June 2008 Archives

Its beem a while so I thought I would do abit of an update to let you all know what we have been up to since we got here.

Had a few days to kill while waiting for the 20th to come round, that was D-day for us being able to pick up the keys for the house. Anyway we really did not do too much just hung around the campsite really talking to other travellers, we really have met some great people on our travels, and like most Aussie travellers had some great stories to tell, some of them have been going round for years North in winter for the warm sun and South in Summer, we never got bored of listening to their chat about this great place we call home.

Had a drive up to Kuranda on the Thursday as we were able to take Binga there and still be able to wander round knowing he would be welcome, the drive up is winding and steep but its a great little place loads of cool little shops intermingled with tourist shops and cafes, had a wander round then found a nice place to have morning tea, coffee and damper with honey, yum !!

Woke up pretty early on Friday morning as usual at this campsite the kookaburras did not like you to lay in and they were up in the trees laughing their heads off as soon as it got light .Packed up for the last time and had a drive into town to pick up the keys we had to be there at 9.00 am as we had managed to arrange our stuff to be delivered on the same day so we did not have to wait till Monday for it and they were going to be there at 10.00am to meet us, but all went smoothly and we were "home" in plenty of time before they turned up.

The guys were really nice and everything got unloaded, a lot of it ended up in the shed as this house is a bit smaller than our last place, but its as big as we need and in a lovely area.Gav went to pick up the cats and birds,we had bought the lorrikeets a new aivery so we asked the RSPCA if we could bring them home in the cage they had kept them in and just pop them in their new abode and then return the cage the next day, good idea eh.....um no the cage was much bigger than we thought and Gav could not fit it in the car and had to put it in the tray up back it must have looked hilarious for anyone driving behind him, but they did not seem to care and arrived windswept but fine.The cats were all pleased to see us.So we are all together again our little family. Slept really well that night on a proper mattress, then really spent most of the weekend getting unpacked and organised. Found our way to the beach so Binga was happy being able to have a good sandy sniff, its a great beach and dogs are allowed anywhere except between the flags as long as they are on a lead, that made me really happy being able to walk to the beach every morning with Binga makes me very happy (yes I know I'm easily pleased, but its the little things that make for a happy life)

So really this week has been filled with pretty mundane stuff like getting the internet set up, paying some bills, doing some shopping nothing very exciting.Got Charlie enrolled in school its a IT specialist high school and he picked mostly IT subjects to study for the next 18 months, he seems pretty happy about the school and is looking forward to starting but its holidays here now for 2 weeks so hes lucked out and will end up having 6 weeks off school altogether but he will be able to catch up, and I think doing our trip is an education in itself, something he will have never learnt in school.

Charlie and I went in the pool yesterday with the famous airbed to see if we could see where the leak was and found it in no time a pinprick size hole we would never have been able to find it without putting it in water and looking for the bubbles so I suppose we will fix it ready for next time.

I think we are going to carry on with our blog, even though it was originally just for the trip, its a good way of keeping family and friends informed of what we are up to so check in from time to time and you can see if the gamble pays of and we have a happy life here.

Finally for now I just want to say thankyou to everyone for their interest and support over the past few months while we wre trying to sell the house, plan the trip and do the trip,and don't forget you don't have to stay in the same place forever....is that my foot itching already .........only joking!!!!

  

A colony of bats were hanging off a branch upside down, all except one who remains upright.
One bat says to another " What happened to this one?" " I don't know, two minutes ago he seemed normal and then he fainted !"

Charlie feels strongly about this, so this is his rant below ....

Charlie's Woes:

hi there all who read this tale of extreme irritation and annoyance, i will be telling you all about irritations and annoyances i have encountered over the past 10 days of my trip to cairns. WARNING: you may get bored of my ranting and rambling about one particular irritation i have been experiencing.

Day1-10:

irritation/Annoyance: Mozzie Bites.

over the past 10 days i have been experiencing dreadful annoyance and irritation by these blasted mozzie bites, right now i have a total of 14 bites, maybe even more,theyre soooooooooo annnoying, i have 4 on my right arm and one on my right hand, i have 5 around my right ankle, 2 on my left hand, 2 on my right arm, 1 on my left leg and 2 on my right butt cheek. the worst ones i have are on my butt cheek and my right ankle. if slightest knock to any of the ones on my ankle, it will set off a chain reaction and i wont be able to stop itching them, i have to use this cream stuff to try and "sooth" the bites but no success, they work for like an hour or so, then just stops working, which is REALLY annoying because when i think that they wont irritate me again, they just flare up. i wish i could just chop em off and that'll be that, but no i cant can i!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!

then i got mum and gav telling me to stop complaining and jusr get on with life as if i had never got them, but its a bit hard when theyre itching sooooo bad. WHY were mozzies created in the first place? what use could they have possibly served apart from spreading Malaria around!

well this is the conclusion of part 1 of 1 of my mozzie terrors, if u wish to contact me......just forget it i aint givin you me email.

Just for fun, though I will send a prize out of some sort, perhaps a Cairns T-Shirt or something. Whoever is nearest on the amount of money we spent on Fuel for the trip.

Clues:

 We travelled 6100KMs. Average fuel consumption 12.7 Litres per 100KM. Fuel cost between $1.72 and $2.22 along the way. We have not yet counted up our fuel tickets so will be a surprise to us also, will probably count them up over the coming weekend, so get your entries in as comments to this entry before then and the nearest will get .... something. :)

O.k up super early after an absolutly shocking nights sleep, wasted no time packing up and were on the road by 6.15. We had about 370 kms to go till we finally arrived, we were all pretty quiet on the way, maybe a mixture of anticipation and tiredness I think.But what a great sight when we saw the welcome to Cains sign...we were home !!

We had gone 6,100 km in just 11 days, not bad going for a bunch of pommes.

Found the camp site easy with the help of the sat-nav and got settled, put up the tent for the last time so took my time, it was a good feeling knowing I was doing it for the last time.

Decided to go and have a sneaky peak at the house as we had only seen a few pics on the internet, but we were happy when we saw it the area looks nice and close to the beach, we are going to have a look round the inside on Tuesday so hopefully the inside will be as nice.

Went to have a walk down the esplanade but not long after we got there we noticed no dog signs so had to make a hasty retreat back to the car !! so just did a bit of shopping for dinner and went back to the campsite to chill out.

So there you have it, we hade it one piece with no dramas, it has definatly been the experiance of a lifetime, we all know Australia is a huge country but I don't think you really appreciate its size till you have a go at driving accross it.Its also an amazing place and I consider myself really lucky to live in search a beautiful and diverse place i think we have seen a lot of what Australia has to offer from coastal city living down south, country towns, the isolated centre and now, for us the tropical north, we are privaliged and we know it.

O.K now for a few best and worst along the way :-

Best campsite - had to be Orroroo as we were alowed to have a cabin and it had lovely scenery.
Worst campsite - Cruella Devilles - relly just for her rotten rules.
Rachels best moment - Rolling into Cairns.
Rachels worst moment - Getting 3rd degree burns on my lip off a pie.
Gavins Best Moment - Whenever there was internet, sad.
Gavins Worst Moment - Trying to sleep on Airbed with hole - still not quite fixed.
Charlies Best Moment - Sleeping (Probably, he's not here to ask at the moment)
Charlies Worst Moment - Mozzie Bites - separate rant from Chaz on that coming up.
Bingas Best Moment - Not having to get into the Car again.
Bingas Worst Moment - Being in the car!

Finally a few more photos - we took many more and we'll stick them all somewhere soon, in the meantime heres another six.

Another short days driving, we arrived in Townsville around lunchtime, the usual priority is to find a campsite that will take us.
Ended up that Townsville is Hicksville when it comes to dogs, we ended up another 40 KMs out of Townsville at a campsite that was in reality a little community of Miners and their families. We are sure we were the only passing through visitors that night.
Combined with a Saturday night session from some miners next to us, it was another night of noise that we are now accustomed to and so we watched a DVD, read a book and went sleep.

We are all excited knowing that Cairns is our destination for tomorrow !!

A relatively easy days driving today, 279 KMs (I think) , so we arrived in MacKay around lunch time. Bigger than we thought. Our main mission was to just find somewhere to stay , then get food and relax for the rest of the day. Again, this proved harder than it sounds.

We ended up and after some dead ends, finding a Caravan Park about 50KMs out of MacKay, along the Bruce Highway, so heading in the right direction for us to continue on to Townsville tomorrow. It is not the usual Caravan Park, seems most people staying here have been here a while. We spoke to a few who were having a beer, one or two that we know of have been here over 2 years !! Nice enough place though and we decided to grab a Cabin as we are being lazy today.

We organised our furniture and other belongings to arrive in their container on 23rd June at our new rental - otherwise weekend delivery would have cost an extra $600. Guess we'll still be using our airbeds that weekend.
A short entry today, we're all tired.

Well, this day was supposed to be as per the itinerary, Charleville to Alpha. It started off that way, scenery was as good as we have seen so far in Queensland, had to drive up through some more mountain ranges, saw the now usual Kangaroos, Eagles, Emus etc - some Emus were either stubborn or stupid, would not move out of our way until we were practically on top of them.

When we got to our destination of Alpha, we found it a small place with not a lot happening and no phone coverage, so we decided as it was around 3PM that we would move on and go to Emerald instead. Nothing much to note along the way.
Once there we managed to download some messages etc from McDonalds Car Park - decided not to eat there this time.
We received a phone call that we have been waiting on since our trip began - more on this coming up.

We hunted around for a place to stay - - if you don't know already, we are limited to Caravan Parks, and only those that accept Dogs. As we move nearer to the Coast and to the larger populated areas, this combo seems more limited.

We found only one Caravan Park that would accept dogs in Emerald (they wanted a Pet Bond for some reason, even though he's staying in our own Tent ?!) , they directed us to an area of the campsite the size of a postage stamp, we didnt like the place so changed our minds and made the decision to push on one more time in the hope of a decent place 100KMs away in Clermont.

A record for this trip 837 KMs from our Start of Charleville to Clermont, in the dark we finally managed to squeeze into a busy but excellent camp site, with nice owners and nice fellow campers/caravaners (Clermont Caravan Park funnily enough). Needless to say, we were knackered, so set up the Tent, had some dinner and went straight to bed on our still unrepaired airbed, we didn't care.

Now, back to that phone call. We have been trying since well before the trip began, to find somewhere in Cairns to rent, we intend to build our own home, but in the meantime.... We had up until today no success in finding a suitable place, we turned down maybe 3 or 4 that were offered, so were all this time travelling across to Cairns with no address to go to. Rachels mobile rang and it was that call, Ray White Real Estate Agents in Cairns found place, with 4 bedrooms, 2 Bathrooms, Air-Con and a Pool.
A little dearer than we were looking to pay, but seems worth it so we accepted and have a moving in date of 20th June. This means of course we still have 8 more days to play with now.

Tomorrow we have decided to abandon our current itinerary (although at this point we are 1 day ahead of schedule) and divert across to the coast and to MacKay. From there to Townsville and then Cairns. So far we have spent 1 night at each destination only. Over the coming days we may elect to stay longer, perhaps at Townsville, we'll let you know.

The tent did not take long to put up, but we didn't time it.

Left the dog dungeon really early before it got light, woke up really early yes you know why- bloody airbed.Anyway checked the tire and it had got soft again so stopped to put air in before leaving town and hoped it would get us to Charleville where we could get it fixed.

 Passed over the border into Queensland - hoorah !!! and all of a sudden the sun came out and it warmed up, must be why they call it the sunshine state. Loads of animals and birds around on todays drive including Kangaroos, emus, goats, cows and sheep there were also eagles and kamikaze finches who seemed to have nothing better to do than fly into our windscreen.

Had to stop for air along the way but as soon as we got into town we headed straight for Beaurepairs and they fixed our puncture for us straight away - great blokes.Found the campsite great place pretty basic but good vibe, put up the tent (11 mins soft ground and it was light - its going to be hard to beat !! )

Went into town to do a bit of shopping nice place typical Aussie town- a few shops a few pubs and a TAB.

Gav drove today....We hit another milestone as we passed the 4000 KM mark. A confession to make, it was decided that due to the dogs travel sickness and motherly dependence each morning, that Gav would indeed be driving the whole way, so no more repetitive info about who drives, its me!

Stop Press - For all of you who have our route please throw it away now we think we may change our plans we are missing having the ocean on our doorstep so we think we will take a hop over to Mackay and drive the rest of the way up the coast.But we will keep you informed over the next day or two.

Broken Hill was a nice camp site, more a place for holidaymakers than just travellers looking to crash for the night,anyway still have airbed issues so sleep was not brilliant,but hey ho getting used to that, packed up and headed for Maccas carpark again so we could use the internet, then a bit later than usual we were on our way again.

Road was real quiet and apart from several hundred goats - yes goats - not something you usually think you will see on the side of the road in Australia but there were loads of them, seemed like a long day as we left late then we developed a slow puncture.Doh !!! but just stopped and re-inflated and crossed our fingers it was a very slow puncture.

Got to Bourke and it was just starting to get dark so quickly found the camp site which was run by cruella Deville, what a bloody miserable old bag !!!! She obviously didnt like dogs and poor Binga had more rules than we did,there were so many dog rules they pinned them up in the toilets so you could read them while on the loo. I was a bit pissed why advertise as dog friendly if you are clearly not.

However the site was ok,but noisy ! Tent erection time 12 mins(due to soft ground and not having to hammer in the pegs) Gav drove today.........Again.

mmmmmmmm nice sleep on a proper mattress not an air bed with issues !!! Its finally stopped raining, well mostly, had a bit of a later start today as we did not have too far to drive today,just over 300kms, drove through a couple of  "blink and you miss them towns" and stopped to fill up with fuel and got some sound advice from the woman who worked there about where to stop and where not to stop on our way up through NSW.

Apparently there are some less than salubrious places on the way up where we should just keep going with our windows up and our doors locked, so had a quick look at the map and adjusted our fuel stops and camp spots.

Anyway got to Broken Hill at lunch time and the campsite we were due to stay at looked a bit muddy so we went back to one we had seen as we drove into town, its nice and $26.00 can't complain, Binga even has some doggy neighbours which he thought was great till she started chewing a bone right in front of him !!!!

Anyway Gav drove today....... can you see a pattern developing ?

And finally, some Images to upload .....

So now we can finally say we have crossed the Nullabor,does that mean we are proper Aussies ?

We stopped in Port Augusta in a half hearted attempt to find a Mitsubishi dealer to see if we could get a service but didn't run into it so we went to woolworths and stocked up on apples, bread and fags!!!!! (Besides, we have lost all track of time by this point and it is Sunday today, Mistubishi isn't open anyway, duh!, and clocks went forward another 45 minutes) 

We left there on the 80km drive to Orroroo its still raining by the way and has been for two and a half days, we started to dread pitching the tent in the rain so started to contemplate pushing on to Broken Hill as we passed through the Flinders Ranges we could see the rain was in for the day and as we got higher it got colder we found the caravan park and we were able to get a nice cosy cabin to stay in as I think the lady felt sorry for Binga he is obviously a city dog and not used to sleeping in the cold, so we got to see Big Brother!!!!

We got some steak from woolies and had it with tinned corn and spuds mmmmmm nice and an apple pie for after, I think Gav had some sort of premonition that we would not be tenting it tonight as he also bought crumpets and butter for brekkie tomorrow morning, and we have a toaster in our cabin to toast them on. Making the most of the TV tonight so we still have a few DVDs to watch later on. Great, a moth just flew in, and in the now stupid tradition of naming anything at all, is known as Morris.

Just for a change, Gav drove today (thats over 2600KMs so far, about 3000KMs to go) Tent erection time 0 mins - never gonna beat that !!

When we got up it was raining we had not slept well as our airbed had some serious inflation problems, we tried to pack up as quickly as possible but still managed to end up ankle deep in mud. Rachel had to go shower her feet and thongs before getting in the car.

We Crossed the WA-SA border,we had to chuck our fruit away, but passed through without getting checked. Stopped and looked at the Southern Ocean from the cliffs, it was very wild and Binga had no fear getting a bit close to the edge for his liking - have not really said too much about Binga yet but he is travelling really well he really is being a good boy. We also saw 2 wild dingos on the Highway eating roadkill, it was great to see them, however we crossed the whole nullabor without seeing any camels, Rachel was gutted. We picked up a hitchhiking fly along the way whom Charlie called Gerald.

Tonight we stayed at Airport caravan park, it was not much to look at but had good showers,laundry etc, We cracked open a few tins of Ravioli for tea and it was bloody horrible, none of us liked it (except Binga). We got attacked by Mozzies Gav got bitten 3 times and Rachel got bit 9 times, Charlie got away with none, got out the Aeroguard but it was too late. Gav got to watch the rest of 'I am legend', great film, 5 stars.
Gav drove today. Tent erection time 17 mins Woohoo !!

We got up really early as it was our long leg of our journey, we had to travel about at least 850km, Charlie thought it was really boring, we had to slow down for kangaroos who were drinking out of puddles in the middle of the road,you were never sure which way they were gonna hop so had to be very watchful, we did not want to add to the substantial roadkill we saw along the road, but it was food for big black eagles.

We left Peter the pipe but a smaller one soon appeared, named 'Pete'. Part of our days travel was to drive along Australia's longest straight road which was 146.6km long without a bend or curve it just went on and on and on.

We stayed at Mundrabilla roadhouse; we only just got the tent up in time before the sun went
down. We ordered food from the roadhouse and it was really good....if you are ever passing that way !! The clocks went forward 45 minutes. To pass even more time Gav started to watch 'I am Legend' , looks pretty good so far but the battery went on the DVD player, boo.
Gav drove today. Tent erection time 21 mins.....getting better

DAY 1: Perth - Kalgoorlie (was Coolgardie) -- The Adventure of a Life Time begins.

Today, we set off for Cairns at 5:45am, todays destination Coolgardie, it was still dark and freezing but even so, we had

to do what we had to do, heading through the door at Jan and Les's house was daunting,we all felt a bit nervous but

excited as well, had a good run out of Perth and the further we got from Perth the quieter the road got, after a few hours

we just seemed to be sharing the road with other travelers and trucks. From Perth to Kalgoorlie is a pipeline that runs

the entire length, we named him Peter the pipe.
The car was booked in for service in Kalgoorlie but when we got there the Mitsubishi dealer would not service the car as

it had only done 550kms he said we should try and get in at Port Augusta. We stayed at the Goldminer camp site in

Kalgoorlie instead of travellling back to Coolgardie, and cracked open a few tins of all day breakfast, it was O.K I think

we were so hungry we would have eaten anything, it was absolutely the noisiest place we have ever tried to sleep the

trucks kept rolling by all night and planes landing at the airport, but all things considered we slept O.K. Gav drove

today. Tent erection time 24 mins not too bad but watch this space !!!!

Ok, so were getting closer to big move. Tomorrow (Tuesday 3rd June) we get kicked out of our now sold home and into temporary friends accommodation where we stay for 2 nights. Thursday morning is D-Day (well, D-Day for us, ironically actual D-Day is one day later!) and we will set off early to our first destination out of Perth, which is Coolgardie. (Actually we drive 50KM past that into Kalgoorlie where we get our 1000KM service done on our new car - thats another entry on its own!) .

For those keeping an eye on us, here is a rundown on our itinerary for the whole trip - disclaimer, subject to change depending on how tired we are or how many Beroccas we can get through.

CP = Caravan Park

Day 1 - Perth to Coolgardie - about 550KMs - Haven CP
Day 2 - Coolgardie to Mundrabilla - 824KMs - Mundrabilla Roadhouse
Day 3 - Mundrabilla to Ceduna - 562KMs - Airport CP or A1 Cabins & CP
Day 4 - Ceduna to Orroroo - 561KMs - Orroroo CP
Day 5 - Orroroo to Broken Hill - 321 KMs - Silverland CP
Day 6 - Broken Hill to Bourke - 531KMs - Mitchell CP
Day 7 - Bourke to Charleville - 453KMs - Cobb & Co CP
Day 8 - Charleville to Alpha - 552KMs - Alpha Caravan & Villa Park
Day 9 - Alpha to Claremont - 277KMs - Claremont CP
Day 10 - Claremont to Charters Towers - 378KMs - Macrossan Park or Bivouac Junct CP
Day 11 - Charters Towers to Townsville - 138KMs - Bluewater CP or Black River Stadium
Day 12 - Townsville to Cairns (woohoo!) 349KMs

We could possibly combine days 9/10/11 into 1 or 2 days, we'll see what we feel like doing :)