Darwin

On Tuesday we set up the camp trailer, had dinner and went to bed. 

We went to the ARB to get a new air compressor, BCF and the pool and I got really saw eyes because of the clorin. We went to ARB to get a new air compressor because when we where exiting Kakadu the air compressor stopped working.

At the Wave pool park we went in the wave pool and every 30 minutes it would send waves out of a grill on one side of the pool and we would ride the waves in a little donut.

Next we went to an Indigenous art gallery and a lady named Sonda asked us to come and paint with her. We painted waterholes and did some dot painting. Whilst we were painting together she told us all about her country and her language. She taught us that ‘kapi’ (not sure how to spelling it) is water in her langauge. Sonda’s country is west of Alice Springs, so they refer to her people as desert people. People from the Kakadu area are called salt water people. The painting from desert people have lots of dots and the painting from salt water people have hatching which is tiny cross strokes. Sonda also taught us about the good bush medicine from her home. She said when you walk through the bush and take a big breath in it cleans your nose and fixes your cold. Me and Mia painted 2 paintings and got to take them home. I found it quite fun sitting and painting.

I found the Museum Of N.T interesting. At the Museum we learned about bugs and Cyclone Tracy. When Cyclone Tracy was heading for Darwin they thought it was going to miss the city so when it hit Darwin on Christmas morning they where not prepared. There was also an exhibit with a stuffed crocodile named Sweetheart. The crocodile kept on eating boat motors so they tried to relocate him but he got caught on something underwater and died in the attempt to get him up to the surface.

Next we went to the Military museum. They had uniforms, big canons, a huge net, Torpedoes and Tanks. My favourite things they had was the big canon, Tanks and the huge net. The canon was used to sink enemy ships before they reached land. The big canon was surrounded by concrete walls making it harder for enemy ships to shoot at it but if the enemy ship was accurate enough it would be up to who could shoot first. The huge net was ankered to each side to of the harbour (east to west) and was used to stop enemy submarines and ships entering the harbour. 

At the start of our trip I read My Story The Bombing of Darwin. At the museum I found lots of information that was in the book. We watched a movie tht showed us what it was like the morning of the bombing of Darwin. It was really loud. Melbourne warned them but Darwin thought it was a false alarm. The Japanese aircrafts attacked in February 1942. Darwin was confused why the Japanese knew the land so well. It was actually because Japanese topographers (people that make detailed maps) were used to map the coastline of Australia years earlier.