**For more information about the shipment see Shipping “East Timor – Australia : Part 2” on our blog,or on www.wijzijnweg.org under the section Travel Info – Shipment**

In Darwin airport checking the luggage goes very smoothly. It doesn’t seem to be as bad as we sometimes see on TV and at midnight we are standing on Australian soil. We decide to look for a hotel so we don’t have to bother Dave at this late hour. We take a taxi to the cheapest hostel in town and immediately crawl under the sheets. In the morning we are woken by cockatoos and so we immediately get a glimpse of the Australian fauna.

Cockatoos on our Balcony

We rent a scooter and leave our luggage in the hostel so we can start to arrange the paperwork for the bike. We drive to the supermarket first and soon we notice that Australia is EXPENSIVE. Everything is about double the price, only meat and vegetables have just about the same price as ours.
We pick up our luggage at the hostel and drive to Palmerston, where Dave lives. Dave receives us with open arms and shows us his spare room. There is also a Spanish guy there, José, who is driving with his van around the world and has also shipped from Dili. Dave tells us to relax today and shows us around on his property…on a tractor.

On the Tractor with Dave

In the afternoon we enjoy a beer on his terrace and in the evening he makes us a T-bone on the barbeque. In the morning Kevin calls ANL to ask about the bike. The rest of the day we enjoy a few beers at the ranch. While we are outside, we see a lot of birds that we do not know and some of them are really nice. We especially like the Kookaburra, a colourful bird which also happens to hunts snakes. On the morning of Christmas Eve, we go to the ANL office.
In the evening, we take care of the Christmas dinner and spend Christmas Eve with Dave and José. Dave says that he goes away on Christmas Day with his mother and José says that we are all invited by Linda. She works for the Quarantine Inspection, and she has inspected the van of José. It might be interesting to talk to someone who knows her way in the harbour. We accept the invitation and the next day we are barbequing with Linda and some of her friends. Linda understands that it's all a bit complicated and is happy to help us on her day off. For the rest of the afternoon we enjoy a nice party with great Australians.
Due to the holidays we have to wait before we can reach anyone. We spend our days at Dave’s house, José has already left. We learn a lot about life in Australia. It strikes us that Australians are very negative towards the Aboriginals who live in the city. The Aboriginals can’t find their place in this western society so they often end up in the marginality. We also hear that Darwin is so expensive because it is so remote but that it gets better in the more populated south. In Australia it is apparently so that the host provides the food but the guests clear the table and do the dishes. We see new insects every day, though we do not know all their names. Yet the worst is the horsefly, which really bites. Most Australians have a gun at home. Dave asks Kevin if he want to shoot with his shotgun and of course he agrees immediately.

Kevin fires his first Bullet

Dave also tells us about the dangerous animals in Australia, such as the poisonous frog and the King Brown Snake. In the north of Australia, you can’t go swimming in the sea or in a river because there are many crocodiles. There also many dingoes in the outback, a wild dog native to Australia. Especially when they’re in a pack, they can be really dangerous. Although kangaroos don’t hurt people, they can be dangerous on the road. Especially at night and in the morning, the coolest hours of the day, they are active and they hop around a lot.
Kitty finds a frog when folding the laundry and screams the whole house together. Dave takes the frog outside and he puts the frog on Kitty’s hand.
The next day we see the frog again on the terrace and a moment later he jumps on the table, where we are working on the computer. The frog is looking for a place to sleep and settles himself not too far from us. He remains here all afternoon and it feels a bit like we have a pet, so we give him the name Kermit.

Kitty and Kermit

On the day of New Year's Eve we manage to get Mickey out of the harbour. We are very pleased with our New Year's gift: our motorbike on the driveway at Dave’s. In the evening we go eat at a restaurant overlooking the bay of Darwin. While waiting for our food, we enjoy a beautiful sunset. After dinner we go to a pub, where some live bands are playing. Along with the other people in the pub we count down to the New Year.
The day after New Year everything is open again and we take our motorbike to the test of roadworthiness, and also arrange our motorbike insurance. Now we are free to drive around in Australia with the motorbike and we would actually be able to go to the next destination. However, the wounds on Kevin’s foot haven’t yet healed enough so we don’t want to drive a week through the outback. Even if we would, we can’t even start looking for a job because of the foot. Waiting in Australia until the wounds are healed is costly because even though we have a free accommodation, the money goes fast here in Darwin. We begin to think about what to do next and decide to fly back to Bali. The money from the tickets is easily recuperated and in Bali we’ll have more that holiday feeling.
There is some maintenance work to be done on the bike so we wait until the end of the weekend to leave Darwin. On Monday morning we bring Mickey to the garage, where he will stay while we are in Bali. In the evening we say goodbye to Dave and take a plane to Bali… once again.

To all our readers, we wish you a Happy New Year!

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