Category: Queensland

Australia, Queensland

Stumbling across the unexpected

Joel
Hughenden Pub
Hughenden Pub

When you travel around from town to town, they rarely seem to be what you expect when you get there. They are usually much bigger or smaller than you expected. Often towns with not much information published about them seem to actually be pretty cool places to hang out for a bit of wilderness recuperation. On the other hand, towns that seem to get the most hype in Lonely Planet often seem way overrated and a bit rundown and past their prime (with boarded up shops, etc).

One such town was Charleville, QLD. Charleville had numerous boarded up shops and not a whole lot to see in the area. It was also extremely hot and very difficult to cool off in. There was nowhere to escape the heat – no real shade, boiling hot water coming out of pipes, and even a hot swimming pool.

Charleville did have a good astronomy show on at their local observatory, which was pretty modern compared to the rest of the town. They treated us to a nighttime show in which we were shown telescope views of the bands on Jupiter and some of its moons, distant gaseous galaxies forming, the moon up close, and other stellar stuff. Very cool show and the best I have seen in a while.

One funny thing about Charleville is that it seemed as though no one had ever seen a bike being transported on the roof of a car before. My bike seemed to attract endless fascination by the locals there. Very odd considering every other town I’ve come through didn’t really seem to care.

Bike on Roof
Bike on Roof
Australia, Queensland

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 possible underground campsite in the town of White Cliffs. It was very hot (around 39C/+100F) and I was looking for a bit of relief. Like Coober Pedy, White Cliff is an opal mining town in which most residents live under ground to escape the intense heat. I camped in a cool underground mine in Cooper 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 – and this resulted in a very uncomfortable hot 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 110kph.
One lane roads are also fun, especially when you meet up with 4 trailer road trains coming in the opposite direction at 110kph.
Australia, New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, Victoria

Quarantine Madness

Joel

Another interesting thing to note about the 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 kilometers 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 their 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, 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 up until now due to 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 but cumbersome to step back and get the big picture of where you are going for the day. Map books still lead the way on 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, 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 havering around +100F/+38C for over 12 days straight! Some national parks have proved to be very dried out, extremely hot, and so desolate that I have been skipping them in favor of cooler surroundings. Forest Den National Park, for example, had no den nor 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 100F degree heat. I sat their for 5 minutes in the heat before deciding to move on. The cows even seemed to get a bit hostile towards me in my car on the way out, running up to me 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 they way they have.