Here We Go Again - Chapter 00 - Foreward

Time is the great constant of life. The simple fact is we get older and with getting older some might say we get wiser. 

The intrepid team of Silver Schoolies having braved the road for 3 months in the last adventure are off again. Whereas there were time constraints last time as Silver Leader and Rose were using up Long Service Leave, this time there are no such constraints. Whereas last time (break downs aside) we had a time table to adhere to, this time we have only certain places we need to get to because of booking requirements, the moon and other factors but in between we have time. The Missing Link again will be missing. Family will keep them close to home this time around but Forbesy (still looking for Inga – more on that later) is along, at least until half way, where he will have to peel off to return for a family wedding. 

The sledging of both of these will be merciless as it was last time for the Missing Link. 

Covid has done its best to curtail this trip. Borders being slammed shut at various times, outbreaks here and there and the maddening hysteria that goes with it are bad enough but its the cessation of overseas travel which has manifest itself in those who may have travelled globally forced to curb their wundelast by seeking out the wonders of this great land, that will cause us the greatest angst.

The quite rightly paranoid Silver Leader, the great researcher if you will, has been checking on some places of “interest” and has found waiting lists. This therefore means impromptu out, booking in, that’s the big result of Covid in the current climate. 

Looking to use free camping as an option, more so this time than last, there are still times when a van park will be the preferred option, especially in places like Coorinda where we will want to make it a base for Jim Jim Falls, Ubirr and Gunlom Falls. These “higher quality” caravan parks require booking in advance now whereas on the last trip we simply rang ahead as we left that morning and booked in. When last here Gunlom was just a trickle, Jim Jim was not even worth the drive we were told. Ubirr did not disappoint but the lushness of the vistas from Crocodile Dundee (1986 20th Century Fox) were not as apparent as they may be this time around after a big wet season and of course there will be Cahills Crossing – Google it if you know not of what I speak. 

The loose “plan” this time is to head north up the east coast, turn left at Cook Town, rather than cut across the middle of Queensland as on the previous trip, spend some time at the bottom of the Gulf, hit Arnhem Land, Kakadu and the Kimberley for extended periods, turn left again and 

meander down the West Coast and back across the Nullabor. Preempting nothing, we are intending to not leave a site unhappy we have not attempted to see “all there is to see”.

Not being naive enough to suggest everything that can be seen will be seen, we will of course see and hear of things “we should have done” I am sure. They will simply be packed in the notebook for the “next time”. 

Checking around yesterday, all the vans we are carting have or are presently being serviced. The Silver Leader Jeep (Just Enough Engineering Parts) has been updated to a Land Cruiser, so “touch wood” the tribulations of breakdowns experienced on the last trip will not be rearing their heads again. Having said that the breakdowns at Halls Creek and 80 Mile Beach had their “silver linings”. Firstly we would not have experienced peppered kangaroo as it should be cooked (who eats their coat of arms anyway one might ask), we would not have met our “repairmen” from Newman at 80 Mile Beach and not be looking to visit this time around on our way to Marble Bar or been introduced to Scorpion Jerky, a product of a very surly butcher who became the nicest pedlar once interest was shown in the myriad of dried products in his “stable”. 

Travelling is as much about the people you meet as the places you see. I have “family” living all the way up the East Coast and there are plans to drop in on each and everyone of them as we go. There will be fishing – those who know me will chuckle at this statement, but most of all there will be lots of pictures. If nothing else there will be pictures to wet the appetite of anyone thinking of experiencing this great and vast land. 

Dorothea MacKellar said it best – “I love her far horizons, I love her jewel seas, Her beauty and her terror, The wide brown land for me” – My Country. Enjoy my ramblings as once again we Travel Around Oz.