Back to Reality

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Dempasar airport was a pitiful excuse and consisted of little more than a hut and a runway. Darwin was pretty much the same. Customs and immigration was not that much of an ordeal, which surprised us, but they were extremely hot on quarantine. We had to fill out a questionnaire in the plane about everywhere that we had been and everything that we had been doing. They then sprayed the plane with something before any of us were allowed to get off. You then got more questions in the terminal and they wanted to check anything you were carrying that was made from wood or straw. All the presents that we had got in Dempasar required a considerable amount of study before we were able to proceed.

Alan had some sandwiches which he had bought in Bali and had not got round to eating yet. When asked if he was carrying any food, he stuffed it in his mouth, swallowed and then replied "No". The quarantine officer was not impressed, but he was obviously in quite a good mood, as he didn't call over his customs buddies with the rubber gloves.

Our initial plan was to get a job in Darwin and then buy a car between us to tour round Australia. Grand plans, but we had met several Australians travelling through South East Asia who had told us that you could easily get a job in a mine in the Northern Territory. It was apparently hard work, but it paid well and the food and beers were free so you were able to save a lot of money very quickly. We got a list of all the local mines and phoned all of them, but unfortunately none of them were interested. Next we tried the Commonwealth Employment Service (the Job Centre), but all they had going was casual work. The system for casual work was that you turn up at seven in the morning and as work comes in they allocate it to whoever is waiting. We arrived on time, but we were competing will people who had vans, hard-hats, toolkits and skills of one sort or another. The only one of us to get offered any sort of work was Alan who missed out on half a day in a kitchen when he was in the toilet.

It was a bloody depressing day. Talking to others in the hostel, about the only regular work going was cleaning car windscreens at the traffic lights. Unfortunately there is only one busy set of lights in Darwin and their definition of a rush hour was when there were two cars waiting. It's not exactly lucrative.

We were in a tough situation. Several people had told us that there was absolutely definitely work to be had in Melbourne or Sydney. Both were, however, three thousand miles away and we could not afford that kind of journey. Not only that, but it was winter down there and we were currently in the tropics. It was a hard choice.

Whilst we were sitting in the hostel getting depressed, two hippies came along who had bought a car and were looking for someone to travel with them to Cairns to share the driving and petrol. Tiny and Andy agreed to go with them and an hour later they had gone. We did not know it at the time, but that would be the last we would see of them until we all got back to England. We found out later that their journey had been a complete nightmare as they had kept breaking down. When they eventually got to Cairns they couldn't find work there either so they headed for Sydney and then left for home.

Mike, Alan and I gave matters a lot of thought. The easy option was to all get seven day bus passes which would get us to Melbourne and were not that expensive. The risky option was to hitch there. Alan and Mike wimped out and went for the bus, I decided to try hitching.

After saying goodbye to them, I got a local bus to a road-stop called Truck City on the edge of town. This is where the lorry drivers stop before taking the long journey south. Right outside the place was a sign with distances on and, rather depressingly, the nearest place was 500km, Alice Springs (where I would need to get to stand any chance of getting to Melbourne) was 1,500km. There were three other hitchers in Truck City, a girl heading west and a couple also heading for Melbourne. We talked, played cards and drank coffee until late that night when the couple managed to get a lift to Brisbane. When it got very late, the girl and I had to go outside for some kip, under a bush. It actually got very cold at night at that time of year and it was freezing.

In the morning, I thought sod this, and I headed back into town and used my credit card to get a bus pass.

Later on when I had more time and money, and was in a more enthusiastic frame of mind, I returned to Darwin to see the place properly (see Darwin From a Whole Different Perspective).

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Photos

Road Train
A road train at Truck City outside Darwin

Darwin Sunset
Sunset in Bicentennial Park in Darwin