First visit to Darwin

We celebrated Swiss National Day in Darwin.

                                              Schweizer National Feiertag auf Australisch

The birds of prey are every where. They are out hunting after each fire flushes out prey for them.  There is even a bird called the Brown Falcon that picks up a half burning stick/twig and starts a fire somewhere else to get its next meal.  Gives new meaning to fire bug - fire bird.

A free water park in Darwin ! Wow !

Wasserrutschbahnen wie im Alpamare aber alle gratis zumindest in diesem Wasserpark in Darwin

We say goodbye to Renate and Desi and put them on the plane to go home, back to Switzerland.

Licking our bus wounds in Darwin - deciding what to do first. Blow out the dust is one of the things to do !- Lucky it was already windy and it wasn't too obvious that we were emptying half of the Tanami into Darwin ! Bus in for a service - then we are without our home for half a day, feels weird. Of course we do washing and rejoice that the washing machine here is freeeeeeee ! Cheap place here and heaps of children, some are similar ages as ours - bonus !

Das ist der Staub der sich in 800km Naturstrasse ansammelt! Das ist war nur der Stauraum aber das genügt und zum Glück war es innen etwas besser, mit betonung auf etwas!

Gian-Luca comes regularly with some frog he caught ! Where we are all camped surrounds the pollo cross fields (haven't seen a game played yet) next door is the Darwin Prison, if the wind is right we even get a wake up call ! We catch up on some schooling and post and collect post, relax a bit, visit the famous Mindle Markets and plan the next places to see.

Einer der Frösche die regelmäsig in "Gefangenschaft" von Gian-Luca gerieten

We visited the WWII tunnels where they stored fuel. It is one of the underground fuel tanks.

Unterirdische Dieslvorratstänke aus dem zweiten Weltkrieg

Finally we have a door that works again.  The front door had rattled so much that the part attached to the door frame was useless and with the two screws on the second door lock de-threaded themselves - we had to strap the door on.

We have a homemade pizza night with fellow bus-ers - 14 pizzas and finally everyone is full.

We get out the bike trailer and the children give each other rides. Then they decide to make lemonade and sell it off the back of the trailer.  Neesabella and Gian-Luca are giving each other rides and doing the wiggles .... however the trailer developed a mind of its own and fell on its side depositing Neesabella on her back ! She did then try to get out of school - we were sitting the WAMSE at the time - see nothing has changed still trying to get out of school.

Ok time to leave Darwin and the beautiful fellow "bus-ers" we met and hope to catch up with again. However in the rushing around and last minutes etc etc........ the bus expelled me out the front door.  I slid out like a slippery slide and was deposited on the ground sitting in the dirt !  Now I can assure you the steps are not so 'slidey' as a slippery slide !  I suffered with the burning sensation from the alloy trimed steps removing skin from my back.  A quick visit to the shower and off to the chiropractor - hoping, as Neesabella had an appointment from the trailer incident yesterday, that I could get in too !  Yes - lucky me !  He was concerned that I may have done damage to a rib - no heavy lifting and take it easy !

So we head off to Litchfield National Park south of Darwin about 150 k's.