travel

I need a holiday.

Broome
Thursday, June 21, 2007

Prologue

There must be a name for the feelings experienced by travelers after returning home from extended backpacking tours. For three months after returning from our European Odyssey, I was depressed, bored, unmotivated and did NOT want to be back home, surrounded by mundane routines and beige people.
 
I could not find a "self-help" group for wayward travelers who want to be anywhere other than here. The euphoria of traveling slowly faded and only gazing longingly at the amazing photos (which I still haven't managed to frame) took the edge off my depression.
 
I was unable to get motivated about work or homelife, or do much of anything except take my scooter on increasingly longer rides - having three summers in a row was a real bonus for scootering pleasures. 
 
I have discovered that the best way to get over the depression of the end of a holiday is to plan and book the next holiday.  Thus, 10 months later, we are on another plane, crossing the fabulous continent of Australia, beginning our next adventure - albeit scooterless.

I last visited the Northern Territory in 1989 and have always wanted to show the BOSS* the delights of the Outback. Last time I went on a 4WD bus (unimog) with AAT Kings and we bush camped and cooked on open fires. I am hoping to repeat the experience so we have booked 2 tours back-to back. The first, Broome to Darwin with Western Exposure and the second, Darwin to Alice with Adventure Tours.


* If you want to know how the BOSS got her acronym you can find out here

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Day 1: Sydney - Perth - Broome

The flight to Perth was an uneventful 5 hours - the highlight of which was a hostie with a keen sense of humour and a game of trivia. We had to name ten 3 letter body parts - we missed jaw and rib and they wouldn't accept bum and ass as substitutes. The BOSS busied herself with a sudoku book and I had the luxury of diving into a novel - something I haven't had time to do in the past 6 months. Unfortunately it was a story about a couple sailing in the Med and touring the Swiss Alps. It made me terribly nostalgic. It was only a 200 page book - 100 pages of which I had devoured before even reaching Perth.
 
Our connecting flight to Broome took a further 2 hours. We arrived in Broome after dark and lugged our backpacks the 1/2 km to the Kimberley Klub youth hostel. I had originally booked the Cable Beach Backpackers but when I rang to reconfirm 3 days ago, they claimed to have lost my reservation. The manager was rude and unhelpful but luckily I managed to get a booking at the YHA.
 
The BOSS was very impressed with the hostel's tropical setting, the pool, the hammocks and the general energetic vibrancy. Our twin room although basic was very clean and quiet (I don't mind a good YHA but I am beyond dorm rooms). We threw our packs in the room and headed off to the bar where I plied my underage child with alcohol and nobody bothered to question her age status. I sat beside the pool, drink in hand and could physically feel the stress draining out of my body.
 
I am hoping for 3 things from this trip - a cure for my insomnia, to lose some of the kilos added since Europe and to expose my lily white limbs (which have not seen the light of day in the last 2 decades) to some sunlight in the vain hope of losing the sickly pallor. 

01 AAT Kings Unimog circa 1989
AAT Kings Unimog circa 1989
02 Blown tyre
Blown tyre
03 Slightly bogged
Slightly bogged
04 Real 4WDriving
Real 4WDriving
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