Aaaannnnddd.....we are off!
As predicted, Easter Sunday brought about the awakening of two very excited young ladies, at a rather early time. The fact that clocks had undergone the rudimentary winding back of an hour due to daylight savings concluding the night before, added to my haziness as both Sarah and my dreary eyes were awoken at 5am.
The arbitrarily left Easter Eggs were no match for Ebony and Charlotte, as they divided and conquered as a two person search party to find the shiny treats. Hot cross buns for breakfast and it was time to hit the road.
The feeling was still surreal. Sarah and I had been burning the midnight oil for a considerable time in order to get everything ready. Meals were cooked and frozen, valuables boxed up and left in the care of loved ones, other personal goods were boxed up and placed in storage, and work commitments, succession plans and contingencies were enacted. This was it! A few years of planning, replanning, researching and preparation had gone into this trip, and here we were, ready for departure.
We drove away from our humble abode at just after 8am and headed north west. It wasn’t long before the girls began their tireless training as future DJs, with an assortment of singalongs to enjoy. This, intertwined with an audio book of Enid Blyton’s The Enchanted Forest made these longer days bearable. No! I must say, enjoyable. I have always loved the drive to new destinations. In a world that bases its normality on hectic and crazy, I find the drive relaxing and the headspace is always welcome.
After a lunch stop at Woomelang, which was too hot for a playground venture, we pressed on through the Mallee and over the South Australian border; the first of six border crossings we will do in the next five months.
That night, the holy bible of touring that is WikiCamps led us to the Hogwash Bend freecamp located near Morgan in South Australia. Due to the Easter weekend, it was busy. Fortuitously, we managed to find a site away from the mass of locals, which was both quiet and sheltered. An early night for all of us as it had been a big day!
The next morning, we woke and left by 6:30, as we, again, had to acclimatise to a new time zone; another half an hour behind our current body clocks. Google Maps indicated that our route towards Ceduna would involve a ferry. Surely not, I remember thinking to myself and didn’t think anything more of it. That was, until, we drove to the town of Morgan and, indeed, in front of us was a barge/ferry that we had to board to get across that stretch of the Murray. Unexpected, but it coincided with the sunrise, so added a lot of excitement to the morning.
Onward we pressed, interspersing games of eye spy with family singalongs, as well as occasional breaks and toilet stops. The girls were both travelling well at this stage, which was a relief! We allowed them both an hour or so of iPad time each afternoon if they hadn’t caused us too much grief during the day. They had both chosen a few movies to download before we left. If only they knew how fortunate they are to have access to these devices. When I was a kid....no let’s not open up that old chestnut.
Past Burra, onto Port Pirie and over Port Augusta we went as we moved to straighter roads and more level plains. We decided that we would stop at Kimba for lunch. At our stop I spied a town map with a playground sign. Why not? The girls needed to blow off some steam and run around a bit, so we ventured toward the area located on the map.
Weren’t we pleasantly surprised!
I couldn’t believe that, in such a small, remote and outback town, this brand new, excellently appointed playground existed. The kids and big kids enjoyed a good half an hour bouncing on the jumping pillow, before devouring lunch and heading onwards.
That evening, after more consultation with WikiCamps, we decided to check out Pildappa Rock freecamp, just out of Minnipa. What an awesome little freecamp and we were the lone, solitary campers there that night. You are allowed to climb the rock, so that is exactly what we did. Luckily, Sarah had the foresight to purchase fly nets for us all and they came in very handy.
The sunset that evening was spectacular. Ebony and I shared a little time together whilst Charlotte and Sarah went back to the van, on Charlotte’s ever so coercive requests. A quick dinner, shower and bed for us all that night. We had another big day of driving to do.
The following morning, we awoke, packed up and headed west. The terrain continued to even out until the both it and the road in front of us became indiscernible from the horizon. We had reached the Nullarbor Plain and were more than half way across South Australia. Whilst I lamented that we were unable to check out Streaky Bay and many of the other enticing South Australian attractions, we have committed to exploring these areas in a future trip.
The day went by in an uneventful fashion, but the evening was something different. We free camped along the Bunda Cliffs, along the Great Australian Bight, and it was spectacular scenery. The flies were friendly, but we had amazing views from our Journey window. The sunset and sunrise that followed were two of the best we have ever seen.
departure.
Of course, it was a great chance for me to get the drone up. The wind had picked up and I was quite nervous about this, but couldn’t possibly forego the chance to get some quality aerial shots. Much to my dismay, about five minutes into my flight, the drone disconnected from my controller. In what was probably an ephemeral moment, but, at the time, seemed like hours, all I saw on my screen was the words ”CONNECTION TO AIRCRAFT LOST”. It’s gone, I thought. Then, after my heart began to find its rhythm again, the failsafe protocol had kicked in and the drone dutifully returned to its point of origin, automatically. Thank God!!! Donating a Mavic Air 2 to the Indian Ocean was not part of this trip’s itinerary.
The next morning we made it to Border Village and through the quarantine and border checkpoints of Western Australia. Why did this particular moment give me slight palpitations? Perhaps, it was because this border had been shut for so long to the rest of Australia and that the then State Government were well known for shutting the border at a single case. I don’t know. It was certainly a relief when we were ushered through and given the all clear to proceed into the state where we had planned to spend so much time. We were in and failing a sudden surge in covid cases, we were going to be able to explore this wonderful state, to the full extent of our plans.
The temperature gauge hit 40 degrees as we crossed Australia’s longest straight road. 142 kilometres of not moving the steering wheel.
That evening we camped alongside a gazillion flies at Newman Rocks. Another free camp which suited our needs. Dinner, showers and bed!
The following day we ‘only’ had 350 kilometres do drive, which was like a walk in the park. We had made it to our first official destination of the trip, Esperance, and couldn’t wait to explore. The girls had exceeded our expectations in terms of being cooped up in the car for 5 days; an absolute credit to them both. Well done girls!
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