Day 16 - I come from a land down under!!

Day 16 begins almost immediately after the events of day 15 leave off, I arrive at Darwin airport at 4.40 in the AM! Uh oh, I've got to go through customs with my cigarettes again! I declare them this time not wanting another Singapore incident, but ive still got to pay the damn duty on them AGAIN!! Thats another $40 thats completely and i mean completely wiped any good value! I make it through and I wait around for the airport shuttle to set off! I've hung around in the airport for a while and the shuttle sets of at around half 5, getting me to the hostel at around 5:50 in the AM, I've seen on my booking info for the hostel I'm in that check in is no earlier than 14:00 so I'm poised for a long wait! But I'm in luck, the guy on the desk says he can check me in then and there! Thank god for that, I've barely slept in 24 hours and need a place to rest my head! The room I'm in is a four bed dorm, it's basic but clean, there are already 3 other guys in here, hope I didn't disturb them too much coming in at that time of the morning! I have a good solid sleep and I'm up at around 10 for a bit of Darwin exploring! There's not really a great deal going on at this time of the morning so I have a little walk around the streets and then come back and chill by the pool! No attempt made to talk to anyone yet but there's a bloke who is asleep in the bunk below who sounds northern, I'll get chatting when he's up!

He gets up some time later and we get chatting and he's from rossendale! Another Lancashire lad, what a small world we live in! After this I decide to head down to reception and book a day trip for the next day, all the full day ones are booked so I book a half day crocodile jumping boat trip! This sounds like it should be an experience, watching crocs jump out of the water to get food! It's not overly expensive either compared to how expensive I've heard Australia is! That should be a good bit of time filled before a definite night on the beers in the hostel!! After I've booked this I head back to the pool area to chill out, after a while I get chatting to Liam from rossendale again, he introduces me to Tashi. What a character this guy is, he's a kiwi, Australian Frenchman! He's been in the army of all these nations and used to be a policeman, he's now in construction! He's got a real story to tell let me tell you!! Properly enjoyed talking to him!
As the evening goes on I get chatting to Italians, Irish, English, Aussie, kiwi and even a Chilean guy! The beer starts to flow faster and so does the conversation, it turns into a hilarious night, with Tashi at the centre of the hilarity. There is a group of aboriginals sat on the pavement below the deck we're all standing on, Tashi throws down a couple of cigarette butts and they pick them up and start smoking them!! He says and does other things which aren't really fit for broadcast so I'll leave them out, but the whole thing was hilarious!! After a couple more jugs of beer are bought its last orders at the bar and we all slow down a bit. Now the rain comes, luckily we're sat underneath a cover because we'd be drowning if not, I swear I'm never going to get used to this tropical rain!! After this comes a bit of a sobering moment, a guy comes over and tells us the story of his friend who had died a couple of days before, they'd been drinking in the hostel and he'd gone home after the night, he had an aneurysm and sadly passed away. They're having a little fundraising event tomorrow night to try and help raise the $15,000 his family needs to fly him home to New Zealand!! After this I head to bed ahead of a long day out with the crocs!!

Thanks for reading!

Will