22/11/08 We spent today at Changi Airport, Singapore, waiting for our plane to Darwin. It's certainly the most impressive airport I've seen yet in terms of facilities! We ate lunch slowly, used the free internet at a coffee shop (having bought a coffee) for quite a long time, walked around and had some dinner (chicken noodles.) Then we checked in early, used the free internet for a while longer, looked round the shops and went on through to the departure lounge.

23/11/08 The flight was good, and we arrived at Darwin at about 4.30 am local time. We hung around in the arrivals lounge until it got light, and got an airport shuttle bus to Mitchell Street, where all the cheap hostels are. We settled on the Darwin YHA - it was such a contrast to the hostels in Asia, being in a self-catering place that had a book exchange, a small swimming pool and launderette! (Most of the places in Asia offered a laundry service, but they did it themselves so you had to keep an eye on exactly what you'd given them to wash so that you got it all back - a t-shirt of mine disappeared in Bangkok due to me not being vigilant enough.) The first thing we did after getting our stuff into our dorm was jump into the swimming pool and stay there for quite a long time! It was really hot, and we were tired from carting our bags around checking prices out for different places, so this was needed.

24/11 - 4/12/08 During this period we decided how we were going to travel round Australia from now on - we went to Travellers Autobarn and bought a stationwagon on a guaranteed buyback deal. Now when we eventually return it to the branch in Sydney in February, we're guaranteed some cash back! It came with camping equipment, cooking utensils, a road atlas, a coolbox, a spare wheel, wheelbrace & jack, and 24 hour roadside assistance. To save having to pay for accommodation, for a week we both worked 2.5 hours every morning for free accommodation. Dave had to do general maintenance work and I had to do room cleaning. It was so hot that sweat was literally dripping off us the whole time, so it was a relief to be able to get in the pool as soon as we had finished! Another thing we did was discover that you could get an hour's free internet at the state library of the Northern Territory at Parliament House, so we went in there nearly every day. I also looked at the display by local artists upstairs, and we looked round Parliament House itself as well. The last day of this period was spent at firstly Traveller's Autobarn, getting our car registered in our name and getting insurance, collecting the camping and living equipment and going through all the paperwork, and secondly the shopping centre getting food, two 15 litre containers of water and odd bits and pieces like clingfilm, butane gas canisters for our tiny cooking stove, matches and washing up liquid.

5/12/08 This was the day we intended to set off. First of all we went to the Museum & Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, where we saw preserved specimens of the box jellyfish, blue ringed octopus, coneshell, stonefish and other poisonous creatures which inhabit the sea off the northern coast of Australia during The Wet (what they call the wet season), as well as various spiders, beetles and birds. We also saw lots of examples of aboriginal art and crafts, a massive stuffed saltwater crocodile called 'Sweetheart', who was famous in the area before as well as after he was killed by mistake by people trying to capture him, and a gallery with information, newspaper clippings and photos about Cyclone Tracy, which destroyed Darwin on Christmas Day 1974. This gallery also contained a little darkened sound room which played a recording of the cyclone itself blowing and the background noise - quite affecting. After this, we went to Mindil Beach for a look around; it was very hot and sunny, and the beach was empty, but we didn't even paddle in the sea, let alone swim! (It's The Wet at the moment.) We saw an odd sight, though - lots of absolutely tiny little crabs appearing and scuttling like mad across the sand, and when you cast a shadow over one, it would dig itself into the sand in a matter of seconds.

After Mindil Beach, we went to the shopping centre to get some more things we'd realised we needed, like a 10l fuel container, blocks you freeze and put in the coolbox, and some more supplies. We had intended leaving for Litchfield that day, but it was getting dark by now and we'd been warned off driving in anything except broad daylight because of the risks of kangaroos and other creatures jumping out in front of our car (they tend to come out at dusk), so we decided to stay another night at the YHA and leave in the morning instead. It was just as well really, because we needed to freeze the coolbox blocks anyway. We'd become YHA members earlier that day when we'd checked out before, (we didn't have to pay for it because we'd spent more than 10 nights there - it didn't matter that most of them had been for free due to working for accommodation) so we got discounts for that night. We also get lots of other discounts all over Australia, New Zealand and the rest of the world, which may well come in handy!