Broome and back 2011

Moruya


No red dust, no brown snakes, no crocodiles. This is way too civilised. We are sitting in our dinky little cabin on the banks of the tranquil Araluen River at Moruya. In front of us are two families with little kids fishing and the Dads being knowledgeable about bait and casting. They’d better be happy with hamburgers for dinner, though, because there aren’t any fish being caught.

But it’s a lovely scene, big old palm trees on the river bank, and now, after an hour or so of wind and thunder, the patter of rain.

We filled the D4 (that’s Land Rover talk for Discovery 4) up to the gills with boxes of stuff, laughing about the fact that the last trip we had we went across three countries with one tiny backpack each. But for that trip we didn’t need a frying pan, a winch, a personal locator beacon. Although, come to think of it, there were a couple of times when they would have come in handy. A winch up the Grand St Bernard Pass would have been just dandy, and as for when we got lost in the forest...

The drive down the South Coast is very beautiful in a green hills, brown cows and blue ocean sort of way. And the forests lining stretches of the road are really lovely, tall slender stands of eucalypts. Kangaroo Valley, Kiama, Mollymook, the names just speak holidays and relaxation.

But here we are, fired up and ready to go, tomorrow we pick up our camper trailer (waiting list 6 months) and learn how to use it. Then the next day, head off to the North West. We did spear off into the forest for lunch, just to get into the spirit of it, and tonight we are cooking our food out of the supplies crate, to ease ourselves into the really simple life.

Just one little thing is exercising our mind: this rain now falling has also been falling in big lumps all over the area we are planning to cross, out in the backblocks of Queensland. That lovely wild back country, all dry and arid is now full of wildflowers and it just keeps raining. There are roads cut everywhere. Tomorrow we will consult the Bureau of Meteorology and see where we can go. I’ll keep you posted, as they say. If you hear a gurgling noise, send out a rescue team.