Australian Outback as COVID-19 Ends Our Travel
Rawnsley Park Station, Flinders Ranges, South Australia
Coronavirus (COVID-19) has brought an early end to our global travel experience. We are spending lockdown time together and starting to reimagine what is next. We of course have a lot to learn in the months ahead about COVID-19 which will in turn impact our next journey too.
For now, I am catching up on some to dos and sharing our last road trip. This will also help me begin my own transition process.
We did a long weekend in the Flinders Ranges, South Australia. It is a six hour drive from Normanville to Rawnsley Park Station where we stayed. My Mum and Dad were supposed to come but Mum wasn’t quite feeling up for it so it was the 5 of us. Mum was our experienced outback leader so an alarmingly large amount of our outback survival skills didn’t make the trip! This ensured we kept our itinerary on the roads well traveled by Australian outback standards. This means that if we broke down another car would likely come by in the next 2-5 hours and be able to help or fetch help!
Our family road trip was also Scarlett and Nora’s first trip to the Australian outback. We had a lot of fun, some pretty sizable meltdowns and were isolated as appropriate for Australia at that time. The restrictions have continued to increase so obviously this trip is no longer an option.
Some highlights of our road trip were:
Seeing family friends on their Outback Station, and learning about the 3+ year drought and the impact it is having. It is beyond tough and incredible what they are doing to survive
Seeing so many kangaroos and a lot of Emus roaming the outback
20 minute scenic plane ride over the Flinders Ranges
Driving and chatting with Whitney along a stunning gorge for a couple of hours (with the kids absorbed in their iPads and Hazel asleep!)
Blinman Underground Mine Tour
Walking to dinner and enjoying our meal looking out on Rawnsley Bluff, as the kids played outside plus the amazing sunrises and sunsets
The outback. The quiet. The amazing night sky. The peacefulness whenever you stopped the car and got out.
Memorable, but not in a good way, was the stunning amount of flies on a couple of the days. Even the locals were a bit flustered by them!
Below is a really long video that may be of interest only if you are self isolating and wondering what the Australian outback is like. Otherwise below that are some photos to glance at.
I remain so massively grateful to have had the past 9 months with Whitney, Scarlett, Nora and Hazel. Grateful to have been here for 5 months with my Mum and Dad (and a lot of it with my Sister) through Mum’s cancer diagnosis and treatment. We love traveling as a family and we look forward to being able to do a lot more of it in the years ahead.
Our blog will go fairly quiet for a period, but we will post from time to time some updates about what we are up to and our plans as they come together.
Sending our thoughts and love to all our family, friends and their communities at this unbelievable, scary and uncertain moment in history.
