Barb & John's Hols: Day 9 Darwin

Day 9 Darwin

It was only just over an hours drive from Adelaide River to Darwin. We're booked into another Discovery Holiday Park at Winnelli on Darwin's outskirts - we now have membership so it's cheaper. It's a very BIG caravan park .... we are on 10th Avenue. I think there's at least 12. Once again Barb has managed to choose a park right near the airport flight path (at Adelaide River we had trains and road trains going by our campsite). Fortunately they seem to have a curfew for the planes and we slept OK. Curfew? John's pretty sure they lifted it temporarily at about 2am. Either that or he had a very noisy dream!

What we weren't quite expecting was the HEAT! It must be hideous in summer if this is winter. It got to 33 degrees inside the tent. Our little USB fans struggled to cope.

It was a good chance to tackle the laundry though. Barb got talking to a lady in the laundry and ended up having a long in depth chat about the joys of caravanning. She even got a guided tour of this lady (Barbara's) lovely Jayco Conquest motorhome. Barbara and her husband Laurie are also towing a small car behind their motorhome, driving up from Adelaide through the centre. They aren't exactly doing it tough with all mod cons including toilet/shower and aircon laid on. Barb was jealous of the aircon ... but their rig did cost considerably more than ours. We are at the lower end of the camping luxury scale. I'd say we aren't even in touch with the luxury end of the scale!

John uses the jack to lift our heavy trailer to the ball hitch

Coffee tastes good

sunset at campground

In the late afternoon we headed into Darwin city to go to the famous Mindil Beach markets. Even though we were quite early it was still difficult to find a park anywhere nearby. The numbers at the market swelled rapidly towards sunset and the place was heaving with both tourists and locals.
The street food there is wonderful. We were spoilt for choice with lots of international cuisines represented. John ended up devouring charcoaled grilled lamb, which he proclaimed to be delicious! Barb had barramundi & chips .... also wonderful. We had to sit cross-legged on the ground to eat it, mind you. Some people set up picnic chairs and table complete with tablecloth right beside us and proceeded to crack open a bottle of champagne which they poured into flutes. Bastards!

John at the markets

Mmmmnn....charcoal grilled lamb

The crowd starting to build up at the markets

Barb enjoys her Barra'n'chips on the ground

We wandered around the markets listening to the music and having a look at the various stalls. Barb was excited to find a stall selling crystals and gemstones. We are looking for something suitable to take to Janey and Aaron's upcoming wedding. Eureka!

Yay for lapis lazuli

People enjoying the street food

Afterwards Barb found a homemade ice cream and gelati stall. John said they were "up themselves" with their assertions of gluten free, dairy free, everything yummy free ... but the ice cream was in fact very good and deliciously creamy. Even John had to admit it was worth it.

We didn't run into Barb's colleague from Nambour Dr Tony James who is also in town and going to the markets this Sunday night. He was probably somewhere there in the crush of people .... possibly with his own table & chairs and champagne while we slummed it on the ground. Lots of people were down on the beach too to watch the sunset. Some were engaged in beach volleyball, and some even looked like they'd been swimming. Crazy fools! Crocs and stingers people .... I rest my case.