Darwin-hot city delights

We have just spent 4 nights exploring the wonderful tropical city of Darwin. Having done some internet research, I was keen to explore the local foodie market, Parap market,so we arrived early on the Saturday morning. It was hot,busy, wok scented smoke filled the air and there was a queue for coffee, I knew I was in the right place for some foodie action. The selection of authentic Asian food was great, the kids were on their best behaviour having been bribed with the promise of an afternoon at the waterslides. I was keen to try as much Asian food on offer as I could, having survived thus far on fairly simple camp meals. For the foodies the menu sampled went a little like this: fantastic authentic satay kebabs, spicy chicken and prawn laksa, coconut and banana pancakes, mango lassi and coconut juice, very spicy and very tropical. This was all before 11am, no wonder my shorts are a little tight! But alas I digress,there were many other highlights to this tropical city. We spent quite a few hours exploring the NT museum, which had a great Cyclone Tracey display and excellent bird and animal sections for the kids. Lots of water action is essential up here in the tropics, any time after lunch requires a swim, so we took the kids off to a great free waterslide park, they had a ball and also to the wave pool at the Darwin waterfront. We did the obligatory trip to the Mindil beach sunset market, great sunset but markets were very ordinary.Darwin, being a city built on a harbor has some beautiful bays to explore, all turquoise shimmering water, Fannie bay was beautiful and Cullen bay was a great marina with some interesting bayside eateries. You get the impression that Darwin is just starting to emerge as an interesting city, development is half finished and it still has an outback town feel to it, which is part of its charm.After Darwin we drove through Litchfield National Park, a day trip for Darwin people so it was fairly busy. The Wangi falls were spectacular, as were the giant termite mounds at the entrance to the park. We stayed a night at Buley rockhole, which were a series of cascading pools and waterfalls, the kids were in heaven sliding and jumping from pool to pool.We are currently in the Kimberley, the hottest we have been so far. We spent last night at a bush camp (ie.no pool/shower) in the Gregory National Park, it was 35 deg and humid. The kids were so hot they decided to use some bush ingenuity and create their own 'bush shower' (see pic), amazing what you can do with some bread bags and tank water!I am writing this from Kununurra, just over the W.A. Border in the Kimberley, such a pretty spot by the lake. We will be here for a few days, awaiting a service on the car before we tackle the mighty Gibb River Rd over to Derby. Over and out from Kylie in the Kimberley...