Fast forward to after Flinders Trip

We said our goodbyes to our My Swag camping buddies at Alpana Station and made our way to Adelaide via a one night stay at Peterborough. In Adelaide, we decided to stay in a cabin at a caravan park close to the airport. I had items packed throughout our camping gear that I had to consolidate into 2 bags before flying to Alice Springs. It was a nice luxury to not have to set up Crusher – especially as it was also very hot. We had pizza for tea and enjoyed a walk along the beach watching the sun set across the ocean.

 

Saturday 3^rd October 2015 - The dreaded day arrived when I had to say goodbye to my beautiful wife. It was so hard because on the one hand I wanted to cherish every last minute with her but I didn’t want to prolong the inevitable.

Also she had a big drive ahead of her, back to Melbourne with an overnight stay somewhere; probably the Grampians. However, it became obvious from the txt’s and pictures that she sent, that she drove all the way to Melbourne in one drive.

At the airport, I really began to question this decision. What sort of relationship does this by choice? Leaves a partner behind for 2 years. But then I remembered our long term goal and that I am paving the way to achieve this. I had taken the first step and I was feeling terrified but also excited.

 

 We said our goodbyes and I watched her walk away until I couldn’t see her anymore. I didn’t know until after that she stayed for longer because she could see me. I boarded the plane in tears but soon the excitement of taking off and my new adventure took over and I was consumed with watching the landscape from the air; excitedly flying over the Flinders Ranges, where had previously spent the last 2 weeks.

It was great to see mum at the airport waiting for me. We shared a taxi to our accommodation – The Ibis Styles Apartments in Alice Springs and decided to dial a pizza and watch the AFL Grand Final.

It was good to just chillax with mum before I left.

 

 

Sunday 4^th October 2015 – Mum and I had a 3 hour breakfast meeting with Jan and Rick, early childhood studies educators from The Batchelor Institute, which specialises in teaching tertiary studies to Indigenous people. Kate, another new team leader, who would be located at Mt Liebig also joined us.

Jan and Rick proved to be a wealth of knowledge and it was great to meet Kate. Later we walked into town with Kate and did some grocery shopping. I spent approximately $300!

 

 Just some of my shopping

 

We shared a taxi back to The Ibis and mum and I had a nana nap before heading over to the in house restaurant for the Sunday Roast.

I treasured these hours with mum as I knew that soon I would say goodbye to another familiar face.

Monday 5^th October 2015

The big day! It took me ages to get to sleep – excitement, anxiety and probably because of the nana nap Id had the day before.

 When I did get to sleep, I slept well.

We had breakfast with Kate, then Kate and I walked over to the office to meet Margaret, our manager and Rennie our coordinator. We met so many people that my head started to spin but eventually our paper work was sorted and 3 hours later we headed back to the Ibis to wait for Rennie to pick us up.

Another coordinator, Helen was going to pick up Kate and take her to Mt Liebig.

The wait for Rennie was the longest wait – I kept needing to go to the toilet – probably anxiety over saying goodbye to mum and leaving civilisation.

Rennie finally arrived and my heart sank. My bag that I had meticulously cleaning in Adelaide was going on the back of the Ute and was going to get dusty all over again. Oh well is said to myself “I was going to live in the outback after all so get over it”. I packed my non-perishable food onto the back of the Ute with my bag, and my cooler bag with my blueys went into the air-conditioned car.

 

 

Saying goodbye to mum was probably as hard as saying goodbye to Linda but I didn’t cry. I wanted to show mum how strong I was.

We called in to Milners Meats and an IGA which is where I would get my meat and groceries from whilst on community. We fuelled up and then Rennie told me that we would be staying in Papunya that night. I quickly txt Linda and mum before we got out of mobile range so they wouldn’t worry that I hadn’t called from Kintore as planned.

We arrived at Papunya between 4 & 5 PM and I was physically and mentally exhausted. Sue at Papunya kindly offered me a bed with a sheet and pillow so I had a tin of baked beans for tea and went to bed. Rennie slept outside on the back of her Ute in her swag.

I had earlier learnt from Jan and Rick that my boxes with my personal possessions would not be arriving in Kintore until the Wednesday so when I did my shopping, I bought a towel to sleep on and use after showering in Papunya and Kintore.

I felt like a displaced person with only my suitcase of clothes and my food to call my own but even then I was so much luckier that I had that as many asylum seekers had NOTHING.

Tuesday 6^th October 2015 –My journey is continuing. We left Papunya at about 8:30 after dropping some supplies of at Sue’s childcare centre. I took photos all the way to Kintore; especially of signs so that I had a reference point when trying to remember where particular photos had been taken.

The landscape and road continuously changed – I wished I could share it all with my beautiful Linda and the rest of my family. Finally we reached the turn off to Kintore and I got my first view of The Kintore Mountain Range – otherwise known as Womens Mountain and Mens Mountain.

My first night in Kintore was interesting but that is for my next chapter.

Kintore – where was Kintore and getting there.

After lots of googling and you tubing, we discovered that Kintore is approximately 530 KM West of Alice Springs, NT and closer to the WA border.

Basically a long way from nowhere.

 

It has a medical clinic, an airstrip, a shop, a police station, a school, preschool, aged care facility and of course childcare.

My accommodation would be furnished with basic items so the question was how to make my new home, my own……personalised……comfortable and above all items to keep me busy in my personal time…….reading material, coloring books, DVD’s and whatever else I could think of.

I knew that I had a relocation allowance so the next question was what to take, given that Kintore was so isolated but with basic facilities.

I didn't know how I was going to shop for supplies at this stage so I wanted to make sure that I had the basics to start with.

I bought 5 large removalist boxes and started to fill them with:
    1. Bedding and towels (and other linen)
    2. Bread maker (can’t buy fresh bread in the outback so why not make my own?) 
    3.Yoghurt maker (difficult to keep yoghurt cold but easy to transport sachets of yoghurt powder culture)
    4. 60 rolls of loo paper (didn’t want to run out)
    5. Numerous Tupperware containers already filled with food that wouldn't go off like rice, pasta, breakfast cereal, coffee, sugar and even meal base mixes.
    6. A variety of kitchen ware items that I might need (sharp knife, chopping board, small frying pan, glad wrap, foil, snap lock bags)

The boxes were packed to the brim, into every nook and cranny with all sorts of essentials, Knick Knacks and treasures and shipped to a trucking company where they would be shipped from Melbourne -  Adelaide – Alice Springs – Kintore.

My mum came to help me pack and was so very helpful with suggestions on items to pack that I hadn’t thought of.

She also took with her a large suitcase of clothes because she was going to meet me in Alice Springs after our Flinders trip and before I headed to Kintore. She would bring the suitcase with her as I didn’t want to cart the clothes all over the Flinders Ranges – we had enough camping gear to worry about.

 

My boxes were on their way a whole month before I was to arrive in Kintore because of the transport company schedule and also because we were leaving for a 2 week camping holiday in the Flinders Ranges immediately prior to me leaving for Kintore.

The weeks leading up to our Flinders Trip were a blur. Preparing for the trip, preparing to move to Kintore as well as a particularly busy time at work prior to the end of term.

The hardest time by far was saying goodbye to people that were dear to me. Many tears were shed. Saying goodbye to my brother and his family was especially hard although his boys who were aged 3 and 5 didn’t really understand.

James aged 3 thought “Aunty Kristin was going to live in Murrindindi” – a 1 hour drive away.

I cried all the way home after seeing my own kids for the last time. They were both so enthusiastic, Kathryn saying how proud she was of me going on this adventure and Mitchell was his usual quiet but proud way.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Finally the day came to leave Melbourne. It was a cold, wet and windy September morning.

We got up at 4 Am as we were to meet camping friends for a fuel up and breakfast on the other side of the city, heading North West for our first night of the trip – Pink Lakes Camping ground located in the Murray Sunset National Park.

Never had I experienced such mixed emotions.

I did a last sweep of the house – particularly my kids bedrooms and my scrap booking room. I couldn’t take my scrap booking gear with me and that set me off into a blubbering mess. I cried as I said goodbye to my cat Rose and soon I locked up the house, hopped into Lizzie and said goodbye to Melbourne for at least 3 months until December At Xmas time when I would probably come home to visit.

Within minutes of being on the road, the excitement of the Flinders Trip and my move to Kintore set in.