Where ever I may roam

So I’ve been in Darwin a little over a week now and it’s been good so far. I moved out of the backpackers and I’m now renting a room off a friend from Perth, which is cheaper and I get my own space. I’ve had a bit of work performing QA on archived documents for Iron Mountain. It’s mind numbingly boring but it is in the aircon and I can listen to music all day. Unfortuantly the job finished yesterday so I’m looking for work again.

A new radiator for the car is going to set me back $700 and I wouldn’t mind getting the aircon fixed, which could probably be over $1000. I may be in Darwin for christmas but I’ll be out of the house at the start of December as the housemate is moving back to Perth.

Well that leg of the trip is over, after 4400km and 20 days. We arrived at 1pm and checked out a few of the backpackers. I checked into Chilli Backpackers for $170/w in a 12 bed dorm and managed to pick the only backpackers lacking a bar. Tomorrow I’ll start looking for a job and this time I think I’ll aim for an office job if I can get one.

We ended up spending 3 nights in Katherine, checking out Cutta Cutta Caves, Katherine Gorge and Edith Falls. Cutta Cutta caves had some spectacular formations inside, however it had suffered some damage at the hands of tourists and the army in the past.

Katherine Gorge was amazing and it would have been worth spending a full day canoing along the river. We ended up hiking into the gorge and a bit of swimming.

Edith falls was also a good spot for a swim, spending several hours there. I swam out to the falls and relaxed for a while.

Today we visited Litchfield National Park, stopping at the Magnetic Termite Mounds and Florence Falls. Swiming at the falls was enjoyable although the fish tried to eat you. I’ll be visiting Litchfield again on the next leg of the trip as there is alot to discover out there.

Damn, it’s October already and it looks like I’ll be staying in Darwin for a few months as the expenses are mounting up. I need a new radiator for the Troopy and I’ll probably have to pay the ATO income tax for last year. I should really look into getting the dole while I travel ;)

Yesterday we ended up a Victoria River Roadhouse after going through Timber Creek and parts of Gregory National Park. The is alot of history around the exploration, development and pasturalisation of the region. The roadhouse was a good place to camp and it provided a much needed shower and water refill.

Things seem to be cheaper here in the NT than in WA, camping last night was $7.50ea, fuel in Katherine was $1.38/L and the caravan park tonight was $12.50ea. Hopefully things continue on this trend as it will mean less time in Darwin.

Tomorrow’s TODO list includes visiting Katherine Gorge and thats about it. We will see a few other sights over the next few days and on the way up to Darwin as we are spending 2 nights in Katherine.