Day 1 Darwin

An arduos flight, left Brisbane about 9pm, landed about 1am.  Got a taxi to the motel, the taxi driver was just a little crazy, he spent the whole time (about 15 minutes) watching a movie playing on his phone which was on his lap.....I think the taxi knew the way or we were just lucky there was no traffic.  Got to the motel, a double room not available so we scored 2 single beds, pushed them together and all is fine in the world.

Got to bed at 2am, slowly woke up at about 7, went down for breakfast. We had to wait till 9 to pick up the hire car from the airport.  Rang the Hertz office in the city and asked if we could pick the car up here, they said it would be no problem so we walked to the office with our trusty car hire voucher.  The woman at the office was very friendly, but almost laughed when she saw the car we'd booked (Hyundai i30) and where we intended to drive.  

She had a larger car available, eventually got hold of a brand new Ford Everest for just $15 a day more.  Fell in love with it very quickly!  Went and did a bit of shopping (water, beer, wine) near the mall then went down to the Harbour for coffee, talked Pam into an excursion in to the underground war time oil storage tunnels.  Very interesting, a 171 metre 'tunnel' that is actually a steel fuel tank encassed in concrete where they stored fuel during WWII.  We miracuosly survived, walked up the Survivors Lookout', named after the Japanese bombing because that was where the survivors gathered to view the devastation in the harbour.

Went for a drive to where Amanda lived in her preschool days, good to get around and look at the neighbourhoods of Darwin.  From there we went to Dudley Point, sandstone cliffs and blue green water of the Timor Sea, could see across the water to Darwin City.

Was advised by the car hire woman to have a look at Cullen Marina so we could plan dinner while watching the sunset.  Good choice, beer wine with fish and chips with a gorgeous colourful sunset.  Home by 7pm for a beer, blog and chocolate.

View of Darwin from our motel

The mall at 9.30am, not sure when they wake up here?

Darwin Waterfront Precinct with the Lagoon Beach, protected from stingers and crocs

Couple of the harbour, near where the cruise ships berth

Beauty and the beach

Here we go towards the tunnel

Not too happy?

Left, right or just plain wrong?

Never ending fuel tank

Bit rusty these days

Light at the end of the tunnel

Harbour from the lookout

Aboriginal art everywhere

Amandas childhood home

Dudleys Point

Vernon from Dudley Point

Darwin from Dudley Point

Cullen Harbour, this is the ferry to Tiwi Islands

That'll do me!!

Even the wildlife agree

Not the only sunset photo you'll see this trip

Knew you'd want more

Last one for today