XPLORE – Out & About

It is always with great anticipation heading down the driveway, waving good-bye to the urban surrounds we are so familiar with, but long to escape, steering “The Landy” towards the bush, the outback and today was no exception.

Janet had finished packing the food into “The Landy” the previous night and now there was nothing left to do but jump in and head-off.

Taking advantage of some additional time off over the easter break we decided to make a quick dash to the outback and a cattle station in western New South Wales, Trilby Station.

Joining us are our good friends Bob and Annette and “the boys”, David and Stephen.

We travel together often and as it would be a long drive ahead, 860 kilometres to be precise, we headed off in the pre-dawn hours, 2:30am on the dot, which is early even by my standards.

The drudgery of the freeway to the north-west, the escape route from suburbia, soon gave way to the foothills of the Blue Mountains and as we settled into the dawning moments of our sojourn we began to reflect on what it must have been like for the early explorers as they made their way westward, journeying on foot, horseback, and bullock dray.

These days the trek over the mountains is done mostly in the relative comfort of a modern vehicle, although Janet was heard to whisper, under hushed breathe, something about there being little difference between a bullock dray, and “The Landy”.

They say the journey is just as important as the destination, and we enjoyed the drive, passing many small communities we hadn’t seen for some time, arriving at Trilby Station, which is situated on one of Australia’s important river systems, the Darling River, in the early afternoon.

It didn’t take long to set up camp and the boys had the boat into the billabong and were off to explore.

Explore, isn’t that what life is all about, and fair dinkum, how good is the Australian Outback.

See you’se lot later…