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| One of the AA guns from the defense of Darwin |
We headed in to St Mary's Star of the Sea Cathedral for mass this morning said by Bishop Eugene Hurley who it turns out is a good friend of Bishop Brian's.
During mass we did notice what looked like security guards walking around the Cathedral and it turns out they were Serco personnel as Bishop Eugene near the end of mass made special mention of welcome to the people from detention and said they were very welcome at mass. We are not sure if we witnessed an international incident, however at the end of mass a Serco officer was seen sprinting up the street after appearing to have 'lost' at least one person. Haven't seen any news so not sure if there was a report of refugees going missing after attending mass at the Cathedral. Without making political comment it would have been much easier for the Serco people to position themselves outside the Cathedral on the three sides if they were concerned about people absconding.
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| Part of display at Darwin Military Museum |
The rest of the morning and part of the afternoon was spent at the Darwin Military Museum which was just fascinating and also extremely sobering. The interactive display in the building was extremely well done and outside were so many displays it was hard to take it all in. We were mainly interested in the bombing and defense of Darwin but there were certainly displays of items from other times also. The whole complex was set at East Point where anti-aircraft and anti-naval batteries were located. The recordings of people's recollections from the time of the bombing were particularly enthralling.
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| Fountain at Botanical Gardens |
We had a leisurely stroll around the Botanical Gardens after a late lunch. Not sure if it is because it is the end of the 'wet season' or not but they are in need of some TLC at the moment.
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| Sunset at Mindl beach |
The Mindl Beach Sunset markets were the next item on the agenda and they were amazing. Only the second markets for the year - last Thursday was the first one and there were people everywhere. The markets were reasonably crowded as we walked around and then we went down to the beach for sunset and there were hundreds of people on the beach. Once sunset had occurred they all headed up to the markets and it was almost impossible to move. We watched an amazing artist create paintings of Uluru and other landscapes with spray cans, some newspaper, a scrubbing brush and a knife. We were so impressed we had to buy one which will go on the wall at home when I get around to framing it. Any number of delicious options for dinner and various street artists to entertain the crowds. All in all quite an amazing finish to the day.
Tomorrow we await to see what is in store for us at Kakadu. A number of the places are still closed from the wet but many are open and we are sure it will be as spectacular as the other places we have visited on the trip.
Love to all
S & E
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