Entering the Oven

The good thing about journeying up the coast is that you have time to properly acclimatise to the heat, which rises the further North you go. My first few days in Melbourne were in the dying days of Winter and reflected that - my gloves and hoody were essential clothing, not the balmy welcome I’d expected in Australia! But on the first official day of Spring something magical happened and the weather suddenly flipped to sunny, tee-shirt weather. Hurray!
It got noticeably hotter from Brisbane onwards, and a little more humid once we passed the Tropic of Cancer near Rockhampton, but my travel buddies and I were more than happy to cope with temperatures in the low 30s every day. Back home I wilt at that temperature.
Australia only has two seasons in the Tropics and when we arrived in Cairns the weather was slowly transitioning from the tourist-friendly Dry to the more humid Wet. We only had a few light showers during our week there but you could definitely feel increased humidity in the air.
I'm now in Darwin and the mercury says 32 degrees but it feels warmer because the air itself is warm. It's literally like opening an oven door and having the heat circulate around you. Not hot enough to burn but on the verge of being uncomfortable. I think I'm almost beyond my comfortable heat limit! As a pasty Pom I think the lack of cool breeze would drive me mad after a while. I've never liked opening ovens.