Darwin City Today

25/03/2010

Planning to go into Darwin city today for a site see but I have a very sore ear, I will get some drops from the chemist. By the time we got to the city I now cannot hear out of my ear and the pharmacist has told me that I have a severe case of tropical ear so I need to get to a doctor. Off I go looking for a doctor, although they were booked out they managed to fit me in very quickly. The doctor was English trained and had a very good bed side manner. “We need to give your ear a good irrigation to see what we are dealing with”(In a very proper English accent with slight Indian overtones). Off we went to another room, warm water into a large syringe and squirt away. “That is not wax! but what is it?” the doctor said “It is black, hang on there another big bit is coming out and I think that it has legs and wings”. He went on to tell me that I have had a large bug crawl into my ear and die and that is why my ear is so sore, he said that he has never seen anything quite like this. Well at least I could hear now, my ear is still painful but at least I know what it was. The pharmacist and her staff had a great old laugh when I went back to get the script filled out. Trice has nicknamed me “BUGEAR”.

We are now ready to walk the heritage trail around Darwin and walk we did from one end of town to the other. Heritage listed buildings everywhere, trees of knowledge, the wharf district over to the war museum, down onto the beach at Fannie Bay. We were hoping to cool our feet off in the water only to find it luke warm.

It seems that Darwin has hung its hat on the war and cyclone Tracey, there are so many references to both these wherever you go. The town really is a big country town and everyone we have met has been more than helpful. You do get the feeling that everyone is just waiting for the season to start.

The weather forecast has predicted a storm tonight, it was still hot and it looked nothing like a storm until around 9.00pm when the lightning and thunder just about launched us out of our van. The wind was so strong that it was rocking the van and spun my satellite dish around so I couldn’t watch Foxtell. – We survived, all in all it lasted about 30 minutes. There are storms expected each night now until early next week.

Our first alcohol free day thanks to travelling with our boozy mates. Just kidding they were great fun and we hope to catch up again in the couple of weeks.