After a nice short bus ride (18 hours) to Broome, we set off in search of our next hostel - Broome's Last Resort.We had a nice peaceful night's sleep. Many thanks to the psychotic Irishman who stumbled in the room at 3am, ridiculously drunk, to wake us up babbling on about the IRA and what not. Next day we decided to visit Cable beach, which is basically Broome's major highlight. Instead of catching a bus there I came up with one of my major money saving ideas… let's walk. The walk lasted what seemed like forever and it was extremely hot so in hindsight, maybe walking wasn't such a good idea. Needless to say we caught the bus the remainder of our time in Broome. Our first evening ended on a more relaxing note as we paid a visit to Sarah, Liam and Vanessa who were staying at a hostel just 5 minutes from Cable beach, so we dipped our feet in the pool and had a drink and a chat with them. Next day we enjoyed a leisurely stroll around the pearling shops and also visited Sun Pictures - the oldest outdoor cinema in the world. We met up with Sarah, Liam and Vanessa back at the beach to say our goodbyes and did a bit of food shopping before catching the greyhound to Kununurra in the evening…

…Which brings us to the sad part of the tale. Whilst packing our things away on the bus we discovered our netbook was missing out of our bag. To cut the story short, the drivers on the greyhound let on a very suspicious looking aboriginal who was in a hurry to leave Broome leaving his belongings behind. The greyhound makes numerous stops along the way and this fella jumped off at a stop he wasn't supposed to get off at. And with only about 7 passengers on the bus, he was the prime suspect. It was on route to our hostel in Kununurra that we also discovered Emma's purse was gone too.As Steven Seagal said in 'Out for Justice' - 'Please god let me run into that guy someday'.

The first couple of days were basically spent going back and forth to the police station. The police were useless.The woman who was dealing with us had obviously graduated from the same Police Academy as Steve Guttenberg and co. A mix up in communication with our parents at home resulted in my UK bank card being cancelled which meant the only money we had was what was in my wallet. Our Australian bank, Westpac, kindly put $300 in our account to help us out until some money could be transferred from back home. The hostel we were staying at, Kimberly Croc backpackers, also let us work for our accommodation by scrubbing walls for 3 hours which we did on two occasions for four nights' accommodation. A nice old couple called Chris and John, who after hearing about our news, insisted on taking us out for a meal which was extremely kind of them and cheered us up a bit.

Kununurra wasn't a particularly nice place - everywhere we went the locals (aboriginals) were drunkenly stumbling around shouting their head off at each other or sitting around on the streets. Kimberly Croc backpackers, however, is still probably the nicest hostel we've stayed at so far, so we were happy to stay and work for our accommodation even though we didn't have a choice until we got some money sent from my UK bank. The evenings at the Kimberly Croc were great as a group of us gathered each night to cook barbie's, have a few drinks and tell stories. Two locals, Nathan Storey aka Storey, and Mick 'Crocodile Dundee' Stewart entertained Emma, Jaimie (a Canadian girl who was staying in our room along with Storey) and I with Australian history. Storey specialised more with jokes, and Mick with Crocs. Mick told me precisely how to jump off a boat and wrestle a croc - something I thought I might need to know for Kakadu.

Another highlight of Kununurra was the National Park. Emma, Jaimie and I went for a hike, although silly us decided to go at the hottest point of the day so we sweated ridiculously. Later that day we went to Kelly's k*** which is a lookout over Kununurra. Storey, Jaimie, Emma and I got a ride from the hostel to the viewing point where Storey pointed out places of interest and where his Dad lives. After enjoying sunset and eating Tim Tams (chocolate biscuits), we decided to take the express way down - a massive drainpipe! Put your feet up on this thing and you were at the bottom in just a few seconds, great fun!

Now that money had transferred into our Westpac account from my UK account we were able to move on from Kununurra. We got the greyhound to Darwin (paying close attention to our belongings) along with Jaimie on Monday 4th October. Jaimie recommended the Dingo Moon Lodge to us as she discovered it offered free breakfast and anything for free when backpacking is a bonus so we booked a room there before we left Kununurra. When we arrived at the hostel we followed a map to our room and were very pleased that Jaimie was our roomy again. Now here comes the exciting part. We got up about 9.00am for breakfast and boy was it a breakfast! I've praised some of the other hostels we've been to because they offered free breakfast,but this hostel really laid it on - cereals (including coco pops yey!), bread, muffins, crumpets, jams, fruit, yogurt and pancakes. Needless to say, we ate very well in Darwin, well….. especially me. Here is an example of what became a typical breakfast for me. (Apart from the first morning I was up and out of bed every morning by 7.15am). Start off nice and easy with a glass of orange juice and a bowl of coco-pops. Then I would move on to a bowl of mixed fruit, muesli and yogurt. Following a 5 minute break, it's then time for 2 slices of toast with a hot chocolate or coffee. Then it's on to the finale - pancakes with nutella! Now I've never understood the whole nutella thing? It's just chocolate icing….and for breakfast!!!! Eh? That just doesn't make sense! Anyway I lapped the whole thing up and went crazy with the nutella on the pancakes. And that was every day. So yep we ate well in Darwin.

At reception at the hostel they also dished out vouchers for free meals (when bought with a drink) at a backpacker catered bar in the centre of Darwin called the Vic. After our first day in Darwin, spent recovering from breakfast and using free internet at the library, Emma, Jaimie and I headed off to the Vic to buy our $2.50 coke and get our free meal. Having the huge breakfast meant we just skipped lunch so we basically spent $2.50 a day which isn't bad! Obviously the ploy of the bar is that after the free meal, backpackers go back for just one more drink…and then just one more…and then just one more after that. We were smart though and left every night after the free meal.

At the hostel, Emma and I got talking to another Canadian called Ryan (who also had developed a love for pancakes and nutella at the hostel) who wanted to visit Kakadu for 4 days like us, and didn't want to pay the excessive prices the tour companies were charging. After he posted an ad on the internet for a fourth companion, (Martina from Germany) we hired a car. The car cost $100 each whereas the tour companies were charging $400 for a 3 day tour. In the evening after booking the car, Emma and I walked to a market on the beach and had a go with a whip and shared a spring roll.

On the morning of Friday 8th, Emma and I were up early as usual for our breakfast. We leftDarwin at 9.00am and I was first up driving (very fun after not driving for over a month). After stopping at a visitor's centre called window on the wetlands, Emma and I dropped Ryan and Martina off at a crocodile farm to see crocodiles jumping for their food. Neither of us were bothered about seeing this, as to us it would be far more exciting to see crocodiles in the wild, and also it's unnatural to make crocodiles jump out of the water for food - it's a tourism thing. After Emma and I had our own little spin in the car, we picked Ryan and Martina up and were back en route to Kakadu. For the film fans out there like myself, Kakadu is also known as the home of 'Crocodile Dundee' as it's where it was filmed.

After arriving at Kakadu National Park, we stopped at the Bowali visitors centre for information on the park. Our next stop was Cahill Crossing - a great spot for spotting crocs! We spent a good 30 minutes at the crossing looking for crocodiles and it was great fun to see them disappear under the water and then appear 5 minutes later in a different spot.We drove to Ubirr Rock to look at aboriginal rock art which is thousands of years old. Before walking up the rock we were introduced to an ant with a green bottom, which if licked tastes like lime. Initially we thought this was a joke, but we tried it and it really did taste like lime. We enjoyed the vast views on top of the rock before leaving hastily as a possible storm was approaching our way. The rain started to fall shortly after we arrived at Merl camp site and we were forced by the rain to our shelter. Ryan and Martina were in the tent and Emma and I were in the car. The night was extremely hot and sticky and I was sweating buckets. After the rain died down a little, we both left the car to walk to the toilet and wash area which was exciting as it was pitch black and the torch we were using was nearly dead. We also spotted Cane toads during our walk. Cane toads are considered pests as they kill other animals because they are highly poisonous.

Started the next morning with a nice refreshing shower, although it did seem a bit pointless as half an hour later we were all a sweaty mess again. Early morning walk to Bardedjildji which was next to the East Alligator River, and then drove to Jabiru (main town). We drove to another rock art site which had lots of art and mapped out where aboriginals would stay in the wet season. It was very interesting and pretty. We did lots of walking this day, after this we went to Nawurlanda lookout and did a 2.5km walk around a billabong, again very pretty with lots of wildlife. We finally set up our camp at a different site (Mardugal), much earlier than the previous day, and then drove to Yellow Water for a short walk and to look for crocodiles again (only spotted the one). Back at camp I cooked a barbie for the group, however, with minimal facilities, it ended up a little overdone. Emma and I spent the night in the tent which was still hot but much more comfortable than the car. Emma didn't particularly have a good night's sleep though because she kept hearing noises outside.

Martina, the German girl, always insisted on driving which Emma and I were not happy about. For one, she couldn't get used to driving on the right hand side of the car, and two; she was just a plain awful driver! I spent much of my time in the car with my eyes down as I thought it might make my death a little easier as I wouldn't see it coming. On one occasion she nearly ran us off the side of the road when passing a road train. We started the morning with another nice and peaceful walk at Yellow Water to the home billabong and then began our trip to Litchfield National Park. En route, Martina thought it was a good idea to pull out in front of a truck at a junction (because she 'didn't want to get stuck behind it'??? - these things go fast!). Ryan and I who were sitting in the back just sort of ducked out of sight from the furious driver. The next hour was just like the Steven Spielberg film 'Duel' (which I thought was pretty cool as it was literally like being in the film!) as the driver spent the entire time on our tail. Martina pulled into a road house after an hour and sure enough the truck pulled up behind us. The driver got out and marched up to the driver's window. He yelled quite a few things including 'Don't play games with trucks!!!' The funny thing is she still insisted on driving after that! Ryan, Emma and I just looked at each other as if to say 'no!' Emma, thankfully, took over and drove us safely to Litchfield.

On our way to Litchfield we stopped at Robin Falls and bumped into Jess and Gregg - a couple we met at the Dingo Moon Lodge in Darwin. Ryan and I had a nice dip in the pool at the bottom of the waterfall whilst Emma and Martina dipped their feet in. We arrived in Litchfield and due to the weather being so poor we set up camp first, near a huge waterfall called Florence Falls. After walking to the falls (which we couldn't wait to have a swim in in the morning) Ryan and I spent time watching the hundreds of bats flying overhead. We made a fire from dry wood this time unlike the previous night and an Aussie couple showed us some rock wallabies that they spotted in the woods near their tent. It was really cool to see them! Thankfully, it was another night in the tent for Ryan and I and it turned into the best sleep of the trip. Emma slept in the car as she found it more comfortable.

We started the day with an amazing swim at the bottom of Florence Falls - probably the nicest place I've ever swam! We then drove to Buley rock hole, which was made up of lots of different pools, and after that we drove a little further to Wangi Falls, another great waterfall (two actually) with a huge swimming area. After enjoying a tree-top walk and getting extremely hot and sweaty we drove back to Buley Rockhole to cool off again. On the journey out of the park we stopped off at some Termite mounds which were huge, over 6 feet tall. Basically, termites build these to keep in the heat as they thrive from it. Litchfield Park was excellent as it was basically a massive natural water park!

I took duty of the drive back to Darwin and once back, we walked to the Vic for our $2.50 coke and free meal. Here's another really exciting part!!! It was quiz night at the Vic so we made up our name (the nutella pancakes) and put our thinking caps on. After the first round of the quiz, one member of each team had to take their answers up to the stage and also take part in a fun game of heads or tails (hands on heads or bum before the DJ flicks a coin). There were about 10 teams in the quiz so 10 people playing this game…and yours truly won! Yey! So I won a free jug of beer much to the delight of the group, especially little Emma. After the 3 rounds of the quiz it was announced that the nutella pancakes came second, which won us a $50 bar tab, which got us 5 jugs of beer plus 1 bottle. Ryan bought our cokes that night, as we gave him a bed in our room in the hostel, so we were saving him a night's accommodation.So Emma and I spent nothing that night in the Vic, and ended up with 6 jugs of beer and a bottle - not bad for a couple of budget backpackers!

The following morning I made myself feel a bit ill after making up for lost time with the Dingo Moon Lodge breakfast, so it was back to bed till 12.30pm. Back to the Vic again with Ryan, but just for the meal and drink this time. The next day we said our farewell to Ryan who was moving on with his travels and we thought it was time for us to do the same, so we spent the day planning and booking the Ghan to Alice Springs and flight to Cairns.

Before leaving for Alice Springs we spent the next couple of days in Darwin seeing the bits and pieces we hadn't seen, which included the museum of Art and Northern Territory, which had an interesting section about Cyclone Tracey, and a bus ride to Causarine to do a little bit of clothes shopping in the indoor shopping centre. Both Emma and I really enjoyed Darwin. The hostel was a great place to socialise and get talking to people. It makes things a whole lot better when a hostel doesn't have a bar, as they usually accommodate the type of backpackers who are in interested in more of the travelling side and seeing places, rather than going from town to town just drinking which is what a lot of backpackers do. It's amazing to see how much some backpackers spend on alcohol! This was also why the Kimberly Croc hostel was so good.

It's good to be here….. It's good to be anywhere.

Matthew