Leaving The Red Centre

After a crazy few weeks of packing, sorting, camping, working, and organizing, I finally finished it all up and hit the road on July 5th and headed south to Melbourne in the state of Victoria. About 2300kms ahead of me and Dundee to cover. I wasn't sure how he was going to cope but turns out he was a terrific traveler. The car was stacked to the roof as usual for a move, but after a few initial protests of "what the hell are we doing in here with all our stuff????" he found himself a little cubby space back on the bedding and stayed there for 2 days. Yes, 2 whole days. I'm sure he came out when I left the car for one thing or another, but he didn't show his face the entire time I was in the car. I checked on him at each stop for gas, and he was snuggled deep into my bedding.
I did get a fright/panic attack at one stop along the way. I had just finished filling up and put the hose back on the pump when a cat shot out from under the car and dove under the store into a crawlspace. The cat looked just like Dundee - a tabby, but I was in shock and couldn't work out how in the hell he got out and I didn't notice. I had locked the windows so an errant paw couldn't push it down while climbing about, and was careful when I exited the car. I ran over to the store, started calling for Dundee, and then thought - wait a minute...how about I check the car first before diving under the store...and sure enough, there was Dundee, snuggled deep into the blankets. PHEW! I had visions of spending the rest of the day calling out for the little fucker under this massive store...thankfully, it wasn't him.

The first day of the journey I drove from Alice Springs to Port Augusta - both beautiful and excruciatingly boring with such a flat landscape, I thought I was on the prairies of Canada again. We stopped over in PA for the night at an old pub/hotel with tons of character, but they were not kitty friendly so I had to leave him in the car for the night with the window cracked. I don't think he minded. Up early and off again through the rolling hills of SA and northern VIC until I finally landed in Melbourne early evening. It was a heck of a long drive, but we did it.

I stopped by Indulkana/Iwantja

my last glimpse of Indulkana hill

yeah, I was packed to the roof!

the landscape begins to fill with dirtpiles from opal mining

so very flat

rest area watertank graffiti

Port Augusta hotel room

finally some green!

rolling hills finally

I had a lot of time to think about my time in central Australia along the drive. I am so glad I started there as I think I really got to experience outback Australia like no other place I could hope to travel. Between the bush trips for both jobs, and my own bush travel for pleasure, I saw as much of the outback as I could hope to see. I visited nearly 50 remote communities - I've listed as many as I can remember below, some by their English names, and some by their language names:

camel near Amata

Elliot, Ampilatwatja, Ti Tree, Tennant Creek, Hart’s Range, Haast’s Bluff, Bonya, Engawala, Gemtree, Papunya, Yuendumu, Yuelamu, Nyrippi, Mt Liebig, Laramba, Willowra, Alcoota, Willara, Hermannsburg, Areyonga, Kintore, Docker River, Titjikala, Finke, Wallace Rockhole, Amoonguna, Utopia, Mimili, Indulkana, Fregon, Ernabella, Kalka, Pipilyatjara, Watinuma, Amata, Turkey Bore, Mintabie, Kanpi, Murpitja, Kenmore Park, Warburton, Jamieson, Wingellina, Warrakuna, Tjukayirla, Blackstone, Umuwa.

These are not easy to find on a regular map, particularly Google maps, but if you look for remote community maps online or the APY lands map, you can find many of them. They were all quite similar in structure, some were bigger than others, and some were small homelands with just a few houses. I shall remember them all for the people found in them, and the landscape of their lands that surround them. I will hold them in my heart forever. I am so very lucky.