RV Trip Through the Outback of Australia – and the South
Coast Too 2007
Summary: 32 days, 8500 km, 281 gal ($1020) gasoline
January 27,
07; Saturday
Arrived in Sydney
after a much less arduous coach class flight than I
anticipated. What a small world. Thursday evening I am sitting in LAX waiting
for plane to begin the latest adventure - 30 days RVing in Australia.
Suddenly this United Airlines employee is kicking me in the shins
............it was Gaylene, the waitress from Scotties on the Strand
in Redondo Beach who has been serving me weekend breakfast for 10 years.
Once she ask me to bring back some shells from Maui - glad I did a good job,
because tonight she demanded my boarding pass to see where I was sitting --
then changed me to United’s new express economy which they claim has 6 inches
more room. Don't know what the seat I
gave up was, but the one she gave me was OK --- lots of leg room and I slept
well for 6 or 7 hours - with the aid of a sleeping pill given to me by Barbara
Petway in Siberia a couple years ago. Also was expecting only breakfast on the 14
hour flight, but instead, dinner, then snack, then breakfast. United is
looking up, though probably it’s just this unique long international
flight. It's nearly over as I write this
and turning out to be a lot less ordeal than expected - two movies, free
drinks, 3 meals, and leg room --- what more could you ask?
But you might say down hill from there ………… as this notepad
has heard from me before, the first couple day in a new place are always
difficult. Where to get this or that –
money, water, etc. Actually those are
easy in Australia,
everybody takes credit cards and you can drink the water from any tap. The hard part this time was getting across Sydney
in my rental van with stick shift and steering wheel on the wrong
side. Half the time I don’t even know
which side of the car to get in!! That
was a challenge harder than tooling my 52 foot RV plus TrailBlazer rig through
down town Kamloops, British
Columbia last summer.
And for old time’s sake I had to take the Sydney
Harbor Bridge,
not the new tunnel. Got tangled up and
found myself blocking the tour bus turning loop down by the Opera House, so
just gave up and got out to snap the good view of the harbor bridge afforded by this
dilemma. Was quite hot when I arrived,
but by mid-afternoon, actually cooler than comfortable with a strong sea breeze
and overcast on the east side. Found
some windsurfers out on the lake near where I am camped at Narrabeen.
January 28, 07 Sunday
Internet at the Holiday
Park here is
$3000/mo (well - $80/20 hours – or $6000
if you don’t buy in such large quantity).
Looks like it’s going to be internet cafes unless I get lucky. Went down to the Warringah Mall phone shopping. From Optus, the very company I used to come
over here to launch satellites for in the 80’s and early 90’s, I got a new sim card for my GSM phone 150
minutes of voice time anywhere in Australia for $30 ---------- and no minutes
charge for incoming calls – my phone # is (+61) 04 2342 7837. I think “04” must be “4” only if calling from
out of Australia. Again for nostalgia’s sake I went down to
roam around Manly for the afternoon.
This is the pricey Sydney Beach suburb where Hughes always put us up
when we came to launch satellites. Most
of it hasn’t changed much, Manly Pacific looks the same but it is Novotel
now. The old, Steyne Hotel form the past
century is totally remodeled – pretty nice and now boasts 9 bars on two levels
– they were always there, but pretty weather beaten before. Went over to Bill Hope’s house for a drink
this evening and take-away dinner - he was a big wheel at Optus when I last saw
him in 92. Now he heads up networks
world wide for Singtel (Singapore Telephone, who bought Optus a few years ago)
working between Sydney and Singapore
about equal time. Had a great visit catching up with all the
interim news with Bill and Max Crisp, former Aussat station manager who retired
in the early 90’s. Six pack of beer to
take along to dinner - $16!
January 29, 07 Monday
Went up to the Optus (Aussat) control station this morning
and got a tour and visited with Brett Poynton and Andrew Edwards for a while –
went to lunch with Brett. Then drove up
the coast a bit past Newport to Palm
Beach. Had a brief swim in
the surf and a longer swim in the surf pool.
Signature of the coastline here are beaches about ½ mile long and on
each end is a large, natural, rock escarpment.
At each end of the beach Australians have walled in a very large pool in
a way that the water is constantly changed naturally by the surf – resulting in
a nice calm pool for swimming with virtually zero maintenance or expense after
construction of the walls. Bought gin
for martinis - $40 - still adjusting to prices, the locals must have a
different way, even the affluent ones I know.
There is great anticipation about the Nullarbor. One UK
couple I talked to tonight have been RVing here for a year
and they are watching a DVD about how to prepare and looking on the internet
for someone to caravan with. On the
other hand my new found Swiss friend, Peter, and girl friend have been across
it and have the more casual attitude that I have – not a big deal, just fill up
with gas when you can – I suspect it’s about like Baja was 20 years ago. Supermarkets here are buried deep within the
big shopping malls so you may have to wheel your groceries for a half mile to
get to the car! Then drive over 17 very
onerous speed bumps to get out of the car park, which sometimes you even have
to pay to get out of.
January 30, 07
Tuesday
Today I went to breakfast with another of
my prior colleagues from Aussat (now Optus), Duncan Henry. He retired a few months ago at age 50!! But is going back to work 3 days a week as
program manager for Optus D2, a satellite being built by Orbital Sciences in
MD. Then headed southwest to Wollongong. From there took a drive back north along the
winding coastal road. This, the
Illawara, is Lawrence Hargrave, a pioneer aviator, country with many houses
right on the water front. Some
elaborate, but most just unpretentious, houses of the type built before living
at the water became such a big deal. A
dozen villages, Bulli (bull eye), Corrimal, Thirroul, Stanwell
Park, Woonona, etc. etc. Also a very spectacular bridge by a cliff over
the sea, just opened in the last year, that is a scenic as any along the Big
Sur.
Yesterday someone was telling me about some club around
Australia that are quite nice and serve drinks and meals at much better prices
that your run-of-the-mill restaurant.
They mostly have the lawn bowling, so popular here, and a gambling
casino. Called RSL (Return Service
League), Soldier’s Clubs, Bowling Clubs, and Surf life Savers Clubs. They are membership establishments, but
foreign travelers get admission just showing their passport. So ……. tonight I went to the Woonona
RSL. Very nice place. Got a beer and struck up a conversation with
a couple locals. In the course of
conversation Jim asked where I was staying for the night and I said on the
beach. Shortly after he finished his
beer and left, he came back and suggested I park in his driveway and plug my
van into his power. After instructing me
how to get there he went home and I stayed at the RSL for a great and relatively
economical dinner, and presently realizing we hadn’t thought this out very well
as I was going to be camped in his driveway in the van with no toilet. Omitting some details, I ended up in his
spare bedroom, had shower and a bowl of cereal in the morning, and headed out
having made a fine new Australian friend.
January 31, 07
Wednesday
Wollongong
is steel manufacturing and coal mining country. Jim, from last evening, works in the mine as
a safety manager if I got it right. The
coal is trucked a few miles to the port and shipped to Japan,
India and
elsewhere. Unlike the dirty industries I
remember from Pennsylvania,
there is little evidence that this stuff is going on. I proceeded down the coast nearly to Bateman
Bay, but stopping short at Murramarang National Park to a campground in the
eucalyptus forest just above the beach, a place recommended yesterday by
Duncan. It’s been a cool overcast day
with occasional sprinkles.
The van is working OK as a house and a car but not much of
a kitchen. I think I will be eating one
meal “out” and using the van only for morning coffee and cereal except in
emergencies. No BBQ, fires are
uncertain, don’t have Bob, or Bill, or Ron here to gather wood, refrigeration
is minimal, etc. So van meals will be
limited to pasta or canned food until I gain some expertise. My camping friends will not understand that
this can’t be solved with coolers, etc and why I am so soft, but look ---
there’s only one of me and I have 3000 miles to cover. So, tonight I went into Bateman
Bay to the Bowling Club
for dinner!!
February 01, 07
Thursday
Tried for an internet cafe this am but all options high
enough price that I can wait a day!
Just met an old couple from UK
who are on their 2nd one year long trip around Australia. Got a lot of tips about the road ahead. Drove a short distance (40 km) to Tuross
Head, an attractive nearly deserted beach with a campground – in fact this is
the best I have found yet. Learning
about this van, discovered it has 115,000 miles on it, reefer ice tray is about
¼ inch deep – hard to get it in the tiny freezing compartment with any water
left, then it slides out of that compartment and dumps the water when I go
round turns. The reefer motor is loud
and runs most of the time, might keep a body awake, but I’m adjusted. Had to stop and patch up cabinets that were
falling open and dumping stuff as I drove yesterday. Perth
here we come!!
February 02, 07
Friday
Challenges of travel alone.
I seem always rushed. Picking up
lots of great literature, but no time to read it and plan. Today I went inland to Canberra. At this moment having a good brown Australian
beer in the “club” in Cooma, gateway to the Snowy
Mountains where most of
the skiing and snowboarding is done. The
resorts are located to the west by Jindabyne in the mountains (6000 ft -
mountains?). Canberra is
a city designed as the capitol, by an American.
Melbourne and Sydney settled the dispute over which would be the
location of the capitol by compromising on the worst of both and putting it in
the middle. However, the city is nicely
laid out and my 1½ hour tour of the Parliament was very interesting. The building is quite new and striking in
design and architecture in many ways.
Some ruling said they had to preserve the top of the hill on which it
was to be situated for the people to be ‘higher’ than the government. So they removed the hill, built the
Parliament, and brought back the hill.
The climate is hot and dry, reminding me of Bakersfield,
Ca. They are in the 3rd year
of a severe drought. Australia
is a Constitutional Monarchy and much to my surprise they still report to the
Queen over in Buckingham Palace
– and I thought the British Empire had
dissolved. Canberra Album
South of Wollongong, couple days ago, I drove through
beautiful pastoral rolling hills populated with dairy cattle in the
neighborhood of Berry. Today’s inland drive found beef grazing on
the eastern slope of the mountains going north and mostly sheep on the western
slope on the return south. And finally
some tilled land – keep wondering where they get the grain that dairy must have
and that is required to produce the “grain fed” beef that is claimed in the
casino bistros.
February 03,
07 Saturday
Went to sleep last night on the prairie east of the Snowy
Mountains under a
symphony of thunder, a lightning light show, and a steady rain shower. The drought is over. No campground, just open space, me and my
laptop. Remember the movie “The Man From
Snowy River,” This is the place. Stopped at Bega to get some hooks and bungee
cord installed to prevent kitchen cabinets from flying open and spewing
utensils all about when going round turns.
Stopped at Eden in
a campground for the night. This might
be the prettiest beach of many – mile ling with about 5 people. Went for a swim and the water temp was maybe
68, much warmer than my swim by Sydney (Palm Beach), despite the fact that I
have moved 200 miles closer to Antarctica.
Met two nurses form the UK
, Lucy and Ruth, in a van just like mine in the campground
beside me. Theirs is a 92 Toyota
with over 200, 000 km – more than mine. Another RV next door has four women traveling
together.
February 04, 07
Sunday
Crossed the Snowy
River at Orbost this
afternoon. Proceeded to Lakes Entrance area. Looks like a long barrier island somewhat
like Padre Island, capturing a waterway and a
group of lakes on the land side. Tonight
I am at Nyerimiland Homestead. Seems to
be a relatively recent homestead preserved as a park on a cliff with a beautiful
view of the Tasman Sea and the lakes of Lakes
Entrance – probably not intended for me to be here, but it’s deserted, very
pleasant, and seems to work.
February 05, 07
Monday
Drove across eastern Victoria
much of the day. Stopped in
the Stratford library
for internet, but it wouldn’t connect with the network cable in my computer.
Had to use theirs. Many large cattle
herds, mostly dairy but some beef.
Though the land looks suitable for tilling, it’s all grazing – and all
looks grazed off and brown – today I was told they are in the 8th
year of a drought. But what do they feed
all these cattle- you can’t run a dairy on grass alone, even if they had
some. Closer to Melbourne
I was able to get to some more spectacular sea coast. The highway from Inverloch to Cape
Paterson should not be
missed, and Wonthaggi is a neat stop.
Staying at Tooradin which has little to recommend it except close to Melbourne. Seems like Melbourne
itself will be situated on Prince
Edward Bay
which is basically muddy.
The map says 1054 km from Sydney to Melbourne
– I’m about 50 km short and have clocked 1880 km, guess I went the
long way. Two girls from Holland
beside me tonight in a little Mazda van, no pop top and no raised
roof like mine, a 1991 with over 400,000 km !!!! (Guess I’m lucky, I learned
that mine is a 2003). The girls are
going Adelaide to Cairns
over 6 weeks.
February
06, 07 Tuesday
Decided to take the train from
Cranbourne, about 1 hr and 50 km, up to Melbourne
to see the sights rather than driving up there and hassling traffic
and parking. Saw the central city and
some parks and gardens around there. My
brief impression is it falls far short of Sydney
with its, bridge, opera house and terrific zoo and beaches. Got a good Indian food meal, beef
vindaloo? On earlier trips to Australia,
we used to go to Dee Why, where I was 10 days
ago, for the great Indian food, but missed that stop. Observing the people and customs around, one
begins to recognize that Australia
is a lot closer to almost everywhere, than it is to the US,
e.g. UK , Europe, India,
Africa.
Staying at Rosebud on the Mornington
Peninsula tonight. Melbourne Album
February
07, 07 Wednesday
Beach bunkers are a real deal here around
the Mornington Peninsula. Little huts, about 10’ x 15’, well
maintained, no windows and colorful, lined up on the beach often only 5 – 10‘
apart. I’m told they may cost as much as
$AU80,000 and you don’t own the land – you can’t actually keep any boat bigger than
a kayak or the like in them, but folks use for their beach chairs, umbrellas,
etc. !!! Wow – good investment! I rode the Sorrento
ferry across from the peninsula to Queenscliff and began a journey
southwest along “The Great Ocean Road,” so named for people who have never been
near an ocean I guess. There is some
good scenery, but nothing like I had been led to anticipate, and generally
nothing better than many areas along the California
and Baja coasts. However,
shortly along this trek Australia
turned green again, welcome after all the brown. Folks both at home and here had been telling
me how hot and consumed by bushfires Australia
is. In 2000 km I
have seen no fire areas, though today on the news is word that the eastern Victoria
fire having burned since early Dec (10 weeks) and over a million
hectares is finally contained – with help from US and Canadian
firefighters. As for hot, maybe it’s
coming, but the last 3 days have been closer to cold. Every afternoon I have been having a very
cool and strong ocean breeze. Sometimes
make driving difficult as my van is small, but has large surface area to be
buffered by the wind gusts. Stayed at Port Campbell tonight and met an
interesting British chap, Gerry Flynn.
February
08, 07 Thursday
Late start today because I was fiddling
with putting torque feed-forward in my simulation of a spring-restrained
positioner with Dahl friction. Then
spent time seeing some unique formations around the local sea shore. In the last few days I have seen an
overwhelming quantity of livestock.
Seems like every mile or so herds of 50 to 200 animals are beside the
road. Usually dairy, sometimes beef, or
sheep, even goats – and nothing for them to eat, they must eat stones or
dirt. Before departing the US,
bought an iCar, the Australians call it, FM transmitter so you can listen to
the iPod on the car radio, just for this trip, but doesn’t work in my van –
can’t get enough volume. So, reduced to
ear buds, listened to Oleta Adams, R&B, on the iPod for a lot of the afternoon
and came to realize what a good singer she is.
Radio is continuous KPFK over here, on which you hear exactly two
subjects, who’s going to manage the water rights – state or federal, and global
warming. Spent the night outside of Robe on the shore of a neat bird sanctuary
lake.
February 09, 07 Friday
Drove from Robe to Victor
Harbor, just south of Adelaide
, crossing the large Murray River by an
ancient ferry. Along the way happened
upon Woakwine Cutting,
some guy wanted to drain the swamp on his property so he got a Caterpillar tractor
with a drain ripper! and cut through a mountain to the lake on
the other side over 3 years. .At Victor
Harbor, is Granite
Island , one place where
you can see penguins coming ashore every
night. I challenged several folks on
this claim, citing that you only catch fish on 1 of about 4 trips – and that’s
after you learn how to fish. Regardless,
I paid my $11, hiked 1½ miles out the tramway to the island in the middle of
the night. Guess what? The penguins are molting right now, so they
don’t go to sea, and of course don’t return!
We did see a few isolated penguins standing by their rooks(?) standing
more upright than a sea gull – you know like an owl or an eagle when on a
perch. But, consider this fortunate
scenario – I had been planning to go to Kangaroo
Island for a day and $250
to see penguins, (and a lot of things from my back yard – harbor seals,
dolphins, possums, etc.). Had kangaroo, medium rare, for dinner at the Victor
Hotel – more of a treat
than the penguins. Spending the night in
Victor Harbor
Caravan Park.
February
10, 07 Saturday
Internet is always an uncertain. Stopped in the Victor
Harbor library and got signed up as a
card carrying member of the South
Australia system, entitling me to free WiFi at all
libraries in the state. But due to some
software glitch, couldn’t get logged on through their access control
software. Another “too-good-to-be-true”
scenario. Probably the only library that
has WiFi anyway. Used their computer to
buy a Qantas ticket Perth to Sydney
on 27th, after checking the possibility of taking the
train and finding it didn’t fit.
Traveled north along the west coast of
the Fleurieu Peninsula
and skirted the west side of Adelaide,
putting in at Port Wakefield 80 km north.
This might be the arm pit of Australia
– so decided to go west another 60 km to Wallaroo, on the Spencer
Gulf. The wind is nearly
blowing me off the road every afternoon, and today particularly bad. North of Adelaide the land is tilled,
finally, with huge wheat fields, like driving across Kansas. Adelaide Album
I am going too fast. Hard to judge just what will evolve over 30
days. Have been driving about 4 – 5
hours every day since leaving Sydney. Should have spent a couple days relaxing
earlier along the beautiful southern coast.
Instead, now I am considering driving back east and inland to Broken
Hill. On the other hand, apprehensive
about being burned-out on driving just before the big burst of driving across
the Nullarbor – anticipate that will take 3 long days of hard driving to reach
the WA south coast.
February
11, 07 Sunday
In the light of a new day I see that
wheat is really a big deal around here.
Down by the waterfront there is a complex of 48 (forty eight) huge grain
elevators lined up and a conveyor going ½ mile out to sea to load bulk grain
onto ships. Then, when driving around a
bit I find there is another cluster of elevators, slightly lower and larger
diameter, hidden behind the group of 48 – so we have bordering on 100 elevators
at the tiny port of Wallaroo. Ambled up
north 80 km and there is another similar complex of grain storage on the
waterfront. This is known as the Copper
Coast, but haven’t found the copper
yet. The beaches are unappealing due to
high winds, shallow water and other unidentified factors, evidenced by the
absence of people even in the towns. I
pointed my caravan east toward Broken Hill about noon. Stopped for a beer at Peterborough
and, gas at Oodlawirra. At
Manna Hill I encountered a group of 8 or so bikers were arriving after a hard
day ride from Broken Hill against a headwind.
Offered to buy a bike and several riders stepped forward – but none had
the $50 bike I wanted, all several thousand dollar bikes. In the “hotel” the proprietor, bartender,
non-cook, etc was the grouchiest person I’d met in Australia. She sold me a beer. grudgingly, but I
realized tonight I would be eating my own beans in the bush. Upon pulling out of that one-pub town, two
sulphur crested cockatoos (no! grey and pink galahs) took flight and parallel
the van for ½ km at 40 km/hr it seemed.
If this wasn’t enough, in the next 10 km about 3 flocks of 20 – 50 of
these cockatoos would break into flight beside the highway. An hour later, camped on the prairie a few km
east of Olary and about 1 mile from the highway so no vehicles can be heard,
but I can still see lights occasionally, making dinner and having a martini,
listening to great operettas on the iPod, would like to be blasting them on the
van speakers – there’s no one else for miles - but unfortunately the iCar
(above) doesn’t work. Have you ever heard Chopan’s Polonaise in A something? as
the sun sets on the bush. If there’s a
heaven this must be close. I can write
this stuff with reckless abandon because nobody will ever read it anyway.
Something doesn’t fit here.
Since my first career, before spacecraft flight control design, was
farming, I like to think I know something about that too. Passing all these thousands of dairy cattle
in the last week, that I’ve already remarked they are not feeding, I see very
little signs of places to milk them twice daily as required of dairy
cattle. In addition I see minimal signs
of milk transport – I expect to see shining milk tanker trucks on the highway
frequently? But no! Now comes the wheat country with fields
spanning 100’s of acres (hectares in Australia),
but I see no machinery to work the land.
In Ohio, with a
fraction of the land under cultivation one sees a couple tractors in every farm
yard, and plows, combines, etc. etc. I
see none of that here – where are they hiding this stuff?
February
12, 07 Monday
The wind blew hard all night, but now
having moved north and inland, it’s a warm wind. Drove to Broken Hill and went on a tour of a
silver/lead/zinc mine 1000 ft underground.
Drove northwest to Silverton where a viewpoint, Mundi Mundi, of the
outback overlooks an area so flat that you can imagine, or actually, see the
curvature of the earth.
Anytime you get a little inland there are these pesky
flies. The farmer in me again says that
flies are parasites to livestock, and there’s plenty of that around in general,
but not close to me and the flies! So
what are they living on when I’m not there to eat? They don’t bite, but seem to be a real
nuisance sometimes, i.e., when you brush em off they are right back in a
millisecond. Not a swarm, but just one
very persistent fly!
February
13, 07 Tuesday
Spent last night in the outback bush
again. Can see millions of stars, wish I
remembered how to locate Canopus
or the Southern Cross.
Driving to Port Agusta, SA for tomorrow’s jump off into the
Nullarbor. Lots of kangaroo road kill,
though rarely do I see live ones.
There’s actually a significant number of sulphur crested cockatoo road
kill, but see many more live ones.
This country is totally tourism oriented. This is very good for me – a tourist. Every tiny town has an information office,
government supported, with signs leading there.
The office is staffed in the day and has a supply of locally oriented
literature and maps. As you enter every
town there is a big brown sign with white letters labeled “Attractions” and
listing all the things you should see in the area. Reminds me of an era at Hughes when the
current wave of management consultants were pushing “teams.” When you showed up at weekly meetings you
better have your list of new teams you had identified – so of course anything
being done by more than one person became a team. But back to tourism, one small town had
“Giant Gum Tree” (recall that’s about what all trees in Australia
are – gum trees). I drove off the road ½ mile to see the giant,
then saw half a dozen, arguably, equally large in the next couple miles down
the road.
February
14, 07 Wednesday
Skipping the Eyre Peninsula and cutting
across to Ceduna today with a brief detour around the coast to Streaky
Bay.
Passed through a village signed as the mid point of Australia.
I’ve clocked up 5100 km, hope it’s past the mid point for me. I
have made most of the trip off the main transportation arteries, but last two
days going to Broken Hill, then west toward the Nullarbor are on the main commercial
route. See lots of “road trains.” Trucks with two or three trailers or
more. There are many combinations but 46
wheelers are the maximum I have counted.
Talking to a man-woman driving team at one of the stops, I learned that
the primary determinant is 36.5 m (120 ft) maximum length. The interesting part
is when I pull half mile off the road at night – looking back toward the
highway one sees a train of road-trains.
They don’t pass each other much so one guy sets the pace for a
group. Note the highway is a two lane
two way road – no interstates here. After dinner in Ceduna I stopped for a beer
in Penong and got a young guy at the bar to teach me how to find the southern
cross. He’d never heard of Canopus,
the south’s nearest equivalent of the north star (Polaris). Said he runs a wool press some of the time
and does something else otherwise, but his English wasn’t clear enough for me
to understand.
Found some of the missing farm machinery
in a sales lot. Three HUGE tractors. One had a 100 ft crop spray boom mounted and
I believe he said a 10,000 liter tank.
That would be like turning a 747 out in the wheat field, and the cockpit
of the tractor looked the part too.
Another had a grain drill
about 40 ft wide. Instead of a
stand-alone “combine” as we call it in the US,
they just mount a huge cutter-bar and reel on one end and the thrasher on the
other of one of these tractors. Most of
the machinery is New Holland brand manufactured in the US
by this US company
……….. so I’m sure they aren’t doing it just for the Australians, i.e., they
must be using this in Kansas
too.
February
15, 07 Thursday
Crossed much of the Nullarbor today. My observation so far is the null arbor
isn’t. Excepting brief 20 – 30 km
stretches there seems to be lots of at least small trees and tons of vegetation
– large bushes. At the NSW, SA border
quarantine they took my apples. At the South
Australia (SA), West Australia
(WA) they were more serious. They wanted every plant derived item in my
fridge. But there was an
alternative. The lady inspector said vinaigrette
dressing would kill anything, so if I cut up all my vegetables in a big salad
and put the dressing on they would pass.
Glad I had the right dressing, and if it doesn’t kill me I have plenty
of salad for a couple days. Much of the
Nullarbor highway is within a mile or so of the Southern Ocean, sometimes I
drove in to look, but there is little access to the water. Covered over 500 km today, longest day but
tomorrow will be longer.
February
16, 07 Friday
Finished the Nullarbor today. After a brief stop in Norseman, I proceeded
on to Esperance and camped the night in a Holiday
Park right on the
beach. Encountered a solitary windsurfer
on the beach trying to teach his girlfriend to sail in the calm water and light
wind. Said he had been traveling the Perth
coast since October finding lots of places to sail. He volunteered that I could sail his gear
tomorrow if there was adequate wind. (There wasn’t). Nullarbor Album
February
17, 07 Saturday
Lost my US
to Aussie electrical plug adapter.
After checking 15 stores I found one at the travel agent, designed in
1910 by a retard, 10 times the volume on the one I lost, but does the job. Saw my first emus of the trip in a cow
pasture with the cows east of town. Went
to Cape Le Grand National Park about an hour east of town, but found it unimpressive. “National Park” seems to have much different
meaning in various countries. Generally
in the US you
find something remarkable that you probably don’t find all over the state
outside of the park. In Costa
Rica it’s just some more land that nobody
wants, and nobody goes to, even tourists to a great extent – but it does make
the map show a lot of national parks to attract tourists to the country. Australia
is somewhere in between, but closer to Costa
Rica. Australia
has lots of super natural wonders to see, but most of them
seem to reach far out of the parks. So
much for Cape Le Grand, on the other hand, the shoreline drive along the
Esperance waterfront is indeed spectacular, white sand beaches, turquoise
waters, and many small islands just a few hundred meters offshore create a
majestic scene.
February
18, 07 Sunday
Australians and many foreign visitors are
avid campers. Probably influenced by the
vast open space and favorable weather.
The vehicles are predominantly trailers, 4X4’s, tents, vans and a few
small motorhome – none of the huge “land yachts that are so common in the US.” Many small trailers carry a stadium sized
tent that folds out and the trailer becomes just some basics like kitchen
cabinets and refrigeration – the whole mess built as an integral unit – someone
later told me they cost ~$AU20K!. And
the tent on the roof of the Land Rover (above) comes for $AU2K. This looks like a fair amount of trouble to
set up – there’s another here at this beach and a frail little 4 year old –
hope she’s not sleeping up there! “House” trailer nearly always have a pop-up
top to stow and improve gas mileage when traveling. I’ve even got a picture of an SUV with the
tent pitched on the top on the roof rack!
Hope nobody rolls out of bed.
I’ve even learned that I could add a large room to my RV by putting out
the awning and draping a curtain around the sides, often seen here. The campgrounds or RV parks are called
Holiday Parks. They usually include the
whole range of living quarters from luxury permanent cabins to tent sites. Somewhere between what we call a trailer park
and a campground. Only once have I seen
permanent vacation residences at an RV park in the US. Here they all have, and some give the
appearance of being just, residences. Tent sites frequently have electricity and I
see cords going into tents and into parked cars. And I’m no longer the only one with a laptop
computer.
Australians are into gambling in a big
way. I mentioned the “clubs”
earlier. The setup seems to vary from
state to state and “hotels” are more prevalent in small towns. But in all there is gambling – slot machines,
horse racing and dog racing on TV with machines that implement betting. The hotels serve meals, where mostly I eat
dinner, and have multiple bars, but I haven’t determined if they have rooms to
rent. Perhaps my perception of this is
distorted because I am hanging out with the drinking gambling crowd instead of
at the suburban bar-b-q’s.
Spending tonight at Lucky
Bay in Cape le Grand NP –
nice swim, then run on the beach, then hike in the hills – very beautiful like
the Esperance coastline. Fine limestone
sand is white and compacted so one can drive anywhere on the beach. Some Germans who just came from Albany
to the south and Perth report
that I am headed back to colder clime.
Got the iCar working better with the iPod – operettas with my martini on
the beach tonight. About 6600 km behind
me, 1200 km by direct route to Perth
in front.
February
19, 07 Monday
Had another encounter with the monster
farm machinery today in Esperance. I got
pictures, but let’s try do it with words.
There’s a “planter” to sew wheat or barley (at home we would have called
it a grain drill), 60 ft wide and trailing behind this huge tank vehicle for
the seed and fertilizer, all this towed by the monster tractor. So three big implements, one 60 ft wide. You couldn’t even turn this around at the row
ends in Pennsylvania, and barely in Ohio. Now this is all run in cruise control with
GPS across the fields. Think of it. You are sitting in the cockpit of this
tractor going across a 2 mile long field with the 60 ft wide planter. Twenty minutes later you come back on the
next round and you are supposed to steer that thing 30 ft out a few inches from
the track you made on the last pass!
When you miss by a foot or two it’s big bucks – let alone the ridicule
from your neighbors when they see the wheat coming up. Gimme GPS.
Bought a fresh supply of gin and headed
west toward Albany. Camping the night at Cape
Riche overlooking Cheyne
Bay – another fantastic
view of the Southern Ocean.
February
20, 07 Tuesday
A nice swim in Cheyne Bay and down the
road 100 km to Albany, which I found not nearly as nice as Esperance. Town center is quite nice, but surrounding
has more run-down buildings, old cars, construction debris, etc., so it’s just
not as pleasant. Beach is less
attractive, though there is some very striking rocky coastline south of
town. I got there late am so lots of
time to explore. I find most of these
towns small enough that in a half day you pretty well know your way around and
have seen the sights. Went south on the
coast to the wind farm – electricity generating windmills. Not much unique about this but they have no
giant gum trees here! Searched for
internet and had a good lamb shank dinner at the Earl of Spenser – shouldn’t it
be Earle?
At the wind farm a plaque said in part
‘…. “In 1627 the aboriginal people looked out and saw the Dutch sailing vessel
making way along the coast …………… they knew about sustainability, but we
are learning how to live with nature ……………” Give me a break! If they were so smart, they would have been
sailing their ships past Holland
instead. It’s not as if these
smart people said “we are going to build fewer autos and have fewer babies
because we don’t want to crowd and pollute the planet.” Rather, they were too ignorant to extract and
process the resources to build the cars, or even to keep their population alive
long enough to crowd or pollute. We do a
lot of things wrong, but those people that pretend that the primitives were
doing them right because they were so damn intelligent get
me a little annoyed. Arguably, they may
have had a better life, but if so it was dumb luck, not superior knowledge. West Australia Album
February
21, 07 Wednesday
The sun is in the north. The drive west from Albany
is very pleasant, passing through farm land, tall gum trees, and the quaint
town of Denmark. The Green Pool at Williams
Bay is a fabulous sight
and place for today’s swim and lunch.
Proceeding west I began to enter the dense tall- tree forests. These are Kerri and somewhat comparable to
the coastal redwoods of Ca., but not quite as large. Still look like eucalyptus to me, but very
straight and tall. Went on a Tree Top
Walk, reminiscent of the canopy walks in Costa
Rica. One can drive
for 30 - 40 miles, like driving deep in an Oregon
forest on a secondary road.
The only man-made objects you see are my van and the paved road. No trash, no anything else that so frequently
mars our landscape. Same with the
Nullarbor, by the way, one could go forever and only see the natural vegetation
and of course the highway. And though
there are no interstates, all of these two-way roads seem to be in excellent
repair. Evening found me entering a
squeaky clean neat little town, Pemberton, that had the sidewalks wrapped up at
5 pm. Nearby in a National Park is the
Gloucester Tree, a specimen of kerri that was rigged with climbing rungs and a
fire lookout tower on top used in earlier days.
I climbed it using the rungs.
This one has the tower at 61 meters.
Then headed northwest toward Nannup – anticipating Margaret
River tomorrow – and
hopefully finally some windsurfing!
Writing this I am buried deep in the forest about 1 mile from the road,
on a very narrow dirt track. Hoping it doesn’t rain tonight so I can get out
for sure in the morning. Sinatra on the
iPod tonight.
February
22, 07 Thursday
Found my way out of the forest and drove to Augusta. Here for the first time in my life I looked
at and put my foot in the Indian Ocean. Drove north to Margaret
River, where at Surfer’s Point
Beach I found good wind
and a lot of people windsurfing.
Difficulty probably similar to Kanaha on Maui
, except much colder water, requiring a wet suit. Overall today was not a good day, but 1 or 2
out of 25 isn’t bad. Thought I’d be a
nice guy and call up Brett Poynton, one of my Optus colleagues in Sydney,
and report on the trip and thank him for hospitality on my arrival in Sydney
3 weeks ago. When Brett
picked up his cell phone I learned that he was in the Washington
area (US
east
coast) and it must have been about 4 am!!
Wada way to make friends. Some
who know me and know that I love Australia
have also heard me say don’t’ go there for the food, as it ranks just above UK. I have been doing pretty well on this trip by
eating in the pub bistros and the “clubs,” RSL and otherwise mentioned
above. Many of these have salad bars, so
if the entrée (called the main) is a disaster, there’s usually a recovery
possible at the salad bar. My growing
complacency was rewarded last evening when, after my usual two hours to scope
out the town, Margaret
River, I chose to have dinner at a
nice hotel restaurant, the Margaret River Hotel. They had “BBQ pork ribs,” a little pricey at
$25 for ribs and a sprig of alfalfa but what the heck you get BBQ sauce too
according to the menu. So as I happily
drank my great Australian draught beer and anticipated the delicious ribs. Mine
were delivered - immediately something was wrong. Upon checking the menu, and reading more
carefully, I found “MRH Pork Belly Ribs.”
Oh, yeah, that’s the part that’s all fat and cartilage at the end of the
ribs – that is never served in a restaurant in the US,
unless in stew. Oh, well, it was only
$25 and $5 for a slice of toast to go along.
Maybe my inadequate camper cooking isn’t so bad. And oh ……… I must remember to take this
paragraph out of my notes when I mail it to my Aussie friends.
February
23, 07 Friday
A leisurely drive north to Busselton put me on Geographe
Bay with calm shallow
waters in contrast to the high surf and rough seas of last night. Cruising the beach looking for a place to
have a swim in the Indian Ocean, I checked
out a few Caravan Parks along the way.
Got the swim and a fresh water shower in a nice little beach park in
Dunsborough.
February
24, 07 Saturday
Came north to Rockingham, just 10 k from
Fremantle and 35 k from Perth. Wanted to stay at Fremantle because I’ve
heard so much about it, Turner doing Americas Cup practice, etc., but there is
some musical concert going on so all the RV parks are full. Had nice ½ hour swim at a super beach on the
north side of the peninsula. Rockingham,
and especially the Palm Beach
section where I am is very up-scale. Much different than almost anywhere I have
been. Everything’s new and very
fancy. Lovely houses on a beautiful
emerald bay.
February
25, 07 Sunday
Spent the morning working my way
leisurely around the peninsula – found some windsurfers, but no rental gear and
not much wind. Windsurfing here is on Safety
Bay, and it’s well named, a lot like Bird
Island Basin
, except for the sparkling emerald waters, (for the readers who
know). Then moved on the Fremantle –
getting my night thereafter all. Two
successive nights in a Holiday
Park.
Give me the bush! A lot of people
jammed in 40 ft apart, many people in run-down and/or built-out trailers who
seem to be there on a long term stay.
Charged up my Optus phone with more minutes than I can ever use
yesterday, so was calling everybody around the world that I know. Called Buckley in Brasil on both numbers but
just got his Portuguese message on both – wanted to get Sonya’s IM
address. Curious thing, I am the only
person who can call Australia
from the US,
which I did several times before leaving – but several friends have tried to
call me and always fail? Difficult to
get info – I had to call an Aussie friend to get the right sequence to call US,
while standing in the
Rockingham is a much classier place than
Fremantle with expensive houses and a beautiful waterfront and beaches. Fremantle beaches are second rate and the
waterfront more industrial. West
Australia is in a mineral “gold rush” apparently spiked by the
generally booming world economy. The
iron, nickel, lead, and zinc mines have such a need for workers that they fly
them up to the outback from Perth
to work 4 day weeks, then fly them back for the long weekend. They are paid very well and want to spend the
money, so house prices are escalating along the southwest coast at a rate to
dwarf what we hear about in the US. So Fremantle has a little section of town
with a lot of boutique restaurants that serve on the sidewalk, reminding one of
a piatza in Rome –
except, they close before the Romans go to dinner. More than once on this trip, including this
evening, I have had to miss or accept second choice in a restaurant because a
place closed up while I contemplated what to do for dinner. Closing at 8 pm is quite common and open
after 9 pm is uncommon. Did get a great
vindaloo at the out-of-the-way 2nd choice tonight.
February
26, 07 Monday
Cool and overcast today. Yesterday was one of the hottest at 36°C
(96°F). I’ll be checking this data, but
I think Australia II won the Americas
Cup in 1983, and there’s some sort of replica down on the waterfront. Later, I did check the facts and they are the
same as my story. I went to two maritime
museums in Fremantle, one mostly about fifteenth century exploration, and the
second more current. The building looks
like it was built just to for Australia
II. I noted that it had self-tailing
wenches on nearly all the sheets. This
surprised me as in about the late 70’s or early 80’s I used to sail
occasionally with Jerry Wolfram who was one of the co-inventers of the
self-tailing wench. But guess an
Americas Cup contender can have, does have, all the latest. I recall Jerry was having trouble either getting
or defending his patent. I sit on a
street bench at the corner of Hay and Barrick in the center of Perth
recording some final notes of this journey. Perth is
clean, new and spectacular, in the center city and Swan
River banks anyway –
though a couple aboriginals are running round the streets calling each other by
name from a block away. Wasted a couple
hours at the van rental place trying to work out how we will handle liability
for a little accident I had in Broken Hill.
Moved on up to Northbridge where lots of restaurants are open past 8 pm
and went for healthy instead of good, but when I found the swordfish on my
plate it was really good. By the way on
the way up to Perth today
I heard that Al Gore won an Oscar for his PowerPoint Presentation to
Ofrah. Stranger things have happened –
maybe my notes will be on “The List” soon.
Flying to Sydney tonight. Perth Album
February
27, 07 Tuesday
About 10 hours to kill in Sydney
between my 6 am arrival and 4 pm departure so took the train to the
city. Have seen most of the high lights
of Sydney more than once, but never went up the
Sydney Tower. So took the train to the city and after
circling the area for an hour getting up nerve and waiting for the weather to
clear the view, bought a ticket and went up.
Great views in all directions. This is the 11th highest tower
in the world (same as Eiffel Tower
– Tokyo Tower,
333 meters much scarier!!; Seattle Space Needle, 184 meters) at 305 meters to
top, 250 meters to observation deck.
This and the “Imax like” movie tour of Australia
are worth the price.
http://www.great-towers.com/eng/towers/indexhtm.htm
It’s easy to have a lot of firsts” and
unique stuff in the southern hemisphere because there’s not much competition,
Parliament is largest building in the hemisphere; Snowy Mts have the largest
snow making facility, Sydney Tower is the 2nd highest, etc.
Where I stayed: 23 – should be 30??
Narrabeen(3), Woonona/Bulli, Murramarang
Park *, Turross Heads, Cooma, Eden
, Entrance Lakes
, Tooradin, Rosebud, Victor Harbor
, Port Campbell .
Robe, Wallaroo, Bush west of Broken Hill(2), Port Augusta, Penong, Madura Pass,
Point Riche, Esperance(2),Lucky Bay, Albany, Pemberton, 25-Margaret River,
Dunsborough, Rockingham, Fremantle