The Simple things in Life...

Well here we are back in Victoria on the way to Ballarat to see the family before we go home to Alexandra. I'm sitting in the car, Mark's driving, the kids watching DVD's and I am on the laptop writing this blog. (The powers of modern technology!) This blog is probably more for our own sakes than of our readers… it's about all those little things that we are looking forward to when we get back, and that we know we will be taking for granted real soon when we get into the groove of home life. 

       Emshia's first. "I am so looking forward to":

·         Seeing my friends and family

·         Seeing our dogs

·         Sleeping in a real bed not just a sleeping bag

·         Watching a TV

·         My own computer

·         Having my own shower and bath

      "I am going to miss":

·         Trakkie

·         Travelling to new places

·         Sleeping in our sleeping bags every night

·         The whole trip. It was great!

Rory's next. "I am looking forward to":

·         Seeing my friends

·         Seeing Nan & Poppy and my family

·         Seeing the dogs

·         Having a bed

·         Having air-conditioning

·         Playing my play station

·         Seeing all my toys

      "I am going to miss":

·         Trakkie

·         Snorkelling

·         Swimming in the pool

·         Not going to school!

 

Ok ,I'm next, Sharyn. " I can't believe we are heading home. It feels like we have been gone forever, life as we knew it before is so hard to imagine now.  But we are all excited. It's a real new beginning, a new rental house, Mark in a new position, and most importantly we have all got a new attitude now to life. Travelling our half lap has given us all such perspective on our world around us. We are so grateful that we have been able to 'Live the Dream', call a 'time out' on our lives and truly be together as a family. It has been the best time of our lives".

      "What I know for sure":

·         We are all going to be so grateful for all those little things that we haven't had for 5 ½ months

·         To have hot water on tap will be heaven

·         To have a solid roof above my head will be such a relief especially when it rains.

·         Having my own shower and toilet will be ecstasy (cleaning it won't!)

·         A bath…ahhhhhhhhhhhh

·         To have a selection of more than 3 t-shirts will be great

·         To not have to search for dollar coins to wash and dry our clothes will be  a joy

·         Travelling distances in the car will no longer be a hassle, Victoria is sooo tiny compared to WA

·         I can survive without my hair straightener, curly hair isn't so bad

·         I can survive without a shower for quite a few days… and still go out in public

·         I can be in public with no trace of make-up on, and hair looking daggy and people still accept me as I am

·         I can wear shorts above the knee and even a bikini and not give a damn what anyone thinks

·         I can get a tan!!!!

·         I can survive without a television, didn't miss it at all

·         Travelling is so awesome, it is a true passion of mine, and this trip is just the beginning of many other adventures, in Australia and around the world

"What I am going to miss":

·         Having no sense of obligation or responsibility or pressure

·         Having Mark by my side 24/7

·         Watching the kids experience new things everyday and growing in confidence

·         Living minimalistic

·         Meeting other travellers, they are so relaxed, so positive and so friendly

·         Going to new places and seeing place names on the Australian map come alive

·         Living in Trakkie

·         Everything about life on the road… our early semi-retirement was a gift!

 Mark:

My list is a mix of the above so I'll rant on because I'm good at that!

Although our 5 and a half months on the road felt a lot slower than the same time working, I can't believe it has ended. Life on the road had become our life and it's a strange feeling knowing we will soon be back in a house and doing 'regular' things again. The trip has easily been the best thing we have done as a family and I can't believe how much more I have learnt about the kids. In fact, today I was thinking about how little I really knew their personalities before we left and that scared me because I simply didn't know any different. Were it not for this trip I may never have known them on the same level as I do now. Sharyn has seen it for years but as a working dad it's hard to look outside the square and see what's really going on with your kids. Although they loved me before the trip, I have noticed that they come to me a lot more for play or simply to have a cuddle. It's just priceless stuff!

I have seen different sides to Sharyn too and she surprised me with how easily she took to life on the road - living under canvas, going days without a shower, putting up with ants, mozzies, biting midgies and other insects we couldn't identify, the dust and heat, the continual packing and setting up, and of course me! It's funny how the thought of spending any length of time with your partner 24/7 scares many couples but it was something that just seemed natural for us and by the end we were like a well oiled machine. Each night we tried to crack a stubbie and do a cheers to something, anything. And like the kids, we are closer than we've ever been too.

The people you meet travelling is awesome. Yes you get your idiots and whingers, but on the whole people on the road are stress free and open to anyone. We made some great friends and had the most amazing conversations, ranging from people around our age up to the retirees.

Australia is beautiful. I don't know how many times I said to the kids "how good is this?". From the most pristine beaches, the deepest gorges, snorkelling with hundreds of fish, seeing rock art 25000 years old, landscapes resembling the best paintings, night skies that go forever, howling Dingo's outside the camper, magnificent eagles and huge crocs...it's little wonder there are hordes of overseas tourists visiting us for in places like Germany, they don't have much of anything 'natural' left. If you can get any chance to do a trip like this (speaking as a family man), well...you just have to! Sacrifice things, rent your house, sell your plasma - you'll be a far richer person for it and I don't mean in a material sense. It's a bit like when you plan to have a baby; if you waited for the 'right time' to have one, then you probably never would. I don't know if there's ever a right time to do a trip like this so just get your head around the fact it's going to cost a lot of money and financially you'll be behind but if you've read this far, hopefully you'll realise that the experiences gained with your family can never be bought in Myers or Harvey Norman!!!

 

 

 

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The Oodnadatta Track beats us ... yet again

Leaving Alice we drove out at a good time (for us) with the big Finke Desert Race ready to take over the town for the long weekend. We were told that the entries fill up super quick and that they had 500 entrants and knocked back 300+ more. Huge money spinner for the town. The caravan park we stayed at was booked out as I'm sure all the others would have been too. We were also told that some 12,000 people camp along the track from Alice to Finke to watch the race unfold. We haven't heard any race details but the rain on Saturday night would have made the race more interesting I'm sure!

We stopped for petrol at Erldunda, filling up with petrol at the first pump then rolling forward to fill with gas. While Mark was filling up I saw a woman running frantically out of the fuel payment area, and thought her hubby must have driven off without her. Poor woman I thought .We haven't had any issues double fuelling to date but boy I got a blast from the woman behind the counter, who came running back in, puffing when Mark sent me in to pay. I realised it was the same woman I thought had been left behind by her hubby! She thought the car in front of us had drove off without paying for their fuel, and although relieved to find out it was our fuel, she gave me a serve for not signalling to her that we were double fuelling. Found out after further conversation that not long before we'd arrived a car had drove away after not paying for some $170.00 worth of fuel… ouch!

On to Marla roadhouse for the night then next morning got ready to tackle the Oodnadatta track. It was only just over a year ago that we were on the first section of the Oodnadatta. We went on a 2 week speed trip with our friends the Rougets up to Uluru, Kings Canyon and Alice Springs and were planning on going home on the Oodnadatta track. (We had a Windsor wind up camper back then, and thought it would be ok but after we had lost a door handle and a hub cap we high-tailed it off the track back to Coober Pedy.) So this trip was a 'take 2', we now had the off-road camper and planned to go all the way down to Leigh Creek. So back window protected and taped up and tyre pressures dropped, off we headed, excited and ready to go. Just before we made it onto the track, Emshia informed us she had a bad earache and a 'funny belly' (she also gets bad car-sickness on bumpy roads) so we were bracing ourselves for a real adventure!

On the first 208km from Marla to Oodnadatta town, we saw some 60 kangaroos, 20 Wedge tailed eagles, 1 dead camel and 3 emus. More wildlife in one area than we have seen in 5 months! Emshia was doing a great job of distracting herself from the bumps and was a real trooper spotting wildlife along the track. Oodnadatta itself was our lunch stop and what a quaint town it is. The Pink Roadhouse (which is actually pink, hence the name!) is the main hub of the town and we managed to fill up, get a loaf of Brumby's bread here and send off a couple of postcards. We were told by a couple pulling in that the next part of the track was quite rough with corrugations and stones but there was no turning back for us, we knew it would be rough and this time we were ready (but hey they were in a Jeep…)

We made it past the spot where we made the decision last time to turn back and the track actually improved a bit. This section of the Oodnadatta had lots of ruins from the heyday of the Old Ghan Railway that used to run from Adelaide, to Oodnadatta to Alice. When Diesel locomotives replaced Steam Engines back in 1954, and many water points fell into disrepair, the line was closed in 1982, and the accompanying infrastructure fell into its now ruined state. We stopped at all the ruins we could, Mount Dutton, Algebuckina, Peake Creek and 15km (on a rough and ready track) into the Peake Historic Site. These ruins were once a Pastoral Station and the Peake Telegraph Repeater Station. There were 6 ruins of varying disrepair and we had a great time exploring. We also decided to camp here for the night as it was getting late and the clouds were building, with rain expected that night. And rain it did. Mark had built a campfire and as we sat around toasting marshmallows we had to cut it short as the rain was getting heavier and we were getting wetter.

Now rain to anyone else would be a nice sound on a canvas roof but to Mark & I it brought back visions of being drenched in Tropical Cyclone Pancho back in Exmouth, and  a leaking roof(and sleepless night) at every seam at Tom Price. . We had become paranoid over rain!!!! So out came the full size tarp Mark had bought back in Broome that covered nearly the entire roof of Trakkie and as the rain continued to get heavier and with the knowledge that we haven't yet fully resealed the roof, we managed to get some sleep (although I will say I shone the torch up to the roof looking for drips at least once or twice over the night!!)

We were planning on heading off the next day but the sheer amount of steady rain over the night made us stay put for another day. We thought of staying in our sleeping bags all day, reading or playing game-boys but we got up and dressed, explored the ruins and lit another warm fire. Nice day enjoying the serenity with silence that was deafening, and soup and toast for lunch to warm us from the inside out.

That night we were serenaded by choruses of spine chilling dingo howls and we set off later that morning to drive the rest of the Oodnadatta Track. The amount of water lying around amazed us, and made for some fun driving on the track. We were a bit 'ruined' out by this stage and chose to drive by rather than stop at the next ruins. We made it into William Creek about 2pm. This town has a population of about 12 and consisted of a pub, mechanic and a caravan park. As we were trying to find someone to clear the petrol pump, a Ute pulled up in front of the pub. It looked like it had been cement rendered; the mud was caked on so thick you could hardly see the windscreen. Mark got chatting to its owner and he told us it had taken him 5 hours to drive 200km from Maree, the track was so bad after the previous night's rain and there were vehicles still stuck on the road .As tempted as we were to get bogged in our attempt to finally complete the Oodnadatta track, we admitted defeat…yet again…and chose the route back…once again…to Coober Pedy. We love Coober Pedy so much it is the 3^rd time we have been there in 12 months!!

So back down the Stuart Highway we are headed, feeling the excitement of going home, the anticipation of living in a house with a real roof and not having anyone else hear our rude noises in the loo… our next blog will probably be from home, once we find one!

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A town like Alice..

Hard to believe it was only a year ago since we were last here on our Central trip with our good friends the Rougets. Only planned on staying the one night but it turned into more, typical us! The amount of aboriginal folk seemed double from last time we were here. Walking around the main street and shopping centres it almost seemed to be more blacks than whites, bit like being back in Fitzroy Crossing. There is such a mix of indigenous folk here, from those who seem to really be doing well to those who seem to be scraping for every dollar. Had an aboriginal lady come up to me and the kids pleading for a couple of dollars so she could buy some food to eat. I had only large notes in my purse having spent my only change on paying to use the local toilets (first time had to pay for loos all trip but they were lovely and clean) and felt terrible saying no to her. That was the first time all trip that any aboriginal had approached me in any way. They have all kept to themselves and not bothered with us white fellas. 

In Alice we got to catch up on mail and shopping and our big highlight was visiting the Desert Wildlife Park. The Wildlife Park was a great day out. We had a talk by a great aboriginal guy who told us all about the tools the women use for getting bush tucker and the tools and weapons the men use. Very much mens work and womens work; if man do womens work all goes wrong, so men stick to hunting for food and women getting berries and grubs. He gave us a great insight into the aboriginal culture and Rory loved holding the spears and boomerangs. He talked afterwards about how the aboriginal traditions are slowly dying away, with the strong influence of the white fellas culture. He spoke of a tribe out the Tanami desert way that still live traditionally but he said for most city dwelling aboriginals, a great effort must be made to teach their kids the old ways or it will be lost forever. We wandered through all the different types of desert habitats in the park and got a running commentary through little headsets. The birds of prey demonstration was simply amazing. The guide would talk about different birds and almost as if on cue they would fly in and she would feed them tidbits of food. If you ever come here this is a must see. Great entertainment.

So here we are, on the last stretch to home. We made the big decision in Darwin to head back to Alexandra. We were extremely tempted to keep going round to Queensland but as the finances are dwindling we would have had to work and that would change the feel of our 'holiday' completely. We didn't want to spoil that magical feeling of our 'early retirement'. Sounds odd I guess but that is just what we have had for the past 6 months. A real taste of what it wil be like for us in 20 odd years. The experiences we have had have been so awesome and the time spent as a family has been priceless. It is undoubtedly the best thing we have ever done. We are now fairly poor and homeless but you know what, we have never been closer, happier and more relaxed. We feel so proud that we have given the kids this experience, and it has changed our lives forever. Now I'll get off my soapbox and go and do the washing...some things dont change!

 

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UFO's .... beam me up Scotty!

I've heard a few UFO stories in my time and they make good campfire chat. Being someone who is open to these things, I had always wanted to visit Wycliffe Well, the 'UFO Centre' of Australia.  Last year the morning TV show 'Sunrise' were there and interviewed 2 old blokes about their experiences and they were so serious and adamant that they had seen them. I thought they were nutty as did the presenters. Well as were setting up camp a worker who had been there a long time was over for a chat and when we asked him about all this talk of UFO's he told us a few stories, one which happened only a week or so ago. We has sitting down the back of the park with his missus enjoying a twilight beer when they saw what they thought was a shooting star. When it 'hit' the ground however, it came back up again and headed towards the park.  The speed it travelled was incredible and when it got to the park it flew over a line of trees, downing branches as it flew over them. The sound was like a mix of washing machine at high speed and a vacuum.  A semi-trailer was driving past on the highway and it flew and hovered above that. Another truckie behind this one radioed to him about this weird light above his truck and actually filmed it (on what I don't know). The light then dropped back and hovered over the second truck for a while before shooting off. The tape was handed into the police and they still hadn't heard anything back from them.

Admittedly I was close to laughing at this stage and another camper who wandered over for a listen was looking at me with raised eyebrows and I think both our thoughts was that this bloke was pulling our leg and any minute he would blurt out that us tourists would believe anything. But he didn't. He kept a straight face through the whole story and told us other weird things that have happened. Even the Army were there years ago to investigate a weird light that re-appeared every night for 28 straight. We had a bit to do with this guy during our 2 nights there and when anything about UFO's came up he maintained his straight approach and told the stories like he didn't care what we thought because he knew what he had seen. I'm fast forwarding a bit here but days later we were in Alice Springs and the owner of the park was on local radio as it was up for sale after 23 years of ownership. Naturally the interviewer asked about the UFO's and the owner told the same story as the one above and spoke about the whole topic as if there was no question about their existence because he (and lots of others) had seen so many over the years it was just a given that they're out there. For the record we looked but didn't see anything other than some flashing lights that looked like planes lights but then stopped – for 2 nights in a row!

Back to the park itself it was really well done. There were 'aliens' everywhere,  a mix of statues (Elvis, The Phantom, The Hulk and others), nearly every wall and fence had great murals painted on them (mostly space stuff), they had their own train that was free to ride on, and the usual park stuff like a pool. The reception had heaps of cut-outs from newspapers and magazine on UFO's and a visitor's book detailing their own experiences (we didn't get to read that). A fascinating place to stop if you're up this way, so keep your eyes skywards and a camera handy. Don't worry about being abducted, it appears they only like to look and not touch…

Another interesting tie-in to this story. At the near-by Devils Marbles (Karlu Karlu) there is information about the park and how it relates to the local Aboriginal people. One story is a warning from an elder who tells of the people who live in caves under the rocks. These people take you away and you never come back. They look like real people but when they talk to you, you can't escape and you somehow do what they tell you to (like you're hypnotised). One spoke to this elder when he was a boy walking to the creek for some water but his mum saved him. His cousin though went for a walk and they never found him again. Because of these people under the rocks and this story, the Aboriginal people never ever camped near the Devils Marbles. Interesting how most of the Aboriginal stories we have read in National Parks have come from the Dream Time but this story came from someone who is probably still living. Aliens? Who knows...Spooky.

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Snorkelling in Mataranka ??

I'll do the first bit of this one (Mark) because the laughs were on me. After losing the T-piece that joined our trailer to the car, I wedged in a tough bit of stick that I thought at the time would be better than a skinny screwdriver that would bend and fall out. I drove accordingly like I had eggs on the dashboard, taking every corner slowly while avoiding sharp turns, crawling over any large bumps and reducing my speed on the highway. It was only intended as a temporary fix, thinking I would pick up something at the next town. That next town was Pine Creek and they had nothing. The join looked OK so onwards to Katherine we went, about 260km from our start that morning. Driving into Katherine I was out of gas and pulling into the BP station I had to cross their quite steep and angled gutter. As this made some funny angles between Prado and Trakkie, cracks and crunches were heard and in my side mirrors I noticed Trakkie looking very close to the ground. Luckily we were off the road doing walking pace and the safety chains did their job in stopping Trakkie from hitting the ground. I couldn't get anything under the nose of Trakkie to jack it up so with a big grunt managed to sit it back in place and this time dropped a big screwdriver in and taped that up. The hunt was on for a new T-piece.

No-one in Katherine appeared to have one, however, I found one bloke from an engineering place that had some trailer parts and explained my problem to him and his mate.  When I got to the part about the stick he said out loud, "you put a f%$#@& what in there?".  His mate was laughing loudly at this stage while I was trying to convince them I really wasn't an idiot tourist who didn't know what he was doing.  When I told them it had held up since Kakadu they were a bit impressed with that but of course that's only because "we grow tough trees up here in the Territory".  While they were cracking jokes he found a big bolt that could be drilled and welded to resemble our T-piece. Before going ahead with that he sent me off to another place that "should" have one but of course it didn't so back I go and him and his mate were still in a jolly mood thanks to my story.  His make-shift T-piece was actually quite good and he turned out to be a good bloke. I can hear the stories now that him and his mate will be telling in weeks to come about that stupid Victorian…

The second bit of this blog is by me (Sharyn). Being the indecisive 'on holiday' folk that we are, even when we were in Katherine, we still weren't sure on where we were going to stay for the night. I went in to the supermarket here to stock up and the girl on the checkout said "What's on for the rest of the day" and I said how we were travelling through and she said "Well you have to go and stay out at Mataranka, you'll love it". Being a big believer in fate, off to Mataranka we went, and yes we did love it! Our two night stay turned into three and we even got to have a snorkel. No that's not a typo, we actually all snorkelled in the outback! You may of heard of the thermal pools/hot springs they have out this way - Mataranka Thermal pool and Bitter Springs. Bubbling up at a beautiful 32-34 degrees, just heavenly on the old muscles and joints! Well these springs are also brilliantly crystal clear, and at Bitter Springs we donned the snorkel gear and cruised down the current, looking in amazement of the underwater world inside a creek. And the bonus was that was like having a big bath at the same time. Considering we haven't had a bath for 5 months, it was pretty awesome.

The other cool thing at Mataranka was its connection with a classic old Aussie book written back in the early 1900's called 'We of the Never Never'. I never got to read it at secondary school so Mum gave me her copy to read when we were in Broome, and I just finished it before we arrived here. Based on a true story, the author Jeannie Gunn tells her story of arriving out in the never never with her husband and living on a cattle station, and its many hardships that followed. We got to visit the site of her original 'Elsey Homestead' (there is no trace of any buildings now just a memorial plaque), we went to the Elsey Cemetery where her husband Aeneas (and other characters from the book) were buried, and got to see and go into a replica of her old homestead, made for the movie recreation of her story, back I think in the 80's. The park where we stayed in Mataranka (the Mataranka Homestead) screened the movie 'We of the Never Never' daily in the bistro at 12, so the kids and I got to watch the movie and then visiting the sites all made so much more sense for them. It was like seeing history come to life!

Next stop...who knows??? Somewhere down south, home is getting closer by the day. Bit sad and bit exciting at the same time. But still more adventures yet to come!

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Kaka (must) du!

On our way to Kakadu, we stopped at the Adelaide River where big advertising billboards and a croc standing on one leg (see photos) enticed us to go on a 'Jumping Crocodile' cruise. We weren't going to do it, thinking it was a bit of a touristy gimmick but took the plunge and so glad we did. We hopped on board a two story cruise boat, and as we cruised along, you could see the big salt water crocodiles(the real man eaters) floating along the surface. As the crocs approached the boat the guides slowed the boat down and got the bait ready. They put big meat off cuts on the end of a long rope attached to a long pole, and splashed the meat on the water, baiting the crocs. As the crocs lunged out of the water they lifted the meat up just high enough so the crocs couldn't grasp it causing the crocs to leap higher out of the water with the smaller ones even getting their back legs in the air. On the second or third jump they would let the crocs grab the meat and move off down river to the next awaiting croc. Amazingly the guides said that the crocs get to know their voices and they associate the tour guides voice with food. He said that even when he is fishing on the river in his tinny, he can't talk out loud because the crocs come in real close to his boat expecting a feed. In fact the week before we were there, he had a 3m croc try to drag him out of his tinny, scary stuff. On our return trip back to the jetty, we just missed out on seeing a tussle between the local 'king of the river', a 5.5m male croc and a smaller 4m one. They had just gone under as we approached. We got some great photos here and the kids thought seeing the big salties was awesome.

The infamous Kakadu awaited us. We had heard stories from others who basically bagged it, dubbing it 'Kaka-don't' as it was not what they had expected it to be, but by this stage of our trip we had learnt to not take any fellow travellers 'negative advice' too seriously and that we would see it and make an opinion for ourselves. Well we loved it. It can't be compared to anything else, not to Litchfield NP, or any other National Park we have seen so far on our trip. It is like comparing Heavy Metal, to Rock and Roll, to Country music, each one is so different and has its own attributes.  How can I explain it… it is a place of extreme diversity, it has savanna woodlands that make up approx. 80% of the park, monsoon forests, hills and ridges, dominating escarpments, floodplains and billabongs and one of the most extensive collections of aboriginal rock art. It is a place where you can truly feel the aboriginal spirit in the land. The Bowali Visitor centre and Wardaman Aboriginal Cultural centre are must see's. They both contain a wealth of information about Kakadu, we watched movies on the animal life and seasons of Kakadu, and learnt so much about the aboriginal culture. We visited Ubirr (pronounced Oo beer) ( where you might remember in Crocodile Dundee he took Linda Kozlowski to see the view, calling it Jabawonga!) and saw an amazing sunset, and brilliant aboriginal art; Nourlangie Rock where the art was more recent (like only 2,000+ years old); Mamukala (Mar-moo-car-lar) Wetlands where the mozzies were big and the scenery breathtaking; we spent 2 nights camping out where the dingoes howled (such a spooky noise);  tried to run over cane toads on the road and we managed to lose our T-piece pin that connects Trakkie to Prado. Now that was fun! Searching on the road in the black of night, dingoes howling around us, (the kids terrified one of the dingoes were going to jump out and gobble them up) and avoiding stepping on big squashed cane toads on the road. The next morning after no luck in finding it, Mark found a good fat stocky stick and wedged it down where the T-piece would go, and wrapped it in '100 mile per hour' tape. More about that next blog! (Let me just say it held up till Katherine and then came crashing down!!)

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