A good nights sleep has left us in good condition to venture out for a days sightseeing in Darwin. We have been here before, but it was a very long time ago.
First priority was breakfast, which was a very impressive buffet included in our package. Whilst we expect that by tomorrow, the hotel will be full of people going on the Silver Cloud, we didn't expect that the first people that sat near us at breakfast, were also going on the same cruise. They were a couple from Bunbury in WA.
Our plan for sightseeing today is pretty loose, so we decided the easy way out was to get on the hop on hop off bus and see as much as we can. It is a pretty windy day today which is keeping the temperatures a bit lower than normal and very comfortable.
The first few stops are of little interest, seeing jumping crocs and fish feeding that is tide dependent, so we first get off at Cullen Bay, and upmarket residential area built around a marina and ferry terminal with a safe, lock protected harbour.
Ferries leave for Tiwi Islands and Mandorah and The Cox Peninsula.
Cullen Bay Ferry Terminal
Unlike the Ferry Terminal, the marina is protected from the open sea by a lock.
Cullen Bay Lock inner gate
The marina is surrounded by restaurants and quality residential developments, largely apartments. However, it does seem that there is a bit of the youth crime we read about happening even here.
The sign below from this restaurant basically says that "Due to repeated break ins, the bar is now temporarily closed and they no longer stock spirits"
Some of the restaurants are a bit out there, like this one, Lola's.
The caption says, "have a $9 beer and look at a $4 million house". I guess that sums the place up a bit.
A few shots of the precinct below.
Next stop was the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory. Well worth visiting and it kept us occupied for a hour and a half, even though we had been here before. Exhibits have been updated and their seemed to be more here than our last visit, a long time ago.
There are impressive displays of all manner of NT wildlife, this raptor display was one of them. The Whistling Kite, bottom row centre is very familiar to us around the waterways of Pittwater and Cowan Creek.
"Sweetheart" the salt water crocodile on display was famous for attacking outboard motors and was eventually captured, sedated. and drowned whilst he was being relocated. He was 5.1m long and weighed 780 kg with a girth of 2.3 m. Apparently not the biggest croc seen up here as crocs over 6 m in length have been seen.
An impressive display of sharks and large gamefish
Many displays of local ecosystems, reefs, swamps estuaries and even a termite mound
There were a couple of galleries of award winning local art, much of it Indigenous
There was a whole section devoted to Cyclone Tracy and a very impressive Maritime museum with many boats that had been in use in the past, confiscated from boat people arriving and illegal fishermen. Here are a few of them.
The last of the Pearl Luggers that operated out of Darwin
Harti Marege, an Indonesian boat, was caught taking sea cucumbers
This one must have been a challenge to sail, it is almost as wide as it is long
It is now well into lunch time and we hop back on the bus and ask the drivers advice on the best place to stop for lunch. He recommended that waterfront precinct, si thats where we got off. It was an excellent recommendation with awide range of food options available with a strong bias toward Asian which suited us fine. After considerable research, we settled on an Asian restaurant called Chow, as it seemed the most popular and had a strong Vietnamese bias in their menu. We both had an excellent crispy pork Banh Mi. Just as we were about to leave the restaurant, our new found friends from Bunbury arrived to also have lunch at the same place.
Looking over Waterfront Precinct and Stokes Hill Wharf
Waterfront Precinct restaurants
Beach Area popular with the locals
Convention Centre
Our final stop was back in town at aa bit after 3pm. We had planned to go and see the Military Museum at East Point, but ran out of time. Once we were off the bus we had a further walk around and took in a bit more of the local history.
The Church of England Cathedral
The cathedral was rebuilt after cyclone Tracy utilising the facade and parts of the original church. The original church (see in the bottom right hand corner of the panel below) was built in 1902, and took 3 months to complete. Obviously no CFMEU involved.
The day has gone quite quickly, and we got back to our room for a short rest and shower before heading out again looking for a meal and somewhere to watch the State of Origin. Fortunately only a hundred yards away is the Darwin Hotel which was well prepared to attract visitors to watch the game.
We settled for some pub food and watched the first half at the pub, retreating back to our hotel to watch the second half. It was great to see NSW have such a convincing win, and to see the Queenslanders try to talk down their loss.
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