Weekly roundup - Week 1

Hi all,
We have pulled into Barkly Homestead today and have set up the camper in record time.  We have come from Mt Isa and have truly driven through miles and miles of nothing.  This country is huge and so many places are so isolated.  Here there is no fresh milk or bread - you buy frozen loaves and milk is UHT.  Everything is mega expensive due to the isolation factor.  We will not be purchasing diesel here at $2.00 a litre - at this point we are thankful that our 4by has a 180 litre fuel tank and it was full out of Isa.  Mal is very happy with the fuel economy we are getting even pulling the camper.  This afternoon is dedicated to catching up on the blog (amazingly I have found a hot spot for internet connection although if I move my mouth slightly to the left or to the right, I bet I will lose the connection!) The girls are about to do some school work which I haven't touched since we left - it has taken us this long to get into a rhythm.

So, here is Week 1.
So far we have been to Dubbo, Bourke, Charleville, Longreach, Mt Isa and now here at Barkly Homestead.  We are finally into NT.  The days are lovely and warm and the nights have been chilly to down right freezing.  We have seen Bilby's in breeding captivity centre, been star watching (where I froze to death depsite many clothes and beanies etc), spent the day in Longreach doing the repack of the car, been down into an underground hospital at Mt Isa and been down into a mine there too.  We went to Riversleigh Fossil Centre and to the Outback at Isa exhibition.  The repack of the car was good to do - you can't really tell where you need things to be packed till you get out here and live the travelling lifestyle.  It only took a couple of days to realise that all was not going to plan and I was getting frustrated at not having the things I needed at my fingertips! 
The number of retirees in vans out here is astonishing.  I am left wondering if there are any retirees living in their homes anywhere in Australia!  It really is like the march of the penguins northwards. All van head for Darwin and the only good part is that we are able to pass them all as the day progresses and beat them all to the van parks and get the good spots! 
We have left the main road twice and done deviation trips on dirt to see things that most wouldn't be game to see.  We have been in to a place called The Cascades to see Aboriginal Rock Carvings.  A most wonderful quiet and out of the way place.  We also took the dirt to see the ghost town of Mary Kathleen.  There are a handful of people out here with kids but we are very much the odd ones out with our camper trailer and kids. 
The girls have been travelling well with no line demarkations being drawn indellibly on the back seat yet.  Rachel chooses to sit in the centre next to Eloise and they play and chat and listen to an Ipod (Thanks Nancy!).  So far the biggest fight has been over a lost dice in Eloise's car seat that then escalated to a full on argument about how the other one was more ugly than the other - "your eyebrows look weird", "so, your nose hair moves when you breathe", "well I don't care because your feet smell", and so on and I am sure you get the idea.  Mal and I giggled silently in the front stalls and waited for them to sort it out.  Within 5 minutes they were best buddies again and sharing a set of earphones with the ipod. 
Surprisingly, I have kept a reasonable temper although I have had some moments that Mal has dubbed "Victor Meldrew Moments" - for those who are familiar with this TV character from One Foot in the Grave.  I have tried to expain at these times that it is difficult and indeed trying travelling with a family that resemble a fruit fly circus at times but this just makes them all laugh at me all the more.  It is hard to stay mad for long.
Some of you have been in touch begging for the good, the bad and the ugly just like we sent out the last time we  travelled in 2008.  So, by popular demand, here goes. The Week 1 good would have to be that being out here on the road far surpasses being in the office or at work.  Sorry to all of you back home who are slogging away in jobs in the freezing cold Canberra winter, but we really are enjoying the warm days and the switch off from work.  The bad this week would be the price of diesel which just goes up and up as you head more and more inland and although this is not unexpected it is still bad.  The ugly this week would have to go to the sight of the Aboriginal folk in Mt Isa who stagger through the streets totally drunk and out of it fishing through the bins for spent cigarette butts.  A real  eye opener for our naive city slicker kids.
We are adding an extra category to this weekly roundup - The Dream Stealer Award for the Week.  We have met lots of interesting folk already while travelling this week and some of them say the most amazing things. It is very clear though that the majority of people who we have met or listened to over a meal in a camp site are totally opposed to the Carbon tax, dislike Julia Gillard and think that the best thing to do with boat people is to put a bomb under their boats and remove them from Australian waters.  But, back to the Dream Stealer Award.  Plenty of those out here - people who tell you you can't do this and you can't do that and then they have a reason why you can't do it.  This week the Award goes to the guy we met in Dubbo on our first night from home who told us "You can't camp out west, there are too many rats.  Rats everywhere.  They get in your swag, in your tent, in your car, they are just everywhere.  Nah mate, don't go out west, stick to the coast."  Well, here we are and we haven't seen a single rat - not a single one - Crawford's one, Dream Stealers nil!

Photos below - leaving town, NT border just before Barkly Homestead, Croc Dundee Walkabout Hotel out of Longreach, Hotel at Barringun - yep, it's a hotel!
Till next week.