Crocolicious!

Thursday

After a sound night’s sleep, the wake-up call sounded as loud as a foghorn. Ro sprang out of bed and wanted to watch Australian cartoons. Sherry again fixed Mark a cuppa and Ro some hot chocolate, then Mark took the leisurely 10 minute walk down Mitchell Street to the conference. He got there a little early, so he was able to hit all the vendor tables while they still had their best loot. He scored a sweet pair of scrubs, some sporty safety glasses courtesy of the Taser rep, a light-up bouncy ball for Ro, some notepads, and loads of pens which should keep him fully stocked with instruments of writation for the rest of his work contract. The lectures were fairly interesting compared to some of the conferences in America. Nothing about billing or Press Ganey scores, but lots of stuff on snakebites, spiders, sepsis, and problems relevant to the Aboriginal population.

The vendor hall bustles during morning tea at the ACEM conference

While Mark went to his conference, Sherry & Ro got dressed and headed to McDonald's for a “cheap” brekkie, but soon found out that an order of hotcakes and an egg & cheese McMuffin with a water and coffee was AU$16.00! We reckon that everything is quite pricey here, being that Darwin is so hard to get to, so they better squeeze the tourists for every dollar. Afterward, they did a little walking and found a great outdoor mall with a playground and water fountain that Ro played in for an hour and got soaking wet. Sherry squeezed the excess water from his clothes, and they headed for the shore, stopping for a quick duck into the historic Lyons Cottage. Because the city of Darwin has been leveled a few times, from WWII bombings to the wrath of devastating cyclones (most recently Tracy in 1974), it was neat to visit one of the oldest structures in the city. Considering that the building was built in 1925, it is an eye-opener to the level of destruction the Top End of Oz has undergone. The cottage, which was built to accommodate the workers constructing the submarine telegraph cable linking Britain and Australia, is now an empty structure home only to historic photographs.

Ro plays in a fountain at Smith Street Mall

I think he likes it

Ro & Sherry taking a break at Lyons Cottage

Continuing on to The Esplanade, they decided to check out Lameroo Beach, one of the few points you can get to the water around there, as most of the park is fenced off. A short, shady trail winds down to the bay, and as they were half-way down, Sherry spotted a homeless Aborigine making camp among the trees by the shore. She explained in hushed tones to the ever-inquisitive Ronan about homeless people, and as they neared the trail’s end, they came upon another likely homeless person lying in the sun amongst his belongings. Mind you, there was another couple walking along the beach at this point, making Sherry feel a little more at ease. As they passed the second homeless fellow who smiled and said “G’day,” Ronan said innocently, “We saw a homeless person,” referring to the first one. The fellow kept smiling and never wavered, but Sherry cringed.

Ro at Lameroo Beach

Unfortunately, this particular “beach” was a dirty, littered spot with bits of broken glass everywhere. It was sad to see it this way, because just gazing across the bay gives you a little glimpse into the vast expanse of the land here. It is truly an awesome spectacle.

See link: http://www.tropicaldarwin.com/Lameroo_Beach_Darwin.htm

By this time Ronan was hungry…again. Sherry found a juice bar with reasonably priced foccacia sandwiches, so they took lunch back to the room and had a bath and a rest. By then, it was time to meet up with Mark at a conference function.

Mark’s lunch at the conference was served outside in the courtyard. Unfortunately, there weren’t quite enough shaded seats, so some people (like Mark) were sitting in the direct sun. It may be winter here, but there’s really no such thing as “winter” in Darwin, since it’s really a tropical city. It’s a lot closer to New Guinea than it is to Sydney. There’s basically just two seasons: rainy and dry. We’re in the dry season now, and it is H-O-T.

Following afternoon tea, the conference adjourned down the street to Crocosaurus Cove, where Sherry and Ro were waiting to meet Mark. It’s basically an aquarium and reptile house right downtown featuring what else…lots of crocodiles. We toured the exhibits and handled some of the animals for about 45 minutes before Mark had to go to the lecture on snake and spider antivenoms there, while Sherry and Ro continued their exploration of the place. The talk was certainly in the most unusual setting of any conference Mark’s been to. The speaker’s podium was set right in front of a crocodile tank, and every so often the crocs would swim past him while he was talking, eliciting a chuckle from the audience.

See link: http://www.crocosauruscove.com/

Mark hi-fives a salt-water croc

Ro was fascinated by this lizard

A faux smile if there ever was one

Sherry at Crocosaurus Cove

Ro holding a baby croc. Its jaws were rubber-banded shut

Q: "Why do people get bitten?"

A: Mostly a combination of alcohol and Y chromosomes

Ro & Sherry leaving Crocosaurus Cove

After the Crocosaurus exhibit, we went back to our hotel to relax, change clothes, and then head off again. This time we walked down to the conference venue to catch the free shuttle bus to the Mindil Beach Sunset Markets, a Darwin tradition. The market is only held during the dry season on Thursday and Sunday evenings, and it seemed like the whole town turned out for it. The cuisine was the most widely varied we’ve ever seen in one location; you could get your appetizers from the Philippines, your dinner from East Timor, and your dessert from Turkey. Sherry ended up getting her and Ro’s dinner from Vietnam, and Mark got his from Greece (a lamb Yiroh, what else?).

Sherry & Ro making their way through the crowded market

Enjoying dinner on the sand

Mindil Beach's famous reputation for sunsets was justly deserved, as the whole sky lit up like fire with people crowding the beach to watch it. There were a few boys a little younger than Ro who had stripped down to their undies to splash in the gentle waves, and Ro ran to dip his toes in the water with them. Sherry told him not to get wet, but no sooner had she turned around than he was completely soaked, clothes and all. Figuring he couldn’t get any wetter than the 100% he was already, we decided to let him have his fun as he rolled around in the shallow surf with the other boys.

Ro clowning on the beach

The pics don't even do it justice

The extremely fine sand has the consistency of mud when wet, as Ro discovered

As it started getting dark, we took our leave from the beach. Sherry had rinsed and wrung out Ro’s long-since-abandoned clothes in the ocean, but we were only able to get him to put his shorts back on, so he walked around the rest of the night shirtless. We explored the market, with its street musicians and numerous stalls selling arts, crafts, clothes, toys, jewelry, and Aboriginal items like didgeridoos. Ro stopped to watch a pretty entertaining puppet show, “The Amazing Drumming Monkeys,” then spent about half an hour on the bouncy slide.

See Link: http://www.amazingdrummingmonkeys.com/

Sherry & Ro at Mindil Beach Markets under a crescent moon

Ro wasn't cold enough in his wet shorts, so we got snow cones

As we were walking back to the shuttle pick-up point, one of the Aussie doctors asked Ro where he was from. Ro replied “New Zealand,” a big change from his usual reply, “Asheboro,” which always gets a quizzical look. We still had a bit of a walk back to our hotel after being dropped off, and stopped at a grocery store to pick up some fruit, snacks and a bottle of wine. Sherry was talking with the checkout girl and mentioned that Ro had gotten in the water at Mindil Beach, to which the girl replied wide-eyed, “You know there’s crocs in that water, right?” D’oh! Guess those other boys must have been from out of town, too.