Day 154 – 16th June 2018 – Darwin with Angry

Today we wanted to do a bit of a drive around to try and get a sense of the layout of Darwin.  We found the local shopping centre which is less than 10 minutes away.   Col wanted to buy new work shoes for his working debut on Monday, so we stopped in to grab the shoes and other supplies.  I couldn’t help myself taking a pic as col was in his boardies with socks and work shoes, not a great look, but a funny photo none the less!  He is a good sport and even posed for me to take my pic.

We also checked out Nightcliff, another suburb of Darwin.  Of course we looked at the boat ramp which is always high on the priority list for us.

I contacted a friend of mine who I worked closely with at Telstra in Adelaide and who now lives in Darwin, Anthony Kaviyani who I nicknamed ‘Angryani’ which has been shortened to ‘Angry’.  He is not actually an angry man, but happened to be on the day that I gave him his nickname and it just stuck.  So Angry asked what we were up to that night and we planned to catch up and go to the casino to watch the Soccer, Australia Vs France.  Angry offered to pick us up and take us for a drive around to see the sights of Darwin and we gratefully accepted the offer.  Unfortunately his partner Kat had another party on that evening so couldn’t join us until later.  They were also both flying out to Adelaide at 2am Sunday morning!!  They are going back for a week and then returning to Darwin.

Col and I have very quickly worked out that everyone is a lead foot in Darwin!  People drive quick.  It helps that all the main roads are 70 or 80km but everyone seems to go quicker than this.  Traffic just flows.  Our first stop was at the Buffalo Creek boat ramp which is just a couple of kilometres from our Caravan Park.  There are salt water crocs here so you have to be very conscious of your proximity to the water!

We stopped in at Angry’s house and learned that in Darwin you can haggle when it comes to renting a property.  His townhouse was advertised for $150 per week more than he offered, and he was successful at getting it for the lower price!  So if you do rent in Darwin, make sure you haggle the rental price.  The property prices have halved in the past few years too, so you can get some really nice properties for very reasonable prices.

We then went to look at the Lock and some properties that a friend of Angry’s rented fully furnished for $400 per week and they were really nice apartments with a sensational view.

Afterwards we headed to the Waterfront for a drink and Angry drove us down the street where Col would be working on Monday so he knew where he was going.  The Waterfront area was awesome, some really nice outdoor restaurants and bars, so nice that it is comfortable sitting outside at night in winter.  From there we headed to the Casino and had a few drinks and watched some of the Australia vs France game, then left to pick up Kat from her party.  We went out to an Indian restaurant for dinner and then to the Darwin Hotel for a drink.  It was a full day and we had a great time.  Really nice to catch up with Angry again and lovely to meet his partner Kat.  We were shattered by the time we got home just after midnight and I felt for Angry and Kat that they had to wait up to catch their flight at 2am.