"Frida what do you want to see in Australia? What are your main interests" I messaged now that our Swedish friend had booked her flights and was definitely coming to Australia.

 "Nature and scenery" was her answer.

We had met Frida and her friend Mia in Mongolia in 2011. We stayed together in a Ger, a traditional round family tent, on the Mongolian Steppes then travelled through Siberia on the train together. Later that year we met up again in Frida's home town of Falon in Sweden where Frida showed us around.

Now it was our turn to be host.

Having finished work at Cape Leveque, we suggested to Frida that we could do a major one month campervan road trip with her, showing her some of the real outback. A road trip to take us from Perth to Broome, through the Kimberley and down to Alice Springs via the Tanami Desert Road. Along the way we would see such attractions as the Pinnacles, Kalbarri, the Monkey Mia dolphins, the Ningaloo Reef at Coral Bay, whales at Cape Leveque, the Horizontal Falls and Purnululu National Park (Bungle Bungles) in the Kimberley. Was she interested? "Absolutely" she messaged and plans were set in motion.

Perth was not showing its best side when Frida arrived. Cold miserable weather greeted her but she was unfazed and keen to get on the road. First things first though. It was highly unlikely she would see Koalas in the wild so a day visit to Whiteman Park in Perth gave her the opportunity to pat a Koala and see quite a few other uniquely Australia animals just in case we couldn't find them in the wild.

It suited the three of us to make this a very low budget trip, so some of our overnights were with family and friends on the way up the coast and at Broome. The added bonus of this was that Frida was able to experience many different Australians and their homes. Our other overnights were camping, and wherever possible in designated free roadside stops. A notable exception was our beach shelter at Kooljaman, Cape Leveque which whilst expensive, was right on the beach and rated by Frida as the best stay of the whole trip. 

Music is something we will all remember from the road trip. Frida introduced us to many artists and songs we had not previously heard. We in turn introduced her to Australiana music and explained what the songs meant. Each morning, first thing, we had a playlist of travelling songs such as "on the road again" (Willy Nelson and Canned Heat versions) and"Going North" Missy Higgins. To that we added songs like ¨Waltzing Matilda" , "Home amongst the Gum Trees" "True Blue" "This is Australia" and "Great Southern Land".

Along with nature and scenery we introduced Frida to the iconic Aussie meat pie, a country show (Northampton), roadhouse toilets, bush toilets, flies, bush showers, campfire cooking, more flies (including the painful marsh flies), giant mosquitoes, outback pubs, outdoor cinema, Australian rules footy, and the long hours needed on the road because of the sheer size of Australia. We learnt much about the politics and history of Sweden and Frida learnt about our history and politics in those tedious hours as the kilometres slipped away.

In this first half of the trip spanning 4,200 kilometres, Frida rated as her top picks, Cape Leveque with its breaching whales and beach shelter accommodation, Sun Pictures (outdoor cinema) at Broome, Broome's Cable Beach, and the dolphins at Monkey Mia. 
 
The second half of our shared trip, going through to Alice Springs, will see us travel another 2,500 kilometres and nearly all of these will be on the dusty rutted roads of the Kimberley and Northern Territory. Read about it in the next blog entry.  
 
 
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