Articles » Cameron's Kids Corner » Melbourne to Central Australia
Melbourne to Central Australia
Bye, bye school...we’re off on an adventure.
Mum and dad had arranged a 24 day trip from Melbourne to Central Australia in our Cameron Camper. Nothing was planned, we simply moved forwards each day exploring everything that looked interesting. Our route took us from Melbourne to Adelaide, thru Barossa Valley, Clare Valley, Flinders Ranges, Oodnadatta Track, Coober Pedy, Ayers Rock, Kings Canyon and West McDonnell Ranges before returning via Fleurieu Peninsula.
We stayed in 19 different places, often arriving late afternoon to enjoy the amazing sunsets. Dad took over 1,200 photos. We did so many fun things, here are some of our best memories:
- Playing DS, iPad and UNO in the car
- Eating out at different restaurants like the William Creek Hotel
- Doing long walks like 1) Wilpena Pound – Wangara Lookout Hike and 2) Kings Canyon – Rim Walk
- Climbing Ayers Rock (Uluru), it was really steep
- Staying at caravan parks with jumping pillows, playgrounds and ice cream vans
- Stopping at town signs and taking a funny photo of us all
- Reading the gravestones at the Blinman cemetery about children like us that lived (and died) here a hundred years ago
- Watching a movie each night with mum and dad on a portable DVD
- Watching dolphins and sailing boats on the Adelaide River from the Dolphin Explorer
- Wearing shorts during the day and sleeping fully clothed in two sleeping bags at night because it was so cold
- Taking turns (fighting over) setting up the camper each day
- Cooking toast for breakfast
- Stopping and watching the animals like emus, cows, dingos, lizards, wedge tailed eagles, birds and kangaroos, including some white ones
- Spending a day exploring the Desert Park in Alice Springs, it was amazing to hear about the animals and plants that live in the desert
- Stopping by the Finke River, the oldest river in the world, and exploring the wide variety of 100 million year old rocks in the river bed
- Jumping into the icy water at Ormiston Gorge and swimming across
- Going for a boat ride in Victor Harbor to watch the seals and whales close up, huge fun especially when we went fast into the giant waves
- Walking along the beach near the mouth of the Murray and seeing heaps of large dead fish (carp)
- Walking out a long way into Lake Hart, a salt lake that was full of water. It was great fun until the salt water started making our skin hurt.
- Eating lunch beside Lake Eyre, but dad liked this more than we did
- Finding and climbing into the old rusted cars and taking a photo
- Stopping at the old ruins along the Oodnadatta Track, including the desert artwork
- Jumping in for a swim at Clifton Springs, in our underwear
- Climbing into the old Ghan trains at Marree
- Spending time with mum and dad
And lastly, when we returned to school we did a ‘show and tell’ with our classmates. Dad brought the camper into school and we showed photos on the plasma TV. We setup the camper and showed our school friends how we ate, slept, stored our food and went to the toilet.
“Dad, now that we’ve been to the middle of Australia, when are we going around Australia?”
- Cameron (9) and Jessica (7)
