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| At the botanical gardens |
I put yesterday's clothes through the washing machine while I was having a shower but forgot that one really should not wash a brand new burgundy coloured fleece with white things. I no longer have white things.
After a breakfast of leftover sushi, never as good as when fresh but still okay. I headed to the start of the hop on hop off bus tour, noting that there were many murals on the way but I didn't have time to look at them.
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| A Royal Flying Doctor aircraft |
I opted to do the complete circuit to start with, but did get off to visit the royal flying doctor service museum. Very interesting, and combined with the bombing of Darwin museum it provided interest and education for a bit over an hour.
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| Hopefully, the only time I get to see the interior of a RFDS plane |
With time to kill, I headed round to some of the eateries and opted for a plate of prawns which I consumed, watching over the harbour and watching a group of, presumably tourists, on jetskis nurturing their inner bogan.
Part of the narration informed me about the Europe to Australia flight competition just after the finish of the war. The real purpose of it. Apparently it was to entice the pilots to fly aircraft back to Australia where they belonged , the incentive was a huge cash prize . The winners completed a flight from Europe to Australia, a distance of 18,500 km, in 27 days and 20 hours. Incredible for its time.
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| Banyan Flower |
I had planned to make my next stop Cullen Bay to explore the marina area which is controlled by a complicated series of locks to be able to manage the 11 m tides and protect the mud vessels from cyclones. But I realised that time was going to get very tight to do that as well as everything else I wanted to do.
So I went straight to the botanical gardens.
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| One of the Banyan trees |
On the advice of the lady at the info centre, after unsuccessfully perusing the cafe menu, I headed to the Madagasca garden to admire their extensive collection of Banyan trees
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| Another variety of banyan tree |
A bit over an hour in the gardens and I was feeling tired and hot, so headed back to the hop-on hop-off bus service with the intent of going back into town.
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| Sculputure at the gardens |
Getting the few groceries I needed from Woolworth's, resting in a cool room, drinking iced water and eating some fruit restored me sufficiently get the public bus out to the markets a little later.
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| Sculputure at the gardens |
The market was as one might expect: quite a mix of cheap and cheerful, weird and wonderful crafty things and some quite good stuff along with a great range of food stalls which emitted tantalising odours but I didn't risk anything.
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| To be identified - at the gardens |
I was persuaded to try some local gin but it didn't sufficiently appeal to me to purchase a bottle.
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| In the mall |
I stopped to watch an elderly Aboriginal man, who was seated on the ground while he executed a very lovey and traditional painting. I put a gold coin in the donations container and he invited me to hear the story about the painting. He struggled with his English words, and was assisted by his female companion and I confirmed my understanding as he described the purpose of the illustrated objects, all linked with the hunt, and how they came together in songlines.
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| Big banyan tree was protected when the University was built |
I got back to the bus stop and was joined by three ladies, one of whom asked me about the next bus. I let her know that I was a stranger to the area but maps was giving me certain information which we could possibly rely on and I noted one of her companions was carrying an item that the agent had sent me in relation to my upcoming cruise. So these ladies are from Tasmania and they have just been on the boat upon which I'm embarking on Saturday and they had a fantastic time. The other ridiculous coincidence is they are also staying where I am staying. During our sharing of information, they said that they'd left Hobart on the red eye flight a couple of weeks ago on Qantas but Qantas had rerouted the Melbourne Darwin flight via Perth. I would be livid if that happened to me.
The public bus got us into the city and the absolute chaos that was the traffic in relation with the supercar thingy that's going on, and I asked the driver at one stage if he'd drop us at the next stop and he said you can get off here if you like which we did given that we were gridlocked and we noted that the bus ahead had a traffic controller disembarking all that passengers anyway.
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| Colours of sunset |
We walked back to the hotel right past the car event and noting that some of the cars were vintage and rather nice but the others left me cold.
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| The moon and Venus, and if you look really hard, Jupiter |
A quick dip in the pool restored my body temperature to a sensible level and then it was time for a glass of bubbles and some cheese and biscuits on the balcony. The sunset wasn't as good principally because there was a considerable cloud bank on the horizon but there was still some good colour and as it got dark the crescent moon with Venus and Jupiter could be clearly seen in the West.
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