Sydney to Darwin: day seven

Day seven: Tennant Creek to Darwin, 989km

Our last day started early once again, and as we packed up the car the sky burst into the most magnificent colours. It was to be the prettiest thing I saw in Tennant Creek.

Sunrise, Tennant Creek

I've never been a real fan of the GPS, but we amused ourselves on so many occasions by the GPS telling us some ridiculous instruction like "turn right after 500km". This was captured shortly after we left Tennant Creek.

We were restless with excitement this last day, and the kilometres seemed to pass faster than on other days. Before we knew it we pulled into Daly River for petrol, where the roadhouse had a rusting aeroplane right next to it.

At the roadhouse, Daly River

We passed Mataranka and soon enough drove into Katherine. Excited by the impending approach to Darwin, we decided to push on and eat at the first rest area after Katherine. By then it started drizzling and we ended up stopping in Pine Creek instead. This visit to Pine Creek was much like our last - the town was almost completely deserted, and there were neither visitors nor locals on the streets.

The last couple of hours to Darwin passed in a flash. Darwin in the wet season has a distinctly different feel to it than my last visit at the beginning of the dry. The air is far more dense and humid, and there's a heavy tropical smell in the air. I particularly love the frangipani trees everywhere, with their subtle scent drifting past lazily.

We drove through a few suburbs, and then came the moment when we arrived at the hospital, my new home to be for the next 12 months. As I walked into emergency (the waiting room filled with dozens of Indigenous patients) I thought, this is it, my life is changing right here before my eyes.

So I come to the end of my tale of how we drove from Sydney to Darwin, clocking up 4700km. I knew before we started that it would be special, and it was - not everyday does one have the opportunity to drive halfway across a country, encountering all the different landscapes, people and towns in between. It was also special to me because I knew my dad had wanted to go on a long roadtrip in Australia for ages, and I was happy to fulfill his dream.

And for the drive back next year? I'd love to go through Queensland!