Now the heat is really noticeable. Apparently the 'cool dry' season has ended around a month early, and the 'hot dry' has begun. We are thankful for a cool breeze at night, swimming pools and occasionally air conditioned venues.
We stayed in Darwin a week which again gave Greg a break from the long distance driving, and also gave us all the chance to do lots in this great city.
Top on my list was a visit to Mindil Beach Markets where we ate Chinese for dinner, while watching the sun set. Darcy was very impressed with the crocodile hide whips and convinced his father, but not his mother, that he should buy one with his pocket money. Sadly for Darcy mum won this one. On Saturday morning we checked out the Parap markets at a former local's suggestion (thanks Amanda!) and it was less crowded and had better stalls, I thought, than Mindil Beach. The kids had satay sticks for brekky, and Greg and I had chicken laksa...mmmmm. Then we had 'dessert' of strawberry and caramel crepes. Double yum.
As the nearest natural waterhole is 40 minutes away in Berry Springs, Darwin has a couple of other options for cooling down. One we visited was the free water park at Leanyer- like a normal playground but with lots of water added. The water slides were also good for a few hours amusement for the three boys. Jess preferred hanging out in the shallow part of the pool, chatting to other girls, as girls apparently do. The playground was a bit much for her! Another great place for fun was the wave pool on the foreshore. This time the action was a bit much for me- I actually got seasick sitting on one of those big tube things.
We were all keen to see big crocs, so spent a morning at Crocodylus Park. Isaac got to feed a large crocodile (the food was on the end of a stick) and we all got to hold a two year old crocodile, which sounds very impressive. Actually it was only as long as my arm and had its mouth taped shut with electrical tape. And it was called Jason, which doesn't sound very scary at all. Sadly the park also had lots of bored looking exotic creatures in tiny enclosures who refused to wake up from their naps to entertain us. All zoos should be like Dubbo I reckon.
On Sunday we all went to the local Presbyterian church, after not having been to church for four weeks. The church was small but spiritually strong and biblically sound. Talking to the people there gave us a bit of an idea of the difficulties of living in a place like Darwin- the heat, isolation, lack of resources and transient population are a few.
Greg and the older boys saw Harry Potter 6- I was a bit jealous of them having air conditioning for two hours. We visited the Botanic Gardens and had a great time in the special children's garden, playing hide and seek and climbing the huge treehouse. Charles Darwin NP also had a display in an old munitions tunnel about the bombing of Darwin during WW2, which brought up many interesting discussions about wars and the army.
At the caravan park the older boys had lots of other kids to play with, as well as two pools and a jumping pillow to keep them all exhausted. We had one little girl who spent many hours at our caravan, playing pet shop, barbies and playdough, and coming to the pool with us. It was nice to have someone new for Arch and Jess to play with.
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