As the only plane of our trip skimmed over the first northern suburbs of Darwin, which were only just visible in the pre-dawn gloom, the realization struck us that we had actually managed it - we'd actually cycled to Australia. 16,000km (almost exactly 10,000 miles) and 14 months later we had crossed the Equator sometime last night.

The last few days had been filled with tension, we were way over our baggage limit, including bikes we had 87kg of luggage, our allowance was 40kg. That meant an excess of 47kg, at $36 per kilo we would be liable for about $1700 (670 pounds) in charges! We had asked at STA. whether Air Garuda would allow us any extra after a couple of days delay they came back to us and said that if we disassembled them and boxed them neatly up we could get them shipped for FREE, we were ecstatic.

Also, our good intentions to to strip the bikes down and scrub every last corner,had come to naught. The Australians are justifiably neurotic about letting any of the nasty bugs, etc that live in the outside world into their environment. We knew we had to clean the bikes and had even stopped about 30km short of Singapore to jetwash them clean (rather embarrassingly they hadn't had a clean since CHINA!) The huge thunderstorm that had soaked us to our skins as we cycled across the causeway into Singapore had also covered the bikes in a layer of grime, they were sort of clean, but would they be clean enough for the Australian quarantine services?

Massive queues formed at the 'something to declare' section, anxious holiday makers were making certain their Balinese souvenirs made it through. Very nervously we headed for the 'nothing to declare' channel. Huge posters threatening massive fines and prison for anyone breaking Quarantine regulations loomed over us. Out of the corner of our eye we see another cyclist, he is French and it turns out that he has been doing the exact same route as us at roughly the same time but has successfully managed to miss meeting us. Rather unfortunately for him it turns out had to miss out on Tibet as he didn't know of anyone else going.

The customs dog comes round and is encouraged to give us a damned good sniff, poor thing, after 12 hours of travelling we must be an assault on the senses! Wise cracking customs men check the bikes and bags and usher us towards a door, 'this is it they are going to find they illicit peanut butter I had forgotten to take out of the panniers before packing!' The door opens and we step through it into..............Australia. It was that simple.....we'd managed it!

Meanwhile the poor French guy was getting everything dragged out of his bags. He had said he had visited Iran, Thailand, Turkey, etc and the customs guys thought 'Hmmm each of those is a major drug country'...shaken, he emerged from the customs hall with into the Northern Territory's blazing sunshine (it was only 8am).

Cycling up the road, the strange feeling of dislocation one always gets on arrival in a new country was made worse by the lack of sleep. Red parrots glided overhead down from the gumtrees and the circulation in my right hand was returning after it hand been crushed by Australia's last line of defense, a massive immigration official whose handshake had all but destroyed my piano playing career even before it began!!!