Brisbane Trip Day 1: Home -> Yerrinbool

I was up at 5 and the kids around 5.30, to finish putting the last things in the car and try to get an early start. I was already hitched up which made things easier and quicker. Tony got home from night shift around 6am, which was fantastic as we all got to say a proper good bye, and we were on our way by 6.40. Everyone was very excited to finally be on our road trip that we’d been talking about and altering the plan for months.

Just past Tony’s work (so about 8 minutes into the trip) we were stopped at a road closure – there’d been a bad (fatal) accident further along the Melba Hwy so we had to detour. We went the back way to Healesville (we didn’t want to drive back past our house!) and then up Chum Creek Rd – which is windy and tricky to drive at the best of times, so I was quite nervous attempting it in the trailer. I drove slowly and carefully and it was fine. We got to the top of the slide an hour after we left home – usually it would take us 15 minutes. Everyone was in a good mood and it had felt like an adventure – I was a bit worried that adding an extra hour driving to my already huge driving load for the day would mean we couldn’t get as far as we wanted to – but I figured I’d just stop whenever we needed to and I’d see how we went.

Caitlin controlled the music play list and all the kids had a nap in the first couple of hours. It was a fairly easy drive up to the Hume Fwy. At some point I realised I hadn’t brought along our Camps Australia Wide book, which I was looking forward to using to map out our trip and help find cheap campsites – I’ll just need to use my regular map book and wiki camps, it will be fine (though not as fun or easy).

I was getting tired as we got to the Hume so we stopped at Mokoan rest stop and had some breakfast (yoghurt, granola and hot cross buns). We explored the area (there’s a (very) little walking trail) and looked at the maps and I did a bit of yoga. I made myself a cup of tea and after about an hour and a quarter we hit the road again.

We started listening to ‘Alcatraz and the Evil Librarians’ and discovered that it is hilarious and very entertaining, so that made the time pass much more quickly. We drove through to Gundagai and stopped at the Dog on the Tuckerbox. The kids got a frozen coke when I got petrol, and I got a cornetto from the gift store at the Dog – I always forget that the toilets down there are not public toilets, you need to be using the store to use them. We had a picnic lunch on the lawn near the Dog, and the kids were keen to get back into the car and keep driving (thank you audio books) but I was too tired so I had a lie down for 10 minutes or so – it was beautiful lying under gum trees and listening to galahs. It was really hot thought, hot and dry.

Eventually I felt awake enough to drive. I enjoy driving the Hume past Yass, lots of memories of all the times we drove it from Griffith, and when I used to go to Canberra a lot. After about 90 minutes I stopped again at a rest stop and made another cup of tea. From there it was an easy drive to Yerrinbool and we arrived almost exactly 12 hours after we’d left home.

It was 8 ½ hours of driving altogether (with the detour) – I don’t think I’ve ever driven that far in a day when I was the only driver. So I was feeling pretty exhausted and also very proud that I had managed it.

The friends we are going to see in Brisbane used to live in a great place in Yerrinbool (near Mittagong) with lots of room in the backyard for camping. Friends of theirs now live there and said we could camp for the night on our way through. The kids played on the trampoline and helped set up, surrounded by chickens and a couple of ducks. We did a very basic set up – I didn’t unhitch and I didn’t set up the bunk beds, Caitlin slept with me. When our hosts arrived home the kids helped them put all the chickens away and they gave us 6 eggs – so I cooked carbonara for dinner. It was great to eat something substantial after snacking all day. Our hosts helped the kids set up a campfire and we sat there for a while before heading to bed – everyone was exhausted.

Half-lap Day 64: Fitzroy Crossing -> Broome

I am still waking up around 5am most days, which is about 6.30 Northern Territory time, and about an hour and a half before sunrise. I felt like I was the first person awake in the whole caravan park when I went over to the camp kitchen to charge the computer and have a cup of tea. There was no kettle in the kitchen, so I found the cleanest frypan (3 frypans were the only items in the kitchen) and boiled some water – it wasn’t too bad but the 2^nd half of my cuppa did have a bit of a meaty taste…

Our soup sharing neighbour offered me hot water when I got back to camp – he’d boiled more than he needed, so there was enough for a fresh cup of tea, and some for my porridge, and for washing up water. We had a good chat about different ways of travelling and each of our plans for the next part of our trips.

I started packing up and the others emerged from the tent as they woke. We did a pretty quick packup, and the kids played with our neighbours again. They made a banana smoothie and shared it with our kids. Caitlin spent most of the morning talking to a lady they’d met the day before, with a King Charles Spaniel puppy (very cute). In between packing, and then while I was finishing off, I chatted to the mum of the family next door, she gave us lots of tips for things down the west coast, and we discussed the logistics of travelling with kids. Once we were all packed up we kept talking while the kids were happily playing, and probably left almost an hour after we were ready. The kids didn’t want to leave, they really liked these boys.

We stopped in town to get petrol and essential groceries (finally getting some eggs for LiAM) and marveled again at how little water was in the Fitzroy river in town, compared to in the gorge. Then we headed out for the long drive west to Broome – about 400km. The scenery today was the most monotonous we’ve seen for a long time. Mainly flat land, with short dark trees and not a lot of undergrowth. Sometimes the trees were different, there were some black, feathery looking trees with no leaves, not sure what they were. There were lots of boabs, some were really huge, just amazing to look at. Some had green leaves and/or yellow leaves, others were bare. One thing that quite surprised us was that the landscape and vegetation didn’t change much, even as we approached the coast. Within a couple of kilometres of the shoreline, there was no indication that we were in a coastal area.

We crossed several rivers, most of them dry, some with waterholes, occasionally one with a lot of water. Crossing a one-lane bridge over a large waterhole, we saw several freshwater crocodiles sunning themselves in the water. LiAM didn’t see them so we did a U-turn and went back over the bridge, where there was a spot we could pull off the road and get out of the car. We stood up on the top of the bank and watched the crocodiles in the water for a while. We didn’t see any on the banks (and we didn’t go down closer to the low banks, we just stayed up high) but saw 7 or 8 floating in the water. It was our first completely wild sighting of freshies and it was rather exciting. The sun was searing hot and not everyone had grabbed a hat as we got out of the car so it was quite uncomfortable.

3 freshwater crocodiles in a large waterhole

Back in the car we continued westwards. I’d been ringing caravan parks whenever we had signal and we’d decided to stay close to town (it would be cheaper to stay about 35km out of Broome, but we thought we’d enjoy it more if we were nearer all the activities this time, even if it costs us a bit more). We’d been warned that we might not get accommodation because it was school holidays and many grey nomads come to Broome for 1-3 months at this time of year – but we found a few parks who had room for us. We picked one on the outskirts of the town – the slightly cheaper, closer to town one that had a site available also had lots of reviews saying that there was a lot of theft, so we decided to go for more security.

We arrived and set up our tent, and saw cows wandering past on the other side of the fence, and a wallaby a few sites down. We had something to eat then Tony took the kids to the pool, which is pretty spectacular. I had a rest by myself, I was feeling quite overstimulated and just needed some down time. Can happen sometimes when we’ve been in the car for a long time, all my senses get a bit on edge.

It was exciting to be in Broome though, it feels like a halfway point – like it’s the top north-west point we’ll reach before heading back to the South East. It’s not exactly half-way, in terms of either time or distance, but it feels like a midpoint. It was also such a relief to easily find accommodation after all the warnings we’d had. We were all too tired to head into town to check it out tonight, looking forward to actually seeing the town and the beach tomorrow. Weird too to think we are back on the coast, and with beaches we can swim at!

We had a combination of leftovers, instant pasta, soup and eggs for tea. Afterwards Caitlin and LiAM played Euchre, and continued playing as we read Inheritance, then Caitlin got into her tent and we read a bit more before going to sleep.