The Woodies Travel

This morning we spent some time organising a car service and wheel rotation to ensure the Jeep keeps moving. We visited the Darwin botanical gardens which have a tropical focus although not many Australian native plants. It was very green and lush with variety provided by the colour of the leaves more than by flowers, of which there were few. Although the sun was hot, and it is humid, most of the time there were shaded areas in which to walk, and there it was very comfortable. Our next stop was the NT museum and Art Gallery which had a number of individual exhibitions. The Aboriginal exhibit focused on the northern area art with only a few western desert dot paintings. They had an excellent Australian portrait exhibition on tour from the National Gallery of Victoria. The Cyclone Tracey exhibit was very well presented with photos of Darwin before and after the devastation, tapes of weather reports leading up to the cyclone, a video from ABC the day after the cyclone as well as representations of rooms decorated in the style typically found in houses in Darwin in 1974. We had lunch at their Cafe overlooking the bay. Tonight we had dinner with my cousin and her husband at the Trailer Club where we watched the sun set over the bay and enjoyed the balmy evening with pleasant company.