Family Travel Australia
Family Travel Australia
LOCKED OUT!! .... of our caravan and no idea where our keys are!
Have you ever found yourself locked out of your van in the middle of nowhere with only a soldering iron for company? We sure did! Join us for a laugh-out-loud recount of our Family Travel Podcast Road Trip as we navigate the misadventures and triumphs of exploring Australia's breathtaking landscapes. Our recent escapade in Larrmah had us grappling with a van lockout, a hint of mystery thanks to a notorious Netflix documentary, and the realisation that carrying multiple sets of keys is a travel necessity. But fear not, our spirits were lifted by our two free drinks waiting for us at the Highway Inn!
Come along for a whimsical ride with Mick, the local groundsman, as he introduces us to the delightful world of bowerbirds and the colorful eccentricities of Australian slang. We recount the unexpected joys of roadside relaxation—complete with poolside lounging and deliciously affordable food—and the spontaneous decision to extend our stay with the promise of more drink vouchers. As we patch up our window and secure that elusive gas bottle, we wrap up this episode with a reminder of the joys and challenges of life on the road. Embrace the unexpected, cherish the camaraderie, and revel in the simple triumphs that make every journey memorable.
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Paul Guerin:Welcome to season eight, episode 17, of the Family Travel Australia podcast. We are Paul, katie and Jasper from the feel good family. Join us as we explore this great country, australia, its people, places and cultures.
Katie Guerin:Yes, welcome to the Family Travel Podcast, where we share the latest in RV industry news road trip travel, caravanning and camping, product reviews, where to go, what to do, and so much more Thanks for joining us this week.
Paul Guerin:There's drama, we lock ourselves out of the van what Five years full time travelling around Oz and we make this rookie mistake. We do find a new campground at Dally Waters, and Katie is finally talking to me again.
Katie Guerin:Yeah, let's just say it was one of those days, definitely. And, look, we're pretty blessed. We've only had a couple of these sorts of moments across our five years, but this one really hurt. It was a culmination of just you know, it was one of those stub your toe mornings, wasn't it Paulie? And then we just seem to keep stubbing our toes all day.
Paul Guerin:Yeah, we've talked about that before. You know, you take yourself with you is a great quote that we like to recall, and this was one of those where, as you say, we just were both niggly, wasn't really feeling the feel-good love or the feel-good vibes, and just kind of this knock on event. But we'll get to that, okay, all right, so we left you last in Catherine and we'd been exploring further afield in Catherine.
Paul Guerin:We'd never done before a couple of outstanding experiences, and now it was time to really make our way down, to start what we refer to as Season 9, the ultimate out-back-to out back to the ocean road trip. Oh yes, our road to riches, yes, which will be coming to you next week. And so we realised that we've got quite a lot of kilometres and quite a lot of weeks in front of us. We'd better do a massive shop at Woolworths Woolies in Catherine and $500 plus later, ouch.
Katie Guerin:Yeah, I think this was our biggest shop across the entire time we've been on the road.
Katie Guerin:But we, as we said, paul, we've got so many weeks ahead of us where, well, one, we're not going to see a grocery store of any kind for hundreds and hundreds of kilometres, and then, two, when we finally do get across that Queensland border and into towns like Bullier and Winton, obviously we'll be making the most of their small little supermarkets and the IGAs.
Katie Guerin:But there are plenty of things, of course, that if you are about to set off, knowing that you're going to be in the middle of nowhere for a long time, you really do need to get from these bigger supermarkets. So we stocked up, got all of our bits and pieces I mean, god forbid we would run out of any of those tasty treats for Jasper along the way but in all seriousness, no, plenty of fresh fruit and veggies, and that's the main, I guess, element of our diets. Being pescatarian vegetarian, we eat a lot of fresh produce, so it was great to jam pack the fridge full and I tell you what we certainly ate our way through it, that's for sure. We were on bare bones by the time we pulled into Winton.
Paul Guerin:Oh, my gosh, you know there's this moment which we, on bare bones by the time, we pulled into Winton, oh my gosh, you know. There's this moment which we will get to in the next couple of weeks, but where you cross the Northern Territory-Queensland border and it says Winton, 730 kilometres, and I'm like how, how can it still be that far? Oh man, massive, you know, and then Winton is still 1,350 kilometres from the ocean. I mean, this country is massive.
Katie Guerin:Yeah, it really is. It really is. And just when you feel like you're getting that little bit closer, that little bit closer, you see those signs. It kind of puts it back into perspective, doesn't?
Paul Guerin:it? Oh, it sure does. Okay, so we say goodbye to Catherine. That's not before. Jasper and I go around the bend a little bit. We're looking for a small gas bottle swap and go. And we go over to Ampol. They've got the big sign swap and go, and unfortunately they only have the big ones, which I think are like the nine kilo gas bottle replacements, and we need the four kilo one. And so then we get sent around to the shell and fortunately they had it there, so that was good. So we got that. We got back to the van, locked everything up, Katie has her rolls and I have my rolls. Okay, we have the same routine for five years, and that way you know your responsibilities. We still check each other's work. Not this day, for some reason.
Katie Guerin:No, look, it definitely was just an off day, and I should say that the few days preceding this day were extremely windy as well, and you know how wind can. Just it really grates on you after a couple of days of just full on windy conditions, and it was hot like pushing 40 degrees. And so I think all of this added to get us to where we were in this situation, and I'd already hopped in the vehicle and I was on the phone to my dad and we just, I don't know. It was just one of those moments that we both made a poor decision in. She'll be right, paul's going to lock up, I'm in the car, I'm on the phone, and it really just unravelled from there, didn't it? Well, it did, yes.
Paul Guerin:See, so I did lock the van, but I left the keys in the door so that Katie could come and do her final checks. And then her dad.
Paul Guerin:He's been a little unwell in terms of his mental health and he's connecting with Katie multiple times an hour in some instances where he's just constantly checking in and you know, just sort of on this repeat, this sort of cycle at the moment. And I think you were so caught up there and answering his call and making sure he's okay, and so then I hopped into the driver's seat and I said to Katie, you know, but she was on the phone, the keys are ready for you. But obviously this just didn't happen and we drove off and we're driving 180 kilometres for our first stop, which was Laramie, and we got to Laramie and we got out of the car.
Katie Guerin:Late on a Sunday afternoon. I mean gosh, we didn't leave Catherine until three o'clock probably on Sunday afternoon, maybe a little bit earlier than that. By the time we did all of our jobs, our food shop. We'd come out from Nipmulook National Park that morning, had plenty to do to get ourselves organized to hit the road. We stopped in Mataranka for some fuel.
Paul Guerin:That's right.
Katie Guerin:And then by the time we got to Laramie, we hadn't had lunch. So you can imagine how we're all feeling already, because we're already frustrated, we're already tired, it's hot, now we're hungry.
Paul Guerin:Oh hangry.
Katie Guerin:Hangry. It's 4.30 PM on a Sunday afternoon. We pull into Larimer, which is like a 10 people town, and I say to Paul look, let me just grab some snacks for Jasper, because he's complaining in the background about how bad parents we are. Because we some snacks for Jasper, because he's complaining in the background about how bad parents we are because we haven't fed him lunch and he's starving. We've still got an hour to go to get down to Daily Waters and I open the glove box where the caravan keys always live when we're on a travel day and there's no caravan keys.
Paul Guerin:And I'm like, well, where did you put them? And she goes well, where did you put them? And she goes well, where did you put them? And I'm like, don't talk to me.
Katie Guerin:And so she didn't.
Katie Guerin:I was like, well, be careful what you ask for, husband. Oh look, we spent the next hour so late on Sunday afternoon basically ripping the 79 apart, pulling everything out, searching high and low, looking in all of the craziest places for where these keys could be. Couldn't find them. I rang every. Paul, went in, spoke to the lovely staff at Larimer who you know did their best to help in a situation that wasn't really able to be helped by anybody given the time of day and our location. And I rang around every locksmith, every, you know, anybody.
Paul Guerin:Mobile service. Anything you could think of, we tried.
Katie Guerin:Oh, we tried, but again Sunday afternoon. By this time it's like after 5pm.
Paul Guerin:Now it should be noted that we do have a spare set of keys. They are in the van, and for good reason, because across our five years we've always thought well, there'll be one in the car set and one in the van, and that makes sense.
Katie Guerin:Yeah well, we're often not together, you know, and so we do need those sets of keys. Each in hindsight, oh, isn't that a great thing. We've obviously learnt a lot during this experience.
Paul Guerin:It's amazed us how many locksmiths have come out of the woodworks to give us some education on their YouTube comments.
Katie Guerin:I know who would have thought Thank you. Locksmithing is a popular career.
Paul Guerin:Locksmith. Nick, thank you for that.
Katie Guerin:Yes, absolutely. Look in hindsight, three sets of keys for your caravan is obviously the way to go, particularly your front door key, and so that is something that we will ensure that we have sorted, moving forward so that we can put a caravan front door key on our vehicle keys as well as we do. We have it the other way around. We have vehicle keys on the caravan keys, we just don't have it the other way.
Paul Guerin:Anyways, look, lots of things to learn from here. Kate did eventually, you know, acknowledge me, but before we go on now we decide okay, we're going to still travel another 100 k's down the road to Daly Waters and we know that there's accommodation there if we have to overnight there, and we'll see if there's a locksmith legend just walking around the pub there and see if we can get it.
Katie Guerin:Do our best to manifest somebody who can break into our van for us.
Paul Guerin:Yes, exactly. But going back to what you said now, larimer, exactly, but going back to what you said now Larimer, infini has struck this town. It's notorious on Netflix, a murder mystery documentary a little bit lighthearted, but it's all around. You mentioned 10 people lived in this town. Well, there's now only nine. Okay, paddy did go missing and he did have a couple of enemies. You know he was a bit of an antagonist with a couple of his neighbours Right and one particular lady who's the pie shop owner.
Katie Guerin:Right.
Paul Guerin:And her gardener. They didn't really want him around. Okay, now look, nothing's been proven and there's been some really damning evidence that has actually been inadmissible and has been thrown out that you would straight away say well, these people are responsible.
Katie Guerin:Right.
Paul Guerin:And potentially Paddy ended up in a pie. Okay, now there's still a missing person here.
Katie Guerin:Yeah.
Paul Guerin:Who I now believe murdered, because it's now, I think, almost eight years down the track.
Katie Guerin:Wow.
Paul Guerin:And Larimer now has a huge following, I guess, around the world, of people who really just are bewildered that they can't find out what happened to this guy.
Katie Guerin:No, I mean, it seems crazy that in a town of only 10 people somebody can go missing without a trace, doesn't it?
Paul Guerin:Yep, it is remote, though. It's incredibly remote, so anyway. So now we'll go past that. Hopefully something comes about for Paddy at some point, and he's surely he's got friends and family out there, he'd be worried about him?
Katie Guerin:Yeah, absolutely. Needless to say, though, we certainly didn't have a pie, and nor, I think, would we in better circumstances anyway.
Paul Guerin:True, true, especially after losing our keys Not as bad as losing a paddy. But we continued on down to Daly Waters or Daly Waters as it's pronounced and we decided let's not go to the iconic pub. We go there all the time. Let's try the Highway Inn, a fabulous roadside. Really it's like a truckie stop. There's various accommodations, there's power and water for your vans, with big green grassy sites and towering old gum trees, plenty of shade. And it is $30 a night for power and water. Let's get around there and then see if we can get in the van.
Katie Guerin:Yeah, well, we called the Highway Inn as one of these phone calls that we made across that hour in Larimer, and they have a workshop on site but unfortunately, being on a Sunday afternoon, no staff at the workshop. So they said to us look, we will have the team here on Monday morning, so you know, if you can get yourselves here then potentially there's somebody to help you out tomorrow. Anyway, we did decide to roll in there and we're glad we did, because it was a great place to just pull up. And yes, it is a roadhouse and you know it is just on the main Stuart Highway, but that certainly didn't bother us at all. There was no real noise. The truckies do pull in, but they basically pull up and have a rest overnight as well. And we pulled up, found our site on the end of a row, overlooking the paddock, with the livestock wandering around, which was really lovely, and Paulie got to work.
Paul Guerin:Yes, I had, during this last 100 kilometers, a fair bit of quiet time. It was very quiet in the cab, wasn't it?
Katie Guerin:It was quiet Time for reflection, Doug.
Paul Guerin:And I decided that I was going to break in using the soldering iron, because I can access 240 volt power from the cab of the 79 and I can plug that in, heat it up and then put it through the side window, the little side window, and undo the latches, feed Jasper's little body through and he can unlock the door and let us in.
Katie Guerin:It was an absolute great plan and it's probably worth noting. The door on our zone RV is not a standard caravan door. It's actually one of the four lock motorhome doors. You seem to see these doors mostly on motorhomes, so it is very secure.
Paul Guerin:It's difficult to get into this thing unless you're a locksmith, like Locksmith Nick pointed out she's a teaspoon mate. Yeah, we had a few of those comments.
Katie Guerin:Yeah, all you need is a teaspoon, guys, and a couple of moments and you'll be in. We're like okay.
Paul Guerin:Yeah, or a bit of an idea, but anyway. So I soldered iron this little circle, like I mean, oh gosh, you know, just wide enough for Jasper to be able to put his little wrist through. And as I got through I then realized I was reminded that it's double glazed with that kind of thick perspex. I was like, ah, of course. So then another half an hour of putting more holes in to make a circle, and then I tried to push that one through and it split the hole inside of that particular window and I was like you're kidding. Anyways, we got in and you know, the sun's almost down. Now we realized that Jasper's hand, as it's going in, well, it's really sharp, you know. He's like, oh, oh, oh you know the whole time.
Paul Guerin:He's already flipping out because we're locked out. He's thinking we're locked out for life, yeah, and we're trying to just stay calm, but at the same time just thinking you're kidding, you know. And so then we use a bandage and wrap his arm completely around so that he won't get scratched.
Katie Guerin:Shout out to Anthony for our recent first aid training. Thank you, ant, for helping us manage that bandage efficiently to get the best results, covering Jasper's little arm.
Paul Guerin:Well, he gets his arm all the way in and he's kind of stuck a bit, but he just could not reach the lock and the latches. He was already on edge. I mean like we need to find another version of this. So, out coming his hand and, by the way, I'm holding him up stepping because it's too high for him to even reach.
Katie Guerin:We've got him standing on an expedition tub With me holding him up. Oh man, it was a sight to see, that's for sure.
Paul Guerin:Hopeless, and so I'm like you're up, katie. Luckily you're such a tiny framed lady. No time for compliments, doll Bit of a big attitude issue, though, at this point.
Katie Guerin:Compliments aren't doing you any favours, oh doll. Bit of a big attitude issue, though at this point I must say Compliments aren't doing you any favours, oh Lord. Very fortunately, though, I was able to squeeze my arm in, through Paulie's handiwork, and access the lock to be able to get us inside. So it was happy days.
Paul Guerin:And Kate's just got this arm stuck in this window, if you can imagine, because it's just so sharp that Perspex you know it's like glass.
Katie Guerin:I took a few war wounds for the team. You did, but that's okay, Nothing to really complain about. I tell you what. As soon as that front door opened, all of our troubles disappeared. The floodgates opened as well. Well, it did. Yeah, for Jasper too. There was a big release of all of that pent-up emotion, poor little bugger. But as soon as we were back inside, well, it was almost like well, what were we so worried about? You know, like it just immediately made everything better.
Katie Guerin:It wasn't that big a deal. And Paul and I both looked at ourselves and said, well, you know.
Katie Guerin:Let's go to the pub, Well we did say that and actually on that, two free drinks at the roadhouse when you stay the night. So your $30 for a power and water site also gets you a beverage each. How good is that? So we did. We definitely went up and enjoyed that free drink and then purchased another one to calm ourselves down. But look, at the end of the day we pay for a replacement window, Not a huge deal. We're in the van.
Paul Guerin:It was the first thing I did when we got to the pub where we ordered our meals and our drinks, and then I quickly Googled how much is it to replace a window? And it is. It's like $300. Yeah, $300. Mistake, a new set of keys, obviously. If you find our keys, please let us know.
Katie Guerin:Yes, who knows where they are? They literally could be anywhere. But not to worry, we got inside, all was well with the world again and we ended up having, you know, a really restful night. I think we all needed a really good sleep and got up the next day and actually decided you know what, we're going to spend another night here because we can crack on, we can get some work done.
Paul Guerin:So what do you think happened? Kate walks back into the highway in the next morning and says we're extending a night no worries, love, $30. Here's two free drink vouchers. Yeah, ending a night no worries, love, $30. Here's two free drink vouchers.
Katie Guerin:Yeah, it's my life, I'm like this place is unbelievable, Bloody awesome. So let me tell you we made the most of those drink vouchers the next night as well.
Paul Guerin:And obviously a hot tip don't book in for two nights If you're going to stay two nights, just do them as singles Make sure you get your vouchers.
Katie Guerin:It's very thirsty out here in the open. No, it's good. Look, it's a great overnight or two stop for us, and certainly somewhere we'd be happy to pull back in again.
Paul Guerin:Something cool that happened the next morning. Mick, who's a local groundsman, there, he is passing me and I just say, hey, g'day mate. And he's like, hey, mate, how you doing? And then he goes hey, uh, you interested in seeing some of the local birds? Now, if you're listening from outside of Australia, birds, you know, not in a derogatory sense, uh, but it's a term that can be used, uh, in that ochre. Australian way to represent females, australian way to represent females, women Mm-hmm.
Paul Guerin:You know she's a nice bird. Oh mate, how good looking were those birds.
Paul Guerin:Yeah, you know, this is just part of Australian slang, you know. And so I'm like, oh, some local birds? I'm like I'll check with the wife. And he goes, no, no, no, mate, no, like feathered, feathered, feathered birds. I'm like, sure, I mean, what could go wrong? I'm in the middle of nowhere and some guy that's uh in a sort of mangled up land cruiser with no front windscreen pulls up and says do you want to check out some local birds? So I'm like, yeah, I've got the gopro. I said, kate, I'll be back. She's like what are you doing?
Katie Guerin:I'm like I'll be back, I'll be back.
Paul Guerin:Well, I'm not, you know, come looking for me. My first question should have been do you know where patty is? Uh, but off we went and I said to him what happened to the windscreen. He said, yeah, it was. Uh happened. When we found it had been stolen, rolled and the windscreen I've tried to put another one in and I can't. And he goes. Actually, I've got a brolly, an umbrella behind my seat and when it rains I just drive with that out in front of me. This is a true story. Now. I mean, I'm filming this guy. This whole moment was captured on our YouTube channel. And then, sure enough, down the road and over there and up the dusty, dirt road and behind this other area, and I was just like righto, and he goes just over here, righto, be a bit quiet. And he goes. Oh, just be aware, there's a few snakes around this guy's in thongs, flip-flops and anyway. So he traipsed through the bush and there's this amazing bower.
Katie Guerin:Anyway, so he traipsed through the bush.
Paul Guerin:And there's this amazing bower, mm, you know, there's a bower bird nest which arcs up in a beautiful display. It's something very special that the male does and he collects a certain colour of, you know, ornamentation to help dress this bower that's made out of twigs. Oh, to impress the ladies.
Paul Guerin:Oh yeah, yeah, impress the birds. And so his color was silver. So he had all this silver and look, I mean silver rubbish, alf foil, and he even is believed to be the thief of keys from the machinery shed. The guys who work in the machinery shed have come over and found the missing key, or you'll grab it off the workbench.
Katie Guerin:Did you look for our stuff?
Paul Guerin:They weren't there.
Katie Guerin:Okay.
Paul Guerin:No, and so I got these beautiful shots. It's the greater bowerbird. There's a satin bowerbird down in northern New South Wales sorry, New South Wales around the Blue Mountains that we filmed as well. That collects blue and it's vibrant black, silky, kind of deep blue black colour and that's stunning, their bowers and they do this whole dance and ritual and if she likes it then she stays, If she doesn't, she destroys the bower.
Katie Guerin:It's a bit mean, isn't it really Like you could just go? If you don't like it, just move on and find another bower you like. You don't have to like kick it to the curb.
Paul Guerin:Exactly, Katie, which is what I thought was going to happen had I not gone into the van. She's going to go looking for a new bower. You're very handy Del.
Katie Guerin:I will give you that you are very handy.
Paul Guerin:Thank, you're very handy. Thank you, that was quite a unique experience.
Katie Guerin:Yes, thank you, mick.
Paul Guerin:Yes, thank you Mick. And then over to the pub, and they've got a pool there as well, so really for a roadside stop, we would do that again. The food was excellent.
Katie Guerin:Yeah, yeah, it was Nothing to complain about about our stay here for 30 bucks a night.
Paul Guerin:So we we decided, okay, let's go. Before we leave, though, I patch up the window with the broken bits of Perspex. So now it's resealed, and and then I actually added some gaffer tape over the outside, just so that it looked neat, I guess.
Katie Guerin:Yes, and we're also about to hit, you know, hundreds of kilometres of dirt roads, so we wanted to ensure that we were keeping our caravan dust free.
Paul Guerin:Yes, exactly, katie. Okay, so the next couple of days let's just fly through those. There's 300 kilometres down to Banka Banka. Another great little overnight stop, yes, met some new neighbours, as we refer to them, had a drink over there at happy hours, and then next morning up early and again another almost 300 kilometres I think it was 285 kilometres to a place that we've never stayed before because it's a private property, it's a farm. It's actually called Desert Springs Farm. It's a mate of ours, a fairly new friend that we had met up there in Litchfield National Park, and he owns one of the largest watermelon farms in Australia, probably one of the largest ones in the world, in fact and it's in the middle of a desert. Now, I'm talking about the hottest, driest country on Earth, australia. In the middle of Australia, in the outback, in the very middle of Australia, there is this massive farm and they are producing 9,000 to 10,000 tons per crop and they have a couple of crops each year of watermelon.
Katie Guerin:Unbelievable.
Paul Guerin:What did that equate to Katie?
Katie Guerin:That equated to over a six week or so period of harvest. They're shipping out in the road trains and the road trains out here are huge. They're three massive trailers on a truck. So three road trains every day. So that's three road trains with three trailers full of watermelons every day for a six-week period are coming out of this farm and when you see the size of the road trains it really puts into perspective that's a lot of bloody melons babe 53 and a half meters, these road trains longest in the world and they travel all the way down to Adelaide to distribute those watermelons.
Paul Guerin:In fact a whole heap of them come back past the farm and up to Darwin, and up to Darwin.
Katie Guerin:yeah, bizarre, bizarre.
Paul Guerin:Chances are, if you've had a watermelon in Australia, you've probably had one from Desert Springs Farm.
Katie Guerin:So cool. It was an amazing overnight stay for us. I mean, how thankful are we that we meet people like this on the road who say to us come and park up, I've got a property, you're welcome to come and stay. But to be able to get out on the farm and have all of that education, it was the coolest afternoon at. You know, I'm doing my quotation fingers school for all of us, but let alone Jasper. I mean his little mind was just blown that we're literally out in the middle of Australia. I mean you've got that rich red dirt that you just think nothing can grow in this other than the native trees and plants that are meant to be here. And then we're standing in amongst these you know crops of where the watermelons grow. They're also growing asparagus out there. They're doing some other really cool things out there for the bees as well, to keep the bees happy.
Paul Guerin:Amazing. And the asparagus, the little patch of asparagus which was a test patch to see how they would go, maybe also farming asparagus, and it was a hit.
Katie Guerin:Oh my God, Let me tell you if you're not a fan of asparagus that you buy from the supermarket, I can understand. But when you have the ability to pick fresh asparagus from the soil, we literally picked it and ate it raw. And it's more like a snow pea flavour when you pick it fresh from the ground. And it was incredible. And we were fortunate enough to be able to pick some for our dinner and we picked a little bit, knowing that, okay, we're going to have quite a few weeks where we really want to keep our veggie supply high. So we took a little bit with us and it was amazing.
Paul Guerin:I tell you what that shallow fry in some butter and garlic. Oh, stop, you're making my mouth water Boom, that is all you need, and just how crunchy.
Katie Guerin:Oh, so good.
Paul Guerin:Yeah, thank you so much to Paul, our friend, who owns and operates that farm, also doing some amazing work, looking to increase actually a program that's supporting the local Aboriginal community around Indigenous employment opportunities within the farm to learn practices, to farm the land and really grow with the whole process. It's a great model, isn't it that they're doing yeah as part of this community, we're just amazed at him and his operation. So such a treat.
Katie Guerin:Yeah, a great story. If you want to check that out in more detail, definitely jump on over to our YouTube channel and have a look at that episode, because the footage is beautiful.
Paul Guerin:Now we're not far, well, still another few hundred kilometres from starting season nine, which is, you know, the ultimate outback to the ocean road trip over 2,000 kilometres. It really follows the Capricorn Tropic of Capricorn line, tropic of Capricorn line and, from our opinion, gives you the whole taste of Australia, like from the most remote part of Australia and that outback and those true, authentic Aussie characters all the way through and amazing natural assets and you can fossick for everything from garnets to sapphires, to gold to thunder eggs.
Katie Guerin:Zircon.
Paul Guerin:Fossils, I mean there's dinosaurs out here so many things. And then you get to that natural wonder of the Southern Great Barrier Reef. You know, world natural wonder. And you have all of this in one drive. Itinerary.
Katie Guerin:Yep, incredible. So excited to start this, so excited to cross this plenty highway it's been on the list for a long time and to get back on the dirt, because we absolutely love it. So look out, season nine starts soon.
Paul Guerin:Okay, so that will be from next week? Excellent, we're looking at about a 10-week journey to get this 2,000 kilometres covered, and we're looking forward to bringing you not only those natural assets, as I mentioned, but those rich, authentic Aussie characters that you know just make Australia so great.
Paul Guerin:Oh brilliant, Bring it on. Okay, the takeaway for this week. It is from the famous Monty Python fame, Michael Palin, and I love this. Once the travel bug bites, there is no known antidote and I know that I shall be happily infected until the end of my life.
Katie Guerin:I love it. Well, I think we've all definitely been bitten, and yes we're going to have to deal with that for the rest of ours too.
Paul Guerin:Well, we will wrap it up for you there for this week. A dramatic week, but a reminder for us that you know it's a first world problem, really isn't it?
Katie Guerin:Oh, it is, Stuff happens. Have a glass of wine, get over it, get on with it. Or two, if you stay at the highway inn.
Paul Guerin:Well, there we go, we'll leave it there. If you stay at the Highway Inn, well, there we go, we'll leave it there. Thank you so much. For now we'll say dream big, look after yourself and look after your family. And happy travels.