Our plans for travelling north

After two very comfortable periods of house sitting in Melbourne (with a few days with family and friends as well) it is nearly time for us to leave the cold of Melbourne and travel north.

Our plans are to leave Melbourne on the 26 May and initially go to Mildura, then into South Australia and make our way to the Oodnadatta Track.  We will pass through Parachilna, Blinman, William Creek, Oodnadatta and then on to Mt Dare and Dalhousie to enjoy the warm springs.  From here we will really feel we are in the outback by travelling west to east across the Simpson Desert to Birdsville.

From Birdsville we will visit the outback towns of Bedourie and Boulia (shame the camel races are not on when we pass through) and then to Winton to again see the dinosaur museum.  Continuing north to Hughenden, passing through Charters Towers we will eventually arrive in Townsville in Far North Queensland. 

We normally travel with just the two of us but this time we have some passengers.  We have invited Connor who is our 13 year old nephew who lives in Frankston in Victoria.  One boy was not enough for us, after all he may get lonely, so our two grandsons, Jake and Timothy from Huntly in New Zealand will also travel with us.  Jake and Tim who are only nine and eight respectively, will have their first unaccompanied flight to Melbourne on Saturday and then together we will commence the 4000 kilometre journey north.

 

In about three weeks Connor will fly back to Melbourne from Townsville and Jake and Tim will fly to Auckland from Cairns.  We have many adventures ahead of us all before then.  There is a lot of dusty and sandy roads to travel, the cold then the warmth, 1000 sand dunes to cross as we travel the desert, tents to be erected and taken down, dishes to be done (!) and bound to be the favourite - the Aussie flies and hopefully we don't encounter up close too many other Australian wildlife.  As and when the internet is available we will update the blog to share the story.  Watch this space!