28^th June: Darwin

Karen came over and asked Gail and I if we would like to go to breakfast with her and her girlfriends. So, we went with her and had a lovely easy social time. Then, as Peter was in Melbourne and the two boys went camping, Karen decided to “play” with us all day and so we visited the Air Heritage museum. We spent a lot of time reading about early female fliers and watching a video on Darwin's war years. I know, Denis, that this is one of your favourite haunts up here and I can see why. Glen was very enthusiastic about the planes. The centre piece, of course, was the B 52 bomber. Huge black thing that looked so menacing. (Almost as large as the Globemaster that looked like it was falling out of the sky on top of us as we travelled past Amberley on a back road a year ago!) Everything else was dwarfed underneath it,especially the tiny Ultra Light that looked like a dragonfly! Very flimsy! Glen also enjoyed the Tiger Moth and the Spitfire and its story. But the Bomber over awed every other plane there. The hanger must have been built that size just to fit it in !

After a couple of hours there, Glen was craving coffee and we went to a cafe with a great view of Fanny Bay. The others ate but I was still dealing with my breakfast of salmon with hollandaise sauce (with 2 poached eggs and toast!) Then we drove around looking at various points of interest including the view from Charles Darwin National Park where we side stepped a welcome smoking ceremony. (Gave me the wheezes!) Shopping and extended drinkies completed the day. Very nice!