Darwin - It's time to leave!

Ahhh, Darwin!!! How I loved it here, so, very very much! It has become my temporary home for 2 months. I have probably as many friends here as I have back in the UK. Unfortunately everyone is leaving now, due to it getting stupidly humid going into the wet season! In a couple of months it will be 36c day and night! I'm sweating as it is!

Feel as though I should mention all the people at the Fox N' Fiddle british pub. Without them we wouldn't have been able to afford the odd drink! Crab Racing has always been fun - "crab racing?" I hear you ask! Yes they race Hermit crabs! You get given a ticket and if it is picked out of the bucket then you get to pick a crab and race it against other
people with crabs - sounds cheesy I know. But without this we wouldn't have had the drinks and food in the pub that we have. Jimmy the person who runs the crab racing always made sure that we were picked, and as we did it so often we knew the fast crabs. I can't even remember the number of times me and simon have come 1st and 2nd place! Winning $30 for 1st and $15 for 2nd place. These $ vouchers bought us those drinks we wouldn't otherwise have had. Just wanna jot down some of the cheesy lines that Jimmy would use everynight at Crab Racing (just for memory sake!) - "Pick a crab from the Crabitarium as it is so hilariously known". And "As usual the enthusiasm is overwhelming!". Good old Jimmy. And just last week we won the pub quiz! Another $50 voucher - bonus!!

Just wanna note down some names of the people I have met here: Dave, Peachy, little dave, Sinners, Craig, Izzy, Sian, Jo, Alex, John, Hannah, Lauren (who we are going down the west coast with), Phil, Anna, Karl, Moff (the two RAF boys from back in England) and well there's probably more but can't think right now! These are the people who have made my time in Darwin such a great experience! Gonna miss all these guys loads!

And now I move on to the subject of work! Which is always a good topic when you are a backpacker! Yes I did get myself a job, did it last long? No! In this heat with the protective clothing I was wearing! Lets just say I lost half my body weight in sweat! But that wasn't the worst of it! Bending over using a file to get rid of all the dodgy bits of galvanize! It killed my back. I had difficulty walking from the hostel into town that night!

Wade, our friendly local tour company owner! He's been great to us, providing us with a cheap deal on a camper, he actually cut our other quotes in half! And for the work he has provided me with. Its not been lots but every little helps! Polishing his Coach wheels for 4 hours, oh what fun! I even helped him wash his smaller bus with him one night, for which he paid me with a jug of beer. It did only take 15 minutes!

Did Litchfield National park the other day. Which included a cruise on the Adelaide river know as the "Original Jumping Croc Cruise". It was great, got some pretty damn good photos of the salt water crocs jumping a good 6 feet vertically out of the water to grab the pork chops that were being dangled above them! Then we did a couple of stop offs at some waterfalls and a chance to swim in some nice fresh water where there are no crocs! We were given the option to either do a walk or swim. We both agreed to do the walk thinking we'd get some good sights out of it! Simon has since been telling people "I had a near death experience in Litchfield - others call it exercise!!" The walk was pretty tough. Nice steep walk up and to be honest I'm not sure the views were worth the effort. But still it was good for me to get active! Thanks Wade for the deal you did for us on this trip!

Lynzi came back to Darwin for a couple of days. Haven't seen her since Coogee! Yeap that now 4 and a half months a go! And shes still as fun as she was back then! We are meeting back up in cairns in about 5 weeks to do the east coast together. So there should be 5 of us travelling down the whole of the coast, where I will be meeting my parents for christmas and new year! Me and Simon are staying with Lynzi and Nicola in Sydney at Base Hostel. Should be a blast!

And so, we are leaving for Alice springs and uluru (ayers rock) and kings canyon. Then diagonally across to broome and then down the west coast to Perth. The views along the coast are supposed to be absolutely amazng.

Can't wait!