Day 39 – Monday 25 July 2016 – Darwin

Our last day in Darwin so there was a bit to do and a lot to pack up after settling in here for 9 days.  Over the past few days my poor old computer had been a little difficult to get along with and despite Shane resusitating it a few times, it finally died last night.  Given my hairdryer had also decided to pack it in and given we were in a major city still, we decided we should go and get a replacement.  A trip to Harvey Norman produced a very attractive new computer member of the family known as "Chuck" - after Charles Darwin and a snazzy new hairdryer.  

Meet Chuck!

A not so quick grocery shopping trip and it was home to get everything packed up ready for the next leg of the trip.  One thing Shane has been very grateful for in Darwin are the carparks at shopping centres that have under cover parking.  Some of the centres have roofs or at least shade cloth covers throughout the carpark.  It can get very warm sitting in the car with the dogs waiting for shopping to be done.

A stop at a car wash didn't prove too successful.  I know the car was dirty but even after a $14 wash Shane had to get out the bucket when we got back to camp and get all the bits the wash missed.  Unfortunately though we ran out of time to wash the van and sadly now the poor van will probably have to wait until we get to the coast.  She is desperately in need of a bath.

As if the dogs don't get spoiled enough, I also cook meat for their food into a kind of meatloaf, and given we were starting to run short on what we brought with us it was time to make more.  It takes a while to cool down enough to freeze so we left it to cool down while we went out to take our last sunset pictures in Darwin.  

We travelled out to East point but decided to move back around towards Darwin a little more so there wasn't just the ocean in the photos.  Darwin certainly turned on a spectacular sunset for our departure and we both were very happy with the shots we got.  One of the things that has amazed both of us are the huge numbers of people who gather at the shore to either watch or photograph the sunset.  The first night we went to see the sunset, we assumed the numbers were high because it was a Sunday.  And while there do seem to be greater numbers on a weekend, there are still crowds of people at every location we have visited on any given night.  One wonders if they are mostly visitors or locals but either way it is certainly a very popular pastime for the evening.

As we were taking photos the RAAF Hornets were out and about like we had never seen or heard in our time in Darwin.  These noisy devils were buzzing across the sky most of the evening and at the time we joked that it was probably a good thing we were leaving Darwin if another bombing was impending!  Within half an hour we saw 12 go over us near Fannie Bay.  They move so quickly it's almost like a scene out of Star Wars where they are across the sky within seconds.  Trying to take a photo of them is next to impossible and at night you can't miss the flashing lights even though they are miles ahead of the incredible noise they make.  One thing is for sure - when they take off - all of Darwin knows it!

We finished the evening with a Pizza at Fannie Bay and then back home to feed the four legged companions who once again were rather miffed to have missed out on a slice!

On our return, I popped the now cool dog food in the freezer however there was a great deal of concern throughout the night as the temperature rose from -18 to -1 and didn't seem to be going back down.