Yesterday we passed through the same intersection in Port Augusta that took us north, seven weeks to the day, along the Stuart Highway towards central Australia and beyond. This time, however, we entered the intersection from the West on the Eyre Highway, thus ‘closing the loop’ on our ‘Way Out West’ around Australia holiday.
It’s certainly been an unforgettable adventure, one that has filled our senses with:
- incredible sights (a 40 tonne whale fully breaching less than 100 metres away at Coral Bay; the sheer immensity of Uluru as it fills your entire field of vision; blindingly white sands and turquoise waters around Esperance; a brilliantly bejewelled night sky in the outback;);
- interesting smells and tastes, not all of them good! (the eclectic mix of smells and tastes of Mindil night market in Darwin; sulphuric gases of Mataranka thermal pools; the salty tang of pearl meat; the unmistakeable whiff of a ‘long drop’ bush toilet);
- amazing sounds (the rumble of thunder rolling across the Nullarbor Plain and out to sea in the Great Australia Bight at Eucla; the guttural roar of a 15 foot saltwater croc attacking its prey in Darwin; freight trains at night as they rumble by on their journey from the Pilbara mines at Port Hedland; the crunch underfoot of a dry salt lake in South Australia; the deafening silence of a Karijini night).
And these lists are endless.
Our experiences have also evoked a gamut of feelings and emotions in all of us: enthusiasm; joy; exhilaration; happiness; awe; sadness; wonder; frustration; anger; fear; exhaustion; sympathy; affection; thankfulness; satisfaction.
We’ve also seen some interesting and often thought provoking place names along the way: Iron Knob; Oodnadatta; Turkey Creek; Paraburdoo; Donnybrook; Pygery; Cocklebiddy; Grass Patch; and let’s not forget to mention the hundreds of names in the southwest of WA that end in ‘up’!
So, as we make our way south from Port Augsuta, skirt around the city of Adelaide, then turn east and make our way along the Western Highway into Victoria, we reflect on the unforgettable time we have shared and the memories we have made and, before we know it, we have arrived at the final destination on our journey, a little place simply called… home.