14th February 2011 – Darwin

I thought that before we told you of our adventures in Darwin, which is our last port of call in Australia, I would give you a couple of facts. Australia's size is approximately 2,967,909 square miles, slightly smaller than the US contiguous 48 states. (The ship is American, hence the comparison with the USA – but if it helps; the area in Queensland affected by the recent floods is the size of France and Germany together – and that is just one state in Oz). The population is around 22,000,000, most of whom live round the coast. The Capital is Canberra which very few people visit, but people who live there tell us it is a very nice city and get very cross when people, particularly other Aussies, run it down without having even been to visit. Phil Spencer in his recent British TV programme 'Location Down Under' showed the viewing public a snapshot of the city and I suppose it is yet another place we should try and visit.

The big disappointment with Darwin is that we didn't dock until lunchtime which meant that a visit to either Litchfield National Park or Kakadu was not possible, so maybe they will have to join with Broome and The Kimberleys on a 'still to see list'. The ship was able to berth alongside the wharf so we walked into the town. The ship did a very neat u-turn in front of this wharf which considering the size of the ship was pretty impressive. A teeny weeny part of this walk involved crossing an inlet on an opensided walkway which was about only 5 feet wide; I did wonder if they would close it if there were strong winds. Because the dock side is lower than the town we had to take a lift up 5 floors before we could reach the town. Darwin has been flattened numerous times by cyclones, most recently by Cyclone Tracy in 1974 and by Japanese air raids in WWII. In the film 'Australia' you see a jetty which is being bombed and only a small part of this original jetty still exists, alongside where we had docked. Darwin is actually closer to Indonesia than to any other Australian city and is home to more than half of the Northern Territory's population.

True to form the weather was hot, extremely humid and at times very wet. On the way into town we passed by the ruins of the Old Town Hall. Built in 1883 during the mining boom and used during the War for naval administration, the building was totally destroyed during Cyclone Tracy. The main shopping street appears to be vibrant and full of interesting shops. One of the arcades was part of the Star Cinema, one of Darwin's early cinemas. After we had found an internet cafe and brought our blog up to date we set off for Bicentennial Park. Amongst the sights to be seen here is the USS Peary Memorial/USAAF/Memorial. The USS Peary was attacked and sunk during the first Japanese air-raid on Darwin and they have managed to salvage one of the guns which serves as the memorial to those lost in the action. The Cenotaph/War Memorial is also in the Park. We also saw the NT Parliament House and NT Library, two very imposing buildings. Unfortunately the World War II Storage Tunnels were closed, but there is a lookout point above the tunnels which gives a tremendous view of the harbour.

By now it was time to make a weary return to the ship in time for dinner. We were all pretty tired (the humidity is very energy sapping) so we had a reasonably early night.