The Day We Drove Through Gunshot Creek

The first thing we noticed when we got to gunshot creek…one of the many challenges of the telegraph track…were the large tree in the middle of the creek which had been turned into a shrine with car parts claimed by the passing. Number plates, signs, alternators, car door frames, you name it were nailed to the tree! The second thing we noticed were the vertical drops...

Mud, Dust & Smoke: What to Expect from the Drive to Cape York

We drove from Laura to bramwell junction, eating a lot of dust over the 140 k that we drove. So much dust that I actually felt physically ill from breathing…a function I normally enjoy being able to perform!! I also felt physically ill as a 4wd at one point came skidding around the corner, powersliding towards our vehicle. Starting to compile some road trip rules....

Kilimanjaro Day 2

The majority of the previous night had been spent continuously waking up after spending the night rolling up and down my tent…upon reflection probably wasn’t the best idea to have set up my sleeping bag horizontally in a tent which was on a slope!

After being served Milo and tea in my tent (almost as good as breakfast in bed!), I stumbled out to breakfast with extremely low expectations of what I was about to consume.

Previous to leaving for Kilimanjaro we had heard horror stories about the breakfast ‘gruel’, so you can imagine the pleasant surprise when our porters walked in bearing platters full of eggs, sausages, tomatoes, cucumber and toast! For some reason I decided the ants would appreciate the first real breakfast I’d had in weeks more than I would so proceeded to drop my food in the dirt…fantastic!…lucky there was gruel available!!…it tasted like an extremely watered down, grainy chocolate porridge with the tang of light and tangy potato chips.

Kilimanjaro Day 1

Ascended 1500 m on day one, or 18km in 4 hours, to reach an altitude of 3,000m. Climbed through rainforest and camped in the desert. Very grateful for climbing boots…should have done more physical fitness training before coming! That being said, made excellent time and even though exhausted was in good spirits at the end of day 1 from a challenging but not unbearable climb.

Have an excellent group of climbing buddies and we’re now all fantastic friends. Glad I don’t have to carry the port-a-loo!