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WA Final Reflections on a Great Road Trip
The questions I asked myself at the beginning of the trip have largely all been answered now:
What does a coolibah tree (like the one you go waltzing under the shade of with Maltilda) look like?
King’s Park Gardens in Perth had one and we stood under the shade of it, singing Waltzing Matilda.
How true are all the stories of poisonous snakes and spiders, lethal jellyfish and crocodiles and sharks that eat you whole – is it REALLY that scary a place to hang out?
It’s definitely all out there, but only scary if you let it be. It’s best to adopt a fatalistic approach and laugh it all off.
How much of a nuisance are the flies – and does ANYONE actually wear a hat with corks hanging all around it to keep them away these days?
The flies are a real pain and you do need a fly net in places. The only hats with corks all around them you see are in the souvenir shops. I’m not sure they’d work very well anyway?
What does Vegemite taste like – is it really that bad?!
I didn’t like it – Marmite is way better.
How big is a kangaroo in real life – I’m hoping it isn’t true that the first ‘roo you see is usually the one that comes through your windscreen …
Grey kangaroos are about man sized – but the red ones are quit a bit bigger than that. You really wouldn’t want to hit one in hour car and the warning about not driving around dusk and dawn definitely need to be heeded. You need to keep your speed down too where the yellow signs are placed – especially if you have bull bars on your car. You could easily write a car off running into a ‘roo and we saw a number of wrecks and roadkill ‘roos along the way to prove it.
Does the water really go the wrong way down the plug hole (it goes anti-clockwise in the UK – I checked this morning …)?
Yes – it really does!
What is Aboriginal Dreamtime/Dreaming and Songlines all about?
Dreaming is the aboriginal mythology/folklore. A Songline is the map/direction-finder. Each ancestor who travelled through the country on walkabout scattered a trail of words and musical notes along the line of the footprints as a way of communicating with far flung tribes. Providing you knew the song, you would always be able to find your way home. Walkabouts were always done along Songlines.
How are the Aborignes treated these days?
I saw very few – only in Kalgoorlie and Carnarvon (where they wore no shoes). They seem to be on the margins and largely ignored, as far as I can judge. When I come back to Australia, I really want to find out more about their history, so I’m going to go further up North.
Last – but not least … Do the crows really fly backwards (to keep the dust from their eyes)?
I’ve no idea about this one. I think not – as Tim says, they may get dust somewhere else they didn’t want if they flew backwards?
What will I Miss?
Seeing something new every day – this was a really great trip for that.
Tim Tams – especially the mint ones.
Most of all though, I will miss the gorgeous light which gives everything such an intensity here. You can really live life in colour in Australia.
Souvenir I am glad I bought:
My emu sunglasses case – so cool and so useful. Unfortunately, I just couldn’t fit in the cuddly koala.
Great trips are all about good team work and I am very fortunate in my travel partner. He spotted things I would have missed, sorted out the worn out tyres (Hertz did us no favours at all there) and drove us safely through all those kilometres.
We had such a great time, we are definitely going to come back to Australia, but next time, we are going up onto the far North West and down through the forbidding red centre – on the Ghan from Darwin to Adelaide. There is altogether quite another adventure to experience up there – a journey beyond for sure.
Tips for Future Travellers
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So it’s Goodbye and See ya Later!
