Greetings from Darwin (no shoes, no shirt land).

It rained in Cairns, which was a real shame as I was
looking forward to going diving on the reef. I hung
around for a few days waiting to see if it would clear
(and who got the boot on Big Brother) but it didn't.
Boo. Did a one day trip out in 3 meter swell (i.e:
great big waves) and a couple of dives just to say I'd
done it. At least there was lots of fish as they were
feeding on the sick I was blowing through the
regulator.

As soon as I climbed the excellent road inland from
Cairns the skys cleared. I took an easy 5 days (and
another speeding ticket only 2 hours from no limits
NT) to go across the top to Darwin, staying in small
town pubs or camping in their gardens. The vibe on the
road up here is good. Everyone wants to chat in the
roadhouses, and although the countryside is pretty
bleak I really liked it. There was really heavy bush
fires on the last day, I think they start them to keep
the bush down, which added to the 'road to hell' theme
nicely.

I got into Darwin and found a shop with some lovely
new tyres, and then a backpackers with a pool to wash
the sweat off. Lovely! Met up with some great guys
from Melbourne as soon as I pulled up, and as Darwin
is the drinking capital of Australia, I decided to
take a week off and go with the flow. The second week
in Darwin was much the same, although we did manage a
trip out to one of the national parks and a bit of
fishing off of the pier. I really like Darwin!

The last 2 days have been pretty productive. I've done
a full service on the bike, and sorted out shipping to
Singapore. The cost for the shipping was a very
reasonable 316 Aussie dollars (about 120 pounds) and
no crate, so it was really easy.

Asia. Sounds good, doesn't it?