Fannie Bay and East Point

Day 93 – Darwin, Australia

In my travel guide, looking for things to do, I was struck by the “mangrove walk”. I thought the name very promising. It is a walkway going through a mangrove, of course, and advancing into the sea.

To get there, however, was not that easy a piece of cake. It is on East Point, itself above Fannie Bay, on the North of Darwin. There is a bus to Fannie Bay, but no public transportation further on the peninsula of East Point. But I had chosen my hostel in part because there is but stop literally in front of it, and of course of the three lines that passes here, two go to Fannie Bay. Today being Saturday, one was not in service, and the other passed only every half-hour. Obviously, I had not thought everything through. Still, I got to Fannie Bay.

Fannie Bay – Lonely tree

There is a coastal path for bikers and walkers, and took advantage of it. I passed the Lake Alexander, which is an artificial saltwater lake created to allow people to swim without the dreaded box jellyfish or crocodiles. I went further and found a “bush walk”, the cousin to the mangrove walk but going through trees and promising animals. It was too early for animal, but I found shade and a pleasant walk with the occasional educational sign. I found a map also showing me where was the mangrove walk (it wasn’t pinpointed on my guide), and of course it was by the lake, which I had left behind.

East Point – Walk

On the other side of the bush walk, I found again the biker path, with two lanes, one for each direction, of course. As I was hoping, it took me back to the mangrove walk, which wasn’t as nice as I had hoped, but still, I saw something with many legs move at the bottom of a hole, so I’m hoping that is was either a ginormous spider or more likely, a crab.

East Point – Mangrove

So I enjoyed my afternoon walking around.

The morning I had dedicated to working on my next legs, calling Greyhound because I couldn’t book my ticket online without an Australian phone number, and booking what needs to be booked.

In Asia, the ticket office wouldn’t close at 4pm on the weekdays or at all on the weekends, but that’s one of the differences between the cultures.

I’m leaving Darwin tomorrow for Katherine, and if everything works out, in three days I’ll see the Devil’s Marbles.

The Greyhound bus network in Australia covers the main destinations. I’ll be travelling the Darwin-Alice Springs, Alice Springs-Adelaide route, and for that I took a 21 day ticket that allows me to travel anywhere on the network during these 21 days. I can book at the (almost) last minute, cancel and change my bookings as it suits me. That’s exactly what I need.

As always, the pictures are in the gallery.