Richard before leaving Bali

Back together again, the 5 of us are kindly put up in the family home of Captain David Bergman. Virginia, his wife prepares the most delicious pasta dinner for us, and we feel as if we're back in England. Here at the far end of Asia we begin to find echoes of home. Joe and Camille, David and Virginia's kids seem delighted to have us come to disturb their normal routine. Even if this does mean giving up their beds for the night. 'Oh yes, and do you know, we've got some people come to stay with us, they were ship wrecked, and they're HEROES!' Joe excitedly chatters down the phone to his grandmother. We all laugh at his summary of what has happened to us. Family Bergman continue to look after us throughout our time in Darwin, and we're all hugely grateful to them. We hope to see them in England and to be able to return the favour.

The following night we all, with the exception of our captain, met up to celebrate our good fortune. Rorkes Drift, a lively English pub in downtown Darwin seemed like an appropriate place. This was further confirmed when Shuey and Scottie; two of the Navy boys from Launceston, shouted out to us as we walked down the road 'Ay, you two not coming in for a beer?'. VB, Melbourne Bitter, Castlemain XXXX, and even Guinness Stout flowed in copious quantities. Avi our cook looked surprised to still be alive. Her face alight all night with a wide beaming smile, and eager to chat with all of us, she seemed to be seeing life through a new invigorated looking glass. The defining quote of our evening however must surely go to Dan, the understated crew member from Somerset. With a perfectly straight face he explained his thoughts on returning aboard La Boheme with Andrew to fetch the gear as the breaking waves frothed over the decks. 'You know I just looked down below into the galley. All I could think to myself was - "Look at all that washing up! Thanks god we don't have to do that!"' Huge roars of laughter envelop the table. We chatter along all night reliving every moment of the crossing, and trying to put some of the memories to bed. For the next three nights however we all spend disturbed sleeping hours. Captain Lawrence is heard screaming 'Cut the anchor, cut the anchor!', at which point Dan, still asleep, gets up and sleepwalks out of his room and into the hall. On finding no anchor, no sea, and only the hallway, he returns to sleep. Andrew mistakes the flashing green and red lights of the smoke alarm for the navigation lights of the yacht. Dean is probably the most troubled by recent events, and is heard on two successive nights shouting 'This boat really is rocking around a lot - will it be alright?'. Thankfully for all of us, despite taking a while to settle down after the excitement, everything is alright.

We grab centre stage in the Australian media for a couple of days. We're on 3 news broadcasts and Breakfast TV, and we even get a cartoon drawn in the Northern Territories Newspaper. Amongst the crazy confusion of arriving here in Australia, we almost forget that we are approaching the home straight of our journey. Just one long road remains between us and Sydney now. But first we have a whole host of stuff to sort out before we can head out on the road. Dean arranges a press conference at Novotel - who have once again kindly offered to put us up. Rich Scriven arranges our forward route with NT police. Tim scores a huge result with the NT Tourism who agree to supportour venture in return for stories, pictures and a feature to be returned to the press in the UK. The sorry looking bicycles also require a huge amount of work to rejuvenate them - and we have our work cut out stripping them, washing them in clean water, petrol and then applying copious quantities of oil. Tim's chain actually looks orange enough to be a piece of Spaghetti Bolognaise - and it doesn't clean up well - its binned and replaced. We have excellent help from Rosetto Sports in The Mall - who allow us to use their facilities - and also Paul, the mechanic does sterling work for us.

We do have a little time to look around Darwin itself before we set out. In our own minds we had conjured images of a huge Australian city that would welcome us back into the bosom of Western European civilisation. Whilst its true that we find the most delicious and plentiful supply of our favourite foods in Woolworth's supermarket, its also true that Darwin is a rugged outpost at Australia's most distant frontier. With a population of just eighty thousand its barely larger than our home town of Taunton - which incidentally doesn't usually merit a write up in most traveling guidebooks! And yet Darwin gets a mention on most World Atlases. Admittedly it is the capital city of Northern Territories - which in area is much bigger than the whole of the UK. But then The Northern Territories total number of people is only two hundred thousand. Even before we have set foot out on the long Stuart Highway, we start to get the feeling that Darwin is somewhat isolated up here - five hours flying time from Sydney. Just imagine - in five hours form Heathrow, one could have flown clean across Europe and well into Asia or Africa - or maybe even as far as America! Darwin certainly has its share of rugged looking people. People who are used to the harsh nature of this remote land. Pick up trucks and 4WD's are the norm here, and every other person wears a wide brim hat. Aborigines cluster on street corners and float quietly down the pavements. Their bare feet, ebony skins, and wild hair is a stark contrast to the other striking contingent, the clean cut back-packer crew. Even now in the wet season the town has a good population of travelers heading for Kakadu national park. A highlight of any journey to the Northern Territories, it draws backpackers across the rugged outback in search of a closer appreciation of tropical Australia and the ancient native culture of the land. Sadly for us we're working on preparing for the Outback right up until our departure time. A mad rush on our last day and we somehow manage to get everything done. That includes a new frame for Rich's bike - his magnesium has been severely attacked by the saltwater - and is unlikely to stand up to the rigours of the road ahead.

December 14th sees us finally leaving the safety and marvellous hospitality of Darwin behind. Our legs have grown unaccustomed to the spinning motion and it takes a while to become reacquainted. David, Joe and Camille join us on our way out of town, as do Channel 8 TV. We ride a few kilometres with our entourage, before wishing them all a fond farewell. The buildings and service stations dwindle and give way to trees and knee high grass. The road straightens and starts its long journey South. This is the beginning of the Outback. A bead of sweat trickles down my nose. I reach for my water bottle, don my sunglasses and wide brim hat. The last challenge of our journey lays before us.