May 21 - June 5 (Day 379-394) - Kununurra to Alice Springs (via the Tanami Rd)

Kununurra

We stayed in Kununurra for a few days. We had one night at the Hidden Valley caravan park. Next morning we found one of the caravan tyres had a slow puncture. The tyres were getting very low anyway and I had been debating changing them in Kununurra (expensive) vs taking a risk and hoping they'd limp us back to Adelaide (cheaper). The puncture tipped the scales in favour of replacing the tyres so we got four new tyres put on at the Bridgestone dealer. They weren't actually too expensive, I think about $210 per tyre compared to $180 or so for a comparable tyre in Perth.

New tyres for the van!

April 9 (Day 337) - Mullewa to Mount Magnet

 

Cyclone Seroja

Last night I was trying to find more information about the cyclone. There were a few sites - Bureau of Meteorology, Emergency WA, Department of Fire and Emergency Services, but they all just seemed to refer to each other. I'd tried a couple of phone numbers but they just had pre-recorded voices reading the same information on the websites.

So after breakfast I rang the Bureau of Meteorology in Perth to get some advice - specifically, whether we would be safe going up to Karijini National Park, or better off down in Perth. To help you out, here's a map showing the current cyclone path map (as at 10 April), and Karijini so you can see what we're trying to do:

As you can see, Karijini is well out of the danger zone (600km east of the coast), however it's in the Pilbara region and all the forecasts listed the Pilbara as an at-risk area. The Bureau wasn't a lot of help but they said to ring the SES in Tom Price (which is the closest branch) who said the area should be quite safe so long as we got up there reasonably soon. 

April 7 (Day 336) - Perth to Geraldton

 

450km

 I say 'Day 336' because according to my calculations that's what we're up to in terms of days actually travelling, rather than total time away from home. Our last day of travelling on the road as such was heading back to Perth from Kalgoorlie in January.

After another slower morning than we'd planned for, we managed to get packed up and left the Bundesen's. What a lovely family and what a lovely couple of days of relaxation after a busy pack-up week and a busy weekend together!

Getting ready to leave the Bundesen's

As always seems to be the way when we're leaving, there were various odds and ends to attend to, even though yesterday I made a special trip out to attend to what I thought was the full list of odds and ends! We dropped into a Jayco dealer to pick up a door handle that broke this morning while packing up; we then had to do a bit of shopping to stock the fridge with some basic supplies, after which we were famished and got Subway for lunch. After having had a bit of junk food over the weekend we wanted something a bit healthier than white bread cheese and bacon rolls from Woolies which had been the plan. But at last after 1pm we got onto Leach Highway, then Orrong Rd, through the Graham Farmer tunnel under East Perth, and out onto the Mitchell Freeway northbound.

Travel Plans - April 7

One is reluctant to plan too much as it seems to change so often! But here is the plan for the last leg of our trip as it stands on April 8.

• April we plan to drive up to Coral Bay, Exmouth and Karijini National Park - basically the Gascoyne and Pilbara regions.
• May we plan to go through the Kimberly across the Gibb River Road to Kununurra
• First week of June we'll be starting the trip down to Adelaide, either via the Stuart Highway via Daly Waters, or via the Tanami Rd which runs from Fitzroy Crossing in the Kimberly down to Alice Springs

Kids are due back at school on June 15 so we hope to be home a week or so before that.

All God willing! Who knows what could change! 

-- Greg

6 Jan (Day 323) - Perth to Herron Point (start of south-west 2 week trip)

 

95km

Wednesday 6 January 2021

Today we started out trip down south. Our original plan when we crossed the border back in November was to go along the south coast and make our way up to Perth but the quarantine time totally changed that plan. We had also hoped to do this part of the state on our last trip but Jude was on crutches after having broken his leg so it would have been too difficult.

The plan for this two week leg of our trip God willing, is to head along the south coast to Albany, along to Esperance and then back inland to Perth via Wave Rock and the Wheatbelt.

We are calling this 'Day 323' of our trip as far as it relates to travelling. Since we've been landed for a couple of weeks we'll just exclude those days in the official 'days of travel' count.

Anyway we headed off after having some morning tea at Dad & Mum's and made our way to fill up with fuel. Our first stop was about 200m away at the Thornlie Library for some essential reading material for the kids!

Travel Plans Update - Dec 2020

Extending the trip!

If you've been reading our blog for a while you'd realise our travel plans have changed a fair bit since we left! Covid of course has had an impact, particularly with border closures, and we've come up with various solutions. This doesn't overly bother us as one of the pleasures of being on the road without a fixed schedule is that we've been able to adjust our plans to suit our circumstances, rather than having to stick to a preset plan which may no longer be ideal.

Back in August we toyed with the idea of extending our trip by an extra six months in order to give us time to get back up to the north west of WA, which was one of our favourite places from our last trip. Due to the wet season, the top end is an unpleasant place to be in the wet season so it's not the sort of place we could go at our current time of year (December). At the time we discounted this option, but since we arrived in Perth we've reviewed it again, and after much consideration have decided to go with this option. This means that God willing we will now return to Adelaide in June 2021.

Dec 4 (Day 308) - Perth to Guilderton - back on the road!

170km

Today we're on our way again! Our plan over the next couple of weeks is to head up north and then back to Perth with Mim's Mum and Dad. We're not sure how far we'll get in that two weeks but that's the broad plan. Beyond that we don't know exactly where we'll go. But we do want to go at least as far as Geraldton, because last year Mim and Jude had to fly with the Royal Flying Doctor Service from Geraldton to Perth when Jude broke his leg, so they've not travelled that bit of road before. We expect to get at least as far as Shark Bay, possibly Carnarvon. But we'll see.

The best laid plans of mice and men stated we were going to be heading off together first thing in the morning, after having gotten everything packed the night before. Oh how promising that always sounds. Our intentions to leave Adelaide at the start of our trip in mid-January sounded just as promising (we ended up leaving on 1 Feb!). If you've ever tried to head off at a particular time you'll know there are so many 'last minute' things that the last minute tends to take several hours or more! And so it was this time. Given the pace things were moving, I went back to the doctor for a face-to-face appointment rather than the intended phone appointment given I expected we'd have been on the road by then.

Oct 29 (Day 272) - Bedourie to Birdsville

 

We packed up our site and topped up the tanks ($1.75/L). The drive from Boulia was sealed all the way, but we were told the road to Birdsville turned into dirt a little way along, although a good dirt road it sounds. We had noticed on the Plenty Highway the sounds of rocks hitting the back windscreen, getting kicked up from the tyres, onto the van, and then back onto the car rear window, so we stuck a sheet of cardboard from the solar blanket box over the window to protect it from any further stone chips.

This done, we headed out of Bedourie, with a great impression of a super tidy, clean town that we would love to stay at again if circumstances allowed. The kids had had some niggling arguments so a portion of the trip was dealing with that again. Irritating, but as always, it's helpful to get to the bottom of why it's happening and address the behaviours / attitudes involved. Travelling all together is so helpful for that even if it gets frustrating at times! We stopped for lunch at Carcory Homestead Ruins. If ever you wanted to see a desolate place, check this out.

 

Oct 22-23 (Day 265-266) - Alice Springs to 'Hemmi's Camp' (Burt Plain)

Wow! What a long drive! :D

The kids were pretty disappointed to be leaving the Cole's as they really enjoyed the company of other kids, but we did want to keep moving with our travels.

 

As we headed out of town from the Cole's place we made our way to the shops to quickly pick up something for lunch then to the library as I still had some work to do, while Mim did some top-up food shopping. Matt came with his muscles to help carry it all back!

As we were leaving town there was an eerie red glow in the sky on the horizon which we initially thought was a bushfire! But after a bit we realised it was more the colour of the red dirt, and with the growing wind it was obviously a dust storm. As we drove we could feel the strong winds, and the poor Pajero was guzzling fuel as we headed uphill out of Alice Springs into a head wind! Thankfully it didn't last for long and then we were through it and on the other side where the sky was normal again. We thought it best to head back to our favourite spot in the bush so we could have some signal to keep an eye on business stuff, so off to find our tracks and head into the bush.

No not a bushfire - just a big dust storm plus some clouds!

Aug 12-13 (Day 194-195) – Umagico to random quarry near Jardine River

 Wednesday August 12

We decided for sure that we were going to head off this time! It’s a lovely spot here at Alau Beach Campground, but $44/night is a bit unnecessary when all we’re using is the pool, toilet and shower. Remember Woodgate during lockdown was $41/night with power and water in a full grassed caravan park! So we had breakfast, did our morning reading, and packed up the site.

Our campsite at Alau Beach -
Torres Strait in the background

Our last morning dip at Alau Beach!

Aug 11 travel plans update

 Hi all,

Just a quick review of where things are up to with border closures and our plans from here.

We intend to leave Umagico tomorrow August 12 at this stage God willing, and start heading back down south. The aim is to head south towards the bottom of the Cape, and then either south-west along Dixie Road from Artemis Station towards Normanton, or if the road turns out to be too bad to go all the way down to Mareeba and then take one of two roads directly west to Normanton. The first road is about 160km, the latter two options about 1200! But we're not in a hurry really. We do want to visit Lawn Hill which is close to the QLD-NT border, a little way down from the Gulf of Carpentaria.

The NT border is still open at the moment to those who aren't in a hotspot, which we aren't, so we hope this situation remains the case while we make our way down. If things change, we plan to explore more of western Queensland, in particular Longreach which we loved last time we visited. If the NT border does open then we'll go on through and try to see things we missed last year, in particular Kakadu, Arnhem Land and a mandatory revisit to Mataranka!

The WA border is not looking like opening anytime soon, so that part of the trip may unfortunately be off the cards unless things change. That will be a real pity, however there are still plenty of places to enjoy out here. And we did get to WA last year anyway.

Presuming the WA border remains closed, we will assess once we're in NT whether we come straight back down the middle down to SA or not. I think it's more likely we might go back into Queensland for the rest of the year and come back to Adelaide later on.

God bless!
Greg

COVID travel plans update - 2 July 2020

Hi all,

About 10 days ago I posted an update about the different travel options we have ahead of us based on which borders open and don't. The situation has developed since then.

Yesterday the QLD Government advised Cape York would open on July 10, which was great news for us, as we're currently in Abergowrie State Forest about 120km north of Townsville on our way to Cairns. But only six hours later they decided to bring it forward a week, so the Cape is now opening from midday tomorrow, July 3!

So we are leaving the forest today, intending to look at Mission Beach, Innisfail and then through the Atherton Tablelands before coming down into Cairns, then up to Port Douglas and into the Cape. This fits well with the first step of our plan outlined last week.

-- Greg

What are our travel plans at the moment?

Hi all,

PHEW!

That's the sound I made when I finally got the blog up to date! It has been a bit of a grind, especially the videos, so I hope they've been interesting enough.

Anyway now that's out the way I wanted to give you a quick update on our travel plans. You're probably aware Queensland's borders are still closed at the moment. This actually suits us fairly well, because it means there aren't any southerners filling up campgrounds and escaping the cold winter. Sorry fellow SA'ers, we do feel sympathetic for those who would want to be up here, but at least for us it's working OK.

The Big Picture

On a broad scale, we are still hoping to complete the full lap this year, but a month or so ago we roughly sketched out a couple of contingency plans if we were unable to get into either WA or NT. Loosely, these would be to either: