Austalia keeps surprising you, that much is certain. Take today: We drove to Fitzroy Crossing from Broome through more rain (How I hate those locals who keep telling us how great and exciting it is to have rain this time of the year since it hasn't rained this time of the year for more than 30 years) only to discover that the hostel in Fitzroy Crossing isn't there any more.

Or as the guy in the tourist information center put it: "There used to be a hostel. But it was washed away in the great flood of 2003." Now, that must either have been a truly great flood or a really dodgy hostel! So there we were in the "exciting" rain without any place to go. The only place to stay would have been a hotel and that was far too expensive. Fortunately Rowan had an idea and so we called ahead to Halls Creek where they have a caravan-park. And it turned out that we could hire a trailer for 63 AUD between the forur of us. There were even three beds in in (one double and two bunk beds) so it was really perfect. Especially considering the alternatives.

We arrived quite late and way past nightfall in Halls Creek which I found quite worrying, because of the dozens of cows that were grazing just next to the highway and of course because of the roos, but Jonni drove us there just fine. The trailer was alright as well, and I hadn't really hoped that I would get to snuggle up to one f the girls in the double bed, so I wasn't too disappointed when none of them volunteered for this sleeping-arrangement either. Halls Creek itself is a real dump and just full of drunk Aboriginis (I'll have to make an entry regarding this topic pretty soon), which made it even worse that we couldn't get anything to drink anywhere. But we slept o.k., our car was not stolen (someone elses was) and we made it to Kununarra quite easily the day after. Here we are staying at the Kununarra Backpackers (18 AUD). The people running it are really friendly and helpful, so it's good. The girls will stay here for some time to work on the fields and I will be off to Darwin. I don't think I'll take anyone in for that last leg of the trip - I think I'll enjoy being by myself for a day again.