So we made it all the way to the tip and Claude decided that was far enough there was no way he was going back over that bastard of a road so he threw a couple of shockies and there was no way I was going back over that bastard of a road without shock absorption so I've had to shout him a boat trip to Cairns. I should have flogged him while I still had the energy.

From there it'll be back to Sydney to catch up on the backlog of editing for Tourism Australia and Australia Network, as well as polish the new book draft and produce a DVD which will make up the next Red in the Centre offering, sub-titled Through a Crooked Lens, due out early 2010.

Trip has been a good one and I think the vision has justified the headaches Claude has caused me, though I'm having a crisis of confidence at present and I'm half thinking it's all rubbish and who the hell is interested in my little stories anyway. Either way I'll still be giving Claude that flogging when I get him back to Sydney.

As for next year I don't really know. If Tourism Australia stay on board I'll probably go through the centre east to west and hang around WA a bit, but if they don't I think I'll do the off-broadway music festival circuit just for the craic of it all. 

Right now though I'm sitting on Umagico Beach just outside Bamaga awaiting the ship to Cairns which departs on Monday and arrives on Wednesday or Thursday.

Don't know if anyone other than my mother reads this blog but if there is and it hasn't been updated in a month, read it backwards and imagine I'm re-tracing my steps.

Monte