Arrive in Karumba yesterday 17th, after trying and failing since early April, not I hasten to add through any fault of my own.

When last I wrote I believe I was at the Sugarbag sale yards, or very close to. Well from there I headed West out onto the Savannah Highway, getting back to outback Queensland. One thing that has struck me about Queensland and this was reinforced on this dry and dusty Highway is the sheer number and size of the termite hills. Some are getting on for 2mtrs in height and probably the same if not more around, but the number of them its well into the many millions as they are just constant. If they are not the most numerous creature in Australia they must be well up there, and they are by far the most numerous creature in Queensland. Anyway back to the trip

Arrived in a town called Georgetown which is a very small country town which main claim to fame is have to Servos (petrol stations) with small shops attached. I think that everyone travelling along the Savannah Highway either East or Westbound must stop here as both places were constantly busy. Apart from a leg stretch the other reason people stop is that the next fuel is 160kms heading East and 250kms heading West. I stayed at a lovely little campsite called Goldfields which was only $25 all in per night. I left Georgetown on the Monday morning and geared myself up for the next leg of my trip to a place called Cumberland Chimney which was all of 30mins or 22km up the track. So at leat the dogs were couped up for very long this time.

Cumberland was a thriving gold mining town in the late 1870’s and it was all done and dusted by 1915 when the last resident left. All that is left of the town now is the large chimney which was used to vent the exhaust fumes from the machinery used in the mines. There is a lovely lake there still with a large variety of bird life, but alas, like most of the water in Queensland it is slowly drying up. At the lakes edge the council have put a lovely viewing platform for the twitchers and photographers and they have also place a set of binoculars of the type you normally see on the promenades of beaches which you have to deposit some sort of coin to get a minute or so viewing. But these one are free, so well done to the local council. Just going back to the chimney for a moment, at the base of the chimney there is a large hole going through it which I was informed by a local chappie was caused by the army firing a shell at it in an attempt to bring it down, or that they hit it accidentally. Whether there is any veracity in this tale is open to conjecture and he admitted that he heard this from someone who heard it from someone etc etc, you get my drift.

Whilst I was parked up there on the Monday evening at approx 1700 my two trusty and highly ferocious guard dogs started barking, I knew another camper about 100mtrs or so away had a wee dog so assumed they were warning it not to come close or else. But they kept on barking which is most unlike them, so I went out to have a word and the were both staring intently into an overgrown paddock right next to me, and, as I looked all is saw was a wee bit of either a snake or the tip of a goanna tail disappearing into the grass. I was very miffed that I had lost a photo opportunity but hoped if it hadn’t been scared off whatever it was may return. No need to worry though as about 1000 the next morning my two dog alarm was up and running again, as out of the paddock came a not huge but a good size goanna. It seems that I had accidentally parked on this goanna’s commuter route from his home to the lake where he went for his days hunting and sun bathing. Sure enough that evening at about 1700 wish he came back again heading home. This was a recurring theme for the four days I was there. Ive long wanted a shot or two of a goanna after just missing one going up a tree when I was in Mildura last year.

On leaving Cumberland Chimney the next port of call was a place called Croydon which was about 150kms or so further up the road. Croydon is a very historical town with lots of the original building having been preserved. It did offer what they called free camping but you had to go to the information centre and book in and give them a “donation” admittedly it was only $5 per night (the minimum you can give) but you could only stay a maximum of 2 nights, so if you want to stay longer you have to move to the caravan park. On driving around the township the next day the two things I noticed was that a. I was the only person free camping and b. there wasnt a soul in the caravan park. Anyway it was a lovely spot and it also gave me a chance to catch up with the rugby and catch up with the more depressing news of Aston Villa’s season, Championship next year.

Friday the 10th July was also the day that Queensland finally opened its borders to every state apart from Victoria as unfortunately they are suffering from a serious second wave of outbreaks of this horrible virus, and at the time of writing it looks like NSW especially Sydney is having quite a few cases flare up again. Fingers crossed everyone come through it. Anyway when they opened the borders on the Friday they had had over 240,000 applications to come across so that meant some rather large traffic jams while the police and Defence Force personnel checked everyone to make sure they were safe and had the right paperwork to come across. So hearing of these numbers I thought it would be prudent to book a place in Karumba just in case and, knowing my luck, everyone decided to head there.

After leaving Croydon I was going to stay at a place called Black Bull Siding but on arrival there it didnt seem very suitable, even though it had reasonable write ups. Mainly it was a bit near the road and that it also appeared to be and overnight stop for the road trains, and I wasnt overly keen to have a truck load of cattle parked up next to me again. So I gave it a miss and thankful that I did as I came across a place called Leichhardt Lagoon, which had showers, toilets and bore water (ok for the dogs) for $8 a night so I booked myself in for 4 nights. As the name suggests it was right on the edge of a beautiful lake with again a myriad of birdlife, and a few other things (which I thankfully didnt come across) the picture later will explain. A huge location the camping area probably 10acres at least, it would have a lot smaller if the lake had been full, you could see the water marks around the trunks of the trees. It was reasonable busy with banners coming and going most days, but of such a size you never felt as if you were right on top of someone. Again like so many places in the outback no phone/internet or radio reception but it was very peaceful. And as this location was only 20kms East of Normanton I was able to get a few supplies.

From there it was a quackish drive up to Karumba on the Friday morning of about 100kms. Now I had been recommended the campsite I had booked at and to day I am disappointed with it would be an understatement. Dont get me wrong the location and the facilities are to notch, but boy they do like to cram you in. I just hope that my snoring isn’t keeping the people either side of me awake at night as they are certainly close enough to hear it. When someone tried to get into a spot this morning five of us had to move are cars to give them room to reverse in. Oh well thankfully its only for the weekend, so back on the road on Monday

 

Finally got back on the road on the 4th of June after being parked up for just about two months. I was hoping to head back North again, but although the State Premier saying the whole state was reopen for intra state travelling the roads North were still all closed to protect the Aboriginal communities from the virus. So instead I went East being mindful to keep away from the big cities as a precaution but, that plan soon fell by the wayside as I shall reveal later on. So I set off from Barcaldine Eastwards heading for a small township called Sapphire, which as the name implies is a hotspot for sapphire prospecting. Your type of place Shelley, unfortunately I didnt find any at all, could have done with some expert guidance from Mike and Diane. Not much in the place at all, one very small shop attached to the caravan site I stayed at, but 6kms North was another place called Rubyvale with a very nice hotel and cafe. In retrospect I would have been better off staying there rather than Sapphire but I had already booked myself in for 4 nights so made do.

After four nights in Sapphire I headed off again through Emerald (are you getting a sense of how the towns are named?) and then turned North towards Charters Towers. I stopped about halfway there at a spot called Belyano Crossing, which is quite literally a T junction of two roads which were originally stock routes. Free camped there for a few days, which was very peaceful except from one night when a road train pulled in for the night with three trailer loads of cattle, so the whole night was marred by the sound of cattle moving around on metal and all sorts of noises coming from both ends of the beasts. This in turn set Whisper and Cody to having the odd growl and bark to accompany them during the course of the night. Very restless but luckily the truck moved off around 5am so I managed a bit of sleep.

So onwards to Charters Towers which was a decent sized town, I was going to stay just for the weekend but as it was pouring down with rain on the Monday morning I stayed an extra night. I just couldn’t be bothered to pack up the van in that sort of weather. I did have a major brain fade on the Monday morning I was there, which Im sure a few of my older readers can relate to. I made up a bowl of porridge and put it in the microwave to cook and started it going, while this was going on I was making a cup of coffee from the coffee machine. When the microwave pinged I went to to stir the porridge before putting it back on to finish cooking. Opened the microwave door and the microwave was empty. Very baffled, look around not sign of a bowl of porridge anywhere. Maybe I thought I didnt make any and just thought I did, so made another bowl and put it in the microwave and two minutes later it was ready. I was still going over what had happened as I was sure I made a previous one. A couple of hours later I went to get something out of the freezer for my tea and lo there sat my bowl of porridge silently mocking me. It was a relief I had found it, but I had no recollection of putting it in there.

After leaving Charters Towers I carried on heading North, and ended up at a very small place called Greenvale, nothing much there at all apart from a roadhouse which seemed very popular with all the trucks which is always a good sign, the fare was typical roadside cafe type menu but the coffee wasnt bad at all. About 2km North was a very large area for free camping which was ideal for me even though it took a couple of laps of the area to find a reasonably flat bit to park up on. It was while I was parked up here I noticed that my water pump was playing up, normally when you switch it on you hear it run then stop, then it just runs whenever a tap is turned on. I noticed that mine was running all the time whether a tap was on or not. I could also hear water under the sink and thought initially that I had a leak, but on looking it was all dry but I could hear water moving, On looking outside I saw that water was coming out of the water intake nozzle. I also noticed that after a minute or two of the pump running that the caravan power was shutting off, which I thought was due to the pump, but later I discovered it was something else. Anyway I thought I had better get my pump sorted and the nearest Jayco (make of my caravan) dealer was in Cairns about 400kms away. On phoning them they managed to get me booked in for the following Tuesday morning so that gave me 5 days to do the trip which wasnt a problem. So with the problem with the water pump I was only switching it on when absolutely necessary, but I did notice that in the mornings when I woke up there was no power in the van, and looking at the battery monitor it was obvious that the battery was not charging fully or holding its charge for very long either. So back on the phone to Cairns and found a chap who was happy to come out to wherever I parked up and fit a new battery for me. He was a bit more expensive than the others but it did save me having to drive somewhere to have it done. I had no intention of going anywhere near Cairns in may plans or for that matter any big city, but in this case it wasnt an option. So after a couple of expensive days in Cairns I got back on the road again on the Thursday morning with all things fixed and working.

I headed off from Cairns back inland a bit and ended up at Archers Creek which is about 30kms East of Innot Hot Springs, which is a lovely free camping area but with no phone, internet or radio reception. It was very quiet there with only about 4 other campers around, but on the Saturday night it got very busy with over 20 vans parked up. (school holidays started on the Friday). I left there on Monday and Im currently parked up at Sugarbag Saleyards which is just to the West of Mount Garnet for a bit more free camping. As a little aside the water pump is playing up again, so maybe I may need a new one. Not going back to Cairns though so will wait til I get to any town with caravan dealership of any sort and look into getting it sorted again.

Sorry no pictures in this issue, Ive not really seen much of note at all on my travels, hopefully soon.

So that’s where Im at, and continuing to slowly head West and back into the Outback proper.

Not a great deal happening but I thought I would catch you up on what’s been happening since my last missive a little while ago now.

I left Barcaldine on 14th April heading to what I thought was a small town of Torrens Creek, but this turned into a bit of trek, and the town consisted of approx 5 houses and a Hotel with camping facilities which was closed. Anyway this was a trip of approx 350kms with the last 25kms or so of unsealed road. Now normally an unsealed road is jut gravel and or sane with a few potholes and some corrugations, but this was next level. The had rain in this area a week or so before which was fairly heavy and this had played a bit of havoc with the road. Very bad corrugations, sand drifts over a metre deep, lumps of concrete (or old bits of the road) hard to tell the difference. This stretch of road took over 2 hours to get through and caused a couple of problems in the passing. Firstly the car was shaking and vibrating so much the UHF aerial snapped as it was whipping around so much, and the caravan rear view camera gave up the ghost as well. I think the camera was being shaken so much something has come loose inside as it flickered for a while before it blanked out. I reckon if it was the cable snapping it would have stopped working instantly. I was very glad to get back on the tarmac after that little episode. I found a great free camp site about 12kms outside Torrens Creek in an old gravel pit. Only one there and it was very peaceful.

Next morning I back tracked as I didnt want to head any further East as that would have been heading towards where the Covid19 was having some affect on the population. It was getting hard to find campsites open, or if they were it was only for essential workers. I did manage to find one in Julia Creek which was happy to accept me but only for one night, so off we trotted on another 350km plus trip but this time tarmac all the way and a very uneventful journey, Got myself booked into the site in Julia Creek after filling in two pages of forms for the local council. A very nice caravan campsite with over 80 sites and I had the pick of all of them as I was the only one there. Found a nice spot right next to the showers and bathroom, saved me some walking. It seemed a nice little town but most things were closed so had a quiet night before packing up the next morning.

From Julia Creek I decided to head North as I wanted to go up to the Gulf of Carpentaria and get some sea air. The trip North was mostly on a single track road, with nice flat level borders either side of the road which was handy as I met quite a few road trains coming the other way. I spotted on particular roadtrain coming from towards me for over a kilometre, I was on an uphill section and the borders had a bit of slope to them. Well this chap was coming straight down the middle of the road, and certainly wasnt slowing down any I moved off the road until just my off side wheels were running along the edge of the tarmac, yes with hindsight I should have just stopped. Anyway this train passed me with about a foot to spare, and whether I turned the wheel too sharp and or the wind off the truck hit me, but the caravan slipped further down the bank and the top rear corner managed to clip a tree branch. Heard the bang, and managed to stop. Picked up a couple of pieces of trim from the van. I couldn’t do much till I got to my next location. I ended up at Burke and Willis roadhouse and they were happy to have me stay in on their site. I managed to get my ladder out and look at the damage, I think optomistically, it looks worse than what it is. So after a bit of glue, sealant and a hefty dose of masking tape, hopefully it will hold until I can get it sorted, probably an insurance job. The next morning while having my breakfast somebody knocked on the caravan door and on opening I was faced with two police officers and two soldiers. After a pleasant and friendly chat I was told to pack up and leave as I wasnt allowed to go any further as there were roadblocks stopping anyone coming and going from all the local towns. I was a bit miffed to say the least but fully understood the situation. This area had a high proportion of Aboriginies and they were very susceptible to the infection. So on the 17 April as I knew it was open I decided to drive back to Barcaldine and park up for the duration. So 791kms and 9 hours later I arrived and have been here ever since. So basically I travelled 1730kms and ended up exactly where I started.

If anyone is interested as to where I am staying, you can look up Roses n Things on google or Facebook and it will show you. Lovely gardens and tea rooms,

So im afraid there aren’t any pictures to end this as Ive not been out and about to take any, and there is not really much in town worth photographing.

When I get back on the road again, hopefully sometime in June I will let you know, but it looks like the interstate border won’t be opened until September.

I do hope everyone is staying safe and well during this horrible time, and obeying all the rules, even if the politicians dont seem to be able to.

I do hope that each and everyone of you are keeping well and that you all have escaped this horrible virus that is amongst us. I must admit I do feel somewhat lucky to be away from all the major towns out here in the central west of Queensland.  This is all farming country, and touch wood, so far, the virus hasn’t yet made it out this way. Keeping your distance from others and isolating yourself is very easy to do. I did a 340km trip the other day (more on that later) and I saw one other person driving in the opposite direction in just over five hours. The major drawback I have discovered is that all the Government and Council owned campsites and caravan parks have been closed. Thankfully the privately owned ones are still open and are all very grateful for any custom at all as they have lost all their winter trade. For those not in the know Queensland is the State that all the Southern dwellers head for in the winter to get some warmth and decent weather. It is quite the exodus normally but this year it has slowed to barely a trickle. Im stuck in Queensland for the foreseeable as all the State borders are closed, but its nor really a hardship as the weather is very pleasant up here on the Tropic of Capricorn.

So on leaving Dalby I headed further West to the next major town of Roma, no coliseum or Spanish Steps, but it does have the largest stock sale yards in the Southern Hemisphere, unfortunately visitors are currently banned from visiting due to the aforementioned pandemic.  I stayed at the Roma Gun Club which have some pretty good facilities, and an all are welcome bbq on Thursday night. You can also have a go at shooting while waiting for the bbq if that sort of thing floats your boat. Not for you and Mike though Diane as this was trap/skeet shooting not your long range one shot one kill thing you two do. But the club was very well supported by the locals with I would guess about 50 or so people there. Strangely enough, my two dogs are not keen on fireworks at all but the sound of shotguns going off didnt faze them one iota, we even stood watching it for a while and not a thing from them, Whisper even laid down and nodded off. Roma in many ways was very similar to Dalby, everything geared towards the farming industry

I did manage to get my truck dinged while in Roma, as per usual in a supermarket carpark, luckily I have plastic protection trim around my rear lights and one of those got broken. Must have been by another 4×4 due to the height.

From Roma I travelled onwards West to a small town called Charleville, a very pleasant small township, with a very nice RFDS museum (Royal Flying Doctor Service) which was closed, but luckily the Cosmos was still open. The Cosmos is an observatory as the night skies in the outback give excellent conditions for looking at the night sky. At the observatory they also have four smaller (but still a good size) telescopes where they give demonstrations to the public.  I manage to get myself on to one, and it was a great couple of hours. The woman was very knowledgeable and showed us all some truly amazing sights, nebulas, constellations and star clusters. Its well worth a visit to anyone who heads out that way. They even supply the mozzie spray.

From Charleville it was a right turn North passing through a few small towns mostly just a few houses and the odd shop either side of the main road until I got to Blackall. Found a small but good campsite right on the edge of the main drag under the shad of a couple of trees.  Now a few of you people may have heard of the phrase “beyond the black stump”.  Well the expression is the name of an imaginary point beyond which the country is considered remote and or uncivilised. One of these black stumps is in Blackall. The use for these stumps are varied depending on whose stories you believe, used as county boundaries, marking staging spots for the old stage coaches and even as surveyors marks for plotting the land for cartographers. But all seem to adhere to the rule that beyond this point you are entering uncharted areas.  I was thankful when I left Blackall it was on a well signposted tarmac road.

From here it was a trip still Northwards until I got to Barcladine, another small township but with four campsites and 3 motor inns, all but two of the campsites are closed, but it does signal just how busy these places get when there are lots of tourists about. I stayed a a truly lovely little campsite with only 12 pitches, all of them on grass and in amongst the trees, I was the only one there so had all the facilities to myself, which in these current times makes isolation and distancing a doddle. Barcladine is believed to be the birthplace of the Australian Labour Party, it was here that 12 sheep shearers went on strike for better pay and conditions back in the 1800’s and from there the first seeds of the Labour Party were sown. It is also the home of the “tree of knowledge”. This was a tree outside the railway station that the striking shearers sat under during their protest, this tree stood in this spot until 2006  when someone unknown  gave it a good spraying of roundup weed killer, and so killed the tree. Later the tree was cut down in one piece and sent away I believe to Brisbane where it was sent through a process to preserve it and was then returned to Barcladine and it now stands in its original spot outside the station. I was hoping to get a decent night picture of it as its usually all lit up, but due to everything closing down for the duration the lights have been turned off.

So onwards we travelled this time Northwesterly to Longreach, a quick run of only 110kms. Longreach is the home of QANTAS Australias national airline or as it was known back then Queensland and Northern Territory Air Service. Outside the QaANTAS museum  (closed) they have a 747-200, a Boeing 707, and a Super Constellation. I remember my dad telling me about flying on a Constellation, only carried about 30 people and had bunk beds sleep in.  A bit different to economy class these days. Frustrated not to get any pics of them as due to the museum being closed they were doing maintenance work on the planes and had high fencing around them all.  Longreach also has the Stockman Hall of Fame. This is a museum and they also have live displays celebrating the lives of the original Stockmen who did all the mustering etc on horseback. Basically they are the Australian equivalent of the American Cowboy or the Argentinian Gaucho. I stayed at the only open campsite in Longreach, which by the way only has two to Barcladines 4 even though its probably 3 times the size and with more well know attractions. I think the best way to describe the campsite I was at was tired. or possibly even neglected. I think the people who ran it had basically given up, which was a shame as it could be a lovely spot. It was just little things, like the toilet block which was complete tiled so could have just hosed it out on a daily basis, and none of the doors were ever shut so all the bugs got in especially at night when the lights were on, and their crowning glory were the toilets where every time you flushed them, you washed down a frog or two which was hiding up under the rim.  It certainly put you off going when you had a pair of eyes staring up at you. Thankfully I have my own toilet in the van.  While in Longreach I thought about where to next. I was getting a bit frustrated with everything sightseer being closed, and recalled that the chap who ran the Barcladine campsite mentioned the Sculpture Trail, so I decided to go back to Barcladine and do this trail as it wouldn’t be closed as its all out in the open

So back in Barcladine I am. I did the Sculpture trail a couple of days ago. It starts in a town called Aramac which is about 65kms north of where I am and its a large loop around the local roads of approximately 220kms most of it on gravel roads. Left the caravan about 6:30am drove up to Aramac and headed out on the trail. Well I did the whole loop and only so one other person, who was a local farmer Giles who was pottering along in a very battered and possibly not road legal 4×4, my sole interaction with him was a casually raised finger off the steering wheel.  The Sculptures were very impressive, made up of scrap metal, barbed wire and old bits of farm machinery and vehicles.  The other interesting thing I saw was a rather large snake on the edge of the road, probably over a metre and a half and fairly thick, incidentally the first snake I have seen since arriving in Australia. I may have seen the odd one as road kill but never stopped to look. Anyway I turned around to go back to the snake and see if I could get a photo of it.  Well I think farmer Giles had beaten me too it as about a tire width of it was completely flat, and it wasnt going anywhere, so I turned again and carried on.  I got back to the van at approx 1400, but it really was a great little trip, and being so devoid of other humans it meant I could let the dogs out frequently for a leg stretch.  The one other thing that really caught my eye was the amount of termite mounds, not one or two but quite literally thousands if not 10s of thousands. I was trying to work out as I was driving along if you average it out to about 10,000 termites per mound (probably conservative estimate) that makes for one heck of a lot of termites roaming the country.

Anyway its now the Easter weekend and all the shop staff are having a very well earned break. I am here until Tuesday when I will decide where next.

Stay safe, stay home, stay healthy.

pics following again slim pickings

 

Hello again one and all, not a lot has happened since my last missive but a few places have been visited, hopefully this will bring you all up to date with my travels.

So I got away as planned from Pallamallawa on the Monday morning had went of eastwards towards Glenn Innes, which I arrived into early afternoon. Stayed at a lovely campsite about 2kms out of town on the Armidale road. Glenn Innes is the Highland capital of Australia and I dont mean the metres it is above sea level. Its like driving into a small town somewhere in Scotland lots of shops selling tartans and wool clothing and all things Gaelic, its all very ooh aye the not (sorry shelly). Its quite a small township with only one road holding all the shops, and every  year they have a large Gaelic festival when all the Irish Scots Bretons and a few other from the Celtic background all get together for a bit of a shindig. Apparently its very well supported but its not held to September so I couldn’t stick around that long to find out. Also in Glenn Ines they have some standing stones called Australian Standing Stones, must have took them months to come up with that name. Now these are not to be compared or confused with Stonehenge or the  standing stones in Orkney, which date back to the neolithic era, these one go all the way back to 1992. They are nevertheless quite impressive and are set in a beautiful garden on top of a nearby hill.

From Glenn Innes it was a very quick run up to Tenterfield which was only about 100kms to the North. Again I found a lovely small campsite just on the edge of the town and duly set up home there.

Tenterfield has a lot of history to it, some of it I’m afraid to me is wasted on me as I dont have the background in Australian history to match the relevance. But it was here in October 1889 that Sir Henry Parkes gave his Tenterfield Oration laying out the framework for Federalising Australia, having one Federal government and to unite all the militia into a single army. It also laid the groundwork for standardising  the rail gauge for trains. Im sure there was a lot more to it, but these were the bits that stuck in my memory. There are a couple of lovely touristy type drives of about 30kms long which take you off the beaten track and up to the top of Mt Mckenzie which is the highest point nearby. Its not a drive you would want to do in a standard car as in places you do need a drop more than your standard clearance, as over half of the drive is on farm tracks and gravel roads. Just to the North of Tenterfield by about 5kms there is a place called London Bridge, where during the Second World War over ten thousand troops were stationed as the second line of defence if Australia was invaded. Nothing much remains of it now and you would quite easily drive past without realising as there is only one board with the info on it. They also laid a long line of what they called tank trap, which were basically large tree trunks sunk into the ground and rising a couple of metres out of it, whether these were actually to stop tanks or just vehicles in general is not made clear. Most of it now has been overgrown by the forest, so its hard to discern which are fallen trees and which are the deliberately placed ones. All around the hills to the East and South of Tenterfield there is a huge area of burnt forest, they had there main fires come through last Feb (2019 and a few smaller ones earlier this year. Although you can still see all the burnt trees its amazing how much of it has regenerated in less than a year. Its also quite scary to see just how close to the township it got. I would say in places no more than 200 metres. Now from Tenterfield I had every intention of heading off North up into Queensland but while I was there the toilet in my caravan broke, well not the toilet as such but the holding cassette, so I couldn’t close it. It was something that I need to get sorted as soon as otherwise I couldn’t use it. Now the nearest Caravan dealer of any note was in Coffs Harbour 300kms away, so that was where I headed off to after my week in Tenterfield.

The first thing that struck me when I got to Coffs Harbour was the traffic. It was like rush hour all day long, so as soon as I parked up I went off to the caravan dealer and got the parts I need to sort out my toilet, I only booked in for two nights as I couldn’t put up with driving around bumper to bumper. Sorting out the toilet went according to plan and it was all sorted within about 15mins. just a case of out with the bits of the old mechanism and in with the new. So it was a very short sharp visit to Coffs Harbour and I didnt like it at all, maybe a better place to visit in the winter months. As I was over on the East coast I decided to stay there a while and drove north to Byron Bay.

I didnt actually stay in Byron Bay as the prices for parking up a caravan were stupid expensive, some places wanted over $70 per night, so I found a nice place at the Rugby League club in Mullumbimby about 20kms outside for $30 which is more my price range. Now for those of you unaware Byron Bay is the hippy laid back in place to be seen on the whole East Coast. And for those of you into to that kind of thing its also where the Hemsworth brother (Liam and Chris) have their homes and where the Hollywood set come visiting. Now wandering around Byron Bay in my shorts and shirt I felt very over dressed by their standards. Most men were shirtless (not my thing at all) and most of the women left very little to the imagination. But walking around it was very obvious and easy to differentiate between holiday makers, locals and those with a bit of money. A very quant town but always very busy, but some really nice artisan craft shops. I drove up to the Lighthouse which is the Eastern most point of Australia, but they wanted to charge $10 to park the car, which I thought was a rip off, so I told the parking attendant I was just going to turn around and drive back out, when he said to me just as well as you can’t park up here with dogs in the car as they aren’t allowed.  So I glimpsed the lighthouse and drove off. Anyway the little town I was in Mullumbimby was a lovely little place, lovely shops, good coffee and even a supermaket (Woolworths, not to be confused with what was F W Woolworths in UK). So I was more than happy to potter around there for the shortish time I was there.  I also drove out to Brunswick Heads which appeared to me to be Byron Bay lite. very busy and full of surfie types.

From here I decided to head back inland a bit as I didnt fancy going much further North into the Gold Coast and Surfers Paradise, and then Brisbane, So just found a route on the map and thought I would follow it. Well that plan lasted all of about 5kms, I pulled into a nearby reststop as I had left one of the roof vents open so quickly put that to rights, and when I came out I took the wrong exit from the roundabout and found myself on a little back road. I think to myself I will find a spot to turn around, about 15kms later I thought I may as well stay on this road and see where it leads. Well I ended up at a place called Murwillumbah, where yet again I missed my turn and found myself heading south towards Kyogle where I stopped to get my bearings and a cup of coffee. On looking at my camping app I noticed a place called Woodenbong had a recommended campsite for $15 a night, so tally ho and off we set. What I hadn’t factored in was the going up and over the border ranges to get there, some quite steep and very windy roads were encountered, but it did take me through some quite remarkable little villages, well when I say village, more like a cluster of 4 house and a barn. So after quite a decent drive I got myself a spot at the Woodenbong campsite.

No much in Woodenbong just one road through with houses and the odd shop, petrol station, but what it has got is Lynda’s Pit Stop cafe. Great coffee, beautiful BLT’s and as for their big breakfast, I must admit I did treat myself to one and I couldn’t finish it which is most unlike me, and if you sit in the courtyard bit, you can have your dogs with you as well. So it was a morning walk up to the garage for the paper, then across the road for a coffee and a sit and read in the limited sunshine. I must admit I only had the one BLT and only one breakfast, but it was good to give a little bit of money to the local community. Had quite a bit of rain here I think we had a shower or two most days, but it was still badly needed even if everything looked very green. But being up in the mountains they probably get more rain up there anyway.

Leaving Woodenbong on a wet morning I started to head north again and not 15kms down the road I finally crossed over into Queensland. I managed to get myself lost in Toowoomba, as far as I could tell the through routes are not very well marked, so I had to put the gps on just to get me out of it and onto the right road. I was aiming to a little town called Dalby for my next stop.

Well Dalby came as a bit of a shock, I was expecting a small country town as it didnt look too grand on the map, but Dalby is a decent size, and fairly well spread out. It has all the usual major shops, and a large amount of industry geared mainly towards the farming community,  Not much here for the general sightseer, but for $15 a night power and water, and brand new shower and toilet block the only thing to complain about is the pesky flies. I still haven’t figured out how they find your ears and nose with such unerring accuracy and monotonous regularity. Still only one bit of rain for a few hours since Ive been here, I will be on my way again on Monday morning.  I stayed here a bit longer than planned as there had been storm and cyclone warnings being issued earlier in the week, so thought it prudent to sit still until they had passed.

Not sure what I have in the photo department as again its been slim pickings but will have a look see

 

 

Hello once again one and all,

Well had a good week with the relos, thanks to Stu and Vicky once again for looking after me.  Go the safety check on the van done, all good there, got the car serviced and had some new electrics fitted to the car and van which seems to be working well. Also got myself checked out by the doc, and that all appears to be ok too. He still can’t seem to grasp the fact that Im full time on the road and not at his beck and call whenever he needs. Oh well hopefully he will switch on soon.

Stayed an extra couple of days in the Blue Mountains as the weather got so darned hot over the Saturday (46c) and Sunday (37c)

it wouldn’t have been fair on the dogs to travel in that heat. Anyway finally got back on the road Monday morning and got just south of Orange before calling it a day. Free camped in Macquarie Woods, a place I had previously stayed, not many other campers there so I was able to pick my spot. Im pretty sure a couple of the vehicles were there when I last visited back in September but couldn’t be sure.

From here it was a wander North up to Dubbo to visit the Jayco dealer, needed a new water intake and a new foot for one of the rear legs on the Caravan. Managed to get both and as usual assistant there was more than helpful, even got a freebie bottle opener. After leaving Dubbo, went a bit further on to a lovely little campsite in the town of Narromine, very friendly and helpful hosts, who had a wee menagerie of animals, including a week old lamb, which was more like a puppy and followed the owner everywhere, also include were and alpaca, cow and a horse, and not forgetting the small lizard that waited under the table for any scraps.

While at the campsite I managed to fit the new water inlet, which was a fiddly rather than difficult job, which did cause a few swear words and a scraped knuckle. The fitting of the foot to the rear leg was easy peasy and all over and done with within five minutes.

I was trying to decide whether to go straight to Bourke from here or to detour to Cobar for a couple of days first, I went to and fro for a while and it wasnt until the next morning when I left the camp I decided to go to Cobar, oh how little decisions can make big changes. Well it was a miserable day, the rain was badly needed right across the state, but it does make for very trying driving conditions.  Lots of thunder and lightning going on and the beginnings of flooding in the paddocks both side of the road.  What made this worse, was that due to the rain I had to shut the ute windows so that the dogs didnt end up sitting in a swimming pool. I had the fan on for them, but it must have got a bit uncomfortable for them with no fresh air coming in. Mindful of this, every time the rain eased I was pulling over to open the windows for them, then stopping again when the rain got heavier. Eventually arrived in Cobar and parked up at the campsite. When checking in the lady at the desk asked me where I was heading to, I said in a couple of day I will be off to Bourke. Oh she says, are you aware that the road is closed due to flooding. No says I but I guess by the time I leave it should have reopened so should be ok. Well it rained the whole three days I was in Cobar, apart from a few breaks. Lots of thunder and lightning which didnt please the dogs too much. I had a small sense of deja vu, I remembered when I was in Mildura enroute to Broken Hill that the road was closed due to a faulty bridge, so I had to stay an extra week until the road reopened, and here I was in Cobar with the same problem. Not much in Cobar to write home about. It is a typical outback Australia mining town. What it did have was a fairly large open cast gold mine. I took a couple of photos but due to the weather they aren’t crash hot.

Now my thinking was, stay in Cobar til the Saturday, then a short 130km run up to Bourke for the night, then East to Walgett for a night, then onwards to Lightning Ridge for a few days. Whats that old saying, when man plans God laughs.

After a very pleasant peaceful if uneventful few days in Cobar, Saturday dawned, still a bit drizzly, but the plan was afoot so I started to pack up to set off. Now as I previously mentioned the direct road from Cobar to Bourke is a straight run of 130kms, but when I looked on the traffic website that road was still closed due to flooding, so this meant  I had a just over 270km detour to take to get to Bourke, so off we went. As I was driving the first part of the trip back to Nyngan, the rain slowly got heavier, so I stopped in Nyngan for a coffee and to give the dogs a quick stretch. then it was off up the highway to Bourke, which was just over 200kms  up the road. The rain eased to showers on the way up but there was a lot of water lying either side of the road in the culverts and quite a lot of standing water in the paddocks.  The road want too bad at least no flooding across it although there was the odd patch of standing water in the dips. Got to Bourke and went to the campsite and it was closed, is suspected due to flooding but no explanations were evident, so I went to the only other campsite in Bourke, this was open and completely empty, but the owner wouldn’t let me park as they didnt accept dogs. I thought they may have grabbed all the custom they could seeing as they were empty and the other site was closed. but no dice. There are a couple of free camping sites in Bourke but due to the rain they werent accessible, well that’s not strictly true, I could have got in but would have to wait for the sun to bake all the mud to get back out again.  As the end destination was Lightning Ridge I thought I may as well go on to Walgett and stop there for the night, after a quick dog stretch off we set again. Someone upstairs must have been watching and thought rain, I will give them some rain, and boy did they.  There were a lot of really heavy downpours on the way, so heavy I had to pull over and stop as I could hardly see the road in front of me. And it amazed me that there were still people driving both ways without any lights on their vehicles.  This was a very stop start and slow progress trip, but eventually the rain eased a bit before I got to Walgett. I pulled over into a rest stop to see what campsites there were in Walgett, and stone the crows (not the 60/70s blues group, for our older readers) there aren’t any, again a couple of free camping places and the show grounds, but due to the weather these weren’t options, so after while I thought I may as well got to Lightning Ridge as I know there are campsites there. I finally go to Lightning Ridge at about 1800 after leaving just after eight that morning and found a campsite to book into. Just me and one other vehicle in the site, which I though odd but found out the reason the next morning.

Lightning ridge closes for all of February. Very little of the attractions were open, the driving tours you can do all four of them were closed due to the time of year and the weather making them too muddy. the few shops that were there were open, but all the opal shops were closed. So it was a bit of bust all round really, so I just stayed and enjoyed the peace and quiet and the discount rates.

We had rain, well a shower at least, just about every day I was there and quite a few thunderstorms. But after the long drive of getting there I was glad to finally put my feet up and more importantly get the coffee machine up and running.

I left Lightning Ridge yesterday and travelled further East until about 30kms East of Moree in a very small township of Pallamallawa. A very bouncy trip was had on the Gwydr highway the road is not the best maintained by quite some distance. There were even a few places where the recent storms had caused some damage to the road surface. Quite a lot of potholes some quite significant and you wouldn’t want to hit them at any sort of speed or on a motorbike. But now I’m in a very small probably only eight or ten sites campsite and the only one here. Paid my fees at the local pub, very friendly locals, and had a very cool and very welcome beer. May have to partake again later. One typical small town shop which sells every thing from diesel and unleaded through gas bottles basic household needs to takeaways, which apparently are highly recommended, so may well partake in one of those this evening as well.

Anyway peeps, that’s all the latest so far, Im here til Monday morning not sure where Im heading to next, depends on the storms and cyclones which are threatening nearer to the coast.

I afraid there are not many pics to display as the weather/locations have not offered much at all, hopefully things will pick up on the next stage

 

Well here we have stumbled into 2020, not so much with a roar and a hiss but more a gentle turn of the page. To anyone I haven’t said Happy New Year to I hope 2020 turns out to be a good one for you all.

So Christmas in Port Augusta. It was a very quiet day I think only about 4 or 5 caravaners were there, but there were quite a few families in the chalets.  The main highlight for me was the dip in the pool, as it was a reasonably warm day. This is the first Christmas since I emigrated that the dogs and I didnt go to the beach on Christmas morning.  Well I guess technically that is not quite true, as we did got to sort of beach in one of the inlets in Port Augusta, but there weren’t any waves to speak of although Cody did his best to stir a few up.

I left the campsite on Boxing Day and was heading to Kadine for my next overnight stop, but when I got there the campsite was full, looking at my trusty camping book and wikicamps app, it seems that there are not too many free camping places in the Southern part of South Australia, I did manage to get my self into a small campsite in Port Wakefield for a couple of nights.  Although the site wasn’t up to much, it was in a very pretty location with lots of walks around.  I must say the roads were surprisingly busy on Boxing Day.  From there I trundled down to a town called Murray Bridge, stayed at what looked like a brand new campsite very clean and tidy, with all sites drive thru and gravel. The only drawback was I found that the grey water pipe from my van to the drain was slightly up hill. I could have turned the van around but I had got everything set up and couldn’t be bothered. So it was a case of every morning just lifting the pipe to drain the water out of it. No hardship but a lesson learnt.  Murray Bridge is a good size town and as the name states its right on the Murray River. This river and I have become very well acquainted on this trip.

Back on the road again New Years Eve, heading down towards the town of Narracoorte, and the skies were very hazy with all the smoke from the bush fires around Adelaide and Kangaroo Island. I found a free camp at Cockatoo Lake which was recommended so decided to take a look and see if it was for me. By jove it was, very nice location, and to make it even better no-one else there when I arrived. The actual lake like so many others had suffered because of the drought, and it looked like just over half of it  had evaporated but it still had enough in for the birds and some kayakers.  I was only going to stay here a couple of days, but with all the fires going on I ended up staying a week keeping a wary eye on which way the fires were travelling.  A few days the sky got very smokey but thankfully CFS/RFS seemed to have most of them under control, except the one on Kangaroo Island which ended up buying half of the Island, with a huge loss of wild life and livestock, and also two men.  The Saturday I was at Cockatoo Lake it got really chilly, barely rising above 20c (apologies to my UK readers, but after high 30’s to mid 40’s you do feel the difference), and on the Sunday we had some drizzle, while other parts reasonably close by had proper rain. When I left on the Monday morning there were lots of people phoning in to the ABC radio station telling them how much rain they had received.  One woman was in tears on the phone in, she lived out in the bush  and she said it was the first time she had water in her rain barrel in 3.5years. Nowhere near enough to end the drought, but gave them a bit of relief albeit for a very short time.

From here I swung down onto the south coast with every intention of doing the The Great South Road drive in its entirety, my sister and I did a decent chunk of it a few years ago, so thought it would be good to revisit. However, it was stupid busy with people everywhere, all the campsites were fully booked, So when I got to Port Fairy I gave it up as a bad job and headed inland to find somewhere to stay.  In the end I went 35kms inland and ended up at Hawkesdale racecourse for a couple of nights. A free camping spot with toilets. After setting up the outside I went inside to put the kettle on and on opening the door the whole caravan smelt like a bag of Salt and Vinegar crips, and there was some liquid over the floor, which both Whisper and Cody took one sniff at and promptly went back outside.  On further investigation I discovered on opening the fridge that my jar of pickled onions had fallen over and the lid had somehow unscrewed. Mystery solved.  Thankfully my jar of homemade beetroot had also rolled over but it had remained firmly sealed. So even before having a cuppa a quick mop and tidy up was in order. A while ago I had bought myself a solar shower, basically a large 20ltr back which you leave in the sun and the water inside heats up,  so on the second day as I was alone I thought I would put it through its paces (SOCS or users checks as we used to say in the RN).  I placed said bag on the tailgate of the truck and thought no more about it.  About four hours later when I came to use it I discovered two things. Number one was that lifting 20ltrs of water above you head to hang it up with the bag flopping around is no easy task, so I thought I had better drain some water out of it, which is when I learnt lesson number two, I could have made a cup of tea with the water, it was damn near boiling.  Far too hot to shower with I could barely put my hand in it.  So after draining about half of the water, and leaving it hanging under the awning in the shade for a couple of more hours, a jolly decent shower was finally had. It will certainly come in handy on my further trips.

Whilst I was at Hawkesdale I discovered I was only about 150kms from the start of the Silo Art trail. As previously mention these are large grain silos which have been very artistically painted by local and overseas artists. The Silo Art trail is a series 9 of these silos spread over about 200kms, so I thought I would go and have a looks.

I drove up to a small town called Murtoa, and you can tell you are in the heart of arable farming country. Lots of these silos everywhere, huge piles  of covered grain being stored, and when I say huge they are about 3 to 4 hundred meters long and about five or six meters high, and in one paddock in Murtoa there were seven of these piles. Being from UK I’m used to fields being oh I dont know about 50 to 100 acres max each, out here the paddocks are measured in Kilometres they are just massive. Anyway the small site I stopped at in Murtoa was very pleasant right on the lake edge. Managed to top up my meds at the local Pharmacy which was a bonus.

The Southern end of the Art trail starts at a small town of Rupanyup and then winds it way Northwards.  The road up from Rupanyup to the next silo at Sheep Hills, was one of the bounciest I had been on in a good while. It felt like every few feet there was a dip in the road which would get the car and van going. Now I normally cruise along at about 90kph on the back roads, but I hit one dip at this speed and actually felt the front wheels of the truck come off the road.  So it was an ease off and I was toodaling along at just over 60kph.  These roads get really torn up by the large trucks and agriculture machinery that regularly uses them.  It is easily possible to do the whole trail in a day, but as I was in no rush I spread it over two.  That night I spent in Hopetoun (no not a misspelling) and did the second half of the trail the next day without lugging the van around behind me.

My final stop before reaching Bendigo and spending some time with my sister was at a small town called Wycheproof. Spent two nights here, and when I went out for a walk with the dogs on Sunday morning for a paper and coffee, I found that nothing was open, not even the petrol station. It was like a ghost town. Still it was a lovely walk with the boys.

In to Bendigo on Monday morning, booked in for a week at the local campsite, and spend a great week with Pat and her close companion Mollie (labradoodle).  Did a couple of odd jobs for her around the house, had a nice cooked breakfast out at the Beechworth Bakery and also went for a pub lunch at Heathcote winery. I even managed to purchase a lovely cheeky bottle of Syrah or Shiraz if you prefer.  On Sunday we took all the dogs out to lake Eppalock which is a very large lake about 40kms outside Bendigo.  At its peak this lake is over 30meters deep and covers an area of approximately 3,000 hectares (roughly 7,500acres). Well when we got there it was virtually dry, probably running at less than 10% capacity.  We were both shocked to see it and the dogs were disappointed that the had to walk about 700meters to reach any water at all, it really did hit home the enormity of the drought conditions being experienced.

Left Bendigo and little sis two days ago stayed at Jerilderie on Monday night and at Parkes on Tuesday. While at Parkes I went out to look at the radio telescope they have there, and man that is a decent size. 80 odd meters high and 64meters across. Lots to see and do there, but unfortunately I couldn’t make full use of it as I had the dogs in the car and was very mindful of not leaving them too long in the car. But it was well worth a visit.

Currently on my way to my brothers house, got to get the car serviced, the van safety checked, couple of minor works (electrical) on the car/van, and I need to go to the docs to get my prescriptions renewed. so hopefully it will only be a week and Im hoping to be back on the road the following weekend.

anyway as per usual a few pics to end with, mainly death by silo art but a few others thrown in.

chin chin for now

So I left Mildura again and headed off back to Renmark, ditching my fruit and veg on the way, to keep the fruit fly police happy.

Renmark wasnt as good as I expected it to be, not a great deal there at all really but I did manage to get some admin done and stock up for another month with meds. The campsite was good though and the weather wasnt stupid hot (more on that later on), and I was right by the river, the good old Murray again, I get the feeling that we should have been on first name terms the amount of time I’ve spent looking at it this trip.  But again nice to see a decent amount of water flowing along it.

Well I got a bit of a surprise through the post, there was I thinking I had officially become  an old aged pensioner when I hit 65 November, but no , the UK civil service said you are still a spring chicken young man, you have another year to go before we give you your pension. Yes dear folks as you are all no doubt well aware the pension age has gone up to 66 and is heading further North to 67 in the not too distant future. Probably during my lifetime it will hit 70. Happily however, the Hampshire Constabulary said otherwise and decided to award me my pension, so swings and roundabouts I think.

From Renmark I headed further West aiming for Port Augusta which is to the North of Adelaide. It wasnt til I stopped on the way to give the dogs a stretch and a drink and was looking at the map for a free camping place to stay that I noticed that the road I was on took me back through Clare (another case of deja vu all over again), so I decided to stop there for the night and venture off in the morning. It was a handy place to stop as it was only 3 to 4 hours drive from there the next day to Port Augusta

It was a good drive West and went through some really lovely old and small townships, even managed to pull over for a coffee at Wirrabara and have a look at some more Silo Artwork, this one I thought was particularly striking.  It did cross my mind how some of these places manage to survive, as not a lot appears to happen in them if you do manage to see any people. But I guess as the populace gets older eventually the towns will die as very little new blood is attracted to these places., sad in a way but

So onwards to Port Augusta where I found a nice Caravan park for a couple of nights right beside where the road splits, right to Coober Pedy (my next destination) Darwin and the Northern Territory or straight on to Perth.  So even for me it was very hard to go the wrong way and have to backtrack.  When I arrived at Port Augusta the outside temperature was 42c (apart from the USA does anyone else still use Fahrenheit?), the wa\ter coming out of the stand pipe to go into the caravan was hot enough to shower in, and too hot to put in the dog bowls, so they got spoilt by having bottled water during the day then piped water at night.  They will be wanting jacuzzis and towelling robes next.

Port Augusta is a strange place, very spread out and very industrial once outside the CBD lots of freight yards  and huge trains, some look as if they are 3kms long or more. The actual CBD is very small, you could walk around it and see everything in about 30mins or so. There are some lovely old building and a really nice boardwalk by the sea, and was a great place to give the dogs a step out. As an added bonus and a really nice food truck selling burritos and a good strong coffee. Of course one just had to taste the local fare .

Whilst at the van park I noticed something weird going on, there were only about five or six of us parked up in a park which probably holds up to 50 powered sites, but every time someone new came in they kept clumping everyone together. One person was designated to come in next to me even though there were 8 empty spaces to the left of me, which would have meant me bringing in the dog fence and putting away my awning,  so when the chap saw this he rang the reception and explained this and asked to go to another site and they said yeah no problem, why not just do that in the first places rather than crowding people in and causing and inconvenience. Most odd. Now what would one of my blogs be like without a quick moan or two within it.

So onwards from here to Coober Pedy, which is the Opal capital of Australia, Opals are also mined in Queensland and Lightning Ridge in NSW but for sheer quantity this place is it. The weather was really starting to warm up so it was hourly stops on the way for the dogs to make sure they got water and some fresh air (well fresh as it could be in the heat).  Stopped at Spuds Roadhouse about 180kms North of Port Augusta to top up with fuel (179.9 per litre instead of 149.9 in the Port) and also fuel for me and the dogs, coffee for me and a sausage roll (jumbo size) split 3 ways.  Nice little roadhouse and saw my first proper road train here, possibly 60mtrs long and well into the 100ton vicinity. Now some of you may have seen Outback Truckers on you TV sets, but let me tell you until you see one for real you have no idea just how big they are, and when the come thundering past you going 110kph or more its quite a scary sight.  When you see one of those in you rear view mirror you just slow down pull over and let them go. These chaps do not slow down or stop for anything, hence the multitude of dead kangaroos and emus on the side of the road, The carrion birds must be the best fed in all the world.

Anyway I got to a place called Lake Hart, well what used to be Lake Hart, its now just a salt pan, and as the outside temp was hitting 45c I decided to call it a day and stop for the night. Of course not having mains power I couldn’t have the zircon on in the caravan, so my poor 12v fan did the best it could in very trying conditions.  Man that was a very warm and sticky night, I think the temp only got down to about 37c or so. None of us got much sleep, so well left just after 5:30 the next morning just as the sky was getting light, thought I would get a good way up the road before the sun did its worst. I decided against my original plan of stopping for a second night on the way, and thought going straight through to Coober Pedy and onto power was a better idea.  Again hourly stops for the dogs so arrived in Coober Pedy about 1100, and booked myself into the Oasis caravan park. The drive up was really uneventful but in some places really quite scenic if you like the outback look. I must admit I do like the outback but sometimes it looks even better when you are in a car with zircon on a bit of music, and away from the heat and the flies.

I was a bit disappointed with Coober Pedy, not because of the town but it was so hot there you couldn’t really walk around to look at things, every day I was there it was in the high 40’s probably averaging 47c.  But on the Thursday 19th it excelled itself, it got to 51.9c (125.4f), which managed to go into my record book as the hottest day Ive experienced, beating my previous best of 51.1 (123.9f) from out in the Middle East in 1988, at least in this instance I didnt have to wear full anti flash clothing and a gas mask. So unfortunately due to the heat I didnt get to see as much as I hoped or would have liked, but thankfully the Oasis park had a lovely undercover unheated pool which was an absolute god send. I was in and out like a fiddlers elbow on the Thursday. And one other thing certainly for my UK bretheren, beat this if you can. I washed two t shirts and a pair of shorts on the very hot Thursday,  hung them out to dry in the high heat and the very hot wind, just over fifteen minutes later they were being put back in the cupboard nice and dry. It was just like putting them in the oven.

Coober Pedy is certainly far from the most scenic place in Australia there are very few trees and even less grass, but there is plenty of sand and dust. Quite a few of the shops and the houses are actually underground to get away from the summer heat and due to the nature of the rock they get a year round temperature of between 21c and 25c, thus doing away with the need for heating and cooling.

every other shop in Coober Pedy is an opal specialist and some of them would not be out of place in the back streets of a major city, real Honest John type of places, but I must say the people are all pretty friendly and make time to have a chat.

When going up and back down again on the Sturt Highway between Port Augusta and Coober Pedy, every so often you go over a cattle grid, and just after the grid you see a sign saying unfenced road look out for livestock and the name of the station (farm not railway) whose land you are crossing. Well on the way up one of these signs took my attention as shortly after it there was another sign pointing down a gravel road to where the actual Station was, and I thought I had read it wrong so I checked again on the way back down on Saturday.  The sign said that the road was going through Mount Eba station then the road sign a couple of kms further on pointed to the right saying Mount Eba Station so I guess technically this was the start of their driveway from the highway. But what grabbed my attention ,and this will give you some idea as to how big Australia is, was that the sign said it was 41kms (25miles). That is some driveway. Ive looked up Mount Eba station on the inter web, and currently it covers 1305 square miles and believe me this is far from being  one of the big stations.

I stopped at Woomera on the way back down, this town is owned by the Military and used to be the base for all the personnel who were involved in rocket, missile and bomb testing mainly through the 50s 60s and into the 70s. It only has 146 inhabitants now mainly people who maintain the facilities or work at the observatory. I drove around on Saturday and Sunday and only saw 3 people, and that was over both days, and one of these was the young girl in the shop. Lots of empty houses but as they are all owned by the Military you are unable to buy them, and none of them are for sale, seems such a waste to me when there are so many people who would love a roof over their heads. The only problem with this thought is that there is no work there unless you are a technical whizz, and the nearest town is 110miles away, so a bit of a commute. Anyway it was well worth a look around, so after two night there Im back in Port Augusta again (deja vu again) and will be staying here til Boxing Day.

Not much in the way of good photos this time, but will post what I have

A very lovely stay in Silverton which is about 25kms Northwest of Broken Hill, as previously mentioned famous for the Mad Max film franchise, more than anything else. Broken Hill has long been on my bucket list as a place to visit, mainly I think because it is in the outback proper, and its relative isolation from any other towns.  It was built on the mining industry and whoever had the road naming rights back in the day either had a sense of humour or was just being very literal about what came out of the ground. Most of the main roads in the town are named after toxic chemicals, for example Bromide, Oxide, Sulphide to name just three. I suppose it does make a pleasant change from Acacia Avenue.  Its quite an artsy town now, lots of galleries and static displays portraying is Aborigine heritage and its mining past. The main CBD still has a good lot of originality well at least on the outside.

The campsite I stayed at in Silverton  was a very quiet and peaceful especially at night. No lights on either so the night sky was quite spectacular. There was a chap staying there from Queensland who was a very keen astronomer, who was gracious enough to set up his telescope one night to let me have a good look at the heavens.  Quite some sights to behold.

About 6km further west from Silverton was a place called Mundi Mundi lookout where my sunset phots were taken from.. I probably chose the the best night of the four I was there to go and take some photos of it.  Basically its just a hilltop which overlooks a vast plain, with not a great deal between it and the horizon. Sure gave you a scale of the vastness of the country.  Lots of feral goats and sheep on the road between Silverton and Broken Hill, which also produced my first near miss with an emu, as is there want it was trotting along beside me when it decided to dart across the road in front of me. Luckily no caravan was being towed at the times was able to break and swerve at the same time and managed to just miss it.  This strengthened my thinking on getting a bull bar fitted to the car as hitting one of those at any sort of speed can do some serious damage to the car.  (more on the bull bar saga later).

Anyway I finally packed up and left the area and headed off towards South Australia a state which util now I haven’t ventured to.  My first stop on the trip southwest was at a small place called Mannahill, as I saw a sign for coffee at the local hotel. If I had known what I knew after I stopped before I stopped things would have been better.  Number 1 the flies here were of biblical proportions , the sign as you enter town which says welcome to Mannahill, inhabitants 14, dogs 7, flies 10,000,000 was very close to the truth, man there was sure a lot of them. Anyway into the hotel goes I  in search of my coffee, and when the proprietor finally turned up she did say did I want instant of espresso coffee, well I did ask for espresso but what came back was Im sure just instant with hot frothy milk. Not nice at all,  Managed to get a photo of the train station before departing and tipping the coffee under the truck.  My next stop was at Yenta, where basically I stopped for fuel (blooming 70ltr tank not the best, but more on that later as well), so filled up with diesel then noticed the sign across the road saying there was overnight parking allowed for campers, so decided to stop for the night. On talking to the lady behind the counter of the local garage/post office/bottle shop/takeaway/hardware/shop was informed that the Indian Pacific was due through the town at about 1500hrs that afternoon.  For my UK fraternity the Indian Pacific is a weekly  day train ride from Sydney to Perth, it departs Sydney on a Wednesday and arrives in Adelaide on the Thursday and then onwards to Perth arriving on the Saturday, it then heads back on the Sunday. Its also a very touristy thing to do the trip but it doesn’t come cheap, and you thought the UK trains were expensive.  Whilst we are on the subject of trains there is also another service called The Ghan which runs weekly from Adelaide  leaving on Sunday via Alice Springs arriving on the Monday then on to Darwin arriving late Tuesday afteroonto and vice versa.  It was quite the sight to behold when it came through doing a fair lick of speed, and being a lot longer than I thought it would be, probably 18 to 20 carriages, It was going too fast for me to count them (if I had remembered to that is)

Next day it was on to a town called Terowie, which was a recommended stop on the camping guide app. This town grew up with the railway and was what was called a switching station. Apparently in the days ago the railways used to use different gauge tracks, so the trains from Adelaide, Melbourne and Broken Hill had to stop here and the passengers, freight and livestock had to all get off and get on another train to continue their trip, Now doesn’t that just sound like a railway built by a committee. Terowie other major claim to fame is the fact this is where during the Second World War  General Douglas McArthur got off a train here and made famous quote, “I have come from Bataan and I will return” (hence my title).  Unfortunately he wouldn’t recognise the place now, its dwindled from and its height was a population in excess of 2000 to just over 40 today. I was going to leave the following morning  but when the temperature hit 30c at 8am and it was forecast to go a lot higher I thought I would sit and veg for the day, It finally peaked at 43.2c, which for those of you still using the imperialist measurements is a toasty 109.7f, nearly enough to take off my jumper and roll the trouser legs up. In the end I stayed for 3 nights and a lovely stop it was too.

While in Terowie I found a place in Clare South Australia which did 4×4 repairs and fittings and when I asked them if the could put a bull bar and an extended rang fuel tank on my Nissan they said of course no problem, give us a week to order the parts and we will be good to go. Result thinks I that will make life easier and being virtually on the route I was going, it didnt need too much of a diversion.

So I cross over the border from NSW into South Australia and get stopped at a biodiversity quarantine checkpoint (looking for fruit flies) Well all my salad and bits of fruit were promptly frowned upon and rapidly thrown into the bin by the Chappy manning said checkpoint, he did fail to see the humour or the irony when I pointed out that my apples were a product of South Australia, all I got in response, if you haven’t got a docket for them you can’t keep them.

So onwards we trundled to a town called Burra where I was planning to stop for the weekend. On the way there I passed a huge wind farm probably well over fifty towers. I managed to pull into a rest area where the had one of the sails from a window tower on display, 44metres long it was, they dont look so big when the are twirling around on the hill side.  The towers are 80metres tall so when the sail is pointing straight up its over 120metres off the ground.

So into Burra and the campsite, was going to a pay one rather than free camping as I needed some water and a decent cup of coffee.  So I go into the office to book myself in for the weekend, and the person behind the counter must have got out of bed the wrong side as they weren’t the most cheerful person on the planet that afternoon.  Now there was a big sign outside saying pet friendly, so I mentioned that I had two dogs with me and that I have a cage which goes outside the the van so they can’t get loose. First question I was asked was how big were they, when I told then Labrador size there was a good intake of breath, almost like a well drilled mechanic when you ask them how much.  I said if its a problem I will go somewhere else. I was then told that they had to be on a leash at all times, when I explained they were in a caged area  when outside they still said they had to be on a leash.  It all just seemed like it was too much effort for them. If they dont like big dogs then say so in the advertising then people know. But dont advertise as pet friendly when you really mean pet tolerant, we want your custom so I guess we have to put up with your animals.  (Soap box put away again)

Anyway the town of Burra was charming very olde worlde with lots of character and very well looked after and maintained. Well worth a visit if you are passing that way. they have a heritage trail which you get from the Isite you pays your fee and they give you some keys, which open doors and gates along the trail, Its about 11kms long so you can do it by car, bike, motorbike and its very well done. and the good thing about it you dont have to fight through all the passing sightseers, and you get some peace and quiet. I didnt actually do the trail as dogs weren’t allowed on it, and I didnt fancy leaving them alone at the caravan park.

From Burra it was a short trip, about 50kms across to Clare in preparation of getting the truck upgraded. Now Clare is spookily enough right in the middle of the Clare Valley which is a large wine making area of South Australia, known probably more for the whites rather than reds, but hey we all have to make sacrifices.  Again I booked into a caravan park, as I thought if Im going to be without a car for a day or so I dont want to be too far from town. Its just as well I did because come the Tuesday evening the weather turned decidedly wintery. Rain, drizzle, wind, and temperatures struggling to get into the teens. Now while I was in town I thought it would be a good idea to get the dogs jabs/flea/worm treatments all up to date so made and appointment on the Monday afternoon to see the vet. Well when she was checking over Whisper she found a lump on her front leg just above her ankle and said she wasnt happy with look of it and would like to know what we were dealing with, then when she got to Whispers mouth she said she had an abscess or something similar in a couple of places, which also needed urgent attention before it got any more sinister. Now in my defence, Whisper had not shown any problem at all eating or drinking or if I touched her on her snout.  So anyway whisper gets booked in for first thing Wednesday morning to get herself sorted. Come collection time Wednesday afternoon, I was told the lump was nothing too serious more of a fatty cyst, bit like a ganglion which us humans get. but she had a nice big blue bandage covering most of her leg. But the was whining a lot and when the vet told me she only had eight teeth left I knew the reason why. The vet even took out the ones which had been damaged (previous vet believed she had been kicked) before I had her. So we had to nip to the shop on the way home to get some soft dog food for her. A very restless night was had by all, but by the next day lunchtime she was virtually back to normal, and by the weekend she even ate some biscuits which Cody had walked away from. And just as an aside, when I took the bandage off her leg on the Saturday as per vets instructions the lump was back again. Back to the vet we go on the Monday morning for a quick check up and the vet as very pleased and a bit shocked how quickly Whisper had recovered.

On leaving the vets I popped down to the garage to see the people who were supposed to be doing my truck, as I hadn’t heard from them. Bearing in mind it was well over a week since I had spoken to them. I was told that the bull bars had turned up but the fuel tank probably wouldn’t be there til the end of the week or more likely the following week. when I enquired where it was coming from I was told Sydney, which I found hard to believe that they couldn’t get one in Adelaide or Melbourne, and that I could have driven to Sydney and back again within the week. So I told them not to bother as I couldn’t hang around for another week on the off chance it turned up sometime.  Luckily I found a place in Mildura who had what I wanted in stock and they said they could fit me in whenever I could get there.  So I left Clare on the Tuesday morning had an overnight in Renmark, which is a place I wouldn’t mind seeing again, and went all the way back to Mildura, at least it was via a different route, dumping more fruit and salad into the quarantine bin on the way through.

So here I am again, back in Mildura, the car got done on Thursday, had an oil and filter change this morning so will be all raring to go on Monday morning, I may just go back to Renmark for a couple of nights and then see where the road takes me.

So you are all up to date so will call that day.

Not much in the photo business as haven’t really taken very many lately, will buck my ideas up in that department soonest.

chin chin

I was convinced I had updated you all within the past month or so when I was back in Penrith,  but looking back it appears I hadn’t so I had better update as to what has been happening.

When I left you all I was in Gloucester, slowly making my way back towards Penrith to catch up with relations. I was going to go down the East coast and then cut inland, but looking at my trusty map book there were very few free camping places, and the ones that were showing were in National Parks, which Im banned from entering due to the dogs. So a quick change of plan was in order and I instead headed off to Cessnock where I stayed at the show grounds. This gave me good access to the Hunter Valley wine region. Cessnock has certainly grown since my last trip there lots of new buildings and large housing estates springing up everywhere. This seems to be a growing trend in all the larger towns I have stopped at or driven through. I suppose its a double edged sword, it good to see the growth and that there is good money and infrastructure, but its sad to see the towns changing so much and getting so much larger and busier. I guess that’s progress.  Whilst at Cessnock I managed to get out the the Audrey Wilkinson vineyard at Polkolbin, which brought back many happy memories of my previous visit there in 2011 with Pat and Shelley. And I must say they do make a very fine drop of Shiraz as well, in my humble opinion and trust me Im no expert one of the finest Shiraz’s I have had the pleasure to taste.

On the morning I was leaving Cessnock I awoke to find that the caravan was parked in a small lake, some strange stuff called rain had fallen quite heavily during the night. So it was fun packing up the van whilst paddling around, the dogs were most unimpressed and it took a while to get them out of the van and into the truck. It was good to see the rain as everywhere was so very dry, but, t could have waited until I was out on the road before it decided to come down. As the East coast route was now out I decided to head North again and skirt around the northern edge of the Blue Mountains, and then loop around down the other side of them. There is a route through the mountains, but as I was in no rush, and I knew that route was very twisty and hilly I thought I would take the easy way out.

The next stop was at a place called Cassilis, now this was advertised as a Rest Area and truck stop so I was only planning to stay the one night.  However when I arrived there was a huge area behind the truck stop area were camping was allowed, it was probably an area of about 10acres or so. This was back about 100metres at least from the main road and the truck area so it was very peaceful. In the end I stayed four nights and very pleasant it was too. Now Im sure I have mentioned it before but Im going to again, what is it about people who like to park up right next to. you. I normally park away from others if I can because of the dogs mainly, as not everyone likes them. Now when I parked up I was the only person there in, remember, about 10 acres of land, and yet when I got up to let the dogs out the next morning there was someone parked right behind me. I fully understand this safety in numbers thing when free camping but come on, do people have to get so close it feels like the caravans are semi-detached.

From here I drove up through Dubbo and the next stop was Ponto Falls camp area. When coming through Dubbo I could see there was a dust storm brewing and the sky got very yellow and visibility dropped quite a bit. By the time I got to the camp area it was in full swing, lots of wind and dust everywhere. It made the setting up of the caravan very tedious and by the time I had finished I had to rinse off in the shower as the dust had got everywhere and boy I’m mean everywhere.  By the next morning it had passed and I was in a lovely spot right by the river. As to why its called Ponto Falls Ive no idea as there was certainly no falls of any sort I could see.  What there was there though was hundreds of thousands Bindies. Now these for the uninitiated are little seed pods from some plant or other which have usually 3 spikes on them, so no matter how they usually land there is always one pointed upwards. Now its no problem to walk around on these for people with shoes although the do stick into the soles of your footwear, but for dogs they are very painful as the jab in and stick. So after this I had to keep to the well worn foot and car tracks when walking the dogs.

The next stop after this was just South of Orange, which was a huge area again with about 20 or so other campers of all types there. A very uneventful trip and stay before moving on back to Stu and Vickys house in Blaxland. Arrived on the same day as my cousin Wendy did, she had been over for a couple of weeks visiting and staying with friends before coming out to pay us all a visit, It was lovely to see her again and she was having a great time on her first, but hopefully not her last trip to the land down under. We all discovered that Wendy had a remarkable skill which none of us knew about, this was the ability to put endless items at the bottom of her bag for the trip home, without ever filling the bag up, things just seemed to disappear into this bottomless void. Anyway Wendy is was lovely catching up again, and hopefully don’t leave it so long until the next time. Now I only planned to stay a week in Blaxland, but then I paid a visit to the doctors to get a new prescription, and that led to blood tests, foot tests and a head to toe check over. So in the end one week turned into two.

I left for the next part of my trip which was a slow (one week) trip for Blaxland down to Bendigo to catch up with my son who was leaving Melbourne and heading back to Auckland for work.  So it was back out through Bathurst, which was on the Monday after the big Bathurst 1000 V8 supercar race weekend. Man alive it was busy, nose to tail traffic in all directions. This was also the day the local Constabulary thought it wold be a good idea to conduct random roadside checks as well, which really didn’t help the traffic flow at all. I eventually got out of Bathurst and headed towards my first overnight stop in Cowra. This now meant I had been to Kawerau, Kawarau and Cowra, a lovely triple. On getting to the more rural parts of the State the number of flies certainly saw an increase. As I was only staying the one night it was manageable. The next place I planned to stop was Wagga Wagga (which always reminds me of Fozzy Bear from the Muppets), but I missed my turn in Wagga so carried on until I came across a town called The Rock. A lovely small town I parked up right next to the oval in amongst the trees. Not much in the town which looking As if it probably sparked to life sometime in the 1800’s due to the railway which runs through it. Although there wasn’t a lot there the local council were spending big money on putting in a brand new public swimming pool. Unfortunately it wasn’t open yet so was unable to give it the once over.

After this was it was on to Denniliquin for a couple of nights, where I had the first mishap of the trip. Parked right up next to the river again, this one actually had a decent amount of water running for a change. On leaving I had to move the caravan a couple of feet back so when I drove out I cleared the trees, for some reason I forgot one of the legs on the caravan was still down so that got nicely buckled when the caravan moved. The air was blue for a while thankfully there was no-one else in earshot. I managed to get it folded up into its resting place but knew a new one was required. Luckily I knew that there was a Jayco dealer in Bendigo.  So I crossed over the border into Victoria at Echuca and drove on down to Bendigo.  Met up with my sister Pat on the Friday afternoon and Ali arrived on Saturday morning. I had managed to get a new leg for the caravan and Ali and I put it on the van. Well when I said Ali and I, Ali did all the work grovelling under the van while I passed the tools.  Thanks for the help Ali.

After a great weekend with fabulous hospitality (thank you Pat) it was back on the road again. this time heading North West towards Mildura. and made it as far as a small place called Nyah, again found a lovely spot amongst the trees and near the river which again had lots of water in it. Fairly breezy most days and large temperature fluctuations, one day it was 38c the next it was 17c. I managed to losemy Akubra hat which Pat had kindly bought for me earlier in the year. I was walking the dogs one evening by the river when a gust of wind took it clean off my head into the water. If I hadn’t been holding the dogs I would probably have managed to retrieve it. But, by the time I had got myself together it had floated out into the river and was lazily drifting downstream.  A bloody good hat it was too.

From here it was up to Robinvale, I couldn’t find the place where I wanted to stay and the good old GPS was trying to take me down tracks where Im sure me and the caravan would have had great difficulty going. so discretion being the better part of valour I decided to carry on and find somewhere else. This let me to the Lake Benanee Rest Area. A lovely spot right on the lake shore, so that was me sorted for the next few nights.  It was a good job I did stop there as when I looked at my map for the next leg to Mildura I discovered I was in fact going the wrong way.  From here it was up to Mildura and trust me to pick a day to move when it was very overcast and threatening rain, but off I set anyway.  Not 5kms into the trip down the rain came and it rained all the way to Mildura. where I was staying in Mildura was down a 1km stretch of gravel road, well by the time I got there it was a bit more than gravel, all the mud had churned up and it was a very interesting trip along. A couple of times I was convinced that the car was going one way and the caravan felt like it was trying to overtake. I managed to get down, well I got as far as I could when I pulled into a layby and promptly got bogged down. So there I stayed for the night.  Next day dawned brighter and the roads seem to dry out fairly quickly and I managed to get the car out of the mud and move on to where I was supposed to be.

Stayed here until my birthday (officially a pensioner now) and moved on to Broken Hill, I’m actually at Silverton about 25kms NorthWest of Broken Hill, very limited phone and no internet reception.  Silverton is where they filmed the Mad Max films, and there is quite a bit of paraphernalia still lying around the town.  So I’m currently in the Isite (vistors centre) carpark in Broken Hill typing this.  I stopped on the way up between Mildura and Broken Hill at the Coobah Roadhouse and truck stop for a coffee, and was regaled by the women behind the counter as to why Collingwood didnt make it to or win the Grand Final of theAFL.

Broken Hill has always been on my bucket list of places to visit in Australia. Its proper outback and quite an artsy kind of place. Im very pleased to have ticked it off my list, the next one is Alice Springs, but that probably won’t be until sometime next year.

So that’s you all up to date as to where I’ve been and where I am. Not sure where is next on the list, Im due to move on tomorrow, I may just wander down the Adelaide road and see where it may lead me.