Upcoming: Northern Nature Work

ODO same as before... (about 13k for the trip - that's 2.5k km/week!)

Hello again. No real stories to relate as yet. In Darwin overnight. It's an uninspiring enough town, though the local eateries and drinkeries offer a pretty good range and decent value - if you have money to spend. So I've walked right past all of them... none of them really have any charm, and they're all 'financial', in a way that the bush pubs I've been visiting aren't - if you don't have cash, there's nothing to do (though the usual friendly NT hospitality would ensure you never get pressured out, like you might in Sydney). The hostels are also the most expensive I've found, so last night was my first and last!

The next week will be a very relaxed nature tour, through Kakadu, Umbrawarra (near Pine Creek) and maybe with a bit of fishing at Daly's Creek. I have six days before I need to be back here to catch a bus back out again (might be a struggle if I'm staying 130km away the night before, but so far that looks to be the range of my options), to the Cox Peninsula to volunteer creating boardwarks and other facilities to avoid the impact of visitors on dune erosion. It'll be a good week I think, and will even involve a bit of luxury - cooked meals and air conditioned hotel rooms! I should probably say it'll be a good two weeks, really, or perhaps I should say a good 14!

Sadly I actually have to pay for it, though it will be within my weekly budget... I didn't realise at first, but on sitting back to think about it it's an opportunity to do something different - constructive - which I'm enthusiastic about. The endless variation to paradise can actually get repetative.

I hope you enjoy your day as much as I'm enjoying my couple of hours in the library. I just hope you don't feel too bad that the life you're taking time out from is five months in paradise.

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@JohnSBaxter
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