Day thirty-nine:  Margaret River wine tour.

 

Today started at about 7am.  We packed up our stuff at the apartment and drove down to the caravan park to get an unpowered site and when I say site, I mean a car park.

 

We then went down to the visitors centre and waited for the wine tour bus to pick us up.  While we were waiting we met and had a great chat to Kazza and Owen who were from Swan Hill and were also going on the wine tour.  (They were a great find and were lots of fun all day)

 

We met our tour guide Sylvano who reminded me of Jimmy the runner from Coober Pedy and talked as much.  He took us through the list of the wineries/breweries/factories that we were going to visit for the day and we took off for Bettany winery.

 

The most out-standing thing about the Bettany winery was the over charismatic wine maker who hit on Louisa hard.  My lord, I nearly had to step in towards the end.  I’ve never seen someone single out another person out of about 30 people and apply sleazy pick-up lines in front of a crowd.  Priceless.  Louisa was blushing slightly.

 

 

After that we went to the Margaret River chocolate factory followed by the dairy.  Yum.  I had to stop myself from pocketing all the free chocolate they had on offer.

 

Then we went to Knotting Hill for more wine tasting and lunch.  The wineries we visited were so beautiful.  Most of them had lakes and amazingly green rolling hills.

 

Sylvano prepared a gourmet lunch for us and told us that at the end of lunch two of us would get to try something a little extra.  Knowing that I have a fear of missing out on anything I was immediately intrigued and wanted in.  After lunch Sylvano left for the kitchen to bring out the mystery meal and parade it around the table.  It was a witchetty grub. 

Apparently a gourmet one.

One that comes in a box of 100 and the box costs $500.  He told us that the first two people to raise their hands would be able to share it and so as quickly as I could, I did so and the next thing you know I had some grub in my mouth.  Yum! 

Louisa caught it all on video.

 

After lunch we went to a liquer house type thing to have shots and then followed up on our final stop to a brewery.  Needless to say by this stage most of us were all slightly sloshed and on great terms with one another.  When the bus took off to drop us all home we all just organized to meet for dinner an hour later!

 

Dinner was great fun and I ended up giving Kazza and Owen the address to the pub so they could come and visit when they were next in Melbourne.  After dinner we went to the pub across the road and Louisa and I managed to have a stupid fight in the short time we were there.  We decided to leave and were asleep by about 9pm.

 

Day forty:  Margaret River back to Perth.  Start time: 9:30am  Arrival time: 6pm  Odometer: Forgot again

 

We left our car park shortly after 9am and took off for a few wineries that we’d missed the day before.

 

Our first stop was Howard Park/Mad Fish = 2bottles bought.

Second stop Vasse Felix = Another 2 bottles.

Third stop Natural Olive Oil shop = 2 bars of soap, Macadamia pesto (because we need to eat more) and some passionfruit olive oil.

Fourth stop Capel Vale = lunch and 2 more bottles of wine.

 

= good times.

 

We left for Perth about 3:15pm listening to lots of 80’s tunes, booked into the backpackers in Northbridge, went and had some Vietnamese and retired to our rooms rather quickly for a snooze.

 

Day forty-one to forty-three: Our last few days in Perth.  The end.  Final Odometer reading: 93215 Total km’s: Shitloads

 

Well the time has come when all things must come to an end.  This will be the last blog entry.

 

We left our backpacker cell about 9am and headed out for a coffee before going to meet Louisa’s friend Renee where we would be staying for our last few days.

 

Renee and Terry live in Victoria Park in Perth and have a great home and an even better dog, Maggie.  She’s a Siberian Husky one year old and beautiful.

 

Over the weekend we did a lot of cooking, a bit of relaxing, a little bit of site seeing, some more catching up with other friends and our final clean of the kombi to get it ready for Colin and finally pack our bags.

 

It’s been such a fun trip and I can’t recommend it enough for everyone.  Not once did I feel unsafe out in the middle of nowhere, in fact I would say quite the opposite.  Everyone is friendly, giving, caring and more than willing to help or give advice if you require it. 

 

So here I am at the airport trying to work out how to end this bloody blog.  Do I just write until I stop?  Do I type a small acceptance speech about how nice it’s been to have you read my story – even if there may not be anyone reading it?  It’s all a bit confusing but here we go…

 

Thanks to Veenus and Louisa for making me write this blog.  I know people are reading it but it’s good for me too because I’ve never thought to write anything before and I have a terrible memory.  It’s been very interesting for me to read over it a couple of times and I’ve laughed like I’d only just learnt about it.

 

Thanks to my brain and hands who coordinated this massive effort, I never thought it could be done or that I’d have so many words in my head.

 

Thanks to Louisa who put up with me on the trip in such a small home.  It really takes a lot of patience and tolerance to live like that and she had neither.  Just kidding – we had a lot of fun and I thank her for being such a great travelling companion and putting up with me.

 

Thanks to my sister who waited patiently to be mentioned in the blog and it never happened.  Of course I love you Kate – “I’m your sister”

 

And thanks to everyone who showed an interest in the trip and sent me messages about the blog.  It really has been fun keeping a record and I can’t wait to see you all in Melbourne and not have to tell you anything cause you’ll already know.

 

So until next trip,

Goodnight Austraia..xoxo

 

 

 

 

 

Day thirty-two:  Barrandale rest area to supposedly Coral Bay.  Start time: 9:30am  Arrival time: 1:30pm   Odometer: 90717

 

Today was rather uneventful so I’ll keep it short.  I got up about 6:45am and made a ripper fire (I love fires as some of you may know) out of not much kindling.  I played  around with it for ages and tried to makes some damper.  Burnt on the outside – still gluggy on the inside.

 

Lou woke up a couple of hours later and we had a quick breakfast and head out.  We couldn’t remember which way we had come from as we left the rest area so Lou whipped out the compass dad gave me and we finally started in the right direction.

 

We had planned to bypass Exmouth and save ourselves some time by doing the whale shark diving in Coral Bay but when we arrived they told us they’d run out of whale sharks and now they were only in Exmouth.  Back track #2.

 

We got to Exmouth after lunch, booked the diving, booked a caravan park and then finally got connected to the internet so I could upload the blog and photos and chat to some (very much) loved people from home.

 

Song of the day: (Thanks to Kate McCann) Two great sing along songs that I played quite a bit; That’s what friends are for AND Close to you by The Carpenters.  Quality.

Funniest part: Watching Louisa dry retch up some mushy kiwi fruit that had been sitting on the dashboard and cooking in the sun.

 

 

 

 

 

Day thirty-three:  Whale Shark diving in Exmouth.

 

Today was the day I had been looking forward to all trip.

 

It was an early rise of 6am to have some breakfast pizza and sustagen gold before being picked up at 7:30am.

It took an hour to get to the boating ramp and during that hour we were given instructions on what to expect and some information on the actual Whale Sharks.

(We were also lucky to see three emus having some kind of fight with a couple of crows)

 

We got to the boat ramp about 8:30am and were taken in speed boats out to the big yacht.  We were told that the spotter plane would take off about 10am and we were told to be ready from that time onwards to jump into the water and witness these beautiful creatures.  We were all given wet-suits and goggles and had a pre-reef snorkel just to have a practice.

 

Now poor Lou had been quite anxious about the snorkeling as she’d had some bad experiences with it and when she first jumped in she had a bit of a panic.  I tried to help her calm down a bit but it was quite rough in the ocean (reminded me of when Carol and I were in Mauritius on the Catamaran and they ploughed us with heaps of Mauritian rum and then allowed us to go snorkeling in extremely rough conditions.  It was an effort just to stay afloat let alone look for things) and she ended up going to the instructor for help.  It was the best thing to do as they gave her a noodle (you know those foam pole things you use in the pool) and she was fine!

 

We got back into the boat, had some snacks and took off for the reef. 

 

We arrived at the reef just as ten o’clock came about and saw the spotter plane circling overhead.  In no less than five minutes they had reported a spotting and we took off at high speeds to get to the Whale Shark.  Unfortunately when we got close it dived down and was never to be seen again.  But the excitement!  The whole boat was like a class full of A-grade students, all sitting up straight and ready to go.

 

The second call came in an agonizing two hours later.  It wasn’t too bad a wait as during this time we witnessed a multitude of dolphins, mantarays and humpback whales doing their thing in the ocean.  It was magnificent, especially the humpback whales jumping out of the ocean.  How those huge beasts can get their whole body weight out of the ocean and look so graceful is beyond me.

Sadly the second Whale Shark had taken a dive too, just like the Italians in the World Cup.  I was starting to get quite sad by this time as there was no guarantee that we would get to see them.

 

Thankfully at about 1pm a call came in and everyone suited up and got into position. (The whole time I just sat around in my wet-suit too excited and worried I’d miss out if I got out of the thing) We had previously been split into two groups of ten so that there wouldn’t be too many people around the shark and Lou and I had been put into group 2.  So we had to sit there and watch as group 1 jumped into the ocean, all the time praying that the damn thing didn’t dive and we would get to have a look at it.

It didn’t, and our instructor told us to get ready to jump.  I was so excited.  We jumped in and took off on quite a hard swim against the current until our instructor gave us the sign to look down.

 

Wow.

What a sight.

 

What a beautiful sight - such a graceful, massive fish just swimming by only about a metre under the water.  I looked up to see if Lou was looking and the poor thing had had another panic attack and couldn’t put her head under.  She kept saying ‘I can’t do it, I just can’t put my head under” and in desperation I just kinda yelled “It’s just there! Just put your head under a little bit!” and thank the lord she did it.

 

It all happened so quickly and I felt like I hadn’t seen enough so was relieved to find out that we were going to be doing more dives and would have a chance to look again.

 

The second dive was hilarious.  I was paddling and kicking madly when the instructor again gave us the signal to look down.  I looked down and saw a big metre long mouth coming towards me and screamed.

“It’s coming!”

I’ve never seen so many people trying to back paddle.

 

We had 4 more dives after that and all were spectacular.  The water was quite clear (and apparently 80 – 90metres deep) but it wasn’t till the last minute that you could actually spot the Whale Shark.  It was like a creepy game of Hide and Seek and I managed to freak myself out happily a couple of times.

The second last dive was the best when only me Lou and Liz (new friend) swam out further and were able to watch the Whale Shark without any peoples arms, flippers or bubbles in our way.  I started a bit over-excited with my huge jump off the boat and did a bit of a face plant.  The dive that followed though was almost the exact same as the second dive - where I put my head under the water and basically just saw a metre long mouth coming towards me.  These things don’t move particularly fast but it still gives you quite a fright and makes you try and move as fast as you possibly can out of the way.  I’d say we were only a metre away when it swam by (all 8metres of it) with little sharks and fish happily swimming under its belly and fins.

 

I got dressed shortly after feeling mighty happy with myself about the day and walked up to the front of the yacht to see if I could see any more marine life.  Apparently the skipper thought it would be funny to try and get everyone on the front of the yacht wet with a spray of water and proceeded to steer the yacht into some hard core waves.  As has always happens in my life, the spray got me and no one else.  I took myself and my soggy shorts and jumper down below and watched safely from there and cried until we got to shore. (just kidding about the crying)

 

Great day.

Such a great day I decided to celebrate by having a shower when I got back to camp.

 

 

Day thirty-four: Exmouth to Denham  via Carnarvon.  Start time: 6:30am  Arrival time:  Odometer: 91607

 

Lou had decided that she was getting up to do an early morning drive so we could make it to the Farmers Markets at Carnarvon.

Of course I had to get up and help her load the car because I was too excited but after the initial set up I hopped back into the bed and lay there for 1½hours daydreaming about certain things while she drove.

 

At about 9am we pulled into a service station and we swapped drivers as Lou’s ankles were hurting from all the flipper action the previous day.

 

It took another 2 hours before we pulled into the very pleasant Carnarvon.  It is a really pretty town with lots of banana plantations and lots of fresh grapefruits, avocados and mangoes etc.  It also sits right on the bay and has lots of lovely park areas and palm trees.  It really is a little oasis in the middle of nowhere.

 

We bought some fresh fruit and veg and god forbid I even bought myself a T-shirt (I might start doing this instead of washing) and a ring.  We bought some rice paper rolls for lunch (from an Irish girl), had a coffee by the bay, filled up the gas bottle and took off for Monkey Mia. (The most westerly point in Australia)

 

 

Best road name:  Useless loop road

Song of the day: Night and Day, Ella Fitzgerald.

Best bit:  The sun is back (It rained in Exmouth)

 

 

Day thirty-five:  Eagle Bluff camp site (23kms from Denham) to Geraldton.  Start time: 7am  Arrival time: 2pm   Odometer: 92000

 

Today we woke up at 6am to watch a beautiful sunrise at Eagle Bluff campground.  We were the only ones at the campground so when we arrived after dinner we pumped the music up a bit and had a bit of a dance.

 

We had gone to dinner at the Old Pearler restaurant run by a lovely man Wayne Viney, that is made up from shell bricks.  Apparently there were so many sea shells they used to make bricks out of them and build all the houses and other buildings out of them.  I think the Old Pearler is the only place left made out of these.

 

Anywho, this morning we drove down to Monkey Mia with some awesome sun-glare nearly forcing me off the road.  It took about half an hour and when we arrived to see the dolphins the car park was already half full.  We ran down and tried to shove some small children out of the way but managed to only get second in line.

 

The dolphins were very cute and looked all smiley like they do.  We weren’t allowed to touch them of course because apparently (as the ranger told us) the people in the 70’s touched them and fed them too much and ruined it for all of us.

 

We took of with our destination being Geraldton (lobster capital of Australia) for a huge seafood lunch or dinner depending on what time we got there.  Lou drove because my neck had started to cramp due to all the Whale Shark looking we’d done and how incredibly uncomfortable it is getting sleeping in the small double bed.

 

(We have a few big days of driving ahead as we over-relaxed in Broome.  We were to spend another day in Denham/Monkey Mia but we decided to take off early and halve our 700km day trip we’d previously (crazily) decided)

 

We arrived in Geraldton and booked into a campsite that seemed to be more like a retirement village and smelt like one.

 

After that we went into town (which architecturally is a completer mish mash of styles – see photo of Sunny thinking over a mega rubix cube) and had some dinner.

 

Song of the day:  Lovesong, The Cure.

Near animal hit of the day: Lou again, with an emu this time.

Brain fry of the day: Me trying to do a 5 star sodoku for a couple of hours and then mucking it up in the end.  I am no Jude Tsai.

 

 

Day thirty-six:  Geraldton to Freemantle  (quite apparent home of the Fremantle Dockers)  Start time: 8:30am  Arrival time: 4:30pm  Odometer:  92436

 

Today was a pure day of driving, watching Scarface and  not much else.

We had lunch at Little Creatures and I bought myself some Pipsqueak undies.

We drove to the Freemantle Village Caravan Park and stayed in an awesome powered site that had some great toilets and a great communal room.  We ended up making dinner in the communal room and watching the Michael Jackson special, showering and going to bed.

Thankfully, when I went to go to the toilet again at 4am someone had left my clothes (and wallet still full of money and credit cards) on the bench because I had left them in the shower.  Stupid.

 

May I add here that the amenities around Australia have been outstanding.  I thought they would be second rate and a bit smelly but to be honest they are better looked after and a hell of a lot less stinkier than most toilets in Melbourne.

 

Day thirty-seven:  Fremantle to Margaret River   Start time: 9:09am  Arrival time:  1:13pm    Odometer: Forgot.

 

 

Today was another big day of driving.  Louisa has been having some car/boat/anything that moves movement issues lately and decided to take one of her sea-sickness tablets.  I think it made her worse, but eventually she fell asleep and I got to drive to Margaret River in silence with some music playing in my head.  (Underneath the Radar seemed to be popular)

 

We drove straight to the Xanadu winery (owned by Olivia Newton John of course) and tried some wine.  After purchasing a bottle we went to the very scenic Leewin Estate and had some lunch.  It was a gorgeous, vast winery and my lunch of snapper with asparagus and raisins was simply divine.

 

After lunch we went to the Information centre to try and find an apartment to stay in for a couple of nights.  Not sure if it’s because we’re nearing the end of the trip or because we’ve slept in the bed for too long but it really is getting mighty uncomfortable and we both have very stiff backs and necks.  We found a great one in town and spread all our stuff out and just watched some DVDs.

 

Song of the day: Sorry to say it’s Mariah Cary, Hero.  I know it’s not cool but it’s a great power ballad to sing along too.

Best river name:  Margaret river.

Best winery name: Island brook

Other best winery name:  Brookland

 

Day thirty-eight:  Margaret River.

 

Now I know that when you’re in Margaret River you should be out looking at the wineries but we really needed a rest day.

 

It was quite obvious because in a normal bed we ended up sleeping for 10 hours.  We had tried to stay awake for the Michael Jackson memorial, but when you hit a comfy bed after a couple of weeks sleep is the only thing beckoning.

 

We did go for a bit of a midday walk to see the town and organize our wine tour for tomorrow and get some veggies. After that Lou went to get an hour long massage and I did a mini home work out followed by about half an hour of stretching.  It felt great.  After the stretching I sat down to update the blog with a glass of wine and some cheese and crackers whilst listening to Mariah Carrey (god, I’m so sorry to admit that but I have some very fond memories of being a soppy, soppy romantic, angsty teenager and singing love songs in my bedroom to people who I had mega crushes on).

 

That night we had some roast veggies with a lovely bit of snapper, some wine and another great sleep in a big comfy bed.

 

Song of the day: Sorry again.  Mariah Carey, All I ever wanted.  (Sung power ballad, love stricken teenage style by myself in the apartment while Lou was having a massage – about 3 times)

Thought of the day:  I know its wrong but while watching the Michael Jackson memorial replay I half expected his coffin to open and ‘Thriller’ to start.

Idiot of the day:  Me burning the tops of three of my fingers in the oven.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Day twenty to Day twenty-six:  Spent in Broome.

 

I’ve put Broome all into one section because it’s much easier and it was so much fun.  I always had a feeling we’d have a great time in Broome and it didn’t disappoint. (Apart from finding out about the deaths of Michael Jackson and Farrah Fawcett) Most of this fun I attribute to Emma, the girl that we have been staying with in Broome.

 

What a host.  She not only took us in to her home and gave us a room, she cooked for us, introduced us to her lovely friends, took us out and finally got us a free ride on her tall ship ‘The Willie’ for a sunset cruise at Cable Beach.

 

But just before I get to all of that, I still have to talk about our camel ride we had when we checked out of our apartment and the Sun Cinemas. But first the camels, hilarious.  It’s the most touristy thing to do in Broome so we had to have a go.  Our camels name was Rasheed and Rasheed had a small, mouth foaming problem.  (See pictures)

We had a 45minute giggling ride along the nudist beach (and yes we saw a couple of nudist but I wasn’t looking – they were about 70 good on them) and back and we even saw a massive sea snake that had beached itself.  Gross.  Our camel guide threw it back in the ocean on the way back.  After the ride we went into town to meet Emma and get a key to our new house.

 

That night we went to the Sun Cinemas which is the oldest outdoor cinemas in Australia.  It has been operating since 1916 and they’ve left it pretty much the same.  They even have photos of the cinema in its hey-day (all be it segregated seating) and it looks amazing.  It wasn’t too busy when we went on the Monday night, but being outside, sitting in deck chairs while planes flew over-head to the airport was quite surreal.

(We saw Sampson and Delilah and I highly recommend it)

 

Basically the next few days were spent hanging out with Emma, her boyfriend Toli, Zoren and Sally and it felt like we’d been hanging out with them for years it was so easy.  We just laughed and laughed and laughed.  Emma took us to the Zeebar for industry night where Zoren was DJing, she took us to the local beach where everyone had prepared a picnic and we went body surfing. We all went to Matso’s the local brewery and drank ginger beer and then collapsed into the couches while Emma cooked spaghetti.  Heaven.  I actually had a sad moment when coming home from the picnic, all six of us in a massive four wheel drive, thinking that I didn’t want to leave Broome - but all good things must come to an end otherwise you just overstay your welcome and everyone gets uncomfortable.

 

Our last sunset was spent on the tall ship The Willie and it was heaps of fun.  They threw a rope net out the back of the ship and if you wanted to you could jump out and sit in it while The Willie steamed along.  They just warned us to hold onto the bottom of your bathers as one girl had recently been cleaned swiped and had to re board half naked.  It was a great warning.  I was holding onto mine for most of the trip but I would’ve hated to have an underwater camera, I was mooning the marine life.  Another lady came unstuck and nearly fell of the rope. It took all five of us on the rope to get her back on. The rope sitting was supposed to look glamorous but was quite a bit of work and also gave most of us rope burn. 

 

Anyway, our end in Broome the next day began the same way it had started, with our arrival back to the markets where we had first met Emma to return her keys.  It was a nice circular way to end our holiday from our holiday.

 

 

Day twenty-seven & twenty-eight: Broome to Eighty mile beach caravan park for two nights.  Start time: 10:30am  Arrival time: 3:00pm  Odometer: 89028 

 

We checked into rehab (other people call it the eighty mile beach caravan park) at about 3pm on Saturday afternoon.  It had been a quiet ride from Broome, partly due to sadness and partly because I guess we’d forgotten how to travel in the kombi after relaxing for a week.

We’d decided to not bring any booze along and have a bit of a break – mind you we haven’t been drunk once this holiday but I’m not sure that drinking every day is any better for you.

 

On arrival we were told our site was going to be near the fish cleaning area which was both exciting and disturbing at the same time.  At least if we caught anything we’d be able to make someone else clean it for us, luckily when we got to our site the smell wasn’t too bad.

 

We set up and walked back to the shop to simply buy some bait, which ended up with Louisa wanting to buy a $70 ocean fishing rod.  I was able to talk her out of it when we went around to the weight and hook section and realized that we both had absolutely no idea of what to get.  We ended up with some frozen prawns for our $10 junior rod and took off to the beach for a fish with no luck.

 

We watched the sunset and then tucked into a magnificent dinner we’d pre-sorted from Broome along with an extra large glass of water and played cards till about 9:30pm.

 

Our second day at rehab was pretty chilled.  Breaky, walk along the beach, watched a movie, lunch, write in blog/read, dinner, bocce, sleep.  The only exciting thing to write about was how cute Louisa was collecting shells off the beach.  She bought them back to our site in a bucket, washed them with so much care, lined them up in a beautiful display on the table and finally declared, “Here are my shells”.  Cute.

 

Song of the day: Thanks to Louisa, the Romeo and Juliet cd – the whole thing.

Funniest bit:  Me trying to clear our table and accidently dropping our entire set of playing cards into our entre – pumpkin soup.

Buy of the day:  Louisa’s new crocheted blanket from the market.

 

 

Day twenty-nine:  Eighty mile beach caravan park to Port Headland.   Start time: 9:30am  Arrival time: 1pm   Odometer:  89297

 

Louisa, myself and my pink-eye (that’s what you get for de-toxing) drove a good 200km’s today when we thought we only had to drive about 100km’s. 

The problem was Pardoo, which I say is more like Pardon’t.  Their signs asked us to try their sausage roll (world famous) which we did, and with a bag of ice and a can of Coke cost us $17.  I asked for more change out of my twenty other than the $3 I got back – something I never do but thought I should – and got a receipt back in my face with the pricing.  No luck.

 

Anyway, we thought that the P on the road signs was Port Headland but instead was Pardoo.  We swapped drivers at Pardoo and that’s when I decided to go on a Donna Summer singing rampage.  Luckily for Lou she could immerse herself in her book because I wasn’t going to stop.

 

We arrived at Port Headland and checked into the Big 4 Caravan Park (very pricy but the only one in town) and immediately went for a game of Ping Pong in the common room, (I won overall, 3 games to 1) and caught up on the latest Michael Jackson stories thanks to a wonderful invention - television.

 

After that we drove into town to top up on supplies and then meet my friend Rene (who I had met in Puerto Rico 5 years ago) for dinner. 

 

 

Song of the day: Donna Summer – the whole extended 12inch cd that Jude Tsai made me.  I’ve never sung so much and so loud in all my life, and being the extended mix I only got through 8 songs in one and a half hours.  My favourite being, Last Dance, MacArthur Park, Dim the Lights (which, if by memory she wrote for Rod Stewart originally) and I Feel Love.

Honourable mention for song of the day:  Dolly Parton, Joelene.

Kill of the day:  Lou managed to kill another two birds whilst driving.

Funniest part: Seeing about 3dozen termite mounds being covered with safety hats and chalk drawings (see pictures)

Other funniest part:  Going to dinner with Renee and realizing that The Best Western is the best place to eat in town.

Not funniest part:  We are starting to see clouds, rain clouds.

 

 

Day thirty:  Port Headland to Tom Price (Karijini National Park)  Start time: 8:30am  Arrival time: 3:30pm Odometer: 89844

 

Things are starting to go downhill.

I wore my bed shorts all day today.  Driving, passengering, into town and in the supermarket.

I haven’t had a shower in two days (although I could have) and I know I won’t be showering for at least another two days.

I haven’t brushed my hair in over a week.

And most of all Louisa managed to fix (with her bare hands) the drivers side mirror that I couldn’t fix four weeks ago with a spanner.

I must take a good hard look at myself.

 

On the uphill side of things – I must talk about the excellent overtaking Sunny did today on a huge hill.  There was an overtaking lane and a big road train in front of me, I started to overtake and then slow down at the same time.  I’ve never seen such a slow overtake in all my life.  The truck was doing about 50kms and Sunny about 60kms (in a 110km zone) – I was pissing myself the whole way up but we finally managed to overtake with only metres to spare.

 

The rest of the day was quite unusual.  We have altered our itinerary to include Karijini National Park because so many people have told us it is not to be missed.  They also mentioned the town Tom Price which is in Karijini.  We made the mistake of going to Tom Price straight away without checking that the walks we wanted to do were about 100kms back from the direction we’d just come.

Boo.

I hate back tracking but we did it.

 

On the way back in we spotted a man riding his pushbike.  Now we’ve probably seen about 7 of these people (if you don’t include the big group we saw early on that only remind me of how my flat mates must look when they are riding in Cambodia) and I must say I’m impressed.  I sneakily took a photo of this guys bike because I can’t believe anyone can actually ride ANYWHERE while carrying this much stuff.  I know I’ve had trouble riding home from Safeway with just ONE bag on each handlebar!

 

After paying our entry fee we arrived back at the Dale Gorge Campground at 3:30pm where I fell asleep in the back of the kombi for a couple of hours and Lou set up and made dinner. 

 

Funniest part: Me trying to pull a ‘Pricilla’ out of the sun roof and not even being able to move my face because so much wind was running into it.

Other funniest bit:  Me trying to warn Lou about running to the loo in complete darkness and then watching her run straight into someones tent rope.

Best mountain name:  Mt. Bruce (my uncles name)

Best Gorge name: Dale gorge (my brother-in-law)

I’m half expecting the rest of my family to show up in some form of nature.

 

 

Day thirty-one:  Karijini to Barradale rest area  Start time: 9:30am  Arrival time:  4:30pm  Odometer: 90374.

 

This morning we went and had a look at a few look-outs and did a small 1hour walk to a beautiful spot called fern pool which had beautiful pools of water and cascading waterfalls.  It was one of the better walks that we’ve completed as there was actually water where the signs said there would be water.

 

Then we took off with no particular destination in mind except to be a lot closer to Coral Bay where we will be snorkeling and swimming with the Whale Sharks, the biggest fish in the ocean.  I am so excited about this and about getting back to some sunnier weather as it was quite cold in the National Park, I almost had to bring back my thermal arm warmers.

 

It was a cloudy day so we decided the best thing to do was to just keep driving.  And as we sat down in our camp spot near our fire at the end we realized that we’d done over 500kms.  Not bad for a days driving.

 

Louisa had selected our campsite and gone off to get two big logs of wood (see pictures) while I watched the end of Nemo and cried.  Not having to deal with any emotions while you’re on the road only makes you extremely sad when you watch a movie and think of how sad it would be for a cartoon fish father to lose his cartoon fish son.

 

We made a massive fire and had some tuna pasta then played John Farnhams greatest hits dvd with all his video clips.  I think we may have kept the neighbours up.

 

 

Funniest part: Me making my morning coffee and hearing our next door neighbour do one of the biggest farts I’ve ever heard.  We all ended up doubled over laughing our heads off – it was like thunder in such a quiet camp spot.

Not funniest part:  I finally killed something while driving and it wasn’t your ordinary ‘run over it’ kind of kill.  I hit a bird (probably two we’ve decided) but one hit the front of the car and then bounced of the windscreen.  I screamed for about a minute after that.

Breeder of the day:  Louisa’s clothes bag which I swear gives birth to more clothes and gets bigger every day.

Song of the day:  Rapture, ii0

Best creek name:  Considerable creek.

 

Day twelve: Day in Mataranka Springs.

 

This morning I awoke at about 7:30am and tried to creep out of the kombi.  I lit up the stove to make myself a morning coffee when the next door neighbour came around and asked me if I’d like some breakfast.  Apparently she is missing her kids and she felt the need to mother someone.  “Mother away!” I told her and ordered two bits of toast with honey.  Louisa heard that she was missing out on something and got up to order herself two bits of toast as well.

We’d both had a crack ‘em during the middle of the night in our 1 ½ x 3m house so it was a fairly quiet morning but only had to wait till 10am to get into our cabin we’d booked, then we were both happy.

The cabin was a great idea and we went about taking most things out of Sunny and making the studio apartment look like some kind of bomb had hit it.  But the space! Oh the space.  It was like we were in a mansion of some sorts.  It had its own bathroom, shower and kitchen and there was even a T.V.  We had a bit of a laze about, made some lunch and headed down to the Matarnaka Springs for a dip.

 

The Mataranka Springs reminded me of that scene from ‘Cocoon’ where all the old folk are swimming in a pool that is supposed to make them younger.  I even heard a few of them asking others if the Springs would keep them full of life.  The Mataranka Springs were cooler than the Bitter Springs we’d been to the day before and more like an actual pool.  It was encased in concrete and had more of a sandy bottom that you could walk around on.  It also had more tourists than the Bitter Springs and more grey nomads.  There was child at the Springs that I thought looked like how Jude Tsai would’ve looked like as a kid and I made Louisa take a photo.  Such a cute kid.

 

We got back to camp and decided to go for a walk to town.  We ran in to two bird watchers and had a look at some gorgeous rainbow coloured honey eaters.  Little birds that have a tendancy to glide everywhere and not flap their wings.  There were hundreds of them flying around as the sun was setting.

 

After that we decided that we would cook Barramundi for dinner on the bbq at the cabin.  The only problem was that all the stores shut at 2pm and none of them sold Barramundi anyway.  Louisa had pre-made some chips out of a couple of potatoes and had them resting in the fridge George Coloumbaris style as she had seen on Master Chef.  I got around to making some Tuna paties Brooke Marshall style which is basically using anything that was in the canned goods and seasoning section.

Dinner turned out rather well and I have to thank Louisa for most of that.  I had some kind of quiet spell and couldn’t be bothered doing anything so she made it all while I sat on the bed and watched Funniest Home Videos.

 

 

Day thirteen:  Mataranka Springs to Katherine.  Start time 10am.  Arrival time 11am.  Odometer: 86801

 

This was the quickest and least painful drive so far.  One hour of power and we were in Katherine, had booked our site for two nights at the Nitmiluk National Park (through the Irish girl at the counter) and organized two tickets for the sunset dinner cruise down the Katherine Gorge.

We were so pleased with ourselves that we took the afternoon off and sunbaked and swam in the pool for the couple of hours we had before the cruise.

 

We went down to the reception area to have a beer while we waited for our cruise and who should pop in but some people we had met around the bbq in Tennant Creek, Jenny and Charlie.  We ended up chatting with them for most of the tour and having dinner with them at the end.

 

The Katherine Gorge is a beautiful place and I highly recommend it to anyone who is in the NT.  The tour we did started at 4:30pm with a cruise up the first gorge, followed by a short walk and a cruise up the second gorge which is supposed to be the most spectacular.  Our tour guide Mark (from Spain) was a great talker and had everyone intruiged for the whole 2 hours.  After we had done our site seeing we were directed to a boat that had been set up for dinner and I watched as the sun set as I was digging into my barramundi and xxxxgold.

 

The walk back from the cruise was very funny.  They dropped us off at the pier and about six of us started walking back to the lower car park and the campsite.  The smart people of the world had parked in the higher carpark and only had a 50m walk.  The six of us had about a five hundred metre walk in the pitch black unsure of the direction we were heading.  None of us had bothered to bring a torch so we all scared ourselves stupid with any noise but luckily the camera had enough light in it to at least light up the road in front of our feet.

 

Greatest song today: Unfinished Symphony, Massive Attack

Best bit:  Seeing a shooting star on the walk home and making a wish.

Saddest bit: Not being allowed back for seconds on the cruise.

Scariest bit:  Seeing a two metre black headed python on the road (we only found out its name after we took a photo of it and showed it around).  Apparently it’s not poisonous so we COULD’VE got out of the car and patted it.

Best slogan on a grey nomads van: ‘Adventure before dementure’.

 

 

 

Day fourteen:  Spend the day in Nitmulik National Park.

 

Today I had agreed to go on a 12km walk with Louisa.  What came over me I do not know but the Butterfly Gorge walk promised butterflies and a 33m deep swimming hole at the end so I consented and we took off about 9:30am after packing our togs and some lunch.

 

After a very steep first hill followed by an hour of some other hefty hills and some rough torrain we had missed our turn off to the Butterfly walk and had arrived back at the start of our walk.  Happy times.  I thought that would be it for the day and we could head back to the pool but Louisa had other ideas.  I wasn’t that happy about trecking my legs back up the first hill again after just completing 3.5kms but for some reason I did.  As consolation Louisa suggested we do the shorter walk that would end up only being about 10km instead of the 12kms.  I whole-heartedly agreed and we set off down a track (after the first big hill) that promised a rock pool for swimming and a beautiful view of the first gorge.  The going was tough.  The track was a mix between sand and loose gravel and by this stage it was starting to get a bit hot.  The walk guides had said the temperature of the walks was 10 degrees hotter than the actual temperature so going by yesterdays forecast of 32 degrees I guessed the walking track was getting close to 40 degrees.

 

My heart sank as we looked at the rock pool which had shriveled up into nothing more than a puddle and I wondered why we had even bothered.  We headed up to the lookout and ate our very warm sandwiches in the sun.  I gave us a very generous 7mins on that look-out to soak everything in and eat lunch.  It was getting hotter and hotter and I couldn’t think of anything but the pool.

We trudged on back to the campsite, had a quick swim and then I had a half hour nap before we went to meet Jenny and Charlie for dinner at their campsite.

 

 

 

Funniest bit:  Watching Lou walk (and when I say walk, I mean trip) in front of me with what we now call her ‘lazy left foot’.

Saddest bit: The walk.

Cutest bit:  Watching about a dozen oldies dance the quick-step at Jenny and Charlies campsite, and then exclaiming that they’d had too many wines and were too old to be dancing.

Horror story: The smell of two massive wild pigs that were dead and very stiff on the side of the road – the smell went for about 1km either way. Stinky.  Lou was dry wretching. I was laughing.

Best creek name: Skull creek minor (and yes I’m waiting for Skull creek major)

 

 

 

Day fifteen:  Nitmiluk National Park, Katherine to Timber Creek.  Start time: 8:40am  Arrival time: 3:20pm Odometer: 87194

 

We set off from the campsite at 8:40am but didn’t leave the town of Katherine till about 11:30am.  It took about half an hour to drive into town and then we went to Woolworths to stock up on some supplies and a block of ice.  We decided to give Sunny a car wash as she’d done such a top job so far and she came out sparkling.  We had our photo taken with the car by a German tourist who was very impressed with the ‘classic car’.

 

After the carwash and photo shoot we took off towards Broome.  Yay!!!  I’m so excited about getting to Broome, and am particularly excited about going scuba diving with the 14m whale sharks and sunbaking on a beach.  I love the country side but am a beach girl from way back.

 

We stopped at Victoria River Roadhouse that is just inside Gregory National Park and had a pie and xxxxgold for lunch, served by an Irish girl.

 

We then headed off towards Big Horse Creek Campground that Jenny had told us was a real party campground, was free and had a bar, but you had to get there early because all the sites went fairly quickly. 

We finally arrived at Big Horse about 3:20pm.  It is situated 10km past Timber Creek.  It wasn’t a party site by any means but it was fairly busy.  (No bar)

 

At the risk of going a bit feral we’ve decided to stay in some free or very cheap campgrounds and rest areas from now on as we’ve probably already spent about $250 in campsites.  Big Horse campground cost us both $3.30 for the night, I shouted Lou.

 

We went for a walk down to the Big Horse Creek that connects with Vic River to see if we could test out our $10 junior fishing rod that we’d bought from Kmart.  As neither of us knew how to fish, the junior rod seemed like a smart choice at a bargain price with instructions on how to fish on the back.

 

Sharon from next door came around to introduce herself and tell us that 5pm was the time to fish.  It also happened to be the time that the crocs came around.  She happily gave us some more tips and was kind enough to let us borrow a lure of hers as she thought any bait may attract the crocs.

 

We wandered down to the river and met up with Adam and The Yettie (appropriately named – I could hardly see his face from all the hair) who looked at our fishing rod and laughed.  The Yettie cut off Sharons lure and tied a bigger, prawn like lure to the end of the rod.

 

It was very peaceful pretending to fish like that as the sun went down.

 

 

Greatest song today: Leave me alone, Natalie Imbruglia.

Funniest bit: Me getting very exited that I’d snagged a big fish when in reality my hook was just caught on a rock.

Saddest bit: My attempt at making pepper sauce as a gourmet topping for dinner.  It ended up quite floury with way too many peppercorns.

 

 

Day sixteen: Big Horse Creek campground to Kununnara.  Start time: 8:40am  Arrival time: 9:45am (WA time) 11:45am (NT time)    Odometer: 87416

 

I woke up to watch the sunrise, have a coffee and a read of my book.  There was some amazing bird action this morning, but I wish I’d known what kind of birds they were.  There were three different types flying around, a couple of eagles and one beautiful owl gliding through the morning sky.

 

I had some nutella on bread for breakfast and Lou woke up and made herself a banana sandwich.  We are about to cross the border into Western Australia today and cannot take any fruit or veg with us so we piled up a half a bag of oranges, two potatoes and two onions and left them at Sharons door with a note thanking her for her lure.

 

We headed towards the border at a leisurely pace as Louisa played Dido (yawn).  We hit the fruit inspection point about two hours into the trip and regretfully handed over our honey that we hadn’t even opened.  After that it was a short (and Dido free) half an hour until we made it into Kununarra.

 

We were both a bit slow today and decided the best thing to do would be to go to the Pumphouse café that had free wireless internet and not talk to each other for a couple of hours.  We arrived and had a coffee, shortly followed by lunch of two ceaser salads (mine had chicken, the first time I’ve had chicken in 2 weeks Veenus) and some beers.  I had a fun time downloading some photos onto the blog – it’s amazing how quickly you forget some things.

 

After lunch we headed back to a campground that we had seen had unpowered sites by the river and booked one nights accommodation.  Feral will have to wait – this place had showers.

 

We secured a spot right next to the river so we could attempt fishing again and quickly drove back into town to get ourselves some fish for dinner and some booze as our stocks were dangerously low.

 

After this I went a bit mental.

I think I am in danger of relaxing too much.

I suggested that we wait in Kununarra till the weekend so we could see the V8’s in action in Hidden Valley with the Presets playing on Sunday night.  What couldn’t be better than watching loud cars all weekend in 30 degree heat, drinking beer and then listening to dance music at the end?

Unfortunately I have itchy feet and cannot even fathom the thought of sitting still for another 2 days whilst waiting for hotted up cars.

I took myself off fishing to try and soothe the beast within and to ask myself some big life questions;

 

What the hell was I doing in Kununarra?

How old was I again?

Did I still have a tab at the pub?

Why was I catching so much seaweed?

 

Luckily a lovely man Cliff interrupted my deep thoughts and started chatting to me, informing me that there was fish in the river, there was just a hell of a lot of water in between them. It made me feel a bit better. He then told me that he and his wife had been travelling Australia for 6 ½ years!  They had decided to do it for 2 but had had such a great time that they didn’t want to stop.  They drive back to their sons house every year for Christmas but just park in the driveway and stay in the van.  Classic.

 

After that Lou and I decided to head to bocce and happy hour (not so happy – you bring your own beer, they supply nibbles) so we wandered down about 4:30pm and sat down with about 20 others that were all 50+ and just chatted.  It was lovely.  We heard so many stories about lives, retirement, what sort of vans they all have, families and life in general. (I know it may seem as though I’m being sarcastic here but I really had a great time).

 

After that Lou and I walked back to our site where I prepared a beautifully seasoned Barramundi fillet with garlic prawns while Lou made a fresh garden salad. Yummo.

(The Barramundi fillet was $2.50 at the shops – cheap)

 

Then just before bed time I cracked em with doing the dishes and went to bed while Lou cleaned up.

 

 

Greatest song today: Verdi, La Traviata – Placido Domingo

(Louisa’s rendition of this opera classic and then thanking her imaginary audience at the end was outstanding).

Funniest bit:  Louisa having to brake so suddenly and come to a complete stop as a massive bull started to bolt across the road.  She has some very bad luck with driving and animals.

Best bit: Lou agreeing to hightail it to Broome.  I can’t do any more country towns.

Best creek name:  Dick creek (juvenile, I know)

 

 

Day seventeen: Kununarra to Marys Pool rest area.  108km past Halls Creek.  Start time: 8:30pm  Arrival time: 4:45pm  Odometer:  87921

 

I woke up for a glorious sunrise along the river.  It was magnificent.  It was also 5:15am.  I guess we were a bit jet-lagged with the time difference from NT.  I was still waking up with the sunrise, it’s just that now it’s a hell of a lot earlier.

 

After Lou woke up, we packed up and got on the road.  The only problem was that when we tried to check out it was too early.  7:30am and the office didn’t open till 8am – I took this time to check the oil (a little low) and the tyre pressure (fine) and went for a quick stroll with Lou. It was also the first time that I had tried to lock my petrol cap, which I thought I did.

 

We took off to do a 30min walk to see some mini bungle bungles as Sunny was not going to be able to 4xwheel drive it into the real ones.  It was a painless walk and we finally took off to Halls Creek about 8:30am.

 

Lou had wanted to only travel 200kms today but we were having so much fun we just kept driving.  In the end we made it about 500kms but with a cost - Lou cracked em quickly just when we got into Halls Creek, but had come good by the time we got to the rest area.

 

We rolled in to Marys Pool rest area and started our routine of unpacking the kombi and saying hello to anyone that walked by.  Our routine must have been a bit out though because as I went to shut the passengers side door, I realized too late that Louisa’s hand was in it.  I felt so bad.  The poor thing took herself off to the back of the kombi and moaned quietly.  I kept setting up as there was nothing else I could do apart from apologize profusely.

 

 

Best bit: Seeing the first kombi on the road.

Best bit #2: Having Barra and prawns again for dinner.

Best quote:  Lou annoyed at the broken window saying it was ‘the vein of her life’

Stupidest bit:  Realizing my petrol cap had fallen off after I’d ‘locked’ it and having to drive around town to find another one.

Best creek name:  Weaner creek (just like dick creek only smaller)

Worst aboriginal name for a rock: Head-lice dreaming.

 

 

Day eighteen:  Marys Pool rest area to Lake Ellendale rest area  Start time: 8:30am  Arrival time: 1:20pm  Odometer: 88206

 

I woke up at 5:30am with a fresh brain and did some morning mathematics to work out how much money I’d have to give Colin for petrol – it even included some long division that I haven’t done since primary school.  (Lovely Colin had offered to drive Sunny home as it wouldn’t fit on the train and Lou and I are flying home from Perth).

 

I agreed with Lou when she woke up to do a shorter drive today and to stop in Fitzroy Crossing to have lunch and to have a look around at the town.  We arrived there about 10am and went to look for the oldest pub in WA – The Crossing Inn.  It wasn’t open till 12 however, so we went and did a bit of grocery shopping and topped up our ice supply.

 

The pub was fairly average and we paid $12 to have a sandwich bar type lunch.  I tried an Emu Export with my lunch and have to say that it reminded me of the first time my dad ever let me try beer, very bitter.  I loved it.

 

After lunch we head off for our next rest area that was 150kms from town but we were lured in to the Lake Ellendale rest area by the sight of the beautiful lake.  Our neighbour gave us the history of the lake – it was manmade when they dug a big hole to use the dirt for making the roads and now was a popular cow drinking watering hole.

 

Our neighbour also invited us for drinks at their caravan at 4:15pm – which apparently was strictly a one hour thing.  We waddled over with a bottle of wine and had such a good chat to everyone there that we didn’t get back to the kombi till 6pm and couldn’t be bothered making dinner.  We had a cup-a-soup each, a game of chess, and I am ashamed to say were both asleep by 6:30pm.

 

Funniest bit:  Being recognized from the Mole - name and all.

Scariest bit:  The scary cow who nearly charged Lou and I when we went for a pee in the bushes.

Song of the day:  Sunny, artist unkown.

 

Day nineteen (my favourite):  Lake Ellendale to Broome!  Start time: 6:30am  Arrival time: 9:30am  Odometer:

 

I was ultra surprised when Lou woke up at 6am and immediately packed up the car.  I’d wanted to get an early start to Broome and had been so excited that I woke up at 5am and had been reading, but was even more excited when we took off at 6:30am.

 

Lou did the first hour of driving and I think the combination of her getting up early and not having a morning coffee made her slightly crazy.  I’ve never seen so many Jim Carrey like impersonations in such a short amount of time.

 

We arrived in Broome and went to the local markets where we ran into a girl Lou used to work with at YSAS.  She was lovely enough to invite us to stay at her house when our time at the apartment was over. Yay!  This meant that all our time in Broome (the holiday from our holiday) was going to be spent with room.

After we had spoken to Emma we made some phone calls as we finally had some reception after 3 days without.  Id just finished telling my dad how good the car had been but after I’d hung up from him the car didn’t start.  I rang my RACV total care (don’t get me started on how much I love total care – I could be doing ads for it I love it so much) and half an hour later a technician had given me a jump start.

 

We arrived at the Rendevous Sanctuary about 2pm and checked into a one bedroom apartment for some space.  It was so nice to be in a room again and just laze about.  We watched some t.v, had some wine and had a party – for the first time on the trip I think I went to bed after midnight and didn’t get up the next day till after 8am.  Good to see I can still stay up late, I was starting to worry with all the early nights.

 

As we are five days ahead of schedule we have decided to have some relaxing time in Broome and chill out with the beach and the sun.

 

Best bit: Broome

Sunniest bit: Broome

Best beach: Broome

30 degrees: Broome

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Day nine:  Hang out in Alice Springs.

 

This morning I woke up to see the sunrise again (I must stop making a habit of this) and to see Lou roll around with a hangover.  Ha ha.  She had had way too much fun on the pokies the night before at the campground Tavern and over-exerted herself on the booze.  She’d come out on top though and shouted me a couple of Vodka cokes. Bless.

 

We went for a quick drive into town to check it out.  It was pretty quiet so we found an internet shop to download the blog.  After that we went to Kmart to get some supplies and then Woolies for some food and that was pretty much seeing the town.

 

Lou sat down in the sun for a read and relax while I set about making a carbonara for lunch with a cognac in hand.  After eating I had a very busy day of waving to helicopters and cutting my nails.  Lou and I even managed to squeeze in one game of checkers and a bit of a read of the newspaper.  Busy, busy.

 

I was excited about the nighttime activities.  We were to meet up with Carols ex Ange who Lou hadn’t met and I hadn’t seen in over 3 years.  She had only been in Alice about 4 months and had been working almost 7 days a week, 18 hours a day and was keen to get out too.

As we were excited about our night out we headed into town early to have some drinks and dinner.  Lou spotted a saloon bar and we headed in.  What a pisser.  It was the kind of place that had ‘tourist’ written all over it and that’s exactly what we were.  The best part was that the place streams live to the internet 24 hours a day 7 days a week.  We set about texting everyone to see if they could see us.  Marty was the only one who actually saw us but it was still pretty funny.

 

After the saloon bar we went for Thai food and then off to the Todd Tavern to see Ange.

It was splendid to see her.  She’s a great chick.

Except for when she bought me a fairy bomb.  It was the most disgusting drink I’ve ever had.  Absynthe with some kind of liquorice tasting mixer. Of course I had to finish it but was feeling quite ill by the end of it.  So there was nothing left to do but head off to the casino! 

 

We were stopped out the front of the casino by the guard to check our I.D and he asked us if we had been drinking.  I thought to myself that if this man could not smell that fairy bomb on my breath then there must be something seriously wrong with him. So I answered yes.  He told us to stay calm when we were in the casino otherwise it would be a short night for us. 

It was a very small and quiet casino and in no time at all we were laughing above the maximum noise limit. Naughty.  We found a roulette table and decided to make our fortunes.  And that we did!  Ange started with $20 and ended up winning $220 and Lou and I had a shared $50 that ended up being $135.  The best was the last roll of the night when we put $50 each in $2.50 chips on black and it came in.  That tower of chips was hilariously high and I can’t believe we didn’t get thrown out over that.

 

Shortly afterwards (as all good casino nights go) we were surrounded by men in suits offering to buy us drinks.  Of course we said yes and then politely made small talk before the three of ran off into the night giggling hysterically.

 

Funniest bit #1: The big sign out the front of the Alice Springs hospital proudly stating that it will be smoke free as of July 1^st 2009.  What????

Funniest bit #2: Ange promising one of the suits she would go on a date with him soon.

Funniest bit #3: Thinking I’d seen Michael Jacksons children but they were only normal kids with fly nets over their faces.

Funniest bit I’d forgotten to write about yesterday: Lou turning the one finger raise hello while driving into a peace sign, or a small wave, or a big wave or a hail Hitler type wave.  She’s really going to some lengths to secure a wave.

 

Day ten:  Alice Springs to Tennant Creek via the Devils Marbles.  Start time 8:45am  Arrival time:  2:45pm  Odometer: 86058

 

It was Lous morning to drive and as our rules go – the driver chooses the music so I popped my head phones in.  I don’t think there’s ever a right time for Enigma.  You might as well throw Enya, Michael Bolton and some pan flutes in and just blow my ears off.

 

We headed out to the Stuart Highway where the road signs told us we could do 130km/h and we both laughed.

 

It’s exciting to be heading to warmer and warmer weather especially when you hear reports of hail and snow in Melbourne.  Ha ha.  Tennant Creek is reportedly 23 degrees.  Katherine is about 26 degrees and Broome is looking at about 31 degrees.  I can see my tan now.

 

We passed over the tropic of Capricorn line shortly after leaving Alice and then came to the Tanami Road.  Many of the local men at The Park Hotel had told me to take this road as a short cut to Broome.  They said my drive was too long and by taking this short cut I could relax a bit more instead of going all the way to Katherine and across to Broome.

Two words. 

Wolf Creek.

Actually lets make it more than two words.

There was no way I was taking my horror movie loving brain across an unpaved road to drive through Wolf Creek for a short cut. 

On we drove.

Our next stop after a quick fill up at Ti-tree was Wycliffe Well – the U.F.O centre of Australia.  The petrol station was painted black and silver with lots of alien heads stuck all over it and they’d put up alien like creatures around in the gardens.  Too much time on their hands I say.  I had a quick photo before Louisa and I hastily took off.  (Lou had managed to pay for someone else’s cheaper fuel at $33 instead of our price of $62.)  Hopefully they’ll blame the aliens.

Shortly after alien-ville we pulled in to have a look at the Devils marbles.  So called because if the devil had time I’m sure he’d be playing marbles.

They are actually amazing rocks to look at.  They look like they have different textures.  Some look like giraffes, some like sponges.  Uluru looked like it had a cross between eczema and acne.  We took a quick look around, made a quick sandwich that we shared with the flies and drove on.

 

Our next stop was Tennant Creek.  The suits at the casino had told us not to bother as it was a horrible town so we were both looking forward to checking it out.  We were also planning on meeting up with a lovely boy we’d also met at the casino Nick who had a dad that lived in Tennant Creek.  We drove to the Outback Caravan Park, a lovely little lush hideaway, and headed to the bbq to cook our dinner.  We had some great chats to the men around the bbq.  Everyone thinks it’s so hilarious that we are doing the road trip in six weeks.  One of the men at the bbq was doing exactly the same trip as us and taking eight months.  Ha ha.  They also remember the kombi if we pass them.  I’ve had a couple of people say “Yeah the yellow kombi, kinda hard to miss”

 

We met up with Nick at the memorial club and had some beers.  The great thing about the NT is that you can still smoke inside so Lou and I went home about 11pm with dry, red eyes.

 

 

Greatest song today: Whatever will be will be, Doris Day.

Funniest bit: Trying to beat Nick in a beer sculling contest and getting absolutely demolished.

Saddest bit: Not seeing one other kombi on the road since Melbourne. Not one!

 

 

Day eleven: Tennant Creek to Mataranka Springs.  Start time 6:00am.  Arrival time: 1:20pm     Odometer: 86633

 

Sunny and I decided to get an early start today so we snuck out of the caravan park at 6am with Louisa snuggled up sound asleep in the back.

I get pretty excited when my alarm goes off in the morning and I have a solo drive planned.  I jump out of bed, pull the pop top down, lock it into place, brush my teeth and take off.  I am already dressed as I just sleep in the clothes I’m going to wear.  This saves me a lot of cold naked time in the morning and unnecessary discomfort trying to get dressed in a cramped car in the pitch black.

 

The sunrise this morning was the most beautiful I’ve ever seen.  I’m going to try and explain it but just to let you know I once tried to explain my cousins wedding dress to someone as ‘white’ with ‘bits’ on the sleeve.

It’s all about the burnt orange colours really.  The beautiful, deep, rich orange line that goes on forever, streaked with striking red and patches of yellow.  I’ve never seen such stunning colours in all my life. It was hard to keep my eyes from looking at it and I had to remind myself a few times that I was behind the wheel of a car.  Driving by yourself at this time of morning and watching the sunrise makes you feel like you are the only person on the planet and I find it very peaceful and good for the soul.  Anyway, after about half an hour of those amazing colours the sky changes into some bodgy pink colours until that big ball of fire rises and makes night into day.  Poetry.

 

My plan was to get half way to Mataranka Springs before Louisa woke up.  I see it as a little challenge.  When sleeping beauty finally awoke at 8am I was about 50kms from Elliot – the halfway point.

Lou took over the driving at Elliot and we pioneered on to the historic Daly Waters pub that all the men around the bbq the night before had told us was a must.

 

On the way to the pub we saw a very large bull on the side of the road with a massive hump on its back.  It was just staring at us and we slowed down to a crawl to get a good look at it.  Hump included it was probably about the height of Louisa. He was a scary looking creature.

 

Anywho, the Daly Waters pub was a fantastic little oasis.  Lush and green with lots of ‘aussie type’ signs around and the obligatory Irish chick behind the bar.  How the Irish get to these small pubs and decide to start working, I will never know.  We were only going to stay for a coffee but decided on an early lunch of Barra bites and a Barra burger.  Barra being wild caught Barramundi.  The burger was the freshest, tastiest thing I’ve eaten all trip – except for the first five nights of Lou’s tuna pasta of course – and we dug into it with a NT draught.  After lunch Louisa bought a blue ‘wife beater’ singlet and I bought a similar one for my nephew Will.

 

The termite mounds out here are amazing – there’s literally millions of them along the highway.  The biggest one I saw was about the same size and width of Lou.  For a minute I actually thought it WAS her outside hiding in the bush before I came to my senses and realized that she was driving the car.

 

 

Louisa just told me she really feels part of the ‘road community’ and scarily enough I may have to agree.  You see the same cars and caravans, see a couple of the same people, wave to everyone, say “hello” to everyone, swap stories and generally be very, very friendly.  It’s horrendous.  People are even starting to wave as they overtake us.  Too much waving cannot be good for anyone.

 

We took off from the pub about 11:15am and headed towards the Mataranka hot springs listening to Fleetwood Mac.  I can’t wait to soak my tired little brain and body into 34degree mineral water and relax and extra notch.  Even my fingers need a relax from all this heavy typing.

 

We made a quick pit stop at the Pink Panther hotel (world famous) and had a look at the bird sanctuary.  Then Lou drove for one more hour (and past two very big road trains) before we rolled up to the Mataranka caravan and campsite.  We quickly changed into our bathers and headed 100m down the road to the Bitter Springs.  Heaven.  It was crystal clear, warm, lovely and made me very happy.

 

Greatest song today: It’s very hard for me to go past Black Box, Ride on time.  (The Fleetwood Mac album and the song ‘Don’t leave me this way’ come in a very close second)

Funniest bit: Lou coming perilously close to hitting a beautiful ibis looking bird while driving and yelling out “not again!”  (Poor thing’s still a bit fragile after the galah incident)

Saddest bit: Nothing.  Absolutely nothing.

Best town name: Threeways

Best creek name: Attack creek