northern Territory has delivered such great experiences and fun activities. I’m grateful that we’ve had the opportunity to see a wonderful part of the country. There were parts that reminded me of our beloved American Southwest , we enjoyed 3 fun days with our wonderful friends , I’ve surprised myself tackling harder walks than I thought I was capable of and had Neil’s company for two solid weeks.. bliss! We’re already starting to talk about another trip somewhere in Australia as the pandemic continues to make leaving the country impossible . However I think next time I’ll be anticipating a “Holiday Here This Year” trip with much more excitement.
