Sol, Rose, Kate and Andrew
around Oz
- or at least the middle, the top and the right hand side
Welcome to our blog!
A day later than hoped, we finally departed on 23 May 2010. We made it about an hour north for lunch at Binalong, then along Burley Griffin Way to arrive at Griffith late PM for a free camp at Lake Wyangan, just north of Griffith.
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Underway
This is the story of a grand adventure, as we (Andrew Campbell and Kate Dixon and our kids Rose and Solomon) head off on a 14 week journey around the central and north-eastern parts of the Australian continent. We are travelling in our own car (2010 Hyundai Santa Fe diesel) with camper trailer (almost 20 year old Jayco Eagle Outback) in tow, and we will be away for half of terms two and three. Rose and Sol are doing journals, maths lessons and adding to their own blog pages on this site to make up for the time away from class. Not long after we left home, Australia’s Prime Minister was sacked by his own party, and an election was called. It has been a blessing being mostly cut off from media (especially television) during an incredibly depressing election campaign, which has been characterised by a complete absence of vision, leadership or strategic direction from either of the main parties on the big issues facing Australia.
The photos here are the tip of the iceberg of the more than 7,000 shots we have taken on the trip. We hope you enjoy them.
[POSTSCRIPT 15 AUGUST, QUEANBEYAN. We are now back home after 84 days on the road, covering 18,413km at an average moving speed of 74.1km/hr, using a total of 2,371 litres of diesel for an average fuel consumption of 12.88 litres/100km. We stayed in 43 separate places, so it is hardly surprising that we got a bit tired of setting up and packing up camp. We’ll add an overall impressions page soon, but undoubtedly this has been a wonderful experience and a very worthwhile thing to do for our whole family. On the whole, in our life on the road we read more, slept more, exercised more, ate better and got on better with each other than we did at home prior to the trip. Our challenge now is to retain the best of what we have learned on this journey and not slip back into unhealthier patterns in the familiarity of home and the rhythms of work and school.
We also have a much better appreciation of what an extraordinary country we live in. We are conscious that we did not have enough time to fully take in even the areas that we did travel through, and that there is so much more to see and experience. It is still possible to ‘get away from it all’ in Australia and to experience vast distinctive landscapes and see unique wildlife in their natural habitat. We’d recommend a trip like this to anyone.
