December 4th

G'day Australia!

Sorry, couldn't resist.Having done Melbourne and Darwin airports with added surprise connections we eventually found Darwin city… Snakes on a Plane… this place is humid. How can a planet so far away from the sun be home to a city that is hotter than the surface of the sun!? Almost dying we made our way to the hostel and checked into our room, which had it's own air con! Oh the simple things in life! Having cooled down we ventured out around town avoiding the drunk and high Aboriginal folk (they're so pleasant here!). Looking at the map we thought a trip to the beach would be a good idea, little did we know that the maps are not to scale so a short walk turned out to be a hike, and when we arrived a lovely sign announcing the swimming restrictions topped it all off "November to May, swimming prohibited due to box jelly fish. June to September, caution recommended; box jelly fish may be present. Sod that! So we headed home to sit in the air con and cook some good food. That night we braved the Darwin nightlife… we thought quite a few people were drunk but carried on, just to cool down obviously!

December 5th

And so into the heat we threw ourselves in search of the Darwin botanic gardens. They were pretty spectacular considering it hadn't rained for six months then had several inches in a day (the day before we arrived was quite stormy apparently!) The carnage was impressive but not as impressive as the air con in the parks meeting room… amazing respite from the heat! We conquered tropical, dessert, water and equatorial zones, and it wasn't even the Crystal Maze! Shame the chef warden wasn't bald and wearing a tiger skin coat. Gardens done we sweated, dripped and slipped our way back to the swimming pool and melted there for the rest of the day. A few beers in the evening and more drunken locals we realised THAT is the escape from the heat… the beer! Smart people.

December 6th

In contrast, Litchfield National Park was not all humidity, and was a fantastic day - on the way to the park we met Snappy, a cute but viciously snarling croc. The photo opportunity of holding Snappy had to be done. And so we moved on to the crocodile feeding stage; a river trip to see the big bas***ds in their habitat. Not content with just seeing them, Baz, our guide made them dance/jump for us. Now they don't do this just to entertain, the meat tied to a stick by string dangled over the side of the boat slashing in the water did that - very cool! It was strange sitting in a tiny boat whilst these giant reptiles jump the height of the boat get angry because they are being teased - I was glad when Baz eventually allowed them to catch the meat because you got the distinct impression that if they got too fed up they'd just go for the tin boat. We definitely adhered to the no leaning over the side rule!

Crocodile river behind us we drove on into the main park area where we swam in numerous natural pools, under waterfalls and in rivers, whilst being educated by Baz, along the way with all sorts of random information. Baz taught us lots about crocodiles, bush fires, termites, water, spiders and snakes… a proper Crocodile Dundee character, but born in Dover. We finished the day with prawns and champagne by the beach as we watched the sun set - more photos obviously!

Tasting the nightlife was interesting; we braved a dodgy nightclub with the lure of a free dinner (I suppose we were now the crocodiles and the free dinner voucher was the stick with meat - just replace the river for a smelly dark room! The food was vile and the club was crap (the clue was in the free bit!) so we went for pizza.

December 7th

Our next day was not quite as productive; and can be summed up by not finding lots of things and almost dying in the midday heat trying to get to and from craft and food markets (you'd think we'd learnt our lesson from the first day but the towns looked so close on the map!)! Alas we survived, but only after giving up walking and retreating to the bus system and flopped back into the pool to re-hydrate - damn this place is so hot and humid!

December 8th

Slightly relieved to be leaving the heat we made our way to the airport and one random stop off later, in the smallest airport you've ever seen, we landed in Broome. Broome was cooler, not a lot, but just enough to take the suicidal edge off the humidity. Having arrived in a friendly and open hostel with prison camp undertones (all those damn rules!) we checked in and memorised the rules. Free bus missed we bought our tickets and hopped on the bus to the beach. Wow. Cable beach… yellow sand as far as you can see, so quiet you can count your fellow sun bathers on one hand, and sea you can swim in! This was definitely the perfect location for our Christmas card e-mail (which didn't earn many friends coincidentally). Fetching all that sea weed was a monstrous effort given how clear the beach was but I think you'll all agree the results were worth it! Back at the prison/base camp a few beers were consumed, before bed, to ease the pain of having to pay for our air con.

December 9th

The day of decisions… how were we going to get down to Perth for Christmas on a tiny budget!? Having studied the notice board for offers of lifts, we ruled out the guy looking for one female travel companion to Perth - the girl behind reception let us know he was looking for a… ahem… easy going girl for a free lift… honestly! So we hired some bikes and began our search of Broome car hire companies. It started slowly, arriving at repair depots and not finding others but our luck was in…. Britz quoted us $3500 for 10 days of car hire! Ouch. Then the nice lady mentioned we could relocate a car for them (they need it delivered somewhere else so reduce the rate for a one way trip with a tighter schedule that most tourists would like) ... The problem was, she explained, they needed a lovely 4x4 complete with full camping and cooking equipment delivered to Perth within 10 days… cher ching! So with our previous quote reduced to under $30 a day and a $300 fuel voucher we signed on the dotted line.

Chuffed and relaxed Nikki dragged us to the shops before cycling to Cable beach - the sea is so much more rewarding when you've cycled hard to get to it!

December 10th

Why do you need to do anything when you have a cheap ride and don't nee to exchange sexual favours with the driver to get it! So a day by the pool it was… pison-esque it may be but a lovely pool with palm trees there was. The celebratory drinks that evening, after such a busy day, were of course a must.