Thursday, July 22, 2010

Day 52 Noonamah to Darwin!!!


We really didn't sleep too well last night... a group of people staying next door to us were up all night drinking and drugging directly outside our room. They were extremely intoxicated, but were pretty sheepish when we emerged at 5.30am in extremely foul moods.

None-the-less, it was pack up, eat breakfast, and start peddling... the weather is humid, and we could tell that it was going to be a hot day.


However, with the end in sight, even the lack of sleep was not a factor for us. Riding was simply a joy! Heavy traffic was not much of an issue as we had significantly wider shoulders to ride on, and then about halfway in there was a bicycle path that lead all the way into Darwin! We were even able to stop and have an iced coffee at a service station... something that has not been possible for the last 7 weeks, as there have been no services or ammenities anywhere between any of our stopping points.
It was an emotional morning for me arriving in Darwin. I'm at a loss for words trying to describe what it felt like... but it was a VERY good feeling!!! Jason was on hand to greet us and to document our arrival. We road on a few more kilometers to the waterfront where we dipped our wheels into the ocean. Its been 3000+ Kilometers since we initially dipped our wheels into the Southern Ocean.
We had to negotiate our way across a muddy tidal flat to actually get to the water, and with our loaded bikes it was no easy task!
One of my favorite sayings is "the person who begins a journey is not the same person that finishes the journey"... this has proved to be very true for me on this trip in particular. I can honestly say that today it was worth every peddle stroke, every frustrating moment, every miserable fly-infested campsite, every headwind, every overwhelmingly isolated moment, to arrive at this point in time at this point in my life.