Tête en bas

Darwin area is usually known as “Top End”. When you arrive there, you don’t have any other choice to turn back, or to jump in a plane or in a boat. It took me a while to think about what was going to be my trip after Darwin. I didn’t have lot of choice:
– stay in Darwin, and find a job
– turn back and start driving the west coast
– turn back and start driving the east coast
– trying to beat the world record of the most return trip along the Stuart Highay.

I realize that I’ve been almost always traveling with someone since I left Melbourne. DIdn’t have much time just by myself. Once Hripsimé in the plane, I discover that I would prefer to go on by myself for a little while. And, unfortunately for Minma, it could be quite hard for me to pay for her gas need if I was the only passenger. I’ve decided to put an ad, in order to sell her. I would keep on traveling. A different way. I do have a couple of idea for after that…

We’ve just left the bus when my phone rang. “Hi, yes, I’m calling because I’m interested to buy your car. Is it possible to have a look on it today, because we’re leaving Darwin tomorrow”. Small chat with Hripsimé. We’re not so far from Darwin, so why not… then, we can just rent a car for a few days, to see Litchfield, as we first planed.

We arrive in Darwin two hours later. The car is parked in the street, with small sheet of payer saying “for sale”. Five minutes after, a guy stop. He wants to buy me a cigaret for 2 dollars. Then, he sees Minma, and ofter me a thousand dollars to buy it. Doesn’t worst more than that for him. I politely decline. An other five minutes pass. Three germans come. “Is your car for sale it might be our lucky day”. It’s 3 PM in the afternoon. We talk for a while, they ask questions, they seems really interested, until come the price question. I’m not a good bargainer. I don’t want to make thing complicate. Now that I’m in Darwin to sell Minma, I don’t want to take three days for that. I lower the price a little bit more that I should have, but anyway, they are ready to buy it. But the next step is just hips of complication, as they finally come back with lot of question, hesitation, worrying, that took, at the end, more than two hours. Enough for me to almost change my mind and try to find someone else. But finally, paper are signed, and Minma is not mine any more. I invite Hripsimé in a restaurant to celebrate the transaction. We are in a Thai restaurant, which is actually a really good one. Unfortunately, we arrive there late -yes, took a really long time to sell the car- and the kitchen are closing soon. Not everything is available on the menu. But it’s not a real problem, as the food we had was just awesome.

As we don’t have Minma anymore to drive us in a quiet outside place full of stars, we end up in a room in a noisy hostel, staring at a white roof. I’m already missing the night in the swag. Fortunately, I didn’t sell it with the car. I’m just a little bit bigger than usual when staving!