Thurs 7th July
Sight Seeing in Darwin
We had been told the Darwin Museum was well worth a visit, so after some school work we headed off for a day’s sightseeing around Darwin. Besides the Museum we also wanted to see the Famed Fannie Bay Goal, and the Military Museum at East Point.
On top of Cameron’s list of things to see at the Museum, was Sweetheart, a 5.1 metre croc, weighing 780 kg, which had been captured in Kakadu National Park after she had developed a liking for people in small boats.
Apparently between 1974 and 1979, she attacked over 15 boats, and gained such a reputation that a film called ‘Rogue’ was made based on her activities.
The intention was to transfer Sweetheart to a crocodile farm, but unfortunately during her capture she was accidently drowned. Because of her huge size, and the legends that had been built around her, it was decided to stuff her, and put her on show at the Museum, where she has become a major draw card.
Cameron wasn’t disappointed, and after paying our respects to Sweetheart, we continued on to view some fantastic displays of Australian wildlife including everything from deadly ants, scorpions and spiders, to butterflies, birds, lizards and snakes, with a few deadly sea creatures like box jellyfish and blue ringed octopus thrown in for good measure. Such an environmentally friendly place to live in.
There was also a section dedicated to Cyclone ‘Tracey’, which devastated Darwin on Christmas Eve 1974. Part of this display included going into a dark room and listening to an actual recording of the wind and all the debris blowing around. Quite scary. There was a warning notice advising people, who had actually lived through the cyclone, that experiencing the re-enactment could cause extreme emotional distress. Apparently several people who had actually been through the cyclone and then gone to the museum, had become quite upset at hearing the recording.
I later watched one of the museum staff, who was one of the cyclone survivors, talking about the cyclone, and several times he had to stop and bring himself under control, as the emotion of talking about it became too much. Seeing photographs and video of the destruction was a gentle reminder of what nature can do, and how insignificant we are.
From the museum we headed out to Fannie Bay Goal which became well known in Australia during the early 1900s and even up until the 1950s, for its casual conditions and user friendly environment. Apparently conditions were so ‘good’ inside, that some of the local indigenous people were deliberately breaking the law in order to get sentenced to, ‘a bit of time at Fannie Bay.’ The goal itself is no longer used, but it was very interesting to wander around and check out the cells and various other buildings associated with the prison.
From Fannie Bay we headed further out to the Darwin Military Museum at East Point.
East Point was established during World War 2 as a strategic defensive position for Darwin Harbour. Two huge 9.2inch gun emplacements were built here during the war in preparation for the expected invasion by Japan. They overlooked Darwin Harbour and were intended to blow the ‘sh 1 t’ out of the expected Japanese Invasion Fleet. Luckily they were never fired in anger, and ironically one of the guns was sold to the Japanese after the war for scrap iron. The concrete gun emplacements are still there as is one of the original guns.
They have now turned the whole area into a Military Museum, and we spent an interesting couple of hours looking at all sorts of big guns and other military paraphernalia. Needless to say, Cameron’s camera again had smoke pouring out of it by the time we left.
After that we went back to our caravan park for a couple of cold ones before returning to town to visit the Mindil Sunset Markets. Getting to the markets, even at 5.00pm was a struggle, and we joined the traffic jam about 3 km from the actual markets. We finally got a park and then entered ... hell.
This was Christel’s idea, and she is going to have to live with it. Thousands of people jammed into the market area, which itself must have covered 20 acres. Every man and his dog were there, plus a few.
All the usual shit for sale, plus hundreds of food stalls. We queued for six hours, well, maybe 20 minutes just to get an ice cream. My repeated comments of ‘Gee this is fun’, didn’t seem to be going down all that well, and I soon got told where to stick it. Some women don’t have any sense of humour.
To escape the crowds we went down onto the beach for a while to watch the sun set. So did a million other people, but at least there was more space down there.
We had no sooner got on to the beach and we were warned to be very cautious in the water, as earlier in the day a croc had been seen patrolling up and down the beach. Despite this, Cameron still had to go for a paddle. Silly bastard.
Back in the markets, we tried camel jerky, and buffalo jerky, and I believe even Joe’s jandals would taste better, but god forgive I never have to make the comparison. I tried Buffalo and crocodile kebabs, which were a bit better, especially the buffalo, and Christel had some Greek Wrap stuff which some sleezy gleek plick made for her. She reckoned it was beautiful. What is it about these Greeks? Doesn’t she know their bloody country is about to go arse up?
One of the side shows was a Whip Cracking Display. The guy doing it was brilliant, cracking out a rhythm with a whip in each hand. He then invited members of the public to come up and have a go. Guess who was first across the line.
After a few practice shots, Cameron got a good crack which brought applause from the crowd. We went back later and he had another go and got an even louder crack. Guess what’s been added to the Christmas list.
(I’m now well into my third bourbon, so this could take a while.)
There was also a Fire Eating Show. Well, they didn’t actually eat the fire, but were bloody, whoops make that very, entertaining to watch. They had a huge crowd gathered around them. We arrived at their stall well before their show started, and got a good position where we could see.
Not long after the show got started, this ‘Dick’, about 8 foot tall, came and stood in front of us and proceeded to video the whole thing, and then this bitch with a stupid bloody great hat, pushed in right in front of me completely blocking my view. I made a ‘casual’ comment to Christel about her manners and her hat, which she just happened to overhear. She turned around and looked at me as though I was at fault and said “Excuse Me”. Luckily I was enjoying the show, (what I could see of it), so I just ignored the fat smelly hairy arm pitted daughter of a gleek plick.
So, that was the Mindil Sunset Markets.
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