gone bush

We ran off and disappeared for a bit - gone bush, on a wheeled walkabout, exploring more of our adopted home. 8100 kilometers, a little over 5000 miles and not a peep from me. I'm back now with travel stories to make you ooh, ahh and spit out your coffee.

Craig and I crossed the Nullarbor twice this month, and I chomping at the bit to tell you about it. The Nullarbor is part of Australia's great nothing. The name itself means no trees. There's little there - flat scrub, narrow roads, dirt and rocks. Towns are few and far between.  It's a nomadic rite of passage in this great big country - one that we've been itching to do for a while.

Over the next few weeks, crafty goodness will be supplemented with pictures and tales from southwestern Australia. We took a train. We drove our truck. We went to ghost towns. We hit a bird, but saved another. We met fellow travelers and drank beer with locals. We played with their dogs and splashed in the ocean. We pitched tents and dodged heatwaves. We had a lot of fun.

For reference throughout the related posts, I'm including a map of our journey. We started at our home in Melbourne, then drove over to the South Australian limestone coast to test our camping gear. We made our way up to Adelaide - a journey of about 940km [green]. From there, we loaded ourselves and our truck onto a train and spent the next few days taking in a whole lot of nothing [blue]. 2659 kilometers later, we arrived in Perth and stayed a few days south of the city. The last leg of our journey was comprised of a 4500 kilometer drive back to Melbourne, where we landed this afternoon.

I had intended to tell you about our trip before we left, but up until the very last moment we weren't sure that we were going. My head and neck were completely out of sorts. I was having good days and bad days. In the end though, open road therapy was just what I needed. 

Get ready to laugh, cry and stare in wonder. Pack your bags and keep them light. The story takes off tomorrow with a short lesson in why you shouldn't camp on diesel.