After 7 and half happy month in Darwin I was on the move again. Unfortunately while Darwin was much better for my health, it was still not good enough. Because of that I found and got (Yeaah!) a great new job in Billinudgel. A small village somewhere on the Australian coast 150km south of Brisbane. That's kind of an amazingly good opportunity. And a perfectly Lloyd friendly place too, so... here we are again!

I said again because, after growing up on the french riviera, I did many move in the past. 1998: Paris (with 1 month in New York in 2000), 2002: Sydney, 2005: Brisbane, January 2008: Darwin, August 2008: Billinudgel, hopefully I'll stay there for a much longeeeer while!

By the way, before I "leave" Darwin, here is the jade Buddha that looked over my Travel, thanks Huisze , I think I quite liked it and gives some personality to my car as well!

Saturday morning, everything packed, I left my Darwin home for the last time, it was 10:05! I did stop by the Parap market for a last papaw salad and then I hit the road for a 3800 km journey.

In the middle of winter temperatures in Darwin go from 18 degrees (at night) to 28 degrees (during the day), it's still quite warm. The water temperature might be around 26 (just an educated guess) and the country side is dry and prone to bush fire. More than that ranger have burnt many patch of ground to prevent bigger fire later, that gave the territory its dry season look.

I confess, I'm dramatizing a little, it's not always as bad as this picture!

I quickly reached Katherine's Gorge, it's still green and lush but so much less, here take a look

Katherine's gorge in the Wet season

Katherine's gorge in the dry season

Once out of Darwin past Katherine one is quickly in the middle of a dry and green nowhere. I had an uneventful 1000 km drive south until the first left turn at Three ways, the most famous T intersection of the Northern Territory .

Here is Three ways road house, which has a nice and cheap burger with chips. But petrol was the most expensive of my trip, a bit more than $2 per litter.

And the famous T intersection.

As I dived in the Australian outback I got more and more alone. After Three ways I had to drive about 450 km before being able to refuel. The average town has just a couple of hundred people. And often all one can find is a road house and its petrol station.

On the second day I crossed the NT state border back to Queensland, there isn't much to see there.

And I slept in Mount Isa. A mining town in a calderas like formation on top of some hill range in the middle of the Australian outback. It's easily one of the biggest town around with the most hospitable surrounding, thanks to its mountainous location.

And then I drove on and on again. At some stage I had the feeling I reached the closest place to nowhere as can be reached with the high way. Somewhere... on the road, 600km west of Townsville.

I guess it can be more impressive in the rocky desert in South Australia, I have to try that one day. But that was pretty isolated. I started to feel better around there, on my 3rd day of the trip (you know, I have this problem with pollution, a few days in the outback worked wonder for me).

300 km from Townsville it suddenly start to get greener and lush. There was flowering Mimosa all around, that was nice

I slept before Townsville in a road house. By then I was getting used to long drive and woke up early. I hit the road at 4:30AM on my fourth day. That was the first time I saw fog in Australia (I'm not much of an early riser hey), more than seeing it, I had to drive through it for a while, can't see much, it was interesting!

I by-passed Townsville and drove to Airlie beach (aka Whitsundays), I though I had to stop there. There are heaps of hills and farms, it's all green and you do wonder where the beach can be until it suddenly appears. Very nice spot, a bit like Nice (in France) but with less people and more greeneries, maybe warmer as well!

I was making good progress until.... it was 3pm and there was an accident on road, a big one: 2 trucks and a car somehow collided. Here you can see the rescue helicopter.

I was stranded on the spot until 6:30pm, that made me a little cranky after that I made godspeed to Billinudgel. Not much else to say on the trip as I was just hurrying up. Except, perhaps, that Gladstone does seems to be a Lloyd friendly town, I'm sad I failed a job interview for a job there back in December now, ha well.
Finally I managed to arrive in Brunswick Head (next to Billinudgel) next day (Wednesday) around 7pm.

In Billinudgel it is winter. Day temperature is around 13 degrees (at least it was yesterday), very much cooler than Darwin, that's a bit of a shock. I have been told it's one of the coldest winter in a while. Although water temperature is currently much warmer. About 20 degrees or so apparently (some locals told me). I rented a holiday accommodation in South Golden Beach (still there by the way) and about 15 Brisbane friend came to see me the first week-end. And slept in the house.

As it's only one sand dune away from the beach, we had to ... go in for swim!

Well, once you are inside, it's ok!

My employer found for me a house to rent in the suburb next door: New Brighton (in a couple of days, there is still some renovation work going on as we speak), that's a great Lloyd friendly place with The shop close by (Amazing no?) and on the sea shores, I think it'll be good!

And that's it for now, see ya!

I drove to Darwin, I think it was from the 14th to the 17th of January 2008.
I was working there until... the 1st of August 2008 (and I hit the road next day, to Billinudgel!!)

But I thought hey, I should have a little summary of my adventure in Darwin, this is quite a uniquely beautiful place after all!

One of the first thing that most Australian will notice are the days, they are long! From 6AM to 7PM everyday of the year. There is a small variation but it's small! Now I'm writing that from South Golden Beach and it's pitch black at 6PM, it's... strange... (It's also cold, but with a jumper it's much better!)

Darwin has 2 seasons, the wet and the dry. The wet is the summer and it's hot, very hot, and it rains a lot, in a sporadic fashion. When it rains more than 2 days the temperature is good and, in fact, people do walk around even under the drenching rain. The only problem is that you get completely soaked in 30 seconds but hey, it's not cold! just right!
Twice I had one week of non stop rain sometimes between January to April, that was nice to see that much water after many years of drought in Brisbane!

The dry season is winter, it goes from April to, mm, possibly October I have been told. And it doesn't rain, at all. It's endless blue sky. In August nights might be as cold as, hu, 18 degrees? At least just when I left we had that cold a night. But days are still warm and nice while the water temperature is maybe only 24 degrees. At the start of the dry it's around 30, and there are many waterfalls and lakes around with warm water, that's glorious! You just have to stay clear of the (possibly jumping) crocodiles!

Here I am in Litchfield with a free warm water massage, ha the hard life we had!

It's also the time of Mindill beach market. There are many very popular market in Darwin. Most of them for food and local craft produce! Here, in the background, you can see Parap's Saturday morning market (And some local celebrity in the foreground! hehe, it's my friend Sabrina for those who don't know her, with a delicious Tropical whip: Coconut milk, pineapple, and a bit of honey)

Mindill beach market is the biggest event, but it only happen during the dry season Thursday and Sunday nights. And there are musician, beach volley and many other activities.

Surprisingly there are many things to do in Darwin for those who know how to look! I went (although I was kind of slack) to a Salsa dance school (and there is Salsa music every Wednesday nights at Monsoon), there are heaps of free tennis court all around, plenty of cheap lap swimming pool, here is Nightcliff's one:

I'm not really pub minded but there are heaps of them in "CBD" and heaps of delicious restaurant as well, I really like the "Magic Wok" in the city and the Wharf's food courts. I think food in Darwin is a tad more expensive but often of very good quality.

In Darwin real estate is expensive and competitive. I had a hard time finding something I liked but found it I did! It was a tad expensive ($300 pw) but it was a great flat in a block of 12, with swimming pool, surrounded by lush vegetation and not far from Nightcliff market.

Around Darwin there are mostly 2 big places people visits: Litchfield and Kakadu. There are also numerous smaller one, but those 2 are the biggest attractions. On the way to Kakadu there is the Adelaide river cruise showing off jumping crocodiles 4 times a day:

Many crocodiles there, don't go for a swim! Although, maybe, if you poke it in the eye it would leave you alone, but only true blue Aussie should attempt to do that!

A few Brisbane friend came to visit me. First there was  Marie, Siwan and Daniela. Here is Daniela in front of a termite mound on the way to Litchfield.

Litchfield is cool and only about 90 minutes drive from Darwin, many (crocodile free)(warm) water fall and rivers, great day out!

Well to be honest I didn't know those 3 before. One day while I was shopping I had a call from Dan in Brisbane and he told he was sending 3 quality couch surfing girl at my place to visit Darwin, hey sweet!

After that Kelly and Sabrina came too

they also visited Kakadu and had great fun (and met some cool Danish guy, hehe).

And finally Maria came
 
And we visited Kakadu together  but alas I have no picture! But let me tell you, it's worth it, it's real cool err, I mean warm. With heaps of remote and inaccessible warm lake which you can only reach by walking hours through mosquito, crocodile and drop bear infested jungle with huge venomous spiked vines blocking the way, err you get the idea. Although I might have exaggerated a bit...

Other than that it took a little while but in only 7 and half month I manage to make a few good friend. It all started with tennis, I met this Indian guy Prashant an enthusiast tennis player. I met him at the social tennis Friday night. For 3~4 month we kind of play together almost everyday. I improved a lot hey! Then he introduced me to some Malaysian / Singaporean people with whom I played basket ball.

They were very cool. One of them, the beautiful and charming Huisze kind of liked me one can think, had I not being sick and leaving, a nice story might have happened. As it is there is already something to tell, she often invited me in their house she was sharing with her 7 other Malaysian / Singaporean flat mates and I tasted delicious vegetarian Malaysian food:

I even learned a simple recipe I should try out soon. Roasted diced pumpkin, crunched peanut and soya sauce.
Speaking of which Divia, Prahsant's wife, really help me improve my Indian cooking style, at least as far as raita and curry are concerned.

I also learn to play Chinese chess (that's Huisze in the back)(Amazing, no?!?)

And they gave me the whole Avatar series before I leave, wow, that's an awesome 60 fun episodes of a great fantasy anime tale! And a nice jade Buddha as well, hopefully it will bring me health, my biggest concern for the last 15 years. I have the feeling it's going to be good now. Ho and some nice relaxation music as well which was very helpful on the long way back to Billinudgel.

I also met Kevin, the opposite of me, born in France he came to Australia when he was a kid (while I was born in Australia and grew up in France), Lee (funny swearing welch Australian (or is it Scottish?)), Hosein, Hannah and a few other...

Here Kevin and Hosein playing tennis:

Ho and let's not forget Louis, a work colleague from Hong-Kong. He has one of those rare Hong-Kong passport which gave both Chinese and English citizenship and he just got Australian PR, argh, I'm jealous, he has 3 nationalities, I have only two!
He is also a great sailing fan, here is his boat:


Well, ... I think that's it for today, and sorry to all I forgot ...