One of our latest departures on this trip - 9am, only because we knew we had so little distance to travel. We stopped at Humpty Doo for mornos; bought a sticky bun and a quiche from the bakery but couldn't see a coffee shop so brewed up in the van.
We were set up on site #469 at Hidden Valley Holiday Park about 11:30 am. We would have been set up a few minutes earlier had Wendy read the park map correctly; Greg did an awsome job of reversing into a really tight spot between a fire hydrant a a couple of trees, only to be told that our site was around the corner. Not happy, Jan!
We then drove into to Palmerston for lunch and to restock the van with essentials. After restocking the van, we went back into Palmerston for our first COVID-19 jabs. The whole process was quite painless really, well, apart from the on-line booking process which was really time consuming. Wendy booked these appointments about 10 days ago. We then had to go to Bunnings, well just because. So, while we were there, we bought some more van essentials.
Instead of going straight home, we took a drive into Darwin City to the Stokes Hill Wharf precinct. It still has a myriad eateries as well as numerous cruise options - fast boat, slow boat, swamp boat, surfski, just to name a few. A drive through Darwin's main entertainment street brought back some memories, took us to the road out of town back to the van park.
We just happen to be in Darwin right in the middle of the annual RAAF Exercise Arnhem Thunder 2021. The aircraft that are participating from Darwin are the F-35A Lightning II, (first live sighting of the JSF) F/A-18F Super Hornet, EA-18G Growler, KC-30 Tanker Transport, and E-7A Wedgetail. This van park is right on the edge of the flight path, and the noise when they take-off is amazing. Yes, it is deafening, but it is also an awesome sound; imagine having the job of flying one of those aircraft; Wendy imagines the pilots saying "whooohooooo!!!!" as they take off. According to the internet, if the flying operations this week are the same as last week, we can expect to be awake until about 10:30 pm for the next week. We will try and video them sometime during the day so you too can experience that sound.
Sunrise at Mary River Wilderness Retreat - Greg counted about 40 wallabies out this morning
You know you're in cyclone territory when the phone and power poles are hollow
The Boxing Crocodile at Humpty Doo
Name on Google Map = Big Long Neck Dinosaur, but we think it is a Brontosaurus, outside Bunnging at Palmerston
Stokes Hill Wharf
A swamp boat
Two big tug boats and their massive exhausts
Bombing of Darwin memorials at Stokes Hill Wharf
Eatery area of the wharf
Mural depicting the bombing
Sunset at the van park
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