Walkabout

Novel by James Vance Marshall, first published 1959. Read it, it's good. Tells of a young English boy and girl lost in the Australian outback, having to cope on their own. Then they encounter someone on their very own 'Walkabout' and...

But not just a novel...



Great coastline north of Perth: Kalbarri - gorges, alleys, rugged cliffs etc. A Jollagist's dream, ey Fordy!




Happy to be let out on good behaviour.




Called a pink lake, it truly was pink, despite our doubts. Salt and some bacteria or algae or whatever doing the biz. Nice work.




Phileas had never done a cartwheel on a beach entirely made up of tiny shells before so decided to give it a go.




They just keep coming.




Blowholes near Carnarvon. A beautiful place to set up a camping chair, watch the explosive power of the sea and try and eat 3 melted lollies.




A typical 24-hour rest area in the outback with a typical long drop toilet.




Karijini National Park in the North West of Western Australia. A very hot place at this time of year (we saw some mad dog dingoes and we were the Englishmen!) but a wonderful place to experience outback paradise: gorges, year round rivers, tracks and some of the best refreshing swimming pools God has ever invented.




A free swim before breakfast with the pool all to ourselves.




Night-time was hot. The lingering heat made sleeping difficult until we discovered kipping under a wet towel - hugging bottles of ice felt nice, but didn't have any lasting effect! Anyway, there were a million things that made up for a restless night.




And meeting lovely people - the Palmers, off on one of their very own, and seemingly regular, Walkabouts. With their French-based living, lengthy foreign journeys and intelligent, mature children they are certainly an inspiration for the intermittent traveller.