The flights from Brisbane to Darwin (well Virgin anyway!) only leave late at night so it was an 8.45pm flight out of Brisbane, due to arrive in Darwin at approx 1am.
All good – I think I actually slept for about and hour and a half even if it was upright, head wobbling stuff.
I was really tired! Grabbed a cab into the Darwin Central Hotel and of course flopped into bed!
Headed out at 9am this morning and collected the hire car around the corner that we had arranged yesterday afternoon. Headed off first up to Adelaide River War Cemetery which is about 1 hr south of Darwin.
The speed limit soon ‘upped’ itself and signs allowed for 130km/hr. Pity we didn’t get to do it very often as most of the cars/4WD’s and CARAVANS!!!!! on the road don’t get up that fast so there was lots os stop and starts. Big open roads but also lots of 3 trailer Road Trains hauling whatever it is that they haul on these long distances.
Anyway 130km/hr can get you a long way fast!
Not sure what I expected at the Cemetery, having photographed numerous Commonwealth War Graves, but these were all bronze plaques embedded into the grounds and not the usual white Commonwealth headstones we have come to expect.
422 Gravesites represent those who were killed when Darwin was bombed over 2 days on 19/20 February 1942, including 9 Post Office workers who have their own burial area in the cemetery.
Headed from Adelaide River over to Litchfield National Park. Once again not sure what I was expecting but all we got to see was a bunch of Termite Mounds (and they call these a tourist attraction!!), and a couple of waterfalls – Florence Falls and Tolmer Falls. Time was against us and we wanted to get back to the Darwin Military Museum and Defence of Darwin exhibition.
Bak up the main road at 130km/hr and managed an hour at the museum just dawdling around. Got the hire car back by 5pm and ‘headed home’ only to find that the ‘Great Souther Rail’ people had been attempting to get hold of us.
Well this was good!!! There’s been a derailment of a freight train on the main line and we can’t get the train in the morning!!! Long story short and we are now in Darwin for another day then catching a flight down to Alice Springs lunchtime tomorrow. Ho hum – such is life!
