Tues 19th: Exploring Darwin
This morning we woke at 8.15. What a difference just being able to leave the alarm off and then do our own tea and toast in our glorious apartment while catching up on social media. My bug had moved on but during the night had attacked 4 others of our group even though we were no longer together. Peter is still unscathed!!!
It was time to catch the hop-on-hop-off bus and explore the town which was named after Charles Darwin. It is closer to the capital cities of 5 other countries than it is to Canberra. The reason for the kangaroo and emulate on the Australian coat of arms is that both species can only go forward.
Our 1st stop was at Cullen Bay which is a reclaimed, up-market residential development.
Next stop was the Museum and Art Gallery.  We happened to be right on time for a half hour lecture from a survivor of Cyclone Tracey which all but destroyed Darwin on Christmas Eve 1974. 60-70% of the houses were destroyed but only 55 people on land were killed. They evacuated 35,000 people out of Darwin but only 10% returned. The rebuild was all in steel, but they can'T have underground cabling because of the termites. 300 light aircraft tied down at the airfield were destroyed plus the DC 3 from NZ which had just flown in for a change of crew before it continued to Indonesia.
After a wonderful bowl of soup we wandered on through the rest of this superb museum to discover such treasures as Sweetheart the 17 ft male crocodile that had to be caught in the end because he was eating boats and chewing on their propellors rather than the people inside them. Unfortunately he died with the shock of the capture.
We then enjoyed the drive around to Fannie Bay a beautiful beach but not for swimming as 50 snapping handbags (alias salties) have been captured this year alone.
We finally disembarked at the Darwin Waterfront which has been created as part of the Cyclone Trace rebuild. This is a prestigious area with an exciting wave lagoon right in front of the magnificent new conference center.
We found our way around to the Outdoor Deckchair Cinema where we want to experience tomorrow night and then climbed the 100 steps back up to the main street.
A tourist feature of Darwin is their sunset so we decided to go down to the beautiful deck of our hotel to have cocktails at sunset Peter did his taste-test of a Pina Colada but I still need to be cautious.  We were delighted to be joined by one of our tour group couples which is how we caught up with the continuation of THE BUG. These two were dining there so we stayed on with them for our meal. Such a very balmy evening with absolutely no insects. In fact the only bugs we have encountered in the whole trip are our stomach bugs. No flies. Nothing that bites.
We thought that was the end of our evening and returned to our apartment.  But no. Half an hour later the sirens started up and a speaker system telling us to vacate our rooms immediately.  Now where have I heard that before? Exactly a year ago. However this time it was only burnt toast on our floor and we were allowed to return after the brave firemen had put it out. Oh the relief!