Journal

We’ve spent the last few weeks zooming across the country and cramming as much into the days as possible. It’s been incredible, but at this point we are tired and have let ourselves fall behind on life admin tasks (i.e. unfolded laundry, unprepared meal plans, unplanned trip legs, incomplete home-school…), so we were very much looking forward to moving onto Litchfield National Park for 3 nights with no agenda — this was only our second 3-night stint for the entire trip so far, with the last one being Uluṟu which was pretty action-packed.

On Thursday morning we packed up at Little Roper Stock Camp and headed off for about a 4 hour drive to Litchfield. Compared to other drives we’ve done this one was not too long, but GOOD LORD it FELT long. Hazel and Leah were sad to be leaving their new friends who we’d overlapped with for the last four nights, I hadn’t slept well and was feeling generally overwhelmed by the small spaces/chores/constant packing-unpacking/trip logistics, and Dylan needed to catch up on some work. The vibe in the car was LOW. We also spent a good part of the trip stuck behind road trains, which seemed to extend the length of travel immeasurably (although in reality it was probably only by a few minutes). We hobbled through with kids podcasts, playlists and junk food. We stopped in Katherine to fuel up and fill up the water tanks, and then again in Batchelor to buy more Pringles. Thankfully, during our highly motivated period of trip planning over Easter we’d been organised enough to book an NT national parks campground site at Wangi Falls, which we made it to by mid-afternoon. After setting up we wandered down to the falls around sunset to check them out and dip our feet in, which turned out to be the perfect antidote to a challenging day! By the time we arrived everyone else was leaving, so we had the entire place to ourselves. As the sun was setting we ended up taking a spontaneous sunset swim in our underwear! It was freezing, exhilarating and exactly the circuit breaker that was required.

Over the next two days we spent our time moving between the campsite and the falls to swim; we chilled out, caught up on work/life admin, and during one lunchtime swim I unbelievably ran into my cousin Meredith and her daughter who live in Newcastle! We also watched a bowerbird work very hard on building his elaborate bower — for which he collected hundreds of shells, ornate sticks, and scraps of tin foil.

On Saturday we gathered the motivation to leave our campsite and explore further afield. We headed to Walker Creek where we walked up a track that took us to a beautiful swimming spot with small waterfalls that we could climb around/jump into/swim in. We also saw some of the biggest termite mounds I’ve ever seen. We are planning to return to Litchfield National Park after we do Kakadu in a couple of weeks, so we didn’t feel a pressure to rush around and see everything, and I think that has been a good lesson for us in really realising the joy of somewhere by just absorbing it slowly over a few days.

On our final evening at Wangi Falls we went back at sunset as we had promised the girls that we would swim out and touch both waterfalls. Dylan and I got our exercise by towing them along on their pool noodles to get there (and back), and once out there we climbed up into a little pool next to the smaller waterfall and sat together looking back over the plunge pool as the sun was setting. The small pool was so warm, which made getting back into the big one to do the swim back challenging for everyone… but we managed it and now have the story to tell!

Strap in for many, MANY photos of the falls. We just couldn’t stop taking pictures because it was so beautiful, and this is the culled version!

This morning started with billy tea and johnny cakes around the campfire at our campsite, Little Roper Stock Camp. We also picked up a loaf of freshly baked bread that we’d ordered from Des, the owner. After breakfast, Hazel and Leah (and all the other kids) fed the animals, and then went into the reptile house/garage filled with fish tanks full of lizards and snakes, where they got to hold each one and learn a little bit about them. Leah LOVED all parts of this — she was first in line to hold things (especially the turtles) and came back around for a second go. Hazel was slower to warm to the experience (absolutely where I was at too), but gradually worked up the courage to hold everything too — she was most excited about the blue tongue lizards.

For a few hours in the middle of the day we all spent some time just mooching about and enjoying the campsite, and after that we headed over to the Bitter Springs swimming area. Just like yesterday it was another incredible experience. This one is a much bigger swimming hole than the Mataranka Thermal Pool and it has a current that means you can gradually float along to the end before getting out and doing it all again. We stayed for several hours — swimming, floating, jumping off tree branches into the water and just soaking it all up. I loved being able to swim in amongst the water lilies, with the dragonflies and underneath the enormous golden orb webs strung between the paperbark gums and palm trees. It was a real highlight of the trip so far.

When we got back to the campsite the girls played games with all the other kids (including the most elaborate game of hide and seek in the hay bales) whilst Dylan and I enjoyed a drink with the other parents. We ended up pushing the limits a bit too far because dinner and bedtime were a cacophony of emotions, so we’re aiming for a quiet one tomorrow!

Today marked the beginning of us officially slowing down the trip after making it into the Top End of the Northern Territory for the dry season — hooray!!! We’ve covered a lot of ground in the last few weeks and seen some incredible things, but we’re all really looking forward to staying at each site for a bit longer and having the opportunity to take things at a slower pace. The drive today was between Daly Waters and Mataranka and was just under two hours — such a doddle! We took a cruisy last stroll around the pub before setting off and arrived at our new campsite at Little Roper Stock Camp before lunch.

The campsite is the brainwave of Des and Telka, who have essentially set up a kids’ oasis. It’s got hay bales to climb on/roll around/hide under with slides built into them, rope swings, slacklines, pigs (and piglets!), cows, buffalo, goats, AND a whole garage full of reptiles — snakes, lizards, turtles. The place is teeming with adventure, rough around the edges and absolutely perfect for us for a few days. After arriving, the girls were straight onto their bikes, the playground/hay bale stack, and playing with the animals.

In the afternoon we headed down to the Mataranka Thermal Pool for a swim, which was incredible. The pool sits in Elsey National Park, surrounded by a palm forest, and is 34°C all year round. The water comes from Rainbow Spring, which pushes out about 30.5 million litres a day! The pools are crystal clear and you can see right to the bottom. There were a lot of people there when we first arrived, but after a while it thinned out a bit and we got a chance to really enjoy the natural beauty. By dinner time we were all completely exhausted, so we opted for another movie night and early to bed.

Today we woke up at our free camp at Churchill’s Head and enjoyed breakfast by the fire before packing up and heading off for the Daly Waters Pub. I drove again today so that Dylan could do some work. On the way we stopped briefly at Renner Springs, where we saw a road train carrying several classic cars and a bunch of hay bales (?), and then also at Elliott. At both places we only really saw the inside of the service stations, as we’d heard that we needed to get to Daly Waters in good time to secure a campsite.

We made it to the Daly Waters Pub by around lunchtime and it was hot, which was such a relief after all of our layering over the last few weeks. The girls even braved the pool after we’d set up!

The Daly Waters Pub is a fever-dream frenzy of chaos. Inside there is SO MUCH stuff — every section of wall is covered in something that travellers have left behind: IDs, stickers, photos, underwear, t-shirts… basically anything and everything. There’s a whole wall of bras. Then outside, the owner, Tim, has sourced a random assortment of what appears to be anything he can get his hands on… old helicopters/airplanes/cars, ancient traffic lights, giant KFC buckets; there’s also an assortment of animals — chickens, turkeys, horses, goats, cows, and a freshwater crocodile (Snappy Kevin). It is absolutely wild… the pub is a perpetual party. There’s live music every night and Tim zooms around on a mobility scooter which he’s decked out with buffalo horns and a ‘wide load’ sticker. At 5pm each evening he gives a speech about the history of the pub and the local area, following which the ‘Beef and Barra on the BBQ’ is served. We went all out and chose the mixed plate of both beef and barra, which was honestly amazing.

Today was our biggest driving day yet. We were keen to head north to break the back of the trip up to Litchfield National Park so we were aiming for Banka Banka homestead, which is a 590km trip. We spent a lot of time swapping playlists, listening to audio books/podcasts, eating snacks and playing car cricket — Leah was out for a golden duck for about four innings straight which she found quite distressing, so she ended up with a handicap.

We stopped very briefly at the Tropic of Capricorn statue, indicating that we were once again officially entering the tropics (yay!), and after that we stopped at Aileron Roadhouse where there is a ginormous art installation of an Aboriginal man holding a spear high up on the hill — the Anmatjere Man, who stands 17 metres tall. Down at ground level we also met two painted lizard sculptures who, according to their sign, are the “Desert Mermaid and her lover” — no further explanation offered, none needed. Our next stop was the Devils Marbles Hotel where we bought some ice creams, and then we were back in the car for the final stretch.

As we approached Banka Banka we did some research on the nearby campsite options and decided to go with a nearby free camp called Churchill’s Head so that we could enjoy the bushland and a campfire. There were a few other campers with kids there who we befriended and we all ended up having a spontaneous party around the fire with marshmallows, sparklers and glow sticks.

A life admin/work/play day. Supermarket, washing, cleaning, bike riding, games, drawing. Reset time.

In the afternoon we went for an explore around Alice Springs. We headed up to ANZAC Hill to look out over the town and had a meander down by the dry river. It was beautiful weather and it was good to get a feel for the town.

Today we travelled from Uluṟu to Alice Springs. We set off early as we had to get the car in for a service by 1pm. Roadworks along the way and getting caught behind two ENORMOUS trucks carrying mining machinery caused the timeline to be a bit closer than intended, but we did it. Dylan dropped us off at a pub (with a playground!) for lunch, whilst he took the car in and then came to meet us.

Right beside the pub we stumbled across the Newlandia Music and Skate Festival — a celebration of First Nations music and culture, which we enjoyed exploring during the afternoon. Leah was in her element getting her hair sprayed pink, picking out gemstones and getting to hold a snake! Hazel enjoyed more from afar — opting out of the snake holding and hair spraying, but loving the homemade crafts and gemstones.

After the festival we picked up the car and set up camp at the caravan park for the night.

This morning was cold and ridiculously foggy. We drove out to Kata Tjuṯa (The Olgas) — 36 domed rock formations about 40km west of Uluṟu. On the way we could not see anything beyond about 2m ahead of us, but just as we arrived the fog started to lift and we could see their enormous scale. I was completely blown away by the size and beauty of this area — pretty sure all I said was ‘wow’ about a thousand times. We did the Walpa Gorge walk that goes into the valley between two of the domes and down to a small oasis. Leah and I walked together most of the way and she tried to convince me that there was a town on the top of The Olgas which people accessed by ladder.

After our walk we headed back to Uluṟu where we had planned to hire some bikes to ride around it together. Unfortunately our lack of organisation was again our worst enemy as the bikes were all booked up. We had Hazel and Leah’s in the car already though, so they got the opportunity to cycle around the base of Uluṟu whilst Dylan and I walked... In the end I think it was probably for the best as a lot of the track was very sandy which made for some very unsteady riding from Leah, so it was good to be able to pick her up and dust her off without being on a bike!

In the evening we indulged and booked the sunset picnic at Uluṟu experience — Wintjiri Wiru. This was honestly spectacular! It included cocktails and canapés whilst we watched the sunset, then an Australian cuisine picnic which included kangaroo, emu, crocodile pie and a selection of cheeses and local jams (the girls had ham and cheese sandwiches!), followed by a drone show and light show which told an Aṉangu Dreaming story and included local music. Definitely a highlight of the trip so far!

We woke up to rain again today, so had a very slow-paced morning which was incredibly welcome. Around mid-morning we headed into Uluṟu-Kata Tjuṯa National Park to the cultural centre where we learnt about the history and cultural significance of Uluṟu to the Aṉangu people, the traditional owners of the land. We learnt about how they have lived around it for tens of thousands of years, how Uluṟu holds spiritual meaning and how they use the caves within it to teach their youth, and hold sacred ceremonies.

The cultural centre connects to the cafe and gift shop, so we hit those for a snack and a magnet, and by the time we’d done that the sun had come out and the day had warmed up, so off we went to explore Uluṟu! The landscape and history are absolutely mind-boggling! We took the Kuniya Walk which goes from the base into the Mutitjulu Waterhole, and I was surprised by how much green vegetation there was at the base.

Poor Leah is very tired (not surprisingly!) and she was pretty resistant to walking anywhere today, so we did what any good parent does and bribed her with some screen time in the afternoon and took a very slow pace. The pace allowed us to fully appreciate the cave art, and take in alllllllll of the information on each sign about how different parts of Uluṟu were used for different purposes by the Aṉangu people. After taking about a million photographs that we will probably never look at we headed back to camp and made good on that screen time promise (the first outing yet for the ipads!), did some laundry and enjoyed some really restful time.

Today we moved from Kings Creek to Uluṟu. We packed up camp and had breakfast at the cafe at the station where Dylan and I tried our first ever camel burger! We both agree that if nobody had told us we’d have just assumed it was beef, so all-in-all the experience was pretty good. On the walk to the cafe Hazel and Leah spotted two giant holes which they were excited to learn were rabbit burrows, and I let them know I’d seen a rabbit last night when I’d got lost trying to find the way back to our caravan from the bathrooms which they (and Dylan) found hilarious.

After refuelling we hit the road for a picturesque journey toward Uluṟu. On the way we passed ANOTHER giant rock which is known as ‘Fooluru’ because a lot of people think that it’s Uluṟu in the distance, but it’s not... it’s actually Mount Connor, which is on private property and not quite as big. So obviously we stopped for some pictures of this giant rock too.

We arrived at Ayers Rock Campground by mid-afternoon where we set up (Dylan absolutely NAILED reversing the caravan into a tight spot first go), had some downtime and explored the site, and then we went into Uluṟu-Kata Tjuṯa National Park to the sunset viewing location. Driving in was a really special experience, as we were just blown away by the sheer size and vibrant colour of Uluṟu — I’m not really sure what I had expected, but it really is extraordinary jutting out of the earth in the middle of the desert. Unfortunately the grey clouds meant we didn’t get a spectacular sunset, but we had a wonderful time just hanging out in the car park socialising with all the other people who were there to do the same thing!

Today was incredible! We left the Kings Creek Station early in grey weather to head to Kings Canyon to explore. As we were driving toward the canyon the weather started to clear and the sun came out which brought me immense joy. We committed to doing the Scenic Rim Walk, which is a 6km loop that takes you along the edge of the cliffs of the canyon. It starts with about 500 steps (heartbreak hill), moves through ‘the lost city’ — a collection of sandstone domes that look like an ancient city, over to Cotterill’s lookout, down into the Garden of Eden and out via the south wall. The guide suggested the walk would take between 3–4 hours, and with our collection of little legs and many snack/play stops it took us about 5 hours.

Hazel and Leah were absolute superstars, and only once we got toward the end did Leah get tired and start her own mini protest telling us that she wasn’t going to walk any further — thankfully it was around that time that we reached a point where you could yell out/sing/cooee into the canyon and hear it echoed several times over... so that provided a fun energy lifting break which motivated everyone enough to make it the final stretch. We also saw two wild dingoes from a distance!

After the walk we headed back to camp for a quick bike ride, play, dinner and big sleep.

P.S. Don’t freak out about the photos! We were always super safe and all of us remained way back from the edges at all times… the pictures make it look like a sudden drop, but we don’t trust our kids (or ourselves) that much!

Today we travelled from Alice Springs to Kings Canyon. We’re stopping at Alice Springs again on the way back north, so we decided to hold the sightseeing there until then. Thankfully the rain stopped, but the skies remained grey and the temperatures freezing, which everyone apart from me seems to deal with pretty well. I’m working on finding an inner peace (it’s a work-in-progress-type-project) but let’s just say that cold, windy weather is not supporting the growth of the peace.

Our first stop today was Stuarts Well, which is marketed as a ‘desert oasis’ and in real life is a building by the side of the highway that houses a pub, a small shop and a campsite. They do have some animals though, which was a big highlight for us as they currently have two emus and three emu chicks! The roadhouse also sold camel pies, which we will try another day...

Today we also took Reg and TITANIUM HARDCORE onto our first proper dirt-road adventure — the Ernest Giles Track which cuts about 150km off the trip between Alice and Kings Canyon. I’ve never really driven on dirt roads before, so I took the opportunity to practice and Dylan did a bit of coaching. It was a marriage testing activity for us both, after which we both apologised to each other and the children for the tension levels that were flying around in the car. Dylan took over about halfway through and felt compelled to rally-drive us through to the end which he assures me is necessary to manage the corrugations effectively, which I sort of believe.

After airing the tyres back up we hit the bitumen again (much to Hazel’s relief) and made it to Kings Creek Station where we’re camped up for the next two nights. When we got there the girls enjoyed bike riding around the station and playing on the playground, while we set up and got dinner sorted. We had dinner in the van tonight as it is SO COLD!!

This morning when we woke up it was absolutely freezing! Temperatures are getting down to about 5 degrees overnight, and it was also overcast and drizzly, so we were missing the warmth of the sun. After setting off from our free camp we stopped in at the old Barrow Creek Telegraph Station where we learnt about the old telegraph line that ran from Adelaide to Darwin from the 1870s to the 1930s, connecting Australia to England via an undersea cable. Whilst we were there the rain picked up so we hit the road again.

We stopped in at the Ti Tree general store for lunch (which Hazel was not impressed with — “we drove all this way and all I got was a peppery sandwich!”) and then continued through the rain until we arrived at our caravan park in Alice Springs. It was so cold and miserable that we put the heater on, played some games, ordered pizza and had a movie night in the van!

This morning we enjoyed a beautiful sunrise from the Barkly Homestead whilst we had our breakfast. Leah was straight onto her bike, whilst Hazel sent some videos to her friends. We are all also learning to come to peace with the fact that ants are a pretty big part of our lives now, and that they will crawl over you no matter where you are, and that most of the time that is ok.

We set off mid-morning and drove several hundred very straight kilometres along the highway until we reached Threeways, which is literally an intersection named for the fact that it goes three ways. It may sound absurd, but after travelling about 700km along the one highway with nothing in any other direction it was actually pretty momentous. Obviously we had to pull into the Threeways Roadhouse, as roadhouses are our new favourite pastime, and this was a bit of a highlight for the girls as they discovered the Nutella/biscuit stick snack. Dylan purchased more dim sims, we all stretched our legs and then we were back in the car to the outskirts of Tennant Creek.

We pulled up briefly in Tennant Creek, and the extent of the hardship facing the community was immediately apparent — most places were closed, windows were boarded up and there was a lot of property damage. We did some reading later and learnt that Tennant Creek has a long history of entrenched systemic failures — stretching back generations — which have proven difficult to address effectively over time.

We drove on further south to see the Devil’s Marbles (Karlu Karlu), which are incredible rock formations that have been shaped over 1.7 billion years. For some reason, both Dylan and I had dropped the ball (or marble, lol) here and thought that we could free-camp around the Devil’s Marbles, but when we got there we realised that all the sites were pre-booked through the NT national parks site. Unfortunately the site was full, so we had to think quick as we were all a bit done with the car... Thankfully we found an incredible free camp about 40 minutes further south called Barrow Creek WWII — a former Australian Army staging camp where convoys of troops and supplies would stop overnight on their way north from Alice Springs during the war. We set up in a beautifully remote location, danced together in a dry creek bed, set a fire for the evening and saw the most magnificent night sky.

Today was another big travel day — we’re cruising through QLD quickly so that we make it to the NT top end for the dry season and chase the sun down the West coast. Also, in the places that we were in today there is absolutely nothing for vast stretches, so long travel days are just a necessity!

Today we set off from Mount Isa for Barkly Homestead, which is about 400km from anything else. We stopped briefly at Camooweal Roadhouse for fuel, where we realised that one of the caps on our water tank had come loose on the road and was now missing... so whilst we taped that up the girls tried to catch a fly in a plastic bag, and what can I say — that’s just the sort of fun times you can expect on road trip days. Unbelievably, they caught the fly and we also secured the water tank.

Just after Camooweal we crossed the QLD–Northern Territory border which was very exciting, and we saw police searching cars coming in the opposite direction for contraband fireworks after the Territory Day celebrations yesterday. We arrived at the Barkly Homestead mid-afternoon where it was very hot and humid. After we set up we played some games together, explored the homestead which is home to some beautiful birds and amazing garden sculptures, hit the pub and met some campers who had cycled there from Brisbane over 6 weeks!

A work/life admin/play day in Mount Isa. Not a whole lot to say today — did some washing, shopping and cleaning... all the exciting things that don’t go away even when you’re on holiday! Hazel and Leah enjoyed bike riding with new friends around the caravan park, then braved the pool briefly before realising it was way too cold. Dylan took the car to get the tyres and airbags checked, I hit the bright lights of Mount Isa’s Kmart and Coles. I enjoyed driving around the town and gaining context for the places that my family and friends had lived and worked in. We finished the night with drinks with the family camped next to us who we befriended over the last couple of days and who were 3 months into their 10-month trip.

This morning we woke up to the rain pouring at our free camp in Dinosaur Creek, so we packed up early and hit the road, making it to Cloncurry as our first stop. Whilst Dylan did some work (he’s juggling work in the mornings, evenings, spare time and during the long drives) the girls and I enjoyed a slow few hours exploring the tourist information centre, writing postcards and playing on the playground. For lunch we had our first pie at the Cloncurry bakery (way better than expected) which we took to the picturesque Chinaman Park on the dam just outside of Cloncurry where we watched the kites soar overhead.

After lunch we hit the road again toward Mount Isa, which was a beautifully scenic drive, with rocky ridges and arid foliage. We hit Mount Isa by mid-afternoon where we stayed at the Sunset Tourist Park. The girls enjoyed bike riding around the park and meeting new friends. That night we went along to watch the live music and enjoy a ‘bloody big burger’ at the on-site BBQ which was great vibes (and delicious burgers which were eaten by all)!

Today was a day that accurately represents how quickly a travel day can swing between highlights and low-points, and the mundane to the extraordinary.

The day got off to a rocky start when I forgot to take my towel to the shower block, and I was forced to get creative by drying off with my pyjamas. As I was doing that I thought to myself ‘this will make a good low-point to tell the kids about’.

The day deteriorated from there as we demonstrated a moment of extreme stupidity and naivety by not fuelling up in Longreach before departing for Winton. I think this was a combination of our accommodation being on the north side of town (past the petrol station) and us feeling lulled into an entirely false sense of security with the travel time today only being 2 hours compared to the previous travel day reaching almost 6 hours. Anyway, all that to say that embarrassingly we VERY nearly ran out of fuel on a two-hour stretch between Longreach and Winton — it got to the point where we had to pull over and empty the contents of our diesel heater into the car, and even with that we only JUST scraped into Winton (the fuel gauge indicated we had less than 10km left in the tank). It was stressful and I have learnt my lesson. Dylan took a WILDLY inappropriate video during this moment, during which if you listen carefully I can be heard saying ‘I’m not ready to joke about this yet’.

After the most relief-filled petrol stop of my life, we hit the Tattersalls Pub in town for lunch, and then headed out to the Australian Age of Dinosaurs which was absolutely epic. The girls loved it, and I now want to pivot into archaeology, or at least put completely irrational pressure on my children to become young diggers as a part of their youth volunteer program so that I can tag along for an annual dig. After we finished up at the museum we headed about 60km north-west of Winton to a free camp called Dinosaur Creek, where we set up, walked up a nearby peak and watched a stunning sunset.

We had a luxuriously slow start today, with a chance to make pancakes, do a load of washing and watch the girls cycle around the caravan park with other kids. Around lunchtime we went to the Stockman’s Hall of Fame, where we saw the live show — which involved a lot of impressive whip-cracking, some very well trained horses and dogs, and an incredibly moving tribute to the men and horses who defended our country during the wars. I’m not usually a lover of museums, but the one at the Stockman’s Hall of Fame was as engaging as they come, in a truly beautiful building with automated headsets that kick off little narratives as soon as you walk into the relevant exhibit... It’s hard not to take in information on some level when that’s happening!

In the afternoon we headed back to the caravan park where we all got a chance to take the bikes out for a ride together, and then the girls and Dylan went kayaking on the river whilst I watched warm and dry on the bank.

In the evening we headed to the Qantas Founders Museum where we went to ‘Luminescent Longreach’, which is a very cool light show projected onto the side of a jumbo jet, telling us all about the history of Qantas, its founders and air travel within Australia.

Today was a big driving day. Charleville to Longreach is about 5 hours and 30 minutes, and we ambitiously took it on. We kept ourselves occupied with personalised playlists, kids podcasts (ABC Listen is amazing!), snacks, chatbot facts about each town we visited, activity books and car games. Hazel and Leah were absolute superstars. Many discussions were had about the best strategies for catching yabbies and what to do with them if we did catch them... Hazel decided that the most logical storage place for them would be the washing machine, so I’m now on high alert for checking that before doing a load.

First stop was Tambo — home of the Tambo Teddies, teddy bears made out of 100% sheep wool which were first made and distributed in 1992 by local mums to raise money for the town during a severe drought.

Next up we stopped in Blackall (population ~1,300) for an unexpectedly delicious lunch at The Lodge on Hawthorn which is based in a beautiful old Masonic Temple. On the way out of town we visited the Black Stump, which was used to mark the boundary of surveyed land in the late 1800s — everything to the East was charted, and everything to the West was uncharted and wild. It’s where the expression ‘beyond the black stump’ came from! The monument itself is somewhat underwhelming and confusing as there are two, positioned right next to the high school oval... the original black stump was destroyed by a fire, so the town created a memorial for it out of petrified wood in the 1980s, but then it seems as though the council felt that that wasn’t a realistic representation of what the ACTUAL stump would have looked like, so they built another one (much smaller and what I can only describe as a significantly less ostentatious tree) right next to it. So ultimately, multiple fake tree stumps were seen and photographed by us.

On the next drive toward Barcaldine, we saw a wild emu by the side of the road which was pretty exciting for all of us. At Barcaldine I had the family SO PUMPED to see the Tree of Knowledge — we’d read up on the original tree being the meeting point of the shearer’s strike, which led to the birth of the Australian Labor Party, the mysterious poisoning of the tree and the subsequent development of the multi-million dollar memorial tree (note the theme of immortalised trees in today’s travels)... Anyway, we arrived in Barcaldine SO ready to see this thing and it was closed for maintenance. The kids took that in their stride, Dylan and I poked our heads over the barrier to catch a glimpse of what we were missing.

We arrived in Longreach by late afternoon and enjoyed live music and a drink at the Muddy Duck Caravan Park while the girls played in the mud by the riverbed.

Today was a really great, slow-paced day filled with old friends, meandering walks, bird watching and leaf collecting. We went to the Bilby Experience and got to see the two bilbies who live there. Dylan and James took the opportunity to make a few tweaks to Reg to optimise the battery charging systems. I rediscovered the joy of a corned beef and pickle sandwich on fresh white bread.

Today we travelled from Miles to Charleville where we met up with our friends James and Chloe and their three daughters Aquila, Astrebla and Ochre. Not long out of Miles we drove through the Dulacca Wind Farm, where the turbines tower over the road — they’re 230 metres tall, and photos completely fail to capture how enormous they are in person. We also stopped in at the Roma saleyards and went through the museum they have on-site, which was admittedly way more interesting than I thought it would be (although probably more for Dylan and I than the girls). Unfortunately it wasn’t a sale day so we didn’t get to see the yards in action, but it would be good to come back to witness that!

After a few more hours in the car we stopped at Morven for a play on the playground and a look at the kerosene tin hut, which is exactly like it says on the tin (lol) — a little house that people built out of old kerosene tins to live in during the Great Depression. We had a look around it, and I can’t even begin to imagine raising a family in there — it certainly put any of our modern day complaints into perspective.

Enroute to Charleville the landscape changed and the red dirt started to appear, which prompted Leah to ask ‘is the soil red from people’s blood falling out of their bodies after they are buried?’. We reassured her that it’s actually iron in the soil, although she didn’t seem convinced.

We arrived in Charleville by late afternoon, and it was really lovely to catch up with good friends. In the evening we all went to the Charleville Cosmos Show, where we got to look through enormous telescopes at the stars in the outback night sky and see whole constellations that aren’t visible to the naked eye… SO COOL!!

After months of intensive planning and preparation, we finally set off on our 6-month adventure! We had initially planned to set off early in the morning and make it to Roma for the first night, but not surprisingly there ended up being last minute chaos (including an emergency call to a plumber to fix a leak in the bathroom), so we didn’t end up leaving until about 11am. Dylan’s parents were in town, so it was great to have them there to wave us off, and quite a few neighbours also made the effort to come out to say goodbye which was so lovely.

We took one brief stop at the illustrious BP truckstop in Charlton where Dylan got his first Dim Sim of the trip, or ‘Centrelink Oyster’ as a friend of ours recently told us they are colloquially known.

Reg had his first challenge towing TITANIUM HARDCORE up the Toowoomba range, which he did with no problem whatsoever.

Due to the later departure time we didn’t quite make it to Roma for the night, but instead we pulled up at a free camp in Miles. The campsite was right beside a (very green) creek which had ducks and there were a couple of loose roosters which the girls loved.