Trevor & Jonathans Cruise & Trip to the Far East and Australia 2016

Day 85 - Tuesday August 2nd 2016 - Darwin, Northern Territory

Well the good news was that the day started with Jonathan feeling much better thank goodness. After our cup of coffee and a visit through the bathroom (without the walk through the campsite) we unpacked our bags and repacked them again, this time trying to make everything fit!

Why is it that bags seem to just get heavier and heavier despite there being nothing new in them at all? How does that even happen? Well after half an hour reorganisation the zips started to close without the fear of the bulging open which was good news so it was time to go on the hunt for some breakfast.

We stopped off at the hotel reception to book a taxi for tomorrow morning for 04:00! Yes, really that early in the morning. Apparently it only takes about 30 minutes to get to the airport from here so 04:30 for a 06:00 flight that will take us both to Singapore.

We headed off for the main pedestrianised high street and sat outside a local café for breakfast watching the world go by. Trevor had got it in his head that he needed some stubby foam holders in his life to keep his cold drinks cool back in Gran Canaria so we hit the tourist tat shops in search of something suitable.

With the stubby holders found Jonathan got seduced by a cuddly Koala Bear for Florence (his youngest niece at nine months old) and bought one.

Now to be honest we had already walked the streets of Darwin’s town centre and the waterfront twice now on two consecutive days so we were really on the lookout to do something a little different.

We had read the hotels glossy local magazine that there was a new shopping centre in town on the outskirts so with nothing else seeming that appealing we headed down to the bus station to catch a bus to Casuarina Square.
There was a right character on the bus, a really drunk Aussie that was both intimidating but totally harmless. It seemed that he had to talk to everyone on the bus, hoping seats all over the place until he settled talking to this poor Indonesian woman who got saddled with him until he got off the bus. I have to say she handled him really well, much better than we ever could have done.

Casuarina Square was actually quite a sizable shopping centre and you can see that with this being here why the town centre has not really progressed beyond what is there now. We’re sure we have actually been here before though, back in 2010 before this was even built?

We bought some cheap bikes from K Mart or Target, one of the discount stores and we’re convinced that they built the whole centre around these large out of town shed stores which would explain why it is all rambling inside with offshoots of shops going everywhere. We were not really I the market for any shopping although Jonathan was seduced by a rather cheap bar of brown suede Chelsea boots with memory foam insoles. Jonathan also got his haircut whilst Trev repeated his order of juice bar drink from yesterday. We really were here just to see what else Darwin had to offer and the bus journey had shown us that Darwin really does spread out, lots and lots of low rise suburbs that didn’t seem to end.

We caught the bus back into town and low and behold the same character was on this one again, trying to chat with anyone and everyone, this time by his own admission he had drank a few bourbons’ so he was a bit more sloshed but again he was harmless.

We got off the bus in Darwin and went straight back to the hotel to drop of our goodies then it was straight out again for a very late lunch just around the corner. It was one of those pub deals, meal and a beer for $15 which is really good value for Australia (It is very expensive here).

With lunch eaten and nothing much else going on we walked back to the hotel and ended up sitting by the rather breezy pool for a few hours, Trev getting in the icy cold waters, Jonathan feels he sensibly stayed out, writing up the blogs from the last few days.

We knew that this was it, our last day and there was no hiding from the fact that it both made us feel a little sad. What with the horrendous early morning that we have tomorrow and then plane after plane after plane to get back to the UK the next few days are not going to be particularly pleasant.

They say that life is for living, and with the experiences that we have clocked up in the last three months we have certainly tried our best at following that mantra. It’s so incredible to think that we have come all this way from Barcelona but like everything in life, everything ends……how sad.