Darwin - Fun in the Sun

What a lovely few days we've spent in Darwin. I can safely say that it's high up on our favourite capital city list.

It started on a bit of a low note for me when I realised that we were a week too early for the famous Mindil Beach Markets. Apparently we're at the very end of the 'wet' season and not everything has geared up ahead of the 'dry'. Well we haven't seen a drop of rain since Point Samson in the Pilbara, but I'll accept that a group of Canberrans night not be fully qualified to debate the seasons in the Top End. Although I will note that plenty of locals have commented on how 'cold' its been as the nights have dropped down to 22 degrees!

Anyway, I turned my radar skills away from the weather and towards the brochures and found the Parap Saturday morning markets for us to visit instead. Wow - the best markets ever, and officially declared by us as better than Salamanca. It was easily accessible, the perfect size for wandering, had a great variety stalls and the food, oh the food! Darwin's asian influence was alive and well and the fragrances and tastes were amazing. My laksa was prepared in front of me as the old nanna sat at the side beating out the ingredients for the curry paste in a huge mortar and pestle. We also ate crepes, chicken satay, spring rolls (Lukas declared these the best ever), mango smoothies and tropical fruit salad.

As most of you know, fresh, local food is one of my passions and Parap hit the spot exactly. On the way out we bought fresh fruit, eggs and vegetables and got turkish pide for dinner. And I just had to go back for one more visit to the lovely nanna who pounded out some papaya salad for us as well.

We could have finished our Darwin adventure there and then and been immensely satisfied. But the fun stuff continued with the waterparks. The beaches at Darwin look beautiful - calm, turquoise waters sparkling through the days of sunshine - and it's quite strange to see them completely empty thanks to the crocodiles. Obviously the city feels the lost opportunity of beachtime fun and has created huge, interesting and mostly free waterparks to compensate.


The newly established waterfront precinct provided as with a quiet sandy lagoon, as well as a wave pool which we were really keen to try out. It's basically a beach without the sand (my dream!) and with waves that pump out at quite a rapid rate for twenty minutes then stop for another twenty for recovery. It's really fun but quite exhausting in the waves. Lukas even felt a bit seasick while riding his inflatable tube across the swell!



The tube waterslide park was also fun and easily sucked up a few hours one afternoon.















And then there were visits to the Museum and Art Gallery of the NT to learn about the cultural and natural environments as well as a great exhibition on Cyclone Tracey and the Darwin Military Museum with a multimedia exhibition on the bombing of Darwin and old military vehicles to explore.

Throw into the mix a crocodile and reptile park in the heart of the city with huge 'salties' and an opportunity to 'fish' for juvenile crocodiles with meat on a string and you have some exhausted but very happy travellers - everyone of us found something that we just loved - I'll leave it up to  you to work out all of our favourites!

The only downer? I've searched everywhere and haven't been able to find Crocodile Dundee. How could such an aussie classic be off the shelves? Oh well, the kids' education will just have to wait.