(We apologise in advance for the length of this post, but there seems to be a lot to tell)
Hot, hot, hot is the way it has been over the past few weeks. We have had a period of about 14 consecutive days where the temperature reached at least 40 degrees Celsius, and that was in the shade!
And of course Spot does not have the modern luxury of air conditioning. So our days (and some of the nights) have revolved around water – if we are not drinking it by the gallon, we try and submerge ourselves in it. Our hottest night so far was in Wyndham, the northernmost town of the Kimberley region of Western Australia, where at 42 degrees we could not sleep a wink so at 4.30am Shaz was up and in the swimming pool!
Amazingly though we are coping with the heat rather well, it is the mosquitoes and bugs that drive us to drink.
Dave hoisting our solar shower, a lifesaver in these hot conditions.
National Parks
We have been to some of the most amazing places over the past few weeks. After our refreshing stop in Darwin (which was a fairly non-descript place) we headed to Litchfield National Park and camped by some beautiful waterfalls for a few nights.
We even had guests over for after dinner drinks one evening – an English couple we had met in Kakadu – and managed to polish off our supply of gin and bacardi. We also were lucky enough to witness a full moon rising – just spectacular.
On to Katherine Gorge and our first domestic of the trip (not bad considering the conditions of 24 hours a day, 7 days a week together). We rented a canoe for the day to go through Katherine Gorge, neither of us having canoed before, an argument was on the horizon, especially as Shaz was particularly tense having seen the crocodile traps in the river (only freshwater crocs which apparently are not aggressive unless you are unlucky enough to disturb them). It all blew up at the first set of rapids when we did not have a clue what we were doing, but we got through them, and the next three sets and got into the swing of things. By the end of the day we were knackered, but had enjoyed ourselves after all.
Our next national park in the Northern Territory was Keep River, which we practically had to ourselves. Unfortunately it was not at its best as a local drunk had decided to light fires while on a walkabout and the landscape was now rather lunar looking. Still it was lovely and peaceful.
4 Wheel Driving in Western Australia
From Keep River we drove on to Kununurra in Western Australia where we started our 4 wheel drive adventure – Spot took a rest while we hired a Toyota Land cruiser and packed the tent for a week to drive the Gibb River Road which had been recommended by quite a few people.
One of the many river crossings on the Gibb River Road.
Our first night of bush camping and those storms we had been hoping to see while in the comfort of Spot now came crashing down around us in our little two-man tent!
Needless to say we were up with the sun at 4.30am and on the road again. The scenery was not as good as we had hoped and due to the lateness of the season many of the cattle stations normally open to tourists were now closed. We did manage to visit one station, which was fascinating – a million acres with just one guy living there – he sees his cattle about once a year! In the wet season these stations are often cut off for up to 4 months, and rely on supplies being flown in. The rains had not arrived just yet, so the rivers we had to cross were not too deep.
The road did get more scenic and we camped at a few lovely gorges – Dave under the stars and Shaz in the tent – and often had the places to ourselves. Dave has become quite a master at lighting and cooking on fire and we have had some excellent campfire meals.
The Bungle Bungles
The Bungle Bungle Range, the Kimberley region, Western Australia
The highlight of this 4WD adventure was the Bungle Bungle National Park – it was just surreal, and the 55km road into it was a true 4WD track. Shaz decided that this should be the testing ground for sports bra manufacturers – her Berlei shock absorber didn’t quite live up to it’s name – an over the shoulder boulder holder may have been more useful! We had another storm (7 hours of rain) while staying here (Dave tried to sleep in the back of the Land cruiser) and woke up to the loudest frog chorus we’d ever heard! The sights of this trip have only been a part of it, it is the sounds and smells that make it such an adventure. We really are living a dream.
It was good to get back to Spot and all his comforts, and to get back to the luxury of running water and public conveniences (it was hard work digging holes in 40+ degree heat).
Van camping in Western Australia
The prince and the frog
After one and two night stops over the last few weeks we decided to camp up for a week to relax and not drive. We are in Broome camping at Cable Beach, probably one of the most beautiful beaches in the world, and where the sea breeze feels just fantastic.
The only problem here is it is not just the two of us sleeping in Spot – Dave awoke the other night to find a jolly green frog on his tummy and threw him out of the van, only for him to return two hours later. Thank heavens it was not on Shaz or the entire campsite would have known about it! When the campsite manager said to Dave you should have kissed it as it may have turned into a beautiful princess, he replied “yeah, but I don’t think the wife would be too happy”. We’re both quite happy with what we’ve got so we will leave the frog kissing to the Aussies!
Our over-friendly frog!
We will continue south down the coast and hopefully get to Perth in time to spend Christmas with our friends Al and James.
A word from Dave
After a recent conversation with Danny (my brother) it seems that we have been a bit remiss with our basic information.
His first question was regarding where we were staying. This can basically be divided into two categories – National Park campsites and town caravan parks. The standard, and cost of these both vary. The NP sites vary the most, with facilities going from pit toilet only to full facilities with fresh water, hot showers, electricity and bbqs. The price goes from $5.50 to $20 per night. The quality seems mainly to depend on the amount of visitors. All have been clean and well maintained.
Dave having a shave in one of the National Park campsites!
The town sites (a town being a group of dwellings with a population of more than a hundred) all have the basic amenities, the difference mainly being how well maintained they are. Some have the added bonus of a pool. In fact all the sites up North have had pools. The cost for these sites are from $15 to $25 per night depending on how touristy the area is. The Blue Mountains were the most expensive so far.
The next question involved water, Spot has a 40litre water tank so we just make sure that this is full when ever we get the opportunity. We also carry about 12 litres extra for drinking.
Food is bought in varying quantities and quality depending on whether we are going to be camping on a powered site. A powered site means we can use the fridge more effectively. It is supposed to be able to run on Gas but this doesn’t happen when the temp is 40+ outside.
Any other questions let us know.
Spot complete with awning in a town campsite Western Austraila
9 November 2000, Darwin, Northern Territory Australia
As you can see from the title we have travelled a little further! The reasons why will follow in a moment.
After Forster we spent a couple of days camping at a place called Kylies Beach in Crowdy Bay National Park. It was simply stunning. We practically had the long, golden sandy beach to ourselves – there were two fisherman we had to share with! The bush campsite was small and had more kangaroos than people. We managed to get a photo or two of Skippy with Joey in the pouch! The other highlight was a family of koala bears – the father sleeping, while the little baby clung on to the mother – it was such a lovely sight to see.
Kylies BeachThere’s a family of koala bears in there!
Getting a move on
It was here in Kylies that we met some Aussie truck drivers who recommended we get a move on towards the Northern Territory if we wanted to see anything of that area.
The wet season up here is from November to March, with the really heavy rain from December onwards making many roads impassable. When we last wrote we were travelling very slowly and not driving any more than 250 kms in a day. We were taking life very easy, and at that rate we would never make it to the Northern Territory, or Western Australia. The area that we both really want to see is the route from Darwin to Perth. So it was a case of putting the foot to the floor and moving onwards and upwards!
Four long days of driving
For those of you who are tracking our route on the map we drove from New South Wales into Queensland, then eventually into the Northern Territory on the following route between Saturday 28 Oct and Tuesday 31 Oct (the asterisk denotes an overnight stop):
Many of these places may not be marked on the map, as all they were was a petrol station with the population listed as nominal!
It was about 4,000 kms in total and there were stages of the journey we did not meet another vehicle for two hours at a time, although we did see thousands of kangaroos. One unfortunate roo decided to run into the driver’s door as opposed to the roo bar on the front of Spot! We saw hundreds of emus, a few herd of cattle (we spoke to some cowboys moving their herd of 1,600 cattle to new pastures and they reckoned they would be there by Christmas), and a flock of sheep or two! Many of the places we went through lay claim to be the home of the Flying Doctor Service and the School of the Air offering medical and educational services to these very isolated communities. Winton and Longreach are where the airline Qantas began.
Luckily we had managed to buy a few classic cassette tapes at the start of our journey – John Denver, BB King, Hits from the 70’s and everyone’s favourite Country’s Classic Collection – anything to relieve the boredom of driving through areas with nothing to see!
We also amused ourselves with betting games, for example “I bet you the dishes tonight that the next vehicle will be a road train” (a cab with 3 containers hooked on the back and around 150 metres long) or “the next vehicle we see will be in 28 minutes” – we’re sure you get the idea!
Anyway we survived the drive and only shredded one tyre in the heat of the day and which Dave managed to change in record time – perhaps a career in Formula 1 awaits him!
The Northern Territory
We are now back on the taking it easy wavelength and it feels good. We spent a couple of nights camping in Katherine, then Edith Falls and then 4 days in Kakadu National Park (of Crocodile Dundee fame). Kakadu is a World Heritage site for both cultural and environmental reasons and it is just awesome, but needs some urgent visitor/people management before its natural beauty is destroyed. It is roughly the size of God’s own country (Ireland for those of you who didn’t know) and it is full of the most amazing plant, animal and bird life as well as home to many Aboriginal people. We cruised on the Yellow River wetlands to see the crocs and the bird life and took a 4-wheel drive tour to a couple of gorges and waterfalls as well as trying to walk early in the mornings to view the Aboriginal rock art. We would have stayed longer in Kakadu, but to see it at its best you need a 4-wheel drive as already many of the roads are turning to flood ways.
Kakadu wetlandsA croc in Kakadu if you look closely!The birdlife in Kakadu National ParkRock art in Kakadu National Park Australia
Hot and humid
It is now the build up to the wet season and the weather is very, very hot (we have had several days over 40 degrees) and very humid too, but there is no shortage of cold beer or swimming pools (without crocs) to cool off in. We have witnessed a couple of minor electrical storms, nothing major yet, but living in hope.
The flies and mosquitoes are very annoying (Dave currently has about 15 bites on one ankle and Shaz has had horrible reactions to some other insect bites), but we are putting up with them, just about!
While in Darwin we are staying in a hotel for 2 nights. Spot is having a quick service after his long haul getting us here, and it is just lovely to have baths, air conditioning, clean fluffy towels and crisp linen sheets.
Well since we last wrote we have purchased our travelling companion – a camper van we have christened Spot.
Spot is so called because we bought him in a place called “The Spot” in Randwick, Sydney. Spot is a 1983 Nissan Urvan Campervan with a pop-up top and we have everything we need and more – front doors, back door, side door, one double bedroom (it doubles up as a front or rear facing bedroom depending on where we actually face when we sleep in it), fully fitted kitchen with gas stove, fridge and microwave, comfortable lounge with large screen TV (well 10 inches maybe), stereo system (no tapes yet to play on it) and CB radio (we haven’t got a handle yet, so suggestions are welcome), and we have a storage box on the back. The bathroom is of course en suite and designed au naturel! Spot also has a 5 speed gearbox, well had until Shaz started driving it – more of that later!
Road Trip
We said goodbye to Wally in Sydney on Tuesday 10 October and officially started our Australian road trip.
Our first stop was Katoomba in the Blue Mountains where we camped up and got used to what Spot had to offer as well as doing a few very scenic walks through the mountains – really beautiful. We also camped at Blackheath and did some walks from there.
It was now time to head on into the Hunter Valley, we were getting thirsty and the area produces wine by the gallon. It is also an area full of stud farms. We arrived on Friday the 13th in torrential rain in a small little town called Denman in the Upper Hunter.
By the time we woke up the following morning it was drying up so we headed for the vineyards for some wine tasting. We decided not to visit the stud farms as Shaz is more than happy with her own stud! But as sure as Dave is the son of Ilan he had to buy wine from each of the three vineyards we visited, like father, like son.
Back again to the gearbox escapade. Just as we were driving out of our last vineyard, Spot decided to part company with it. We were towed back to the campsite within 15 minutes by the NRMA (the Oz equivalent of the AA), but knew that it was going to be Monday before we had a diagnosis and then a few more days to get the necessary parts and complete the repairs. The campsite owners were brilliant and gave us a cheap deal on a 6-berth caravan for the duration. We managed to enjoy the time in sleepy Denman, and everyone knew us, and our story of bad luck, by the time we left on Thursday in another downpour.
Spot in for repairs.Spot parked up in Lake GlenbawnSchindlers on Tour in Forster, NSW.
Our next stop was Lake Glenbawn, a fisherman’s paradise. We rented a boat and tried our luck – Shaz got two bites, but couldn’t reel in the huge fish on the end of the line; Dave of course caught the one that got away… At this stage we were starting to question the luck of the Irish – where was it?
We forgot to tell you that Shaz practically lost her shirt at the Randwick Races (this was the day after the Olympics closed and we went to avoid sport withdrawal symptoms setting in), and the only horse Dave made anything on was “The London Banker’; then we had Spot losing the gearbox and now no fish. Anyway we are sure our luck will change so we will keep the faith!
Seriously though we do realise how lucky we are to be doing this trip and are enjoying every minute of it. We watched a couple of the most stunning sunsets over the lake and as much as we enjoyed being there with each other, we also thought of a lot of our friends who we would have loved to have shared it with. It would also have been nice to have some of you around when we were the only people camping in the middle of the forest in Barrington Tops National Park. It was a touch spooky as we were surrounded by mist and couldn’t see more than 6ft ahead. Shaz was petrified to use the en suite facilities as on our way to the park we had to come through a dingo gate. Anyway we lived to tell the tale and it was quite funny taking on the traditional male/female roles – Dave collected wood for the fire and Shaz attempted to cook the dinner.
The cost of living
We haven’t mentioned the price of stuff yet so here goes.
As the days were a little bit harder to fill in Denman Shaz bought a magazine and realised that she had paid 20 cents more for Marie Claire than Dave had spent on two fillet steaks – the grand total of about 2 pounds 70p! Needless to say we are surviving on our budget and cooking three good meals a day.
We are now in Forster in the Great Lakes area of NSW, a town with a population of about 16,000 and tonight is 2 for 1 in the local fish and chippy – we can both eat fish and chips for $5.95 (about 2 pounds 25p).
Tomorrow we celebrate three years of marital bliss and will probably mark the occasion as a treat night and no doubt we will find a restaurant where we can have a seafood platter and maybe even drink wine out of crystal glasses (instead of our blue tumblers from IKEA).
And as we say life goes on…
A word from Dave
As most people have realised our blogs are put together by Shaz. They consist of a daily dairy that I am keeping plus a thoughts and observation diary which she is keeping.
In her first 2 posts Shaz has omitted a daily routine that I have to put up with, it’s called Shaz’s Jump For Joy. Nearly everyday something we do or see makes Shaz do a little skip accompanied by a double clap of the hands and a big smile appears on her face – it’s great.
Last night however this was surpassed, when we were sitting in the van having a drink, quietly celebrating another day. Suddenly Shaz shouts “dolphins” and off we started running down the towpath watching a couple of dolphins swim down the estuary out to sea. Of course this got a double jump and a small squeal of joy.
It is now Sunday 8 October and we are still happy together after our first month of our new lifestyle (we must both have gypsy blood in us somewhere!). Our first stop was Bangkok in Thailand, where we had pre-booked a hotel for 2 nights to get rid of any jet lag which as it turned out neither of us had.
We spent both evenings with an ex-work colleague of Dave’s (Jon Miller) who lives in central Thailand and who showed us the sights (seedy and not so seedy) of Bangkok. During the days we strolled around this crazy, jam-packed, smelly city – 2 days is certainly enough.
With our travelling budget in place we took our second class overnight train from Bangkok to Chiang Mai to spend a few days in the north of Thailand. We stayed at a hostel that organised trekking tours and did a 2 night/3 day trek in a group with 10 others (mixture of Welsh, Aussies, Japanese & Yanks).
The moment we started to walk the heavens opened and we were soaked through by the rain on the outside and from sweating on the inside. When we eventually arrived at the village (farmyard) that we were staying at for the night we looked like we had played a long 80 minutes at Landsdowne Road.
Our accommodationRain!WaterfallsPlaying volleyball with the locals
None of the group slept too well as the storm carried on into the night and we were all woken in the morning by a huge sow that escaped from her sty! The trek also included a 1 hour ride on elephants and a bamboo rafting trip – very eventful as one of the Japanese girls could not swim and her punter could not punt and managed to crash and over turn the raft. Everybody did make it back on to dry land eventually. Our guides did all the cooking for us and the food was wonderful (as it was everywhere in Thailand, even the crunchy grasshoppers were tasty).
We arrived back in Chiang Mai on Shaz’s birthday and it was great to have a hot shower and clean clothes. The entire trekking group came out with us to celebrate and we had a great meal and even a few bacardis to wash it down with. This was our first official treat night (treat nights are birthdays, anniversaries, etc.)and we spent the huge sum of GBP20 (this is an Aussie keyboard with no pound sign). Our normal Thai meal cost us around GBP2-3 total – that was a huge noodle soup for Dave and pad thai noodles for Shaz (the best and cheapest meal was on the street in Damoen Saduak).
After a couple more days sightseeing in Chiang Mai (great night markets there) we headed back to Bangkok for ½ hour, just enough time to transfer to a bus to Kanchanaburi (Bridge on the River Kwai) where we stayed in a hostel that Dave, Sue & Ilan stayed in 11 years ago! Spent a couple of very relaxing days in that area before heading to the famous floating markets in Damoen Saduak the long way around as we got the wrong bus part of the way. Anyway from there we managed to get the right bus back to Bangkok and a taxi on to the airport. How one ever manages to arrive in one safe piece in Thailand is amazing, the drivers are crazy and everyone believes they have the right of way – it was all fairly hairy, including the day we rented a motorbike in Chiang Mai!
We were now really excited to get to Sydney as we had managed to catch a bit of the Olympics opening ceremony on Thai tele. We arrived there on Monday 18 Sep in the glorious sunshine and Sydney looked stunning. There were still quite a few tickets available, but it meant getting up at 5.30am to queue for a couple of hours. We managed to get tickets for beach volleyball (fantastic), hockey twice (we saw both GB teams play, the woman poorly and the men with a lot more guts), rowing semi-finals (very difficult to see anything, but we did see the famous coxless fours), basketball semis, volleyball and also the football semis. We watched other events on the TV or on big screens around the city centre where the atmosphere was always buzzing, especially if the Aussies were competing. Unfortunately the TV coverage here only covered the Aussie athletes so we did not see much if any of the Brits competing. We also were lucky enough to be given tickets for two morning sessions of the athletics by good friends of Dave’s parents – it was brilliant to be in the Olympic stadium with so much going on.
We cannot explain to you what exactly it was like to be at the Olympic Games, but for us it was a once in a lifetime experience. For Dave it was brilliant to be wallowing in sport for 2 weeks and for Shaz it was wonderful to see so many of the world’s nationalities together in such a celebration. For both of us it way exceeded our expectations. When the Olympic rings went out in the closing fireworks it was quite emotional, and we realised how lucky we were to be a part of it.
During the Olympics we managed to meet up with the others we knew who where out for the games – Ted and Lindy Adams, John and Linda Matlin, Sue and Jeffrey Green – everybody was having a ball.
We also met up with an old school friend of Shaz – Adrian Mulligan and his wife Ann, and filled him in on the local Omagh news.
Since the games ended we have been shopping for a vehicle and relaxing at Wally’s place in Clovelly and sunning ourselves a little on Sydney’s beaches. Last night we had our first Aussie bbq – well our hosts where a Strabane girl and her Scottish husband if that counts! We had a great evening with Tina and Alan Bennett and their 3 kids out in Wilberforce, north west of Sydney – Tina is a relative of Denise and can chat (and drink) just as much!
Oh and we have had another treat night on Avril’s birthday (5th Oct) – okay it wasn’t one of our birthdays or our anniversary, but we didn’t say it had to be just ours! We had the most fantastic meal at the famous seafood restaurant – Doyle’s at Watsons Bay where we watched the sunset and ate like lords. Life is good…
Hi, we're Sharon & Dave an active and adventurous Irish & English couple who've been travelling together for more than 20 years. These posts are our travel stories and personal journeys. Follow our adventures to see where we've been and where we're going next!
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