Our family was invited to visit Shane and Nathan’s families in the Northern Territory.  I had been to the NT a few times previously and had been off road in the southern areas of the NT including an overland trip from Alice Springs to Birdsville in Queensland via the Simpson Desert. 

But those trips were as visitors with no connection to the area. These trips were quite different because of the hospitality shown by the families of the students we had hosted. 

After about a week on the road, we arrived in Tennant Creek and met with teachers at Barkly College, the local high school where Shane and Nathan had attended.