Journey To The West

Australia is super duper big lol! When I told my dad we were gonna drive from Darwin to Perth, he freaked out and asked me how far we would drive. “You better don’t know the distance, Pa.” I said. I’m glad he didn’t google it because I know how overthinking my dad is.

And we are all girls and our manager+supervisor were kinda worried they even gave me tips and emphasized to stay connected because the truth is communication coverage in Australia is still lacking in many places especially when you do road trip.

Telstra is the best provider and its signal reaches many places yet no one of us use Telstra lol! But seriously tho, I would say our journey was kinda blessed but maybe having Telstra would be safer because you’ll never know what will come to you. And I’m so happy I’ve got Cia and Rusi in this journey. Cia is a very reliable person, not a typical female driver. She understands automotive and she is a very good driver. Rusi can’t drive but her ability to keep us awake was amazing lol! She had a pile of conversation topics, high level of endurance when it came to the talking and being awake, and voluntary painful strikes she gave to me whenever I felt sleepy while driving XD. Can’t forget how painful it was when she hit my hand.

Ready to know the story? Here we go.

Before we left Darwiin for good, we still managed to take selfie with manager+supervisor and gave them farewell gifts.

We left Darwin around 11.45 and our goal that day was to get to Timber Creek before the sun sets. Cia and I have passed this route before and to be honest, the view in NT is still boring. “Flat” scenery, only bushes everywhere. Another challenge was driving the van itself; because it is slim and tall, it wasn’t stable if we drove more than 120 kmph. When I was driving, I almost sent us to death because suddenly the van lost its balance and I got panicked! I braked to slow it down but I made it worse. Then I learned whenever I lose balance, better just to lower the speed and don’t brake so suddenly. We passed Katherine and had lunch there and OMG it was so hot and humid. I wished Timber Creek wouldn’t be hot but actually it was the worst.

Very hot, no wind, and to make it worse, I had problem with Cia. We couldn’t sleep in the van or we could be suffocated. At about 2 am, we went outside and slept in the kitchen area of the caravan park. There were 2 ceiling fans on and they helped so much. The most important part was Cia and I had to be fit because Day 2 would be a very loooong and tiring day. But it went better tho. No more problem between me and Cia; Rusi and Cia got “enough” sleep, and I somehow felt fit enough to be the next first driver.

Our goal today was to spend sunset time in Broome. Broome is famous of its long white beach and camel ride. So many good sunset pics with camels and we really hoped to see that but it was a veryyyyyy long drive we didn’t know if we could make it. I started driving early, at 4.45 am and it gave Cia enough time to recover her energy.

Eventually, we didn’t make it to Broome. We slept at Willare and it was still about 170 kms away from Broome. Good thing that no one of us was selfish enough; we took this journey easily. No sunset in Broome, no worries.

Changed plan, we tried to make it to Broome before sunrise so we started to drive at 4 am but dafuggg the sun rose at 5 am! xD We had fun on the road instead while waiting for Cia to poop in the bush.

When we arrived at Broome, we had another situation. We were so so so so shocked to hear recent airplane crash happened in Indonesia and it killed our friend’s parents. Lisa. I cried instantly and to be honest I lost myself to enjoy the day so we spent almost an hour at Maccas to sit quietly, surfed the internet and read articles about the crash. Rusi brought us back to the reality, the show must go on, and I’m sure Lisa didn’t want us to mourn too long either. Then we discussed about the trip and continued the day.

The beach was really spectacular! White sandddd, so clean and vast, and the color was so blueeee. The wind was strong and it was really nice to do water sports here.

We continued driving to our next stop: Port Hedland. Believe me, the journey Broome from was the most boring, tiring, and annoying of all. It was hot, bright, no beautiful scenery. Only red dirt, bush, and endless straight road. I was driving and I was really sleepy actually since I swam earlier. We took a rest in Sandfire (the name of the town is as scary as the color of the dirt or sand or whatever) and the rest area got a pretty cute photogenic spots.

We made it to Port Hedland in the evening. Port Hedland is a busy place and so many mining sites and I think I saw a factory here. It even has international airport! And its caravan park was the best because we got signals, they have free laundry+dryer, and the weather was nice.

It was Halloween day and we participated in it thus we put make up on.

We drove to a certain distance with those looks lol. Worst part, I lost to Cia and Rusi and I had to pay the fuel with that look. Just as I entered the store someone near the cashier was shocked, “Whoaa, what’s going on here?” He laughed af xD

And oh, the journey from Port Hedland to our next stop was a bit merry. Usually we drove alone for a certain (far) distance without passing a vehicle from both lanes, like, the road was super quiet. However, we met so many road trains and other vehicles here. Many mining sites spotted too along the way. Hectic.

We spent the night in Karalundi and it was very quiet and actually we were lucky the caretaker of the place was waiting for someone who booked a spot via phone. And luckily we arrived earlier than him so we could still sleep there. Someone named Kayleen accompanied us during dinner time and he was very chatty! We tried anything to try to stop him talking like giving him food, disctracting him, etc but he kept on going T^T. Cia was the only one who listened to him patiently xD.

Just in case somebody is curious about Kayleen, here’s our pic:

Today, surprisingly we made it to Perth xD. At first we were even not sure if we could arrive in Perth on Nov 3rd! The journey from Karalundi to Perth was the best! We passed Meekathara, Cue, Mt. Magnet, New Norcia, Wubin, Bindoon; beautiful small towns. But Lake Austin was one of the attractions we want to visit!

Rusi even wanted to leave Karalundi unshowered because she wanted to swim at beautiful Lake Austin. However,

So the Lake Austin I browsed earlier wasn’t located in WA but in USA xD. Thank God Rusi took a bath in Karalundi or she would be super upset throughout the day lol!

Sad not, the scenery of those towns I mentioned was pretty.

When we got to New Norcia, it was a bit cold that we wanted to make Indomie. Indonesians will understand the relationship between indomie and cold weather :p. Cia was the first one to cook meanwhile Rusi and I wandered around and took pictures. To be honest I like New Norcia, it’s old and beautiful.

But dunno why we felt the horror in New Norcia because it’s too quiet lol!

Cia was the one who panicked the most and insisted to leave ASAP lol. Rusi even chose to eat the indomie in the moving car rather than to spend more time in New Norcia. We guys were really overreacted xD.

Anw, were so spoiled by beautiful scenery of a SUUUUUUPPPPPPPEEEEERRRRR VAAAAAAAASSSTTTTT wheat field from Wubin to Bindoon, it’s like hundreds of kilometers!

So pretty :'(

We finally arrived in Perth at around 7.30 PM. Safe and sound. I came back to Mark and I know Cia and Rusi will enjoy living with Mark too.

All the things happened during the trip; so much laughters, excitement, fatigue, disagreements, so many new things to learn especially in driving, we thank God so much. Thank universe. Now that we’re in Perth, hopefully beautiful things will come to us too.