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.