Author: Joel

Australia, New South Wales

Double-G Hell

Joel

After my sleepless night in White Cliffs, I really wasn’t in the mood to drive too far the following day. I was keeping an eye out for a free campsite at one of the nicer roadside stops along the highway eastward when I just happened to pop into a roadhouse for a coffee. Anyone advertising “Real Coffee” in the outback must actually know how to make it properly! I popped in and noticed they were offering cheap camping around back with nice shady places, hot showers, real coffee, and a staff of European backpackers. It couldn’t be all that bad!

Bushland at Emmdale Roadhouse Campground next to Paroo-Darling National Park - Coonavitra
Bushland at Emmdale Roadhouse Campground next to Paroo-Darling National Park – Coonavitra

I got a little restless in the afternoon and decided to ask them whether there were any 4WD tracks in the area I could mountain bike for a little while. They looked at me like I was a bit nuts, and it turned out I was. I noticed a national park nearby that borders the owner’s farm property and got permission to ride through to try to get into the park. Unfortunately, after only about 10-15 minutes of bike riding, I found myself with both tires flat due to double-Gs. Double-Gs are double thorns that will tear through any mountain bike tire. I very rarely get flats, but I had to spend the rest of the afternoon scrutinising my tyres to find all the tiny thorns and pick them out so they would not re-flat my new tubes. The experience made me very wary of riding off trails for a while!

Mountain Biking Adventure

Today’s Drive

Australia, New South Wales

Menagerie of road hazards

Joel

After a beautiful drive from Broken Hill eastward through Wilcannia, NSW, I decided to head up a side road to check out a possible underground campsite in the town of White Cliffs. It was very hot (around 39ºC/+100ºF), and I was looking for a bit of relief. Like Coober Pedy, White Cliff is an opal-mining town where most residents live underground to escape the intense heat. I camped in a cool underground mine in Coober Pedy years ago, so I was hoping to find the same in White Cliffs. No such luck! They had an underground hotel, but no underground campsites, so I was forced to camp in a near-deserted, extremely basic caravan park. Unfortunately, there was rain in the forecast, so I had to sleep with my fly on, which resulted in a very uncomfortable, hot, and sleepless night for me. I have since learned a few tricks about my new tent to open it up a bit wider for more airflow. I’ve also found a fan useful to use at powered sites in caravan parks.

Why you don't drive at night in Outback Australia
Why you don’t drive at night in Outback Australia

The drive up from the main road to White Cliffs was absolutely beautiful, but it contained a menagerie of road hazards with no fencing for roaming black cows, sheep, feral goats, kangaroos, emus, and more. They all have their own characteristics to watch out for. Kangaroos as the most erratic (they can change directions at any hop), goats seemed to like to cross the road in single file, cows were the slowest to move but hardest to see in darkness, and sheep were the most paranoid.

One-lane roads are also fun, especially when you meet up with 4 trailer road trains coming in the opposite direction at 110 kph (~69 mph).
One-lane roads are also fun, especially when you meet up with 4 trailer road trains coming in the opposite direction at 110 kph (~69 mph).

Today’s Drive

Australia, New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, Victoria

Quarantine Madness

Joel

Another interesting thing to note about driving around these parts is all the different agricultural regions and their strict quarantine requirements. It can be very tricky to stock up on fruit and veggies because every few hundred kilometres, you find you have to throw out what you’ve bought. Now that I’m thoroughly ensconced in New South Wales, I should be safe for the next few days before I get to Queensland – where I’m sure I will have to go through the same process again.

Murray River Meandering through agricultural regions in South Australia.
Murray River Meandering through agricultural regions in South Australia.

Much of the agriculture relies on the Murray River for irrigation. This area is where Australia seems to get most of its produce, although Western Australia seems to try growing most of its own. Prices for produce do seem a lot lower around here, anyway.

Farmland in need of water next to the Murray River.
Farmland in need of water next to the Murray River.
Australia, New South Wales, South Australia

Dunt. I know it’s around here somewhere!

Joel

The small towns on this side of the country seem a bit more vibrant than they do in the west. Rather than spending time in big cities, small towns are often great to visit. No parking hassles with no meters. Everything you need is within easy walking distance. Surprisingly, the food can be really quite good if you seek out the right places. Broken Hill, New South Wales, appears to be a sister city to Kalgoorlie. Lots of nice old buildings, friendly libraries with free WiFi, and cool little cafes with trendy-looking people – perhaps displaced from the larger cities. Had some wonderful French toast for breakfast this morning. Also had some nice pizza from a town in South Australia called Loxton. Some day soon, I will break out the Trangia and cook my own dinner.

Broken Hill, New South Wales
Broken Hill, New South Wales
Broken Hill, New South Wales
Broken Hill, New South Wales
Broken Hill, New South Wales
Broken Hill, New South Wales

Loxton was very small and had its share of people you’d expect to find in Dunt, South Australia. Loxton also had nice old buildings and everything you needed within a short walking distance of the town square.

Loxton, South Australia
Loxton, South Australia
Australia, New South Wales, Victoria

Kinchega National Park

Joel

Spent the night near Broken Hill in Kinchega National Park in New South Wales last night sleeping all by myself along the Darling River – with no other campers in the park. It was a beautiful park, full of a wide variety of wildlife. I saw countless kangaroos, including BIG grey ones I’d never seen before, that would make extra-big jumps when hopping away from you in your car – perhaps trying to intimidate you with their powerful rear legs. I also saw countless emus, smaller-than-usual-looking monitor lizards, strange black, chicken-like birds that preferred to run rather than fly, and heard lots of strange, loud noises at night – especially when sleeping along the river. All the animals seem to rely on the river to drink in the evenings, so it is amazing what you will see and hear there. Lots of big fish lurking underneath as well.

Lake Menindee in Kinchega National Park, near Broken Hill, New South Wales
Lake Menindee in Kinchega National Park, near Broken Hill, New South Wales

I tried taking a shortcut up from Mildura, Victoria (nothing to write home about), on my way here and found some of the worst dirt roads I have ever had to negotiate. The roads inside the national park were not much better. But then I remembered that it was just a little less than a year ago that this entire region was hit by massive floods:

http://www.abc.net.au/local/photos/2012/02/29/3442480.htm

Where I pitched my tent was about 2 meters below the flood lines on the trees in the area. The roads had obviously all been submerged and washed out at the time, so it is probably a miracle that they are in as good a state as they are at the moment.

Unfortunately for me, it was one of the very hottest nights I’ve ever had camping. I set up just my tent with no fly, and it still took forever to cool off! I tried to do like the animals and go for a swim, but the bank was so steep and muddy that I could only wade in about a foot to splash myself. Venturing any further in would sink my legs into very deep, endless clay, so I thought it best to stick to the shoreline.

I would have liked to have spent more time there, but the heat was a bit much to deal with. Should cool off in the next few days…

Today’s Drive

Australia, New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, Victoria, Western Australia

Driving Differences

Joel
The Road to Broken Hill
The Road to Broken Hill

Interesting to compare my drive this time with the drive I did last time in 2004. Now I’m driving an SUV, which uses a bit more fuel than my little Corolla did. I seem to be carrying MUCH more stuff than I did last time, which is a bit of a pain. Among the items is my mountain bike, which has stayed in the back the entire time so far for various reasons (including security, fuel economy, and nasty road surfaces).

I have the aid of numerous GPS devices, but as far as navigation is concerned, they are really only best for micro views of where you are going and are a bit cumbersome to step back and get the big picture of where you are going for the day. Map books still lead the way in getting big-picture views of what is around. On the other hand, the GPS has been very good for sussing out all the service station options in small towns (where I have saved quite a bit tracking down the stations the locals use on back streets). They are also good for finding accommodation, shops, libraries, and other things.

It’s also been nice to have 4WD capabilities for some of the roads I’ve been on, and very nice to have cruise control. MP3 player as well? I actually had one of those installed in my little Corolla the last time I did a long road trip. Lots of hi-tech stuff, including my laptop – which makes it much easier to get photos on these blog posts! Most libraries I’ve found have free WiFi available these days.

Australia, New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, Victoria, Western Australia

Time Warping

Joel

Lots of fun with time changes on this trip. Along the train ride over east there was a special time zone called “train time” which was 1 hour earlier than Perth. Then you arrived in Adelaide and the time was 1/2 hour earlier still. Then I drive a relatively short distance to Victoria and the time moves another 1/2 hour forward to equal Melbourne and Sydney time. It stays that way up until I camp in Kinchega National Park in New South Wales, but when I double back briefly to visit Broken Hill the timezone changes again back to Adelaide time (or so say the road signs). When I eventually get up into Queensland the time will go back an hour from Sydney and Melbourne time. That means Brisbane is 1 hour later in time than Sydney and Melbourne, even though it is well east of them:

http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/custom.html?continent=australasia

Fun times, but then again, when do times of dates matter while you’re on vacation?

Australia, South Australia

To Cooktown in 40ºC Heat: I think I’m already there.

Joel
Murray River camping spot near Loxton, South Australia
Murray River camping spot near Loxton, South Australia

So I headed off from Adelaide to Cooktown, Queensland, after getting that last rabies shot in my arm, intending to camp for the night in the Mount Crawford Forest Reserve, just about an hour outside of town. Well, so much for that plan! I arrived to find a big sign reading “No Camping Between 1 December…” and another autumn date. Australia takes bushfires very seriously, and every state seems to handle their response differently, but it appeared as though South Australia just shut down its campsites. Western Australia would have simply banned campfires. Oh well, I decided to keep heading out towards the east as I was planning to do the next day and hone in on the region I was planning to travel through the next day.

Murray River, near Loxton, South Australia
Murray River, near Loxton, South Australia

Lucky for me, I stumbled across a really nice little place along the banks of the Murray River. For those of us living in Western Australia, we get a little tired of endless news stories about the Murray and Darling Rivers, but they are two of Australia’s largest rivers and valuable sources of water for a large sector of the country’s population in the east. The camp I found was actually a sister camp to Adelaide Shores (part of a franchise), but it had far more natural features and was right along the river. Just across the river was Murray River National Park, though the current was a bit too swift to even think about swimming across. Although the temperature was hovering around 40ºC (104ºF), I was able to immerse myself underwater along a sandbank until my core temperature dropped low enough to doze off in my tent after sunset. Very nice!

Murray River, near Loxton, South Australia
Murray River, near Loxton, South Australia
Australia, New South Wales, Queensland

Not quite what I planned

Joel

So far, my record of actually following my itinerary accommodation plans has been quite poor. This has largely been due to the heat – with temperatures hovering around +100ºF/+38ºC for over 12 days straight! Some national parks have proved to be very dry, extremely hot, and so desolate that I have been skipping them in favour of cooler surroundings. Forest Den National Park, for example, had neither a den nor a forest. It was essentially a ranch full of cattle with a campground 10km down a 4WD track that was just a patch of dirt next to a watering hole in 100ºF heat. I sat there for 5 minutes in the heat before deciding to move on. The cows even seemed a bit hostile towards me in my car on the way out, running up to block my exit and chasing me out. Don’t know what they would have been like in the middle of the night!

Other parks I visited but skipped were Gundabooka National Park, NSW (also very hot and isolated with claims of video surveillance even though there was no electricity around for miles – but the security problem issue was duly noted), Currawinya National Park, QLD (way too isolated and hot), Moorrinya National Park, QLD (another cattle farm?), and White Mountains National Park, QLD (no mountains I could see, but perhaps a few hills and a very hot and remote campsite down a 4wd track).

On the other hand, there were a number of national parks I had not anticipated visiting that I was able to get into at the last minute without any problems – so I am very happy things worked out the way they have.

Australia, South Australia

Adelaide Shores

Joel

So I arrived in Adelaide bright and early Tuesday morning and only had to wait a few minutes for my car to be unloaded from the train. I had one last rabies shot to get from The Travel Doctor in town on the following morning (just the way the schedule worked out), so I decided to pop into town for breakfast and find a few new things to check out that I missed on my last visit in 2004. For breakfast, I revisited a cafe I discovered years ago, connected to Adelaide’s Central Market. The Central Market is a great old market, much like Reading Terminal Market in Philadelphia, with lots of independent fruit and vegetable sellers and butchers — but curiously no Amish! I stocked up on super-cheap peaches, just coming into season here, as well as other snacks for the road, before having a nice breakfast at an adjoining cafe.

Adelaide Botanic Garden
Adelaide Botanic Garden

Afterwards, I found my way up to Adelaide’s Botanical Gardens to have a free snoop around when I discovered a massive wombat dead in the middle of a side path. It was so big I wasn’t sure what it was at first, but when I reported it they acted like it happens all the time there. They were very nice gardens to walk around, but you would feel the heat beginning to build – so I thought it best to hop into a few free museums while I had the chance.

Blossoms at the Adelaide Botanic Garden
Blossoms at the Adelaide Botanic Garden
Adelaide Botanic Garden
Adelaide Botanic Garden
Blossoms at the Adelaide Botanic Garden
Blossoms at the Adelaide Botanic Garden

One annoying thing about popping into cities on these trips with a car is having to worry about car security, parking, and whether your meter is about to run out. It always leaves you feeling a little on edge while you’re snooping around. I did find that most of Adelaide’s museums were all set up together in the same “cultural precinct” area, so it was easy to make my way through the Immigration Museum, Art Gallery (aka museum), and South Australian Museum before my meter ran out. All were very nice but a bit on the small side.

Once the temperature started to cool a bit, I headed out to the campsite I reserved at Adelaide Shores. NOT my idea of perfect camping, but about as cheap accommodation as you can find in the city. The nicest thing about it is that it is located next to the beach and an extensive network of cycling paths. Having thrown my mountain bike in the back of the car, I took it out for a spin along the coastline for about an hour. I ended up in very trendy Glenelg, which seemed to mimic L.A.’s beach communities, where I had myself a nice dinner.