We both woke this morning fully recovered from our COVID jabs, so it was back on the bikes first up. With a lovely tailbreeze we headed into the city on a very nice bike path all the way beside the Stuart Highway almost tinto the city. The Esplanade in Darwin provides several great views of the harbour and it is particularly nice in the moring with all the boats and ships coming and going. It wasn't long before we were looking for a caffeine fix and that was found at the CBD Maccas.
With our caffeine (and some pseudo caffeine in us), we rode down to the foreshore from the city to visit the WWII Oil Storage Tunnels. Eleven tunnels, some nearly 200m long, were built in 1942 to hold up to 20,000 tonnes of oil and protect it from the Japanese bombing. Funnily enough, by the time they were completed, the bombing had ended and they never stored oil. However, a few of the tunnels were used in the 1950s to store jet fuel during our little stouch with the Indonesians.
After checking out the new (since we lived here 20 odd years ago) City Beach we decided to head back to the van for lunch, via the Frances Bay mooring basin with all its pearling and fishing fleet. We picked a different way home, also on a nice bike path, but it turned out to be a bit lumpy (so we thought until we looked at the elevation chart of the ride), with a head wind! So we earned our lunch.
Greg decided that he wanted a set of slicks for his MTB as the fat tyres were slowing him down on the tarmac. So off we went back into the city in the truck. He ended up with his favourite tyres, Schwalbe Marathon Plus and a couple of new tubes which he fitted when we got home, with a lot of huffing and puffing. He's keen to test them out tomorrow. While in town we had a wander around and did a bit of grocery shopping.
Home to a lovely roast chicken and veg cooked in our van oven. We're glad we opted for the fan-forced oven when ordering the van as it's been great; it's meant we can leave the BBQ at home, which saves on space and weight. While we were sitting under the awning eating dinner the fast jets out of RAAF Base Darwin put on a really great show as they took off to conduct their night sortees over some remote desert in Northern Australia. We'll sleep well tonight knowing that we've got such amazing men and women flying some of the most sophisticated fighting aircraft in the world, training to protect Australia against whatever may prevail.
We use the aircon at night, not during the day. This enables us to get a good rest and wake refreshed for a new day.
Some vibrant flowers
The old HMAS Coonawarra base entrance, now Defence Establishment Berrimah
One of Darwin's beaches, looks nice, however see sign below; if the crocs and jelly fish don't get you, the sharks will!
A nice idea for a shady bench
Darwin foreshore
See below for explanation
See below for story about this gun
Darwin Cenotaph
Mural depicting the anti-aircraft crew attacking the Japanese bombers in 1942, Greg's dad may have been one of these men as he was here during this time and this was his job
Town Hall Ruins (former Palmerston Town Hall)
WW2 Oil Tunnels
At the end of the tunnel were some art installations
Salt water safe swimming pool and Big Buoy Water Park
Frances Bay mooring station
Darwin Anglican Cathedral
Our ride stats
Darwin is lumpier than it looks
