Unknown Territory of the Northern Kind

Hey Everyone!

Just posting to let you know we arrived safely in Darwin last night. Our flight actually included a stop in a place called Gove, and we weren't aware of this until we checked in. Gove is on the other side of the piece of land that sticks out at the top of Australia to Darwin, and we only saw the airport really - what there was of it! It was basically a corrugated metal shack; a temporary building until the new terminal is finished (due for completion end of 2004!). We sat in the shack for about 25 mins, thank goodness for the fans as it was unbelieveably hot and humid - even at 7:30 in the evening! Then we were back on the plane headed for Darwin.

Our last couple of hours in Cairns were good - after the internet we picked up our underwater photos. They're a bit murky but there's some good ones, and we got a shot of Little Nemo! We also sent a couple of things home (I'm not letting on cos it's a surprise, they should arrive within 10 days). Then we had a stroll down to the esplanade and took a couple of photos, but it was so darn hot we had to retreat to an air-conditioned cafe asap for lunch!

Afterwards we had a browse around the book shops and found some GREAT bargains! We got Angela's Ashes and Sickened (about the girl who's Mum had Munchausens by Proxy) for $8 each, and then whilst we were waiting for our taxi to the airport I had a quick look in the other bookshop down the road, and found Dan Brown's Deception Point for $9 and The Lovely Bones for $10! SO chuffed! Good job really - we're gonna need plenty of reading material for our long days travelling down the middle. We rang Oz Exp this morning to book our bus out of Darwin for Sunday, and discovered that it pick up is 5:25am! Dear me.

Anyway, our hostel is lovely - we got aircon as it was only $2 extra (only about 90p) and we get free breakfast every morning! Today the plan is to explore Darwin City this morning, do some much needed food shopping, then chill out by the pool this afternoon. We've done so much travelling and trips and things in the past few days I think a rest is in order. Plus there's always the fact that it's just too hot and humid to do anything else!

I'll post again before we leave, as once we're out of Darwin we're truly in the outback until we reach Alice Springs - there's no phones or internet down the middle! It's gonna be knackering cos it'll be like travelling from Cairns to Brisbane in 3 days. Ugh. Cheerio!