On the Road

I’m now at Darwin after 3,750 km of pub crawl. I’m on a six week trip through Queensland to the Gulf country, across to Darwin and then Kakadu, (the locals call it Kakadont due to all the nanny state rules) Jabiru, Coburg Peninsular, Nhulunbuy, Gove, Katherine, Eva Valley, Alice Spings, the Simpson Desert, Birdsville and home. Plan to be back by end July with about 12,000 km of Australian under our belt. A friend, Brian, and myself are doing the first part of the trip sans wives – hence the pub crawl statement. The ladies have now joined us at Darwin and from now on things will be more civilized – so I’ve been told. Communications varies from moderate to non-existant so postings will be spasmodic until I get back to civilization. Yes, Darwin is civilized but it gets worse from here. I am logging all the trip and will post in bulk on return. Conversations at pubs with people at the coal-face of outback life and it’s problems has been my purpose and will be the subject of later postings. At Darwin I have had the pleasure and time to speek with Shane Stone, the ex Chief Minister of the NT and Liberal heavyweight, and can only say I now view NT problems from a different perspective. Illuminating. More later. At Nhullunbuy I will be meeting with Galarrwuy Yunupingu and family and look forward to reporting on that. I go there with an open mind and will work hard at keeping any pre-conceived ideas to myself. I want to listen to someone elses point of view, someone who actually lives the problem..walks the walk and talks the talk. Maybe I’ll learn something that has eluded me until now but doubt it. I think the problems are well recorded by now. Otherwise I’m on leave.