Darwin Sightseeing

Wednesday 25th June 2008

Paul took the Landcruiser in for a service because we’ve done so many kms – we hit the 10,000 mark while here in Darwin. It seems amazing but I guess it’s all those little side trips adding up. The rest of us were still in bed when he returned – the girls haven’t translated to NT time very much which is great in the morning but not so good at night when they are still awake at 9:30. He returned with a Corolla for us to use for the day which was a big change from the Landcruiser!

Once we managed to drag the girls away from the bouncy pillow we headed into Darwin city to check out Aquascene which is a spot on Darwin harbour where a lady started handfeeding fish about 50 years ago and now the general public is invited to come along and join in. We got there at 11:30 and they let us in for free because it was closing at 12 (it all depends on when it’s high tide). We rushed in and found we had plenty of time (and there was plenty of bread left) to feed hordes of Diamond backed Mullet – adults and juveniles – as well as some very large and fancy looking Milkfish who would grab a piece of bread from the surface of the water and then move away with a big flick of their tails. Apparently we had missed the catfish but there were such large quantities of the other fish that it really didn’t matter. Holly was dangling her feet in the water with bread between her toes so that she could feel them chewing her tootsies!

We wandered up onto the Esplanade while we finished up our ice creams (didn’t want milk products all over the loan car!) and then set back off out of town to Crocodylus. This is an excellent spot where they breed Saltwater crocodiles but also have fantastic displays to educate the tourists. They had a ‘museum’ which was well laid out and fascinating (the girls, naturally, rushed through it, only stopping to look at the gory bits and the displays holding live young crocs and turtles). The tour took over an hour and was led by a great guy who never stopped with the details.

Paul got to feed one of the breeding crocs via a long pole – they had some enormous males that were over 5 metres long – and they had some pens that had over 200 hundred young ones that were around 2m long. It was awesome to see them all – apparently, as long as they are around the same size there is no problem crowding them all together and they certainly seemed pretty relaxed.

At the end of the tour we got to hold some baby ones that had their noses taped up. They were mostly pretty relaxed but Holly had a five second wrestle with one who was a bit more feisty.
They also had a few other animals on display including a dangerous emu, some lions who’d been donated by a circus, a couple of stately tigers and some gorgeous capuchins.
Back at the ranch there was more Bouncy Pillow and a phone call to say the Landcruiser wouldn’t be ready til tomorrow – I reckon they didn’t even start it today.

After a quick splash we headed out to Fannie Bay to watch the sunset because it sounded like the place to go and had a couple of restaurants to choose from. We picked the Boat Trailer Club due to its position right on the water, its subsidised alcohol and its large menu choice. It looked like a load of other people had picked that spot, too but we found ourselves a table and the girls headed off to the playground to find some more new friends.

Dinner was excellent, the sunset was great due to some cloud caused by fires over at Mandorah (headland opposite Darwin at the other side of the harbour entrance) and we felt we’d had a taste of Darwin’s magic.