Up with the sun, a fond farewell to the Griffo-Boyles as they head back to Carins…and 7 days until we are due in Darwin to greet the Mays! Time to get driving.
Having spent the entire 8 weeks of the trip so far on the relatively green and populated East Coast, this leg of the journey was notably red and sparse. We left Sydney on the vast multi-lane freeways…but now, West of the Atherton Tablelands and the road all but petered out.
Specific attractions became few and far between, but somehow the vast expanses had their own magnetism, beauty flowing from the repetitive patterns and yet always changing compositions of red dirt, blue sky and some form of greenery in between.
Very cliche I know, and not to detract from the life we had before and will have again, but you could feel the clear impact of the isolation and complete lack of exogenous distractions working its magic on focusing the family inwards.
At night, it was a simple case of pulling off the road onto a patch of dirt that caught your eye, leaving the van all hooked up, collecting some firewood and settling in for an evening of just us. No one around, sky, space, sunsets and stars. After dinner around a fire the routine was to recline the chairs and gaze at the desert stars pointing out interesting attractions to each other.
I totally fell in love with remote free camping and the drone was a clear winner for photographing the experience. Not easy to capture the magnitude of the space from ground level.
Every sunrise an invitation to get out there and start exploring new horizon all over again.
Being bush was no excuse for skipping school, it just had to fit in around the driving. I like to imagine that there was plenty of room for brains to grow.
Again, really chuffed with the way the kids got together and created fun and friendships with one another.
One of the great pleasures of being out here for me is the idea that you are so isolated surrounded by dust and dirt with no convenient food or running water…and yet step inside the van and there is a full sized fridge, a gorgeous hot shower and running water. …but none of these things are renewable, and hence after a few days, in spite of all the luxuries we bought with us, things started getting red and dusty.
But the outback has a solution for this: Hot Springs! After 5 days of pretty dry and dusty country side, what an amazing feeling to come across crystal clear, deep and flowing warm water springing right out of the red soil.
Dad with kids… 
…while mum relaxes. 
And just like that we were there! Back into street lights, power poles and roads with median strips. Over 2,600kms, more than 53hrs driving and 1 new love affair with the outback all in 6 days. With luck we’ll be back out there after Kakadu. But for now, very excited to see the Mays tomorrow!
Made it to Darwin
Off the Mooring 