The Way Home
Time is certainly starting to fly by and we are honestly loving it! We’ve well and truly relaxed into life on the road. I think we’ve come to realise that it’s not just about the places we are visiting, rather more about the people we are meeting along the way. Pretty much all of the places we’ve fallen in love with have been because the people associated with those places have made it special.
We adopted Jude and Ron at Venus Bay, lucky them to be camping next to the only kids in the camp ground! Fortunately the kids weren’t too feral and Ron & Jude were great with them. We then caught up Streaky Bay for some more fun & it was sad to say goodbye…until we meet again in Perth for lunch!
The Cushways and the Mikalski’s made Streaky Bay special. I think having buddy’s made the time there a lot more fun and it was really hard to say goodbye. It was like leaving home all over again. We really sensed we were going the wrong way when everyone we met was heading west and our plan was to drive up through the centre. As tempting as it was we stuck to our plans and the middle it shall be! After spending time in the Flinders and being blown away by the scenery, we are now really excited to see the centre.
We’ve had a few funny shopping experiences and have realised that supermarkets are not created equally. Spoiled for choice at home with fresh fruit & veggie markets, farmer’s markets, supermarket options, delis, bakeries, butchers, gourmet, wholefoods and health shops, the options elsewhere can quite often be limited to what the servo or roadhouse has on offer depending on when the last road train went through. We’ve also learnt not to be fooled by a “roadhouse”, it’s just a servo by another name, despite the welcoming suggestion that it could be something more interesting.
So when the opportunity arises, I stock the van ready for Armageddon. Weight is an issue when towing the van, particularly on dirt roads, so it’s a constant balancing act of tinned tuna, tomatoes, beans and condiments, with stretching out as much fresh produce as I can. Staples have become potatoes, carrots, red cabbage, shallots and oranges as these have a fairly long unrefrigerated shelf life. Salad and bananas and the like are a luxury for a few days following a reasonable size town if they are available. Importantly we have never managed to run out of chocolate, wine or beer which are the main things really!
I have had to resort to things I would never buy at home. The odd packet of Arnott’s biscuits seems to do the trick to get everyone through long car trips with the obligatory Minties of course. Sliced white bread is doing my head in, so many places it’s the only bread option. We’ve had a loaf last for 9 days in the heat and it is still soft and “fluffy” so what on earth is it really? Hopefully the white bread novelty is wearing off for the rest of the family & after paying $6 for the last loaf, I think the fluffy white stuff is off the menu. What I wouldn’t do for a big crusty loaf of sourdough!
Decent fruit is hard to find. Oranges seem to be the safest bet. Bananas are non existent and apples dodgy. Nothing worse than getting excited and paying a small fortune for bag of decent looking apples, only to find they are all bruised and awful inside. I think we need to hold out for Darwin before there is much improvement in the fruit department!
The coffee situation in the van is still diabolical. I have taken to tea as an alternative…I don’t even want to talk about it. On the plus side, we have never run out of wine. Then there could be real problems!
Our brilliantly terrific ideas about where to live and what to do are still alive and well. We are constantly falling in love with different places and wondering if this could potentially be our new home. Usually after a few drinks and meeting new friends, we get excited, only to wake up in the morning and rethink our brilliance as we swallow flies with our breakfast. I think we are also still so early into our journey that we are just as excited about what’s to come so are keen to keep moving forward.
One thing that plays on my mind is how would I get home? Streaky was awesome and ticked plenty of boxes, other than accessibility to anywhere. Ninety minutes drive to Ceduna, followed by a Qantas link flight to Adelaide, then a flight to Sydney. It’s possible but the best part of a day’s travel, so not really practical for family catch ups or girl’s weekends. Maybe as time goes on, this will change but for now it’s certainly a consideration.
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