June 26th-27th, 2019
We had a very relaxed couple of days in Darwin and it was a nice way to end our journey in Australia. We didn’t do anymore ‘touring’ and just stuck around downtown. We went for a sunrise jog and watched the sunset from Mindil Beach. I liked our hostel with a pool and rooftop sun terrace. Darwin also has a really nice lagoon area where you can swim out to big inflatable play structures.
They also have a wave pool down on the waterfront that usually cost a few dollars to enter but they didn’t have the waves going so we got to go in for free and hang out. We floated around on innertubes and enjoyed the sun. This is the warmest place we have been in Australia with the temp in the mid 80’s. We went to the Thursday Night market and there was a bunch of cool stuff there. We really just took it easy and did some planning for Southeast Asia, our next stop tomorrow is Singapore.
We spent nearly a month in Australia, and it was very nice. Besides the fact that they drive on the left-hand side of the road, it didn’t feel that much different than home. Kind of like being in Western Canada or something. The Australians were very friendly and welcoming throughout our journey. Camper vans are a BIG thing here. We used our Kia Sorento as a campervan by putting down the back seats for a bed. Everywhere you go, there are people road tripping. I was really impressed with all the free campsites as I’ve said many times while in Australia. We spent a total of 13 nights camping out of the car and never had to pay for a spot. Also, most all of the National Parks were free entrance and we could usually find free street parking. All of the community parks are super nice here with swimming areas and great facilities (most even have full on outdoor gyms!). I also noticed that all of the parks, boats, and hostels all had reef safe sunscreen you could use which I thought was great as sunscreen can be expensive, especially in tourist areas. Other than those nice ‘freebies’ we found the cost of things very similar to home in the US. The vegetation on the coastal areas reminded me of Hawaii as there were Plumerias and other pretty tropical flowers.
I was surprised Australia does not have Starbucks and it was hard to find good WiFi. What stood out the most to Brendan was that all of the pickup trucks come standard with a service flatbed, and none had a V8 engine.
Tomorrow is Singapore and I think we will do some island hoping off the coast of Malaysia after that. Australia has been great, looking forward to the next adventure!
I’ve never seen such a sunset as those Bindi beach photos, it looks like you are level with the sinking sun, really beautiful! I’m wondering if it is named after Bindi Irwin, (the late Steve Irwins daughter). She’s quite famous now and still lives in Australia
The beach name was Bondi, not sure what it was named after?