"During the early hours of the morning, Dawn Princess entered the Van Diemen Gulf through Dundas Strait. She then proceeded east through Clarence Strait and made her approach to Darwin. We embarked our pilot off West Point and continued down the channel before rounding Elliot Point and passing Darwin Naval Base to port at Fort Hill Wharf.
Port Darwin was discovered by Lieutenant J.C. Wickham while sailing past the harbour area in 1839. Wickham named the area after sailing into the harbour on HMS Beagle during a survey. The city was founded in 1869 and rapidly grew from 1871 on the discovery of gold at Pine Creek. However, development slowed again due to extreme climate and cyclones. Darwin suffered as well the damages from more Japanese bombs than Pearl Harbour during the second world war."
This morning the maintenance of one of our three pools continued and some crew emergency drills were conducted. Passengers remaining on board have been encouraged to broaden their knowledge of maritime safety by watching the corresponding program on one of our internal TV channels. One interesting aspect was the important tide in the Darwin harbour, which can reach 8 metres difference if I understood correctly. It forced our deck staff to change our disembarking platform from deck 5 to deck 7 a few hours later.
I did not take the time to drive to Lichfield National Park and refused to support the "jumping" crocodile show.
I enjoyed the old stone buildings and had great fun walking through the city and discussing with about twenty aborigenes.
Cullen Bay looked like a ghost town in the middle of the afternoon by 33 degrees. I did not try the two-litres Darwin Stubbie, but have to admit that the first pint of beer did not even touch the side! What a pleasure to be back on board to jump in the pool before afternoon tea. I am writing on my laptop from the outdoor deck 14 facing the pools while sipping my ice tea.
