A full day of travel brings us to the outskirts of Darwin to stay at Howard Springs with the most excitment coming from the kids upon seeing the splash park in the caravan park ... squee!!!!!

A time to regroup, restock supplies and explore our first major town the boys are not sure what to expect ... a bookshop at the very least!  Thomas has had his head down in the first 2 Harry Potter books as he has now reached a point where he is able to read them relatively independently and finished both books in the first week and a half of the trip.  He was most keen to head into the city to buy number 3. It was also clear that when we talked about Darwin and it being the captial city of the Territory they were expecting a city much the same as Melbourne really.  As we approached and we could see the CBD in the distance Thomas was quite unsure ... "but where are the big skyscrapers and buildings?"  A brief history of Darwin that included the city being bombed in World War II and flatened in Cyclone Tracey in 1974 they were amazed that it was rebuilt to what it is today! 

Our first day into the city was probably the most disappointing, as we couldn't quite get a feel for the place, the mall was uninspiring with a mix of knick-knack shops, the odd chain store and on the corner a beautiful old pub, the Victoria Hotel where the back end had been linked into a daggy mall style arcade, a waste really.  Unsurprisingly a good range of surf shops and we were able to stock up on thongs, sunhats and bathers, an upside to everything!! The downside, no bookshop!

The city did grow on us as we explored further and ventured down to the waterfront precinct to the lagoon where they have made a safe swimming area to keep out those nasty crocodiles, sharks and stingers!  It was great, grass down to the small sandy beach and surrounded by decking and bar/restaurants overlooking the lagoon.  As Dean and I surpervised and "played" with the kids we did at times longingly look up to the deck area and dreamt of mojoitos and expensive bourbans all afternoon *sigh*.  We watched a naval ship leave port and head out of the bay and headed across to the deckchair outdoor cinema for where they were showing the family friendly movie Paddington.  The venue was gorgeous and the view as the sunset was devine.  The lines of deckchairs where the locals knew to bring their own pillows or use the ones supplied.  It was curry night, so for an hour before the screening, dinner could be purchased as well as beer/wine/cider, soft drinks for the kids or use the free water supplied ... just return the ikea style plastic cups at the end of the night!  Dean and I enjoyed the delicious goat curry while the boys tried and loved the chicken curry.  The locally made mango ice-cream was the icing on the cake!  Oh the movie was pretty good too! Our faith in Darwin was restored after such a lovely afternoon/evening.

The free water park was our next destination complete with a splash park and a monster 6 lane water slide.  Dean and Thomas went up and down the slide while Ben, Zoe and I stayed in the splash zone, complete with one of those big bucket things that gradually fills with water and spills over to drench those underneath.  The only tip to leave after a day of water fun is bring bandaids for covering your big toes, too much water slide means wearing down the nails!!

With a handfull of brochures outlining the various ways to see a crocodile the choice was overwhelming! Swimming with crocs, feeding crocs, jumping crocs, crocs in a zoo ... we eventually went for the zoo option which at least gave Zoe more variety to see something other that crocs, especially as many could easily inhale her mistaking her for a small marsupial!  Crocodylus park just outside of Darwin sent both the boys into a spin! The main source of revenue is actually the breeding and selling of high quality crocodile skin to overseas markets especially in Europe.  They guarrantee buyers high quality no tears or scars and provide this option to discourage poachers. 

The breeding pens held a rather large male croc, varying from 4-6metres and its partner which was 3-4m.  Thomas's tv watching of shows surrounding facts and figures around crocodiles has its first payoff by telling the staff member at the park during the feeding demonstration that 'crocodiles are not able to poke out their tongues'.  This fact was unknown by the staff member (admittedly it was his first week on the job) and when varified by one of the ranges, Thomas was given the job of feeding the biggest croc in the park 'Bruce'.  This involved dangling a piece of meat on a string over the overhanging wire into the pen and 'encouraging' the croc to jump and snap it off the string ... oh and if the croc doesn't let go of the string let go of the pole!  The last part of the park trip was a boat cruise on their man-made lagoon that house 47 or so crocodiles.  No fingers, hands, limbs or anything else to be held outside the boat area including cameras.  A week earlier a visitor held out his GoPro to take a closer photo and it was snapped up by a croc within a minute, yikes!!

The boys were exhausted and overwhelmed by how 'cool' the crocs were and could not stop talking about crocs ... oh and they got to pat a dingo, still pretty cool but not as cool as feeding crocs!

Our last day started with a feeling of a mix of exhaustion, frustrations and a feeling of claustrophobia.  With only 2-3 weeks into the trip it was becoming clear that living all in 1 room with some but limited freedoms was going to be harder than expected. After my mini meltdown of "What have we done!!" moment I picked myself up and we headed out on a hot Darwin afternoon to take in the spoils of the annual beer can regatta held in conjuction with the Mindil sunset markets.

There were thong throwing competitions, various forms of foot races but the main attraction were the enterants into the regatta. All vessels made almost entirely of beer cans, largely XXXX gold and Tooheys red (ewww) with various support structures that allowed them to be manned (sort of). The major event was a race to find and retrieve the tressure. This involved all teams finding a treasure hidden below on of the various buoys in the bay and once found to bring the treasure from the water and back to the shore. Rules were simple ... you can use any method to retrieve the treasure and you can steal the treasure from your opponent ... so no rules really! There were water pistols/cannons, water bombs, flour bombs, eggs all to try and stop and sink opposing vessels. It certainly looked like fun and the boys just loved all the action!! I loved the people watching that goes with an event like this on a hot day on the beach! Needless to say Dean found it enjoyable and for the first time was grateful for the prominence of a certain asset of one Kim Kardashian and the flow on effect that has had ...

Dinner of curry from an array of food stalls at the markets and a beautiful sunset marked the end of our visit to Darwin.