I love you, but...

Wednesday 17th November 2010 - Hinterland, QLD

Today, for the first time in 7 months, I was sick of living in a campervan. This is probably my fault because I've been buying things I don't have room for and haven't neatened up in a little while. Thought I'd share why I love/hate living in my troupie ("Pumbaa") just at the moment:

I love my home because I can take it almost anywhere.
I hate my home because sometimes I wake up and can't remember where I live today.
I love my home because I can make lunch in my kitchen at the same time every day, no matter where I am.
I hate my home because I keep hitting my head inside it and it really hurts.
I love my home because it’s easy to clean: just sweep the floor and wipe the benches.
I hate my home because it’s always dirty.
I love my home because I always have access to my wardrobe, and can change my clothes for an impromptu activity at any time.
I hate my home because I can’t see into my wardrobe and my clothes are always crumpled.
I love my home because birds walk on it, and don't notice that I'm watching them close-up from the inside.
I hate my home because I have to make and unmake my bed everyday – no choice about it.
I love my home because it’s got a panorama window view.
I hate my home because the only form of privacy is to close all the curtains on my panorama view.
I love my home because I can have my choice of neighbours and backyard, everyday.
I hate my home because when people see it they cut in front of me, no matter how fast it’s moving.
I love my home because I don’t have to worry about rushing the groceries home to the fridge; my fridge and my home are waiting in the shopping centre car park.
I hate my home because people are always curious about why we’re together and stare at me for rude lengths of time.
But mostly I love my home because we’re not a typical couple and it makes people question their assumptions about young women, 4WD’s and solo travel.

No Flags = No Swim

Friday 12th November 2010 - Tweed Heads, NSW

Every Lifesaver vehicle on the (QLD and NSW) Border Coast bears the slogan "No Flags = No Swim". But I have no idea what they mean by it - I've been trying to swim between the flags for the past 5 days and haven't managed to once.

I grew up going to the gentle, shallow beaches of Port Phillip Bay - specifically Rosebud, Sorrento and Rye - where you are unlikely to get more than waist deep at less than 10m out. So this morning, as I found myself watching the formidable waves from the shore yet again I thought to myself, 'Perhaps just knee deep is best for today'. But over here, the water decides how deep you're going, where you will "swim" and even toss you out onto the sand when it's decided that you are done.

As I entered the water it went from ankle deep to nearly knee high instantly. But even that water depth was an illusion because most of it had been sucked up into the wave that was now hurtling towards me and about to leave me completely soaked and waist deep. Every wave that didn't knock me over was just a lead up to the next potential knock-down, and even during a rare calm moment between the waves it was not enough time to actually swim.

Perhaps I just need more time to learn this new way of "swimming". The local kids seem to love it. One 10 or 11 year old was happily ducking under and into the waves and whooping with delight the whole time. Said beach-baby was also ogling me happily every time I turned around to give the waves (and him) my back - no doubt he'd already noticed that I'd nearly lost my pants a couple of times in the waves. Well young man, here's your first insight into the way women think: I'm less concerned about whether some pre-adolescent boy has seen my rear-end and more interested in whether all this bum-bashing from the waves is good for muscle toning (à la vibration machines), and if it IS... when can I get out of here and go for another ice-cream?

Not until the water's decided to turf me out of course.

Kangicruise!

It’s been a while since my last blog – mostly because my days are action packed and leaving me with little energy to write about them afterwards! I have now seen everything that I wanted to here at Flinders Ranges National Park, so I’ve decided to curl up in my tent and hide from the rain. BOM Radar tells me that most of it will have passed by the time the camp stove needs to come out so I haven’t bothered setting up the tarp (which I did end up getting in Mildura). I’m looking forward to needing it and looking a little bit silly trying to set it up on my own!

Flinders Ranges remind me of Purnululu (Bungle Bungle) NP – hilly, rocky roads (when unsealed) and the mountain ranges are streaked with horizontal bands. However it’s also very different in that the ranges are green (and surrounded by even greener hills) and they’re missing the pink/purple conglomerate rocks that are plentiful at the Purnululu ranges.

I’ve seen loads of things since Tibooburra, and I’m bursting to share:

Friday, 18th April 2010 - Menindee Lakes, NSW

To avoid caravan park fees, I free camped for a couple of nights at Menindee Lakes, just south of Broken Hill. The dammed, natural lakes are being filled for the first time in 9 or 10 years, depending on who you ask. I didn't realise at the time of visiting the lakes that they are a highly political issue when it comes to water sharing between NSW, SA and VIC, and not everyone is happy to see the lakes filled as they have been.

Nothing much to do there except fish and relax so after 2 weeks on the road it was a great place to take the day off. I camped by the side of the lake and was rewarded with an awesome sunset. It was an amazing orange and blue sky, with purple shadows behind the dead trees drowned in the lake. To make it even better, the lovely people I met in Tibooburra randomly popped up in the exact spot I was camped to see the sunset too. I thought we had gone separate ways so it was great to share a coffee and a chat. After they left I was given another nice surprise when Venus and a tiny slither of the new moon suddenly revealed themselves in the darking sky and turned the whole show into the best sunset I’ve seen.


Saturday, 17th April 2010 - Menindee Lakes, NSW and Sunday, April 18th 2010 - Port Augusta, SA

The-morning-after-the-best-sunset-I’ve-seen, I peeked out of the troupie’s curtains and realised I was going to enjoy a kickass sunrise too. I jumped out of the troupie and ran wild haired (not the good kind) and barefoot across the road to enjoy it. Unfortunately it was too cloudy to be truly spectacular but I felt very spoiled, especially since this was a free camping spot. Lucky for the other campers, they were still tucked up in their beds and didn’t have to suffer the sight of me.

At this point of my journey I had approached Broken Hill from the North, South and East and noticed that the time zone changed every time... which is confusing given that I’d never left NSW. A google search didn’t reveal much (doesn’t often let me down!) but my Lonely Planet book tells me that after a dispute with the NSW Government about the amount of funding it was receiving, Broken Hill attempted to defect to SA. It failed and remained a part of NSW, but in protest it adopted the SA time zone, telephone area code and AFL (instead of the NSW preferred Rugby League). Found this incredibly amusing and wished I’d read it sooner so I could have confirmed it with a Broken Hill local.

After Menindee I set out for Peterborough, but decided to push on to Port Augusta instead. On the way I stopped quickly at Orroroo to see the big gumtree (which I am very pleased to reveal is REAL and not fake like the offical “big things”). I reached Port Augusta with the sun setting behind the mountains, which showed off the glistening water and the lights of the city. I immediately decided to spend a day here instead of leaving in the morning and that I should celebrate my good decision with take-out from a busy fish & chips shop. The food was lousy and I should have taken that to be an indication of what the town was like, but ever the optimist I stayed to explore the next day... however, as it turned out Port Augusta is very boring on a Sunday*.

Monday, 19th April 2010 - Port Augusta to Coober Pedy, SA
I decided to cover the distance to Coober Pedy in one day and was pleased to arrive before the sun started setting - but it was a long day’s drive and I was buggered by the end of it. It takes a bit of effort to keep the troupie at 100km/hr with its high top, but it’s my best compromise between the comfortable but excruciatingly slow 80km/hr and the 110km/hr speed limit.

Tuesday, 20th April 2010 - Coober Pedy, SA
After a very thorough morning tour with a local ex-opal miner, I found that most of the major attractions were covered. Our tour guide managed to make everyone on his bus want to move to Coober Pedy and try their luck at Opal Mining (even me) but I caught a hint of bitterness from him. Turns out that once you know the basics and have invested in the equipment, successful opal mining requires little knowledge and relies on a lot of luck. The tour still left me with the afternoon to check out the endless opal and art shops, as well as take a drive to The Breakaways. The 'salt & pepper' coloured ranges are spectacular and I was very lucky to see them with three or four storms clearly visible in the background. Later, I couldn’t resist wandering over to some of the abandoned mine shafts and practicing “not running, being aware, and not walking backwards”...but I didn’t venture too far. Around the town, I loved the golf course with its cheeky “Keep off the Grass” sign (fat chance of any of that growing on there), and the “putting green” made of sand weighed down with waste oil (guess that makes it “putting black”?). Overall I got the impression that Coober Pedy has a close, friendly community with a good sense of humour.


Wednesday, 21st April 2010 - Coober Pedy to Woomera, SA
I had intended to get a bit of 4WD experience on the Oodnadatta Track to Flinders Ranges, but it was closed due to flooding and I had to backtrack south on the Stuart Highway. Since I’d already done everything there was to do in Port Augusta** I was reluctant to stay there again, and took the opportunity to stay over at Woomera. Growing up, I’d only ever heard the word “Woomera” spoken with the words “Detention Centre” following it, so I was disappointed that there was no mention of it at the visitor centre... I was tempted to ask but didn’t because I supposed it would be a bit rude. Everything tourist related in Woomera is about war planes, rockets and missiles, which is apparently the other thing it’s known for. The rocket museum was a good way to spend the afternoon and I learnt a few interesting things about Australia’s history.

Thursday, 22nd April 2010 - Woomera to Flinders Ranges NP, SA
From Woomera I entered Port Augusta, then chucked a massive u-turn (so to speak) and headed up one of those forever name-changing roads that takes on the names of the towns as it passes through them. I stopped for an hour or so on the way to walk the Yourambulla Caves as a warm-up for the hikes I had planned for the next couple of days. That night I pitched the tent for the first time since the Grampians and hoped I didn’t look too stupid trying to do it on my own.

Friday, 23rd April 2010 - Flinders Ranges NP, SA
Woke up all revved up for my big day of hikes, which started with 7.5km through Bunyeroo Gorge in the morning. The signs marking the path weren’t very clear, and although this doesn’t really matter in a gorge (coz there’s only one direction you can go) I spent a lot of time unnecessarily walking over some very awkward ground. In the afternoon I tackled the much easier (and well marked) 8km hike to Wangarra Lookout. The highlight was when a foreign family spotted wallabies and one of the kids called out “Kangicruise!”. An image of Tom Cruise hopping on Oprah's couch [video link] instantly came to mind and the word is now a permanent part of my vocab.

Saturday, 24th April 2010 - Flinders Ranges NP, SA
This morning I did a 3km walk to view rock art at Arnarooka Rock. I’ve been trying to teach myself Aboriginal symbols from the information signs ... so far I’m an expert at interpreting the information signs but not so good at the actual rock art. The views of the ranges from this walk are awesome. The Arnarooka Rock hike didn’t take as long as I’d expected so I decided to squeeze in the Sacred Canyon walk too, and it’s a good thing I did because it turned out to be my favourite. I very much enjoyed scrambling over the rocks, and was glad the water I was avoiding was only sitting in pools rather than flowing through as it often does. I had the afternoon to spare so I visited several lookouts, all of which have similar views; Stoke’s Hills and Bunyeroo Lookouts stand out as the best. Unfortunately the road to Brachenya Gorge was washed out so I wasn’t able to check out its geological formations, which I hear are a major attraction. On the bright side, it gives me a good reason to come back again one day.

* I was being polite. I have a sneaking suspicion that Port August is boring every day of the week.

** Nothing. There’s nothing to do in Port Augusta.

Best Stay: Buronga Riverside Caravan Park
Best Sunset: Menindee Lakes, NSW **NEW**
Days on the Road: 20
Km Travelled: 4282
Diesel L: 584
Current Time Zone: CST

Mis-pronounceable Place Names

Greetings from the hottest town in NSW – Tibooburra (Ti-ba-burra not Ti-boob-urra). Hasn’t been too hot here but it’s certainly hosted the coldest mornings of my trip so far. Leave your clothes in the fridge then put them on first thing in the morning and you might have some idea of what I’m experiencing. Better still, sleep in the fridge. The locals are nice and welcoming, unlike the roadhouse’s parrot, which greeted me with wolf-whistles then responded to my hello with “Hi ya bitch”. Love it! Owning a filthy-mouthed parrot is now on my to-do list.

Saturday 11th April 2010 - Broken Hill, NSW

On my last night in Mildura, I found an absolute gem of a place to stay. The Buronga Riverside Caravan Park lurred me in with its cheap camping fee ($10 for a single-person unpowered site) but I was charmed by its friendly staff, clean and modern amenities, wonderfully decorated grounds (including garden statues, flower beds, fairy lights and bird enclosures), great location by the river and in a true show of hospitality they have complementary outdoor cinema nights. I imagine it's the type of place young families could come and stay for a week and have a wonderful time without ever leaving the park. As I nestled into the grass with a pillow and blanket to watch The Proposal I knew that even only 6 days into my travels, this place will be difficult to beat as one of my favourites.

Today I have travelled to Broken Hill. Along the way I stopped at Wentworth, which is a tidy looking, twin-river town with a quirky devotion to (Massey) Ferguson Tractors. The tractors played a key role in protecting the town from flooding in 1956, so there is more than one prominant memorial in town - not to mention the annual Great Wentworth Tractor Rally held in July. The main reason I stopped here was to walk the jungle-length grass of Junction Island and stand where the Darling and Murray Rivers meet. I stopped at Lock 10 too but unfortunately it wasn't operating.



In lieu of visiting Lake Mungo National Park, I stopped in at the easily accessable Perry Sandhills. There's something about the ripples on a sand dune and the way wind seemingly carries it away grain by grain that makes for incredible photographs, even when taken by the most most amateur photographer. Unfortunately, I'm more of a snap-shotter myself and the best I could do is this image of the wind-eroded tip of the sand dune. Many websites encourage tourists to try sand-surfing off the dunes with a piece of cardboard. I gave it a go and had a wild time until I skidded off course and ended up buried waist-deep with my head stuck in the sand and my legs pointing up towards the sky. Actually I didn't try it, but that's how it would have ended. I figure this way you still get to have a laugh at my klumzy expense and I get to save the skin off my nose.

After a quick dust off I continued along the highway and was dismayed by the number of severe locust swarms I had to plough through. Having thought I would leave them behind with the grape country, I'd indulged in washing the troupie just before leaving Mildura. I love the look of a mud coated 4WD but bug guts are just undignified. As I approached Broken Hill, a large mullock heap with house-sized mining equipment poking out came into view, trumpeting my arrival at the Silver City.

Sunday 12th April 2010 - Broken Hill, NSW

I spent today exploring the town of Broken Hill, which has named its streets after the chemicals used in the mining process. It boasts the world’s largest lead-zinc ore body and is the origin of a little company you may have heard of called BHP Billiton (originally Broken Hill Proprietary). When I saw the pile of mullock from the highway yesterday I didn't expect to find the town sitting on the very edge of it! Everytime I drove up Sulphide Street I had flashbacks to a scene from the 80's Supergirl movie, when the sorceress summons a mountain from underground and sits her caslte on the fortress in the middle of Michigan. But most memorable for me has been the contrast between the serious, rough mining-town life and its growing, laid-back art culture (increasingly referred to as The Artback).


View Larger Map

Wednesday, 14th April 2010 – Tibooburra, NSW


Today I visited Cameron Corner, where the QLD, NSW and SA state borders meet. It was good to go just to say “I’ve been there”. After grabbing a drink at the Corner Store, there wasn’t much to do except inspect the dog fence for holes and head back to camp. The drive there and back was mostly unsealed, which I found entertaining and funnily enough less tiring than the sealed highways. The troupie handled the changes between corrugations, sand, wheel ruts, gravel and ripped up bitumen nicely.

I sent my first Postcard while at Cameron Corner to Amanda & Scott from the Grampians.











My adventure to Cameron Corner has been timed with some other travellers who are also doing this trip from Broken Hill. Ed & Maron and Rob & Marg come across as good natured, happy travellers and the first people to introduce me to the friendly culture of the travelling community.

Best Stay: Buronga Riverside Caravan Park
Best Sunset: Living Desert, Broken Hill
Days on the Road: 10
Km Travelled: 2148
Diesel L: 286
Current Time Zone: CST

Still in Working Mode

Friday, 9th April 2010 – Mildura, VIC

Hello from Mildura – the city that has named its streets in number order, has too many traffic lights and is currently hosting a locust plague.

Despite it looking like an inland beach resort, Mildura has not been sunny so far. Showed up at my chosen caravan park to find out that the camp kitchen is “out of order”. So I learned a couple of things about cooking dinner unsheltered in the rain; mainly that you shouldn’t do it. I’m going tarp shopping tomorrow.

Been nearly a week on the road and only just got my mp3 player going today – listened to The Frames, The Whitlams and Stephen Fry’s narration of Harry Potter all in shuffle mode. It was an interesting sound track to the 3.5 hour drive that took me all day to complete (turns out I’m a little generous with my rest stops).

There are a lot of caravans on the road but the caravan parks aren’t crowded. Haven’t done any sightseeing yet; mostly I’m on the move trying to catch up with the touring crowd in SA. However I can report that the Giant Koala is not very cuddly or as big as I’d hoped (I admit to having high expectations), I’ve discovered that Lindeman Winery really does exist (it’s not a Coca Cola or Schweppes brand after all), and I drove through Tempy Victoria make believing that it was Tempe NSW. Whitlams fans might be able to guess why.

Troupie’s doing great – I love it. Still struggling to name it though. Only problem is the crazy amount of time required to keep it in order. Hopefully everything finds its natural place soon enough.

I think I'm still in working mode because I'm craving to create some travel stats. Here they are:

Days on the Road: 5
Km Travelled: 816
Diesel L: 112
Current Time Zone: EST
Rating of Travel Stats: Boring

Living a Dream, Starting Today

Monday, 5th April 2010 – Grampians National Park, VIC

I’ve never been very good at estimating how long it will take me to do something, and so I have a habit of leaving late. Considering that today I am leaving to go on a year-long trip, I was very proud of myself when I only left 15 minutes later than planned. Today I started a life-long dream to travel Australia solo. It feels a little sensational to call it a life-long dream when I’m only 26 but I've been wanting to do this for a while. I was very excited (and relieved) that my good friend Amanda and her bf Scott were going to spend the first couple of nights with me in the Grampians.

Starting off from differnet Melbourne suburbs, we met up at the Melton Macca’s and travelled in convoy - Manda with me and Scott with my handheld UHF so we could chat while driving. We had lunch in Ararat, at a park, on a picnic blanket. I could learn a few things from these guys about how to travel well – I would have eaten standing up in a car park. Later, Ballarat made another good stop for some last minute camping supplies. We took another quick break at the Hall’s Gap visitor centre, where I stalled the troupie parking (first stall of the trip!) and we purchased our visitor passes. I followed Scott’s Rodeo into the park, getting used to the way the troupie handled steep, gravel declines (no problem, of course).

After reaching Grampians NP, we spent the last daylight hours setting up camp - pitching tents, collecting firewood, cooking dinner. Scott created an awesome stir fry over the camp fire (yummo!) followed by some tunes on the guitar.

Tuesday, 6th April 2010 – Grampians National Park, VIC

We explored the park by car, and did some short walks in the McKenzie Falls area. Unfortunately the walking track to the falls themselves was closed but we were able to see them from a viewing platform. We took the 2WD Rodeo on a 4WD track, which wasn’t bad except for a couple of rough spots.


The weather was lousy – it was either raining or else threatening to rain. At Halls Creek we enjoyed an ice-cream on homemade waffle cones, sheltered under the shop eaves from the weather. We returned to camp tired and agreed to some take some time-out from the rain in our tents, which we all silently understood would turn into an afternoon nap.

The rain showed no sign of easing so we set up a tarp to cook and dine under. Afterwards, we huddled into a tent for a game of cards and after a while realised that the rain had pretty much stopped as soon as we’d taken cover. So we snuck back out to sit around the camp fire and I remember falling asleep in my chair. Party animal.

Wednesday, 7th April 2010 – Grampians National Park, VIC


The sharp eyed Manda and Scott had spotted Adventure Minigolf when we passed through Halls Creek, and the temptation was too great for all of us. We had a great game, trying to avoid the sudden gaps in the pathway and hoping we wouldn’t need to use the tactfully placed yabbie nets to fish our ball out of the stream that lurked below. We had lunch at the cafe there and the potato wedges are the best I’ve ever eaten! Unfortunately I had to say goodbye to Manda and Scott afterwards, which was a shame because they were good company...

As I was leaving the car park I felt a little uncertain about what happens next. Everything had been happening in a linear progression so far: have a dream, save up, commit to it, tell family & friends, quit my job, move out, get a vehicle and trip supplies, pack the car and go! So now what?

I made a “safe decision” to do the short drive to Horsham and stay in a caravan park. When I got there I did the most calming thing I could think of and went grocery shopping, because then I could pretend that everything was normal. That night I went to bed feeling a little unsettled. What happens once the linear part of progression ends?

Thursday, 8th April 2010 – Horsham, VIC

I woke up in Horsham, feeling a little calmer than the night before and did some more therapeutic shopping. This time buying a few items I hadn’t had a chance to get before I left: graphite powder, fridge thermometer, a padlock for the spare tyre and a tow hook for the rear of the vehicle (how thoughtful I am, considering that its most likely use will be to help somebody else out). Getting these supplies kept me in Horsham longer than I expected and I stayed a second night.