Country roads take me home to the place where I belong...
So Sarah and I decided to go on a road trip yesterday.
We drove to York, then Beverley, then... Kondinin? Then Brookton, Corrigin, Hyden and finally, Wave Rock and Hippos Yawn. We didn't plan it very well. All we took was coke, money, cameras and CDs. We took my car, and ended up having to re-fuel twice. It took us 4 hours to get there (we left at 12... yeah, we really should have left early in the morning). We stopped at the Corrigin Dog Cemetery and were wowed by how old some of the dogs were. I saw Wave Rock for the first time ever and it was amazing. We climbed to the top and got up-close to some cool lizards... Po-something Minor Minor's, Rock Dragons. Then we walked over a km to Hippo's Yawn, which was awesome and had this tunnel that lead to the top of the rock. Photos are on facebook. We also saw a dead echidna, a headless kangaroo, snakes, hawks and lots of tourists. We were pretty much tourists as well, though. We're gonna go back in a few weeks and camp there for the night. It only took us 3 and a half hours to get home. On the way there we went 10kms below the speed limit because the roads between York and Corrigin are windy as fuck and they scared us, screw going 110kms around those bends! But on the way home we did the speed limit, we'd been out of phone range for hours and my phone had eventually died (I think it's broken) so we knew mum would be calling everyone she knew to send out a search party! We got home at 9pm. So we were gone 9 hours.
The whole way home I had sweaty palms. We were going so fast, burning so much fuel with no petrol stations for ages. And when the sun went down the kangaroos came out, and if we hit one in my car, it'd cost a LOT to fix it. And I hate having to drag them off the road and check for joeys, and just generally killing kangaroos like that. Plus I was scared that Sarah would swerve and we'd end up injured. So I was very anxious. We did almost run right into some loose sheep, almost crashed into a motorbike that was on the wrong side of the road and almost drove straight into a 4WD when WE got confused and drove on the wrong side of the road. Bloody country towns, I used to live in them and they still confuse me! So all in all, despite all that, and finding a monarch butterfly squished in the grill, it was a good road trip. And I recommend Wave Rock to all, it's a beautiful place. And the trail to Hippo's Yawn was majestic, overgrown and very rustic. Lizards and parrots everywhere!
I know that some people consider where I live to be "rural", but I'm nowhere near as close to the country as I want to be. I had so much time to thing on the long drive, and mostly I thought about how much I miss living in the bush. If I don't get into tafe for next year, I think I'll take my uncle up on his offer and go to the station for a while. I miss it all so much, the open air, the skies that go on forever, the peace and quiet, the fresh food, the horses and cattle, the summer storms... Everything. I know that one day I will be living back in the bush, it's in my blood, but I don't want to move out there permanently just yet, but a nice long visit with my nanna and the rest of dad's family might be just what I need in my current state. I've entertained thoughts about running away to the country so many times this week, and in a way, I wish Sarah and I had never come home. It was so good to get away from Perth yesterday, to be so far away from all the parts of my life that I hate, all the things that scare me. It was like going home again- to my real home.
We drove to York, then Beverley, then... Kondinin? Then Brookton, Corrigin, Hyden and finally, Wave Rock and Hippos Yawn. We didn't plan it very well. All we took was coke, money, cameras and CDs. We took my car, and ended up having to re-fuel twice. It took us 4 hours to get there (we left at 12... yeah, we really should have left early in the morning). We stopped at the Corrigin Dog Cemetery and were wowed by how old some of the dogs were. I saw Wave Rock for the first time ever and it was amazing. We climbed to the top and got up-close to some cool lizards... Po-something Minor Minor's, Rock Dragons. Then we walked over a km to Hippo's Yawn, which was awesome and had this tunnel that lead to the top of the rock. Photos are on facebook. We also saw a dead echidna, a headless kangaroo, snakes, hawks and lots of tourists. We were pretty much tourists as well, though. We're gonna go back in a few weeks and camp there for the night. It only took us 3 and a half hours to get home. On the way there we went 10kms below the speed limit because the roads between York and Corrigin are windy as fuck and they scared us, screw going 110kms around those bends! But on the way home we did the speed limit, we'd been out of phone range for hours and my phone had eventually died (I think it's broken) so we knew mum would be calling everyone she knew to send out a search party! We got home at 9pm. So we were gone 9 hours.
The whole way home I had sweaty palms. We were going so fast, burning so much fuel with no petrol stations for ages. And when the sun went down the kangaroos came out, and if we hit one in my car, it'd cost a LOT to fix it. And I hate having to drag them off the road and check for joeys, and just generally killing kangaroos like that. Plus I was scared that Sarah would swerve and we'd end up injured. So I was very anxious. We did almost run right into some loose sheep, almost crashed into a motorbike that was on the wrong side of the road and almost drove straight into a 4WD when WE got confused and drove on the wrong side of the road. Bloody country towns, I used to live in them and they still confuse me! So all in all, despite all that, and finding a monarch butterfly squished in the grill, it was a good road trip. And I recommend Wave Rock to all, it's a beautiful place. And the trail to Hippo's Yawn was majestic, overgrown and very rustic. Lizards and parrots everywhere!
I know that some people consider where I live to be "rural", but I'm nowhere near as close to the country as I want to be. I had so much time to thing on the long drive, and mostly I thought about how much I miss living in the bush. If I don't get into tafe for next year, I think I'll take my uncle up on his offer and go to the station for a while. I miss it all so much, the open air, the skies that go on forever, the peace and quiet, the fresh food, the horses and cattle, the summer storms... Everything. I know that one day I will be living back in the bush, it's in my blood, but I don't want to move out there permanently just yet, but a nice long visit with my nanna and the rest of dad's family might be just what I need in my current state. I've entertained thoughts about running away to the country so many times this week, and in a way, I wish Sarah and I had never come home. It was so good to get away from Perth yesterday, to be so far away from all the parts of my life that I hate, all the things that scare me. It was like going home again- to my real home.