Here we are in a rather warm 35 degree Darwin but a nice breeze is blowing so not too bad unless you want a long walk – we don’t!  The plan was the Hop on Hop off bus which all went very well until the last hopping on when we nearly missed ze bus which would have stranded us at the Military Museum!  However, this bus took us all around this interesting city – Botannical Gardens, Darwin Museum of Art (very interesting and rather emotional to see the effects that Cyclone Tracy had on his city on Christmas Day 1974 – absolutely disastrous to see photos of a city decimated by that terrible event.  On to the Military Museum where we saw the effects of the bombing of Darwin by the Japanese in February 1942 where 188 Japanese planes targeted the harbour, ships and airfields.  This city has had to rebuild multiple times which leaves little to see in terms of old historical buildings.  There are modern apartment blocks all around the city and out to the suburbs here – well maintained and solidly built because this city is prone to cyclones and is used to battening down the hatches.

One small bathroom problem – I thought!  Now we have had bathroom problems all around the world with me not being able to figure out the plumbing and last night the shower was utterly cold – I thought!  I called Guest Services to let them know ze shower vas cold and I had let the water run for five minutes to see if it warmed up – it didn’t.  So the boss goes for the shower this morning and declares there is plenty of hot water – hallelujah!  I called Guest Services to let them know the good news.  The not so good news was that the boss gave me a lesson in reading the hot/cold signs on the wall because (surprise surprise) I had misinterpreted the blimmin signage! These Aussies need to be just a tad clearer in their instructions I believe. The boss doesn’t believe they do so we will leave it at that!

We have contacted Jenny, our Camp Mother to see if she is prepared to hop on a plane and come up here to look after us because apparently I have not passed the tour leader exam!

Now we are off to the outback tomorrow and reception might be a bit off the grid (so might we by the end of the three days out there) so we will take a break until we surface back in Darwin before hopping onboard the Ghan on Saturday.