Goodbye to all that, eh?

Before we relocate to Chile, we are taking a week's  holiday driving a great big equilateral triangle (For a given definition of triangle, and an even looser definition of equilateral) through Australia's Top End.   
Enjoy! 

 

On our last morning in Darwin we walked down to the water and glared out at it with expressions of thwarted lust. 
            It was a lovely beach - long and blonde and sun-streaked.  The sand was white and it glittered.  The water was cerulean blue and it whispered and chuckled as it lapped upon the sand.

The joke was on us.  We absolutely could not go swimming.  Or even wading, if we were sensible.

Darwin's beaches are a triple threat:  The coastal waters here are home to the world's most venomous jellyfish, the world's most venomous sea snake and the saltwater crocodile. 

            Ye Gods.

            There's a reason that Wangi Falls (80 km from the city) is so popular on weekends.  You can get wet without being barbed, bitten or stung.

            Understandably, Darwin has a fantastic set of public swimming pools.

Right in the downtown there is a lovely wave-pool, so that Darwinians can get their surf on, and just outside of it, there is a wrought iron arcade that casts antic shadows so that those who aren't swimming can get their funny on.

We looked at the wave pool, longingly, but we hadn't brought our bathers, so we went to the other extreme and explored the tunnels that the Allied Forces dug into the bluffs during WW2 to protect their fuel supplies from Japanese Bombing Raids.  Mr Tabubil loved it.  Pipes and tunnels - an engineer's paradise.  It was terrifically cool after the heat of the coast - so I was happy as well.  Beatific in fact. We lingered.

We lingered until we had to say goodbye.  Thea and Sandor and Pippa and the Sproglet had to fly off to Fiji (it was on the way home, so what could they do?) and we had to fly back to Brisbane, to wait for our visas on an indefinite stay with Dr Tabubil.  Because she is a sweetie-pie that way.