10/07/08

About Me

Photos

Diary

To eat lots of fruit, vegies, nuts and cheese

To be well hydrated which will encourage healthy skin and maximum energy

To spend time alone with my husband

To have my kids learn to play on their own rather than relying on me all the time

To have one hour of peace to think, meditate, write in my journal each day

To go for a peaceful walk for 30 minutes at least 3 times per week

To remain connected to the environment

To practice mindfulness daily

To listen and ask more questions of my intuition on a regular basis

As you can see my goals largely revolved around my need for peace, self reflection and nurturing of my body and soul.  You may be wondering how I thought I'd be able to achieve all this on a trip spent 24/7 with my kids and my husband.  I think I did visit alot of those goals on a lot of occasions on the road.  I was certainly one to sit in the car whilst we travelled vast distances, just staring out at the changing colours of the rocks, the dirt, the wildlife and the sky.  I am not sure that I arrived back in Melbourne content at having achieved those goals, I did find the trip challenging and was ready to settle into life back home when we landed in Melbourne but I loved our life on the road at the same time.  I think the time frame was exactly what we needed and it certainly provided a great transition for our family having lived on 50 acres on the Snowy River amongst wildlife for 5 years prior to the trip and then re-settling in our home town of Melbourne in a small town on the Mornington Peninsula on our return.  Change was a foot in our lives and the trip was our way of easing into this change.

The following is largely excerpts of my diary from each place that I wrote from and will be added over time as my diary is rather large - here's a start though.  There are quotes from my diary throughout the ebook as well.

10th July 2005

Today was magical.  After nearly 13 hours sleep and a leisurely bike ride around Ayers Rock Resort we drove to 'the Big Rock' as the kids call it.  We walked into the waterhole and it was so tranquil.  I can truly see why the Aboriginal people see it as a spiritual place.  The size of it, at 380m's high, is enormous and it looks different from every angle.  The trials and tribulations of the trip seemed to melt away at Uluru and we felt as if our trip had really begun.  It was our first sight seeing trip and that made us feel like tourists and relax a little more.

Whilst the campervan is wonderful with all its storage, cooking gear etc, the set up and pack down day after day has taken its toll on me - especially by the time we landed in Yulara.  I was in bed before the girls on night one, so Ash walked over to the office and booked an extra night to make it a three night stay - wise move!  I think the rain has made it harder as we've had to turn beds over before packing up, turn them back on arrival and attempt to dry everything out.  It rained in Coober Pedy (1st time in 9 months) and now here in Yulara.  The condensation is another issue as even when it hasn't rained, the beds get wet from condensation during pack down.  Several solutions have been offered by other campervan owners:

place plastic drop sheets over the beds during travel

get up at 4am and put the fan heater on (i'd prefer a timer switch)

put flys up as it minimises condensation (this seems to be true as we've had the flys up at Yulara and its been less of a problem

12th July Katajuta (The Olgas)

Very wet and grey.  Didn't do too much exploring outside the car as it was too wet and cold for the kids.  Decided to move on to Alice rather than see Kings Canyon due to rain forecast for 2 more days (entry addition 6 months later - should have gone to Kings Canyon. By all reports it was stunning, and the rain stopped!!!)

13th July Alice Springs

Alice, sunny 24degrees - a very welcome rest.  Six days in Alice.  Saw Royal Flying Doctor Service, School of the Air, The Desert Park (which was excellent).  Had pancake breakfast at BIG4 mcDonnall Range Caravan Park.  Long line but fine pancakes!  Spent day at Desert Park with friends we met on the road.  We learned about medicines from the desert, trees, bushes from Vincent an Aboriginal man who "married a white girl from Sydney".  He was fabulous and the kids were enthralled by his drawings in the sand as he explained the Dreamtime.