The Grand Summary - or the Kennojus family's best and worst of 2012

Kms travelled: 40,425 (approx)
Days away: 325
States and territories visited: all of them!
Longest drive: From Tenant Creek to Lawn Hill - 798kms
Most expensive tourist 'experience': Swimming with the whalesharks (Exmouth, WA)
Number of hospital/doctors visits: 3 (2 for Sash, and 1 for Bill)

Best campsite
Zara + Sasha: Bussleton Big 4 Caravan Park (WA)
Bill: Big Lagoon, Francois Perron National Park (WA)
Kate: Shelly Beach, Albany (WA) + Conto Campground, Margaret River (WA)

Best Day
Sasha: my birthday in Bussleton (WA) and Movieworld (Gold Coast)
Zara: Movieworld (Goldcoast)
Bill: Fishing with George in Kalumbaru (Kimberly) and day at Michael and Julia's in Hobart
Kate: Hiking at Mitchell Falls (Kimberly) + walking in Bungle Bungles (WA)

Best tourist 'experience'
Zara: swimming with the whalesharks (Exmouth, WA) and snorkeling on the Great Barrier Reef
Sasha: swimming with the whalesharks (even though he stayed on the boat!)
Bill: Tasman Island Cruise (TAS)
Kate: Ord River canoe trip (WA) and watching the total solar eclipse (Mareeba, QLD)

Worst moment
Zara: saying goodbye to Melbourne visitors
Sasha: crashing off bike on Mariah Island (TAS)
Bill: driving 5 hours to Kununurra (WA) with offensive boring guy
Kate: eye infection and chat to racist Perth couple in Alice Springs

People we loved from Melbs:
Cam, Greta, Dash and Jett
Jane, Sasha and Nina
Prue and Graham
Dave, Liz, Ada and Henry
Anna and Thu

Best fishing spots:
Lincoln National Park (SA)
Denham (WA)
Big Lagoon, Shark Bay (WA)
Honeymoon Bay, Kimberlys (WA)

Longest hikes:
Freycinet National Park (TAS)
Uluru base-walk (NT)
Pound Walk, Ormiston Gorge (NT)

Best hikes:
Frenchman's Peak, Cape Le Grande National Park (WA)
Mt Tubyularup, Stirling Ranges (WA)
Hollow Mountain, Grampians (VIC)
Pinnacles, Grampians (VIC)
Wineglass Bay, Freycinet National Park (TAS)
Rainforest Walk, Cape Tribulation (QLD)

Nicest beaches:
Turquoise Bay, Cape Range National Park (WA)
Cape Tribulation (QLD)
Shelley Beach, near Albany (WA)
Bay of Fires (TAS)

Worst bities (mozzies and sandflies):

Ubir, Kakadu (NT)

Kalumburu, Kimberly coast (WA)

Francois Perron National Park (WA)  

Number of flat tyres: 2 

(1 on Gibb River Road, Kimberlys (WA), 1 on Hume Highway (NSW))

Number of tow-trucks used: 3 

(Gibb River road to Kununurra, Litchfield NP to Katherine, Tully bridge to Tully)

Favourite driving songs:

Sasha: Somebody That I Used to Know, Gotye

Zara: Little Lies, Fleetwood Mac

Bill: Signatune, DJ Mhedi

Kate: Oh Yoko, John Lennon

10 Spots (in no particular order):

Kate and Bill

1. Gunlum, Kakadu (NT)
2. Karijini gorges (WA)
3. Bungle Bungles (WA)
4. Lincoln National Park (SA)
5. Cape Range National Park (WA)
6. Litchfield National Park (NT)
7. Zebede Hot Springs, El Questro, Kimberlys (WA)
8. Lawn Hill, Budjamulla National Park (QLD)
9. Uluru (NT)
10. Mitchell Falls, Kimberlys (WA)

Zara and Sasha

1. Theme parks (QLD)
2. Tim and Stephanie's house (NSW)
3. Tanya's house (NT)
4. Cow Bay (QLD)
5. Great Barrier Reef (QLD)
6. Bussleton (WA) 
7. Marg's place (WA)
8. Louise's place (WA)
9. Big Lagoon and Monkey Mia, Francois Perron NP (WA)
10. The Katherine Public Library (NT)

Hurrah! Back in Vic and nearly home (Dec 2012)

To be completed (soon!)

Last night in Wodonga - beautiful campsite.
Back to Melbs

Questacon and a night with family (Dec 2012)

To be completed (soon!)

Drove to Canberra, visited Questacon for a couple of hours, then to Gundaroo to stay with Tim and Stephanie.

Bright lights, fireworks and caravan park residents in Sydney (Dec 2012)

To be completed (soon!)

Tall Timbers caravan park in Kemsey. 1 night thankfully.

To Sydney - 3 nights in funny caravan park with lots of permanent residents - almost all old guys with tatts on their necks, beer bellies, missing teeth and well-tendered gardens. Sash loved them and kept dissapearing into their caravans to watch telly with them while they drank beer. Bit awkward.

Went to carols in the park without really realising that they were run by the local christian church and so contained a lot of singing and talking about Jesus. At one point they called all the little christian kids down the front and so our kids, ragged, dirty and wide-eyed ran to the front and stood staring while the chirpy lady onstage talk to them about the true meaning of Christmas. They were confused but happy enough. Still we left early and scooted across town to watch an amazing Christmas fireworks display over Darling Harbour. Sash, who had never seen fireworks before, ooohed and ahhed then checked with me that I would still read him a book before bed that night, and then assured went back to oohing and ahhing...

Next day we took a ferry across the harbour to Taronga Zoo where we spent a happy day checking out the animals. The rest of our time in Sydney was spent doing a little Christmas shopping, checking out amazing residential christmas lights, going to see 'Rise of the Guardians' at the cinema and trying to extract Sash from other people's caravans...

Hippies, babies and plans for a commune in Nthn NSW (Dec 2012)

To be completed (soon!)

To Whian Whian (near Mullumbimby) - camping with hippies
Drive through gorgeous northern nsw mountains. Bill planned his commune.
Visited Bec and Nick and met baby Benjamin.

All class on the Gold Coast

Throwing all cynicism and class to the wind, we braced ourselves for 3 days of theme-park madness. After a year of rustic living, open spaces, peace and serenity, we were ready to go bananas! So we packed a bag of healthy snacks (ok not toooo bananas...) and headed for our first day at Movieworld (Hollywood on the Gold Coast!!). And we had the best day ever. Bill again displayed his incredible lack of fear by going on almost every single super scary ride there. Zara showed that she is truly her father's daughter by going on every scary ride she was allowed on. And Sash reminded us that he is still only 4 and finds the snail-paced merry-go-round quite thrilling indeed. Me, well I loved the Spooky-coaster with Zara, the stunt cars with the kids, the roller-coaster with everyone, the 4D movie experience, and the gluttonous bottomless buffet lunch... But most of all I loved how excited Sash was by the people dressed up as movie characters and how he lined up so many times to meet them that they all knew him by the end of the day. He wasn't interested in having his photo taken with them - he just wanted to hug and kiss them with pure adoration all over his beautiful face. He even kissed Tweety-Bird's feet...

We had planned to hit the water-slides at Wet N Wild the next day but the light rain was a bit off-putting (standing in endless queues in wet bathers), so we headed to Sea World instead. Again, a great day. We ooohed and ahhhhhed along with the crowd at the performing dolphins and seals - but felt slightly uncomfortable with the whole concept at the same time. Education verses exploitation and all that... Giant moving dinosaurs were cool though. And the Dora show. And Sash got to meet Spongebob and Squarepants and a whole heap of other characters who he did not recognise but loved all the same...

And yes, the next day we actually returned to where our hearts were - Movieland! You see, Bill had run out of time and had missed out on one of the scary rides. And the rest of us didn't need much encouragement to go back...

Gotta love the Gold Coast!

Old friends, an Xmas frenxy and dizzying heights in Brisvegas

Still shaking off the salt water and dreaming of incredible underwater scenes, we hightailed it to Brisbane - stopping for a forgettable night in Gladstone en route. Sash was pretty keen to check out the Giant Pineapple (being of the age where giant things appeal) but when we pulled in after a brief de-tour, everything was shutting for the day. A young attendant took pity on us and let us climb the pineapple and check out the history of pineapple production in Australia. We also took the obligatory photo of the family waving from the top of the pineapple, just below the stalk...

Upon leaving, I did a very unusual thing for me - I checked my facebook account. Much to my delight I happened to notice that a very dear old friend from Melbourne, Anna O, had posted that she was in Brisbane with another lovely friend, Thu! Turns out that they were just in town for the weekend and it just happened to be the very weekend we were passing through on our whirlwind tour of the east coast... I was thrilled at the chance to see two of my fave peeps from Melbourne so I rang Anna and we arranged to meet up the very next day in the heart of Brisbane.

We checked in at a caravan park near the water (for final fishing attempts by BT) and made plans for our brief time in Brisbane. Early the next morning we took off into town and headed straight to Myers to meet Santa and ride the santa-land train. Not surprisingly it was insanely crowded and took forever, but the kids enjoyed every second so it was totally worth it. The year in a tent must have addled our brains a bit because we actually purchased a copy of a really weird photo of the kids with Santa where they held their hands out and then someone photoshopped some reindeer eating out of their hands. Weird...

Following our Christmas frenzy, we met up with Anna and Thu for a lovely long lunch of catching up and laughs. It was truly wonderful to see them and a timely reminder that there are people in Melbourne who we were longing to see - and that our homecoming wasn't something to dread!

After fond farewells and promises to catch up soon in Melbourne, Anna and Thu headed to the airport and we headed for Brisbane's big wheel. It was huge and provided an amazing view over Brisbane. We ended our day in town with a peculiar dinner at a funky and outrageously expensive Korean restaurant. We were totally exhausted when we caught the train home - but excited about the next leg of our journey which would take us to the Gold Coast theme parks!!!

Bad food and great snorkelling at Reefworld

Back in Tully we told ourselves that we had made the right decision to sink yet more $$ into our landcruiser instead of taking to it with sledgehammers. But despite handing over great wads of cash we felt okay about our decision to fix what we already have rather than chucking it into landfill and buying more, more, more. Also a bit of respect for the number of kms it has taken us around this vast, sandy, rocky country...

Anyway we were back on the road and heading for the Great Barrier Reef. We all felt excited at reaching yet another great Australian landmark and although we were nervous of the crowds of East-coast tourists, we were excited to have a chance to explore such an amazing natural feature of our glorious country. Due to limited time we had booked a trip to Reefworld - a crazy all-in-one place built right on the reef from which you can snorkel, dive, go on a glass bottom boat, eat lunch, have a massage etc etc. We were really only interested in snorkeling but felt it was a good idea to have back-up activities considering Sash's inconsistent levels of enthusiasm for water-based adventure.

After a night at a caravan park in Airlie Beach we arose early and jumped a fancy boat to Reefworld. I spent most of the journey enjoying the fresh air of the outside deck while the others sat inside and eyed off the snacks from the bar. When I finally made my way inside I found them making friends with a group of fellow-passengers-  one of whom turned out to be my former Melbourne Uni workmate, friend and Hong Kong travel companian, Yee Fui. Great to see her and have yet another randomly encounter with people we know in odd spots in Australia. Yee Fui and her friends were spending the day on one of the islands so almost as soon as we had recovered from the shock of finding eachother on a boat in Queensland we had to say goodbye.

Shortly afterwards we arrived at Reefworld and despite the complete ensuing chaos we were soon wetsuited, flippered, masked etc and plunging into the warm water. Sash, our hero, decided that snorkelling was fun and had a great time spotting fish and coral - until his mask started feeling uncomfortable and he asked to go back on deck. Zara, our fish, happily snorkelled around for ages. As many snorkelers discover, the coral isn't very impressively coloured so close to the surface due to the sunlight - you really have to dive much further down to view the sorts of colours they use on the advertising brochures. However, the fish are amazing and the shapes and textures of the coral are amazing to see. We had a great time - which was good because the buffet lunch was revolting - almost inedible! We consoled ourselves by slipping down the waterslide into the ocean, going on the glass bottom boat tour and having another snorkel.

The journey back to Airlie Beach was a hoot. The staff were clearly relaxed and some of the younger ones befriended Zara and Sasha and taught them circus tricks in the bar area. Hours of fun!

Highlights - definitely the blue blue ocean, amazing snorkeling and lovely staff
Lowlights - most definitely the lunch (what were they thinking?) and the loss of my ring (a precious inheritance from my mum which is now nestled amongst amazing corals on the ocean floor).  

The Dream continues... before getting stuck in the most humid town in Aus!

We said farewell to our tropical hideaway and stuffed one final homemade icecream into our gobs, before accompanying Dave, Liz, Ada and Henry for a picnic, walk and swim at the beautiful Mossman Gorge. Interesting to see that the Gorge area is managed by its traditional owners - apparently no partnership with local government and all staff were local people. Very slick operation - and a lovely place to spend the hours before our dear friends scooted off to Cairns to catch their (delayed!) plane back to Melbs.

We consoled ourselves with sushi train in Cairns where we stayed just one night before heading to Mission Beach where Bill was keen to try for some squid. We decided to detour slightly to check out a much touted tourist attraction called Paronella Park. We had seen some very glossy and intriguing brochures about Paronella Park but couldn't work out what it actually was or what we would be able to do and see there. The brochure just kept stating that 'the dream continues...' in romantic script. If this was a clever bit of marketing it worked!

Anyway, turns out Paronella Park is a big property and castle built by a Spanish dude called Jose. He arrived in Aus, made plenty of money and decided to build a castle - as you do... He opened 'his dream' to the public in the 1930s and had movies, dances, swimming and a cafe for people to enjoy. After the Paronella family left half the castle was burnt down and the rest left to rack and ruin. Then the current owners bought it for a song and have spent a lot of time and energy rebuilding and opening it up as a tourist attraction. They trade on the 'Big Dream' aspect - you know, follow your dreams blah blah. Other tourists rave on about this magic place but unfortunately we got a guide who was more interested in getting the tour finished than answering questions or lingering anywhere. We were literally jogging after him as he gave us the briefest explanations over his shoulder. So after the tour we still didn't really get what the place was, so we wandered around for a while trying to work it out, then gave up and left. But I imagine with the right guide it would be easy to be caught up in the strange, eerie magic of this unusual place... As we left, the kids were given a little yellow bag with 'the dream continues' printed on the front and a piece of rock (from the castle) inside... Righto...

We drove onto Mission Beach which didn't blow us away, and at which Bill had no fishing success. So we spoke long and hard with the friendly and very helpful guy at the Visitors Info Centre and planned our attack of Queensland's tropical islands and beaches... Only problem was that as we drove South our wonderful and reliable (NOT) car started being weird again before conveniently conking out on the small but very busy bridge into Tully (the most humid town in Australia). Luckily the locals were all friendly and helpful and soon had us off the bridge and towed to the local RACQ mechanic before we could blink. We were informed that the car needed all sorts of vital work and that we would  be in Tully for at least 5-6 days, so we settled uncomfortably into a local caravan park that was packed to the rafters with young people who live for a season in Tully and make a pittance picking bananas in the sweltering heat all day and then make a lot of noise and a big mess in the camp kitchen at night. Fun! As we sat sweating outside our trailer we made an easy decision to get outta there ASAP while the car was being fixed. And so the next day we headed off to beautiful Magnetic Island for 3 nights in a basic self-contained unit at the beach - where we swam in the pool and the ocean, hired a car to explore the island, went on a bushwalk to see WW2 ruins and koalas and rode inflatable tubes behind speed boats - for kicks! It was a wonderful, relaxing couple of days.

Enjoying the bug invasion with beautiful friends in the Daintree

Unlike us, most non-retired people do not spend their lives on endless holidays. So when friends and family decide to spend their precious annual leave coming to visit us, we are thrilled and grateful. Although we have met some fabulous (and not so fabulous) folk during our travels, the pleasure of spending time with old friends and family is inexpressible. You just know that they are not going to launch into an unexpected diatribe against Aboriginal people, dole bludgers or women with hairy underarms. They renew our sometimes shaken faith in the nature of Australian people. There is no small talk - just great conversations and easy silences. For all these reasons and more we were thrilled when a car pulled up at a rambling tropical house in Cow Bay and out tumbled Dave, Liz, Ada and Henry.

What followed was a wonderful week of catching up, chocolate-fuelled impossible early 80s trivial pursuit, beach visits, rockhole swimming, cubby building, book reading, hammock cuddling, rainforest zip-lining, great barrier reef snorkeling, local icecream guzzeling, cassowary spotting (not very successful - just one who was dashing over the road) and plenty of relaxing and chatting.

The house we rented for the week was called 'seascapes' and was just perfect. The views were amazing - the ocean and the rainforest on all sides. Everything was open - all  doors and windows were not designed to shut out the rainforest and all its inhabitants. Especially at night time when every big bug, moth and hairy spider entered to spend the night with us in the house. Fine if one is comfortable with bugs but possibly a little icky for anyone with a fear of creepy crawlies. Seascapes was also a house in which the kids could really hoon around in and we weren't worried about breakages and damages (only one lamp down in a whole week!).

It was lovely to get to know baby Henry who is very sweet and who not surprisingly quickly held Zara's heart in his little hands! Also great to see that the friendship of Ada and Sash hasn't suffered from their long separation.

A glorious week with glorious friends in a glorious location!

Cairns catch ups, cavorting hippies and fast friendships

Blissing out on post-eclipse ecstasy we happily packed up our gear, said goodbye to the biker dude and headed to Cairns. The road wound scenically and precariously down from the mountains to the coast. We were excited to be meeting up with Bill’s aunt and uncle, Prue and Graham, who had travelled up to Cairns from Melbourne to view the total eclipse. They had cleverly found a café in the middle of a great playground called Muddies, which greatly enhanced the likelihood of the adults actually having a conversation. But of course, the kids were so thrilled to see Prue and Graham that they just wanted to be sitting on their laps or having them push the swings the whole time! We all really enjoyed seeing them and catching up on some news from home. The kids were a bit sad to say goodbye after lunch but cheered up a bit when we told them they would see Prue and Graham again in a few weeks at Christmas in Melbourne!

The other consoling factor was the imminent arrival of a bunch of wonderful friends from Melbourne - Liz, Dave, Ada and baby Henry. We were all hanging out to see them and to spend a week together in a rainforest getaway. But we had a few days yet to wait and so made our way North, over the Daintree River on a barge and then up to beautiful Cape Tribulation – where the rainforest comes all the way down to perfect beaches and where gangs of red-eyed hippies cavort naked on the beach, twirl fire-sticks and earnestly discuss the perils of the world. We spent the first night in a safari tent due to the crowds of lingering eclipse watchers, then moved into a beach-side campsite the next morning. 

The beach was just beautiful but the possibility of lurking box jellyfish and crocs was a bit off-putting. Mind you the naked hippies didn’t seem remotely fazed and the friendly staff told us they swam each morning with only a blue-bottle sting every now and again… In the end, we did duck in every now again taking care to enter the water carefully and spending very little time in. But there were hammocks and rope swings to play on, palm trees to shimmy up and endless coconuts to throw so our days were busy! 

A friendly family from Melbourne were camping next to us and it didn’t take long for the kids to find each other. Their kids were really lovely – polite, fun and friendly. And if all 13 year boys could be like their son Kaiko – I reckon the world would be a less surly place. He spent hours giving Zara piggy-backs (we could see first love gleaming in her big brown eyes!) and wrestling and playing chess with Sash. Before they left, they took Zara and Sash on a rainforest walk, leaving us to blog and read. We were sad to see them go. However, the kids hardly skipped a beat and soon joined up with some more kids from Melbourne – Merri (named after Merri Creek) and Banjo. Merri and Zara had a fast and furious friendship – going from strangers to inseparable in just a few minutes. We set up the little tent for the girls to whisper in all night, whilst Banjo and Sash slept in our trailer – talking about chess and Tintin for about 5 minutes before passing out. As usual we felt like we we said goodbye immediately after we said hello - but that's the way of this traveling life... let's hope we can stay in touch with some of the cool people we have met along the way...
 

A total eclipse of the sun...

Hours spent in a wonderful little café and the local bookshop had me in raptures and I had mentally moved to Yungaburra before lunchtime. It was a bit drizzly and cool which was a relief to our sun-beaten bodies but did not bode well for the next morning’s solar eclipse. Our mission for the afternoon was to find somewhere to camp from which we could view the eclipse. Word on the street was that although thousands of people had flocked to Cairns from around Australia and the world, the forecast was that the best viewing would be from inland. How nice for us. So we set up in a caravan park in Mareeba and made plans to drive up a nearby hill in the hope of a clear view. It was 5pm before we remembered that we needed special solar eclipse viewing glasses and although Bill and the kids made a mad dash into town while I set up the tent, everywhere was sold out. The organised people had bought up all the eclipse glasses! Happily Bill was able to locate a friendly eclipse fanatic biker dude in the caravan park who very kindly gave us his spare pair of glasses. So we we were set and getting excited about the next morning.

At 5am we dragged ourselves out of bed and popped the kids into the car in their PJs. We drove up to our designated hill but discovered it was surrounded by trees too tall for good viewing. So we quickly drove back down the hill and found a spot where quite a few people were waiting by the side of the road. We knew we had found a good location because we spotted the biker dude as well as a gang of Japanese men with incredibly fancy equipment – telescopes and special cameras and the like - pointing at the rising sun. So we settled ourselves on the bonnet of the car and wished for some coffee. At 5.45am it all began. Taking in turns to watch through the glasses we saw the moon gradually eating away at the sun until, sometime after 6pm it started getting darker and colder and then the sun was hidden completely. It was an awesome, beautiful and inspiring sight. The small crowd cheered and clapped in excitement - and around town that day everyone smiled at each other and compared eclipse viewing stories and generally revelled in total eclipse camaraderie... We were all thrilled and felt so grateful for the brilliant view, for the borrowed glasses and for the opportunity to wake up at the crack of dawn in lovely Mareeba for the total eclipse of the sun. 

Photos here 

Walking through lava tubes, running from bulls and turning 37 on top of a volcano...

Undarra offers all sorts of accommodation options – old railway sleeping cars, spaceship-like safari tents, fancy cabins and more. But we opted to set up our crusty dusty camper, pull out our cracked plastic boxes and shake out the stinky sleeping bags. Whilst whipping up our Japanese pancakes at the camp kitchen we met numerous Europeans who had come to this part of the word in order to see the upcoming solar eclipse. We had been considering making it to the coast in time to see it, but listening to these solar eclipse aficionados made us start to feel much more enthusiastic. It seems such a risk for them though - to travel all the way from the Netherlands to see an eclipse that might well be covered in clouds and unviewable.

In the morning I struck out on my own to explore some of the walking trails while the others worked on secret plans and birthday surprises… I took a track called ‘bush walk’ which led me through the lovely bush. I saw heaps of kangaroos, pretty faced wallabies, turkeys and other birds, including a beautiful pair of brolgas. I noticed some hoof-prints in the path and some fresh looking cow dung which made me feel slightly apprehensive about meeting wild bulls. But I walked on and only turned around when I spied a MASSIVE bull right next to the path. Very glad no-one witnessed my nervous retreat.

That afternoon we took a tour to the lava tubes. We listened to the guide with one ear each whilst monitoring the kids who were both in crazy moods and were busy hyping up a previously quiet pair of children belonging to another couple. Hence we both missed out on some vital parts of the explanation about how these incredible lava tunnels were formed. Needless to say there was lots of volcanoes a long time ago and somehow the lava formed into tubes. The roofs of some of the tubes collapsed and so now we can actually walk through some of the tunnels.  Although we struggled to understand the science behind the lava, we could appreciate the aesthetics - the rainforest surrounded the caves and big tropical butterflies flickered in and out of the sunlight. We laughed at the brush turkeys that wobbled over the path, pecking in the dirt for insects. Zara cornered the ever-patient guide and let fly a stream of questions – and as usual we danced the delicate dance of encouraging our children to be interested and ask questions whilst ensuring they don’t dominate the entire tour. When we thanked the guide at the end of the tour he explained that he actually liked interested friendly children but didn’t appreciate bickering and whinging children. Phew. We laughed when the children threw themselves on him when we said goodbye – great big bear hugs fuelled by the instant love that they develop for tolerant tour guides…

 

I was ordered to go to bed really early and laughed to myself at the rustling going on in the tent. The sounds of balloons bursting was followed by mad giggling and shushing. A few party poppers went off and a string of streamers landed next to my head. Needless to say I awoke next morning to a beautifully decorated tent. Zara was bursting out of her skin to give me a present – a pair of earrings that we selected together at the Katherine market some time ago (which amazingly she hadn’t lost)! Then we all went across to a ‘bush breakfast’ where we cooked our toast over the fire and ate baked beans, eggs, bacon etc from tin plates. It was actually pretty similar to our breakfasts most mornings this year but still fun to have someone else cook it! After breakfast we went back to the tent where I was duly served with homemade lemonade and lemon slice – yum – and a couple of social affairs/politics type magazines to keep me busy in the wee hours of the morning! After the last party popper was popped, we packed up and drove to Kalkani volcano for a walk around the rim. It was of course quite thrilling to walk around the top of a volcano despite it having been dormant for many thousands of years – you never know do you?

On we travelled towards the coast and suddenly the landscape morphed into lush rolling hills, misty mountains and green paddocks of fat cows. We were reaching the tablelands – a beautiful, tropical area of waterfalls, dairy farms and cafes. It was strange to see so many curves and so much green after so long in flat, rocky desert country. We drove through drizzle but felt refreshed. We visited Miilla Miilla Falls – supposedly the most photographed waterfalls in Australia. A windy rainforest walk took us along a little stream and although we only ventured down it a few hundred metres it was enough to allow two fat leeches to attach firmly to my feet. Bill bravely flicked off the most tenacious of the two while I screeched like an idiot. Yuk.

The rain kept falling and again we treated ourselves to a lovely overnighter called The Gables in a charming little town called Yungaburra. It was incredibly cheap (only slightly more than your average campsite!) and very comfy. Yungaburra has a number of well-known restaurants and after a bit of umming and ahhing we settled on a place called the Vienna Inn – a strange find in a little rural Queensland town. But the meal was great – authentic and delicious Austrian food with big servings and good Austrian beer to wash it all down with. We even had strudel for dessert. A very memorable birthday.

Floods and time-travel in Hughenden and discovering the Yeti in Porcupine Gorge

We drove a short distance to Cloncurry and set up camp in the drizzle. Next morning, the kids played with the ugliest dog in the world and we chatted to its friendly owner – a well-travelled woman who was heading up to one of the isolated stations to act as a live-in tutor for the kids who were doing school of the air. As most dog owners (and indeed parents) seem to be, she appeared quite convinced that her weird, toothy dog was very charming and kindly allowed Zara to drag it around the caravan park on a lead. The kids even accompanied them up and down the street so that the dog could poo before they hit the road. Exciting.

We drove on east, stopping for lunch at Julia Creek – home of an extinct and then re-discovered (near Julia Creek) Bettong. When we reached Hughenden the rain was bucketing down and so yet again we were forced into a hotel room. Actually we were lucky to get anything because every other traveller had the same idea and the hotels and cabins were all booked out. The hotel we stayed at was half-flooded and we had to jump over a massive channel of water just to get into our room. We had no cooking facilities in our room and so debated having peanut butter sandwiches until we realised we had no bread, and so headed to the local Chinese restaurant. The food wasn’t too bad, and the décor reminded me of dining in China, which added a bit to the authenticity.  Next day, we realised that the whole town is stuck in another era – including coffee shops with carpet and lace at the windows (serving instant coffee and home-made cakes) and clothing shops with fashions from yesteryear. It was kind of a nice place.

We drove north, up the Kennedy Development Road. We had been warned about the condition of the road, especially after rain and so drove cautiously to Porcupine Gorge where we stopped for lunch and a walk down into the gorge. It was yet another amazing place – volcanic looking with big holes in the rocks and some weird formations. Not for the first time we wished we knew a bit more about geology. We decided that next time we do a trip like this, we’ll learn more about rocks and minerals before we leave. The rocks and stuff always look really interesting and we get the feeling that geologists would be drooling with excitement about some of these places. But the geological secrets remain locked to us and we end up using descriptors such as ‘holey rocks’ and ‘shiny stuff’… We did however find a hole in the rock that looked like a giant footprint, so we are pretty confident that some sort of yeti-type creature roamed this gorge thousands of years ago…

On we drove in a north-easterly direction and eventually arrived at the Undarra Experience – a private enterprise set up next to the Undarra National Park which provides an ‘authentic bush experience’ for the hordes but more importantly offers access to the park’s lava tubes – cool.

Bob Kattah, Alan Jones and the ever-present smokestack in 'The Isa'

We pressed on the next day, making our way out of the national park and skidding into Mt Isa on an empty tank. Mt Isa is big, dusty and totally dominated by the huge mine in the middle of town. What Sash excitedly pointed out as ‘the lighthouse’, was actually a smokestack which seemed to be able to be seen out of every window in town. We visited the 'Isa Experience' – a museum detailing the town’s history, which was mainly about mining. It should have been interesting but without a passion for mining we found it a bit hard to get excited. Nonetheless we dutifully watched a video of various Alan Jones lookalikes talking about growing up in ‘The Isa’. 

Next we drove through the town and doffed out not-oversized hats at Bob Kattah’s office before checking in at the local, caravan park. We were feeling a bit hot and dusty and tired by now and so splashed out on a little cabin, which felt like fabulous luxury. In the morning we went to the local library for school and books, whilst gazing out at the ever-present smokestack. While I shopped up a grocery storm, Bill took the kids to the local park which turned out to be the ‘best playground ever’ – another example of outback communities getting massive grants from the local government to build amazing and free amusements for local kids. It was so good that B and the kids picked me up from the supermarket and we all returned for hours of fun. Complete with water park and all sorts of swinging, sliding and zipping things that we had never even seen before, this park could almost have held us in Mt Isa for another day. But not quite…

We were, however, keen to visit the local fossil centre before leaving town – a place where the kids dug excitedly for fossils in a sandpit whilst we read about the amazing discoveries made between Mt Isa and Lawn Hill. Turns out this site was where most of what is known about Australia’s megafauna and other pre-human mammals was learnt (and most of that was discovered within about an hour sometime in the 1980s). We all found it more interesting than the mining history, but we had people and solar eclipses to see on the coast and so needed to move on – although only very slightly because we had spent most of the day mucking around in ‘The Isa’.

Finding paradise in the Queensland outback

People complain about the dull drive from Darwin to Alice along the Stuart Highway. But we chose to drive it twice because we backtracked all the way past Tennant Creek to take the Barkly Highway east. Still, with air-con fixed, the Harry Potter audio books and contact lenses back in, the drive wasn’t so bad and we arrived at dusk at a place called The Pebbles, just out of Tennant Creek. The Pebbles are like a mini Devils Marbles – and just as culturally significant to the local Aboriginal people. Some whitefella fools decided to pinch one of the pebbles and chuck it in a park in Tennant Creek to amuse the tourists – a move that was of course highly offensive considering the sacred nature of the place. Then when the local people next came to the site, they discovered mining equipment had been left there ready for imminent work. The people stepped up and voiced their anger by organising sit-ins and media coverage. They won and now the area is nominally protected for their use. The traditional owners have set up a free camp spot there, which was nice for us.

Next day, Kate’s eye was hurting again and so poor Bill had to do all the driving. Shame for him because it turned out to be one of the longest hauls we have done on the trip so far. We celebrated crossing the border into Queensland with a big cheer and then decided to detour North into Budjamulla National Park, famous for Lawn Hill Gorge and raved about by many fellow travellers. We had heard so many good things about the place that it was just impossible to drive past the turn-off and onto Mt Isa. So we calculated fuel amounts and distances and decided to just do it. But we must have misread the map because we just seemed to drive on and on and on. Bill was exhausted by the time we arrived in the dark – and we were all very happy to get out of the car and to know that the next day was drive-free. The next morning we noticed that we were the only people in the campground – clearly not a popular time of the year due to the intense heat. The campground was nice enough although not spectacular and it was insanely hot. But just as we were beginning to wonder whether we had done the right thing, we wandered down a path towards the gorge and found ourselves gazing down onto paradise. Lawn Hill is often described as an oasis in the middle of the Queensland outback – warm emerald water, waterfalls, palms – but neither words nor pictures will ever do this place justice. Needless to say we spent the day swimming, swimming and swimming. Each time we got out and wandered back to the tent, we were ready to go back in before a few minutes passed. The friendly ranger brought us a bucket full of green tree frogs that make a nightly pilgrimage to the toilets – and let us hold them and put them on our shoulders. We watched in anticipation for huge olive pythons that hunt in the gorge – but sadly saw none. I gather that in the cooler months the place is buzzing with tourists. We liked it just the way it was.  If you are ever driving past that turn-off, please take it.  

Half-blindness, bobbing dragons and life-envy in Alice Springs

It was stinking hot again as we headed back to Alice Springs. We still didn’t have air-conditioning in the car so the windows were down as we sped along the highway. This is a minor point of difference within the family – I like to have windows down with the wind creating crazy hairstyles for all of us, whereas Bill prefers the coolness of air-con with windows sealed. But we both agree that air-con rules when driving slowly around towns in 40+ degree weather or waiting in the car while the other runs errands… So we were heading back to Alice to get the air-con fixed - and for doctors appointments and to catch up with old friends who live there. We arrived early enough to check into the fancy pants Big 4 caravan park - complete with sparkling kitchen and jumping pillow. 

Next morning, I awoke with a seriously sore eye that did not allow for contact lens use – and so spent the morning half-blind and uncoordinated. So we visited the Alice Springs hospital (not for the first time but that is another story for a different day) and then a local optometrist who prescribed antibiotic drops every half an hour and a rest from lenses for 4 days. Fortunately the drops seemed to clear up the infection but made me super sensitive to the sun for a few days... Still, we managed to check out the town’s reptile park where I watched one-eyed as the kids draped pythons around themselves and posed for the cameras. Zara was intensely taken with the bearded dragons with their bobbing heads and grinning faces. The rest of our day – and indeed the next one – was spent half-blind and waiting for boring things like the car to be fixed and the washing to be done. All sorts of sightseeing plans were put off due to the hot weather and eye problems – we were disappointed that we didn’t make it to the Desert Park which is supposed to be very cool, or to the School of the Air which would be interesting for us.

Still, we did manage to have a meal with old friends Sasha and Mike, who moved to Alice 7 years ago and have since produced two extremely cute red-haired and cheeky faced boys, Pasco and Mishka. They have recently bought a house on a huge block and we gazed enviously as the kids hooned around their amazing backyard space – filled with chickens, trees to climb and even a home-made pirate ship tree-house. We were interested and tempted by their descriptions of life in Alice – where their kids enjoy a type of running-around-outside-all-day-every-day and camping-every-weekend freedom that ours could only dream of and where Sash and Mike can both work part-time in interesting and challenging jobs. Mike works in a program that implements sustainable energy in developing communities around the world, whilst Sasha works for an Aboriginal women’s group. The kids got along like a house on fire whilst we chatted. What shame we only had the one evening – we could have talked to them all night, but the kids had to go to bed and we moved on the next day.

Kate was dreaming of a life in Alice Springs – freedom, warmth, swimming in Big Ellery Rockhole, a big back yard, hanging out with Sash and Mike, camping every weekend, interesting work… Bobbing bearded dragons in the backyard would have clinched it for Zara. Bill, of course, had already lived in Alice as a kid and so we drove past his old house and school and the kids tried hard to imagine a cheeky-faced 10 year old Bill hooning around the streets on his BMX… 

Eating noodles at Ayres Wok

We were following a crazy route - from the Top End to the Centre then towards the North of Queensland. We had avoided doing many very long drives up until now but certainly covered some kms down the Stuart Highway to Alice. We knew it wasn't sensible but we particularly wanted to show the kids Uluru and Alice Springs and to spend some time in the glorious central Australian desert.

So now we were actually getting to Uluru and we all felt pretty excited. The kids even looked up from their books and wordsearches to get momentarily excited at the first view of 'The Rock' - although of course it was actually Mt Conner, the trick-rock that gets most first-time visitors. Shameful really that on my 4th visit to Uluru I should briefly make the same mistake... But when the real rock loomed in the distance it was just as magic as ever. Funny thing about Uluru - you can never actually get enough of it. It's just the colours, the light, the angles and the sheer immensity of it. However it is easy to tire of the tourist madness at the Ayres Rock Resort. It was one of the quietest time of the year so it wasn't so much the crowds as the packaged-up feeling of the whole experience. The resort is kind of like a pretend city - with lots of Aboriginal culture on display for the tourists, but apparently no Aboriginal people working there. We did, however, hear about a scheme to get Aboriginal people from all around Australia to come there for training in all aspects of the resort. Hard to tell whether the traditional owners get much from the hoards.

There are polite but passionae requests everywhere from the traditional owners for visitors not to climb the rock, but apparently 30% of people still do. Seems incredible that people can be so disrespectful. The local people have put up with ridiculous self-righteous white tourists scurrying like ants all over their sacred space for 30 years now, but the fact that people are going to the toilet and dropping rubbish on the top of the rock and all the sewage is running down the rock and polluting the group around it is the last straw for them. Supposedly Tourism Australia (who are on the Board of Management for Uluru) are reluctant to close the climb altogether, however it looks like they may agree to close the climb once it has been proven that only 20% or less of visitors actually want to 'master the rock'. I remember climbing it twice as a teenager and it was pretty cool - but really we need to learn that we can't always do exactly what we want. Anyway the base hike gives visitors an excellent view of the rock from all angles and really good information about the cultural significance of the rock to its traditional owners. The climb was closed when we were there due to heat and wind. Good thing because Bill made me promise not to yell at the climbers but I'm not sure whether I would have been able to control myself...

We hauled ourselves out of bed at 5.20am in order to go and see the sunrise. Of course, we should have left a bit earlier but enjoyed the best of the light from the car as we drove into the park. It was just lovely to be out there so early. Zara and I had set off on the 10km base walk by 6.30am while Bill and Sash grabbed a coffee before joining a ranger-guided tour around one of the more culturally significant parts of the rock. 

I am ashamed to say that we ate noodles at the 'Ayres Wok' restaurant... Not bad noodles but the worst name ever for any eating establishment! On the last morning, the kids and I did a dot painting workshop run by one of the Aboriginal art studios. We worked with a local artist, Rebecca, who showed us the various symbols and techniques. A friendly girl called Karri gave us all the paints and canvases and talked us about local art. It was great fun - especially the dots which were addictive to do. The kids got right into it and created masterpieces. Of course they ended up finger-painting and putting sand on the canvas etc. Fair enough really - dot painting is possibly a bit disciplined for young kids... Karri and Rebecca were kind enough to give us some of the paints and a symbol sheet to take away with us so we can keep dotting away wherever we are.

We watched a couple of sunsets over the rock but the conditions weren't perfect so we couldn't see that really stark colour change that we remember from previous visits. Still, it is a beautiful time of the day to sit on the bonnet of the car and watch the light on the rock.

We drove out to Kata Tjuta one afternoon but it was so hot that the Valley of the Winds walk was closed. So we wandered the short walk into Walpa Gorge which was hot and exposed but still very beautiful. Then we drove around the domes and admired them from all angles.

A special part of the world, and despite the tourist craziness I am sure we will be back.

Walking the rim at Wattarka, speaking to the birds and frogs in the toilet

Still relishing the cooler weather we headed off to Wattarka (Kings Canyon) via the Mereenie Loop. We'd pre-purchased a permit to drive through this Aboriginal land in Alice Springs so we were set to go. It was a beautiful drive through the desert and the road wasn't too bad - made us wonder why so few people go this way. We set up at the nearly empty Kings Canyon resort where the kids quickly made friends with a little girl next door. All seemed to be going pear-shaped when their little friend refused Sasha's request to join in some Barbie colouring-in because 'he is a boy'. Sasha's bottom lip started to tremble until Zara helpfully fetched his Bananas in Pyjamas colouring book which kept everyone happy for an hour before dinner.

Next day we set off to check out the canyon in the cool morning air. Bill and Sash chose a shorter walk to a lookout whilst Zara and Kate set off on the 6km rim walk. It was glorious - weaving in and out of red dome-shaped rocks, admiring the angles and marks in the rock and enjoying spectacular views of the canyon at regular intervals. Although the first steep climb knocked the breath out of us, the rest of it wasn't difficult hiking - just really beautiful. I've heard quite a few people comment that they are not very impressed with Kings Canyon - but we thought it was pretty cool. As we walked, Zara trotted by my side and talked endlessly of all her funny and wonderful plans for the future - opening businesses, saving the world, fostering children, publishing poetry, working alongside aboriginal people towards reconciliation and so much more. Every now and then she would stop talking to examine bits of rock or take a quick glance at the spectacular views - then back to business. Wonderful.

Back at the carpark I left Zara at the information boards while I went to the toilet. A big brown frog leapt out of the toilet when I flushed it and I was still giggling when I went back and discovered Zara squatting under some trees chatting in 'bird language' with a number of surprised looking birds - much to the amusement of a young European guy recuperating on the nearby seats. We met up with the fellas and had a picnic lunch nearby. By this time we are all getting heartily sick of dry biscuits with ham, tuna and salad - but it's still the easiest lunch for us so we have it almost daily. Looking forwards to some more variety when we return to Melbourne.

We made good use of the playground and pool in the afternoon. The weather seemed to be heating up again... Next stop - Uluru!

Pics coming soon (when I am somewhere it doesn't take 30 mins per photo!)...

Fluffy dogs in Alice, cooler weather and body paint in Ormiston

It was a mega-drive to get from Davenport Ranges to Alice Springs. Somewhere along the way our air conditioning gave up the ghost and so we sailed along with windows down, sweaty knees an wind-blown hair. By the time we rolled into Alice we were incredibly dusty and windswept. But we were also starving hungry and not keen for pizza or the other usual quick fixes and so we decided to brave an Indian restaurant despite our ragged appearance. With a quick change of t-shirts in the car park, an attempt to drag a comb through our hair and a dash to the toilets to wash hands and faces - we managed to look vaguely like normal town folk and to avoid being turned away. We munched our way through samosas, aloo palak and butter chicken before rolling onto the first caravan park we spotted - which turned out to be the local pet-friendly park which meant every grey nomad and their fluffy dogs were set up there.

When we emerged from the ten the next morning, all the men were up taking fluffy white dogs for a walk before polishing non-existent smudges from the exterior of their fancy caravans. Our rather dilapidated trailer looked a bit sorry amongst their fancy vans - but that just made us love it more! Still we had lots of friendly and chatty neighbours and Zara was in seventh heaven with all the dogs to play with. We spent a day in Alice doing all sorts of practical but uninteresting things. We realised that the next few days were going to bring a reprieve from the stinking hot 40+ weather and so we decided to hightail it out of Alice towards the West MacDonald Ranges, Kings Canyon, Uluru and Kata Tjuta. We were keen to do some hiking around these places and knew we would enjoy some cooler weather in which to exert ourselves! Before we left Alice we went to the Post Office and picked up a package from Bill's parents which was full of lovely books and clothes. It seemed impossible that Zara would wear a cute fluffy tracksuit until we got back to wintery Melbourne - but little did we know she would have it on before the week was out!

So we said goodbye to Alice almost as soon as we had said hello and drove to West to Ellery Big Hole - a fabulous swimming spot remembered fondly by Bill from his Alice Springs childhood and by Kate from previous trips. We splashed around in the cool water and felt pleased not be on a organised tour as we watched several groups come and go with their guides allowing them 5-10 minutes in the water before they were marched back to their buses...

When we had had enough we drove onto Ormiston Gorge and set up in the lovely shady camspite. That evening it started to cool down. It had been so long since we had experienced even slightly cool weather - that we sat outside and felt incredibly refreshed and pleased with ourselves and the world. A gang of other kids were at the camspite so Zara and Sash were soon fighting with sticks, playing footy (note to self - must teach kids to kick a footy...) and other shenanigans. Next morning we celebrated the cool weather with a long hike into the Pound and up through the gorge. Too cold for swimming - can you believe it??? In the afternoon, the kids played and played and played - and then played some more. The other kids had visited another gorge that day and brought back some different coloured ochre stones so they mixed water with the ochre and painted each other all over. We got chatting to some of the other parents and listened enviously to stories of their travels all around the world - China, India, Sri Lanka, Vietnam, Europe then back to Australia for 5 months camping! Fantastic. Lovely people with lovely kids. We would have liked to have stayed longer and hung out more, but it was time to move onto to Kings Canyon.

Beautiful Ormiston Gorge

Sash with body paint

Zara mixing up ochre

Zara and Sash with Ella and Michelle

Sash and kindred spirit Michelle

The Gang

Sash and Michelle tied each other up for hours