Darwin - Green Acres
Saturday 12/6/21 - Monday 26/7/21

During our six week stay with our good friends at "Green Acres" we met up and camped with three other local Mornington Peninsula couples, whom we knew and had camped with previously. We all enjoyed communal dinners either at a Chinese Restaurant, the 2 x Rump steak dinners for $30 at the local Coolalinga Tavern, Green Acre cook ups such as roast dinners, mud crab dinners, pizza nights, seafood nights, scones, vanilla slices and brownies.

Everyone also cooked up their own dinners back at their own camps on other nights.
Happy hour, at 5pm was enjoyed amongst us all at the homestead, overlooking the inviting swimming pool and lush gardens. Lots of tales, laughter, bantering and alcohol were enjoyed during this special hour (or two).

Occasional morning walks were enjoyed with our wonderful host and their beautiful staffy, Banjo. These walks were either locally or down at the beach at Lee Point. Old pushbikes were resurrected from the shed, tyres pumped up and given a wash down, then only ridden around the property once.

Shopping was enjoyed with us in search of necessaries, such as a fan, to keep the heat and mossies at bay or at the many markets, either just us two or Lorelle having a girl's morning out or Alan with the guys shopping and grabbing a hot dog. The markets were enjoyed for the food and atmosphere.

We loved cooling off in the swimming pool which is surrounded by lush green grass and stunning tropical gardens. The water temperature ranging between 26 -28 degrees but this was jovially debated between campers.
Gardening working bees were enjoyed with the campers and our hosts, lots of talk and laughter was about cutting grass and rolling in the hay. Seventy bales of hay have been spread out, mulched over the garden. Many trees were cut back with the burn-off pile getting bigger every day.

Health wise we arrived here with Alan's back still giving him grief, so we found a chiropractor who aided him with relief and some recovery. We had decided travelling northbound to get our Covid vaccinations done in Darwin, so a visit into Humpty Doo sorted out our first jab. With the warmth up here, our aches and pains have dispersed, for now.

Advise and knowledge was also shared amongst the hosts and campers whether it be with phones, apps, gardening, vehicles, sandfly concoctions, cooking (battered prawns & vanilla slices aka snot blocks)

On Sunday 29th June at 1pm Darwin and surrounding local areas went into a 3 day lockdown. We thought we had escaped the Melbourne winter and the lockdowns but certainly didn't escape the lockdowns. But it is a lot nicer being in lockdown in warm 32 degrees weather everyday, longer daylight hours and with a swimming pool, than the chill of Melbourne weather. The lockdown was extended until Friday 1pm, seven days in total.

Campfire drinks after dinner were funny nights with heaps of belly laughs and the talk of wet seats, puffs of dust (a new nickname was created - Dusty) and sore bellies (ohhhh, okay just one more, no more drink) so much for having a quite night.

The sky above is as interesting as the ground we walk on………….. we hear the sound of the sonic boom and look skyward in search of the air force jets either flying in formation or singly. We are situated under the flight path into Darwin Airport, so we see, not only the commercial planes but also the air force helicopters and jets, the sound of the sonic boom is a regular occurrence.

Looking skyward we also see the stunning orange grevillea flowers in bloom, which have attracted flocks of rainbow lorikeets in, the blue winged Northern kookaburra is sighted in the trees. The call of this northern kookaburra is so different to its southern relative.

During our time up here we caught up with Neil and Trina (Lorelle's cousin) at Darwin River Tavern. We had lunch and a catch up with Jean and Ted (whom we met in our travels in WA back in 2015) at the Noonamah Pub.

After our catch up with Neil and Trina we went out to Channel Island to discover the power station, the Darwin Aquaculture Centre and the boat ramp. The only access was to the boat ramp, so we went for a walk down this steep thin ramp.

We headed out to Doctors Gully where you can get up close and feed the fish. It was mainly bass, milk fish, the occasional barra, at times it was a feeding frenzy. You can stand in the water and the fish will nibble your feet and eat the bread straight out of your hands.

We have thoroughly enjoyed our stay in this beautiful part of our country, but it is time for us to move on and explore more places and sights. It could be an interesting trip heading back south with Covid numbers increasing in our southern states and state borders closing.

To the company we have kept, for the last six week, we thank you all for the fun times, great laughs and company and memories that we now all share.

P.S. If looking on your phone, don't forget to scroll down and click on the photos.