The Turning Left Tour - Part 1.1: The Red Centre

So, why, having called this The Turning Left Tour, did we Turn Right at Adelaide I hear you ask?Well, having calculated the number of kilometres left to drive, from Adelaide to Darwin via Perth (around 7000 km), and the available time before the birth of our grand-babies in Mackay, we made the momentous decision to avoid Western Australia altogether, and cut straight up from Adelaide through the Red Centre.  Our apologies to Western Australia and we will definitely visit in the future, but will make this our only destination (in other words, no going via Tasmania this time).

Little did we know what a momentous decision this one would be.  After a quick run across Victoria and South Australia (and again apologies for not including all the wonderful places we visited along the way, which of course are all in previous blogs) we took the road north from Port Augusta through Woomera and Coober Pedy to Alice Springs.

Coober Pedy will be remembered mostly for its flies, as well as the moonscape leading in and out of town for several kilometres; muck heaps abound but hopefully there were also lots of opals found along the way.  We found not only flies, but their antidote.  We were told about a cream, which we found in the local IGA - Desert Blend Rosemary and Cedarwood Fly and Insect repellent - which we also found in Alice Springs.  We "donated" our first jar to an interesting Arante woman at Standley Chasm.  We took a cultural walk through the Chasm with her and had lots of interesting discussions along the way about Aboriginal culture and history.  She bemoaned the fact that the she spent so much time doing the "great Australian wave" while taking groups on walks, because of the flies, so I gave her our small pot of magic cream.  It not only works a treat, but mystifies all those around wearing fly nets!

The road (and basically there is only one) going north from Port Augusta should be the Eighth Wonder of the World.  It's so long and so straight, and with a speed limit of 130 km/h, that there are signs along the way warning of "Crest" and "Bend" - no doubt if you weren't paying attention after 50km of straight, then you may be tempted to keep going straight ahead!  Despite our expectations, the road was excellent, and the B-trebles and cattle trucks not a problem at all.  We all seemed to be travelling at around the same speed anyway and we only had one instance of overtaking and being overtaken by a road train.  Sadly, we saw not one wild emu, camel or kangaroo in the whole of the Northern Territory.  We did see 4 dead cattle off to the side of the road early one morning. They must have been hit by a road train during the night; evidently where there are no fences they wander onto the warm road to sleep at night; not a wise decision.  It's a wonder there weren't more of them.  I suppose that the reason we didn't see any wildlife close to the road was the recent rain which had produced a lovely sheen of green on the landscape, so wildlife didn't have to risk their lives by venturing too close to the road for grass.

Using Alice Springs as our base we travelled to both the West and East Macdonnell Ranges.  It's easy to see why the local Aborigines have the caterpillar as their Dreaming.  The beautiful ranges undulate their way west (and east) as far as the eye can see, and were covered with a light coating of green from the recent rain.  Locals commiserated with us for not seeing the "real" Red Centre but everywhere we looked we saw green, and even some early wildflowers encouraged to bloom by the rain.  I simply can't imagine a more beautiful sight than the West Macdonnells and will always remember our time in this part of the Centre with gratitude.  We could so easily have missed out on all the experiences we now so treasure.  We're even laughing at Ray's 2 bike tyre punctures in 2 days from the broken glass along the bike paths in Alice Springs (well, perhaps Ray's not laughing yet, but he will eventually!).

Uluru (Ayers Rock) and Kata Tjuta (the Olgas) were truly spectacular, but we both feel that Kings Canyon was the top experience for us in the area.  Perhaps it was the eerie sound of a pack of dingoes howling at first light, or too, the privilege of being in an area which has been such a special place for Aboriginal people for such a long time.  Taking a side trip from the Rim Walk into the Garden of Eden, a place of great cultural significance for the Aborigines, we were pleased that the few people who made the trek treated the place with great dignity and not a sound was uttered.  It was an awesome place and deeply moving.

Again, we were fortunate to meet two of the friendliest people you would ever wish to meet, in our G'Day Mate campground in Alice Springs.  She is a quilter (tick) and he is a mechanic (also tick for Ray, and he helped repair our water tank), and all round nice guy.  Unfortunately as with so many friendships made while travelling, we live at different ends of the country, but these two will remain friends, and with the miracle of modern technology, we can communicate easily.  So, one new friend in Tasmania and 2 in Perth - we'll definitely have to continue our peripatetic lifestyle to keep up with them.

Alice Springs is a really interesting place, with lots to see and do (and quite a few good coffee shops too).  I'll never forget sitting outside our favourite coffee shop one morning, next to an Aboriginal man of around 50, and his white wife, with their coffee coloured granddaughter.  She was a real cutie,  dressed in the usual "princess" outfit, wearing a plastic tiara, and very animated.  Apropos of nothing, she leaned over to us at one stage and announced very loudly "I've got nit cream in my hair"!  Well, that's certainly one to treasure; her grandmother explained that the only thing that works for the endemic nits among the kids is Frontline!  I still laugh whenever I think about her!

So many experiences, so many places.  Without going into details, I'll just mention Daly Waters Pub (a fantastic night of music and dancing), Mataranka Springs (a fantastic Italian backpacker who was kind enough to speak kiddie Italian with me), Katherine (a fantastic Woolies - the biggest in Australia with all the travellers going through), our fantastic morning and evening cruise on the Yellow River at Cooinda, and the fantastic Aboriginal art at Jabiru and Ubirr Rock (Kakadu National Park).  Then there's the Camooweal Billabong, Richmond's Krokosaurus, and Pairie honey which, sadly, we have long ago finished, with no hope of a replacement other than returning to Prairie!

Wangi Falls in Litchfield National Park has to be one of the best places we stayed.  We arrived planning for a night or two, and stayed until our power and water started running out - 7 nights!  There's a great campground there, but it's hard to get into.  There's no booking, so people drive around starting around 8am, waiting and hoping for another camper to leave.  Each campsite is separate and surrounded by bush so it's quite private.  I must admit I did feel a little guilty watching the passing parade but with all our awnings out and chairs and tables under them, most people didn't even bother to ask if we were leaving soon.  The Falls themselves were just spectacular and the best part about the area is that, apart from other campers, there's no-one around before about 10 am and again after about 3pm.  During the day, of course, there are hundreds of day-trippers, but we did the Falls walk every morning and then swam in the lagoon before breakfast and then went down again in the afternoon when most people had left.  There were loads of beautiful birds to try and identify, and wallabies of course.  We were even surprised to see a large sow wander through the campground a couple of nights; the Rangers were about to try and trap it as we left.  Not such a frightening sight by day, but it's eerie hearing it snuffling around at night.

So after our Litchfield and Kakadu experiences, it was back south to the Three Ways at Tennant Creek and another Turn Left, and we were headed to Queensland.  The rest, of course, is history, with two beautiful great-grandchildren added to the family in July and August.

The dash across Queensland seems a blur at this stage, but we did travel the Barkly Highway via Camooweal, Cloncurry, Julia Creek, Mt Isa, Hughenden and Charters Towers to Townsville, where we popped out onto the coast for the first time since the Great Ocean Road all those months ago, and saw the welcome sight of the clear blue water of the Great Barrier Reef.

So, after more meanderings down the coast to Sydney, and back, here we are in Kingscliff, northern NSW on the last day of our 18 month adventure.  We've had a week of hedonistic living in one of the best caravan parks in northern NSW, with our large back window facing onto a great beach, with every facility close by, including the best coffee at the Choux Box just across the road.  Unfortunately there's also a Woolies, a gelato place and terrific dress shops to explore, but so far we've managed to resist all but the supermarket, gelato, and coffee!

It's been a great trip - the not so good parts of it have already receded into ancient history - and we arrive back home on 1st December.  We're really looking forward to settling down for a few weeks and enjoying the family and Christmas before we leave on a 10 day sailing trip in NZ, but that's just an aberration and we don't have any further plans until the end of 2015.

So, as the sun sinks slowly in the West, we plan to say goodbye to our trusty motorhome, Raptor.  We've already put an advertisement in Gumtree, and we hope someone just like us will come along and take her away on another odyssey.

Thanks to all of you who have followed our journey over the past 18 months.  We've appreciated your interest and comments and it's been great to hear from so many of you.  The blog statistics tell us that we have readers from as far away as Russia and South America.  Even if we don't know you, we do know that strangers are only friends you haven't met yet!