End of the holiday

We are now sitting in the Perth Airport waiting for our connecting flight to Brisbane.  Time to think back on the frantic activity of the last two weeks.

It has been an incredible trip.  Made even more special having Chris and Emily along and having Luke as the leader.  We have been amazed at how hard Luke works, he is up first every morning and doesn’t stop until well after dark.  I’ve never worked that hard in my life!!

Perhaps what makes us even more proud of him is his love and admiration for the Aboriginal people and their stories and traditions; his love and knowledge of the coast and desert of Western Australia and his inclusiveness of the people of all ages and from all walks of life and nationalities who come to love him as their guide.  He makes a huge impression on all those who come in contact with him which is evident when we call into any road house, hotel, hostel or beach people come up to him who have met him in the past and remember him with such affection.  Lots of them are tourist operators or past clients now working along the coast and through the outback.  They all have a deep appreciation of the beauty, danger and uniqueness of the Australian bush.

This trip really made us understand why Luke stays in the west.  It is dry, dusty, hot and cold, but oh so beautiful.  It may take days to get around but the rewards are immense.  The rich waters of the coast to the solitude of the national parks makes this trip quite incredible and the photos we have taken and the few we managed to put on the blog are but a small sample of the highlights along the way.

What we enjoyed too was the company along the way, Pam and I loved going to sleep to the conversation and laughter of all the young and enthusiastic youths swapping stories from their own incredible countries and sharing such goodwill and camaraderie with each other.  It really gives us confidence in the future.   They all contributed to every aspect of the trip and couldn’t wait to lend a helping hand in the cooking, cleaning and hiking departments.  They all included each other in all things and made us feel part of a very special group.

We are so glad we did this trip with Luke.  The roads and walks we did and the people we met along the way would not have been possible in the two weeks.  Our car would have been wrecked on the roads and we wouldn’t have been confident enough to complete some of those very difficult and technical walks through Kalbarri and Karijini National Parks.  Not sure we will be back this way but it has given us a taste to see more of the top end from Broome to Darwin and down to Alice Springs….maybe next year?

Thanks for reading the blog, when we catch up we will bore you to tears with even more stories and photos.

Cheers

Pam and Vernon.