Here Fishy Fishy Fishy!

Days 18-20

Darwin feels like home away from home. Apart from it being rather muggy ALL THE TIME. Some days you feel like you need to carry a wet flannel around with you to wipe your face off every five minutes and this is the dry season.

That being said we love visiting Darwin. This is our second visit and it has changed heaps since we were here 6 years ago. They've built a waterfront area with a wave pool and a swimming lagoon so that you can now swim in the sea. Normally you can't due to jellyfish, sharks and croc's.

We always book a motel for Darwin, which makes us feel like we're having a little holiday within a holiday. Lots to see and do in Darwin and it was Timmy's Birthday on the second day. Happy Birthday Timmy!!! We still have your birthday card. Maybe we'll post it home for you.

We stayed at the Vitina Motel with Simon and Em, while Tim & Mimi and Matt & Sylv stayed at the Freespirit Darwin Resort. We didn't get to see their place but apparently it was pretty good.

We had a lovely time in Darwin, eating out every night (Shenenigan's, Alaturka and the Lizard Lounge) and exploring during the day. We found a park called Leanyear Reserve which had a water playground, three water slildes and a swimming lagoon. I'm not sure who had more fun the kids or the 'big kids'. Best of all it was totally free and you could stay as long as you like.

Day 2 for me was taken up with an all day deep sea fishing charter with Tim & Mimi for Timmy's birthday. I love being surrounded by nothing but water, soaking up the sun and feeling the wind in my face. I could have gone again the next day, except my arms were aching. Apparently the day before they hadn't caught anything but at our first location we started reeling in some big Jew Fish. I caught the first big fish which was about 12 kilo and over a metre long, and they just kept getting bigger from there. Tim's birthday present was a 15 kilo Jew Fish and a lovely Golden Snapper that Mimi caught. In the photo above my fishes are the two on top. The biggest fish was caught by Lisa from Victoria and was 23 kilo!!

Thanks heaps to Captain 'Jack' Charlie and Deckie Adrian from Darwin Reef n Wrecks Fishing Charters for an awesome day. Thanks also to our European and NZ backpackers who provided all the entertainment (including falling/jumping from the boat into the lock for a dare)! At the end of the day we headed off to the Mindl Beach Market to watch the sun go down then ate at Alaturka Turkish Restaurant for dinner. I had the best mushroom sauce on my chicken I've ever had but the fried icecream was quite strange and not what we're used to. Bring on Kublai Khan fried icecream any day!

We finished off our mini holiday with a sunset cruise on the Darwin Harbor on the Spririt of Darwin. It was a bit cloudy to start with and I was worried that we wouldn't get a nice sunset and any good photos but we were not let down.

Back at the motel we started to pack up all the food crates and put on the last load of washing but that all got interrupted when I could smell marshmallows cooking and we discovered that one of the crates on the kitchen counter had been put on top of the stove and it had accidentally been turned on. Needless to say we now have a perfectly round hole in the bottom of the crate and had to throw out quite a few things. The nutrigrain container also melted and there was burnt nutrigrain left on the stove. I think we were lucky that the weetbix box was in a tin as I'm sure it would have caught fire.

With everything repacked in a replacement crate, we're just putting the finishing touches to the rest of our packing before we leave Darwin and head for Litchfield National Park. Surprise Creek Falls - here we come!!!