Australia Travel Diary Part 8

Australia, Road Trips, Travel, Van Life, Van Travel

A fist full of dollars

21 February 2001, Perth, Western Australia

G’day All

This post is just a quickie to let you know that we have found Spot a good home.

After travelling just under 18,000kms (11,250 miles), we sold him yesterday to a couple from Dublin who are planning to drive around Oz for 3 months. We didn’t get quite as much as we initially had hoped for, but with the time on our visa running out we felt it better to take the cash and move on. We had mixed emotions selling him – Shaz was sad, Dave was more glad.

Meanwhile we have had a lovely couple of weeks in Perth lounging around and catching up with friends. We ate out on St. Valentine’s Day for the first time ever and had one of the very best Chinese meals compliments of Alison and James. We were lucky enough to be able to meet up with John and Carole Bernard (friends of Sue & Ilan) who treated us to a fabulous meal during their stopover in Perth. In fact we have done quite a bit of eating out and now desperately need to do a lot of working out! Mind you we did hire a tandem to ride around Rottnest Island at the weekend so maybe that counts as something.

Anyway we will be on our way out of Perth this Friday, and for the first time in almost six months we will board an aeroplane. We fly to Melbourne where we will catch up with more friends, and take a 10-day trip to Tasmania – a first for both of us.

So that’s it until the next time.

Australia Travel Diary Part 6

Australia, Road Trips, Travel, Van Life, Van Travel

Wine, waves and caves

17 January 2001, Manjimup, Western Australia

Here is the first instalment of this year and no doubt there will be more. Happy New Year to you all!

We had a really lovely Christmas with Al and James (and Debbie a friend of theirs from Stamford) – typical Aussie style with a visit to the beach followed by a BBQ. Dave did not let the Schindler family tradition go amiss and did his bit by making the champagne cocktails.

We then spent a few days around the Perth area catching up with friends. We brought in the New Year at the Trots (pony and trap racing) with Shaz having the most successful bet of the night (her only one) – great celebrations with a fantastic firework display to finish the evening.

We had one very stressful day trying to work out the motor vehicle regulations in WA – Spot’s registration was due, but as we bought him in New South Wales the regulations were different. Anyway we eventually persuaded NSW to allow us to re-register by post as at one stage we thought we might have to drive back to Sydney!

We even had one evening apart (the first in 3 ½ months) in Perth, which was something of a novelty if not rather strange. Shaz went on a girls night out with Al and Debbie, and Dave went to watch Tottenham v Ipswich at a friend’s house.

We started heading south from Perth on 3rd January and quickly got back into our ‘on the road’ routine. Al and James joined us for a great camping weekend at a lovely place called Peppermint Beach – we even managed to find an Indian restaurant to finish the weekend off in. The Chapman family who we also know from Perth just happened to be in the campsite next to us!

Our next stop was the Margaret River wine region where we took daily turns at driving so that we could both sample the local wines. We stayed in and around the region for five days and enjoyed watching the massive waves (apparently some of the best surf in the world, but we didn’t give it a go) and we also went ‘down under’ into a couple of limestone caves.

It has been rather strange the last couple of weeks for three reasons.

Firstly the climate has changed dramatically from the heat of the north – we are now enjoying much cooler weather (average 25 degrees) and even have to sleep under the duvet at night.

Secondly the distances we have to travel between places is so short – we have been used to planning food, petrol, etc for 400-600km trips and now we pass a town every 50kms.

And finally it is school holiday time here and most everywhere is very busy – something we are not at all used to, having often had campsites to ourselves. But saying that we are still meeting some lovely people. Only last Saturday night in beautiful Hamelin Bay the Aussie family next to us invited Dave out fishing (and he did catch one this time!), and had us both over to dinner – abalone, cray fish, steak, sausage and kebabs all washed down with some local wine! The Aussie people are on the whole very friendly and hospitable, not unlike the Irish!

We are now in Manjimup, the starting point for our next leg of the journey – exploring the Southern Forests area and getting back into the National Parks which we both love.

That’s all for now folks, please keep your news updates coming, we love hearing from you.

Australia Travel Diary 2000 Part 5

Australia, Road Trips, Travel, Van Life, Van Travel

‘Tis the season

24 December 2000, Perth, Western Australia

First of all Seasons Greetings to one and all. Belated Chanukah Greetings to our Jewish contingent and to you all a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year – we will be thinking of you.

We arrived safely in Perth yesterday and it is just lovely to be staying with friends again; we have not been in a home since we stayed with Wally in Sydney back in October!

As usual we have covered a lot of miles since we last wrote and again been lucky enough to see some fantastic sights – Western Australia is such a huge state with some stunning and varied landscapes, but with vast distances between towns. We have also been managing to stay ahead of the wet season weather and thankfully missed the tropical cyclone ‘Sam’ by 4 days when it hit the north west coast!

Western Australia Highlights

It was very difficult to drag ourselves away from the beautiful Cable Beach, but after a 6 hour drive when we found ourselves camped up at Eighty Mile Beach the hardship was soon forgotten. It was turtle nesting season so at 2am we were on the beach trying to spot the female turtles, but unfortunately saw only hundreds of crabs – it was the next morning when we found out that we were only about 50 yards from where the turtles had laid their eggs. Oh well, maybe there will be a next time!

We had a couple more nights on the coast before it was time to go back inland to visit a highly recommended national park – Karijini (Hamersley Ranges) – we were not to be disappointed and this was yet another highlight of our trip. It was just spectacular – sheer red rocky gorges which we walked, swam and climbed through. We met a couple of rock climbing Aussies who let us tag along with them for a day and we climbed and abseiled through some fantastic gorges.

It was this same hot day when we got back to our campsite and met some Aboriginal guys who shared their beer with us and more importantly gave us their ice before they left so we could have cold drinks in the evening – such a luxury! We spent 4 nights in Karijini at which stage Shaz’s hair was at the dreadlock stage – it was good to get showers (and a steak treat – it was Mrs Brunt’s birthday) at the campsite in the mining town of Tom Price.

We decided to camp a night at a sheep station (Giralia), but found out when we arrived that we had missed the shearing by a week – again maybe there will be a next time! Still we had a lovely evening with one of the stationhands and again were given cold beer – the luck of the Irish was back in force!!

Our next national park was also fantastic – Cape Range National Park on the Ningaloo Reef – we camped on the beach and spent our days snorkelling and reading (oh Dave did take breaks to watch the Australia v West Indies test match). The coral and marine life that we saw was something else – even in knee deep water we saw reef sharks, rays and millions of little fish. The colours were just stunning. Neither of us have been to the Great Barrier Reef on the east coast of Australia, but the Ningaloo Reef and Coral Bay were super impressive and not at all crowded – it is a must for any of you who ever get out this way.

We then visited the World Heritage site of Shark Bay and viewed the stromatolites – apparently the oldest living creatures (3.5 billion years! as visited by Bill Bryson in his ‘Down Under’ book).

Monkey Mia is also in Shark Bay and famous for it’s dolphins that swim to shore everyday, well that is except for the day that we were there (that Irish luck had run out again). It was really, really windy so when the dolphins didn’t show we didn’t hang around, plus we were really keen now to get to Perth. So it was one more stop at the Pinnacles Desert – thousands of limestone pillars standing in the sand – and now here we are in Perth.

Christmas Day will be spent with Alison and James and some of their friends, time on the beach and then a BBQ on their balcony – life is hard!!

We’ll post again next year. Thank you all for your Christmas Greetings and have a great festive season.

Australia Travel Diary 2000 Part 4

Australia, Road Trips, Travel, Van Life, Van Travel

Hot, hot, hot

1 December 2000, Broome, Western Australia

(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.

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.

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 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).

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!

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. 

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.

Australia Travel Diary 2000 Part 3

Australia, Road Trips, Travel, Van Life, Van Travel

4,000kms later

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.

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):

Kylies Beach – Wauchope – Walcha- Tamworth – Gunnedah – Narrabi* – Moree – Goondiwindi – St. George – Mitchell – Augathella – Tambo* – Blackall – Barcaldine – Longreach – Winton – Kynuna – McKinlay – Cloncurry – Mt. Isa* – Camooweal – Barkly Homestead – Three Ways – Elliott

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.

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.

Until the next time…