The Walters Go Walkabout

A post a friend has asked me to share with you, 13th August

Sat, 13 Aug 2011 18:45:19 -0400

This blog entry is a ring-in. It does not bear the Walters stamp. It has come from one of the many dedicated followers of the blog of a family who couldn’t remember whether they left the iron on when they hit the road for

133 days. The cost of electricity has risen by 200% in that period and Martin and Nikki will be buying drip-dry for the rest of their lives.

Many years ago our car was stolen from in front of the house. If you have been the victim of theft you will identify with our repeated action. We kept going outside to the empty space just to see if we had somehow made a mistake, or if by some illogical reason the car had been returned. The analogy? I have this well-worn bookmark on my laptop which, out of habit I will keep visiting until finally it sinks in that the epic journey is over and the Walters have returned to suburbia once more. Reading Nikki’s blog has been a highlight of my day, and now it is come to an end.

Yep! It was marvellous to be allowed to share this journey of discovery.

Informative, sensitive, funny, insightful - I just want to thank Nikki and Martin for sticking with the task of keeping the diary so alive and for being vulnerable and real in sharing it with us all. I figure that I am not alone, so on behalf of those of us who have followed, thanks a million. And, we don’t need an Osborne or Kardashian sequel.

Good to see you home safe and well. G

Our last day, but not yet our last words - 13 August

Sat, 13 Aug 2011 18:41:47 -0400

And we beat a hasty retreat from the comfortable surrounds of our hotel in anticipation of getting home. It would be fair to say that Scarlet is the only family member excited at the prospect of getting home and asks us every half hour “how much longer until we’re home?’ We grab breakfast on the go in the form of a takeaway coffee and bacon and egg roll. The sheer weight of traffic on the Hume Highway and the M2 is a stark reminder of life in greater Sydney and fast forwards my thought process to the journey to work I will have to make on Monday. We are thankful for the blue skies that accompany us on the journey home and we pull up outside the house at 11.00am. And so begins the long and tedious process of un packing and cleanig the camper trailer, putting the washing machine on - and, oh bliss a front loader that will actually wash the pindan dirt out of our clothes, replenishing shelves and cupboards, and unpacking all our personal effects that were stored away whilst the house was borrowed by someone else. The highlight of the day is bumping into local friends and neighbours which is the very best part about being home. Scarlet creates a riot in her bedroom as she unpacks all her sft toys, dolls and pram and buries herself amongst them for most of the day. The hours pass quickly with washing, unpacking, a pop in by our friends Sally and Gordon who bring a yummy, warm, home made loaf of sour dough and a walk into town by Scarlet and I to get a haircut. Mine still looks short despite the fact it has not been cut in 19 weeks. An intention to swing by our friend Janine’s to pick up our car becomes an extended play date for Scarlet with good friend Hunter, and a lovely catch up for us over a glass of red. We open up the Northen Territory Cabernet Merlot we brought only to taste something more closely resembling a fortified wine!

To finish off the travel blog I am going to post a few more lists and share our immersion back into everyday life because this is all part of the journey too and is the after shock of the wonderful eruption to life our 133 days on the road has been. Thank you fo being there with us.

Our last journey.....heading for Avalon, August 13

Fri, 12 Aug 2011 17:57:00 -0400

As everything gets packed up ready to unload at home we reminisce about the must have items or best buys of our trip. Here they are:

Nikki - Uggies and my $35 Palm Beach Market Ali baba pants ( only meant to be worn in the early mornings but ended up being the major piece of warm clothing) plus the auto bug spray and Bushmans
Marty - Uggies and pj’s, fly net, and the special water hose nozzle
Scarlet - craft box , tie up sun hat for windy WA, and her soft toy collection!

Taking it easy over morning coffee in a Bowral cafe August 12

Fri, 12 Aug 2011 17:49:34 -0400

Taking it easy over morning coffee in a Bowral cafe August 12

Scarlet’s last wind down - this was her specific job...

Fri, 12 Aug 2011 17:31:11 -0400

Scarlet’s last wind down - this was her specific job during pack down August 11

Gundagi and Bowral, day 132 of our holiday. 11/12 August

Fri, 12 Aug 2011 07:03:39 -0400

I admit, I got quite emotional when we packed up this morning and put the lid down on the camper trailer for the last time on this trip. Whilst our adventure is not quite over, we will not be sleeping under canvas again as we have planned indoor stays for our last 2 nights primarily due to the cold and the rain. Little things like packing away the Camps5 book which has been our bible for the trip is another prompter that our trip is almost over.
Amongst many other things, it has been a great lesson in how little you need in life to be happy and that you can cope with the basics, dirty clothes, damp towels and small living spaces very easily because you have to.
So with the few clothes, snacks and toiletries that we need for the next two days removed from the trailer and loaded into the car we set off to see a little of Gundagi before we head to our next and last stop which is Bowral.
We stop to marvel at Rusconi’s marble masterpiece, buy doughnuts from Australia’s oldest bakery - and at 60c each they must be the cheapest we have bought- admire the architecture of the courthouse and other buildings before stopping for morning tea at the old theatre which is now an antique shop. We take another diversion just outside of Gundagi to look at the sculpture of the dog on the tucker box before we tackle the 288km journey to Bowral.

Having driven through torrential rain, the hotel is a welcome sight. Exceptional value, the promise of log fires and an indoor heated pool have enticed us to Berida Manor. Creaky and antiquated it feels right at home in Bowral and we spend the rest of the afternoon chilling out , swimming and relaxing in the very hot spa before a warming winter meal in the Restaurant.
After some negotiating with the new hotel owner we secure a very good rate to stay Friday night as well which has two advantages; it gives us a break from driving and more importantly, means we don’t have to impose on friends and crash at their place for our last night. I suppose we are also holding onto the romanticism of the trip and the desire to spend our last night in our own company keeps the holiday vibe alive.

Our last official day of the holiday starts with a great big family cuddle before we head down to a cooked breakfast. We then headed into Bowral which I realised I have never been to before. It is soooooo cold that we end up buying a $20 coat for Scarlet. Nice and snug, the complaints stop and the mooching continues. We stop at a fantastic cafe called The Elephant Boy for coffee. The walls are lined with old books and some comfy chairs and makes you feel as if you were taking tea in the middle of a colonial’s library.
We then head out with the intent of visiting a couple of local wineries but stop at one as we end up having lunch there and it is 3’o’clock before we leave, having sampled and bought a few bottles of the cold climate Southern Highland wines. A filling lunch negates the need for dinner so we head back to the hotel to relax and swim before nibbling on cheese, fresh Bowral sour dough baguette and of course, quoffing some local wine.
It feels nice to have a bath - my first in nineteen weeks - and to sleep in a bed again and it is all a good precursor to appreciating life’s homely luxuries. A few phone calls about the house, organizing Mart’s birthday for our first weekend back ( to his specifications of course) and an increase in text messages from work all serve as very blunt reminders that everyday life is about to kick in.

Today’s tourist attraction, Hay on August 10

Wed, 10 Aug 2011 22:07:53 -0400

Today’s tourist attraction, Hay on August 10

Scarlet with Billy the Shearer and the pile of shorn merino...

Wed, 10 Aug 2011 22:06:12 -0400

Scarlet with Billy the Shearer and the pile of shorn merino wool.

He makes it look so easy….

Wed, 10 Aug 2011 22:04:40 -0400

He makes it look so easy….

Scarlet trying out her shearing speed August 10

Wed, 10 Aug 2011 22:02:43 -0400

Scarlet trying out her shearing speed August 10

Back in NSW and a stop at Hay - sheep country.9/10 August

Wed, 10 Aug 2011 21:58:57 -0400

We are keen to ensure that we take pockets of our last few days to do some holiday type things so that it still feels like part of the trip and not just a home coming. For that reason, we did a prompt pack up aided by the fact that the rig was dry, and then went off to visit the ‘Shear Outback’, a shearing museum in Hay. We were there as it opened at nine and stayed until 10.30 to watch the shearing demonstration and walk around the shed and outbuildings. It was interesting to learn about the life of Shearers,how much they earn per sheep ($2.53), the impact the drought has had on the sheep industry and the record for the number of sheep sheared in a day (346 with shears).We also found out the history behind the iconic blue singlet. Legend has it that Jackie Howe -Champion shearer and holder of the record- felt that the tightness of his sleeves restricted his biceps so he ripped the sleeves off and this was supposedly the inspiration for the navy Shearer’s singlet still worn today. Exhibits enabled you to experience a bit more of a Shearer’s life with one of the exhibits challenging you to operate the shears in time with the recorded cutting noise to see if you could keep up. Other exhibits had smell boxes with lanolin, urine and tar in to give you the scents of the shearing shed. A display also showed the average daily food intake of a shearer that totalled 6000 calories which they needed to fuel their work! the cook was obviously a key member of the team and the shearers paid for the food out of their wages and for this reason, had a say in the choice of cook and food. A quote we loved was ” cook, there are maggots in this meat”. There ain’t, I swear I brushed them off meself”.
A coffee and a delicious slice of warm moist carrot cake ended our tourist experience and it was time to hit the road again. A pleasant drive through sheep country took us past Tubbo Station, alongside the Murray and over the Murrimbidgee river, past splashes of yellow now provided from Canola rather than wattle, through Wagga Wagga and past more sheep.
Originally we planned to stop at Mildura, Hay, then Wagga and have our last night at Wollongong. We have since changed it and are now stopping at Gandagai and Bowral to make the most of our stop offs. We arrive at Gundagai late in the day and whilst we haven’t picked the most salubrious spot for our last night in the camper we are warm and dry, albeit the noise from the heavy traffic on the nearby Hume Highway keeps us awake and also serves as a reminder of how close we are to all that we have enjoyed escaping from over the last few weeks.
We savour our last night and raise a toast to our trip and surviving 4.5 months in a camper trailer with each other 24/7.

Nikki and AJ sampling in the Barossa, August 7th

Wed, 10 Aug 2011 21:58:03 -0400

Nikki and AJ sampling in the Barossa, August 7th

A new definition of luxury ........

Tue, 09 Aug 2011 07:34:35 -0400

….not having to find a bush or run across a soggy field to use the amenities !!!

Scarlet delighted at finding the cache August 9

Tue, 09 Aug 2011 07:32:16 -0400

Scarlet delighted at finding the cache August 9

Making breakfast August 9

Tue, 09 Aug 2011 07:31:11 -0400

Making breakfast August 9

How many men does it take to fry an egg?

Tue, 09 Aug 2011 07:30:19 -0400

How many men does it take to fry an egg?

An early winter morning in Hattah Kulkyne NP 9 august

Tue, 09 Aug 2011 07:29:17 -0400

An early winter morning in Hattah Kulkyne NP 9 august

A fleeting experience of camping in a Victorian winter, 8/9 August

Tue, 09 Aug 2011 06:26:04 -0400

Determined to ensure that our last few days were not all about drive, set up, pack down and get home we deliberately took a detour into a national park for the next stop to mix it up a bit. Heading for Hattah Kulkyne which is south of Mildura, also meant we would be entering Victoria, adding another State to our road trip list. Making it even more special was the fact that our friends AJ and Theresa decided to drive hundreds of k’s to join us. And so, there we were, bush camping in the drizzle, keeping warm over a camp fire. Thankfully the rain abated after supper and the adults swapped stories around the fire until it was time to turn in. In the morning we were greeted with a temperature of 2 degrees and heavy dew and misty surrounds. I was dying for a wee in the morning but too cold to get up. Eventually, I donned 5 layers ( singlet, thermal tee, two sloppy Joe’s and a coat) to join AJ by the fire for a cup of tea but not until 7.30am and Marty and Scarlet will still snuggled up in bed at this point. Scarlet was intrigued to see steam coming off her wee!!!! Funny because of course she had never seen that before and found it fascinating.
Although our original plan was to stay here 2 nights Marty was keen to make tracks so we spent an idle morning giving the rig a chance to dry out by making a camp fire breakfast ( by which time the temperature hit 6 degrees ), checking out AJ and Theresa’s wedding photographs, a tiny bit of exploration of the area and a bit more geocaching with one that is movable so we could engineer it for Scarlet to find it. And she was ecstatic when she did!
After sad farewells we headed off to Hay - our next stop off point. We arrived late in the day having seen the Murrumbidgee river and crossed the mighty Murray which led us back into NSW. En route the journey took us through fertile farming country, cherry blossom laden orchards, orange groves and more vineyards. At Hay we have been introduced to five star camping with an ‘en-suite loo’, and a cover over the camper trailer which may be good insurance against the day of rain forecast for tomorrow. We would be lying if we didn’t admit to enjoying a warm and dry camper. Too much camping in the cold and rain is reminiscent of childhood camping holidays in the UK and not something to we want to re-visit!!!!

Sampling wine in the soggy Barossa region, 7 August

Sun, 07 Aug 2011 08:29:35 -0400

It’s freezing, it is chucking it down, you are in the Barossa and a friend has offered to drive. So, what would you do? Exactly. We visited wineries and sampled many fine wines. Thanks to a recommendation by AJ and Theresa we went to the best winery first. Why was it the best? A winning combination of service, setting and quality quoffing. Sally - who looked after us - was warm,friendly and informative. She told us about the wine and the stories behind the family that made them. Instead of standing at a counter, we were seated in comfy sofas with a wonderful outlook to the vines. They also had a colouring pack for Scarlet. We were able to taste their full range from a $15 bottle of Riesling on special through to their $75 Shiraz and fortified wines. They left us in peace to sample, quietly reappearing when it was obvious we were ready to move on. After we had finished sampling, Sally made Lattes and Capuccinos for the adults and a Soy Hot Chocolate for Scarlet all provided free of charge.
And to top it all, the wines were exquisite. Apparently, James Halliday thinks so too scoring them at 95/100 and 96/100 and so a few purchases were made to take home. And the name of this great place? Murray Street Vineyard.
After this fulfilling start to the day we set off for Whistler which was one of the two wineries Marty and I were looking forward to visiting having purchased some fine wines when we were last here 8 years ago. Sadly, apart from the luxurious white port, it didn’t live up to expectations and we left empty handed. Ironically, the same happened at Langmeil which was our other favourite and whilst there were a couple of memorable mouthfuls found in our return to the Bella Rouge, again, we left with 2 bottles rather than the planned dozen.
On this winter’s day we were desperate for some hearty lunch and thought Maggie Beer would do the trick. it wasn’t to be either as the only hot dish on offer was chestnut soup which none of us fancied. And then we arrived at a place full of promise. Dodging the torrential downpour to get to the door, a welcoming warmth and tempting menu got us very excited as we anticipated a great treat. We had arrived at Kaesler which was also the winery where AJ and Theresa got married 5 months ago. Sadly, without a reservation we were not able to get served today and as it was now late and food was becoming necessary fuel rather than a folly we ended up at the Tanunda Clubhouse for some pub grub, which came with very pleasant service. After a quick detour to the sweet shop, and our tasting at Langmeil we called it a day and our good friends dropped us back at our soggy site with plans for us all to meet up tomorrow at Hattah Kulkyne National Park which is just over the border in Victoria.
Cosy inside our trailer, courtesy of an electrical supply and our heater, we stayed dry and did craft with Scarlet, planned our next few days, read and did laundry.

The views were worth the walk August 5

Sat, 06 Aug 2011 08:35:31 -0400

The views were worth the walk August 5