Rose and the family at Katherine Gorge.
The first week had started off quite well. We were getting into the camping swing of things, improving each day at putting up our camper, and the kids were only asking ‘Are we there yet?’ 5 times a day, as opposed to 15. I was being the diligent mother supervising the school kids daily with their journals for school, and I was quite smug with how well we were coping.
And then we got our first flat tyre. I was even quite cocky when that happened, as we were literally at the only service station within 100km when the tyre blew and could be fixed. Oh yes, we were kings of the outback and nothing could bring us down.
Flash forward a few days, and I have been brought back to reality with a savage bump. In the days after the tyre, let me tell you about the casualties we had:
- Thermos - not essential but handy to have.
- Cords and bits of pieces that were attached to the trailer had been left in a trail behind us, Hansel and Gretel style, due to the bumpy roads. This was not necessarily a bad thing. If we decided to turn around and head for home, we would have found our way back.
- CB radio – this broke only momentarily, which caused the talk button to permanently stay down, allowing the two other families to hear Mark singing (badly), kids whinging and me yelling. Luckily I did not bag out the other families during this time.
- Fridge – this was the worst possibly casualty. It was second-hand to begin with and I’m guessing all the bumping had nudged the fridge into an early grave. We had to stuff our food into the other families fridges and eat as much of the cold food as possible, so it didn’t go off, causing major gut aches and sickening passing of wind.
- Portable DVD player – devastating loss. Ten minutes into a five hour drive it began to smell like burnt wires and died a painful death. At this point, I began to weep.
- General hygiene and cleanliness – gone. Pretty sure what looked like a tan was nothing but a permanent layer of dirt on my skin.
- Internet and phone reception – did not realise exactly how much of a technology addict I was until the reception dropped out. I began obsessively checking the phones for a sign that reception would appear again, which it very rarely did. Time to let go, Rose. You won’t go into organ failure because you haven’t checked your emails or posted a status on facebook.
Despite all these things, we still managed to reach Mt. Isa, where we stocked up on supplies. We stayed in a caravan park, which meant showers, toilets and washing machines. It’s a little bit sad that I went into raptures over a washing machine, but when your socks are stiff with red dirt and your pyjamas stink like campfire, you are gonna get excited over a laundry.
The first day in Mt. Isa, Mark discovered that the fridge was unable to be fixed. Enter Mark’s first outback tantrum. He huffed and puffed his way through Mt. Isa, trying to find a cheap new fridge and in the process, backed into another car, yelled at me (because obviously that was my fault), sulked like a teenager and generally made life a little hard. But that’s ok, because a new fridge was $1700 that we really didn’t bank on spending in the first week, so I let him get over it in his own time and just made sure there was cold beer in everyone else’s working fridges.
Also, I had a bit of a tantrum myself, calling my best friend and having my first cry, “I wanna come home!”. Family three’s mum silently handed me a glass of wine.
When we left Mt. Isa, we started doing some real 4WDing. I wasn’t so sure if I would like that part of the trip, but let me tell you, all of a sudden I was wooping and yelling and yippeeing at every bump, drop and crevice we drove over. We were the novice drivers, so usually we were in the middle position. This is so we can watch the first family and copy what they are doing, and if we get stuck, there are people on both sides to pull us out!
Is it embarrassing to tell you that the first time we needed to put the car into 4WD we had to radio and ask how to do it?? Nevertheless, Mark was in his element and I think his chest grew a few centimetres and he began to swagger just a little. I began to call him Outback Jack.
On one of our nights in the bush, I heard my first dingo. A dingo’s howl ringing through the night is an eerie sound. It caused me to have a slight panic attack about leaving the camper to go to the toilet. I was convinced two beady eyes would be watching me or that I might leave the zip open, causing the dingo to sneak in, steal Amy (our youngest) and I would have to run around in the night, screaming “A dingo stole my Amy!” Of course, the night passed without event.
We were all missing home in our own way. Beth and Sarah desperately missed our dogs. They began to harass every dog they saw, fussing over them and cuddling them, which normally is fine, but the outback has a lot of stray dogs that don’t look overly friendly, so you have to be very careful.
We didn’t miss the Melbourne weather though. The days were hot, and the nights were slowly getting warmer. Despite the hiccups we had encountered, we were still having a ball and nothing was going to stop us!
PLACE OF THE WEEK
Mt. Isa has the best water playground I’ve ever seen. I thought Woodend was good, but Mt. Isa was a whole different level of playground. So much fun.
TIP OF THE WEEK
Plan for the unexpected. Have extra money put away for emergencies. And maybe take an extra set of DVD players for the car, just in case.
