On the road...

The day finally arrived.  Although as when pulled out of the driveway at 6:49am I didn’t have a monumentous feeling of a new beginning, more of an extension of the time, effort, planning and preparation of the past 18 months – and more intensely during the past 8 weeks.  6:49am came and went quickly and the adventure transformed from planning to reality.  I had imagined rolling out of town under a blanket of darkness, but with the end of daylights savings a few days ago the world was well and truly (to my surprise) awake and in full light.

The highlight (or low light) of day 1 was the vomit two hours from Adelaide – everything had been going like clockwork.  Maybe that will be the only one for the trip – good to get it out of the way!

We had a lovely two days in Adelaide with our cousins – lots of squealing with excitement, late nights and treats.  Olivia’s dream to see a live panda came true at the Adelaide Zoo – Happy Birthday Liv!

Olivia meeting the Panda and the girls with their cousins.

Back on the road (day 4) heading west, well north first towards Port Augusta with a short stop at Port Pirie along the way.  Port Augusta was where I felt like our adventure began.  Just out of PA there was a junction – the road to the left ‘Perth Western Australia’ and the road to the right ‘ Alice Springs Northern Territory’.  We looked at the road to Alice Springs and remarked that it would be the road we would come back on in 4 months – which would signify the end of the journey.  But for now….

THE JOURNEY HAS BEGUN!!!

… seeing where it ends makes you wonder even more what will be in between?

After a lunch break in Kimba, next to the Big Gallah, we toured on heading south west towards Streaky Bay.  Our first night camping was at Perlubie Beach just north of Streaky.  We set up camp on the Rayner property (thanks Allison) in time to watch the spectacular sunset over the amazing property.

We packed up nice and early and hit the road heading west.  Today we hit the Nullarbor.  The roads were so good and driving fast and easy.  110 km/hour most of the way.  The only other vechiles on the road were fellow travellers or road trains.  It was uncommon to see a single vechile.  After a few hours we felt like we'd joined a club - every other traveller coming the other way waved - it was a nice distraction from the boredom of hundreds of kilometres of driving.

We managed to wave goodbye to SA and hello WA.  We made camp for the night at Mundrabilla.  Day 6 dawned early - 5:30 - and we were all up and going, excited at the prospect of arriving at our destination.  Or perhaps just getting off the long road west.  An uneventful day of mostly fast, easy driving, waving and some rain.

Finally we pulled into Esperance at just on 5pm and made camp.  Here we will stay for a few nights, just enjoying being out of the car!!

The girls have travelled like true professionals - thank goodness for the DVD player!!

A.