Darwin, Australia

No issues on the flight, we arrived at Darwin airport and were picked up by our new driver and tour guide, all rolled into the one Steve Newsby. It was around 5am once we got through immigration and customs so the plan was to get a quick bite to eat at the bus and then hopefully the guys who had shipped kit over from Nepal could pick it up, then we would head into Darwin for the day. we parked up near where the shipped kit was and had a simple breakfast but then found out that the kit wasn't ready to be released. We headed off into town and as we were all really tired as we really hadn't had any sleep after a second breakfast and a quick visit to a camping store (bought a new sleeping bag) and Woolworths (still alive in Oz) most of us crashed out in a shaded area in a local park.
THe kit still had to go through quarantine and it won't be ready until the next day so we set off to the campsite with more than half of the group not having any tents or sleeping bags!
Darren decided to check into a hostel for the night and then left the group for good.

Me, Brian and Bui were on cook group and luckliy for us it was salad for dinner!! After a very quick and easy meal we all turned in for an early night. The people without tents, sleeping bags etc were given some spare kit for the night by some people at the campsite. There was a large shelter where a few people made that their beds for the night.
My tent was a £20 one I bought from a shop in KL and is not designed for heavy rain but as we were in pre-monsoon season I wasn't too worried...
About 1am it started to rain, lightly at first and then gradually it increased into a very impressive storm, thunder, lightning, torrential rain. My tent held well for two or so hours but the water was starting to come through and I had my laptop with me so decided the best thing to do was make a run for the large shelter... I got soaked in the process but soon found a relatively dry spot next to Dee and Andy and slept for a few hours more on the ground.
We found out the next morning that they hadn't had rain for 6 months before that!!!!!

As the shipped kit was still to get through quarantine we couldn't set off early as originally planned. Pete, Kev Smith and Bui went to give a hand getting the stuff through as it had to be cleaned thoroughly before it could be released. The rest of us killed a few hours at the airport.
Around 12pm it had all been released and so we were on the road again..