Back on the balcony again and the sound of the pile driver has been replaced by the trickle of the swimming pool water feature and the hum of the air conditioners on the roofs of nearby buildings. We started the day with a stroll down towards the wharf and ran into the WWII Oil Storage Tunnels. Despite their name, the war was over before they were finished and they never stored oil. Of the six tunnels built, two are open to the public. There is a common entrance passage for the two tunnels. The first you can only look in the end of through a hole in the wall, but the other you can walk right into. It is about 60m long and the walls are lined with war time photos of Darwin.

A short walk from here is Indo Pacific Marine, which bills itself as ‘Darwin’s most interesting attraction’. The curator is quick to point out that it is not an aquarium, but a perfectly balanced marine ecosystem. The water is not filtered and in the case of one tank, has not been changed for 34 years, only topped up.

Although inside, the tanks are lit naturally through tubes in the ceiling giving the creatures the natural signals and energy provided by the sunlight and moonlight. It is really a very interesting attraction and the variety of size, shape and colour of the animals is incredible. All of them have been sourced from the reef in and around Darwin Harbour. The reef is protected by the absence of commercial fishing and rumours of crocodiles and sharks.

We continued walking through the hot midday sun, hearing the locals complaining about the cold spell they were having. With the temperature in the low to mid 20s (rather than the usual 30-32) some locals had donned jumpers and I saw at least one scarf.

We finished the afternoon at the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory. This has a great collection of indigenous art as well as several cabinets displaying the wide variety or animals in the NT that will either kill you or put you in so much pain that wish you were dead.

There is also an exhibition on Cyclone Tracy, which includes photo and film of the event as well as a darkened sound booth where sounds recorded during the cyclone are played at great volume. It is strange how the two greatest historical events treasured by Darwinians are the times when their town was almost destroyed.

We leave Darwin tomorrow, but hope to see some of the out of town attractions as we leave.

What a joy to sleep in a bed that doesn’t move and is wide enough to roll over in without the fear of falling out. I slept soundly last night, no doubt aided by the farewell drinks on the train, although the 8-12 gunshots at 3am did disturb me briefly.

Yesterday began with an early breakfast and a four-hour stop in Katherine. We chose the helicopter tour of Katherine gorge and flew over all 13 gorges. In essence it is one long gorge, separated by sandbars. The flight was 25 minutes but the gorge was not as spectacular as I had imagined. I think it is probably nicer at ground level.

Since the flight only took up a fraction of the stop, we went to the visitors centre which had an interesting display outlining the scientific explanation of the formation of the gorge alongside the creation stories of the Jawoyn people.

There was a geocache just outside the railway station perimeter, but since we got back five minutes before boarding, we didn’t have a chance to find it. We pulled out of Katherine and stopped about 200m down the track where we sat for 65 minutes waiting for a goods train to clear the single track.

We arrived at Darwin station just after dark. Having waited about 100 years to complete the line from Alice Springs, you would think it would actually go to Darwin instead of stopping a 20 minute drive from town. Maybe the bus lobby got in the government’s ear.

Being on Gold Kangaroo service we had a complementary transfer to a hotel. Not our hotel mind you, but one 200 metres down the road. Ours must be quite new since the concierge of the other hotel wasn’t quite sure where ours was.

The hotel next door to us is still being built, so the view is dominated by a crane and we awoke to the sound of a pile driver. The hotel room has the smallest storage hot water service on the market, so being second into the shower, I had to turn the hot tap on full, the cold tap off and managed only a tepid shower. Still at least there was room to move unlike the shower on the train where you had to get out to change the soap from one hand to the other.

We shall shortly start to exploreDarwin. We have a brouchure listing the top ten attractions but only a few of them look interesting. After the morgue and the waste transfer station, I’m not sure where we are going. We were so tired last night (or ‘tired and emotional’) we went to bed without dinner, so our stomachs are rumbling for breakfast. Darwin here we come.