When Willow and I set off travelling in our camper van all those years ago, I really had no idea what we were getting ourselves into. This was long before YouTube and Instagram were full of travelling cat videos and posts, there certainly weren’t any how-to guides, and for the most part, we just had to make it up as we went. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t have some doubts whether it would work.

With Steph now with us, the three of us have travelled countless kilometres over this vast continent and the times that we are back on the road the daily routine seems second nature. But it’s not the tourist attractions, or the desire for adventure that keeps us exploring, it’s something else entirely.

As the three of us passed through the heart of South Australia’s wheat belt we discovered a time capsule from a past era. On the Eyre Highway between the towns of Kyancutta and Kimba lies an abandoned homestead that has been frozen in time.

We arrived late in the afternoon as the golden sun was setting over the thousands of acres of wheat fields that envelop the old home. The owners of the land kindly allow travellers to stop over in exchange for a small donation for its upkeep and invite people to explore its history and even enter the house.

Oh how hard I tried to get a photo of Willow sitting next to the old wheel barrow! Unfortunately she wasn’t having any of it and this was the best I could do; please enjoy this photo of Willow’s blurry cat butt! Oh well. Maybe next time!

It was once home to the Matthews family who ran the 5173 acre wheat farm. From what I could gather from the various information inside the house, it was built in the 1950s and housed two generations of the Matthews family before being used as worker accomodation when another farmhouse was built.

It was built from local stone with limestone being burned on site to make the concrete. It originally featured an outdoor toilet until a renovation in the 80s saw the bathroom moved inside.

Beside the home the old farm sheds house all manner of relics including an old International harvester truck. Apples, apricots and pears once featured in the garden but all that is left now is a lone apple tree.

Willow enjoyed exploring and found that a rusty old diesel tank was the perfect spot to watch over the old farm house.

But it was inside the house that was of particular interest and as we entered we found that it had been left as it was all those decades ago.

The kitchen once featured a wood stove for cooking and hot water. How hot it must have been cooking in the kitchen in the summer when the temperatures exceeded 40c for days on end.

It was really interesting to see this snapshot of farm life so well preserved.

All the original furniture remained and as Willow completed a quick perimeter check she settled on the hallway table to let me know that it was dinner time. At risk of her attempting to order a pizza, we hurried back to the van.

The traffic on the highway had died down and it was just us and a few other campers dotted around the big yard under the orange glow of the last light. So peaceful that you have a moment to think: ahh this is what it’s all about!

Steph and I had a dinner of whatever was at the bottom of the fridge and Willow got a tin of wet food. We crawled into bed and it wasn’t long before Willow settled on my shins where she curled up after a quick bath.

There’s a lot to see around Australia and you could lose weeks or months researching the perfect itinerary, but it’s those places you stumble upon in between that make it great; places where Willow can just explore and do what she does best. Yes, I had doubts in the beginning all those years ago but what makes it even greater is that the three of us can now enjoy it all together.