What it means to be Australian... well, sort of

Working outside in 30-40 degree heat and 80-90% humidity in Darwin puts a very literal meaning on the phrase ‘sweating your balls off’. Organised through a site called HelpX, we arranged to stay with a family who would feed us and give us a bed for the agreement of four hours of work per day.

It took a couple of days for us to coat two large metal containers in a dark, forest green paint. These are the kind that were used for transporting heavy stuff in. We were also tasked with painting doors and a bit of varnishing

We ended up turning one of his living spaces stationed in the corner of a plot of land into a tidier outdoor home which consisted of a couple of rooms, a kitchen, shower, bath, a big garage and a main decking area.

After each sweaty day, a cold shower and a couple of home brews, along with some good tucker, were in order. But we ended up spending a very untraditional Christmas day eating and drinking with our host.

Christmas was very surreal for us, being 35-degrees and all. This was the Christmas tree and one of the gifts he gave to his daughter

On our day off we went out on his boat, putting his blow-up ring to good use...

Our host kindly lent us his ute (an old '85 make) for the two weeks we were there. We could drive about the Northern Territory for some sight-seeing, but without a/c and with pretty ropy suspension it was a rough ride but a lot of fun nonetheless. We spent our time away from all the chores on the farm exploring more of what Darwin city centre had to offer and the surrounding areas.

Driving in the wet in the Northern Territory was interesting to say the least

Seeing this Christmas sign underneath a couple of palm trees added to the surrealism that is Xmas on the other side of the world

This is looking across Darwin's waterfront

Here's what else we got up to while working in Darwin. Good times had by all. Minus the unbearable heat and risk of running into a python, it was a good experience.

Lisa felt right at home doing the mowing

We learnt the intricacies of beer bottling. We had a pretty efficient production line going on, Lisa doing the filling and I was giving the task of capping them...

We booked ourselves in for a crocodile boat ride one afternoon. Cruising up the Adelaide river, the organisers teased them out of the water for a chunk of meat. What seemed like an easy way of teasing crocs, apparently offers them a daily dose of exercise because they just lie around for most of the day.

Holy croc...

This one was a five-metre male, which apparently is an average size for them. He's called Stumpy because he is missing his back right foot 

Australian wildlife is insane... Here's a look at the animals we came across in the wild and also while on the farm.

This was a pile of snail shells and bits from the house/garden that a male bird actually put there to entice a female into going out with him. Inside the twig palace is his most prized treasure, although to our disappointment it was empty!

We could have held this python if we didn't have suncream and bug spray on

This dragonfly was huge, about the length of your forefinger

This little guy was in the incubator on the farm, just hatched!

And here's his brother or sister!

Then they go into this place under a warm light to get all cute and fluffy

Chick number 5?

While we were there his pig gave birth to a dozen or so little ones

This small lizard decided to get himself trapped in this lantern

This frog was pretty big, climbing up the glass like nothing was wrong

These geckos climb the walls in the house at night and gobble up the moths, flies and the numerous other small bugs

The three Simons! That's Simon The Apostle in the middle if you were wondering

He had a pretty awesome bike which he surprised us with one day while we were cleaning and painting

The following pictures were taking in Litchfield National Park, not too far from where we were staying. Australia’s biggest national park, Kakadu, is the same size as Slovenia, so we kept to the smaller Litchfield as we had a limited time frame.

It was about time, on the 31 December, to take The Ghan back down Australia and out the way of all the humidity. We were heading for Alice Springs and the Red Centre where we had some more work lined up. New Years eve on this thing was a bit of a downer, but it was only for one night, so we kept our chins up...

Well, almost!

Let the New Years Eve celebrations commence... roll on Alice Springs

Our Aussie introduction: Perth to Adelaide

The weather in Perth was pleasantly hot when we landed. It was a different kind of heat to what we were used to in Asia. No longer a tropical sweat-bucket, but a heat we could finally enjoy.

We stayed with an amazing couple in Perth who had done quite a lot of travelling themselves. Because they had some karma to return for the backpacking they had done, they were happy to host us for a few nights. Great food and some special home brew was just the ticket, along with an impromptu blues session on some swanky guitars. Many thanks to Trey and Oli for putting us up.

Painted blue with an orange camper outside, this was the house we stayed at in Perth

This was their dog, a chocolate lab, called Fuggles

Trey, Fuggles and myself on the way to the doggy beach just outside of Perth city centre

Dogs love being on the sand and in the water

Trying to figure out why Fuggles likes to swim in the freezing sea! Guess I'll never find out

We enjoyed some pretty awesome home cooking

We utilised the free bus system in Perth to take a look around. They actually have free wi-fi accessible to everyone in the centre, which is awesome if you’re one of those people who like to take their laptop to the high street to get some blogging done… nope, I'm not one of those people.

I'm not quite sure if it was a combination of being in a new part of the world where you don't sweat all the live-long day and having all this free stuff all at once, but we really liked Perth.

Lisa overlooking Perth CBD

We took a walk around Kings Park and went to an outdoor cinema to watch a real tear-jerker under the stars. This was a really exciting beginning to our Australian travels.

For our last night in Perth we stayed in a cheap hostel close to the train station where we needed to catch the Indian Pacific early the next morning. Unknown to us at the time, this hostel just so happened to be right in the clubbing district, and it was only when we were trying to sleep did we find that many of the clubs ran through the night till the early hours... It was a shared dorm with four other people, so we were in bed by 10pm as everyone else was preparing to head out for a night on the lash... I didn't take any pictures of that hostel because it wasn't very nice, so instead I have this picture of a tree...

This was a pretty fat tree when it comes to trees

Before we knew it, it was time to head to the train station to catch the Indian Pacific, one of three trans-Australian trains that journey the length and breadth of the country at a staggering speed of, oh, about 50 kmph. Any faster and we would have needed seat belts.

It was a long and enduring two nights to go from Perth to Adelaide. We saw some really nice sand during that time though...

On the Indian Pacific there is Platinum class, Gold class and then the Red class... you guessed it, the latter of those is for the plebs! It featured reclining seats but no foot rests!

We alighted the train in Adelaide feeling slightly rough around the edges. Fortunately we had arranged to stay with a cousin of a Uni friend of Lisa’s, so we were looking forward to meeting them.

Our stay consisted of eating homemade gingerbread, spotting koala bears and parrots in the nearby national park, and taking an educational tour around the South Australian museum to learn more about Aboriginal culture and freaky taxidermy.

Thanks to our very kind hosts, Roger and Christine for entertaining us for the duration of the stay. We also learnt more about Adelaide's past and were taken on an interesting tour around the city.

Roger was a 3rd Dan instructor in Karate, and I had the pleasure to show his class some ju-jitsu from back home on one of their Sunday morning classes.

We did manage to take a ride out to Mount Lofty to see a 270-degree view of Adelaide. Near Mount Lofty was a zoo, where we enjoyed hand-feeding kangaroos, bandicoots and other marsupials of similar ilk.

Here are some images of our stay in South Australia...

This indoor market in Adelaide was very big. Cheese was the main attraction in this section

This fountain in Adelaide city centre was quite elaborate

This was a quirky store front to a sweet shop on the way to the tourist info

Oh, and we stroked a koala in the Cleland wildlife park

My first time hand feeding a kangeroo, which was great fun!

We spent nearly a week in Adelaide before we had to head north to Darwin on The Ghan, which would take us all the way up to the Top End and into Darwin.

View from The Ghan over the desert as we went from South Australia to the Northern Territory

A slightly different view... but, yes, it's mostly desert

Darwin would lead to our first experience with a chap through a site called HelpX, offering a free bed and tucker for four hours of work per day. We arranged to stay with him for two weeks, which is where we ended up celebrating Christmas.