Week 31: Sept 11th – Sept 17th, 2023 // I’d say [ironically] luck was on my side
You ever feel like you’re living the song Hotel California? “You can check out anytime you like, but you can never leave.” I’d say that was a pretty accurate representation of how part of this week felt. The whole week has been non-stop “go,” with making sure everything was ready for the big road trip, to saying all my goodbyes, all to have a break-in added into the mix… more about that below.
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Monday involved a lot of running around all morning, from going to the MVR to find out why my driver’s licence never arrived + getting it re-sent to a friend in Brisbane, dropping off stuff back to work, returning things to Alice Silver I worked with for a day, the bank, quick grocery run/last stop at my favourite grocery store in Alice – Afghan Traders, and finally Aus Post to mail off Bill’s missing Larapinta gear + my penpal’s letter. The afternoon wasn’t much slower, but involved some time at the hostel, having a call with Sea Shepherd about some media work, a couple friends from back home + Tassie, and getting last week’s blog post written and uploaded. My brain was pretty exhausted by the end of the day and was pretty thankful I knocked off all the big things.
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With Tuesday being my last day in Alice (or so I thought…) I took the morning easy, did a big grocery run, and then spent part of the afternoon catching up with Jono and Cata at Emily Gap – a really beautiful waterhole just 20min outside of town. Then we met up with Takk, Felipe, Miguel + his partner Patricia for dinner and drinks. Was such a lovely evening spent with everyone and so nice getting to say goodbye to a lot of the people who really made this time in Alice Springs so memorable.
It was as I was leaving the bar when everything took an unexpected turn. Jono, Cata and I were the last to leave, and when I came out I found my passenger window completely smashed in, and my bag with my camera, journal, and e-reader stolen (among a few other things). I was so upset, but surprisingly held it together and handled the whole situation pretty well. Jono and Cata came with me to report it to the police, and at this point I had pretty much accepted everything was gone. I remember asking the cop “what’s the likelihood of finding any of my stuff?” He just looked at me with so much apology in his eyes, and before he could say anything I said “there’s no chance I’m getting it back,” “well I won’t say on chance, let’s stay positive before accepting anything” he said. I don’t think he really believed his own words, but boy was he right.
Once I had gotten back to the hostel, it was about 11pm at this point. I spent the next couple hours just scrolling online when at 1:30am it suddenly dawned on me… I had an apple tag on my camera!!! I managed to get a location for it, last pinged at around 10pm in the Todd River (it’s a dry riverbed, so no worries about water). I was fully expecting the air tag to have been dumped, but with slight hope that maybe some of my other stuff would be left behind with it. I couldn’t go back to sleep knowing the tag was just 2min drive down the road from me… so while maybe it wasn’t the smartest decision in the moment, I decided to go take a quick look. After a lot of wandering around the area where the map showed the pin, and about 10minutes of trying to get the locator sound to go off, it FINALLY connected!! I just remember shining my flashlight in the direction of the sound, and being SHOCKED when I saw the bright orange of my backpack, dangling in a tall bush. Running around to the other side of the fallen trees and bush, I not only discovered my bag, but my journal, my first aid kit dumped, my e-reader and its case separated, my driver’s licence folder, AND MY CAMERA!
Whoever stole it must’ve just been looking for money or drugs and found my bag completely useless to them. I’m still in shock though I was able to find any of my stuff. The only thing that went missing at this point was some art pens I had bought that morning.
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The cops came for a statement so I didn’t end up getting up getting to bed until around 330am. With my window now broken, this meant I was definitely not leaving today like originally planned so… the day was spent making the necessary calls for getting the window fixed, catching up on some sleep, going for a swim in the hostel pool, reading, and working on a poster design for Luminous Studios.
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Thursday morning, I decided to go for a stroll through the riverbed again to see if I could find the art pens – sadly no luck, so I went back to the art store to replace them, then went for another swim at the hostel (Cata joined during her work break). I was supposed to get my window replaced this afternoon as well, but unfortunately the truck coming from Adelaide was running super behind, so I was told to come back first thing the next morning. Was a bit bummed since I was planning to leave by 6am, but overall just super grateful they even had the glass at all. Apparently there’s a shortage in the particular glass I needed around the country, so there was a chance it could’ve taken 1-2 weeks to even get it in.
Rather than feeling defeated, I spent the afternoon reading and drawing by the pool after another quick swim, and making some dinner.
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The moment of truth!! Friday morning window got replaced before 9am, did a quick last minute re-stock on some groceries, and was finally hitting the road by 10:30am! Much later than I’d hoped for, but managed to cover some really good distance today. I drove 718km, passing through Devil’s Marbles, checked out an abandoned UFO themed roadhouse, Tennant Creek – where fires were supposed to be really bad (thankfully it wasn’t crazy, and the roads were open again), and got in a lake swim at Lake Mary Ann (just North of Tennant Creek). Drove a little bit longer into the dark than planned, so just pulled into a rest stop for the night.
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Saturday and Sunday were a lot of the same – drove for 600+ km each day, took moments to rest, listened to many podcasts and a lot of music, and found spots to swim to cool off (Lake Moondarra, outside of Mount Isa; and Lake Belmore Croyden). It’s been incredibly hot the past few days, and sadly I don’t have AC, so the drives have been an experience… thankfully I get a cooler(ish) breeze with the windows down, but it’s definitely hotter than Alice. Being just the extra few hundred km north make such a difference at night. I’ve been having to use of my fan I bought forever ago, and haven’t really been needing my blankets to sleep… definitely glad I made the decision to explore the outback + northern region during the winter and spring months, because no way I’d be able to handle being here in the summer lol.
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It’s been a wild week to say the least!! Definitely not at all how I expected my last week in Alice Springs to go, and while it added quite a number of speedbumps, I’m overall so so thankful it went down the way it did. It’s not ideal at all, and there’s a lot I have to get sorted in regards to insurance, replacing a couple missing things, costs, etc. But has definitely been eye-opening in a lot of ways and have many thoughts I plan to share in a separate post. With a lot of solo time on the road, there’s been a lot of time to reflect, and am looking forward to sharing some of these reflections with you.
Until next week –
Stay passionate and curious.
Hunter💛
