The house was in chaos.
"Do you know," Mary stated with an edge of disapproval as Dad clambered past her carrying an esky full of food, "that by travelling around Australia in a clockwise direction, instead of an anti-clockwise direction, the distance you travel will be longer…"
Aunty Lindy, who'd moved quickly out of Dad's way as he had ambled past, returned to the conversation, smiling at Mary.
"Why, sweetie?"
"Because you are travelling on the left hand side of the road. With an average of three metres between the lanes, you increase your radius of distance covered. If, however, you'd travelled in an anti-clockwise direction-"
"-it would have made picking me up from Perth, three times harder," I finished, as I hauled my backpack through the relatives waiting at the front door. "Thank you, Mary, but I have a feeling Uncle Gary had a few more things than nineteen metres to worry about when he decided on the route…"
At last, the departure date was upon me. Aunty Lindy and Uncle Gary had stopped in Perth for a week to pick me up and finally, the day had come to take me away with them. Two weeks of the North-West awaited me, two weeks to be free from an unreliable car, a house full of sisters and most importantly, the cold.
"Bye, fam!" I yelled with a wave as I jumped in the car.
Anna made me get out and give her a hug.
I'd wanted to avoid the rest of the frenzied farewells.
"…Oh, sweetie, will you be alright for two weeks? Let me know if she needs anything, won't you?"
"…It's not fair! I should be going, Lizzie gets everything."
"…Yeah, we should be going."
"…Take some photos of the rocks and mountains for me."
"… You will write, won't you?"
"… You will come back, won't you?"
That last one was Dad.
"Bye!" I waved out the window as Uncle Gary carefully backed his SUV out, caravan towed behind. We were barely two minutes down the road when my phone beeped.
From: AnnaBanana Bennet
Miss you already :(
In short, Geraldton gave us two minutes when it wasn't windy, and that was because the wind was changing directions…
I'm almost positive that if I'd flirted with the conservationist at Monkey Mia, I would have been chosen to feed a dolphin…
…and Carnavon had great bananas, but not a lot else.
Cruising slowly down the limestone road of the Coral Bay Caravan Park, we counted off the numbers in the short electricity stubs.
"Forty-two. Forty-four. Forty six! There we are. Oh, this is a nice spot, isn't it sweetie, so close to the barbeques," rambled my Aunt.
Uncle Gary spun around from the driver's seat and winked at me. "I won't mention that we've got our own barbeque."
I laughed and Aunty Lindy playfully hit him.
"I know that, it will be nice though. We'll meet people as they come to eat," said Aunty Lindy.
"It's time, Lizzie," requested my uncle as I jumped out of the jeep and walked to the back of our camping space.
"Okay, back!" I called, rather unnecessarily.
Granted my permission, Uncle Gary began the complicated process of reversing a caravan into a confined space.
"Yep, just a little... yeah…" my voice had trailed off. Uncle Gary didn't seem to suffer from the usual mental issues associated with 'turn the wheel left - the caravan moves right,' and I had a sneaking suspicion that his ongoing pleas for my directing skills came more from the desire to make me feel useful than any actual need.
"Perfect!" I yelled out when the caravan was squarely within the bounds of our plot, nestled against a scraggly tree and a Hertz Campervan.
Caravan secured and my own tent erected, we came to a consensus of exploring the quaint little town. Of course, the first stop was buying delicious pastries from the local bakery and then collecting tour brochures to be perused.
Finally, we reached the high sandy lookout, and as I watched the hot Australian sun melt into the Indian ocean, I thanked God for the chance to get away.
At Aunty Lindy's request, we ate dinner in the main pavilion – an undercover area with two barbeques and four aluminium table-bench combos. As we sat down to eat, a pretty blonde girl with deep brown eyes boldly interrupted.
"Excuse me," came out a perfectly crisp North American accent, "does anyone know how to make these things work?"
Uncle Gary, to whom the question was mostly directed, gave a great bellowing laugh and slapped her on the back. "No worries, mate, I help ya out."
In her early twenties, this girl was obviously a tourist, as was her travelling companion standing a few feet away, sporting an 'I heart Australia' shirt. Immediately aware that Uncle Gary's over-friendly nature may have, in fact, freaked them out, I was surprised to see relief on the girl's face, instead of abject fear and horror.
"Oh, that's super," she answered him with a perfect smile as he stood up and walked over with her to the barbeque.
"It's real simple, all ya gotta do is push this button here and…"
And in his truly Australian way, he explained to the girls how the barbeques worked.
Uncle Gary was right in his element and, with their cute American accents and perfect teeth, they had him well and truly smitten. While their meat cooked, Aunty Lindy invited them to sit with us and share their tales of adventure.
Sherry and Sharon, two American backpackers, just graduated from college, intent on exploring this far-off exotic land before they return to the States to begin their real life.
"Oh how lovely," gushed my aunty, "I always wanted to do that when I was your age. I did travel around Europe when I was a little bit older, I had finished my nursing internship and…"
My aunty recounted tales of her younger years to Sherry, who, to her credit, actually seemed interested.
Time wore on, delicious food was eaten and sleepiness fell upon us like a soft fleecy blanket. As we said our goodbyes, we walked the four metres to our site. The girls with us and at the last minute, branched off.
"Oh, the Hertz van is yours!" chuckled my Aunty to the girls. "We're neighbours!"
I held back a cheeky grin that I finally had some people my own age to talk with. Two days with my aunty and uncle (bless them), and it suddenly became slightly important to me.
'Night's were called all around and as I curled up into my sleeping bag, anticipating the next three blissful days in Coral Bay, I let everything about Perth slip away.
A/N - Well, here we are, on our way towards Pemb-... well, you know where it all will lead eventually. ;)
Did you catch the 'rocks and mountains' line? I put that in there purely to make me chuckle.
Greetings to my new followers, a wonderful 'hello my friends' to the old ones. [Maybe I need a new term for that... to my loyal, 'with-me-from-the-start' ones.] You are all cherished by me.
Oh, P.S. If you get out a map of Western Australia ("get out"? Who am I kidding, "google images" it my friends!), you can follow Lizzie's journey and see how far they have come from Perth, and how far they still have to go.
(Deep ;D)