Road trip to Alice

by Celia Walker (Australia)

I didn't expect to find Australia

When I was eight my family and I went on a road trip. We took six weeks and covered 5000km with our station wagon and pop-up caravan, completing a round trip from our home town near Canberra (ACT) to Alice Springs (NT) and back. As a small-town kid, it opened up the world to me and quite possibly established my love of travelling. We set off and take the highway south. First stop Beechworth, with our caravan nestled against a lovely old bluestone structure we later discover is a prison. The next day brings a tour of the town and we learn that Beechworth was a goldrush town and that the Chinese residents would put food on the graves of their loved ones which would be stolen by the hungry miners. After a day on the road, we make camp at Kamarooka state park. We go for a walk and find a prickly pear, (the equally spikey fruit of the cactus). We cut the pear on the wooden picnic table and enjoy the juicy red fruit. The next morning Mum forgets and changes my younger brother on the same table, giving him several uncomfortable prickles in the bottom. Next stop Bendigo, a beautiful old town and highest producing Australian goldfield of the 19th century. We visit the Deborah gold mine which boasts the deepest mine tour in Australia, the botanical gardens and take a talking tram tour. We move on to the Grampians national park where the nights are very cold. Undeterred we enjoy our bushwalking. During our time in Adelaide we visit the botanical gardens, the art gallery of South Australia, east end markets and the Adelaide zoo. The zoo is the highlight for my brother and I. Moving north we spend a night in the Barossa Valley, renowned for its wine production. Then Port Augusta, where we visit the Arid Lands Botanical Gardens. Next stop Coober Peady. Due to the extreme heat a lot of the residents live underground as the temperature is more constant and less extreme. While in the opal capital of the world we do some noodling (opal mining) and find a milky white opal with a hint of fire inside. The next day we reach Uluru and over the next two days we complete two four-hour walks around Uluru and the equally mesmerising but less well-known rock formation Kata Tjuta. We spend one more day on the road before arriving in Alice Springs. We spend two weeks in Alice to rest and experience just some of her charms. We visit a date farm and sample the tasty fruit. We hire a troop carrier and make a day trip to Palm Valley in the Finke Gorge National Park. We visit the Olive Pink Botanic Gardens. We purchase fire crackers and set them off as part of the Territory day festivities. We walk through Simpsons gap, Honeymoon gap and Heavitree gap in the West Mac Donnell ranges. We visit Ross River, (named for John Ross who was employed to lead an advance party for the overland telegraph). Upon leaving Alice Springs we spend the first night at Eateringinna Creek. We move on to Bon Bon Station Reserve, a former sheep station and notable for its size; (at 70km long and 30km wide it’s roughly the size of Sydney). Back again to Port Augusta, where we visit a local radio station and my brother and I are recorded for a promo. We collect shells while enjoying a walk along the Spencer Gulf. On the way to our next stop, we pass through Orroroo and admire a four-metre-wide Eucalyptus tree. While staying in Broken Hill we visit the Living Desert flora and Fauna reserve and sculptures, railway museum and art gallery. In Silverton (named for the rich silver deposits found there) we visit the jail museum and several small art galleries. We spend the last night of our epic road trip in Dubbo where we visit more family friends. What I found on that holiday was a closer connection to my family, a greater knowledge of the world than anything I could have learnt in school and a million beautiful memories kept in a treasured diary.