Made it to Darwin and am actually on time! After we left Sally and Ben by the side of the road and got a lift in to Alice we started to have a look around all the car hire places for prices, this deppressed us. However, the last shop we went into said they just found out about a campervan relocation (when the company wants a car moved citys). The great thing was they would rent us the car for $5 a day if we got to Darwin in 4 days! A perfect deal as that is roughly how long we wanted to spend.

The next morning we hitched a few lifts over to the capervan depot, picked up our very impressive van and then went back to pick up the bags. An hour on the road we christened our car 'Luke Bushwalker' (Satr Wars anyone?) and it seemed to be good luck aswe had no problems the next few days. Before heading North we had a quick look at the MacDonnel Ranges, that are right beside Alice Springs, and saw a few great sights. After a quick lunch we started on the 1500km to Darwin.

Our first campsite was an odd caravan park that claimed to be the landing site for numerous UFOs...we didnt see anything but the storys and pictures on the wall made for a few laughs. In the morning, after over-slepping and being told to clear off, we drove to The Devils Marbles which i have to say were very impressive and made for some cracking photos. That night we decided to save ourselves a few bucks and camp by the side of the road and have a fire. We all decided that it was probably better this way as there was less hassle and more peaceful (apart from the odd road train).

The next morning we drove to a hot water spring we had heard of and sunned ourselves in the water for a bit there. There was the option to go swimming in the river close by but they did say that there were fresh-water crocs and that they werent sure if any salt-water crocs were somewhere close by. This was a tad worrying so we only had a short swim. A couple of km up the road was Eidth Falls and so we went for another dip in the water, but this was brilliant as we were the only ones there. Really good fun but 3 hours wasnt long enough. Drove a bit further North and camped in Pine Creek for the night. There we got to sample the local talent as there was live music till late, the locals were really friendly and the beer cheap so it was a good night.

On our last day we had a quick stop in Litchfield National Park and only had time to paddle our feet in the steam instead of swimming in the pools but it was still nice all the same. After that it was a bit of a mad rush to get to Darwin for 3pm to drop off 'Luke'. However we were on time and all went well handing back our luxury campervan but we felt a bit sad getting the bus into the city centre.

Darwin seems like a nice place but its about 33 degrees and VERY humid so am looking forward to cool Sydney and cold New Zealand! Only a couple of more days!