Nervous, and happy to be flying home today. We went to the airport way ahead of check in time (because I’m a worry wart at the best of times, let alone in the current circumstances).

Relieved to be climbing the stairs on to our Qantas direct flight to Alice Springs to Perth, departing at 1210hrs.

Thankfully the flight was uneventful. My side of the plane had a view of some of the planes that have been parked at AS for over a year, and later in the flight, also a view toward Uluru and Kata Tjuta – great to see them again, from a totally different perspective.

We arrived in Perth at 1340hrs. Before we left the airport a police officer explained our self isolation conditions and that we needed to download the G2G Now app.

We then proceeded to the hire car pick up point. [I’m laughing as I write this as there is another story associated with the car pick up. Again, I will only write more on request. ] 

The two hour drive home seemed like a breeze after everything that had occurred during the past few days, and the distance we had already driven on the road trip (which was around 6,500km).

So glad to be home – back in our own bed. Self isolating in our own house is a breeze.

M&Vx

PS this experience has been good for us in that we now have an appreciation, and empathy, for others who may be in similar (or sadly, far worse) situations.

We’re home in good time to sort out our house sale, etc, and (post isolation) we are available to family if they need us

PPS 8 July 2021 – self isolation day 5 of 14, and one month since we started on our road trip.

We access the G2G Now app each day and update our health status; we take/send selfies when requested, and will update the app once we’ve done our Covid-19 test on day 11 of isolation.

Many thanks to friends and family who have offered help, brought us food, and coffee… M&Vx

I bought food supplies in Katherine as we had no idea what we would find when we arrived in Alice Springs.  (Michael still had 13 peanut slab chocolate bars so no need to buy additional chocolate).

The Katherine supermarket was packed, with long checkout queues.  Funnily enough, I didn’t notice anyone with large amounts of toilet paper in their trolley.

Back to Tennant Creek and an overnight stay in the Bluestone Motor Inn.

2 July 2021 – Drive Tennant Creek to Alice Springs, NT

We were up at 5.00am today as we needed to sort out our gear into what would stay in the Jeep and what we could take on the flight before driving 508km back to Alice Springs.

The Jeep has to be delivered to the transport company in AS by 4.00pm today, and it has to be cleaned before we dropped it off – how would we clean the vehicle with AS in lockdown? We had a packet of wet wipes, however that probably would not suffice.

As hoped for, we took a few minutes out to stop at the Devils Marbles/Karlu Karlu. I love them! I’m going back there to learn and see more.

At 12.45, about 20km north of AS we came to a Police check point. As required, we had our masks on as we pulled up to speak to the officer. The officer explained that all current lockdown restrictions remained in place, and that potentially the lockdown was going to be reduced by 24 hrs. We continued our journey to AS.

Our stars had realigned – yippee!  The AS lockdown ended at 1pm today.

We dropped off our gear to our accommodation, and continued on to an automated car wash. 

The car was dropped off to a transport depot at around 3.30pm. (There is a huge story associated with this – if you really want to know I will only write more on request).

We’re spending our last night in the Northern Territory in Alice Springs and looking forward to flying home tomorrow.

M&Vx

Today we are driving to Tennant Creek. Before we leave on that part of the journey I need to bring you up to date with how our lives have changed since yesterday.

We’ve now found out that we cannot cross back into WA unless we have somewhere to self isolate for 14 days and then continue our trip.  This is not possible as the only place we know of in Kununurra, which is the nearest place to the WA/NT border, which caters for self isolation is fully booked until September 2021. Friends in Broome [thank you Liz and Chris] tried to help us, but things were just too messy to proceed down that road – literally and metaphorically.

And so, Plan C has been hatched. We’ve abandoned most of the remainder of the road trip. We’ve booked a flight from Alice Springs (AS) to Perth, and made arrangements to send our Jeep back to WA by truck. Friends in Perth will let us self isolate on the bottom floor of their house. Perfect!  [Thank you Martin and Michele.]

Also, before leaving AS today, we cancelled all accommodation and activities we had arranged for the West Australian leg of the trip. All providers were fantastic, understanding, and refunded any monies that had been paid in advance. 

Again, we were sad to be cancelling the remainder of the trip, however we knew the risk before leaving home, and we are thankful to be healthy and safe.

Several other unexpected things have also occurred that also meant the best decision was to return home early, one of them being that we have received an offer to purchase our house, and it would be useful to have the extra time to pack, etc.

The flight to Perth does not leave until Saturday 3 July (in 6 days time), so we have decided to make the trip to Katherine for a couple of days then return to AS to catch the flight.

Before leaving AS we booked accommodation for our return on the night of 2 July 2021.

After completing all of the admin work associated with the trip changes, we ended up leaving AS mid afternoon, which is later than we would have liked. We crossed the Tropic of Capricorn 31km north of AS, made a short stop at the Barrow Creek Pub and met the resident puss and pooch, called Tiger, and Thomas respectively. It always buoys our spirits to have an animal encounter.  Back on the road and the sun was getting low…

We are not fond of driving at dusk/night as we are constantly on the lookout for kangaroos, and other animals that may be crossing the road. There were frequent road side signs warning to watch out for wandering stock.  Fortunately, all was well.

96km south of Tennant Creek – in the darkness – I could make out some large ball shaped objects near the roadside and commented to Michael that we must be passing the Devils Marbles/Karlu Karlu and that I hoped we would see them properly when we headed back to AS in a few days time.

We arrived in Tennant Creek at about 7.30pm, and checked into the Safari Lodge Motel. The receptionist checked where we had travelled from that day. Everyone is mindful of potential Covid infection.

29 June 2021 – drive Tennant Creek to Katherine, NT – 7hrs, 675km

Before setting off for Katherine, we went in search of the IGA to get supplies for lunch. We first found the burned out shell of the former IGA, and then the temporary IGA out the back of one of the service stations. Challenging for the community to have lost such an important part of daily life. The security guard told me that “some stupid kids” had set the IGA on fire.

As we headed further north anthills of various shapes and sizes could be seen on the roadside and beyond. Previous passers by have “dressed” some of the anthills in T-shirts, caps, glasses etc. From a distance it was easy to be fooled that there was – for instance – a mother and child standing at the roadside. Or, do I need to get my eyes checked? Check out this ABC article for a little more information.

We could feel the rise in temperature as we headed further north – the down jackets were put into the back of the Jeep. This is the first warm weather we’ve had since leaving home – yay! Summer clothes, for a few days at least.

Comms are often non existent in the outback, and at best sporadic. We usually use Optus as our mobile service provider – additionally – for this trip, we also purchased a Telstra sim, thinking we would have reasonable coverage at all times. This was not to be so.

Unbeknownst to us the Katherine accommodation had been trying to contact us to check, 1. If we were still coming, and, 2. Where we were coming from.  However, we had not been in range of any comms towers to receive calls or messages whilst en route that day.

We were very happy to arrive at the Pine Tree Motel for a two-night stay. They were happy that we had come from the south.

Katherine was sunny and warm – on with the shorts and T-shirts.   

30 June 2021 – Katherine, NT

We went on a boat cruise in Nitmiluk National Park. The cruise took us into two of the 13 gorges in Nitmiluk Gorge (formerly known as Katherine Gorge). This is a very pleasant trip – the tour guide was very entertaining, and informative. We cruised the first gorge, disembarked the boat, then walked an easy 200m, and got into another boat and cruised the next gorge. We reversed this process on the return journey.

Travelling by boat in amongst the majestic sandstone gorges is wonderful. Evidence of waterfalls could be seen, however at this time of the year they are not flowing. We passed quite a few people travelling in canoes, and we also saw hikers from time to time.  

We were very excited, and interested, to see a Johnstone’s River Crocodile – also known as a freshie, or freshwater crocodile.  We were told that the larger, saltwater crocodiles (salties), are unable to get into this part of the gorge during the dry season (May-October). I wonder if the salties know that…

Shortly after returning to our accommodation we heard that the Darwin lockdown had been extended.

Also, we heard the news that Alice Springs had gone into a three day lock down, ie until 1.00 pm on Saturday 3 July. Our flight was due to leave from AS at 1210 on Saturday. OMG, what did this mean for our flight home? This is more like being on a rollercoaster than a road trip.

We decided to continue with our plan to return to AS.

In amongst all of this, Michael realised that we could in fact self isolate at home in Bunbury, and that we could travel by hire car from Perth Airport to Bunbury provided relevant procedures were adhered to. A hire car was arranged for collection from Perth airport.

Michael also organised the transport of the Jeep to WA by truck.

I contacted our AS accommodation to say we were still coming and that we were booked to fly out on Saturday, but really we had no idea what would actually happen. The accommodation people were very understanding and booked us in for 1-3 nights and said we could cancel/extend as necessary. Thank you Alice on Todd Apartments.

M&Vx

24-28 June 2021 – Alice Springs Beanie Festival, NT

As mentioned at the beginning of this blog, the catalyst for this road trip was to attend the Alice Springs Beanie Festival (BF).  Now the day has come when we begin our BF adventure. This is our first time at the BF so it’s a voyage of discovery.

Earlier this year, I made 12 beanies which were despatched from Bunbury, WA, in early May to arrive in AS by no later than 28 May 2021. Two beanies are exhibition pieces and are on display along with around 300 other exhibition beanies in the Araluen Arts Centre. The exhibition runs until 15 July 2021. My other beanies are for sale in Beanie Central.  Beanie Central is something else, with over 6000 beanies up for sale over a 4 day period. 

The BF is largely “powered” by volunteers. Michael and I registered for volunteer shifts … we sold cakes, sold beanies, cooked sausages, greeted beanie purchasers, and assisted in the gallery at the Art Centre. We do love meeting and chatting to people so volunteering like this is great! It was crazy, fun, exciting, and exhausting.

Many BF attendees come decked out in their finest beanies, often the beanies are big, bold and quite incredible.  There’s a great vibe at the BF. People are visibly exhilarated as they search for their perfect beanie.  

During my shift on the cake stall, I looked up to see a lady wearing a hat that I had made – I admired her hat and explained that I was the maker of the hat. She was very complimentary. We exchanged Christian names, and I asked to take her photo and to tell her the backstory to the hat. One of the lady’s companions whispered to me that she was a designer. I then realised who she was and that I had only days earlier I listened to a Conversations podcast about her. Small world

Happy 25th Anniversary ASBF! Well done to the Beanie Festival organisers, volunteers, and everyone else involved.

In retrospect, I should have allowed more time in AS, as the BF took up the majority of our time here. We fitted in a quick visit to the Alice Springs Desert Park, and the Olive Pink Botanic Garden.  Next time, as a minimum, will visit the East and West McDonnell ranges, and go back to the AS Desert Park.

27 June 2021 – whilst in Alice Springs we realised our plans would need to change…

Up until now, I’ve endeavoured to keep posts fairly short. Apologies in advance as this post (and also the next few posts) will be longer and wordier than previously as there is now a lot to explain.

This evening we made the decision to cut 11 days off the road trip.  Darwin has gone into lockdown for two days and we were due to arrive in Darwin in 4 days time, and of course, the lockdown may be extended.

We will now turn left at Katherine instead of heading north, and make the border crossing back into Western Australia, near Kununurra.  Sad to be missing out on Darwin and Kakadu. We hope to fly back up here later this year. 

We have cancelled our accommodation in Darwin and Kakadu. Fortunately, this was easy to do, and providers were very understanding.  All future accommodation and activities will now need to be adjusted accordingly.

Michael filled out the West Australian G2G (Good 2 Go) Pass paperwork this evening. Authorities quickly responded to our application, and we’re good to cross back into WA.  Playing things by ear for a few days…

M&Vx

Today is International Yoga Day. 

I’ve practised 5 days/week whilst we’ve been away. I have not always been happy to roll out my yoga mat, or place my hands or head on some of the floors where we have stayed, therefore I have improvised by using tables, chairs, the edge of a sink, folded up bath mats, etc.

Grateful to be able to continue my practise whilst on this road trip.

Happy IYD fellow yogis. Of course, every day is a happy yoga day ;o) Vx

21-24 June 2021 – Kings Canyon, NT

We are staying at the Kings Canyon Resort for a couple of days so that we can explore a little of the Wataarka National Park.

The resort has a choice of 3 eateries, a petrol station, and general store, and a variety of accommodation, from camping to spa rooms.

One of the staff told us that the resort has recently been taken over by Discovery Parks and an overhaul is in the pipeline… our room was certainly in need of some TLC.

We had been told that dingoes were common in this area, but sadly, we did not see any.

We like to kick back a little whilst on tour, ie we don’t feel the need to do and see everything. On this stopover we chose to do one slightly challenging hike, and one very relaxed, peaceful walk.

Kings Canyon Rim Walk – 6km loop – allow 3-4hrs, rated as moderate to difficult

The first part of the walk is quite steep but it was well worth making the effort when you reached the top. The way up is well maintained and if you needed to rest a while there were plenty of safe spots to take a break and enjoy the view.

Along the well marked hike route, it was interesting and reassuring to see multiple, easily spotted and accessed, Emergency Stations. Not that we felt the need for such equipment on this occasion, but, “good to know”.

The Rim Walk is really interesting with lots of beautiful rock formations, domes, water, and great viewing opportunities. There were scats but we didn’t actually site any animals.

Kathleen Springs – 2.5km return, 1 hour – grade 1 easy – disabled access

Our second activity whilst in this area was the Kathleen Springs walk which took us into the head of the Kathleen Gorge. This is a very relaxing walk, the only physical challenge here is to enjoy the calm atmosphere and soak up the scenery.

At this time of the year the weather is lovely, and the temperatures are cool so there is little concern about overheating, and walks may be undertaken at almost any time during daylight hours.

Great to experience a little of another special Australian landmark.

Please scroll down if you would like to see more photos of this area, and if you so desire, leave us a comment.

M&Vx

Today we crossed over the state line and entered the Northern Territory. The paperwork to enter NT had been completed several days beforehand. Interesting to note that NT authorities required a lot more information than South Australian authorities. 

We stayed overnight at the Erldunda Roadhouse – The Centre of the Centre – on the corner of the Stuart and Lasseter Highways. This is typical roadhouse style accommodation, no frills – basic and utilitarian. 

Looking forward to heading down the Lasseter Highway and moving on to Yulara tomorrow.

19 June 2021 – drive Erldunda, NT to Yulara, NT – 2.5 hrs, 246 km

Before leaving Erldunda we checked out the resident Emus. We find these prehistoric looking birds fascinating — they seemed quite interested in us too.

A little emu trivia – their feathers are unusual, if not unique, in that they have a primary and secondary feather coming out of the same shaft.

19-21 June 2021 – Yulara, NT

We were very excited to be staying in Yulara (Voyages Ayers Rock Resort), and ultimately visiting nearby Uluru and Kata Tjuta.

Yulara is comprised of various levels of accommodation from camping to apartments to the Sails in the Desert 5 star hotel.

It had been a challenge to secure any accommodation at Yulara. We were grateful when we finally locked in a two night booking at The Lost Camel Hotel. We had a nice room with the most comfortable bed – it was like sleeping on a cloud. Bliss.

Yulara Village is centred around a town square, where there is an IGA, post office, Gallery of Central Australia (GoCA), various shops, cafes, and accommodation. There are a variety of free activities available each day, which are either based in the square or start from the square, eg bush tucker tour, painting class.

We really enjoyed a visit to the Gallery of Central Australia. The staff are friendly and happy to spend time chatting about artworks and artists.  GoCA has a regular artist in residence programme. The current artist in residence is Justin Ronburg Jappurrula 15/06-30/06/2021.  Justin is both a painter and a musician. We were rapt to spend time chatting to Justin about his art and the digeridoos he makes, during which he treated us to an impromptu dig session when he played 4 digeridoos, and on one occasion also clap sticks. Yes! How cool was that!

We had two sunsets and two sunrises whilst at Yulara, ie four opportunities to take some sunset/sunrise photos at Uluru and Kata Tjuta. However, the weather/clouds had other ideas… ce la vie. Having met so many lovely people whilst at Yulara, both village staff members and other travellers, and just being able to be near these two iconic sites, made the lack of photogenic sunrises/sets pale into insignificance.

We self drive as much as possible. However, it is only possible to visit the Field of Light with a tour group – we signed up with AAT for a sunrise tour – sunset tours are also available. Joining a sunrise tour gave us the opportunity to see the stems of the fibre optic field of lights pale to grass like forms whilst the rising sun revealed Uluru in the background.

Michael doesn’t usually do early mornings. We went to sleep early the night before, so when the alarm went off at 5am it wasn’t too harrowing.  It was a brisk 2 deg C – brrrr – when we left the cosy warmth of our hotel room and headed for the tour meeting point.  It was lovely see and walk in amongst this art installation created by UK artist, Bruce Monro, which is indefinitely on display.

Michael had visited and climbed Uluru 40+ years ago.  We joined the ranger guided Mala walking tour which met up at the former starting point for the Uluru climb.   Being older and wiser, Michael couldn’t believe that he had made the climb when he saw how steep it is, and now being a more culturally aware individual appreciates the ban on climbing Uluru which was implemented in October 2019 to align with the wishes and cultural beliefs of the traditional owners, Anangu.

It was a short visit but a nice visit to the Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park. Feels surreal that I’ve now actually been to see these amazing Australian icons in person.

A few more photos follow…

M&Vx

15-18 June 2021 – Coober Pedy, SA

We stayed in CP for three nights at the Stuart Range Outback Resort. This accommodation is fabulous. Clean, comfortable, and importantly well kitted out for cooking, and washing our clothes – yippee.

It is possible to stay in one of multiple underground accommodation options in CP however, as a claustrophobic, I just couldn’t get my head around that scenario.

CP is sometimes called the Opal Capital of the World. It’s a quirky, interesting place to visit. Of course, almost everything to see and do is influenced by opals. A little trivia for you, ie the Opal is Australia’s national gemstone.

We visited and took a guided tour through Faye’s Underground Home (also known as a dugout).  The home was excavated using picks and shovels forty years ago by three women. This underground dwelling gives an insight in to the tenacity that is required in a place like Coober Pedy. 

Whilst in Ceduna we had heard about Josephine’s Gallery and Kangaroo Orphanage in CP. Shortly after arriving in town we signed up to attend a kangaroo feeding session. Josephine’s had half a dozen adult roos who had come into their care for a variety of reasons. None of them will be released.

Of all things, we were surprised to be provided with wasabi chickpeas with which to feed the roos.  They were all very well mannered and took the food
very gently.  

I think we instantly fell in love with the star of the show – a female joey who first appeared in her makeshift pouch. She was bottle fed whilst still in the pouch, then she was given a little time to stretch her legs and practise hopping. What a gorgeous little lady. We were then given the opportunity to hold her under the watchful eye of her minder. She was super cute, and very calm. So lovely to see her do a forward roll back into the pouch for a post dinner and exercise snooze. 

The orphanage is run entirely on the money raised from the roo feeding sessions and by donations. Like so many (if not all) such organisations Covid has had a big impact on them.

Whilst in a CP café we noticed some striking aboriginal art which was painted by local artists from the Williams family. The focus of their art is bush tucker.  There is a lot of local art for sale in various locations around CP.  We resisted the temptation to buy any art as we reminded ourselves we are meant to be downsizing. [But, we are only nine days into our nine week trip so anything could happen by the time we return home.]

Seeing the opal fields around CP is a little like being on another planet with thousands of abandoned prospect drill holes and piles of, often pyramid shaped, earth reaching far into the distance.

We visited Kanku – Breakaways Conservation Park which is an Aboriginal Heritage Site located about 35km from CP. We purchased a permit from the Information Centre prior to entering the park. We believe that the shapes and colours of the rocks and land are particularly beautiful at sunrise and sunset – tho’ we visited Kanku in the middle of the day and it was also quite speccy.

M&Vx

I had been looking forward to arriving at Madura pass and taking in the sweeping view onto the Nullabor. Sadly, it was raining when we arrived and the view was not good on this occasion.  It was still raining the following morning, but this did not stop me going up to the lookout and capturing the photos below…

As always, we were very happy to see wedge tail eagles (7) along the way.  And, also very happy not to see many kangaroos that had been hit by vehicles.  

This first part of the journey is what we consider to be our transit leg and we don’t usually spend much time in the aforementioned towns/stops. Accommodation standard is varied and sometimes the more costly it is, the crappier it is – but, It’s all part of the fun!

This is our seventh crossing of the Nullabor together, and for the first time we stopped at Eucla (near the Western Australia/South Australia border) and visited the long ago abandoned telegraph station. Michael last saw the telegraph station about 50 years ago, and he said things had not changed much.

We crossed the border into South Australia on Friday 11 June, and handed over our uneaten fruit and veg at the quarantine station.   Michael put in a big effort and managed to eat 3 large bananas before we got to the handover point. We had completed – now mandatory in these Covid times – border crossing paperwork a few days before leaving home.  As advised earlier by SA authorities, we were sent an email to check if we had arrived as and when we said we would. 

11 and 12 June, we had our first two night stopover in Ceduna, where we stayed at the Foreshore Caravan Park in a comfortable 80m2 cabin.  We made a day trip south, down the coast from Ceduna and visited Streaky Bay, Smokey Bay, and Perlubie. The weather was wet and grey, but we saw enough to know that is an area we will revisit in the future and spend more time exploring.

We were happy to bump into our friend PJ (from Western Australia) in the Ceduna Foodland. We knew he was in the area  – nice to see a familiar face so far from home.

Please scroll down to see a few photos, and there is a comments box if you feel like dropping us a line.

M&Vx

We invite you to follow our nine week road trip…
8 June -> 9 August 2021

Join us as we travel (anti-clockwise) along the route shown on the above map. We will also make various side trips/deviations as we go along. We will be travelling 10,000+km over a nine week period.

The catalyst for this road trip was the Alice Springs Beanie Festival (BF) which is held in June each year.  Therefore, the BF being held on 24-28 June 2021 became the epi centre for road trip planning, and travel plans blossomed and evolved in both directions around those dates.

We travel by 4 wheel drive with all of our gear stowed inside the vehicle. This appears to be uncommon as a high percentage of the other vehicles we see has at least a roof rack stacked high, and/or trailer. Of course, there are also many caravans of various shapes, sizes and styles, motorhomes towing a smaller vehicle, a few 5th wheelers, and every now and then a motorcycle.

We opt to stay in roadhouses, motels, hotels, apartments, and we’ve got one house/pet sitting gig. In current covid times there are many more of us than usual on the road and accommodation can be hard to find, therefore, we chose to book every night of the journey in advance. Little scope for spontaneity these days, however, we did not want to end up sleeping in the Jeep, so booking ahead it had to be.

Scroll down if you would like to make a comment. We would love to hear from you.

M&Vx