Day 95 – 103 25th June - 4th July. Darwin

We drove out of Litchfield via the less used northern exit, which involved a 70 – 80 km gravel road and joined the bitumen again near Berry Springs. which is about 50 k’s from Darwin City. We arrived at Darwin virtually 3 months to the day after leaving Melbourne.
Checked out a few caravan parks with the intention of being as close to the city as possible. Found what seemed to be suitable place called Malak C.P., which was originally set up as accommodation for the workers who came to Darwin to rebuild it after Cyclone Tracey. This was not far from the Marrara Football Stadium. Each site had its own basic ensuite however the campsites didn’t really suit our camper layout, plus the hot water was solar powered and our unit was in the shade for most of the day. To top it off one of Darwin’s busiest roads was within spitting distance of the site, so from about 5.30 in the morn onwards the noise was pretty awesome.
After 2 nights of this we decided to find another place to stay. This we found at Free Spirit C.P. Palmerston, which is about 20 k’s from Darwin city centre. This was much better. After 3 months of travelling we were all looking forward to a bit of “down time in a “city”. We were also looking forward to catching up with long time Getson family friends, Bev and Jeff Hutchison and their family, who have lived in Darwin for about 15 years.
We stayed in Darwin for 8 nights and saw many of the sights, such as the wharf precinct on Darwin Harbour, the City Centre itself, which is very relaxed, the Museum, which has much info about Cyclone Tracey and the rebuilding of the city and the Mindal Beach Night Markets and much much more, which we all enjoyed.
To top it off Mugga Trish (Getson), decided that she couldn’t stand to be away from us any longer and jumped on a plane to join us for a few days. The girls had no idea that this was happening, so when I arrived back from the airport with her, they nearly wet their pants with excitement. She had arranged to stay with our friends the Hutchison’s.
Bev and Jeff’s eldest daughter Suzanne and her husband Peter own a bird sanctuary and B n B type set up called “Feathers Sanctuary”, so we had a visit and tour of this during feeding time, which was fantastic.
Whilst staying at Free Spirit C.P. we ran into a great couple, Darren and Janine Green from Melbourne, who both grew up in Monty and Greensborough. Coincidently they also had 4 children although closer in age to each other than our lot and Janine incredibly grew up around the corner from our home in Monty and was best family friends with our next-door neighbours. Small World!!!!
Subsequently we struck up a friendship with them and decided that we would travel to Kakadu together when it was time to leave Darwin.
Darwin was all that it was purported to be! A decent sized well laid out, attractive tropical capital city, where the people are friendly, the weather, especially at this time of the year, is great and there is plenty to see. It is easy to see why so many people go up there for a holiday and end up staying forever.
Jeff and Bev: If you read this thanks for the lovely time we had with you. It was great to catch up in your “home town”. All the girls and myself really enjoyed spending time with you. Liv and Rube even appreciated your sense of humour Jeff and Daisy and Jassy often talk about “Jeff and Grandma Bev”.