Fellow Travelers

We have been lucky to cross paths with some great people, doing what we are doing; spending time in a town for two or three nights, seeing the sights and spending money to boost the local economy. That’s it in a nutshell, but John and I know some fellow travelers will be friends long after our travelling is over.

On our last big trip, we met Lyn and Peter from Melbourne. We have kept in touch through email and phone since. They have come through Sydney and we had them around for dinner. We haven’t met up since that last time, however we know we will see them when we decide to go to Victoria.

John and Trish are from Melbourne as well, we met them on this trip. Firstly, in Winton on a bus tour to Lark Quarry. Then we seemed to run into them every few days for a week or two. We exchanged phone numbers and I have a new friend in John on facebook.

Yvonne and Alan were next to us at Bailey Bar CP at Charleville. We followed one another to a couple of towns or sent text messages to say where we were. They live in Noosa, Qld. They were travelling with friends, now Yvonne and Alan are heading east back to the Queensland coast, while the others are probably a week or so behind us. Yvonne and Alan drove us around in Mt Isa when we had to leave the truck for a few hours at the auto electrician. We really appreciated it.

In Broome a woman was travelling with her four year old granddaughter. She was from the Penrith area of NSW, an hour from us. Leonie was 63, working full time as a nurse and had sole care of the little girl. They were travelling for four months in outback areas of Australia to give the little girl some idea of her aboriginal heritage. The mother is part aboriginal.

We met Pam, a lady the same age as me, just a few days ago at Nanutarra Roadhouse. She was driving a small car and towing a cub trailer, which she had to set up every camp. She was on her own, a friendly widow, it wasn’t her first trip either. She lived in Kilmore Victoria, the areas all around her had those devastating bush fires a couple of years ago. She said she still gets emotional when she speaks about that dreadful time.

These are just a few of the hundreds of fellow travelers on the road.