Darwin

Spent the morning looking round Darwin. Darwin is the Capital of the Northern Territory. It’s the largest city by far in the NT with a population of about 110,000 people but feels more like a big country town than a city. Almost the entire town was destroyed by Cyclone Tracy in 1974 so the centre is very new and modern. Temperature is about 30 degrees and fairly humid but it won’t actually rain again this year.  It stays like this now until November. November is the start of the season they call the ‘build up’ when the humidity and temperature climb without it actually raining. People have actually flipped during the ‘build up’ They call it ‘going troppo’. Finally in January the monsoon breaks and there’s a torrential downpour every afternoon until April.
Joined a guided cycling tour in the afternoon that went on cycle paths mainly through park land and round Darwin Harbour.  Guide was informative especially about what happened to Darwin during the Second World War – it was bombed repeatedly by the Japanese.