Becky Wilde's Blog

Becky Wilde

 

Stumbling Across Australia Becky Wilde’s – Stumbling Across Australia –Northern Territory – Wild Kakadu Experience

Hi Guys,

I’m glad you can join us in our adventure. If you read last week’s instalment, you would know that we are leaving Darwin. With a lot of expectation and excitement leading up to finally reaching a destination high on our travel itinerary, Darwin unfortunately left us a little flat.

Truth be told, it wasn’t Darwin, but our experiences there that just made it a little difficult. Feeling a little bit sad to be leaving on a sour note, but we will just have to come back and do it again. Next time we hope for some better experiences. I am really not a city person, so getting excited about a city isn’t me.

Now it’s time to go and I can’t wait to move on to our next adventure.

Kakadu National Park.

We still haven’t resolved our fuel/car issues prior to leaving Darwin. With hope that it would resolve itself with fresh fuel and a bit of luck… It was not to be. Driving South to the turn off to Kakadu, the car began to splutter and lost power. This is the first time it has done so with the caravan attached. Not good.

We pulled over in the Humpty Doo Pub for a non-alcoholic drink to let the car cool off and have a rethink about our plans. We had planned to not make the day too long and do a stopover in the Mary River National Park. It was around halfway to the epicentre of Kakadu, Jabiru. Nevertheless, we first must resolve our car troubles.

Leaving the Humpty Doo pub, the car wasn’t any better. Being a Saturday afternoon, there weren’t any options to get it checked by another mechanic as they were all closed. Really at a loss now. Hubby then had an epiphany. Had the fuel filter been changed when serviced? If not, could that be the cause of the issue?

Only one way to find out. Thankfully, my man he had the presence of mind to stock all filters for the car in a box in the back. Going remote, he wasn’t leaving it to chance that everything was going to be available if the shit hit the fan.

Again, we returned to Humpty Doo, this time to find a spot where we could park up and do some work to the car. It turned out we stopped beside the Fire and Police Station, on a vacant lot. Hubby worked on the car, removing the filter while I ever so helpfully sat under the awning of the car, and watched. The reality is, what was I going to do to help? I was struggling with the heat and obviously the car air conditioner couldn’t be on.

A couple of fire fighters came out to check something, upon seeing us, came over and asked if there was anything they could do to help. Such nice guys. Not long after that, they were called out to assist in a grass fire nearby.

Hubby changed the filter and sure enough there was traces of muck clogging it. We don’t know if it was replaced when serviced, removed and returned, or not checked at all. Luckily, it didn’t matter. This $25 filter gave us a week of heartache and stress. We returned to an outer suburb of Darwin and picked up a couple of spare fuel filters, just in case. Back on the road and the car felt like her old self once more.

What a relief.

On to Mary River.

We had picked a large free camp on the banks of the Mary River. Definitely no swimming here. Too many saltwater crocodiles. It took a while to get to camp, and once we were there, we were both relieved the car was behaving. We made our destination and could just let go of the week of worry.

A couple of nights to chill and onward to Jabiru to explore Kakadu.

 The park has such a national and international reputation and awe-inspiring heritage, we were very eager. The road through to Jabiru was all bitumen which was nice for the drive, out but not the rugged experience I was expecting. We set up camp with plans to visit a couple of special places the next day.

 Unfortunately, we managed to do our Kakadu visit at the wrong time of the year. It was nearing the end of the dry season, and on top of that, the tropical heat had begun to set in about a month early. This meant that a lot of the walks were going to be out of my ability due to my lower tolerance of the heat. That said, we visited some of the best parts of Kakadu.

Day 1 we visited the amazing rock formation and gallery of the ancient people’s rock art at Ubirr. After which we saw the insane antics of the scary ‘salties’, saltwater crocodiles at Cahill Crossing right on high tide. Some of the footage on social media about this crossing is insane.

The crocs were in a feeding frenzy waiting for the Barramundi to come upstream across the flooded causeway. The way they would just position themselves across the river causeway with their mouths open and wait for the fish to swim almost into their mouths as they attempted to catch them was an awesome sight.

Day 2 was a somewhat more serene experience with a Yellow Waters River cruise to view the receding waters and experience the beauty of the flora and fauna of the river and surrounding marsh and flood plains. We even found a bull water buffalo on the banks of the river and a couple of rather large crocs. A pair of roosting White Breasted Sea Eagles were astoundingly large birds of prey searching for their next meal from atop treetops. I really didn’t expect to see such huge birds.

Leaving the tour, hubby decided he wanted to take in the view of Mirray Lookout. Needless to say, that was not for me. Apparently, it was about 1 km to the top and was a very steep climb. It was also 35+ Degrees and in the middle of the day in peak heat. Definitely not my cup of tea.

There were 2 other experiences hubby was keen on checking out, but didn’t do.

Jim Jim Falls, apparently a spectacular rock wall with an amazing waterfall when the water flows. Unfortunately, it was dry and taking about 2 hours for 4wd drive vehicles only, followed by an approximately 2 hour climb over exposed rocks. Not an easy walking track and the heat was going to about 37decgrees Celsius. Not my idea of enjoyment.Gunlom Falls which we were planning to explore was unfortunately closed due to park maintenance.

We are eventually planning to go back at the start of the season to see more of this wondrous land when the heat isn’t so intensive.  

Next week we will be on the road to W.A.

That’s it for this email.

We will pick up next week with more of our adventure Stumbling Across Australia.

Stay Safe, Sane, Happy and Healthy.

Love Becky Wilde, XXOO

Pre-order SpecialsB.A.D Security – Unraveling Rivalry

My latest release, and first book in the new series B.A.D. Security. Be sure to check it out on WWP Website or search for it on Amazon, Kobo, Barnes & Noble or Google Play Store. (Links on the Whimsical Words Publishing Website)

Bratva Connection: Maxim

This is the first book I released after returning as Becky Wilde. Check it out, there is a prologue read on the page.

Love Becky Wilde

Becky Wilde

 

Stumbling Across Australia Becky Wilde’s – Stumbling Across Australia – Drama in Darwin

Hi guys, and welcome back to Stumbling Across Australia.

As I left you last week, we needed a couple of nights to camp up before heading to Darwin. We stayed at a great little free camp, Robin Falls. We needed this because we had a couple of time sensitive issues to rectify, and while travelling, with no fixed address, it takes a little planning and scheduling to get things sorted out. As we were packing up, hubby dropped the glass portable solar panels we use to keep the caravan batteries up and smashed one of the panels. This was not good, we needed that to stay on top of our power needs.

The car was due for a service when we got to Alice Springs. About a week before we were to be in Alice. Hubby contacted a couple of mechanical workshops to book it in but was told they were booked out over 3 weeks. Never having been a fan of Alice Springs, we weren’t about to stay there for 2 weeks waiting to get the car serviced.

Having decided that Darwin was the next destination even though that was another 2000km up the road. We estimated we would probably land in Darwin in 3 weeks, called a workshop and they were able to book us in.

Now we needed to ensure that we could find a caravan park where we could hole up nearby, and book that. Because we were getting to the back end of the tourist season, finding accommodation wasn’t nearly as difficult as expected. Figuring that there could always be delays and “extras” in the service, we booked for a week.

Because we were staying put for a little bit of time, we ordered a couple of hats to be delivered to the caravan park. Gotta stay protected. We also had an issue with one of the indicators on the caravan a week or so prior, so the order for that was also made to be delivered to the park

The car service was on a Wednesday, and we arrived at the park the Monday before. Tuesday, we decided to go and have a look at Darwin. Because we were about 20 minutes out of town, we tried to make a bit of a day of it.

Having never been to Darwin, we really didn’t know what to expect, except that it could get hot and steamy this time of year. I really don’t do well with a humid heat. That is why we booked a caravan park in the first place, so we could put the air conditioner on if needed. We needed it.

The Parking Drama

The streets were wide, and the general feel of Darwin town was relaxed and open. That’s where our first bad turn happened. Finding a car park in town, the metered parking was paid on an app. That would normally not be a problem; however, Hubby searched for the app and downloaded the first iteration of it only to find that it was a scam site masquerading as the parking app. They had our credit card now!!!

Cancel the cards. Being annoyed that he fell for this, the day just wasn’t getting any better. Waking out onto a pier, we came across a café, it was a suitable time to eat and settle our nerves. Hubby went up to order some food only to be told they would not cater to my requirements. Since I have a bad reaction to Garlic and Onions, I needed to be certain they wouldn’t contaminate my food. This was apparently too hard.

Thankfully, we found a pub that would help us out and we had a nice meal, but what an ordeal. To be fair, it is the number one reason we don’t go out to eat very much. Many eateries pre-prepare most of their food and don’t want to make something outside of their menu. Now royally pissed off, neither of us were in a mood to enjoy our day in Darwin. Back to the caravan to lick our wounds.

The car went in for a service and all appeared good. The car has always been such a dependable beast, and we look after her to ensure that is how it stays.

We were getting to the end of the week and still no Hats, or replacement indicator for the van, and of course there no deliveries on a weekend. Something we hadn’t factored in was the distance to Darwin from everywhere else.

Darwin to Melbourne – 3794km

Darwin to Brisbane – 3420km

Darwin to Sydney – 3987km

Darwin to Adelaide – 3065km

Australia’s postal service is renowned for being a little slow. I would never have anticipated that most deliveries to the top end would take between 8 and 12 business days. There really wasn’t any option. We needed to stay longer, nearly another week. We’d leave the following Saturday.

The Lichfield National Park Drama

Staying longer gave us time for a day trip to the Lichfield National Park instead of moving and finding another camp. It was only an hour away from where we were staying. After the cars service, our first day out was a disaster. Halfway to Lichfield, the car was starved of power. This was something we had never experienced before.

Uncertain what the cause was, since the only change to the care was the service. Suspecting the issue was caused by something that happened at the mechanics, we headed back to get them look at it. Reluctantly, they did, and hubby convinced them to check the computer codes. There were no new faults, but old faults were still present. After clearing all faults, hopefully, we would see a reason for the anomaly of losing power if it happened again. The workshop was pretty adamant that it could have been bad diesel. A splash of diesel cleaner into the fuel tank and hope for the best.

A second attempt to visit Lichfield.

Nearly exactly the same place as yesterday’s lack of power, there was a noise from the roof of the car. We both looked in the rearview mirrors, to find the solar panel screwed to the roof had let go and smashed onto the road behind us. Pulled over and sure enough the wires were there and the brackets that held the panel in place were there, but no panel. Not much we could do since it was too late.

Onward to Lichfield. Or so we thought.

The lack of power returned. It was a problem, but now that we knew it was probably fuel related, we just needed to run it all out and the only way to do that is to drive. Though the workshop suggested dropping the fuel tank for another $1200-$1500.

Not being deterred by the issues of the car, we soldiered on to visit the impressive termite mounds, and some extremely beautiful waterfalls and swimming spots within Litchfield National Park. Our last swim for the day was in Wangi Falls. A totally epic spot to for a refreshing dip. We both made it across to the falls. The great day was enough to create some positives out of a stressful time.

Market Day Drama

Darwin is renowned for their Dry Season Markets held each week. The morning Nightcliff Markets, held on a Sunday is touted as a cultural melting pot with a collection of street food vendors with flavours from around Asia. At night the Mindle Beach Markets holds its own charm with another more creative selection of foods from around the world. The top end of Australia truly is a melting pot of cultures from around the globe with many seeking their fortune in the rich fishing, pearl, or resources industries.

As I had discussed, pre-prepared food is always an issue for me. Street vendor food is more of a problem, since there is no way of knowing what has gone into it. So many will use onion and or garlic in their dishes. I used to also until I worked out that it was the cause of me not feeling well nearly constantly.

It was nearly lunch and the tummy was rumbling. Trying to play it safe, we both had a bacon and egg muffin with a drink from a cafe. That sounded safe. Right?

Well, the ingredients weren’t the problem, but possibly the state of them was. We both got food poisoning. I had a bad gut ache for three days, while hubby lasted 2 hours before running to the toilet and expelling everything from both ends at the same time violently. He was pretty good after that. Sucks that it took me three days to get over the illness…

The Mindle Beach Markets are held twice a week. Due to our extended stay, we were able to go there on Thursday night. This was an event well worth the trip into Darwin. The sights, sounds and smells were fantastic. I was even able to eat something that didn’t upset me. Yay.

Whip cracking show, fire juggling show, loads of different food stalls as well as the usual crafty stuff you find at normal markets. The real show stopper was the sunset from the beach.

The whole feel of the market was relaxed, gentle and family friendly. As the sun reached its last couple of minutes, many would bring out their take away containers of food and sit on the beach. Where there were once a couple of dozen, turned quickly into hundreds of people. Watching, waiting and enjoying the changing of the colours in the sky as the massive ball of gas and fire slowly sank into the water on the horizon. And once completely gone, a surprising and rousing applause sounded across the beach in appreciation of another day’s work done. The colours of the sky then continued to increase their vibrance in hues of orange to red before giving way to the night sky.

The hats and indicator turned up early the second week and they were put to good use. The replacement credit card didn’t make it before we were ready to go.

Next week we venture out of Darwin, and to be honest, I’m not sorry to leave.

We are heading for Kakadu National Park.

That’s it for this email. It turned into quite a long one. We will pick up next week with more of our adventure Stumbling Across Australia.

Stay Safe, Sane, Happy and Healthy.

Love Becky Wilde, XXOO

Pre-order SpecialsB.A.D Security – Unraveling Rivalry

My latest release, and first book in the new series B.A.D. Security. Be sure to check it out on WWP Website or search for it on Amazon, Kobo, Barnes & Noble or Google Play Store. (Links on the Whimsical Words Publishing Website)

Bratva Connection: Maxim

This is the first book I released after returning as Becky Wilde. Check it out, there is a prologue read on the page.

Love Becky Wilde

Becky Wilde

 

Stumbling Across Australia Becky Wilde’s – Stumbling Across Australia – Week 2 – Meteors…

Hi gentle reader,

As we Stumble Across Australia, I would like you to know we only really have a couple of goals that are keeping us in the direction we are taking. Darwin Northern Territory, and Western Australia’s Coastline. Therefore we are heading North and then West. It’s important to know the direction in which you want to go…

A recap of my last email. We left Victoria, travelled to Rob’s parent’s house in South Australia, and headed North. There are many ways to travel North, but recent bad weather has meant many real options were closed as were the roads. Through the centre was the only option to Darwin. I left you at a roadside stop north of Port Augusta. 1000km from our starting point, Geelong.

In the morning, we travelled North on the Stuart Highway towards Alice Springs. Not wanting to either rush the trip or drive too long in any one day, we did another roadside stop after about 500km. just a one nightery, to break up the drive. The following day moving on to do another 500km to finally cross into the Northern Territory before stopping in the national park for a couple of nights.

We stopped at Henbury Meteorites Conservation Reserve. Hard to imagine the impact of this crater, looking at the size of the hole and the blast of the impact was eye opening. A rest day was in order. Upon leaving I needed to check the lights for the caravan before heading off, you know, just a once over before we hit the road. Well, we had an indicator not working. It’s not like you can just go to the local hardware store to buy them anyway, but we are on the road and the nearest dealer is in either Sydney or Melbourne.

Having already visited Alice Springs before, and not liking our experience, we only stopped in for a grocery top up before continuing to Ti-Tree.

On the way we stopped at a little town where some artists had created a couple of magnificent sculptures of Aboriginal man and a woman with a child. The Aileron – Woman and Child and Man sculptures were impossibly large. Fantastic work to create these sculptures.

Ti-Tree showed promise as a cheap stop over, however, the look of the shanty town on the edge of town made us less comfortable to stay there, electing to stay at the Roadhouse Caravan Park. Nothing special, just safe and off the road.

Anyway, that’s my lot for this email. We will pick up next week with more of our adventure Stumbling Across Australia.

Stay Safe, Sane, Happy and Healthy.

Love,

Becky Wilde, XXOO

Pre-order Specials

Just a reminder to pick up a copy of my new release, B.A.D. Security – Unravelling Rivalry

Released on Saturday September 7, and discounted until September 23 to only $0.99 USD on all platforms.

Promotion

Also available for the release promotion is my first book, Bratva Connection: Maxim, for only $0.99 USD.

If you haven’t yet, check out these books at this discounted price.

Love Becky Wilde

Becky Wilde

 

Stumbling Across Australia Becky Wilde’s – Stumbling Across Australia

Hi Guys, welcome to our travel edition

“Stumbling Across Australia”.

This edition will encompass the first couple of weeks of our leaving home in Geelong Victoria. To be honest, this was neither exciting nor extraordinary.

Just before leaving our house, we had our travelling home checked for weight, to ensure it fit in as a legal travelling setup. As it turned out, despite all our calculations and preparatory vehicle upgrades, we were still overweight. Not a lot, thank goodness, but enough for us to take some steps to Improve our setup.

Hubby took some drastic steps to improve our situation. He removed the weighty drawer setup from the rear of the tub (bed) of the Ute and removed the rear seats. We were around 80kg overweight overall, but 150kg overweight over the rear axle of the Ute. Some redistribution of weight was in order and the removal of the drawer system and rear seats allowed for both the reduction of the weight and redistribution of it also to meet compliance. Phew!!

Most of this was done in the 2 days after leaving the house, and my lovely sister put us up for a couple of days while the alterations were done and to do a final catch up.

After leaving her house we set a path north heading for hubbies’ parents’ house, on the Murray River in South Australia. Just to remind you, this is early August in southern Australia… Winter is hitting hard at this time of year. It wasn’t the first time we had camped in winter, but this was cold.

We camped at a familiar campsite for us, a small-town Lions Club run campground in Brim, Victoria.

Good thing we had a diesel heater in the caravan. That thing was cranked all night long. That allowed us to sleep snugly, but getting up in the morning was interesting. Our kitchen is outside, and that morning coffee meant getting out and making it! I think we had a low of around 2 degrees C.

The next couple of nights were at Rob’s mums house, and the weather continues to improve as we go further north, leaving Victoria.

Leaving Hubbies parents meant we were finally on our way and on our own. We did a long drive targeting to get beyond Port Augusta, into a roadside rest area for the night. Now these roadside rest stops are often frequented by trucks, and this one was no different. One had pulled up not long after us around dusk. By morning we got up to find three more of these large 3 x 40ft trailer road trains parked near us.

It was still cold enough to use the diesel heater and get up with a jacket, but as we were entering the interior of the continent, the skies were more blue, and looked like it would improve as we entered the Outback.

This week we will leave you here and pick up next week with more of our adventure Stumbling Across Australia.

Stay Safe, Sane, Happy and Healthy.

Love,

Becky Wilde, XXOO

Pre-order Specials

Just a reminder to pick up a copy of my new release, B.A.D. Security – Unravelling Rivalry

Released on Saturday September 7, and discounted until September 23 to only $0.99 USD on all platforms.

Promotion

Also available for the release promotion is my first book, Bratva Connection: Maxim, for only $0.99 USD.

If you haven’t yet, check out these books at this discounted price.

Love Becky Wilde

Read the First Chapter Here.

Buy at Whimsical Words Publishing.

Buy on Amazon

Buy On Kobo

Buy on Barnes & Noble

Black Ops – Shadow Hunters: Remington – Book 2

Remington never expected to encounter a woman running from the evil tall grey aliens out in the middle of Outback South Australia, but he was glad he was there to help her since she’d been running from one of those evil creatures.

After killing the alien and making sure the rest of his team were safe, he introduced himself and she did the same. Elora Finch, the owner of the Finch Homestead was gorgeous and his visceral reaction to her, took his breath away.

Black Ops – Shadow Hunters: Remington – Blurb

Elora Finch didn’t believe aliens existed until one appeared on her farm and started chasing her.

She’s saved by a soldier and his team who were fighting more of the creatures, but when she finds out that she has a target on her back and alien DNA in her body, she isn’t sure what to believe.

Remington Hadler is entranced by the independent, hard-working, Elora and he knows she’s the one woman who is right for him but convincing her he’s the man for her isn’t going to be easy.

Elora realises soon enough that everything she’s been told is true, and when more of the grey’s turn up, she stands with Remington and his team and fights.

When she finally stops fighting their attraction, Remington is on top of the world but he’s worried about what will happen to them when he has to go back to base.

He isn’t’ sure a long distance relationship will last no matter how much he wants it to.

But he doesn’t want to lose her either.

More to come with other books in this series.

Black Ops – Shadow Hunters: Remington

 

Read the First Chapter Here.

Buy at Whimsical Words Publishing.

Buy on Amazon

Buy On Kobo

Buy on Barnes & Noble

Black Ops – Shadow Hunters: Ryan – Book 1

Ally Carpenter, pub owner in Outback, Northern Territory, Australia has a close encounter of the extraterrestrial kind. Two aliens land near her pub and use their powers to control her mind and body. However, Ally is determined and strong. After the beings tell her telepathically they are going to kidnap her and cut her open she manages to fight break free of their mind control. She shoots the huge grey beasts.

Ally figures out pretty quickly that though the aliens can be hurt, however gunshot wounds don’t kill them since the beasts seem to have regenerative healing abilities.

Just as she thinks the ETs are going to win and abduct her, a group of military men dressed from head to toe in black arrive with their technologically advanced looking weapons.

One of the men shoots the head off one of the aliens, but the other humanoid escapes.

Commander Ryan Archer introduces himself, orders her to stay inside with one of his men to keep her safe, then he and the rest of his team go outside to fight the remaining alien.

Minutes later, Ally is once more scared for her life.

Black Ops – Shadow Hunters: Ryan –Blurb

Ally Carpenter finds out aliens are real when a UFO lands near her isolated Outback pub.

She defends herself with her rifle shooting at the very tall, grey beasts and just when she thinks she’s going to die, the cavalry arrives.

Commander Ryan Archer, the leader of the Black Ops Shadow Hunters team, is in awe of Ally’s beauty and fierceness, but when one of the aliens teleports her onto a spacecraft, he isn’t sure he’ll ever see her again.

Ally fights for her life and is determined to win this battle and Ryan is just as resolute that he and his team will save her, and they do.

When Ryan asks her on a date she accepts.

Things heat up between Ryan and Ally as well as the extraterrestrials. More aliens show up and Ryan can’t help but think they’ve targeted Ally.

After discovering a letter from her mother confirming that Ally is a unique human being, she isn’t sure what to do.

But when Ryan’s and his teammates lives are in jeopardy Ally knows it’s time to believe in herself and try to save them.

More to come with other books in this series.

Black Ops – Shadow Hunters: Remington

 

Read the First Chapter Here.

Buy at Whimsical Words Publishing.

Buy on Amazon

Buy On Kobo

Buy on Barnes & Noble

Bratva Connection: Valentin – Book 3Blurb

Mia Whitlock, an investigative journalist, trying to get the dirt on the bad guys, puts herself in danger after sneaking into the back of a nightclub owned by the Italian Mafia.

Matteo Marello, the top enforcer is bad news and Mia, unfortunately, has captured his attention.

When Valentin Sokolov realises she’s in danger, he pulls her into his arms and kisses her. Intrigued and attracted to the mystery woman, he does everything he can to find out who she is and when he does, he inveigles himself into her life.

Val is extremely attracted to Mia and knows she is perfect for him but convincing her to be his woman isn’t going to be easy.

Mia is independent and not used to asking for help but when Val saves her life, she realises that he’s a good guy and that she’s falling for him.

Mia ends up in a relationship with Valentin but when she ends up in peril, she isn’t sure she’ll ever see him again.

 

Don’t forget to check out the other Bratva Connection Books.

Bratva Connection: Boris – Book 2

Bratva Connection: Maxim – Book 1

Read the First Chapter Here.

Buy at Whimsical Words Publishing.

Buy on Amazon

Buy On Kobo

Buy on Barnes & Noble

Bratva Connection: Boris – Book 2Blurb

Sabine Baker saw something she shouldn’t have seen and now she’s being blackmailed by a corrupt policeman.

Boris Romanov is intrigued when he hears a husky, feminine voice but when he sees the woman being handed a thick envelope by the owner of a restaurant in Chinatown, Melbourne, he’s intrigued.

Boris follows the beautiful woman and when he sees her hand the envelopes to a police officer, he’s angry.

A spur of the moment decision and with the help of a friend, Boris kidnaps her, takes her to another friend’s home and locks her up in the basement.

Sabine is at first resistant to explain, but then she tells Boris and his friends everything. He vows to help her and the wheels are set in motion to set up the dirty cop.

However, things don’t go according to plan and Sabine is kidnapped for a second time but this time she’s not sure she’ll survive.

 

 

Be sure to continue the adventure with this series.

Bratva Connection: Maxim – Book 1

Bratva Connection: Valentin – Book 3

Wilde Rambling… August 2023

Hi all,

It’s been a while since I wrote a newsletter because my hubby and I took a 3-week holiday.

We left in mid-August and had plans to explore the Eyre Peninsula in South Australia. We actually spent two nights camping by the sea and though it was cold overnight and cool throughout the day, the weather was nice.

However, that soon changed, so we packed up and headed north. We ended up staying three nights on a working stock station in the Flinders Rangers called Willow Springs Homestead. Though it rained on and off for the duration we were still able to explore the Ikara-Flinders Ranges National Park, Brachina Gorge and as much of the area as we could.  We had a great time.

Next, we headed further north, still in the Flinders Rangers but in the Gammon-Flinders Ranges and ended up in Arkaroola. We stayed three nights and went four-wheel driving which was a bit harrowing since I haven’t done much of that and we were on the side of a cliff rock hopping. Needless to say, I needed a glass of wine to settle my nerves when we got back to camp.

Because we’re much further north than we’d first intended to travel and after looking at the maps and seeing exactly where we were, we realised were so close to the infamous and formidable Birdsville Track, we decided to head to Birdsville into Queensland. To make this trip I insisted we get another Jerry Can of Diesel. The track is 520 km (323 miles) and we were not sure if there was any fuel available on the track.

The only real respite on the track for travellers was a pub about 300km from Birdsville, other than that, there were only a few massive working cattle stations that covered the distance. We stopped for the night and had a great meal and a couple of drinks at the pub before heading off to Birdsville, Queensland, the next day.

We stayed one night in Birdsville and began to trek south again. We ended up in Innamincka, South Australia for 2 nights, where the Burke and Wills tree is and then we headed to Tibooburra, New South Wales where Burke’s grave is.

Robert O’Hara Burke and William John Wills were British explorers who led an expedition from Melbourne to the Cape of Carpentaria, to be the first to cross Australia in 1860. They perished on their return journey in 1861. Read More Here

We spent two nights in Tibooburra and visited Cameron Corner for lunch. Cameron Corner is the point where Queensland, New South Wales and South Australia all meet. There is a pub there and not much else. Of course, a pillar with a brass plaque on the top indicates where each state is. We walked three states in less than a minute. Lol.

We had a great time, and we were lucky enough to be able to get away, I just feel that the return trip was a bit rushed and we were both tired by the time we got home last weekend.

Nevertheless, we had a ball, and the break was very much needed.

We had some laughs and some trials.

We woke up to no power one morning and it took my man a few hours to figure out it was because of a wrong setting.

We encountered lots of wild emus, yellow-footed rock wallabies, kangaroos, and wallabies in our travels.

It pays to remain vigilant whilst driving because the cattle stations or farms in the outback are so huge, that fencing in stock is almost impossible. We had to watch out for native wildlife on the road as well as cows, goats, and sheep.

Because the weather was warm the further north we drove, we also had to watch out for bearded dragon lizards sunning themselves on the roads. We even spotted a couple of snakes on the side of the road, and I have to say I was very glad to be safe in the car. Especially since I think one of them was an inland taipan, which is one of the deadliest snakes in the world. The other, I think was a brown snake and you don’t want to get close to one of those either.

I saw an emu standing on the verge of the road which looked as if it was about ready to run in front of us. I couldn’t get the words out. My husband calls emus “bush chickens”. I was trying to tell him to brake so we didn’t hit it, but all that came out of my mouth was bah, bah, bah, chicken.

We had a good laugh over my gibberish and no, thankfully, we didn’t hit the emu.

It was really nice to explore parts of my own country I’d never been to before. The areas we visited were very remote and were all dirt roads. We had to let the tyres down on our car and our caravan to 30 psi so that we didn’t end up getting punctures from the sharp rocks strewn on the tracks and so the tyres absorbed some of the vibrations from the corrugated roads. Doing that made a huge difference and we were lucky to not have to change any tyres.

There were a lot of discarded tyres on the sides of the roads from punctures and what not. I wish people would take their rubbish home with them, or at least to the next town to discard them instead of just dumping them wherever they feel like it.

After unpacking the car and the caravan, cleaning both since we had dust from “arsehole to breakfast” and catching up on the washing, it’s time to get back to work.

More Books

I have a second edit to do on Bratva Connection: Valentin and then I want to begin writing the second book in my Black Ops: Shadow Hunters series.

I am excited that the second book to my Bratva Connection series titled Bratva Connection: Boris is out with Bratva Connection: Maxim.  

If you have purchased any of my books, please leave a constructive review which could enable me to improve my writing. Any review good or bad is acceptable, but nastiness is not acceptable.

What have I been reading?

While I was away, I read quite a few books but the one that stood out for me was Susan Stokers, Finding Jodelle, (SEAL Team Hawaii, Book 7).

I loved that Baker and Jodelle finally got their HEA after reading about them in the previous books of the series. I would definitely recommend this book and all the others from Ms. Stoker.

I’ll leave you with that as a wrap for my August.

Thank you for reading.

Stay safe, sane, happy and healthy.

Love Becky Wilde xxoo.

 

Contact me at: becky@beckywilde.com

Visit my website for my blog and updates on: beckywilde.com

Wilde Rambling… July 2023

Hi all,

My man has been working hard building fences through the day and working on his PC at night to do all the internet stuff for me. I wish I had a clue and could help him, but as I’ve said numerous times before, I’m not that computer savvy.

Never mind. I make up for that in other ways.

My husband and I have always and hopefully, will always work well together.

We complement each other with our skills and respect each other a lot.

We are heading toward our 34th Wedding anniversary in September but we were together three years before we got married.

We’ve been with each other for almost thirty-seven years.

Like everyone, we’ve had our ups and down but we’re still going strong.

I hope all my northern hemisphere friends are staying out of the heat and staying cool.

Wishing you all a great weekend.

More Books

I’m so close to finishing a book in a new series. I’m hoping to have this book complete next week. Maybe another two or three days of writing and I’ll be done.

I haven’t fully settled on a title yet because I’m thinking that the title and series name I’ve chosen might be a tad too long. I might change it, but I haven’t decided yet.

This new series is set in Northern Territory in Australia, involving special operative soldiers, aliens and one very unique heroine.

It will be a while before this story is released for publication as I need to go through the editing process three to four times and we, (my amazing husband and I) need to create an appropriate book cover.

I still have the third book to my Bratva Connection series up my sleeve that needs my attention first.

I am excited that the second book to my Bratva Connection series titled Bratva Connection: Boris is due to be released tonight.

If you have purchased any of my books, please leave a constructive review that could enable me to improve my writing. Any review good or bad is acceptable, but nastiness is not acceptable.

I’ll leave you with that as a wrap for my July.

Thank you for reading.

Stay safe, sane, happy and healthy.

Love Becky Wilde xxoo.

 

Contact me at: becky@beckywilde.com

Visit my website for my blog and updates on: beckywilde.com