Captain's log- Final Entry

I stayed two nights at a Holiday Inn on the Bay and had a very comfortable room with a little balcony and a restricted view of the Bay. I was pretty comfortable. The first night I just relaxed in and did not explore the city too much...it was time for reflection and giving thanks for safely completing my Mystery Tour and resting.

The next day I was on a mission going to my bank and checking on finances and trying to find a car to drive home in. My car adventures will be blogged here under Mike's Top Gear Challenge so look for that blog to start up soon (or even tonight).

I contacted Peter and Elizabeth who are two friends I made on the trip at the Daly Waters Pub. Peter was the man who explained about toliet frogs to me. That night he gave me his card and told me to call them when I got into Darwin so I did!

We agreed to meet for lunch and they invited me to stay with them for two days on their property in Humpty Doo about 45 K North of Darwin CBD. Elizabeth has horses on their 5 acre property and does show jumping and dressage competitions and Peter is a Master Mechanic who business is as a contractor. He cleared the land on the property and built their house and a recent add on that they sleep in so guests have a bedroom in the main building. They are a fun and lively couple and I have so enjoyed their courtesy and company!

On Saturday, Peter took me on a Quad bike bush trip and we drove around the bush seeing amazing birds on paths that he trailblazed on the quad. Elizabeth brought her horse, Siam, and rode the same trail catching up with us when we would stop at prearranged points- what fun! Peter took me the bush route back to the house and we got to see a beautiful orange sunset over this amazing land.

On Sunday I got to help him clear bush and cut a tree down that was a nuisance while Elizabeth fed parts of the tree to a new chipper that they had just purchased- wow, that thing was making short work of wood and leaves. It is Father's Day here so tonight when we went to the Humpty Doo Pub there was a band and they had a Man vs. Food contest of eating a rack of pork ribs with chips in under twenty minutes. Elizabeth challenged me to try so I did to defend America's honor as insane overconsumers. I took out my daughter, Aubrey's picture for inspiration- "this one is for you, daughter". and the waitress brought a huge plate of ribs. But nothing could stop me and I finished them in 14 minutes gaining the meal for 1/2 price (yes, I think it probably should have been free too!). I will probably suffer later and tomorrow is an all fruit and water day for sure (maybe some yoghurt too).

All this is possible because I met amazing and fun and interesting people on my bike adventure and in the end, like everything in life to me, it is the people and the experiences you have that make life worth living and made this Adventure worth having.

I will spare you the details of riding into Darwin because they didn't matter; my body had become a machine that rode a bike, but my mind remained free and unfettered and my imagination and appreciation of the world around me grew in proportion to the kilometers I racked up.

Love Life and have an Adventure All of You Good People!

Farewell for this phase and now onto the next adventure!

written by  Mike_Veine on August 31, 2012 from Darwin, Australia
from the travel blog: Mike's Magical Mystery Tour
tagged InDarwin and FinalEntry
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