Saturday, 6 August 2011

Darwin

 

Left Victoria river early on 7th August and drove to Darwin, stopping at Katherine for a coffee and a break, I will call at Katherine on the way back so decided not to stop for long this time. Booked in at Forest Springs camp site about 30km out of Darwin for 3 days.

Darwin is an interesting City with a good shopping area. This is one of the main shopping malls.

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The girl in the picture above.

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The ruins of the old town hall, one of only a few things preserved from the devastation of Cyclone Tracy, Christmas Eve 1974. I was living in Adelaide then and remember it well.

There is a very good exhibition in the Darwin museum which covers the whole event, including an ABC weather broadcast forecasting that Tracy would bypass Darwin and not be a problem ( Michael Fish comes to mind). I spent half a day in this museum.

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Apartments at Darwin Harbour.

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Views of the harbour, a replica of the Endeavour can be seen in the distance.

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A very large marina area.

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I went on the Endeavour guided tour. This is a replica that is circumnavigating Australia with volunteer crews.

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The Jack on the bows has a missing country (It was interesting that non of the crew or guides that I spoke to had noticed this, or knew which country it was. Somebody must have known to get it right.) We did not add the Irish until 1801 and much to their disgust, the Welsh have never been added but they are a Principality not a Country.

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This deck, meals during the day and bed at night.

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Not a lot of headroom!

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I am told this is the origin of the term “A square meal” square plates that would butt side by side and not take up so much room.

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The officers dining room and the control centre of the ship.

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The captains cabin.

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I think the use of this receptacle is self explanatory.

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Darwin has some nice beaches but they are very prone to box jellyfish, Nightcliff Beach has a stinger net in the swimming areas to keep them out.

This is Mindil beach.

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It gets more rocky as you go round the coast.

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Darwin is a nice city i could have spent more time there.

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