Surprise Darwin!

Patchy reception and laziness led to us having no concrete plans or bookings after Bitter Springs, and to further complicate matters we discovered it was a NT public holiday and long weekend. It suddenly made sense why all the national parks were fully booked in a 300km radius. So we converted a planned stay at Edith Falls into a stopover and then hurtled up to the capital, Darwin.

It was a smidge cold after the thermal pools!

Finally, the coast! Croc-infested, sure.

We booked a last minute Air BnB right on Cullen Bay, what seemed to be a pretty touristy area of Darwin. Aka, The Big Smoke. People whizzed by on rental scooters and music drifted up from bars. This was our chance to regroup, make some reservations to lock our itinerary in, do some caravan repairs (thank you Mitch) put on about a million washing loads and see the sights of Darwin too.

The humidity had me craving Balinese-style fruit salads and voila, at Parap Markets!

And by sights I mean the bookshop and Vinnies. The Bookshop had an impressive junior graphic novel selection. And I picked up an Olivia Laing from the Vinnies.

She’s happy, actually. Because on this day she had sushi.

Darwin = laksa, so of course I was going to like this city. Thanks to a recommendation from ex-local Elo for dinner we headed to Warung Ibu Amye, the queen of laksa and a well-known Darwin personality who also ran for parliament!

This was even better than expected. It was a proper Indo-style roadside warung. The DIY signage, the plants, the flags, the seating, the fact the kitchen was just an open-air shack. And of course Ibu Amye herself. The whole experience was just perfection.

Also no menu, just fried chicken or laksa, take it or leave it.

Mitch having a chat in Bahasa Indonesia. Ibu Amye also told us Lux would be famous and was very cantik.

As the kids were not amenable to the two-dish warung, we then went to Stokes Hill Wharf for more food and sightseeing.

For some reason I agreed to go on the Ferris wheel, and then deeply regretted it as soon as it lifted into the sky.

Oli not so much, clinging on for dear life.

Goodnight, Darwin.

In the morning we popped into the Botanic Garden for breakfast and a stroll.

A lush oasis with a very lovely cafe too!

After the Gardens we headed to the Darwin Museum. It was an unassuming, blocky building right on the beach – but it had a diverse and high quality array of shows and exhibits inside, including an absolutely mind-blowing Aboriginal art award collection.

‘Wanha, dhika, nhawi’ a Yolgnu saying meaning where is my whatchermacallit?

Loved this one of two sisters having a natter.

Pulsated in real life, of the Milky Way and a local river system.

There was also a maritime wing with a range of Indonesian and Indigenous watercrafts.

Woven truck by the Tjanpi Desert Weavers.

Finally, what’s a trip to Darwin without going to the Mindil Beach Sunset Markets? This was cemented in our imagination by the Are We There Yet? book by Alison Lester. We all ate multiple dinners and desserts and Oli found a bracelet she’d been eyeing off by a local artist.