We were booked on a "Tour Tub" of Darwin today. The tour visits the five main attractions in Darwin, WW11 Oil Storage Tunnels, Museum and Art Gallery of NT, Darwin Military Museum, Qantas Museum and Darwin Aviation Museum. We were to be picked up from the caravan park between 8.15 - 8.30am for a 9am start to our tour, but our driver didn't arrive until almost 9.00 am! It was not a great start to this 5 hour tour and by the time we picked up the other 7 tourists it was almost 10am.
Things went from bad to worse when the driver parked along the esplanade and had a conversation with one of the other passengers, about absolutely nothing in particular, for almost 30 minutes. The rest of us just sat in our seats and were bored to tears listening to these two. Not a happy chappy at all and I suggested to Philip that we leave the tour here and hop aboard one of the Hop On Hop Off buses. We didn't of course because we had paid good money for this tour.
By the time we reached our first stop at the WW11 Oil Storage Tunnels it was almost 11am. Philip went down into the tunnels but I stayed above ground. He really enjoyed this site but it looked a little too claustrophobic for me. I wandered around taking a few photos before we were all back on the bus again.
Next was a drive around the harbour area. This is a really lovely area that has improved each time we have been to Darwin and will no doubt continue to improve as the tourists return. Our next stop was the Museum and Art Gallery. We had been here on our last trip and as we had an hour to kill we left the tour group and went for coffee and cake before taking a stroll along the harbour walkway.
Back on the bus, after our walk, and our tour took us to Fannie Bay and then to the Military Museum where we watched a 20 minute video of the bombing of Darwin. It must have been terrifying and grossly understated by the then Prime Minister. It was a devastating attack on Australian soil. We wandered around outside the museum where a lot of the military equipment is set up. I enjoyed this Museum very much.
Back on the bus, we drove along the very long and straight Ross Smith Drive that used to be the old plane runway. We were to stop at the Qantas Museum but for some reason it was shut so it was on to our lunch break at Mingil where we were invited to go to the local bakery for a homemade pie. They were ok but nothing to write home about.
After our lunch break (by this time it was 2.00pm) it was on to the Darwin Aviation Museum, home to the B52 Bomber. We had also been to this museum previously but I was still very impressed with the sheer size of the B52. What a massive plane! This is an excellent museum and well worth a visit.
The Darwin Aviation Museum is just across the road from where we are staying so we were the first drop off at the end of this tour. I can't say I would recommend this tour but a different driver might have made all the difference. I guess we will never know.
It was all a bit of a rush after the tour as we had to go back into the CBD to pick up my laptop and then had to shop groceries for our trip to Kakadu tomorrow. We found a Woolies in the CBD but it takes twice as long to shop in an unfamiliar store. By the time we got back to the van, unpacked all the groceries, and had quick showers it was almost 5.30. I sent a quick text to our friends Matt and Lana to say that we were running a little late but they were also behind schedule so it didn't matter.
Matt and Lana are just a 10 minute drive from us and live in the suburb of Durack. It is a lovely place and very quiet. Their home is walking distance to the local school so that makes life easy. We had a lovely evening with them and their three kids. Such really great kids. Lana cooked up a roast leg of mutton with haselback potatoes and a Brussel Sprout Slaw that was so delicious that I begged her to give me the recipe. Thank you Lana! We talked non-stop until we realised that they needed to get their kids to bed so it was time for us to leave. They go camping a lot so they have given us some very useful advice about things to see and do at Kakadu. They suggested that we stay at Cooinda rather than Jabiru so we will take their advice. It's handy to have local knowledge.
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