Saturday 14th August - Darwin

A personal tour by the commanding officer of an Amidale class patrol boat wasn't listed in the Lonely Planet as a top attraction in Darwin, but it should be.

Mitch is in the Australian Navy and commands such a boat, and he arranged for us to go aboard one tied up at the navy base.

Primarily designed to intercept the illegal immigrant boats that come down from the north (although drug smugglers are also on the target list), the 24 crew of the Amidale class work eight weeks on and four weeks off, escorting any caught boats to Christmas Island for detention and processing (that's if the captains of the immigrant boats donít try to scuttle them first, which means they avoid prosecution as they then become a vessel in distress that the navy has to assist).  Only four years old, the boats are impressive pieces of machinery with state of the art navigation and control systems.

One of the watch sailors was the boatswain's mate and was more than keen to unlock the armoury.  I think Anne liked the shotgun the best, which is the weapon of choice for the boarding party; apparently there's nothing quite like the sound of it being cocked to get people to comply.

Mitch likes to pretend it's hard work, but by the number of fishing rods stashed around the boat we get the impression they manage to find a bit of leisure time between stopping about four immigrant boats a rotation.

Our morning started by walking down to Parap Market, held in the car park by the local shops, with many of the same stall holders from the Mindle Beach Market in attendance.  Mitch and Chelsea have started a tradition of having chicken laksa for breakfast on market day accompanied by smoothies for the girls and coffee for the boys, so we felt it rude not to join them.  It was delicious, if a bit strange at 10am, but who are we to argue with tradition.  Anne also added to our "Not really necessary for overland travel" box, although we did get a mozzie coil holder which will be put to good use in the wetlands around Kakadu.

A demonstration of our awning had Mitch rethinking his order with the local 4x4 equipment supplier who, for some reason, convinced him to get a Black Widow rather than the Hannibal.  As the supplier has yet to get the awning in despite a three week wait, Mitch might be changing his order, although we cannot complain about his choice of roof tent; Howling Moon, like ours.

I know we should have been out partying on a Saturday night, but all we wanted to do was have a quiet night in on the sofa in front of the TV, and, as Mitch and Chelsea were going to the Officersí Ball at the base, we could.  We thought it appropriate to watch Baz Lurman's Australia on DVD and recognized many of the film locations from our time in the Kimberly along the Gibb River Road.