Showing Tag: "dry season" (Show all posts)

Nightcliff jetty

Posted by Sally Cummings on Sunday, April 7, 2013, In : Travel

Last weekend (the Easter long weekend) marked the end of the busiest time of year for a liaison librarian in an academic library. The beginning of first semester is incredibly busy, with heaps of classes to plan, prepare and deliver - as well as an orientation program to run, lecturers to assist with unit readings, and of course lots and lots of students needing help.

So it was lovely to have a few days off to relax and enjoy myself, for what felt like the first time in months!

On Saturday afte...
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Territory Day (aka cracker night)

Posted by Sally Cummings on Monday, July 2, 2012, In : Travel

The 1st of July is Territory Day - the only day of the year when any man and his dog can buy fireworks and set them off to their hearts' content. Which is why it's also known here as cracker night.

There's a big official fireworks display from Mindil beach, but the main event is really happening all over Darwin (and the rest of the Northern Territory too). Pay packets are blown on pyrotechnics, and the sky is filled with bright lights and the smell of gunpowder.

We went along to Fannie Bay, whe...
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Beautiful Darwin sunsets (23 June)

Posted by Sally Cummings on Saturday, June 23, 2012, In : Travel

There's something magical about watching the sun set over the water at Mindil Beach here in Darwin. The crowds on market nights make it a wonderful shared experience as we grab something yummy from the food and drink stalls and make our way to the beach to see what kind of show the sky will give us. Of course it's different every time, depending on the shapes of the clouds or the amount of smoke in the atmosphere (there are always fires burning somewhere nearby during the dry season).

But do y...
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Back on the boat (29 June)

Posted by Sally Cummings on Wednesday, June 29, 2011, In : Travel

We flew down to Melbourne at Easter to buy a new (second-hand) car to drive back to Darwin. On the way, we collected our boat from the friend who was kindly looking after it for us. After doing a bit of maintenance work on the boat after it being in storage, we recently took it out on its maiden voyage in Darwin :) We set out on a lovely Sunday afternoon from the Dinah Beach boat ramp in Stuart Park. The weather was just beautiful, and the water was calm. It was so great to get the boat on t...
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India at Mindil (25 June)

Posted by Sally Cummings on Saturday, June 25, 2011, In : Travel

This evening we went along to India at Mindil - a cultural festival featuring food, music and dancing that was held at Mindil Beach.

To be honest, I was underwhelmed. We bought palak paneer from one of the food stalls, and found it to be distinctly less than hot - so much so that we worried about the food safety aspect. It was a bit of a measly serve too. We made up for it with a yummy fruit shake, but in that case were let down by poor customer service.

The crowds were huge, with lots of jostl...
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Sunday night at Nightcliff Jetty (13 June)

Posted by Sally Cummings on Monday, June 13, 2011, In : Travel

I promised that I'd do another blog post featuring Darwin sunsets, so here it is :) Last Sunday, we decided to get some hot chips and help ourselves to a sunset view at Nightcliff jetty. It turns out we weren't the only ones who had the same idea - it was absolutely packed! But there was enough coastline and enough sunset for everyone, so we eventually found somewhere to park the car and pulled out the picnic blanket to enjoy the view. I'll let the photos do the rest of the talking (larger ...
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Glenti (11 June)

Posted by Sally Cummings on Saturday, June 11, 2011, In : Travel

Today we went along to the Greek Glenti festival, held each year in the parklands alongside the Esplanade in Darwin. It was a much bigger event than I had imagined. There were lots of very busy food stalls selling souvlaki, yiros, octopus, oysters, spanakopita, moussaka, honey puffs, baklava, and a whole lot of other sweets that I don't know the names of. Music was playing in the central stage area, and kids in traditional costumes were dancing. And somewhat to my surprise, there were carniva...
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Fannie Bay, milkshakes and fish & chips (7 June)

Posted by Sally Cummings on Tuesday, June 7, 2011, In : Travel

I didn't really intend for this month's blog posts to be of the "what I did today" variety. Mostly because a mixture of the wet season, assignments, work and tiredness over the last few months have meant that I don't usually do very much that's worth reporting on. But now that the semester is over, assignments are finished, work is settling down and the weather is so much better, I'm finding that I'm getting out and about a bit more. And since the original intent of this blog was to keep my f...
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Saturday night at Cullen Bay (5 June)

Posted by Sally Cummings on Sunday, June 5, 2011, In : Travel

You can't spend all of your time studying - sometimes you need to get out and remind yourself that there's life away from the computer. On Saturday I pined for the beautiful day outside while I was stuck in the study, but when evening approached it was time to take a break and get some fresh air. Tim and I decided to get some dinner at Cullen Bay, but first we stopped off at the boat ramp near the Darwin Ski Club in Fannie Bay. Checking out boat ramps is a regular activity for us, especially...
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Hello dry season! (2 June)

Posted by Sally Cummings on Thursday, June 2, 2011, In : Travel

This is the blog post where I gloat about the beautiful weather in Darwin :)

While you've all been enjoying spring, summer and autumn, here in Darwin we had the build-up (also known as the suicide season because the weather is *that* bad) and the wet season (along with a record-breaking 3 metres of rain!).

But now that you're all turning the heaters on for winter, it's Darwin's turn to shine. The dry season.

About a month ago, the weather in Darwin turned and the dry season arrived. The transiti...
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