Day 152 - Monday 29 May - Keeping ourselves entertained

Day 152

Monday

29 May 2017

Darwin

And so the week begins again. I am starting to get cabin fever, not with the van, but with staying in the one place, 12 days it will be by the time we hit the road again.

We started our day with a lay in and reading our books before lazily crawling out of bed and having breakfast. We pottered around before going to Chemist Warehouse for some supplies and when we returned we put the bike on the trailer ready for our departure. As we did so a nosey neighbour came by for a chat. He needed to put on more clothes. I am not sure how his bathers were being held up and nor do I want to know.

I then made my way to the pool to sit on a sun lounger and use the free and super slow internet. Paul joined me shortly after he had changed his book at the exchange. I didn’t do as much as I could and a fair bit was sorted via tethering to my phone internet. I figure I am paying for 9gb of data a month and as it runs out in 2 days I should be using it as well.

We returned to the van just after 11am, gathered our things and took ourselves off to the East Point Reserve that is situated along Fannie Bay. We parked at the first park and got out to walk along the footpath and increase our step count.  It was lovely wandering along as it wasn’t too hot and there was quite a pleasant breeze. We walked as far as the Alexander Lake, being mooned by a man in a g string and then a girl who was insisting on bending over to look at something fascinating on the beach. We couldn’t help but laugh. 

I received a call from the air con mob, CTM, confirming the part had arrived and would be installed tomorrow arvo, thank goodness and Paul heard from Darryl, looks like we wouldn’t be catching up as planned.

Once we had returned to the car, we drove further along the road to the East Point. At this spot there is a military museum as well as a large grassed oval with the remnants of gun emplacements from WWII. We did a wander around the park and walked up the large, round, concrete structure where a large gun had once been in place. 

We then drove around to a park to take in the views over Fannie Bay. I found a beautiful red-faced finch to take photos of and then noticed so many dragonflies. They had shimmery bronze and gold striped wings that were just dazzling in the sun.  I later found out they are tiger wing or graphic flutterer. 

From this location we also had a good view of an American Navy vessel floating in the waters, as well as the smoke billowing out from fires on the horizon and a view of Darwin City.

We returned to the car and headed home, as Paul was in need of lunch. I made up our sandwiches and then we proceeded to flake out for the afternoon, reading and watching DVDs.

At 3.30pm we wandered back to the pool ready to cool off. It was the first time that the pool was quite busy, but we managed to find ourselves a space and cool down before making it back to the van.

I sat outside and read my book, enjoying the peace. Paul started off inside but joined me after a while. It was a little hard to concentrate on the reading with our neighbours gathered nearby having four o’clock drinks and nibbles.

As the bugs began to appear, we retreated inside, making dinner before deciding to get our steps up further by driving in to town, parking at the multi-storey and then walking into the city.

It was much quieter by the waterfront than it was on Saturday night and the town itself wasn’t much different. It wasn’t until we reached Mitchell Street (Pub St) that there was more action. As we passed Monsoon’s we were given free drink cards. We kept walking but inspected what we were given and decided we would do a lap of the block and return for our free drink.

We made our way down Smith Street and then rounded back to Monsoon’s, joining the large number of American Sailors frequenting the bar also. We ordered our free drinks then sat near the front. I heard a stat on the radio today about the level of smokers in the NT, 23%, this is double the national average and you could certainly see it on show here. I can’t stand it, It makes me physically ill being around it. It is such a despicable habit.

When our glasses were empty, we made our way back to the car, had a fight with the parking meter ticket reader that did not want to read our ticket at first and then made our way back. Once back it was time to lay on the bed in front of the fan and try and get cool as we read before lights out.