by Daiana Fernandez
How incredible is it to be traveling the next 3 weeks with people you’ve just met? Like one of those reality shows where everyone comes to a place by themselves and then end up meeting a bunch of new cool people. Well in most reality shows the cool people bit doesn’t happen but on a road trip it does 😉
Meet the crew
We are a group of 5. Jordan (28) American traveller, basketball player during high school (although I think he was a model but he didn’t tell us) and our main driver. Olivia (24) an Irish girl who can do long walks barefoot (very Irish). Annabelle (28) a French, paralegal and someone who will make sure you don’t miss out on anything along the way. Julie (31) German, the best cooker, the practical person you will need in a team. And then me, Daiana (29) Argentinean, photographer to be, yogui, a bit of a geek and the one who will document this whole trip for the first 2 weeks.
The beginning
We left Broome on a Saturday morning, our trailer was fully equipped with everything we needed. We only had to bring a sleeping bag. Imagine how fun it is to travel in a van that comes with a drone and a guitar! Yes, I know. FUN.
We spent the first part of the trip talking about ourselves, trying to get to know each other as we go, until we all got a bit caught up on our phones knowing that we might loose signal as soon as we went further. Made sense, some of us were leaving Broome after many months living there, and goodbyes are never easy, no matter how used to it we are.
Our first stop was at a roadhouse on our way to Derby. This was what it might come to your mind when someone says “Western”. Hot, red dirt, cowboy hats and boots. We grabbed a few sticks to make sure we would have everything we needed for the bonfire that night and off we went again.
Before setting everything up we stopped in Derby to get some stuff from Woolies. We only spent 16 dollars each for 5 days of food! However we didn’t include anything that needed to be kept in a fridge just yet.
Houston we had a problem. We broke the trailer’s key by accident and couldn’t get it fixed because we didn’t only break it, we also lost the part afterwards. So wish us luck, because our food won’t be locked, ever. Fortunately, at least we were able to open one of the doors. However, we still can’t access a door at the side of the trailer so I guess we were not meant to have a table for the rest of the trip.
Before heading off to our first free campsite we did a quick stop to walk along the Wharf, you know just to do something while in town. It’s funny how we sat down, not too close not too far… but we were still strangers who got together only a few hours ago to share a bus. As for me, I was feeling a little homesick.
We filled up the water tanks, went straight to set up the tents and got the fire started on the side of Gibb River Road. We did it quickly, (those tents were so easy) and ran to watch that beautiful pink and orange sunset from the road.
Guess what we had as our first meal? Yup, pasta with red sauce and cheese. Very predictable haha. (No worries we got really pro at it, more of that on the next posts). We also had some wine, Olivia played the guitar while I took a few photos. It was such a perfect first night with a vibrant blue sky and the bonfire at its best.
Daiana Fernandez is our storyteller for the Broome – Darwin trip. Check out her blog and awesome photos. Keep watch over the next week or so to find out what else happened on the trip!