Our passengers arrive 25th May 2013

We are heading from Melbourne to Townsville leaving Melbourne on the 25^th May and need to be in Townsville by the 8^th June – this is just fourteen days.  We have always wanted to travel one of the real outback routes but last year as we travelled we had the caravan and this wasn’t possible and we didn’t want to leave the caravan behind and then have to do the return trip.  After a few enquiries about whether it was possible to travel from Melbourne to Townsville, via the Simpson Desert in the time we have, we decided this was an option for us.  We have some 4000 kilometres to travel and will travel in the Patrol and have our Black Wolf tent for accommodation.

We have travelled many thousands of kilometres with the occasional visitor passengers.  This time Peter extended an invitation to his young 13 year old nephew, Connor from Frankston in Victoria and our two grandsons, Jake aged 9 and Timothy aged 8, who live in Ohinewai in New Zealand to accompany us.  Surprisingly the boys accepted the invitation and their parents supported it.

So on Saturday Jake and Tim had their first big adventure on their own – travelling unaccompanied from Auckland to Melbourne.  We made sure we were at the airport in plenty of time to meet them and were very relieved to see them walk through the arrivals area.  Well done boys – the staff member said that they were very well behaved and polite on the flight. 

We were staying in Kensington and later in the evening Sandra, Richard and Jordan brought Connor over.  Now all our passengers have arrived – and all their gear!  It is surprising how much room three extra passengers and their gear take.  We normally have the back seat area for the tent etc but not this time – it will be a challenge to get it all on and in the Patrol.  Two weeks, 4000 kilometres, long days in the car, home sickness and new adventures are all ahead of us.