Paula October 10

 At Dave's suggestion I am also making blog posts, when I have something to say :-).

Since it has sporadically and unpredictably poured the first two days we were here, and since Dave isn't feeling well, we decided to bail on our usual "let's walk around and see stuff" and went full tourist, getting on a hop-on-hop-off bus.  It's a decent way to get an overview of the city, while sitting down in air  conditioning.  (Have I mentioned that Darwin is hot?)  Darwin is smallish, with a lot of harbor.  Mostly very wide sand flats; flat enough that I suspect high tide comes way inland.  Lots of park and beaches; the parks didn't have the lushness that we saw in Bali, and in fact our guide pointed out one stretch of mangrove that was pretty much on dry land.  Probably in another month it will look very different, since we are at the start of the wet season.  It's definitely tropical, though.  And we saw a wallaby; they're apparently common enough in some parks to require some population control.

On our way to the bus stop we passed a pair of fascinating ancient twisted trees, which drop inch-log hard balls that seem to be some kind of seed or nut.  Dave got their name; I'll let him post it.  Partial view of one trunk:


After our bus ride, which finished around 1:30, we went for the nearest indoor restaurant we saw.  It was the Aboriginal Bush Traders cafe, emphasis on the aboriginal.   Lots of things with "bush spices" and "bush relish".  I had roo tail stew with a damper.  (A damper is a kind of round, dense crusty roll; roo tail stew is what you would guess it is.)  Mostly bush spiced, which seems to be among other things acacia seeds (wattle seeds) and pepperberry.  The kangaroo was good, other beef-like, and the damper with bush spices in the bread was delicious.  .  There is an aboriginal art store attached; I successfully resisted getting anything except some quandong jam, which is delicious.  Damper on the left below; stew on the right


Then back to the hotel, for a nap and fighting with the internet.  The hotel is nice for naps; cool, and the bed is comfortable.  And then a walk along Bicentennial Park, which is across from our hotel, to look at  sunset along the harbor (gorgeous!!)  



Now we are back in the breakfast cafe; the receptionist explained that the router is going bad and they need a new one, apologized profusely, and let us back into the cafe, with a different router and password.  And we are doing laundry — the downside of a long trip!  

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