Darwin

On a hot and sunny day, I walked across the road to an inside passageway next to Coles, the supermarket chain, for breakfast at a cafe. Then I went to the Tourist Information Office to pick up some maps and leaflets, and then continued past the Cathedral to the modern Waterfront with blocks of apartments, restaurants, an artificial beach and a wave machine.
I walked through the WW2 Oil Storage Tunnels which were never used. There was further information about the Japanese attack in February 1942, the first of a total of twenty on Darwin that year, in which an American destroyer and other vessels were sunk.
Lunch at a cafe in the Waterfront was an acai and granola fruit bowl which included dragon-fruit.
The Smith Street Mall seemed to be the only place where the free city wifi worked. Unlike in London where the wifi is always there, in Darwin you had to log in with a password, e.g. at MOM.
Having forgotten to pack a couple of tennis shirts, I went to a rugby shirt shop and bought an Australia and a Lions shirt, the Lions eventually winning the series in Australia 2-1.
In the afternoon, I walked for a couple of miles past a golf course, a cricket field and an Aussie Rules Oval to the George Brown Botanic Gardens which had lots of varieties of plants and trees. There were plovers and ibises on the lawns as there were on the lawns and verges in the city.
I walked back into town past smart housing and holiday apartments, and through Bicentennial Park to the bar at the Hotel Darwin for dinner.
No police escorted the march in support of Palestine along Mitchell Street in the evening.
Unlike in London, most of the rentable bikes and scooters had attaching helmets.Les mer