We sold up, packed up and decided to embark on the adventure of our lives. Follow us as we travel around Australia in a caravan.

Today we left Alice Springs. An eye opener of a place to visit but I wouldn’t want to live there. I don’t think I could cope without a Myer department store and the locals haven’t discovered the pleasure that heels ( or any kind of footwear ) can bring as they walk around mostly barefoot. It’s a shame they don’t know the pleasure they are missing and probably why there are only 2 shoe shops in a town of over 40 000 residents. The surrounding area and mountain ranges are so beautiful however, and it was great to stop for more than 2 days. But, the time comes to move on.

Our next major stop will be Darwin but that is about 1500kms away so we anticipate about 3 days travel. There are a few interesting things to see along the way also but our next couple of nights will be quick stops. The temperature is still in the high 30s and we know we will miss the pool each afternoon so we are looking at stopping at caravan parks with power so we can at least use our air conditioners.

We hit the road at 9:15 am and pulled into a place called Aligren for morning tea. Up high on the mountain looking over the town is a huge statue of an Aboriginal man. It must have been about 5 meters high. Beside the Aboriginal gallery was another statue of a woman, child and a goanna. We are not sure what the significance of it was and it was a Saturday and everything was closed so we couldn’t ask. Perhaps we will Google it. (When we have phone service again!)

We filled up with fuel at Whycliffe Wells. This is the site of the most UFO sightings in the world. We didn’t hang around to see if this reputation was true and continued on our journey. There definitely was an eerie presence to the town and the kids didn’t even want to get out of the car.

An uneventful car ride later (Ray singing happily and loudly to Bridge Over Troubled Water by Simon and Garfunkle) we arrived at Wauchope. A veritable oasis in the middle of nowhere. We pulled into the caravan park, set up and headed to the hotel at the front of the park for a fair dinkum outback beer.

We sat and watched the kids in the pool and decided to skip the washing for the day. The laundry facilities didn’t seem to be able to cope with our demands. What’s another day full of outback dirt and dust? Just another day full of adventure!