Looking Around Cairnes and leaving it behind

Our original plan would have had us in Darwin and on to kakadu National Park this morning, but Qantas had previously canceled our flight. So we set off for breakfast at the Lilipad Cafe (it was okay although I hoped for more because of the great name. Then on to the first challenge of the day: phoning home. Literally one hour later, we got through to sister Laura. A lovely treat. We checked out of our hotel and, with dispatch, made our way to the Botanic Gardens and Lakes. We knew it was time to leave since we'd gotetn adept at getting around town. A very hot, sticky day so somewhat reluctantly, I hike dutifully to the salt water lake, the fresh water lake and environs. I told Ron the place was like a larger, naturally occuring version of El Dorado Park at home. Very lush with some of the largest plants I've ever seen. We have an iced tea (no free refills) and we make a brief foray down back to the beach. We see an endless stretch of brown mud and Ron realizes that the tide is out. When it's in, the water is very brown so obviously, it's quite shallow here except where they've dredged out for the harbor. Then on the airport where we wait in the cool and relative comfort. We enter the half-empty plane to discover we've got 2 seats on the 3-seat side and that we're up against the toilets with no option to recline. The plane was far from full. We both got busy trying to figure out when we'd pissed off the ticket agent. I wondered if the flight crew had worked out an identification system wherein all the ass holes were seated in the way back. Taught by experience: Confer with the ticket agent as to where you'll be sitting before they print out your boarding pass. So off we go to Gove, a little mining town, where we were the only plane on the tarmack. Then got to Darwin at 9 P.M., where it's at least 90 degrees with high humidity. I ended up in the parking lot next to what Ron pronounced was too small a vehicle while he returned to the counter to renegotiate. Did I mention that I started to feel more and more desparate as the wait lengthened? I'm hot here! We found our hotel on only the second try and our room after only 10 minutes of searching through several complexes. Very pleasant and the grounds beautiful, but we had no time to enjoy the place. Off to bed. P.S. Here's a pip for you. The time difference between Cairnes and Darwin is 30 minutes. ?????