Week One: Heading North.

After much planning and anticipation we are on the road again on our fourth lap around Oz.  We had a lovely final night with the kids and grand dogs to say our goodbyes (always hard) and had caught up with lots of family and friends the previous week. Our livers have been given a good workout so it’s a quiet relief to be on our way, ensconced in the Cubby de Wheels MK 11 and heading north to warmer climes.

Last night with the family before the big push. Lots of fun as usual.

Our first stop was a free camp at Lake Indoon, which is dry and dusty at present but very peaceful and quiet. There were about fifteen other vans dotted around the edges of the lake so we felt safe and sound and slept really well. We bypassed Geraldton and headed for Kalbarri where we had two lazy days along the banks of the Murchison.

We love Kalbarri but never do it justice. It is an area of stunning scenery and beauty with lots to see and do but we are always heading somewhere else with much anticipation and excitement or coming home from some long holiday, tired and looking forward to getting home to our own bed, home cooked meals and our loved ones. We do the same with Singapore but with jet lag, so we have promised ourselves we will spend more quality time in each location and thoroughly embrace and explore what is on offer.

Nature's Window at Kalbarri.

In the meantime we are so excited to start our new adventure exploring parts of Australia we haven’t seen before. Our plan is to travel north to Broome to spend three weeks with Kelly and then make our way to Darwin in July to catch up with my sister Jenny and brother-in-law Terry who will fly in from Perth. We will ‘do’ Darwin, Kakadu and Katherine with them before they head west and we take off for Queensland. 

It will be familiar territory for us so we will enjoy showing them all the sights although Terry is very methodical and organized and will probably be telling us a thing or two. There is a standing family joke that there are Terry’s Tours(highly researched, informative and accurate) and GK’s Arfur’s ‘Alf Price Tours(on a wing and a prayer with lots of BS thrown in for good measure). Undoubtedly we will have a combination of both with lots of laughter and angst thrown in. Watch this space.

With our semi-off road van we hope to do as much free camping as possible as it not only saves money (obviously) but you get to meet like-minded travellers and enjoy camp fires and less restrictions of the now very expensive caravan parks. They cost on average of between $40 to $50 a night so it all adds up. The free camps are a lot safer these days as there are so many of us grey nomads on the road so there is safety in numbers as they say.

We stayed at Wooramel Station which is a 356,000 acre working cattle, sheep, goat and outback station stay 120 kilometres south of Carnarvon. It is on the banks of the Wooramel River which is an upside down river running on the surface only 2 -3 times a year for a couple of weeks at a time after good inland rains. We met the owners of the station Justin and Rachael around the campfire and they said they hadn’t had any rain for three years and things were looking pretty grim. They diversified into tourism about four years ago and that was keeping them afloat. With two kids at boarding school next year we empathized with them as we were in the same boat in the early nineties when interest rates hit 22%. So glad we don’t have those pressures any more. Banks and overdrafts – say no more. At least they are young and enthusiastic and are on a winner with their station stay. We highly recommend it for a stopover on the way north and the artesian pools are an absolute bonus for those aching limbs and sore muscles.

CK at Wooramel Station on the banks of the very dry Wooramel River. 

We truly feel we are on holidays now as we have arrived at Coral Bay and had our first swim today. It was hard baring the body beautiful (not!) among the nymph-like backpackers but who cares? It was so refreshing and it was lovely to laze on the beach and watch the passing parade of gorgeous young things, families and old farts like us. Just what the doctor ordered. We are here for two days and intend to make the most of it before heading for Exmouth for more of the same. It’s a tough life but someone has to do it. Our Carnarvon prawns are defrosting for tea and the wine and beer are icy cold. Thinking of you all with much love.

The Krazies xxxx                                                                     

First of many swims.