As we set out on a two month summer expedition that will include Australia, England and the Balkans, we thought creating a blog may be the best way to share our adventures.
Leaving on a midnight flight, a common occurrence when leaving Shanghai, we flew 4.5 hours to Singapore and then boarded a plan a few hours later to Darwin.
Another 4.5 hours later, we arrived in Darwin at around 3pm in the afternoon.
We were greeted by our driver, who in fact is a construction vehicle driver, who thought he was looking for a Chinese person, but the fact that he had the name Peter McCombe confused him as it did not sound particularly Chinese. When we appeared and said we were who he was looking for, he looked particularly bewildered - gave us a laugh later, but also made us concerned for Marie's pickup the following week. We'll have to check on that later!
Booking into the Mantra on the Esplanade, we had a quick rest before hitting the streets to investigate the city centre.
It is technically winter here, but the temperature at this time of year is around 30 degrees celsius. However, it was pleasant with a light breeze, no humidity. We oriented ourselves quickly to the city layout, as it is not too tricky and quickly found places that we would need to visit during the next few days to prepare for our Kakadu 5-day adventure!
Finding a nice pub to sit and watch the world go by we had our first Aussie meal that of course included lamb, something that we don't get to eat in China and Northern Territory's famous fish, the Barramundi.
It was a nice way to return to Australia this year!
We ended the day watching NSW win the State of Origin due to Tommy Turbo's Terrific Try scoring Treat.
