Darwin

Hi Everyone

Here are some photos from Darwin. We stayed with Rick's aunty Eileen who very kindly put up with us for a few nights whilst we stayed there.  Unfortunately Rick's grandma passed away on the 2nd night we got there so we were on the next plane out once we knew the date of the funeral.  Very sad time for the Dare's but she is now resting in peace after a long battle with alzheimers.  We loved catching up with the family whilst in Canberra but then it was time to say goodbye and head back to Darwin for a couple more nights.  We still had a wonderful time in Darwin and the weather was perfect!! We really loved Darwin and will definitely go back again soon!

Well hope all is going well with everyone, we are missing everyone heaps and heaps!!

Take care,
Love Rick & Tegs





Enjoying our first lunch out at The Beachfront Hotel in Nightcliff.

Nightcliff foreshore.

Rick was fishing so I decided to stand in the water as it was quite warm this day!

The Nightcliff jetty where we went fishing.

BBQ dinner with Aunty Eileen. Sausages & Grilled onion in bread!! Nice and easy :)

Our views whilst eating our BBQ dinner at Fanny Bay.

Beautiful sunset at Fanny Bay.

Tunnels built under Darwin City for oil storage during WWII.

The tunnels were pretty amazing, so much history. They never ended up having to use the tunnels during the war and have never been used for anything else since except now is opened for the public to visit.

Having fish & chips on the Darwin Wharf with pretty good views of the ocean!!

This is Mindil Beach. Everyone has gathered to watch the famous sunsets here and also this is where the Mindil Beach Markets are held behind where everyone is sitting.  They are held every Thursday and Sunday nights in the Dry Season.  They were so good we were able to go twice during our stay here!

Mindil beach sunset.

Families and friends gather with their chairs, blankets and eskies at the Mindil Markets. It was pretty amazing. Much like the Eumundi Markets on the Sunshine Coast but sorry to say, these were heaps better!!!

These paintings were a hit. Everyone gathered to watch them being created.

The painter uses spray paint and newspaper!!! He was pretty talented.

The finished products from just spray paint and newspaper. They were just so good.

Rick sitting with Aunty Eileen and Aunty Verna at the Mindil Markets.  It was so great we could see Verna at the same time who lives in Victoria and happened to be staying with Eileen at the same time!

Another beautiful sunset at the Mindil Markets.

Paspaley Peal Ships docked at Darwin Wharf.

Darwin Wharf at night. It lights up, draws in huge crowds and people feed the fish that come to the surface down below to the left.

Fish feeding time at Darwin Wharf. Was pretty amazing!

Rick, Eileen and Verna watching the views of Darwin.

Beautiful Darwin city. You definitely need to visit Darwin, it is just amazing and the weather is always warm!! And no blowflies according to Eileen!! Sounds pretty good to me.

Shady Camp

Hi Everyone
Here are some photos of Shady Camp in the NT about 100km east of Darwin. It is where Rick has been boasting the amount of Barra he caught! Not to mention we were up close to a few saltwater crocs and the sunsets were truly beautiful. We loved it here and wished we could have stayed longer. We had a great time!

Love Rick & Tegs

Our first look at the Mary River at high tide.



High tide about 11.30am



High tide standing on the barrage. Rick trying his hand at fishing. At this stage we just found
out it was illegal to use treble hooks. A kind man gave us some soft plastic lures with a single
hook to start us off. Otherwise we would not have been able to fish here at all.

Low tide on the barrage about 2.30pm.

Woo Hoo!!! Rick caught his first barra here for this trip! He was pretty stoked.



Too small to keep :( They have to be 55cm or bigger to keep.



Rick trying not to get his lure snagged on the rocks. Everyone here loses their lures on a regular basis so because we didnt have very many, Rick wasn't too happy when he would lose one!! Luckily at low tide, you can go and retrieve them from the rocks if you can. We were pretty lucky on the first day to gain a few more lures by doing that.

I was on croc watch while Rick was standing on the barrage like this. Everyone did it but it was still nerve racking.

Low Tide. It was amazing to see the water rise and fall so quickly!

Somehow I don't think this bird took the sign too seriously do you???

High tide again, Rick trying to catch dinner. The sun was setting and it was so relaxing :)

It was amazing how the sunset colours changed, the following photos show just that.

Love this photo. He was in his element...

Big barra!!! Yum-O, we have dinner AND lunch for tomorrow!! This barra was 67cm long.

Same 67cm barra.

The next day.

Bird life, they were everywhere here.

Millions of shrimp EVERYWHERE. Felt pretty gross on your feet when you walk through the water!!

Up close croc. I spotted this one as we were crossing the barrage from one side to the other. No one even realised he was there!! I wonder how long he was sitting there for eyeing us all off!!

Rick reeling a big one......

No......just a small one!!! This was the start of a LOT of Barra caught on this day but unfortunately they were mostly undersize so I think I stopped taking photos of each catch after the 10th one!!!

Croc revealing its big sharp teeth. Show off........

This one wasn't too bad but not big enough. Rick still had fun reeling it in. They put up a good fight!!!

The fillets of the barra caught the previous day. This wasn't even the whole fillet!!

Fish & Chips!!

Yum-O! Fish, chips and Salad!! We were in heaven! It was soooooo good!
And I don't even particularly like fish!!! That must say something :)

Rick got very good at reeling them in and then flicking them off when they weren't big enough.

YAY!!! I caught one too on my 2nd cast but I didn't fish much after that. I was too scared to get our precious lures snagged and we wouldn't have anything to use to catch the big ones!!

Another beautiful sunset......

On the next day when we were leaving, Rick caught a 55cm!!!! We were stoked! It was so exciting for Rick :)
The big grin on his face says it all!!!

Rick reeling in another big one.....it was putting up a good fight.....

This one was 53cm, just under the legal size!! Oh well. He still had fun catching it!

Comparing the 2 sizes. There wasn't much in them but still couldn't take the 53cm home

AND another one!!! Rick didn't want to leave now....he was onto a good thing!!! 3 big barras so far!

48cm

A Jabiru. This bird was amazing cruizing the banks, catching fish.

A BIG croc lurking in the waters. We kept a VERY close eye on this one......

A closer look. He was coming into where the boats launched into the water.

The birds didn't seem to care. I thought he would have gone for the kill but he never did.....

One of the locals showing me that he wasn't there to attack us. I didn't care, I still kept my distance and was going NOWHERE near the thing. I wasn't about to find out whether he was hungry for humans or not!!

This fella got pretty close. He was laughing at the ordeal. I wasn't.....

The Croc ended up heading up to where the fisherman gut the fish. He was definitely hungry...and he was HUGE!!!

The lovely couple who looked after us at Shady Camp. They gave us the lures that caught our barras. They were so nice and really helped us during our stay and were so excited when Rick finally caught his Barra to take home!! They too witnessed him reeling in the small ones time and time again.