THE BIG DASH: Cabin fever

The period of temporary residence in Darwin has been a welcome break in what has been a pretty hectic schedule.

Not as intense as some mind. We met one couple attempting the same half-lap of mainland Australia as us in just nine weeks! We’re going to take at least six months.

Another person ruefully told me how their little convoy had stopped at 60 different locations over 60 nights.

That stuff just doesn’t make sense. For us, caravanning is a means to an end, the most sensible way to spend an extended period out and about in this great country.

The trip shouldn’t be about the caravan. If you spend your whole time hauling it along the road or setting up and packing down then that’s going to take the fun out of the whole exercise.

Anyway, time for us to pack down and move on, first to Katherine on the Stuart Highway and then turn left (as you look at it on the map) and head to Kununurra (via an overnight stop at Timber Creek) on the Victoria Highway. Kununurra will be our first port of call in Western Australia.

WA is my home state, although I left when very young. A return home to a place I don’t really know.

Also read:

THE BIG DASH: Now or never

THE BIG DASH: Why we went Chinese

THE BIG DASH: Buying all the bits

THE BIG DASH: Sorting the tow tug

THE BIG DASH: Hitting the scales

THE BIG DASH: On the road, finally!

THE BIG DASH: Onwards and upwards

THE BIG DASH: Getting serious

THE BIG DASH: Soft buggers

THE BIG DASH: Barry says

THE BIG DASH: Unleashed!

There was some trepidation as we hitched up and drove south out of Darwin.

Because of recent flooding, the Stuart Highway had been in lamentable condition when we came up from Katherine two weeks earlier.

We were prepared for the worst. Jane was ready to go as my spotter. She has better eyesight than me and can pick the difference between a pothole and a patch sooner.

It’s a sick feeling when you mistake the former for the latter and crash into it. We’re marshalling eight tyres now, so always conscious of the potential drama. Which is why one of our first purchases way back in February was a tyre pressure monitor for the 'van. The Tasman X-Pro comes standard with one, as all 4x4s should.

But happy to report the road gangs had done an amazing job. In just two weeks most of the worst damage had been fixed. Or they were in the process of getting it done.

Of course, after a couple of weeks of freedom Tas is back under load, but at least the Stuart and the Victoria are pretty flat and traffic is not thick and so rushed as to make our slow fuel-saving progress a nuisance.

The Victoria Highway and the territory surrounding it was all new to us and one of the driving highlights of the week was our first evidence of the spectacular Kimberley Ranges as we approached the WA border. This place is old, worn, inhospitable and very, very beautiful.

Once we got to the border the very nice lady searched all through the 'van and confiscated a lemon. “Not on the prohibited list” pointed out Jane, “it’s a fruit” pointed out the very nice lady.

They’re pretty strict about it all. One bloke told us about losing his potato salad out of his fridge!

But then the very nice lady told us about the extent some people go to smuggling their contraband into WA. How does a lettuce in the toilet sound? A bit yuck actually.

Anyway, on to this week’s numbers.

Litres consumed: 194.34
KM travelled: 1303km
Consumption average: 14.915L/100km
$ paid: $466.42 (best price paid: $2.275 per litre)
KM per $: 2.79km (Compared to 4.019km per $ last time out)

Things we enjoyed this week:

Katherine farm tour: We stayed on a working farm at Katherine that doubles as a caravan park. This place, with old aircraft and cars strewn around and animals wandering about definitely had a taste of Daly Waters about it.

Part of the experience was a tour of the animal pens conducted by our host Mick. Donkeys, camels, ostriches, even crocodiles were part of the experience.

The highlight? Undoubtedly the way he fed the emus by placing a heap of pellets in his mouth and letting them peck away! Jane also got to pat a sugar glider, a lifetime goal. Several small children suffered concussions as she pushed past them to the front of the line, but hey all’s fair.

Swimming at Kununurra: Much of the outback is parched and dry. Der. But Kununurra, created to service and fed by the Ord River irrigation scheme, is an oasis.

It’s green and fertile and that makes it feel more pleasant and welcoming than most places. The town sits on Lake Kununurra and there’s even a designated swimming area free of estuarine (saltwater) crocodiles and sharks (well, they said it was).

It was such a pleasure to have a dip, because it’s darned HOT here. As the swim beach is in a park and part of it is a leash-free dog walking area, Eddie and Lulu also got to go for a run around without concern. Very pleasant.

It doesn’t sound like a big deal, but small experiences like these can change your day. And just down the road there’s a bar right by the lake for a follow-up beverage, very pleasant.

Kelly’s Knob: Park your imaginations, this is a hill. Overlooking Kununurra and the Mirima National Park, a tough and steep but short climb rewards with spectacular sunrise and sunset views.

Getting down in the dark is the trick! Special mention for old-man Eddie, who made it most of the way up and down under his own steam. Younger and more athletic Lulu? No drama at all.

Wyndham: While staying in Kununurra we took a day trip up to Wyndham, which is best known as the northern-most town in the Kimberley.

The thing to do here is to drive up to the lookout on the Bastion Range where five rivers (Durack, Pentecost, King, Forrest and Ord) feed into the Cambridge Gulf that leads out to the Timor Sea It’s a big vista, but there are mud flats as far as the eye can see. Tough place.

We’re getting up into serious caravan territory now.

The percentage mix of big off-road 'vans towed by big American pick-up trucks is getting higher.

The vans are often 20ft-plus double axle Lotus or Titanium and the Yank tank of choice often seems to be the Chevrolet Silverado. Usually, there’s a tinny on the roof as well.

If everything’s brand new then it’s a $350,000 set-up, maybe more.

It’s funny, but caravan envy exists just like car envy. Yep, in my heart, I’d love to trade my MDC in for a Lotus. A bit like how people driving a Mazda aspire to a Mercedes-Benz.

The reality is the $140,000 difference in cost can’t be justified rationally alone. Just like you can’t just justify the price gap between mainstream and premium cars purely on logic.

Plenty of the occupants of these big rigs are retirees on the road for years at a time. But we’ve also met families with young kids doing the same.

Having said all that a Toyota towing a Jayco is definitely the number one combo we see. In fact up here, towing or not towing, Toyota is by far the most common vehicle badge.

Being lulled to sleep by a V8 79 Series with a tuned exhaust idling by is a common caravan park experience in these parts.

We’ve not seen much evidence of the new Ford Ranger Super Duty up here as yet and as far as I can tell we have the only towing Kia Tasman in captivity.

OK, so we always knew this experience was going to have its up and downs. And this week has had a bit of the latter going on.

As previously related, Jane’s a bit prone to being bitten by bugs and on our first night in Katherine on the farm she really got done-over.

We just stayed outside a bit late drinking some wine, listening to some music and despite the Bushman and Good Riddance liberally applied, she woke up the next morning pretty much purple all over.

Then, when we got to Kununurra doing the set-up I managed to disturb a green ants nest and had them swarming all over me.

There were other things going on too and it was just a bad few days where the joy went out of the trip. I was jaded and Jane admitted she thought about just packing up and going home.

After nearly two months on the road with me I’m sure plenty of people would wonder why that hadn’t occurred to her sooner! I can be a hard gig when I’m down.

We’re living in a tiny house and moving it every few days to a new location that could be good, or not. And believe me, they aren’t all good! That’s going to impact.

There’s work as well as play involved. We still have to do most of the things that happen in a normal home, plus other stuff like emptying the Devil’s Esky (if you dunno what that is you probably don’t want to know). I’m still working part-time, which can be a hassle.

The good news is these things pass, we move on both literally and metaphorically.

And we’re about to move on to one of the true highlights of the trip so far...