anf
Post many modifications and about 33,000kms and 18mths later
Well hello again. Neil and I were going through photo’s last night- inspired by a special deal on canvas ATM. My what a task- some 4000 of them. You know how it is, been the uneducated photographers we are, we figured 10 photos of the same thing might just get us one beauty of a shot. Any how we have given up on the photo sort- we’ll leave that till the next 50%off offer comes up . But I decided it was time to put the final chapter of our Aussie adventure together better late than never.
We have been such slack communicators of late that many of you are probably still under the illusion we are on the road somewhere in northern Aus. But we actually are not far from where we started. Tamworth is our new home. Yep so if you’re into boot scooting baby come visit us in the Country Music Capital. I (Naomi) am working back at Laverty Pathology- a gluten for punishment clocking up 10 yrs with them shortly. Nah it is going well and a real blessing to have a job and a familiar one at that. Neil is been the most amazing house husband- if fact I’m secretly praying he doesn’t get work anytime soon cause coming home to dinner cooked, groc shop done and a clean house with all secretarial duties done is amazing!!! Whats more he is way more efficient than I am. I’m a very lucky girl!! So let me fill in all the blanks of how we came to be in Tamworth.
Katherine was the last stop I wrote of and our guest writer ‘Baby Woods’ chimed in then too. Somewhere back at Kununarra Neil and I toyed with heading back to the land of work and responsibility. We were both a little tired of the daily pack up, the intense heat and weeks of 400 plus Km’s a day. Don’t get me wrong we have had an amazing trip!! but 18mths on the move and we were thinking of a change. So in Katherine that was one of the first decisions made- to come home a little earlier than our previously decided Aug settling down and to do the top end of QLD another trip.
Little did we know God totally had a big hand in us wanting to be homeward bound!! Many of you have heard, though some of you may not have, that our Precious little guest traveller, ‘Baby Woods’, silently slipped home to Heaven, safe in Gods arms, in May. ‘Baby Woods’ was born in Coffs Harbour hospital at 2:05pm on the 24th May 2013. We are so blessed to be ‘Baby Woods’s parents and had an amazing time enjoying ‘Baby Woods’s’ company on the last 4.5 months of our trip. We had many many moments of joy that the knowledge of bubs eagerly anticipated arrival brought and treasure those memories dearly. ‘Baby Woods’ shaped every morning with an early rise least sickness set in before breakfast. Many meat pies were consumed and many hot chips care of ‘Baby Woods’ as were a lot of pistatchio nuts. ‘Baby Woods’ got us the generator out and aircon on many times in the 40 plus heat- a great excuse to get cool and burn some fuel . ‘Baby Woods’ made for many funny pictures when Daddy Neil would lift or suggest a lift of my shirt to expose bub in many shots at many locations across SA, WA, NT and QLD- So well travelled was our ‘Baby Woods’ for such a youngen. Some day Baby Woods can be our tour guide around Heaven and until that day we take peace knowing God knew best and Baby Woods is safe and well in His care. “Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the Heavenly lights, who does not change” James 1:17a. What a perfect gift Baby Woods is to our lives and this adventure. Thanks be to God.
From Katherine we headed south to the 3 Ways just North of Tennant creek. The trip like many across the top end was HOT. We froze every water bottle we could find and hour by hour consumed our icy bricks defrosting them on our foreheads in an attempt to maintain some cool. Our airconditioner was not coping with the heat and towing the caravan. The road speeds were 130 so we did 100 most of the time but when we wanted aircon we had to drop back to 70 and be really annoying nomads. A night a 3 ways and it was east across the Barkley Tableland to the QLD border along a road with crazy cross winds. The signs showed caravans been blown across the road and a few kms in we saw the first victims- a nice new 4wd and caravan upside down on the side of the road having succumbed to the wind. Many more similar wrecks dotted the route and amazingly they don’t seem to tow them away. We figured that that was a good sign cause if any of them were fatal we assumed the crash investigation mob would have to tow them away for testing.
The first border town in QLD, Camooweal, was unique, tiny and had just one fuel station. With the next fuel station east and west been a tank of fuel away everyone stopped at this tiny spot- the queue of trucks and caravans took up half the main st and the fuel area had room for just 2 vechiles at a time. We stopped for lunch and were approached by the ALP campaigning. Good to see they were getting out in the sticks but don’t think this little town of population 20 it seemed would have helped them out much .
From there it was onward to Mt Isa, another one of those 600 km plus days . First thing we noticed in QLD was the roads – horrendous!!! Though the roadworks were commencing just before the road disappeared into nothing. Mt Isa was packed with grey nomads- apparently the weekend we hit is the first weekend on the annual northerly migration. Heading south we were breaking the mould once again. We were in home bound mode now and with Mt Isa and QLD generally not been that far from home we spent just 2days there, a day in Longreach, a night in Roma and Moree and then back to Neils folks at Urunga. We decided to save the Stockmans Hall of Fame, the Mines in Mt Isa and a few other tourist sites for another time- a time when the kitty had more in it too cause my word every place big or small has a starting entry price of upward of $25 pp. Our stop in Moree was a quick car and caravan wash- we had a lot of dirt to get off and a lot of Martha Guy Flee burrs to leave out west. Mind you those burrs have a way of hiding out and we are still finding them in socks and shoes, even towels months later. So we made the final stop in Neil and Nays Aussie Adventure- back in Urunga.
We have loved this adventure and thank God for the opportunity to spend so much time together exploring His amazing creation and this great country we live in and visiting many of you along the route. We’d recommend the trip to one and all and look forward to more adventures to all the places we just couldn’t fit in this time. Until the next trip thanks for following our journey and God Bless.
No comments:
Post a Comment