The Last Post

So, that’s that then. 

Over the last six months we have travelled more than 32,000 kilometres ‘around’ Australia.  We’ve visited all of the mainland’s states and territories, some more than once.  We've made camp 112 times in 186 days and seen, literally, thousands of amazing places and things. We’ve spent over $9000 on fuel, but less than $4000 for camping fees (we couldn’t bring ourselves to calculate the cost of food, drink or repairs!) and we've met many fascinating and friendly people.

Of course there have been some difficult times:  Long hours of travelling. Getting bogged (more than once). Brutal corrugations. Dust. Heat. Cold. Storms. Lightening. Floods. Flies, midges, mosquitoes and scorpions. Tinned ham for dinner. We’ve suffered through them all.  But in hindsight, even these feel like good times.

We shattered our rear windscreen and cracked the front, we drowned two starter motors and snapped four UHF aerials.  We curved side steps and scratched paintwork.  We replaced brake pads and discs and CV joint boots on two separate occasions.    With all the new parts we've added to the car, you could argue that it has arrived back in Sydney newer than when it left (though it doesn't drive like it.)

As for the good times, of course there are too many to mention, but we won't forget sitting around a campfire in the desert under huge starry skies, or camping all alone on white sands and helping the kids to catch fish for our dinner in the azure water (or seeing pods of dolphins fish for theirs’), or watching a big red sun set over an even bigger red land, or drifting with the current through schools of brightly coloured reef fish, or navigating deep creeks and log bridges, or hiking and swimming through those gorgeous gorges or, or, or...

We all learnt a lot on the trip; about the county, the wildlife, the people, but also how to tell a black headed python from a tiger snake in the dark at twenty paces, how to live together as a family, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, in the close confines of a camper trailer, and how to fix almost anything with gaffer tape and fencing wire.

And we had an excellent adventure.

So the question is now:  What’s next?

Homeward Bound

We spent out last week of travelling by winding our way up through New South Wales.

It was a Pretty Beach

After laboriously snaking over the Great Dividing Range we spent a few days at the aptly named Pretty Beach, in the small coastal national park of Murramarang.  The camp site was busy and expensive and the weather for most of the time was average, but it didn’t matter a bit because we were there to catch up with Deb, Gary, Ditmar and Jo, for a reunion of three quarters of the group that tackled Cape York at the beginning of our expedition.  We had a great time staying up late and reminiscing about the trip and then clearing our heads each morning with a swim in the bracing water of the Pacific Ocean.

For our next stop, we continued the theme of catching up with family by heading over to Canberra to visit Adrian, Robyn and family.  It was great to see everyone and with this visit we added the final state or territory of our journey (it's a shame we never made it across Bass Straight, so we can’t claim to have visited all of them on this trip).

Elliot. A little angel (!?!)

Whilst we were in the capital, we took the opportunity to visit ‘Questacon’, Australia’s National Science and Technology Centre to give the kids one final science lesson.  Though they were dragged away from the Xbox kicking and screaming, both the little kids and the big kids had a fantastic time working our way through the interactive exhibits.  Some of the highlights seemed to be the roller coaster simulator and the enormous sticky, iced doughnuts served in the cafe.  Probably not a good combination but we all emerged more or less unscathed.   Dare I say it was even more fun than the Gravity Discovery Centre in Gin Gin?

Staying cool in the cool caves

With two nights and only a few hundred kilometres to go before we were back in Sydney, we wanted to spend a couple days taking it easy.  We picked the campsite at Wombeyan Caves.  We’ve been before and knew it was a good place to get a camp fire going and kick back by the creek.  As it happened, the day we arrived a total fire ban was put in place and the creek had dried up, but it didn’t stop us relaxing amid the gawping kangaroos, stalking lace monitors and squawking king parrots.  The weather was warming up so we spent some of the afternoon exploring the cool caves.  The balmy evenings made us feel more like we were in the Top End than in New South Wales.  It was a good way to end the trip.  On the last day, Elliot told me that he could only vaguely remember what our house looks like and that he was probably ready to go home now.  So we did.

Mountain Country

We stayed for five days in my favourite part of Victoria; the stunning and mountainous Alpine Shire.  This part of our journey was made even more enjoyable because we spent it staying with our good friends Jade and Adam.  In a house.  With sofa’s and TV’s and real beds and walls and a ceiling and everything! 

The weather was perfect and we spend our time here catching up, lazing by the pool, and visiting some of the surrounding gourmet attractions such as a local olive grower where we sampled olives, olive oil and olive jam (!). 

Ready to get some air...

One day we headed up to Lake Buffalo for a spot of waterskiing.  Things didn’t quite go to plan because on the first run (with the kids trailing behind in an inflatable tube, the speedboat’s engine began to quickly overheat.  We returned to shore where Adam and I looked knowledgably over the engine for some time before completely failing to fix it. We still managed to eke out a few more rides by giving the engine long cooling down periods in between, which did mean that Daniel got to show off his knee-boarding technique.  Later Jules was offered a tow from another boat and showed her natural athleticism by skiing an entire lap of the lake without a dramatic face-plant.  A shame really as it would have made for some humorous blog content.  Unfortunately, due to the boat problems, I wasn’t able to impress the judges with my skiing prowess, which was probably just as well. Didn’t want to show everyone up.

Natural finesse!

On another day we drove to a nearby trout farm where we had a go at catching our dinner.  It has to be the easiest meal we have ever caught because within half an hour, using nothing more sophisticated than a hook and line with a bamboo pole for a rod, the kids had snagged us six plump rainbow trout for the barbeque.  That’s my sort of fishing expedition.

Mmm. Dinner.

One of the downsides to spending time with great friends is that that time always passes very quickly and this visit was no exception.  Before we knew it, it was time to move on.  There was a bit of a grey mood in the car as we headed off.  We all agreed that we were sad to be saying goodbye and equally sad because it really did now feel like we were on our way home.  As if to mimic our mood, the sky turned dark and cloudy and it started to rain.

A mountain stream with rocks in it.

However, once we found ourselves winding our way up into the stunning high country of Kosciusko National Park, we soon cheered up.  We found ourselves a fantastic little camp spot by a mountain stream, got some food cooking over the campfire and reminded ourselves that the trip is not over just yet!

Wet Weather Playtime in Victoria

Having only planned an overnight stay in Mildura, we eventually left four nights later, and even then it was only to edge our way down through northern Victoria.  As you might have guessed, the weather was responsible for our slow progress.  Thankfully we have avoided being caught in any areas of major flooding, but we did get pretty wet! I won’t complain, because when set against the discomfort experienced by plenty in Victoria, and the more serious tragedies experienced in Queensland (and for that matter the even more catastrophic flood events in Brazil), getting a wee bit wet and having to change your holiday plans is a small inconvenience, but here is the story, anyway:

A Soggy Kid

In Mildura it started to rain.  The weather forecast was predicting bad weather all along our chosen route down to the Grampians, so we figured that we would wait out the rain (no sense in packing up and moving from one soggy campground to another soggy campground).  Then it started to rain even harder.  On our third night in Mildura, we had the heaviest rains we've experienced on the trip; even heavier than the Narrabeen storms of our first week (this time without the gale force winds thankfully), even heavier than the tropical storms in Darwin, and even heavier than the pre-wet season downpour that filled our trailer with its own indoor paddling pool at Windjana Gorge.  It rained constantly that night and the following day, which thoroughly tested the waterproofing on our canvas. We had a few minor leaks, but all in all it stood up well.  The bad weather gave us plenty of time for tea drinking and reading.  The kids were happy to play in the pool (I suspect it could have been slightly drier in there...) and so we managed to while away the hours.  

Captain Daniel and First Mate Elliot
 at the helm of the PS Melbourne

During a dry spot, we took a paddle-steamer ride down the Murray, which was disappointing and fascinating at the same time – disappointing because the level of the water was so high that none of the locks and weirs were in use so I didn’t get to bore the children with my knowledge of these feats of engineers, fascinating because according to the captain of the boat, it was the first time in 17 years that they had not needed the weirs and fascinating to see the effect of the water level three and a half meters higher than usual.  We also managed, in another dry spell, to visit the nearby town of Wentworth, which is at the convergence of the Murray and Darling rivers.  What would normally be an impressive sight was made even more so by the huge volume of water pouring along both rivers.  Even to get to the viewing tower, it was necessary to wade through shin-deep water.

Wading to see the Murray and the Darling

After four nights in wet Mildura, it really was time to move on, so we mooched a few hundred km’s further down the Murray Valley to the city of Swan Hill.  We camped in a caravan park next to the river and what I suspect to be Swan Hill’s main tourist attraction, the historic Pioneer Settlement, which is collection of 50 or so buildings, equipment, coaches and cars from the 1800’s and early 1900’s which have been mover to this spot to showcase the life of early settlers to the area.  Jules got to indulge in her penchant for reading any and all manner of informational signs, the boys enjoyed the horse drawn carriage rides (we went back for seconds) and the ride in a restored 1925 Dodge that some would say was more comfortable than our Prado. Most of all the boys were fascinated by the blacksmith.  Anything that involved ferocious fire and bashing red hot metal with a hammer has got to be good in their book. So much so that Elliot has now put ‘blacksmith’ at the top of his list of future careers. 

My next 4WD

Though the weather had cleared up superbly by this time, the progress of the floodwaters around Victoria made it clear that our plans for the last few weeks of our journey would need to change.  Many towns around the Grampians were on major flood alert and the national park itself was closed until further notice. As the floodwaters spread it became clear that not only were we not heading south as planned, but that if we did not head quickly east, we wouldn’t be getting though towns along that route such as Echuca and Kerang.

So, we packed up and swiftly left down.  We filled up with fuel at Kerang, where a lot of others were doing the same. One local told us that in the last great floods the water had been a meter and a half up the door of the pub over the road.  It was almost impossible to imagine.  They were expecting worse this time.  As we passed through Echuca, the river was running high and plenty of locals were out to watch the spectacle.  (Thankfully, although Echuca did flood later that day, it was not as serious as had first been predicted). 

We stopped that night in Shepparton. Though I’m sure there is much about Shepparton that is “vibrant and progressive” as touted by the Official Vistors’ Guide (sadly, I have discovered the joys of tourist brochures far too late on this trip), we only stayed one night and so must have missed it.  I did like the more than 100 life-sized fibreglass cows, painted in all manner of weird and wonderful designs of “MoovingArt” which are to be found all around the city and celebrate the regions dairy heritage.

Howzat!

By his time, we had spent seven nights running in caravan parks and I felt in need of more natural surroundings a bit of solitude.  Given that so many of the regions national parks were closed and many areas were still subject to flood warnings, we struggled to pick our next destination, but we settled on a couple of nights in the Toombullup State Forrest. We’d never heard of it and perhaps not many others had either because we had the whole place pretty much to ourselves. Plenty of time to relax and the wide open space meant that the cricket set we have carted all around the country finally got a workout.  The area is also the site of a gun battle between Ned Kelly and his gang, and the Police.  Which meant it was time for another fascinating history lesson for the children...

Victoria bound

Rainbow and the Murray

We left the spectacular Flinders Ranges after only a couple of nights because we needed to get some minor repairs done on the car (split CV boot, driver side, for those who are keeping track), so we threaded our way south through a series of historic and charismatic villages and towns as suggested by the South Australian Tourism brochure we had picked up:

 Hawker - the top of the list of attractions here, according to South Australian Tourism is the visitors centre itself... but it was still a nice spot to stop for morning tea.

It's a big gum tree

Orroroo - where we stopped to see “The Big Gum Tree” which was, of course, a big gum tree, with a trunk 10 metres in circumference, and then we went on a significant detour to experience Magnetic Hill – “ a phenomenon that has to be seen to believed”.  Allegedly here, you can leave your car in neural at the bottom of the hill and it will roll upwards. Perhaps having a tonne of trailer behind us hindered our progress, but we didn’t move an inch uphill. You would have though that the trailer, being made of steel, might have helped, but it seems not.

Peterborough - actually, we accidentally drove right passed Peterborough which was a shame because according to South Australian Tourism it is one of only two places in the southern hemisphere where you can still see three different railway gauges (Broad, Standard and Narrow of course....)

Jamestown – “ a mecca for railway enthusiasts and ecotourists alike” (?!?)

...And finally into the picturesque town of Clare at the head of the Clare Valley wine region – Ahhhh.....

S.A. Tourism hyperbole aside, these towns are filled with marvellous old stone buildings and fascinating histories that make the drive well worth the effort.

We spent a couple of nights in Clare, getting the car fixed and enjoying some of the local produce.  I did feel a bit self conscious entering the civilised world of the Clare Valley with the car and trailer caked in Oodnadatta mud and dust, our clothes not fairing much better and with both kids badly in need of a haircut and doing passable impressions of Stig of the dump.  Didn’t stop us though.  We particularly liked the historic village of Mintaro, complete with a maze, beautiful stone buildings and, most importantly, a fantastic old pub - the intriguingly named Magpie and Stump.

The Murray.  Post rain, Pre Mozzies.

Next up we headed vaguely eastwards, with a plan to follow the Murray into Victoria.  We camped for two nights on the banks of the swollen river in the Murray River National Park.  I’m not really one for rivers. Mountains, oceans, desserts and big red lumps of rock are more my thing, but as we fished and watched the sun go down each evening, I could see why so many are captivated by this particular river.  Until it started to rain.  And then until the rain clouds moved away and the clouds of mosquitoes arrived...

When the mozzies finally had us beat, we headed even further east towards one of our final border crossings of the trip, into Victoria.  This time we were prepared and had not stocked up on piles of fruit and vegetables that we would have to either eat or dispose of at the quarantine stations at the state border (I remember on the morning that we crossed from WA into SA I was worried that the kids would turn a beta-carotene orange from all the raw carrots we made them eat on the way to the border...).  

So a couple of hurriedly scoffed bananas later we were in the Victorian town of Mildura and already seeing road signs for Sydney! (Albeit 1030km’s away).  We were having a bit of a problem with the brakes on the car, and in any case it was due for a service, so for the second time in three days, I took it into a garage and took out my credit card.   I suppose it was only right to have something fixed on the car in Victoria, as we have had had repairs done in every other state we’ve passed through!

No! Not Yet!!

Unfortunately, as I write this we are not spending our first night of the trip in Victoria at all because in our hurry to find a caravan park to drop of the trailer before rushing to the Toyota garage, we headed for the closest one, which happened to be  just across the river.  Without realising it, we have, of course, set up camp in New South Wales!  Three weeks too early!  

The Alice to The Flinders, the less boring way.

Ormiston Gorge

Instead of heading south-east back down the long and, let’s face it, pretty dull Stuart Highway for the 1200km’s from Alice Springs to Port Augusta, we decided to get  back on our ‘big lap’ after the detour into the red centre,  by a more meandering route. 

Lizard 1, Snake 0

First we headed west again into the West Macdonell Ranges.  We spent three days enjoying the stunning scenery, walking and swimming in the clear cool waters of the (yet again) gorgeous gorges. Ormiston Gorge and Ellery Creek Big Hole were our favourites for a dip.  On a hot and dusty walk to the less well known Redbank Gorge, we stumbled across a meter-long Perenti, Australia’s largest lizard, eating his lunch of what we think we identified as an Olive Python.  Now, there’s something you don’t see everyday...

For New Year’s eve we headed out of the far side of the MacDonnell ranges, around the Mereenie Loop road which is a dirt road ‘short cut’ to Kings Canyon.  We stayed at the only campsite there – in the Kings Canyon Resort – which did mean that we were able to celebrate the New Year with Dinner at the pub – a few cold beers and a pizza topped with crocodile, camel and kangaroo (and cheese and bbq sauce of course).  

Heading through the Lost City

One afternoon we walked to Kathleen Springs, which was something of a disappointment, but early the following morning we walked the 6km ‘Kings Canyon Rim’ Walk, which turned out to be one of the favourites of the trip, offering spectacular views of the Canyon, followed by the alien landscape of the ‘Lost City’ and a shady and revitalizing swimming hole in the ‘Garden of Eden’.  It was well appreciated as by this time, the temperature was touching the early forties Celsius...

Heading south east down the Stuart highway was pretty much unavoidable for the next few hundred kilometres, but we had hatched a plan to turn off the bitumen again at Marla, a roadhouse a few hundred kilometres north of Coober Pedy, to head down the 600km long Oodnadatta Track which traces close to the abandoned path of the “Old Ghan” railway. (As an aside, we spent a night at Marla Roadhouse, which is possible the worst roadhouse we have stayed at. Dirty and expensive.  Avoid it if you can.  Probably didn’t help that the temperature that night didn’t drop much below thirty degrees C and the muggy night of broken sleep made me even grumpier than usual!)

The first 200km’s of the Oodnadatta Track was in good condition and we had no real issues.  We stopped for lunch in the town of Oodnadatta (population approx 200) at the legendary Pink Roadhouse.  In stark contrast to the road house at Marla, this is probably the best we have ever been to.  Quirky and friendly.  We were asked if we were going to be ordering anything from the kitchen, and when we said; “ erm, no, we’ll probably just make ourselves a sandwich”, we were told to bring our lunch making stuff into the restaurant out of the heat.

After the storm

We camped that night in the bush at the end of a 4WD track  near the ruins of the Algebukina Bridge.  By now the temperature was above the mid forties and we were wondering how we were going to make it through the night without melting, when just as dark was closing in, it started to rain and within minutes the temperature dropped by about ten degrees.  The kids were whooping and dancing in the downpour like they had never seen rain before.  

That night it stopped raining, but we were treated to a spectacular lightening show, with flashes across the horizon every few seconds and the event continued for several hours!  When the storm changed direction again and headed our way we decided discretion was the better part of valour and retired to our lightening proof trailer...  All safe under the 15-ounce Dynaproof canvas, we slept well...

Out on the snow, sorry, salt

The track on the second day on the Oodnadatta was a bit rougher and a bit wetter, but still fun to drive.  We arrived in the second ‘town’ along the track – William Creek (population approx 12) and unhitched our trailer before making the bumpy 120km side trip out to the vast salt plains of Lake Eyre.  Lake Eyre has recently flooded, a once in a lifetime event, and when we were there we fancied that we could see water out in the distance...but it could equally have been a mirage. One effect of the recent flooding was obvious though. Instead of walking on hard, dry salt, we walked out through a few hundred metres of soggy white slush, mostly sinking past our ankles in the smelly black ooze that brewed below the surface.  It was like of walking through muddy, slushy snow. Hot muddy slushy snow.

Back at William Creek to retrieve our trailer, we couldn’t resist a beer in the famous William Creek Hotel, the walls of which are covered in all manner of paraphernalia; money, articles of clothing, drivers licences, business cards and scribbled notes all left by travellers along the track.  We camped that night at a great spot at a place called coward springs and cooled off in the artesian spa.  The following day we headed off the Oodnadatta track and into the Flinders Ranges. 

The Flinders Ranges

I’m not sure why, but we didn’t have particularly high expectations of the Flinders Ranges.  As it turns out, this national park has some of the most magnificent scenery we have seen so far.  We are already making plans to come back... in winter...

Christmas in The Red Centre

After our stay in Lincoln NP, we pointed the car north and started the big drive to the centre of Australia. The first day we only did 300km’s or so and, on the advice of a fellow traveller, stayed at a picturesque free camp at Fitzgerald Bay.  We spent the afternoon trying, unsuccessfully, to catch Blue Swimmer Crabs.  

Another hole in the ground

The following day we did one of the biggest drives of the trip, over 600km’s to the eccentric opal mining town of Coober Pedy. Knowing what a hot, dusty and desolate place Coober Pedy is, I warned the kids in advance and prepared for a short stay and a lot of complaining.  As it turned out, our visit here was unexpectedly fun.  We went on a tour of an old opal mine and one of the underground houses that many ‘towns folk’ favour.  Then we went ‘noodling’ (digging through piles of rock discarded from the mines) for tiny pieces of opal.  Most of what we found was plain white opal – known as potch, and is worthless, but the boys had to be dragged away and spent the next day’s drive discussing what they would buy with their new-found riches.

As If...

We bush camped that night about half way between Coober Pedy and Uluru.  The big skies and the quality of the light make bush camps in the NT outback beautiful, and, unbelievably, much less fly infested than WA or SA. Perhaps because the temperature is often a fair bit over 27.5 degrees?

One more drive and we reached the township of Yulara, where we planned to spend two days admiring yet more big red rocks.  It’s beautiful to watch the sun set on Uluru. It is also predicably busy, even though we were there in the off-season. We waited until the sun had completely set and the bus loads had vanished and enjoyed Uluru by a full moon (and for a short time as it rose a red full moon due to that evenings lunar eclipse) We also got to watch sunrise against the rock in peace as we were the only ones who walked up to the campground lookout at 5.30am - I’m not sure what was more surprising; that nobody else was there, or that we were up and out at that time of the morning.

Valley of the Winds

Later we walked the 7.5km Valley of the Winds trail through Kata Tjuta (the Olgas). The stunning scenery made the hot, three hour trek well worth the effort (unless you are 6 years old, apparently).  It is also slightly less famous than Uluru and marginally less busy. 

SunRISE over Yulara

Despite the crowds and the long distance we travelled to do this last minute ‘detour’, we were really glad we came.  It is still holds a strange fascination. 

Just in time for Christmas, we made the five hour drive from Yulara to Alice Springs. We were amazed quite how green the red centre is at the moment thanks to the last few months’ unseasonable rain. 

We’ve been wondering what made us decide on Alice Springs for Christmas.  It may seem like a bit of an odd choice of destination, but I think that that was a big part of the appeal. We’ve been to ‘The Alice’ before and knew that the people are friendly and easy going, the weather is warm and the place has a generally good feel to it.  Also, according to a tourist brochure I read, one of Alice Springs' notable attributes is that it is the town nearest to every beach in Australia J  It was a rare marketing genius who thought that one up...

Ultimately though, our Christmas day was filled with plenty that was comfortably familiar; being woken long before we wanted to be by kids too excited to sleep for another second, hurried unwrapping of too many plastic toys and over indulging on food and drink sufficiently that a bit of a mid-afternoon siesta was necessary.  

One cool car...

Daniel's new radio-controlled car got plenty of use around the caravan park, and not just by the children... No TV though, so no Queen’s speech or ‘blockbuster’ movie.  Oh Dear.  Instead, the afternoon and evening were spent lazing around the pool and having the odd ‘sun-downer’ or two with our fellow travellers (until well after the sun had gone down).  Boxing day started slowly for some...