Welcome to the Top End
Another ridiculous rushed morning and I didn't even get to finish my first cup of coffee before Adrian started the bus to get everyone on board. The BOSS had a mouthful of toothpaste and others were still running around picking up last bits and pieces.
The major criticism of this tour is the hurried nature when all you really want to do is relax. 10 minutes longer to finish coffee in the morning would hardly make an iota of difference to the day.
We drove straight through to Katherine and had a lovely swim in the hot springs. The BOSS and some of the more adventurous ones tried the mud slide - video evidence of the BOSS stuck halfway down the slide.
We then drove on to Edith falls where some of the braver ones got into the cold water for a swim. After lunch we drove straight through to Darwin arriving about 4:30pm. I can't say I was sad to be leaving this tour. Nine days was plenty. There were one or two people I could have continued travelling with and one or two people I was quite pleased to be getting away from.
We were dropped of at the Cavenagh Hotel and I was very pleased that I had upgraded from a dorm room to a twin. I dived straight into the shower and then the BOSS and I emptied our entire backpacks into the washing machine. Today being Sunday we have been lucky enough to arrive into town when the Mindil Beach markets are on. As an added bonus today is also Northern Territory Day and a huge fireworks display is scheduled for 7:30pm. 20,000 tourists and locals are set to turn out at Mindil Beach.
There are quite a few of us staying at the Cav including GEM. All the girls met up again outside the Cav and we caught a shuttle to the beach. There was a huge crowd with some of the locals already setting off fireworks even though the sun has barely set. The market consists of 100's of stalls selling excellent food from every country and hand made craft clothes and nicknacks. Barely anything was mass manufactured junk.
There were 3 live bands but one surpassed all others. A guy called Mark Hoffmann was playing 4 didgeridoos pumped through a electronic beatbox and accompanied by a drummer. www.rawdidge.com.
We listened, we ate, we wandered, we sat on the beach and watched an excellent fireworks display with 20,000 other people, we wandered some more, we managed not to buy anything and then we went back to the hotel. Well satisfied after a fantastic day.
After 9 days we finally got mobile signal so we started smsing and calling all our mates and my mum. Amazing how attached to our electronics devices we are. I rang Guy to check up on the business but after chatting about how fabulous the sunset was and what a brilliant time I was having, I decided I really didn't want to hear about work and it could all wait for another 2 weeks.
The fireworks went late into the night - till 5am the next morning in fact.
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