Day 34 – Wednesday 20 July 2016 – Darwin

For a change we had an earlier start this morning to get to the Darwin Passenger Rail terminal to catch the departure of the Ghan.  I’m not sure exactly what I expected but whatever it was I didn’t get it.  The Ghan is such an icon of current and past rail history, so although I didn’t expect a brass band, I did expect something to compliment the grandeur of its reputation.  Granted it is big – as it very slowly (and I mean VERY slowly) moved away from the station we sat and counted all 41 components including the engine and the “rack of cars” at the back.  But the only people aside from ourselves that weren’t the 6 or 7 employees putting stuff away, were two Asian women with two young children taking photos.  Flinders Street at 9.00am it aint!

We had arrived about 20 minutes before its scheduled departure and saw no-one on the platform except for those few people and although there were a few faces to be spotted at the odd carriage window, the carpark was relatively empty and the train left 5 minutes before its scheduled departure time.  We were left to wonder do they actually fill those 30 odd passenger carriages?????

I was very taken though with the awesome shade sails out the front of the station and a large rock formation in a garden to the side which was in the shape of a turtle.

Our next stop was at Cullen Bay, and as I watched a couple of boats going through the lock from the open water back into the harbour, I noticed this little dude hitching a ride on the gates.  It seems he shits…….. errrrr sits here on a regular basis.

Just over a walkway bridge is a lovely little area at the entrance to Cullen Bay where the ferries to the Tiwi Islands dock.  Obviously a popular fishing spot, the fish today were being not just a little cheeky by swimming along the top of the water, even leaping out of the water, just beyond the reach of the numerous fishermen on the wharf.  Trying to temp them closer to the lines, the fishermen had thrown pieces of bread out into the water and fish were eagerly attacking the bread – well more like the bait was eagerly attacking the bread – the fish however were otherwise engaged in their entertaining frolic elsewhere.

 Leaving the city we headed north again to Lee Point.  Given the population of Darwin is only 136,000 odd people, you would expect that this number may be revised sometime in the near future with all the housing development out this particular direction.  New houses going up everywhere.   This however wasn’t one of them – and I think is possibly one of the ugliest houses I have ever seen.  Unfortunately the photo doesn’t do it justice and makes it look better than it was!

On reaching Lee Point I went out to take a look at the beach.  Evidently Darwin experiences a difference of 8 metres between low and high tide.  The water was out there somewhere!  The expanse of sand was incredible given we had obviously arrived at low tide you just about needed a cut lunch and a compass to get to the water. 

We took the dogs for a quick walk and were about to leave the car park when a woman came driving along with her front wheel wobbling around everywhere.  Seemingly oblivious to the fact, we followed her down to the next car park where we pulled alongside and could see that the car had been in a collision and the whole front panel of the driver’s side was dented and scratched.  Shane asked if she was OK and she seemed very distracted.  He mentioned that the wheel was very wobbly to which she responded “Oh is it” and then started shuffling around looking for something in the car.  We drove off wondering how the heck she couldn’t feel that in the steering as she was driving.  It should not have been on the road at all and was very dangerous.  It looked as though the whole wheel could fall off at any given moment.

From Lee Point we ventured around to Buffalo Creek where yet again we were met with major development in roadworks.  We were followed in by a 4wd towing a small boat and stood by as they backed the boat down the ramp.  One of the Aboriginal men was wearing a pair of shorts and it was hard not to notice the ankle bracelet.  I did feel a little bad about making the comment to Shane that maybe they stole the boat!  Unfortunately with everything we’ve seen of the Aboriginal community so far, it isn’t a difficult conclusion to make on the fly.  

Meanwhile I found this little dude slowly making his way up the boat ramp and although trying to pretend he was a seashell, I managed to snap a couple of photos of him.  He was literally smaller than a 20 cent coin. 

The signs at the edge of the boat ramp warn that the creek is inhabited by Crocodiles, so our photo shoot was brief but again the long walk out to the water was amazing.  I would imagine that when the tide does come back in, it would work its way up that sand quite quickly. 

By mid afternoon it was getting quite warm for the dogs so we headed back to camp after doing a bit of grocery shopping.  Everyone else had a bit of a rest while I whipped up some pasta salad and then it was off to have a BBQ dinner with Kerrie & John who are heading off on the next leg of their journey tomorrow.  We really enjoyed the evening although John really…….. you don’t eat cheesecake?  Seriously man – those little salted caramel cheesecakes are amazing.  I definitely ate way too much and couldn’t fit the last few bites in but it was a lovely night.  The time really flew by and I was surprised at the time when we were finally leaving.  We’ll miss seeing them on our journey as we go our separate ways over the next few weeks.