Deirdre had given me the name of a friend in Darwin who owned a travel agency in the Mall, so I made this my target for the morning. David was whizzing around the place on his scooter, the novelty value of which had not yet worn off, and John had decided to hire a moped and explore a bit further out of town.

Having picked up a sultana muffin and a banana smoothie by way of breakfast, I arrived at Jet Set Travel at about 11 o’clock. Veronica was there, and after a brief chat she offered to take me to a market in a suburb called Parap, since she had to collect her cat from the vet there. I accepted, and agreed to wait 30 minutes while she finished some work. Wandering back out onto the Mall, I walked straight into David.

So it was both David and I that got into Veronica’s truck (Ute?) half an hour later. The market was much smaller than the one on Mindil beach, but I found some more good souvenirs and David had a temporary tattoo done.

We were not able to stay at the market for long, because we both had to get back to the hostel, then make our way to the beach. At this point our opinions on how to get there diverged. I preferred to take a bus service, and did, which got me there way before David, who opted for a bus to the airport, a plane to approximately 10,000 feet above the beach, and then gravity to get the rest of the way very quickly indeed. Yes, that would be skydiving, otherwise known as demonstrating that you are absolutely nuts.

In the evening we followed a recommendation from our hostel receptionist, and went to the Blue Heelers pub, where you get a free meal with every drink purchase. The meals were very small, but there’s nothing to stop you from buying two drinks, so it was possible to have a large meal very cheaply indeed.