26^th June: Darwin

After Glen had finished shifting the water tank which took him 5 hours, we checked out the famous Mindil Markets. Gail really wanted to visit them and so we arrived early as advised, found a shady park and walked over to the Botanic Gardens where we saw the biggest python I personally have ever seen. Not in capitivity, it was stretched along a very visible branch of a large tree, sunning himself. 5 – 6 metres long, maybe longer. Huge and fat – thee bulges of recent meals very obvious! We saw lots of trees too! Unfortunately, very few were named. Only two small orchids were flowering. But it filled in the 3 hours we had before the markets opened.

At 5.00, we retrieved our chairs from the car as well as the eskie with our cold bubbles and glasses and fouind a spot in the shade to sit. Glen stayed while Gail and I investigated. The markets were mostly food stalls, selling the cuisine of the world, a half dozen clothing places, children's clothing, some leather goods and lots of jewellery. We took food, pizza , baklava and delicious honey puffs to Glen who was enjoying himself watching acrobats. We had inadvertantly placed our chairs in front of a major entertainment spot. Watching the sun set overf Fanny Bay is obviously the thing to do as people streamed to the beach. After a fantastic display of fire twirling, Gail and I went shopping and Glen finally found a cup of coffee while we bought a couple of tops to wear. As we drove out we realised why we were advised to arrive early. Hundreds of vehicles were parked in every space possible for a km or two around the market space. It seems that going to Mindil Markets is what you do here on Thursday night! Darwin's version of late night shopping! Mind you, there are a number of other markets around here, including another at Mindil Beach on Sunday night!