Sunday 5 August – The weather is becoming a bit boring – every morning we wake to an almost cloudless sky and a predicted temperature of 31 or 32 degrees.  No element of expecting the unexpected at all!  We had a bit of a nothing morning, just sat around having cuppas and reading, except for the conversation a strange lady had with me when I had just finished my shower.  I’m not sure how the topic arose – I suppose just mentioning what she was doing today (going to the Defense of Darwin exhibit), but she somehow got the idea that Grant was a real WW2 enthusiast, so she launched into a great spiel about how we really have to go to Hawaii and to Pearl Harbour.  She told me which shops to deal with when we got there, where I could buy cheap dresses for my granddaughters while there (Macy’s), which companies to do the Pearl Harbour tour with, what we should pay, which airlines to fly there with, where I should do my grocery shopping – you name it she talked about it.  I was bailed up for about twenty minutes and believe me, I barely said a word!  Except when she finished I did just happen to mention that there were two and a half times as many bombs dropped on Darwin as there were on Pearl Harbour – but I don’t think that registered.

 Writing postcards by our van.

It was a bit before twelve when we left to go to the Museum and Art Gallery of the NT, and it only took us about ten minutes to get there.  Everything is very close to where we are staying.  The Museum, etc was excellent, with the displays really well set up and great depictions of Cyclone Tracy, a very good indigenous art section, Sweetheart the huge crocodile (fortunately she has been taxidermed), and several other sections equally interesting.  When we first got to the site of the Museum, we headed to a building which we THOUGHT was it (we couldn’t see another building), and went into this very small area with a display titled Dogs.  It comprised about thirty pieces of art/sculpture of dogs …. All very nice, but we were a bit underwhelmed.  When we came outside and found no other entrance, I asked a fellow nearby for directions, and he pointed out a nearby building, largely concealed by large trees.  Far more like what we were expecting.

We left the Museum at about three in the afternoon and drove to Mindil Beach – just a very short distance further on – in readiness for the famous Mindil market which was from 4 – 9pm.  As we were there early we managed to get a great parking spot then went and sat on the beach for the next hour.  It was lovely – the tide was out – it falls 8mtrs from high tide, so anyone having a swim had a very long walk to get to the water.

The market was a hive of people, food stalls (mostly Asian food), jewellery, clothing, crocodile leather goods, in fact there was a huge range of stalls, and the thing I liked most about it was that there was no hassling.  You just roamed around, looked at your leisure, and sought the attention of the attendant if you wanted to buy something.  We bought a few bits and pieces, some nice Chinese food, a huge ice-cream, and had a good stroll around.

We were back in the van a bit after 6, had tea at about 7.30 and have been sitting outside in the cool and talking to both Amanda and Lisa on Skype.  Tomorrow we will have an easy day, perhaps go for a bit of a drive.  As I have probably mentioned before, tomorrow is Darwin Cup day, so there is nothing open – will have to do the top up shopping on Tuesday .