Broome to Darwin

Our 800klm drive back from Karratha on Friday was uneventful - just very l-o-n-g, and tiring by the end. We got a lovely welcome back from Marilynne (Paspaley) and Ronaldo at McAlpine House which is now starting to feel like our second home. We celebrated our good fortune in getting there and back to Karratha safely with another lovely sunset meal at the Mangrove Hotel.

We had time for a last walk to the jetty at Town Beach on Saturday morning and were rewarded with a perfect vignette of Broome life - one of the local teenagers spear fishing for mud crabs in amongst the mangroves!

Our flight to Darwin left on time at 2.00pm after we'd had time to enjoy the charms of Broome Airport's departure lounge - open to the fresh air and surrounded by palm trees - love it!!!

I was amazed by this aerial view of Dampier Creek as we headed NE out of Broome towards Kununurra

....... and an hour and a half later we were heading into land at Kununurra.

....... and my first ever sighting of the mighty Ord River ...........

It was only a brief stop there and 45 minutes more flying before we landed in Darwin - close to 6.00pm, after losing an hour and a half on the clock in the process.

We'd booked ourselves into the Mercure Darwin Airport Resort, only a 400metre walk from the terminal. It was very nice to wake up here this morning and enjoy a refreshing swim after breakfast in the sun.

We had a low key day today, catching the number 4 bus (free travel for us on a Sunday) into Cullen Bay for a very simple (but extremely good quality and delicious) lunch of fresh tiger prawns from the Gulf of Carpentaria and Coffin Bay oysters - looking out the blue waters of Cullen Bay - amazing!

We walked to Mindil Beach from Cullen Bay with vague ideas of staying around for the Sunday Markets at sunset - but after checking out the market offerings (still in set up stage) we decided to Uber it back to the Resort for some late afternoon relaxation in the cool.

We walked around the perimeter of the resort at sunset and came across a couple of kids fishing in this small creek fringed by a pandanus forest. One of the kids caught a small fish in the net while we were watching - a happy kid living a pretty free range life here in Darwin, within 500 metres of an International Airport.