It’s a win for Darwin…except for the robbery bit

WARNING TO MOTHER: There’s a photo of an R.A.T in the gallery

Darwin was a big turning point for us. In the depths of the cold and wet further down south we’d made the decision that we were making no plans for after Darwin until we got to Darwin. Depending on how we were coping, we’d turn either left (and head west) or right (and head for home).

But putting all that aside, we were pretty excited to roll into Darwin and firstly see the sea again, and secondly be back in a city after a while in small towns and remote areas.

It also heralded the arrival of grandma, which the kids (and us) were very excited about. We arrived a day early so as to settle in a bit, unpack the car (so we could fit grandma in), clean it, and clean the dog, and just get ourselves sorted a bit. Because we needed a pet-friendly cabin, we booked the only option in town which was at a Big 4 caravan park in Howard Springs, which is a little way out of town, but close to shops and not too far from the action really.

Jim and the kids picked up grandma from the airport the next day while I stayed behind with the dog. I had also decided to take the week off, so where I usually would have crammed some work in, I had a very enjoyable couple of hours sitting down reading my book – it’s hard to believe that I very rarely get time to actually do that.

Janice was determined to make sure we had an easy week, which I was completely on-board with. We started that off with a trip to the local tavern which conveniently is dog-friendly and has a playground. On another day we went to the (also dog-friendly) Darwin Botanic Gardens which were really quite nice, although it was a pretty hot day so walking around the wore us out a bit. We did a bit of a drive around town in the air-conditioned car just to have a look at the sights, then I took the kids to a free waterpark. The idea had been to stick them on the massive waterslide, but I managed to time it so we were there when it was shut.

The other benefit of grandma was a bit of child-minding and dog-sitting. So Jim and I took ourselves off to Cullen Bay (the fancy end of town) for an all-you-can-eat seafood buffet. As you can imagine, we both went prepared with the “stretchy pants” and did our best to eat as many oysters and prawns as we could, as well as crab, fish and calamari. They also had non-seafood options such as duck, pork, curries and pasta dishes so we pretty much rolled out of there.

After that we went for a stroll along (near but not, on the beach – plenty of croc signs around) and saw a guy standing in the waves in the dark. Initially we watched just to see if he was going to be a croc snack, but then we realised he was straining to pull in a massive fish so we watched him struggle with that for around 25 minutes before his line broke. He seemed to take it pretty well (better than I would have after all that effort anyway).

As well as fixing broken stuff (new Starlink etc), being in Darwin was a chance to plan ahead and buy some presents for our upcoming birthdays. We both went off to a shopping centre and split up to secretly buy each other things, which was much easier to do without the kids and all in one place.

That night we went to the Darwin Ski Club for dinner which is a lovely outdoor area right on the beach. The sunset was spectacular and once again, the dog/kid friendliness of it all was very helpful.

The next day we dropped the dog back at the doggy kennels that he’d stayed at while we were at Kakadu. He was beyond excited about the idea of being there, and almost burst out of his skin with it all. So with him happy for the night, we then went to Crocosaurus Cove to see yet more crocodiles.

As is often the case with these places, the crocs are interesting, but it was the other talks that were more interesting. We saw a snake eat a rat, and the kids held a snake and various other things (turtle, lizard). They are getting braver with things like that, and are extremely interested in all of it.

That night we went to the famous Mindil Beach Markets which was heaving with people. I’d had my sights set on a Darwin laksa for a while and this was the place to get it.

The next day we knocked off a couple of museums. The kids were a bit interested in the bombing of Darwin in WWII so we went to a military museum to learn a bit about that. We then went to the Darwin museum and art gallery which had a bit of everything, and was very interesting too.

By now it was the weekend, so more markets were in order, this time the Parap Village markets. These were just as busy as the Mindil Beach ones so we had a bit of a look around then had some iced coffees/chocolates before moving on. Jim and I had another night out, this time at a fabulous restaurant called Chow on the Darwin waterfront. He’d sneakily pre-ordered me a cocktail (Vietnamese coffee martini) and I was able to enjoy the best laksa I’d ever eaten.

That night though, we were woken at 1:30am by two men in our annex area (which is basically at the foot of our bed), rifling through our fridge. Jim started yelling at them, so I joined in and we managed to scare them off (but not before they’d scared us). This has actually happened to us before, in Toowoomba years earlier. That time we messed about trying to find the non-emergency police number before calling for help. When the police arrived, they said we should have just called 000, so this time, I was straight on to that. It took two hours for the police to arrive, and while they were sympathetic, in reality, we’d prevented the crime (well the stealing bit anyway, the “breaking in” still happened), so there wasn’t much they could do.  Of course, we got no more sleep that night so were pretty exhausted the next day.

What I found worse than guys trying to steal our fridge was the fact that we were surrounded by so many people and yelled so loudly, yet not one single person came out to help us. Two (further away) neighbours actually said that they heard our screams for help in the night. I had to bite my tongue very hard to not ask them why they chose not to help if they’d heard us ask for it.

We were pretty nervous about going to sleep the following night. We had packed up everything we could (as we were leaving the next day anyway), and had put the fridge in the cabin, so weren’t worried about them stealing anything, but still were worried about the idea that they may try to break in, or retaliate for the night before (or something). Anyway, sure enough, about the same time again, we heard noises and then soon after the police turned up again, called by someone else who had seen them stealing someone’s fridge.  So that was another sleepless night, and we were by then beyond tired.

The only good thing about it all is that the kids were sleeping in the cabin with grandma so were oblivious to it all (and will remain so). I’m not sure they would have wanted to continue staying in the tent after that. Even for us, we’re two nights past all that, and in a much safer, quieter spot, and have caught up on some sleep, but we’re still a bit jumpy.

But, despite being the victims of crime, we loved Darwin. It’s a happening city with a great night life, fantastic restaurants and food, and lovely friendly people. I’ve already told Jim I’m coming back one day for the Laksa Festival…