The anchorage in Fannie Bay isn’t the world’s most convenient. The huge tides (~30′) necessitate anchoring far from shore, and once ashore you are required to calculate how long you will be gone and where the tide might be when you return. It’s also a bit out of town. With all of that said, it’s still a pretty good spot to be, and it was made all the better by the public bus system, which had just launched a three-month trial of free bus fare for all. The convenience of a free and reliable bus system made up for any shortcomings in Fannie Bay itself. I doubt we would have done nearly as much around Darwin if we’d had to pay every time we wanted to go do anything. The bus rides themselves were always… interesting. A good snapshot of the ills in the community, with mental health and drugs at the forefront of nearly every trip.

Darwin’s Deckchair Cinema. After we sat down a memory clicked in our heads. Ali and I looked at each other and were like, “We were here before. They showed a porn movie and we left.” It had been what I assume would be called an art film, but whoa boy were we uncomfortable sitting shoulder to shoulder with strangers while watching it. Fortunately, tonight’s movie, Under Streetlights, was just a nice family friendly movie depicting life for a couple of teens in interior Australia. The lead actress was even there for the Darwin Film Festival and sang us a song from the movie beforehand.

Up the street from Fannie Bay is the old Fannie Bay Gaol. A fun free museum that gave us an idea of what life was like for criminals back in the day. I can’t imagine what the heat was like.

Waiting patiently for the tide to come back in.

Our friends took advantage of the tide to put in a new thru-hull fitting.

Positive affirmations. I repeat this to myself three times each morning as I look in the mirror.

The second annual Darwin Kite Festival. Ali and I gathered up all the kids and headed out to see the kites at night. We saw the kids carrying their dinners of churros and ice cream shortly after arriving, and then again hours later when it was time to go home.

The Darwin Library had a nice exhibit showcasing the history of the area. They played three short films from, I assume the 50s and 60s that were interesting time capsules. We were watching one of them that was a tour of the growing cosmopolitan city of Darwin. Australia, particularly in this time period was not well known for their wonderful relations with the Aboriginal community. In fact their assimilation policy was still going strong when the film was made. There were two ladies watching the movie at the same time as us who both spontaneously snorted/laughed when the narrator stated, with the certainty only an Australian white male of the 60s could, “In Darwin, the color of your skin is a matter of supreme indifference.”

The exhibit turned me on to some good Australian adventure memoirs. I just finished enjoying Tracks, by Robyn Davidson.

Another trip to the Mindil Beach Sunset Market.