Took the two hour flight across the top of Australia to my last stop before home, Darwin capital of the Northern Territory., a place nearer to Singapore than it is to Sydney. It's getting towards the end of the wet season up here so there was sunshine when I arrived at a balmy 30 degrees. But I have never known a place where the weather can change so suddenly. One minute bright Sunshine and literally the next torrential rain. Not even time to get your umbrella out, not that it would do much good with the force of the rain. And then ten minutes later Sunshine again.

Darwin itself is positioned on a promontory surrounded by water. It's a very young city, founded in the life of my Great Grandfather, settlers arrived in 1862. The city had been flattened twice, once in 1942 by the Japanese Air force and once in 1974 by Cyclone Tracy which destroyed 75% of the city. So there are a lot of memorials and plaques around commemorating those two events.