After the last blog effort Homealone suggested I should lighten up a bit. She thought it was a bit turgid and overly informative. Well I do not know whether she was right, but I do like a bit of detail sometimes to inform my good readers. As it turns out our last days in Darwin were fairly light on information wise.

First up was the must do visit to Crocosaurus Cove. This is right in the middle of Mitchell St, just up from Capitanos. Behind the street front entrance there is a sprawling complex of billabong tanks and nocturnal houses with various sized crocodiles and reptilian creatures. The big crocs are sort of rejects from the natural world. Difficult characters who if not relocated here may otherwise have been destroyed. They lie around on the concrete beaches and have the occasional swim around in the water. There is one particular fellow, Axel, who cruises around his tank while ‘brave’ souls descend in a perspex tank with goggles and watch him from below water line. Lots of snapping of jaws while he is fed in close proximity to the cage. This experience cost $270 for a caged couple. Now, Homealone was not keen to do this whilst Allthego was keen. It was not possible though, booked out for the next month! Lucky! It was an interesting couple of hours wandering around, saw big crocs, little crocs and various reptiles.

After surviving Crocosaurus Cove we had lunch and then recovery time back at Capitanos before attending the Deckchair Cinema down at the waterfront in the evening. Started at 6pm with an hour beforehand for dinner followed by the movie at 7 pm. We saw ‘My Salinger Year’, story about a young Uni graduate, who wants to be a poet, going off to work as a publisher’s assistant in New York leaving the boyfriend behind. The publisher acted for J D Salinger of ‘Catcher in the Rye’ fame. She had to answer his copious fan mail. Quite an engaging tale and I will not spoil it by revealing any more of the plot! Great under the clear night sky, cushions supplied for the deck chairs and insect repellent for the bugs.

The ‘highlight’ of Darwin was on our last day. The Waterfront Wave Pool. Allthego took to this like a duck to water. The waves work for ten minutes and then it all goes quiet for twenty minutes, then ten minutes of waves etc …… all day. Homealone did not partake, had a quiet chardonnay looking on from the bar and reading a book. Water was warm about a metre and half deep, people bouncing all over the place. It was an all age fun place. Allthego survived for about forty minutes before retiring to the bar to recover and have lunch.

On the way back to Capitanos, to ready for the next mornings pick up for the Ghan, Allthego took a short detour to see some of the street art that is in the lane ways around the city. Quite a variety, although there is a significant indigenous flavour to the creations.