Darwin

Leaving Kakadu National Park, we headed for Humpty Doo, 35km south of Darwin, to stay a few days with friends, Vic and Lee, who we had met at Leichhardt Falls.

Being so close to Darwin it also provided the opportunity to briefly visit the City.

The administrative centre of the Top End, Darwin has evolved into a vibrant cosmopolitan city.

In many ways it's been enhanced by the post Cyclone Tracy rebuilding programme...the architecture appears more in sync with the tropical environment and it's more robost, stylish and permanent in appearance.

A surprising amount of unit development around the CBD mirrors the trend so evident in the capital cities of other Australian States and the Australian Capital Territory.

Whilst there is plenty to do and see in and around Darwin, we visited it only for a day...taking in some of the more obvious sites like the Charles Darwin National Park, Darwin Harbour and wharf area (where we porked out on a liberal serving of crumbed barramundi and chips) and East Point Reserve, a popular place to watch the sun go down over the sea.

We enjoyed a most relaxing three day break from our travels in the entertaining company of Vic and Lee and Nesta and her partner, Brian.

After servicing the Prado and tinkering with the caravan we hit the road again and headed south to do some fossicking in the Grove Hill area.

The lovely Humpty Doo acreage allotment owned by Nesta. It has a huge tropical garden and abounds in wildlife.