Thinking Allowed: The Other Side

Australia is a big country. We have done our outmost to explore and get to know it but realistically it is a very big country. Getting to the other side of the country involves either 40 hours of driving or a dedicated six months of walking. We decided to use our air miles and fly. The girls and I had a week on our own before Jakob joined us so it seemed a good opportunity for a road trip. It was only when I went to rent the car that I all do a sudden thought ‘was it a good idea to decide to drive nearly 2000 kilometres in a week on my own with four kids? The car rental woman was full of pitying looks and dire tales of wildlife and hardship as I tried to both sign papers and prevent the girls from putting little pieces of blu tac on everything. When I told her I was going up to shark Bay I thought she actually might not hand over the keys. But for all her drama it has been great and astoundingly relaxing and after all her tales of kangaroos and rampant cows and emus and echidnas it was disappointing that we saw not a single live animal on the road. But I did have regrets of a sort numerous times. Looking out at the endless shrubbery undulating over red earth I couldnt help but wish that I was walking zigzagging strolling through the native plants saw towards the endless bush horizon. We did get to go for a 10 kilometre walk over red canyons and by mossy green rivers where we made friends with two wallabies an echidna and lots of rocks and played a categories game that went on and on until Tova commanded us to stop. We got to see rock formations, found out what pink water looks like, splash around with dolphins and have epic playground romps in the dwindling daylight. It was so nice for me to see that when we strip our lives of all routine and responsibilities we all become a little more relaxed and the girls have time to actually work out their differences and figure out how to play all together.