We just drove the width of Australia from Brisbane to Perth via Darwin and the Kimberleys. It's wider than the moon: and slightly more varied. Our most interesting and fun times were with the people we know, and indeed there were aspects of scenery one ought to see at least once.. ancient red rocks, deep gorges, the strange Bungle Bungles - almost unknown before 1983 - and the fabulous West Coast of WA. Evening on Darwin Harbour - after the first 4000km! There are really only two months, June and July, when it is comfortable for cool weather types to travel. As you can imagine that is when half the universe wants to be there. The Kimberleys boast 2 million visitors a year - centred on Kununurra, a town that hardly existed before the 1980s, now about 12000 and growing fast. Just about every visitor takes a scenic flight - unless you have a lot of time and a rugged 4WD it's the only way..not cheap by any means, a half-day can cost $700 per person. Anyway we had the unique chance to be piloted by a young relation of ours, actually Colin's second cousin twice removed. Here she is!  Isn't she gorgeous - and a wonderful pilot too. She'll be driving Boeings in a year or two. |
Australia 2008 |
Another of the fun moments was when we came to put up the tent in dusty Emerald: our first night on the road away from friends: everything had been inspected for spiders before it went into the car, so out came the tent with gusto, spread on the ground.. .. tent pegs? yes here they are. Table? Chairs? lantern? oh this is excellent. Tent poles? What? Where? No tent poles? No tent poles. Hmmm I wonder whose fault that could be.. never mind, Colin tied up the tent with ropes to the car and a tree... quite a good effort altho' at half mast. But having turned the car into a tent pole we couldn't drive out for dinner -- nothing in our food box but three beers each, a very tasty and satisfying meal. Colin slept OK but I was squirming out of my sleeping bag time and time again.