Pretty quiet day today. I played golf this morning (see CRAPP below) and then we ventured to the city for dinner at the Darwin Waterfront. I have to admit its very pleasant sitting out outside all the time eating dinner. With temperatures still in the high 20’s and low 30’s at dinner time, its very pleasurable particularly sitting beside the water. Although I’m sure its a bit different in the middle of the wet season in high humidity.

The waterfront near Stokes Wharf has many bars and restaurants overlooking a swimming area and wave pool in a green parklands setting. It’s a large swimming lagoon with its own sandy beach, its one of the few if not only safe swimming beach in the area, no Crocs or Stingers in there! Only a few days left in Darwin before we head south, Steve and I will be doing all the military museums tomorrow and then Wednesday we’ll be in the city centre whilst the van is getting serviced. We’re staying in a hotel on Wednesday night, picking up the van Thursday morning, so it will be the first night in nearly 6 months that we haven’t slept in the van. Looking forward to not hitting my head when I go into the ensuite.

Now for what you really want to hear about, my CRAPP (Course Report & Personal Preference).

My course of choice here was the Darwin Golf Club. Unfortunately I could not get a game in the club competition over the weekend as the Darwin Open was on and I could not get a guernsey in that either. So I played a social game with a couple of members. One was not to keen to play with me when I informed him I was from Melbourne. After I assured him I had not been in Melbourne since early February, he then agreed but I think me being a Richmond member (he had a Richmond Tigers golf bag) really got me over the line.

The course is a semi links style with a parklands feel and was in pretty good nick considering the amount of golf that had been played over the weekend. Also there hasn’t been any rain in Darwin in months, so the course was surprising green but then it was their main comp for the year so you would expect good conditions. So here is my ratings:

Design 14 out of 20

Condition 15 out of 20

Cost 18 out of 20 ($30 for 18 holes was great value)

Visual Appeal 12 out of 20

Facilities 6 out of 10

Ambience/Appeal 6 out of 10

Total score out of 100 is 71. It’s a nice course, strong in a number of areas but the Visual Appeal did let it done somewhat. It did not really grab you when you first set eyes on it but its still one of the highest ratings on BBOT so far. It will probably be a number of weeks before I get a chance for another round, most likely in Cairns. So look forward to my CRAPP in a few weeks time.