13 August - RAAF Open Day – Exercise Pitch Black 2016

13 August 2016 – 182 336

RAAF Open Day – Exercise Pitch Black 2016

Today started with Darwin parkrun, beautiful course along the esplanade, but 30 degrees at 7:30am – and they call this winter!  After showers, washing and car cleaning we headed to RAAF Open Day – there were so many people.  Military personnel and aircraft from Australia, New Zealand, France, Singapore, Thailand, USA and Canada were represented.  I went inside a USA Marines transport plane and was able to go into the cockpit.  Hayden was given posters of all different types of Australian Air Force aircraft, two different plane hatpins, stickers, ruler etc.  The exhibit I found most interesting was the remote controlled robotic bomb disposal units – it was cool!  This afternoon we had a late lunch, then did grocery shopping and general sorting out prior to leaving tomorrow.  We will be heading for Kakadu, hopefully it is not as dry as Litchfield.  It will be interesting to see Kakadu at a different time of year to what I previously have.  I finished the day with a lovely swim to cool down.

6 August - History, Food and Waterslides

6 August 2016 – 182 023

History, Food and Waterslides

Early start today to be in the city by 6:30am.  We were all keen to do Darwin Parkrun – two laps of the esplanade, a really pretty course.
http://www.parkrun.com.au/darwin/ 
We then headed back to the caravan park for a shower.  Next stop was the Parap Village Markets which had some lovely handmade items as well as heaps of delicious smelling and looking food. 
https://parapvillagemarkets.com.au/
Hayden and I settled on fruit crushes – Hayden had cranberry juice, passionfruit, blackberry and blackcurrant; I had milk, cherry, raspberry and blackberry – the amount of berries put in was amazing, about ten centimetres in the blender, then juice/milk.  They were really yummy; next time I think I would have cranberry juice instead of milk and it would be even better.  Stop three was the Fannie Bay Gaol which was used from the 1880’s to 1970’s. 
https://www.magnt.net.au/fannie-bay-gaol This was quite interesting; the buildings had been well designed to minimise the heat.  Stop four was the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory – there was an extensive display on Cyclone Tracy, it never ceases to amaze me the sheer scale of destruction and how little was left intact; the natural history items were well displayed and allowed you to get quite close while still being behind glass. https://www.magnt.net.au/ Stop five was the George Brown Botanical Gardens where we stopped for a picnic lunch. https://nt.gov.au/leisure/parks-reserves/george-brown-darwin-botanic-gardens After a nap we went to the Leanyer Recreation Park – this is run by the YMCA and is a free pool, children’s playground, children’s water park and three water slides. https://nt.gov.au/leisure/sport/find-a-sports-facility/leanyer-recreation-park Lots of fun was had by all.