Days 47 & 48 Darwin

6 July

Yesterday's highlight was a visit to the sunset market at Mindil Beach, a must-do for every visitor to Darwin.

The Mindil Beach Market is a street market much the same as any of the hundreds of street markets that nowadays are held in just about every Australian country town and beachside village.  As markets go, it is not very big and you can walk through it, looking at every stall in about an hour.  What it does have going for it, is a large range of street vendors selling a wide variety of food to eat
"on the go".

We noticed a distinct lack of buskers.  However, in a large grassed area at the rear of the market street  we discovered some live bands and a variety of entertainers including some traditional fire-eaters and a flea circus of all things.  We resisted paying the $5 entry fee to the flea circus!

The thing about the Mindil Beach markets is not the cheap goods and tasty food.  It seems to be all about its central role in the social life of the people of Darwin.  We noticed that as the afternoon wore on and sunset got closer, the crowd swelled to the point that it was difficult to continue to walk around the stalls or to get something to eat.  More and more people continued to arrive armed with folding chairs, rugs and good things to eat and began settling down to listen to the live music, which included the Australian Army rock band.

When we arrived the large car park was not particularly full and we had no difficulty in finding a park which, I thought, would allow for a quick get away.  At the time, I remember noticing that people were finding their own car parking spots without the assistance or direction of parking marshals.  The effects of the lack of this direction became apparent when it came time to go home.  While the cars in our carpark were all parked in orderly rows, the exits onto the surrounding roads had been completely blocked and we were completely "parked in"! Initially I thought that we were there for the duration.  Just then, however, the car in front of us, parked facing the exit road, pulled out making a space for us to get out.

So came to an end our visit to the Mindil Beach markets.  We would probably not bother going back again but having done it once, we are very glad we did.

Today, we are having a "lay day".  In other words, we are laying on our beds reading books or laying around the pool enjoying the breeze.  The activities we had contemplated for today we have put off for another day or perhaps never.

Before I go, I must say something about the weather.  We heard from family members in Canberra that at 2.00 pm yesterday afternoon, the fog had still not lifted and the temperature was just 3 degrees.  Well, I have to say that we are doing it tough here in Darwin too.  According to the local paper,  on Saturday night Darwin experienced its coldest night since August last year.  The thermometer plummeted to 16.5 degrees!  We actually had to pull up the doona it was so chilly!  The next morning the locals were walking around in their beanies and scarves and drinking hot chocolate.

Here are some Mindil Beach photos.