Days 52 - 60 of Trip with no particular destination (Darwin: Larrakia country)

 For the most part, this week or so has been spent helping my brother pack his house up for his move to Adelaide.  However, we have had a number of interludes where we have been able to enjoy other things that Darwin has to offer. It was also especially good to be able to catch up with our other niece, Ruby, who was up here for a week-long visit during university holidays.

One place that we saw one day when cycling and managed to go back to was this amazing fig tree that has grown around a concrete block fence.  Nature can find a way to make anything look beautiful!

 

So much burning off (most of it controlled cool burning off) happens in the NT during the dry season. During the day this can make for a pretty smokey environment, but a positive outcome is the effect on sunsets.  This Nightcliff one is an example.

 

Late in our stay, the weather turned cloudy and sunsets were no more.  Quite cool too. Although maximums were theoretically up in the high 20s, it didn't feel like that. The mornings were only '19 feels like 15' because of the wind.

During this period, the Darwin Beercan (or can/drink container) Regatta was on and Pete and I had a fun hour or so wandering around the candidates for the regatta (we didn't stay till then) and watching the Tug-o-war competition.

 

 

This motley group, the No Mads, were the eventual winners.

I wandered around East Point at some stage and as usual was delighted by the rock colours and patterns.

 

 

There is always some sort of wildlife around there and on this particular occasion I saw a few more newbies for me. The dragonflies below are called Palemouths. The one on the left is the male, the one on the right, a female. I wonder how they recognise each other as mates?

 

Another visit to the Deckchairs Cinema was in order and this time we chose a Hungarian movie called Preparations to be Together for an Unknown Period of Time.  If you get a chance to see this at Flickerfest or some such festival, do.  What is fantasy, what is reality?  The audience reaction at the end showed that no-one really knew.

I also took a few more trips to Lee Point to look out for Gouldian Finches and other birds. Whilst I did see Gouldians each time, no time was as good as when I first managed such a close look at them earlier in the month. Nevertheless, there were plenty of other birds to see and seeing so many people interested in birdwatching and enjoying this place was lovely in and of itself.

 

Darwin is full of surprises and I was pleased to see this juvenile Black-necked Stork (aka Jabiru) at a quiet end of Mindil Beach.

 

In the city centre itself, there are obvious attempts by the local government to beautify (and protect) the streets.  My favourite, which I think should be adopted everywhere, is the enclosure of one of those electricity transformer boxes (or maybe Telstra hub thing) by artwork. So much better than the ugliness of the thing behind it (and I'm not talking about the beautiful Banyan tree!)

In another example, street art has been used to camouflage one. Yes, the little van is a power box!

Street art has been used to lift laneways in the city centre. I didn't realise the extent of it until we did a walk specifically to look more closely at it. I'd glimpsed the girl in the first picture so many times in the last month but hadn't looked at closely. The second and third are some of my favourites.

  
 

Some is there as social commentary.

 

Some celebrates the local flora and fauna.

                     

And some are there but I don't 'get' them.  I still like that they fill blank walls with colour.

 

Some are huge and some are small.

                        Yes, it's a bin.

We also got the chance to have a look inside the NT Parliament House.  It is an almost Asian looking building and quite beautiful inside in a grand sort of way. The Library has an excellent exhibition of NT post-invasion history and some really interesting insights into the beginnings (and continuings) of government in the NT.  Well worth a visit.

 

Parliament House is actually built on the sight of the first Darwin Telegraph Office built in 1872 and that later morphed into the Darwin Post Office. It was bombed during WWII and all that remains is a bit of wall (preserved) and a piece of shrapnel found on the site.

                      

Everybody but us has left Darwin now.  The moves are over and we will move on too.  Farewell Darwin.  It's been fun!