The almost home straight - To Sydney

2 Oz weeks, Darwin to Sydney

My flight from Bali to Darwin was quite long as it included 13 hours in Singapore airport, but that was fine by me as it saved me around 120 GBP which is going to be put to good use in the real world where Asian prices no longer exist! We didn’t hang around in Darwin and I never saw any of it, we headed straight off to see some of Kakadu National Park. We drove out to Jabiru and visited a site of rocks and rock paintings with great views out over the plains of the Northern Territory, it was green and fresh looking though the temperature was hot. As some of the flights were a day later than originally planned we were running a little late on our itinerary and this meant that Kakadu was a short visit and we rushed through it to get back on the road and get some miles under our belt. I was really disappointed by our short time here as this was the only part of the Australian trip that I have not previously covered and really wanted a chance to explore it more, never mind, it wasn’t for me this time around. Katherine was our next stop and we visited the Katherine Gorge before continuing down through the Red Centre taking in the Devils Marbles, Uluru (Ayers Rock), Kata Tjuta (the Olgas) and the lovely quirky town of Coober Pedy. This is a great town, I have fond memories of it from years ago, situated in the middle of Australian nowhere, Coober Pedy is an unusual place with a lot of character. Around 80% of the population live underground in dug out homes which keep them warm in the winter and cool in the summer. The town makes it’s living from opal mining and you can visit the mines or buy some of their beautiful precious stones. One of the local caves was home to a well known character by the name of Crocodile Harry, possibly the original Crocodile Dundee. This man was full of stories and mischief and when I visited his home in 1999 he was still around greeting people and chattering away. Now Harry has passed on but his house is still open to the public as it is a cavern of goodies and interesting artefacts, home to one of Tina Turner’s bras for example as one of the Mad Max films had parts shot in this cave.  There are many other caves open to the public, private homes, public accommodation, restaurants or churches many of which are an absolute pleasure to visit. The surrounding area has little in the way of landscaping and has had pictures comparing it to the moon, making it an ideal place for other movies to be filmed.

The camping through this part of Australia had concerned me at first, as an arachnophobe I never really believed it was the right place for me to lay my head but once inside my tent I felt safe from the claws of the devil spiders. The first night of camping was at a creek with crocodile warnings around it, but none of us had any intention of going for a swim so we felt safe enough! It was here I encountered a spider which was to almost become a friend, we found her relatives all around us almost all the way through Australia, and she was a rather attractive white spider with a head torch! Her eyes reflected our head torches at night as a pale light surrounded by a gentle blue halo. She became known to us as Albino Annie and not a night went past that I didn’t see her creeping around the campsite. I liked her because she was easy to spot and that is essential when you have to leave your tent in the middle of the night to visit the open-air bathroom! Less welcome was the sight of burrows around the size of a small mouse but maybe more likely to be home to some very large spiders, I am delighted to have not encountered their residents as they were uncomfortably close to my tent. At night the skies were so clear, we had hours and hours of star gazing to keep us occupied, there was no shortage of shooting stars and with my outside door open I could lie in my bed and gaze for as long as I could keep my eyes open.  One night was wild and windy and wet but other than that the weather held out really well and allowed us to thoroughly enjoy our final two weeks camping, star gazing, sitting around camp fires, toasting marshmallows and reminiscing our months of travel and adventure and growing relationships. I can’t believe two weeks’ worth of nights can be summed up in that small paragraph, it was a magical time.

From day one we have been lucky to spot a variety of wildlife, the incredible birds here, ibis, lorikeets, cockatoos, galahs, emus, cockatiels. The bugs, stick insects, a praying mantis, grass hoppers, termites and their enormous mounds and a variety of spider which I have looked up in an effort to name them but failed miserably as soon as their pictures arrived on screen! There have also been many wallabies and kangaroos dotted around the landscape which are always fun to watch, such an oddity.

We travelled on to Port Augusta where we reached the opposite end of the country and a new sea, then on through Peterborough, Broken Hill, Nyngan, Dubbo, Bathurst and on to the final destination of Sydney. We got to walk around a dry salt plain of Lake Hart, we did a lap of the Bathurst race course, we had some wine tasting at the Highland Heritage Cellars of NSW, we had a lovely trip over to Sydney, the temperature becoming more and more comfortable, the land becoming more and more like that of home. The camping became cold, the long trousers and fleeces came back out of the bottom of the rucksack and everything appears to be returning to normal slowly wiping away the traces of Asia and the tropics. The spider hitchhiking in my bag in Indonesia hasn’t reappeared, I wonder where he came from, somewhere between China and Indonesia, now I can’t find him! The food is western again, some people are finding themselves feeling bloated or a little unwell from eating it again, and there’s not a grain of rice in sight at breakfast time! Our final night was spent in a campsite at Lake Lyell, a lovely serene place with hills and still water and a perfect place to spend our final night together as a group. The final day allowed us a visit to the stunning Blue Mountains where the blue haze hangs over the valley which is thick with trees below us. It’s a beautiful place and well worth more than a couple of hours, but that is all we have here, why delay the inevitable final farewell for the group, back in the bus and onwards to Sydney.

We drove in to Sydney with mixed emotions, out of the 24 people who began this adventure only 12 of us have completed the entire trip which makes the achievement all the greater as it clearly wasn’t as easy as we had thought when we originally signed up. It was a triumphant moment, standing at the harbour having our photo taken with the Harbour Bridge in the background, we did it!! 28 weeks living in the pockets of strangers, a social experiment of sorts that I am unlikely to experience again, it has been most interesting. I have camped more than I imagined I would ever enjoy, I have cooked on fire and eaten all manner of animals and animal parts I wouldn’t eat at home, I’ve seen sights I have often dreamed of and visited countries I thought might never be possible, I have visited 23 countries along the way. I have learned so much about the world and feel a richer person for it. I feel quite honoured to have been lucky enough to take on this trip, my life is so easy in comparison to thousands of those I’ve passed on the journey and I hope that I never take this for granted, having said that I have shared a smile with so many, and it’s a private moment like that that I take away and treasure. I live in a country with 4 seasons which is the only way I think I could ever live, I am blessed with an uncommon love of varied weather and I embrace days of rain and wind as much as I do the sun. I have the freedom and finances to travel the world and hopefully the good sense to appreciate the riches I have waiting for me at home. While the UK to OZ adventure is complete I have not finished my travels yet, I still have a relaxing week in Sydney to enjoy before heading off for a couple of months in New Zealand, this story is not yet over!

But for now.... I did it!!