If there is one place you have to visit when in Darwin it is the Mindle Markets. In the evening before dusk wander about the many stalls then just before sunset grab some food and sit on the beach and watch the sunset. That is if you can decide what food to buy, you have SO many choices, vegan, Asian, Greek, Indian, Pizza what ever you want, even road kill!!!!!
Most stalls are hand made items and beautiful things I could have spent a fortune. We stumbled upon one stall that had a familiar face behind it, books and talking books at that, we had been looking for talking books to listen to whilst on the road. It was Monte Dwyer, he was a news reader, journalist and now author. We had a good chat with him about the content of his books and he told us some funny stories. We bought a few of his books and all his talking book series. People watching is at a premium here so many quirky outfits or extreme coloured hair along with lots of different fashions and people. I find people watching fascinating I sometimes wish I could talk to the people and hear their stories.
Our car was due a service so we booked it in whilst we had the time in one town. Sue Ellen met up with us for a coffee and took us in to the city to the land council to purchase our permits for Arnhem land. Sue Ellen has acquired 5 tickets for us all to go to the Garma festival up in Nhullumby, Arnhem land. We can not wait, what an experience that will be, we feel so priveledged. We honestly do not know much about it just that we will experience the Aboriginal culture at its best. Once our car was ready to pick up Jock headed back to camp in it and Michelle and I went in her car, she needed something from Bunnings. On our way back to camp we kept passing a sign saying, Didgeridoo Hut so decided it was time we stopped for a look. It was lovely but the paintings and didgeridoo’s were far too expensive for us. I spotted a snake in an enclosure, I asked the girl if it was tame and she said it certainly was and would we like to hold it? Well, anyone who knows me knows at this point I would generally start running! But both Michelle and I had been pushing our boundaries this trip and I decided this was one I was going to brave out………OMG! I did not believe I was about to do this, I encouraged Michelle to also agree to hold the snake after all it was a pet and had never bitten anyone. That’s what kept going around in my mind, I felt my legs quiver as the girl handed me the snake……..WHAT AM I DOING?? Then I was calm, well, for a second as it just lay in my arms (yes it was that big) then it tried to slither up near my face……..SHIT! Ok I stayed relatively calm, still smiling at Michelle who by now was not sure at all. In the end I can honestly say I would hold this snake again, she was lovely and felt so warm. When we left the hut we felt pretty good about ourselves another challenge overcome, we could not wait to show the photos to Jock and Trevor they would never have believed us if we had not had photographic evidence.
Douglas's Downunder 