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| 2020 |
2021 |
2022
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| 1.
Mallee & Mt. Gambier |
2. The Flood
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3. Cultured Out! |
4.
Across Arnhem Land - 1
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5.
Across Arnhem Land - 2 |
6.
Vietnam |
We'd not been back home in
Castlemaine long; long enough to mow the
grass and make the place tidy, and to go to
granddaughter Frankie's 2nd birthday; and it
was time to go away to some warmer weather,
yet again. I don't think it's entirely
because we've failed to acclimatise to the
southern winter properly.
So with the White House fully loaded,
we were ready to go. The night prior, I
thought I'd check its oil - something I'd
never done. It's now 10 months old and I
thought I should. But... not so easy. Where
is the bonnet release lever? I couldn't find
it. I referred to the manual - still
couldn't find it! In the end I had to use
the internet for help. (The oil level was
fine.)
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| And
on Saturday 8th July, we drove off. Not
knowing exactly where or how far we were
going. It is such a nice way to travel, like
this; 'twas easier in the pre-internet days,
but a motorhome makes it easy now. |
 Today,
at 11.30 am , it was exactly one week since
we left Castlemaine. It seems a long time
ago. This is the first, open ended trip we
have made since retiring and it is such a
joy to set off, not knowing when we will
stop, no deadlines to meet, no fixed
arrangements. We seem to have been on the
road for ages because we have seen - grey
drizzly country Victoria, Mildura now
emerged from the floodwaters of our last
visit, a wonderful area of  SA
on the Heysen track called "the end of the
world". If this is the end of the world, I
would like to stay here amongst the ancient
gums and birdsong. Then we drove north with
the Flinders Ranges on one side and the
Remarkables on the other until we hit the
sea right at the northern end of Spencer
Gulf. We walked on the beach and then headed
inland. There are some lovely ghost
towns and some really attractive small
country towns as well as the ones you drive
through feeling glad that we don't live
here. The countryside has  changed
to salt bush and gibber plain with few
animals, even fewer towns or people but the
red centre, at least as far as the NT border
, is currently wearing more than a tinge of
green. We are currently camped just short of
the NT SA border, and as is usual in the
motor home, we are well fed, clean ( daily
hot showers!) in yet another beautiful place
.
Traveling within Australia is still one of
my favorites,even after all the wonderful
trips we have made. Where else can you
noodle for  opals
, visit such stunning scenery as the
breakaways, see emus and brumbies by the
road, camp for free in magical places, - all
in 24 hours! Add in that everyone
speaks your language, the money is easily
understood and managed ( can you divide by
180,000 to get the approximate value in
Australian dollars), you can cook exactly
what you feel like to eat and in the motor
home, it is like a cruise in that you are
not packing and unpacking at all. Good
company, and no fixed plans equals bliss.
Five days later , we are in Alice Springs.
It is now time to stop travelling so fast or
far and spend more time enjoying places,
especially as it is warmer, at least in the
afternoons. We are a bit reluctant to return
to some places of which we have good
memories as second visits can be
disappointing. This certainly applies to
Kings Canyon and Uluru. Other places
are out of reach as  the
motorhome is certainly not high clearance
and the roads up here have suffered with the
recent wet. This has left the red centre
looking as green as I have ever seen it,
especially a bit south of Alice Springs.
There are even places with surface water
just sitting there. There are long distance
between places of interest and lots and lots
of caravans on the road and parked at
Roadhouses but we have been able to find
lovely secluded camping spots, enjoyed
looking for meterorite pieces, talked to
like minded tarvellers
We spent a couple of days out in the East
Macdonnell Ranges at Trephina Gorge as this
side is much less crowded than the West
Macdonnells. We repeated our favorite walk,
the Trephina gorge Ridge walk to the
chain of ponds and it was just as good
as last time.
Simon's
Journal
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