An Australian woman's trip to her nearest supermarket requires a 10-hour round trip. Watch her explain why below:
I'm fortunate enough to live in a city centre. As soon as I step outside my flat, I can walk in pretty much any direction and end up in front of a Sainsbury's, Tesco, Co-op or Morrison's within 10 minutes.
Even when I lived in my hometown, a food shop took around an hour all-in, and that's with a 20-minute round trip to the closest supermarket. For this woman, it's just a tad longer than that.
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Ell Regan (@ell.regan) lives in Barkly homestead in the Northern Territory. Any time she needs to go shopping, she needs to make a 450km journey across the Queensland border for her nearest Woolworths and Kmart in Mount Isa.
Ell shared this journey to TikTok, racking up tens of thousands of views and stunned comments.
One user wrote: "I will never take for granted the two Woolworths, one Cole’s and one Harris farm that are within 500m of my apartment ever again."
Another asked how often Ell makes the trip, to which she replied: "I get the chance about once a week but we probably won’t go again for like two-four weeks... I do love me some Kmart visits."
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Another asked: "At least hopefully that's straight driving, no traffic? I can't decide if I'd be okay with it or struggle." Ell replied: "Dead straight drive and no traffic, it goes pretty fast haha."
Some have been left unnerved by living somewhere so remote, with one writing: "Why would you want to live in the middle of nowhere, I live in north Bondi and would have anxiety living where you live."
Ell responded: "I get anxiety at the thought of even driving in Bondi."
A few others have commented how they'd be terrified of forgetting anything on their shopping list, especially if it was a proper day-to-day grocery like milk or bread. "Always make sure I’m well stocked with milk... and chocolate," Ell wrote.
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The divide that seems to have emerged is between those who appreciate the rural side of life, and those who can't imagine living somewhere so disconnected from the grid of modern life.
For example, one user wrote: "Driving through a whole lotta nothing too," to which another replied: "The people that comment things like that can't appreciate what's around them."
Another commented: "That's what I call home, middle of now where, roads, rivers, quad bikes and all the time in the world, mostly importantly with the people I love."
Cameron Frew