Day 113 - Friday 26th April 2024

Another city day, and it's become increasingly apparent as this trip has progressed that the city days have been those I've looked forward to the least. 

I was in no hurry this morning, so I rose at 07:00 and into a really nice breakfast. Then laundry duty called, so I did a load of washing that should keep me going for a while. I left the hotel at 10:25 to catch the 10:35 'Hop on Hop off' bus to explore the city. There are 12 stops throughout the city, and I boarded at stop 11. The commentary on the bus was very informative as we drove around.

Darwin is a small city with a population in the region of 140,000; the population of the whole of the Northern Territory is less than 250,000, which makes this one of the least populated places on the planet.

The first stop was at the cruise ship jetty, but there are no cruise ships in today so it's as quiet as a quiet thing. On the way we passed the World War 2 oil storage tunnels that I marked for a visit later as they are so close to my hotel. Then we drove up to the main CBD, and did a circuit around the parliament building (called the Wedding Cake as it's square, white and full of nuts and fruits mixed with alcohol), the Supreme Courts (which are available to visit but can prove to be very expensive) and the cathedral to Stop 1 by the information office that I visited yesterday.

Then along past a few tourist attractions that I wasn't tempted by, and a drive around the reclaimed and very desirable neighbourhood of Cullen Bay. Then up and past Mindil Beach where I was last night to the Fannie Bay neighbourhood.

We turned to drive away from the sea along a long straight road, and were informed that this was one of the first air strips in Darwin. It was the finishing point for a race for the first people to fly to Australia from London as lots of pilots had to return home with their planes after the first world war. The race was won by an Australian Flying Corps pilot in 1919 who took less than 28 days to make the journey. The runway was heavily damaged in a Japanese raid in World War 2, and the airfield was closed down in 1946, which has left a long straight road.  

We crossed the Stuart Highway which we were informed stretched all the way to Port Augusta (I know!), and then followed the route that I took into town yesterday before turning  off to Stokes Hill Wharf and stop 10. Here I left the bus to explore a double museum; part about the Royal Flying Doctor Service, and part about the Japanese raid on Darwin during the war.

This turned out to be fantastic; the information about the war was really interesting; the first raid planned by the same person who planned Pearl Harbor, and executed just 10 weeks later. We had a holographic film supposedly presented by the person who was the commander of an American Catalina supply ship which painted a remarkable picture of what happened. There was a film reconstruction of the first raid, and a virtual reality experience where you could look around and see what was happening ..... very funny to watch others after my experience had finished!

Then we had a film to show us the beginnings of the Flying Doctors Service, how it started with just one plane and then really expanded after the Queen's visit in 1953, shortly after which they were able to start using the term 'Royal'.

I'd finished here, and was reaching for the bus timetable when I saw one pull up outside, so back on and I stayed with it back to stop 1 at the information centre, just to capture some footage for today. I then went for a wander around the city centre, but there wasn't anything to inspire me so found an air conditioned bar for a beer out of the heat and humidity before returning to the hotel.

I did stop in on the WWII oil storage tunnels, but they had shut at 13:00; it would have been nice if that had been mentioned on the bus! So, back to the hotel mid afternoon, and an afternoon of leisure.  

As I said, I'm not much of a city person ..... just one left to go though!