How many days to go?: Day 37 – Saturday 23 July 2016

While enjoying a breakfast of pancakes this morning I fired up the computer with the intention of doing yesterday’s blog but unfortunately the old girl is a bit sick. The screen is flashing and stuttering like a terminator being dunked into a pond of liquid metal. We commented that if it could talk it would probably have Tourette’s Syndrome and be dropping bad language worse than my mother’s parrot. Shane worked some magic on it and she lasted the rest of the day albeit a little slow.

This has been the view from our front door. Nice and tropical. We had an early morning visit from 4 of the resident Ibises in the park. These cheeky little buggers wander around amongst the vans all day. Because the vans all let their grey water run onto the grass, the birds spend their time picking through the grass looking for bits of food that obviously flow out with the water. They are so used people they barely break into a trot when you go outside. They keep their distance but without any sense of urgency.

I have decided when it comes to holiday packing – I suck. I’m not sure if it was a bad choice of clothing or just a lack of options to pack, but I got sick of wearing the same old things all the time and bit the bullet and went shopping. Happy with those purchases we hit the souvenir shops again for a few extra gifts and things for ourselves as we figure Darwin is our last opportunity for any “outback” memorabilia and having missed the opportunity to buy “My friend went to Darwin/NT and bought me this” items at the market, we hit the shopping mall. I was treated to something from Shane that wasn’t exactly Darwin/NT, but a pair of owl salt & pepper shakers to add to my growing owl collection.

Shopping done, we drove out to Channel Island, a very small island south of Darwin which has pretty much a power station, an aquaculture centre and a boat ramp. You have to love the way some people ignore signs really. Despite clear signage “do not fish from the bridge” – this dude had parked his ute, set up a chair, 3 fishing rods and even tied his dog to his towbar. And the vehicle wasn’t on the verge either – it was parked in the middle of the lane of traffic.

After exploring for a little while we headed back into the city and out to Nightcliff to take some more sunset pictures.

On the way to the beach parking, we stopped at a small local supermarket to buy a cold drink. In the car park, an aboriginal man was waiting and as Shane got out of the car he approached him with a handshake and a hug and asked for money. Shane spoke to him but headed into the supermarket. Having spotted me in the passenger seat, he came around to the window and motioned for me to wind the window down. Even if I had wanted to, I couldn’t as the electric windows only work when the ignition is on so I shook my head and indicated I couldn’t. He then began to try to talk to me through the window which only made the two dogs bark incessantly at him. Undeterred, he continued to talk, started to sing, and then launched into an air guitar performance. I don’t profess to be an air guitar expert but I don’t think he was that good. And not only was he not very good – it was funny how “not good” he was. I was caught between trying to act indifferently and trying not to laugh my head off at his performance. Thankfully Shane’s purchase was quick and he returned to the car, dropping the $4 change into the man’s hand and we headed off. And yes, it probably was going to buy alcohol, but as Shane said – he’s a human being too.

It was a much clearer night without the huge smoke plume across the water. One unexpected photo opportunity was this dude with a boom box strapped to the back of his bike, and his pet cockatoo perched on the handlebars as they rode through the park areas and back again. Quite a sight. We both managed to get some really nice shots of the sunset from virtually right beside the car while the dogs looked on from the open windows and doors. A very pleasant evening.