Day 98 / 2025 - Around Darwin

We have been in Darwin for 2 weeks. We did briefly think about why we are staying here for so long, we then look at the weather reports for home which then reminds of the number one reason why we are here, the weather.

Not a-lot to report for our second week. We did go down to the Waterfront Lagoon and watch the boys and their mum challenge themselves at the Aqua Park. This is a series of inflatable pontoons and obstacles floating in the waterfront lagoon. The session lasts for about and hour and is $28.00 per person regardless of age. After, we headed for the Wharf for a feed of fish & Chips. After lunch we caught the small shuttle bus to the glass elevator which then takes you onto street level for the centre of Darwin City. We visited the Information Centre where we were able to book ourselves a Tiwi Island tour. This is something Anne has wanted to do since we first started coming up to Darwin. We did find a new great place to park for the waterfront, you can park under the Waterfront convention centre for only $5.00 per day or part thereof.

 Friday afternoon we took a drive back to the centre of Darwin. The Ramada Zen has a great rooftop bar with 360 deg views of the city and surrounds. A great place to sit, have a drink or two while watching the sunset into the sea over Fanny Bay. They also provided all sorts of help yourself free nibbles throughout the evening. 

 Sunday we took in the aviation museum which houses one of only three B52 Bombers outside of the USA, the other two being in South Korea and United Kingdom. There is quite a selection of other aircraft including an F18, F111 and Sabre jets. We the had lunch at Casuarina shopping centre before some obligatory shopping. We did have a look at the Quarter with is a small entertainment precinct attached to the centre.

We also took a few shopping trips to Palmerston City such as the Gateway Shopping centre which rivals Casuarina. We also found BTC in the Pinelands area which has just about anything to do with your Caravan, Boat or Trailer. We did have to buy ourselves a new TV. The one that came with the van is now to old and no longer picks up all TV channels. In some areas we could not watch any channels at all as they are broadcasted in a different digital format. The original TV was 18" but the smallest we could find that worked on 12 Volt and didn't break the budget was a 24" for $275.00. This made it harder to fit into the original location but as a bonus it was about one Kilogram lighter. I didn't have a lot of confidence in its robustness, hopefully it will survive a life travelling in the van.

I did do some other maintenance on the Van. Was able to fix the door grab handle light. The switch had fallen apart and the plastic lens cover had become brittle so ended up replacing both. This is the second cover we had replaced, the last one being about seven years ago.