Days 329 – Darwin, NT (8 August)

Arrived Darwin on Sunday 8th and are staying with friends, The Ellis’s we have met on the road (through Scott and Joanne from Dubbo).   Murray, Julie, Sam and Monique are staying on a 2.5 acre property at Howard Springs which is 30kms south of Darwin.  They are staying with another couple Shaun, Jeannie, Alex and Oscar in their respective rigs.  The property belongs to a couple who are happy to have them park themselves on their land and pay a minimum weekly rent to cover water, power etc.   It is an ideal setup and the two families are very well setup here and have been here about four months.  Park accommodation in Darwin is very expensive during the dry season and literally doubles in price from May to September making it difficult for anyone who is semi permanent to stay in the parks.  Both families are working and staying indefinitely at this stage.  There are two dogs on the property, Jake who is probably about 7 and has obviously had a hard life as he looks much older.  He has the sweetest temperament.  Not a pretty dog a real bitsa probably a pit bull cross with who knows.  He is a large dog and was used for pig hunting and has the scars to show it.  His owner is in Kakadu indefinitely so he now lives a life of luxury.  The property owners have a lovely dog called Jedda who is a kelpie german shepherd cross.  She is a gorgeous dog but unfortunately she doesn’t like Coco so we have to keep them apart.  Sunday was the beer can regatta at Mindil Beach in Darwin.  The regatta is an annual event that has been running for 35 years and is very well known and popular with many interstate and I think, international competitors.  After setting up we all headed down to the beach for an afternoon by the water and to watch the regatta and visit the Mindil Beach markets which are very very popular.  The markets are known for their large variety of food stalls and it is almost a tradition to buy dinner and sit and watch the sunset for locals and visitors.   It is hot and dry in Darwin constantly at 32 degrees in the day so it was nice to catch some shade and it was certainly cooler at the beach than where we are staying. Jeannie and Julie are distributors for Vanilla Mozzi.  Vanilla Mozzi’s core product is an all natural insect repellant but they also make and sells other natural products as well such as wonder oil, arthiritis cream, anti itch.  Their stall was very popular and they had really good sales that day.  Mindil Markets are on every Thursday and Sunday evenings during the dry season.  Other than the variety of stalls they have free entertainment such as bands, musicians and fire eaters.  It was a really good day.  There was a chap selling landscape paintings of Uluru and Kakadu using paint from spray cans.  It was fascinating watching him paint these pictures using spray cans and it took him no time at all to produce these lovely pictures.  Very very clever.  There was lots of entertainment on the beach during the regatta with thong throwing and sand sculpture competitions and of course the beer can races itself.  Some people of very creative with their ‘rafts or ships’ and I reckon a lot of alcohol must have been consumed to get the number of cans required to build a raft.   There were hundreds of spectators lining the beach and of course the weather was just perfect with the ocean being calm as usual.  The sunset was one of best sunsets I think I have ever seen, it was magnificent.  It seemed to last for ages and the colours were incredible from pastel yellow, orange to vibrant reds, pinks and oranges.  It was definitely worth the wait.  Unfortunately our camera isn’t taking good sunset shots (we need to look into changing a setting) but gives an idea of the great colours.