After a couple of huge days driving we arrived in Maleny on Wednesday evening to spend the last 5 nights of our trip hanging out at Dunk's folks house. It's quite luxurious having a bed, flushing toilet, showers, indoor facilities, not having to set up the tent and a washing machine. We already smell so much better. Pretty strange going back to wearing masks even tho we did get a brief taste of this in a couple of places in SA. Bracing for a lockdown in Brisbane. Will be some shock from travelling freely and with huge space and isolation to a very different small space and lockdown at home but fingers crossed we avoid that.
Right I better explain how we ended up staying at Maleny, and how we went from Noccundra (which is almost 1200km from Brisbane) 3 nights ago to 150km from home last night!! The previous post updated you on Noccundra and then we drove the 130km to Thargomindah and made the decision to met up with Dunk's family in Mitchell, which was a 600km drive via Cunnamulla and Charleville. A huge day driving especially as we didn't leave Thargomindah until 11.30. Stopped briefly at Cunnamulla for a very quick lunch of pies and chocolate milk. Lovely drive and we did reconsider our decision as we passed the entrances to Currawinya, but really we didn't have the energy to do it justice and the weather threat was just too great especially as the skies were very threatening. Saw heaps of emus on the road to Charleville and there's a really nice looking camping spot at Wyandra if anyone is ever going that way. Charleville looked so much better and greener than the last few times we have been there in the last 3 years. It was green even! From there straight onto Mitchell which we reached at sundown with ominous drops of water, heavy skies, rumbling thunder and lightning. We did briefly stop at a little bridge before Morven to go back and take a tortoise off the middle of the road and save the poor little bugger from the road trains. He literally missed a squashing by 40 seconds. Hopefully he went under the bridge next time. Was great catching up with Dunk's family until a big storm came in and a deluge followed. The shovel was out digging trenches around some of the tents and it's the only storm we have ever been in with that tent, where the water splashed up under the fly so much. Still everyone managed to keep bedding and clothes dry. Next day was a very wet packup in between showers. Headed off around 9 with showers all the way to Chinchilla. There is a great little park there so stopped for lunch then took the scenic non highway route to Maleny via Yarraman and skirting around the north of the Bunya mountains. Arrived in around 5.30 after a very long day in the car, the kids were so good but I think we need to stay out of the car for awhile now (it also stinks to high hell so noone wants to be in for long!).
Today we took a trip over to Marycairn Cross reserve which is a rainforest area overlooking the Glasshouse mountains. Always a special place, it was amazing to be back in such a damp, humid, dark, green, full of life place. Saw pademelons (small wallaby type marsupial) all over the place, gigantic fig trees, a noisy pitta (a very colourful, reclusive bird), catbirds, whipbirds, robins, fantails, etc but no snakes. The plan for the next few days is more chilling out, coffees, maybe a trip to the beach and more rainforest around here, eating fresh veg and fruit straight from the garden (if ever proof was needed that absence makes the heart fonder then the kids delight at fresh fruit and veg is it!!) and hiding out from the big storms passing thru. We had some small hail today so have now put the ute in the shed cos we really don't want hail dings and there is a gigantic hail warning out (BOM actually issued this warning for a vast part of SE QLD this afternoon).
So that's pretty much it for this road trip. We've covered nearly 21000kms (or will have by the time we get home). This week alone was an epic distance where we drove 460km from Grindell's hut in Vulkathunha-Gammons NP in SA to Innamincka on unsealed roads, then Monday was a meer 300km to Noccundra in QLD, Tuesday 750km to Mitchell, then Wednesday 600km to Maleny (so over 2000km in 4 days). We left the West Coast (at Carnarvon) on Wednesday 8 Sept and 5000kms, 20 days later on Tues 21st Sept reached Grindell's hut campground, about 4000km of that on unsealed roads including the Great Central Highway, Oodnadatta and Strezlecki Tracks with visits to Kennedy Ranges, Mt Augustus, Lake Ballard, Uluru-Katajuta, Painted desert and northern Flinders Ranges plus passing thru the Strzelecki, Great Victoria and Gibson deserts just to name a few. Other highlights prior to that have been Ningaloo Reef and Cape Range, Karijini, Milstream Chicester, Cape Leveque and Pender Bay, Mornington and Charnely on the Gibb River Road, Purnululu, Keep River, Kakadu, Darwin, Limmen, Lorella Springs and Lawn Hill. We've passed thru 4 states (QLD, NT, WA and SA) dodging before, between and after Covid lockdowns and border restrictions. We only spent 9 days in SA but it's a real standout for us, 46 days in WA which was just an incredible adventure of gorges, spinifex, beaches, swimming and packed campgrounds, 24 days in the NT which was a food delight and mini holiday with Bonnie & Dan in Darwin plus wilderness and massive scenery on a scale that has to be seen to believed and then first and last a wrap with QLD with the amazing Lawn Hill and then just epic outback pub and scenery to bring us home to comfort, great food and peace at Maleny. We will have been away from home 100 nights, 89 of those in the trusty tent and ONLY one night of rain with a brief storm at Uluru which barely wet the tent. The tent is still usable, we didn't break any poles despite carrying a full spare set thou we have had zip problems to work around and on the second last night got a puncture from a bullhead which has holed the tent and one of the sleeping mats. No car troubles aside from the poxy roof rack AND no punctures yet which is pretty incredible considering we expected many and carried 2 spare tyres. Saying that the car is well overdue a service and we did change the air filter half ways thru plus it stinks and is filthy inside and out. Might take me a week to clean it I think!
We've had an incredible adventure together as a family, explored the most beautiful, wild and amazing places, managed to eat well, avoid illness and any serious injury (spinifex and bullhead spikes aside!), done huge drives, read lots of books, played heaps of card games, been too hot (kakadu!), too cold (hancock gorge), hungry (every 2 hours), smelly, sweaty, gone without showers and washing machines for too many days to admit, hiked all over the place, and by the time we finished are a super efficient team at setting up and down our camping space, able to get the kids to help decide routes and destinations and be much more capable little people. We've learnt lots about rocks, flowers, birds, trees, etc, seen incredible skies and shooting stars, took a ridiculous number of photos, fill in border passes and navigate back roads wherever we went.
Would we change anything? we chatted about this on the long way home and aside from a couple of awful campsites, the roof rack, more drop scones (these are so versatile from stew mop to remote birthday cinnamon, sugar treat) and better hiking socks we decided that we were very happy and content with what we did, what we experienced, our gear (or lackof since folks in a tent are probably only about 5% of the travellers on the road), where we explored and also what we didn't do. We discovered that often for us, the experience of wild, remote and isolated was often much better then the bigger bucket list, packed places.
It's strange to finish as time has flown by but we're also ready to finish as it's hard work being on the road all the time, constantly looking for a place to stay, where to find water, food, good campsites, juggle costs, etc. We feel very privileged and lucky to have been able to do this trip together especially with the current border issues and restrictions and it's something we'll treasure for a long time.
That's it for now. We're already half planning trips back to Lorella Springs, Darwin and Litchfield, Flinders Ranges, Currawinya, and more!! Thanks for reading along!
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