…on the road again…

Written 8/9/13

I’m making my way around quite well.  A bit faster than I thought I would actually.  I’m now in the outback headed to Perth.  It’s a week long ride with my travel mate from Cairns that I happened to meet up with in Darwin.  He and I traveled to Kakadu National Park as well as Litchfield National Park.  There were some stupendous sites to be appreciated.  Unfortunately we were limited to 2WD roads but we still experienced some pretty things such as a natural waterfall we were able to swim at the bottom of.   Now we are taking a truck down to Perth for Apollo and so got a good deal on it.  The vehicle is our transportation as well as our kitchen and bedroom so we save on accommodations at least :-)

Plus I am learning how to drive a manual 4WD truck!  Yea, go hard or go home right!?!  I don’t really want to learn how to drive a manual car but I feel bad that he has to drive the whole way so I am going to try to help out.  I drove a small bit in the regular car the other day so I at least got a feel for the right side of the car and left side of the road (and the turn signal being on the right side and up being left and down being right after several accidental windshield wiper turn ons).  My travel mate is super patient and helpful so that is great when it comes to learning.  I believe that he has much more confidence than I do about my learning.  He has 2 younger sisters so that helps because he apparently taught one of them to drive.  I love that we are driving through the outback listening to a mixture of French, Spanish and other music as well (he is French).  I have no idea what the lyrics are but it’s a fun experience. 

We have met several other travelers along the way.  One was a family of 5 and very kind and talkative.  They let us try their grilled pumpkin and some sort of camp bread with honey and cream on it… SO GOOD!  Yesterday there was a couple that has been traveling for 5 months.  I have noticed that traveling is really a part of the Australian culture.  Everyone has campers and RVs and 4wheelers and boats and and and… They are a very traveling culture and I LOVE IT!!!  Not just within Australia either, most of the people I have met within stores and around the campgrounds has people that have been all over the world.  I am realizing that I need to travel the US more as people tell me places they have been in the states that I have not been to, mainly the west coast. 

This was very rushed, as have been most of my posts, so I apologize for the many spelling and grammatical mistakes for those of my friends and family that pay attention to those things ;-)

Miss your faces!

(pictures to come, I'm out of time on the internet now)