Gismo Queen and her King

Day 26 - Darwin

Another very relaxing day in this lovely city - it is an easy lifestyle here (at this time of year anyway).

We didn't have to rush anywhere this morning so we enjoyed a very easy morning. No getting out of bed early, although when we did, there was pancakes on the cook courtesy of Paul! That obviously warranted making him a coffee and then we all enjoyed a fabulous breakfast. Lisa and I headed out to do some grocery shopping to ensure we are stocked up for at least the next week as we won't be seeing supermarkets. Back in time for lunch, which we had brought the ingredients for so hot chicken rolls were enjoyed by all.

After lunch, the Thomas' headed off to one of the free water parks and we visited a couple of shops. En route, we noticed an odd clunking sound in the back of the car and given it had just been serviced yesterday, this was of concern. As it seemed to get worse, Greg suggested we head back to Toyota for them to check out. The service supervisor was very good and came for a test drive to replicate the noise. Then through a process of elimination, he started removing things from the rear drawers, Greg checked the wheel nuts, the guy crawled under the car and he was about to put it up on the hoist when Greg remembered the steel pipe I carry. No, not for road rage, but for extra leverage on wheel nuts if I need to change a tyre. It is stored behind the rear seat and the rear drawers and sure enough it had moved, and once restrained, the clunking stopped. Thanks to the Toyota man for his patience but Greg won that one!

I then headed off for a pedicure (after all those weeks of roughing it!) and we had planned to have dinner at the Stoke Hill Wharf so we wanted to leave early. Lisa had heard that you could miss out on a table otherwise. We invited Natalie along as we wanted to see her before we left and Hayden was working, so she came to pick us up and we all headed down to the wharf. It is a beautiful setting down there, with boats going past, renovated wharf buildings, plenty of tables and chairs right on the wharf edge, many eateries and restaurants etc.

We all chose our dinners and were enjoying the various tastes when someone at the table behind us pointed at something in the water further along the wharf. What appeared to be be somthing bobbing in the water soon materialised into a decent sized saltwater crocodile.
He seemed quite happy swimming among some amazingly sized angel fish and eating the odd chip that people threw down to him (probably not an ideal diet for a croc). Natalie said the ports people would come and capture him tomorrow and relocate him - apparently they get 300 in the port every year. So we finished our dinner and were contemplating dessert when along swam something else! A shark! They must all be well fed because the shark was swimming happily amongst the angel fish also although the crocodile did move off at about this time!
So after all this excitement at the wharf, we concluded this was a pretty amazing place! We were so pleased to share the evening with Natalie and the Thomas' and what a fitting final night on our stay in the city of Darwin.

posted by Tracey @ 10:16 pm