World Tour 2020 Darwin, Aus

Day 63 — Mar 05 — Darwin, Australia

We arrive in Darwin at 8 AM. We have decided that this port is not all that exciting to see and we get off the ship around 9 AM. Our plan is to catch up on getting these blog posts up to date. We ride the free shuttle into town, a short 5-10 minute ride. The Info Center shows us the way to the “Mall” and a docent out front has a baby Crocodile for us to check out.

There is a “Mall”, a pedestrian street lined with shops of all kinds and random seating everywhere. We choose an area of tables near where a guitar player entertains everybody. There is free WiFi along this entire street and we sit with our laptops and blog away. It is quite warm and humid, approximately 32-34 degrees Centigrade which translates to 90-94 degrees Fahrenheit. This area of Australia has a different kind of logo, almost pornographic way of advertising the “See You in the Northern Territory”. They use text speak abbreviations that say, “CU in the NT, The Top End Different From the Bottom End”. Enough said.

Several hours later we are content with our blogs being up to date. We walk about the Mall and find some supplies such as soaps and shampoos that will be much appreciated back aboard the ship. Our room magnet and even a World Map to put on our wall and our backpacks are filled. We see quite a bit of Street Art and we head back to “Fort Hill Wharf”, where our ship is docked, and unload our prizes and then go back into town to find a bite to eat that is not ship food.

We see a storm off in the distance from the Esplanade and then find a Happy Hour at a place called, “6 Tanks Brew Pub” calls to us and we order cold brews and a dozen Chicken Wings.

Refreshed for a while, we hire a taxi to take us to “East Point Lighthouse” where we get to see Wallabys scampering around in meadows and our cameras are entertained once again.

I even spotted the cutest Wallaby hopping along!

Our cab driver takes us back to town and drops us near a big restaurant area. Fun road signs entertain our cameras yet they are clearly renditions of ones we have at home. We take a walk along the Esplanade and find a trail down to the beach. It is nearing sunset and it turns out to be quite a nice one.

Our cameras click away as the sun, clouds and water do their thing amid trees growing out of the ocean waves and our repertoire of sunset photos gets a boost in numbers. We walk back toward the restaurants and realize that the last shuttle to the ship is about to leave. We go quickly towards the shuttle and make it just in time. We ask the driver if he can drop us off and another restaurant row near the ship and it turns out to be a good decision. We walk about this group of eateries and stumble across several Light Sculptures, “Tropical Light, by Bruce Munro”, by a local artist that are best seen after dark.

Some fun night photos are taken and we find an Irish Pub, “Fiddlers Green” to have dinner at. Many other shipmates that we know find their way here also and the atmosphere is lively. A meal of shrimp and steak salad later, paired with more cold brews and we undertake the search to find our ship. Walking by more Light Sculptures, we spot the ship and head for it. Finally aboard, we acquire nightcap brews and head back to the room.

See you tomorrow!