Darwin

I've been in town now for a couple of days. The heat/humidity is intense. Luckily I have air conditioning in my room. When I'm out, I scurry from one shopping mall to the next. I sweat more easily than other people so when I'm outside I get drenched with sweat while other people seem to saunter around at their ease and pass me by, looking at the weird sweaty guy. It probably doesn't help that I'm wearing long pants so I may have to sacrifice sartorial elegance to practicality and wear shorts. I did manage to walk around outside quite a bit yesterday, walking to the waterfront to check on the boat situation.

That situation is now my major concern. I have to find a boat that will take me over to Indonesia. I was originally lined up to take another freight ship from Brisbane to Singapore but that was re-routed and the next isn't available until July. I've made enquiries about cruise ships, to take just one or two sectors of their route. Some of them, however, want me to pay the price of the entire trip which can be $5000 or more, so that's out. I thought I found one where they would let me take a Darwin to Bali sector but then discovered yesterday that they don't do that after all.

I've had a notice on the noticeboard of Darwin Sailing Club for the past few weeks but haven't had any responses other than an email from another person, Lou, who is trying to do the same thing and asking if I'd found anything. We've agreed to look out for each other for any possibilities. My next step is to approach some other sailing clubs and see what happens. I think, however, that I may just have to concede defeat on this part of the trip and take a flight. There really just doesn't seem to be any feasible alternative. Everyone keeps making jokes about swimming or getting returning refugee boat and those jokes are beginning to wear thin.

Anyway, I will keep looking for a few more days at least. I also want to do a bit of tourism in Darwin, especially a visit to Kakadu National Park.