18 Nov 2024
We were visiting from England and discovered this gem of a tour after a recommendation from the delightful lady at the Tourist Information Office here in Darwin.
Our guide, Garry, is a really 'top bloke' [a little expression which we Poms use!] who was friendly, amusing and informative. His recall of anecdotes and stories and the names of the people, event details, dates etc was quite dumbfounding.
Garry's narration of the bombing of Darwin really brought home the scale and horror of those days in 1942 which are often overlooked by many of us in the UK and US. As you will find out if you do the tour [spoiler alert!] more planes attacked Darwin than Pearl Harbour and more tonnage of bombs were dropped. Furthermore, there were many more raids on the city - some 64 in total over the rest of the war.
The tour covers most of the history of the city itself quite apart from the war itself.
The transport vehicle is comfortable, air-conditioned and Garry was the perfect host.
The visit to the aviation museum is included towards the latter part of the tour and I could easily have spent several days there as there was so much to see, view and read including one of those enormous and truly iconic B52 bombers.
If you visit Darwin then, IMHO, this is the *one tour* you should do even though it is nowhere near as well publicised as so many of the other 'big budget' attractions.
Enjoy! We certainly did.