Should I “Go Walkabout” in Australia

This is not only about travel but about people we met on the road and the problems encountered when using an American Motorhome (RV), which had seen better days and was difficult with spare parts. She comments on aboriginal life and many other asides.

We have so many colorful photos that it will be difficult to pick them from our collection.

“This diary covers the route from Currumbin(Southern Gold Coast) down the New South Coast to Cowes and Melbourne. Up the Inland route of New South Wales via Dubbo , Glen Innes, Casino and up the Queensland Coast to Cooktown then back to Currumbin”.

“Should I Go Walkabout” Again (a Motorhome Adventure)

Diary 2—Part 1 of “The Big Lap”

After expressing my doubts and fears about leaving my comfort zone on the Gold Coast, in order to venture the road in an ageing motorhome in unfamiliar territory for an undefined destination, I reflected on that last long journey. We had experienced breakdowns, bad weather, boredom, relentless distance, but also saw breathtaking scenery, interesting people and the delight of the changing panorama day by day. There were times though when I wanted to get the next flight home.

After our first adventure nineteen months ago, we felt ready for the road again. On our last journey we never got further than Melbourne, encountering the winter weather down south after a hot journey down the coast of New South Wales, We had scurried back north to the tropics in North Queensland having been too used to the warmer climate of Queensland.

This time we decided to do ‘The Big Lap’ by road from Queensland up north through to the Northern Territory and coastal Western Australia, coastal South Australia, Victoria, New South Wales and back to Queensland’s Gold Coast – anticlockwise. It is better to travel this direction from east to west to take advantage of prevailing winds, avoid ‘The Big Wet’ monsoon weather up north and get back down south before the onset of the northern  Summer.

We have included fifty color photos from our collection together with maps and a listing of the  road  route taken. This diary commences with a short trip to Queensland’s Sunshine Coast with a stop on the Gold Coast. The big journey took us up to Rockhampton and across central Queensland via Longreach and Mt. Isa. We continued down to Tennant Creek in Northern Territory to Uluru, then back up via Katherine to Darwin. From Darwin we travelled back down to Katherine across to Western Australia’s Kununurra, and  Broome  down the coast to Perth, Margaret River and Bremer Bay on the south coast. This completed the first part of the lap around Australia. Diary 3 completes the second half of ‘The Big Lap’ back to Queensland and exploration of  Tasmania.

“Should I Go Walkabout” Again (a Motorhome Adventure)

Diary 3—Part 2 of “The Big Lap”

As with the two previous diaries, this is not only about people we met on the road and the problems encountered when using an ageing American Motorhome (RV). She gives her thoughts in asides, not necessarily on travel, but personal feelings whilst away from home. As seen, Lisa overcame her doubts over life on the road and maybe the positives overcame the negatives in the end, so many memories!

We have inserted fifty colorful photos which were hard to pick from the huge collection, together with a map and a listing of the road route taken.

This diary covers the last part of ‘The Big Lap’ anticlockwise around Australia that had started from Queensland’s Gold Coast (Diary 2) up to Central Queensland, across to Northern Territory, Western Australia and down to the southern coast at Bremer Bay.

This final Diary 3 covers the final part of the Lap from the Nullarbor Plain, along the coast of South Australia to Victoria, inland New South Wales and back up to the Gold Coast.

That concluded the big trip around Australia, but we decided that we would pay one more trip up to Bowen (North Queensland) and back down through inland Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria, before spending time exploring Tasmania.

Looking Back: on a private life

This autobiography was undertaken by myself as an experiment in order to test my memory, as over my eighty-five years. I have moved locations frequently and I was not sure where this exercise was to take me. Because the children of my first marriage were whisked away suddenly to England after a bitter Divorce, I missed their young adult times. I subsequently have three natural children and ex Foster Daughter in the UK who were separated from me in their early teens through the divorce and they do not know much of my early life or of my side of the family. Also, my three step children in Australia know little of my early life before I married a second time. Failing all else I feel that this narrative in book form may be hopefully read by all my children when they have time to put away their daily tasks that befall all of us in busy midlife times. My experiences when I was a child and as a teenager and young adult may be of interest to readers and may provoke their own similar memories of similar times. It still intrigues me that mere chance can change anyone’s life forever however apparently trivial. I feel privileged that I have witnessed important world events and have escaped harm and had offspring that I can only hope to know better in my few years maybe left to me.