​Or would it be Darwon? As I am leaving today, I’m guessing it should be the latter. I’ve walked this town from end to end, I think, putting in 20K/day. It’s not a bad place, I just think I’ve visited what interested me to the point that it’s time to bail out. On my last full day here, I took an eco-tour that included birdwatching and several waterfalls and swimmable holes in the nearby Litchfield National Park. It was a small tour, only 16 people, which made it better. Our tour guide, Emily, reminded me a lot of my niece Jordan – not a surprise, Jordy used to lead groups back in the day, back in the States.
 
When we all piled into the bus, as it happens, the singletons tend to gravitate together. In this case, there was only one in addition to me, Taiya. She was up top visiting her friend – traveling from Newcastle on the other side of the country. Lauren had to work (sucker!), so Taiya was doing the tour solo. She and I teamed up. It definitely made the tour better for me; I don’t know if it did the same for her. We did some extra trekking while the rest of the group lounged in the pools. So, we got to see cool bats, and she provided some bush knowledge to me. She’d grown up in Alice Springs (“As soon as I graduated, I left!”), so she’s reasonably familiar with the bush, though typically hotter and drier than Litchfield. Her path to her current occupation as a dental nurse is pretty amazing, as are her travel adventures, and love of reading. I sensed a kindred spirit, especially when swapping book recommendations while walking a trail, and, since I didn’t feel like going back to my AirBnB, I invited her and Lauren to join me for dinner at the local Mexican restaurant.
 
The food itself wasn’t particularly Mexican, and the picante margaritas packed significantly more heat than the food, but I had an exceptional time. I even broke my scooter cherry and rode one about halfway back to the AirBnB. Halfway, you ask? Yes, my stay is outside the service area, so I could only get so far. Still, it saved me about 2K of walking after a long day, and numerous adult beverages.
 
In my last days here, the sunsets have been amazing, my bird life list growing and my feet getting itchy to move forward. I’m not sure if I’m being pulled forward by the enticement of new people, places and experiences, or being pushed by the past. All I know is it’s time to move forward. I’m doing Katherine later today. I hope she doesn’t mind.

​I left the hostel dark and early on Saturday to take various transports across the country to the west side: Darwin. Uber to the airport, then a JetStar Airbus for about three hours. I think it’s interesting that I flew pretty much solely westward for that long, and, even though I changed time zones, it was only thirty minutes difference. It’s the first time I’ve encountered a time zone that lives on the half hour. This means the sun doesn’t rise until 7:00. Even though it’s late winter, it’s odd because I’m pretty low in the latitudes. I haven’t researched, and I probably won’t, why they (whoever they are) made that decision. I think they were on drugs at the time. Take a look at the map and you tell me.

The flight was uneventful, fairly crowded and cramped. It’s a discount airline, and to make ends meet (read: wring every penny for shareholders), the space between seats is even less than most USA airlines. Most in the USA are thirty-one inches between rows, as I understand. JetStar? Twenty-nine. Yikes. My knees hit, and I couldn’t extent them under the seat in front even if I wanted to. If I was even an inch or two taller, it would be torture for even an hour’s long flight.
 
Landed and Ubed to the AirBnB. It’s a nice apartment owned by a very chatty woman. She works at home, isn’t greatly ambulatory, and really, really likes to talk. I have a nice room with an en-suite. Clean comfortable and relatively quiet – in comparison to the hostel. The noise is from the traffic on the fairly major road thirteen floors below. All the windows are left open, because she has no AC. With open windows, and ceiling fans, it works. I would prefer to have a place to myself, but things here are pricey.
 
Did a long walk around the city after plopping my bags, and changing into walking gear. There is a lot of WWII history here though, which I found interesting as I walked. It’s quite hot and sweaty, but I understand the rain yesterday was something of an anomaly, as it’s currently the dry season, and the switch isn’t for several months. Hot and dry is preferable, but I sweat well, and there is beer available for rehydration. I was a bit surprised at the prices here, but I guess most items need to be brought in, as there is little in the way of agribusiness in the vicinity. Eggs are more than $5 USD dozen. Yikes. Restaurant prices match USA, and are maybe even more than in the tourist town of Cairns. That took me by surprise, to be sure. 

I've decided I’m probably going to be good with the four days I’ve booked here and call it done. It’s really a quiet place, with not a lot of people out and about. Even though I tend to drift through life – like a pelican soaring just above the rolling and crashing messiness of the waves, never quite touching – I do enjoy crowds from a distance. I like to watch. Take that as you will. There just isn't a vibe of "Hey Slang, why not hang?!" No vibe, no stay.

I may spend some time today arranging a tour/trip to a nearby national park before I move on, to get as much as I can out of my trip this direction. And I will definitely be checking out the botanical gardens and trying to capture more photos of birds.