Last few days in Darwin

The night before Michelle and Trevor had to fly down to Brisbane for Jim’s wedding we met Grant and Sue Ellen at a restaurant called Seafood on Cullen. My initial thought was it would be a waste of money for me as it is a set price for a smorgasbord well I soon changed my mind, I loved all I had and Jock certainly had the rest of my share. It is a lovely restaurant and I would recommend it to anyone. Actually it was nice to be in nice clean respectable clothes on a night out in a nice clean restaurant. This trip has been so dusty and we are always covered in red dirt and here we are all brushed up and presentable made a nice change.

Michelle spent all of the next day packing for their trip and making sure everything set for leaving the van for a few days. Their flight was early hours so Jock got them to Darwin airport for 12.00 midnight. They would arrive very early Friday morning, go to the wedding Saturday then fly back up to Darwin Sunday arriving late evening, it was such a rush for them and they were completely knackered. Jock and I on the other hand were nice and relaxed having had all that time to do nothing although we readied ourselves for breaking camp, our drive to Nhulunbuy was fast approaching. Whilst Emma was away with mum and dad I had gone out for a drive and added a hat to an ant hill we had spotted, Emma would laugh every time we passed it as it was being built next to an old farm gate and it looked like it was leaning up against the gate with its elbows resting on top. We called it Harriet but she ended up being called Henry Snell as it really did look like Henry’s pose(look back to Fitzroy Crossing and you will see what I mean). Anyway the hat was added for Emma so on our last drive past she would be surprised by it.

On our last night in Noonamah we all went out for a meal at the Noonamah pub a nice country town pub and good meals. It was nice to have that time with everyone before we left them and to say thank you to Chris and Lucy for their hospitality. Inside the pub entrance there was a big replica of a Brahman bull, why I don’t know but it was pretty cool. It was sad thinking of leaving them all they had all been good company, Oliver their baby son was the star of the night, such a lovely little boy.

Next day we packed up and headed for Katherine, it was about there we would turn on to the Central Arnhem land highway all dust and dirt again. Noonamah was a pretty rural area, I feel I should have taken more photos of the area but I am sure we will return one day.

Of course the last thing to do was to drive past Harriet so Emma could say goodbye to her. She laughed and laughed when she saw Harriet with her hat on and of course had to stop for a photo.