Adventure 2025

 

Peace and quiet thanks to no telecommunications (written in Glendambo on 22/7/22)

 

 

Tonight, I’m sitting two thirds of the way to Alice Springs and so far, most of our days have gone pretty close to plan.  After holidaying together a fair few times I’ve learnt that our first few days on the road never go to plan, they are always, always slower than I imagine. There are the stops at Big W because we need a Sav Nat (which we have one of back in the shed at Fish Creek) because the speedo doesn’t work (only took us 2 days to figure out how to show us our speedo on the new device), or we need a bucket because we couldn’t find where we put ours, or we need to stop because we forgot to fill in paper work…but today after farewelling Trev and Vina (big, big breaths to keep the tears at bay) we headed to Glendambo. The wind was pushing us side ways all day (Trev always tells us we should get up early to beat the wind) but we had slept in (having nightmares of ‘is the house clean enough for the final inspection?’) before we had a final cuppa together, a big hug and farewell ‘til next time. 

Today I was glad of the no telecommunications availability because I had planned our trip to the day – we would be in Alice Springs a week before settlement of the sale of our home so that I/we would have easy access to the internet and phone calls a few days prior to settlement. However, two hours before we left home, Daniel, the solicitor rang and said the buyers would like to settle a week early – What do you think, totally up to you?  As the house was all but clean (just a few hours Jade had offered to do for us in lieu of playing with the grandkids) I said sure, we can do that, not really thinking through what it meant. What it meant was call after call from the real-estate agent. When will the keys be available? What electricity company are you with? When can you have your final reading done? What, not ‘til Tuesday? Buyers want to get in Monday, here’s 3 options for the settlement – aahhhhhh! Where did my quiet peaceful drive up the Stuart Highway go???

Well, today, after lunch, my quiet peaceful drive up the Stuart highway arrived. I could have listened to the radio, but as the aerial flew off somewhere between Red Cliffs and Crystal Brook, I popped on my Bluetooth headphones, listened to Kath and Bill’s Playlist from Spotify on my phone (How does Bluetooth work when there is no internet???) saw Lake Hart, spotted eagle’s nests and sheep on the side of the highway and not once did my phone ring!! Bliss!! Occasionally Bill and I spoke, but mostly we enjoyed our own thoughts and watched the world go by. 

This evening we’ve chatted and then wandered up to the hotel for a meal, a watch of the tele and glass of Cab Sav (that was me, Bill – Canadian Club). Now the evening is slowly slipping away, we’ve chatted with the pilot of the oversize D10 grader – they’ll average about 85km an hour (10km slower than us) but as they plan to head off before 7am we may not catch them. Our next stop is Marla, they don’t take bookings, so if we are lucky, we will get a powered site and if not, we will free camp out the front like we did in 2021 with Trev and Vina. But for now, I will close my laptop, open my novel, and think how lucky I am to be on another adventure with Bill, supported by good friends and family (and every time I double space after a full stop I think of you, Gene, who updated my typing skills to the modern day). Night all (or as my sisters would say – Night John Boy, don’t let the cows get into the refrigerator.