What a difference to other cruise ships on disembarkation day. Everything is really calm, nobody is hustling you to get out, and everything was available normally. Except that the breakfast was in the main restaurant and not up on deck – the outdoor café has been turned into a “hard hat” area where all the cases are being taken and the crane taking them onto the dock. This all happens whilst we are peacefully having our breakfast.
We are doing our own thing once we get off – there are several transfers to various hotels, but as we are catching a plane at 3.00pm we can leave our luggage in a secure area here and just have a leisurely stroll around Darwin. After saying goodbye to all the staff – and the captain is at the bottom of the gangway – we are given our DVD by Anya and then stroll along the waterfront for the ten minute walk up into the main esplanade area. It is absolutely pristine and beautiful. The grass is all cut neatly, and the flowers are lovely. There is a promenade walkway about 100 metres above the sea along the front, which is beautiful. Paul spies a public loo – a stainless steel box type thing. When he works out how to get in (an aboriginal homeless person tells him which button to press) a man tells you that you have ten minutes, and music plays. A bit different to our smelly loos back home!
We find a Mcdonalds and use their free wifi to catch up on emails etc whilst having a latte. Then we just wander around – it is a very compact town. We bumped into several other people off the ship doing the same thing – most people have got afternoon flights to various places around Australia. We walked down to the seafront and took some more pictures of birds (!) and then headed back the way we had come, but down Mitchell Street, one of the main streets through the city. We sat under the shade of a huge tree next to the Parliament building, before walking to the taxi rank in Knuckey Street. We bumped into one of the bar lads from the ship, so he shared our taxi back to the ship, where we picked up our luggage, and then headed for the AV8
Aviation Building on the outskirts of the airport. It is only a small plane – the check in building is a bit bigger than Paul’s new shed! “ Mr & Mrs Keevil” the chap says. How did he know that – I am impressed. Perhaps we look English? No – we are the only people going. Must be a really small plane then! Was that a gulp I heard from Paul? We are leaving the main suitcases here – hope that I have packed what I need for the next three nights. Don’t think there are any nearby shops if I haven’t. Paul had forgotten to put his tee shirts in, so a bit of packing and repacking had to be done.
We have a small delay here – the aircraft we were supposed to have has got a fault. Better to find out now I suppose. We are about 45 minutes late taking off. Brenton, the pilot, looks more like a cattle rancher than a pilot. He also takes our cases out to the plane – can’t see the captain’s of jumbo jets doing that! We walk out of the little aviation building, and through a gate onto the runway. There is a tiny, tiny plane at the end with the back door open – “that’s ours” I thought. Yep – it was. I can only imagine what was going through Paul’s mind at that time – probably trying to think of an excuse to stay in Darwin for the next three nights! But, give him his dues, he doesn’t hesitate. He asks if he can sit up front with the pilot, which is no problem. I have the back all to myself – although it isn’t any bigger than the back seat of a car. We are both given earphones – we can hear all that the pilot can hear from Darwin Air Control. Just as we are taxiing onto the runway, a couple of planes ahead of us, it comes across that take offs have been halted as a bird has been hit, and the carcass has to be retrieved. Didn’t take long for that to happen, so we were on our way. The planes ahead of us were somewhat bigger, and turned left to go to the end of the runway. We just turned right and off we went. Paul is actually quite chatty with the pilot – I told him it was mind over matter, and he obviously has got his mind over the matter!
We flew up and over the Adelaide River – and were told that at low tide from up here the shapes of crocodiles can be seen. It was high tide so we couldn’t see any today. The whole journey only took just about half an hour, and it was a really pleasant one. The pilot got out his ipad, and said he had downloaded an app that showed the area where we were flying, and even had a picture of the plane on – just like you get on the tv map on normal flights. We landed on a short gravel airstrip in what looked like the middle of nowhere – over herds of buffalo and thousands of birds. The white Bamurru vehicle with Al as the driver was there to meet us. As we were late, there was another couple of guests flying in from a day in Kakadu National Park, so he said we would just go for a drive and wait for their plane to land. In the short journey we had, we saw so many birds of prey, flocks of magpie geese, bee eaters – and they are only the names that I can remember. The whole area is just alive with wildlife. We went down to the Mary River, and on a little jetty there had a look out, and saw a couple of what looked like mud skippers swimming in the water. My photography is getting better – I actually got them in the picture.
We saw a plane coming in overhead, so went to pick up an American couple and we all took the twenty minute trip to Bamurru Plains. This is an eco lodge, that has solar power, and everything is done with as little harm to the environment as possible. We had a drink and cold towels, and were then shown to our “room”. Three of the sides has nothing but mesh, and looks over onto the wetlands – full of buffalo, birds, wallabies and god knows what else. The sun was on its way down, and what a sight! This is the view that costs all the money!
The shower is wound around a tree, and there is a branch to hang your towel on. The bed looks out to the wetlands, and there is a fan overhead if needed. No door locks – only nine of these cabins here. There are wind up torches that you need to take to the main lodge at night – just in case there is buffalo in your path. What do you do with your torch – shine the light in their eyes or hit them on the head with it? Hopefully I will not have to find out! We shower and change – no hairdryers in the room, but I read that they did have one to borrow so I got that. Can’t live without a hairdryer! The shower was surprisingly good – really hot and very powerful. The only thing is you can hear things walking about outside – and they all sound really big!
We walked to the main lodge for canapés on the deck to watch the last of the sun going down. See – it is civilised! They have actually lit a fire out here – I suppose it is their winter. We have put plenty of bug spray on, but there is still quite a few mossies flying around at this time of night so I got a bit nearer the fire. I will burn them off! Dinner is ready – there is a total of ten guests and Justin, the guide, eating tonight. It is a fantastic meal – there is an open bar, and would you believe that in the middle of the Australian outback they have campari! Ha! The three course meal was worthy of any high class restaurant – deep fried mud crab and prawn fishcake with salad, duck, and then a crumble and ice cream all very well presented. There is an American family also with two teenage girls – I would not be surprised if their surname was Walton and John Boy and Jim Bob are round the corner!
After a really lovely evening, we wind up our torches and make our way back to the third cabin on the right. It is now pitch dark, the stars are so bright the Southern Cross can be seen clearly as well as millions of others. You can also see the milky way if you look hard enough. Why is it that the stars here are so different to ours? I am sure Paul could tell me if I gave him a few hours! Just as we reach our cabin, there is a loud rustling just to the right of the path. That made us get a move on! No idea what it was – but I bet it was big!
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