Around Oz the First Time - Chapter 22 - Darwin Day 1

Fortnightly I have a get together with some like minded business associates on a video hook up called Zoom, it’s part of the Dale Beaumont, Business Blueprint Program. We get together and discuss issues that affect us and the progress of our three month plan we set each quarter, our 90 day action plan as we call it. It starts at 8.00am but I am woken to the sounds of my phone registering texts between the group prior to its commencement, then realise it’s almost 7.30 in Darwin and therefore 8.00am and start time for the video meeting in NSW.

Whilst interested and marvelling at where we are and where we have been, it’s down to business quickly and as we only have 40 minutes, the business bit takes priority. The meeting finishes with a jibe from one about the temperature in Melbourne (well Gisborne in the Macedon Ranges), because one of the group has to fly there today for an important meeting, where it is 1 degree, I retort with there is a 3 in front of it here and a most pleasant morning. Little do they know that during the night a wind change brought the smoke and ash from an adjacent fire across the park making sleep difficult.

My CPAP machine shields me a little from episodes like that but I was woken during the night. Robyn really struggled with it. Along with the sightseeing we have to do our second grocery shop of the tour. The first one we did some time ago where all we needed was cheese and dip replacements, this time we will need much more as the fridge is looking a little bare. We will need to be careful though as there is much we are not allowed to take into WA.

Fortnightly I have a get together with some like minded business associates on a video hook up called Zoom, its part of the Dale Beaumont, Business Blueprint Program. We get together and discuss issues that affect us and the progress of our three month plan we set each quarter, our 90 day action plan as we call it. It starts at 8.00am but I am woken to the sounds of my phone registering texts between the group prior to its commencement, then realise its almost 7.30 in Darwin and therefore 8.00am and start time for the video meeting in NSW.

Whilst interested and marvelling at where we are and where we have been, its down to business quickly and as we only have 40 minutes, the business bit takes priority. The meeting finishes with a jibe from one about the temperature in Melbourne (well Gisborne in the Macedon Ranges), because one of the group has to fly there today for an important meeting, where it is 1 degree, I retort with there is a 3 in front of it here and a most pleasant morning. Little do they know that during the night a wind change brought the smoke and ash from an adjacent fire across the park making sleep difficult.

My CPAP machine shields me a little from episodes like that but I was woken during the night. Robyn really struggled with it. Along with the sightseeing we have to do our second grocery shop of the tour. The first one we did some time ago where all we needed was cheese and dip replacements, this time we will need much more as the fridge is looking a little bare. We will need to be careful though as there is much we are not allowed to take into WA.

So off into the city of Darwin. Forbsy is in the driving seat as he has been here before on a number of occasions. We head along the main drag into town and marvel at how small it looks. The road we travel starts at Coonawarra near a military installation. Imagine the disappointment if you were posted to this area thinking the suburb had something to do with the wine growing region of South Australia only to find you were here we all muse.

Once in town we park in what seems to be a main street not far from a walking mall. The girls are immediately taken in by souvenir shops and the like (we get them back later). At a newsagency I see a headline “Idiot Fisho Swims with Crocs”. Are they part of the Cahill Crossing mob at it again – no evidently a fisherman jumped from his boat to retrieve a fish in croc infested waters. There is also a book aptly named “What a Croc” with a picture of a croc attacking a tinnie captioned “G’Day Bait”, the occupant attempting to flee for his life. I take a picture and send to the Missing Link as he tells a story of his son Stephen moving somewhat quickly away from a croc that slivered into the water close to one end of the boat.

Past the shops many of which are vacant and have For Lease signs on them, making you wonder as to the vibrancy of the economy here. Is it that the market does not sustain the number of retail outlets that are built or is there another reason for the high vacancy ration like high rents, given the newness of the look of the retail sector I suspect it’s a combination of both.

Walking along the retail sector there are not many people. Forbsy muses it is nothing like any other capital city nor either for that matter his hometown of Newcastle. Any shop you enter would be lucky to any more than one customer at any given time, except for a coffee house that obviously has the best coffee in Darwin. The queue is out the door of the very small shop and many of the clientele are having their treat alfresco.

Further towards the port area we walk. The numbers of patrons certainly does not increase. There are numbers of families in the parks with small children. No one is cramped. There is a sunbaker that shouldn’t have been. He was old, bronzed and had his budgie smugglers looking like a G-String. Very uninviting.

Down along the waters front there is a pool with a beach and a lifeguard. I find this interesting as the tides in the tropics are known to be very large. I ask if the timing of the tides and would his work diminish as the water ebbed away and he informed me that the pool in fact was not open to the sea and that 4 fountains fed it with salt water, meaning it stayed pretty well the same height all day. Ingenious on several fronts but most importantly a safety one where the crocodiles are concerned.

Over a pontoon we look to see if the pool has any fish and the only thing we see are little batfish coming out of the depths to feed on the pontoons. At the end of the pond there is the wall, and beyond it the ocean. We see some heavy-duty pontoon just outside the wall with fish circling them. They look like mullet or something similar, only venturing into the sun and back much like Marlin in Finding Nemo, trying to protect his son. Silver Leader suggests that you can play with the Barramundi off the wharf, seeing them come out and back similar to these, he didn’t go into how successful it might be.

Walking back we head past the underground fuel tunnels commissioned in World War II. Another thing the government of the day were not very forthcoming about the war as far as it affected our land (and here I talk about the extent of the bombings of the north). Robyn has joined her meeting as I did before we left. She is able to participate on her phone and rambles on as we walk. I try to say hello to the other participants, who I know well but get the dreaded eye.

The car parking has been paid for 2 hours so we have a time limit which we are in no mood to breach given the “brown bomber” we saw doing his duty as we walked down. Its time anyway to find a place for lunch and given Forbsy has been here before we let him lead the way. He suggests an establishment called the Cav, or the Cavanagh Hotel. A somewhat iconic drinking establishment in Darwin.

Parking, as it was the first time is available close to our ultimate destination and close to a shop aptly named Fishing and Outdoor World. Silver Leader exclaims this is THE BEST place for fishing gear in Darwin. The boys are of course drawn kicking and screaming into the shop – NOT. I said we would get the girls back for their souvenir shop diversions, so here we are, pigs in mud. Lures, lures and more lures. Which ones to purchase to ensure a Barra tomorrow. Silver Leader suggests talking to the shop assistants who are happy to agree with the leaders initial suggestions.

We all purchase and move on to the Cav.

Lunch here is different. Firstly I head to the bar for a thirst quenching libation and order an orange juice (freshly squeezed) and a lime and soda. The orange juice is $6.50 and that is all I pay as the barmaid, a lovely welsh lady, informs me “we don’t charge for Soda”. Interesting.

Robyn and Rosalie muse over the luncheon menu and we men head off to order. With each order comes a free drink, so that means I can get 2 more drinks for free – bargain. The chicken schnitzel wrap fills my hunger adequately. Robyn can’t finish her chicken and watermelon salad  but she gives it a good go.

Lunch is completed and Forbsy having an afternoon engagement with family here is Darwin we head to the car, but because he has some time to kill he decides to simply wander the car around. We drive up and down streets, some of which would easily qualify as millionaires’ row. There is a vacant block of land toward the end of a cul-de-sac with absolute water frontage Forbsy suggests would do him if and when he wins the lottery. We also muse at the potential ability to put a relocatable home as we have seen on our drive today on such a luxury block – maybe not.

Wandering, always wandering we find ourselves at the head of the harbour where in World War II gun emplacements were built to protect the port. There are gun turrets and observation decks with one looking decidedly like a gallows but must have been for observation.

Forbsy, then heads us to the closest shopping centre to the caravan park for a provisions shop. We all hit the Woolworths. Robyn and I had created a list prior to leaving the van this morning and we head around, adding some extra niceties from time to time, well there goes the diet until next week. In the corner of the supermarket there is a boutique butchery section. Here there are steaks that could only be described as inches thick. T-Bones, Rib Eyes and Tomahawk Steaks are all there inviting the would be heart attack victim to purchase – none of us do, although we are very tempted.

One thing I notice is that the sparkling mineral water we normally purchase in Forster (or Sydney for that matter) is 75 cents whereas in NSW they are invariably 90 cents. Even the lemon flavoured mineral water is 75 cents for the same size.

Outside the supermarket is a small retail butchery, we will purchase from there says Robyn. We pay for the groceries and then head to the butcher. This guy specialises in “long hung meat” and some of his cuts are in excess of $100 per kilogram. Again we don’t imbibe but we do get what we feel are quality cuts for a reasonable price. I also purchase $4 worth of chicken necks (one kilogram) for the crab traps for tomorrow.

Home, unloaded and Forbsy heads off for his family rendezvous. The groceries are packed away, the meat cryovaced and placed in the freezer and the shopping bags replaced into the car. Now it’s time to ready ourselves for the fishing. This means getting out the gear, culling what is not needed, updating hooks where required (I have a few of these because many of my trebles on my lures are rusted) and put together lines and reels tying the braid to suitable leader. Silver Leader a bream competition champion shows me some good knots. They are wasted on me because my eyes are not what they used to be and my fingers simply won’t tie finicky knots. The easier the better. Silver Leader agrees with me and then we go through my vast array of gear and work out what might work tomorrow and what might not.

The gear is replaced into the car for quick access in the morning – we are being picked up at 6.00am. The clock is set for an alarming 5.15am I wonder if I will sleep.