Sim and Dad travel from Brisvegas to Nhulunbuy

The big drive went relatively well, bar a few major hurdles, including (a) not being able to turn the immobiliser off in the car, and having to wait 5hrs in Toowoomba on the first day for an auto-elec to fix the problem; (b) having to sleep in the car overnight when all the motels around Longreach had no vacancies, and (c) Dad leaving his medication in Brisbane and us having to bugger around in Tennant Creek waiting for it to arrive by Express Post.

I still haven’t really gotten over the tediousness of driving long stints on such flat and straight roads. Don’t let anyone romanticise about travelling long distances in the outback – its hot, tiring and very dry and there is nothing better than a cold shower at the end of the day.

The track into here from Mataranka (on the Stuart Hwy) is about 700kms long, and its a long red dirt road for the most part, a combination of hard corrugations, sandy bits, and much welcome (albeit short) patches of bitumen. Dad and I drove in Thursday arvo at around 4 and ended up sleeping in the car that night under the most beautiful and brightest stars I’ve ever seen – the milky way is so easy to see out here without the city glow.

I had heard a few stories about people rolling their cars on the track, but it wasn’t too bad after the wet season when the graders have just been in, and the biggest challenge is how long it is – and how long it feels. Arriving back home was so good – the dust on the road had permeated the whole car, our clothes and bodies. It took me a long shower with two shampoos to get rid of it all – crazy.

Dad spent the weekend up here – we treated him to a barbeque at the surf club of course, and took a drive out to little bondi beach for a lazy arvo. We hit the footy for the last half of the game, and had a cook up on the beach while watching the sun go down at Wirrwawuy, our local beach. Awesome times. Sad to see him go on the Monday morning, but it was a big treat to have him here and show him around. Fingers crossed he comes up again.

The footy at Yirrkala - Dhjarrak vs. Gopu (the two top sides) - Dhjarrak Buddy takes a big mark.

Dad taking in the footy on the roof of the landie. Our set up at Little Bondi - a nice half day spent swimming, reading and relaxing

Preparing our tucker for the barbie on the beach