Here is a copy of my travel diary for our road trip around Australia, which lasted the best part of three months.
.
18th January 1996 Wellington Caves, NSW 362 km
Despite a heavy night in North Sydney on our "last night" we managed to get away at a reasonable time, and drove west out of Sydney towards the Blue Mountains. The weather was good and we arrived in Katoomba at about 11:30 a.m. Unlike the last time we visited we could actually see the Blue Mountains (rather than just cloud!). We picked up some supplies and drove on to Bathurst, where we stopped for a lunch break. The scenery was rolling hills and mountains up until then, but it started to flatten out a bit. We stopped at the end of day 1 at Wellington Caves. The campsite, which is 9km out of town, was very pleasant - nice and grassy with lots of space and an outdoor pool. There was also plenty of birdlife. We cooked up our first camp meal in the early evening, spaghetti bolognaise, and then we sat outside until the mozzies got too bad before retiring to the camp "games room" to watch Australia play Sri Lanka at cricket on TV. The car seemed to be going OK and we were pleased with our progress.
19th January 1996 Cobar, NSW 361 km
It cooled down a lot in the night, but we slept well and we woke to another glorious day. We prepared breakfast and then took a 9:00 tour around the main cave, called Cathedral Cave, which was worthwhile and interesting, as far as caves go! We drove onto Dubbo, where we stocked up on more supplies and petrol before heading on to the next stop; a small town called Nyngan. After Dubbo things became quiet, the land became very flat, and the temperature started to rise. We stopped at Nyngan for lunch before heading along the Barrier Highway to Cobar, for our evening stop. Nyngan was a disaster area many years ago when it was hit by flash floods. It was hard to imagine it under water, but apparently heavy rains in Queensland can cause normally dry riverbeds to fill quickly, causing flooding without much warning.
The road was almost dead straight, and the scenery was starting to become typically outback – red sand, salt bush and nothing much else. All we saw during the last few hours of driving was the odd truck and a few Kangaroos. It really felt like we were "out there", even though we were still relatively close to Sydney (by Australian distances anyway!). Cobar is a pretty ordinary town, and a thriving mining settlement. It was very hot, in the high 30s, and the sparse campsite offered very little shade. As evening set in it did cool quite a bit and we sat out and ate in relative comfort!
Later on another couple and some kids turned up and we sat chatting into the night until it was time to sleep. Our tent was infested with ants, but they didn’t bite so it wasn’t too bad.
20th January 1996 Broken Hill, NSW 480 km
A long day! We left Cobar at 8:45 and continued east on the Barrier Highway for about 40 KM, where we diverted off onto an unsealed road in search of some aboriginal rock paintings. After about 5 KM or so the road became impassable so we had to turn back, which was a bit unfortunate, but there was no way the car could get through the sand which had drifted into a huge mound.
About 15kms from Wilcania, the next town from Cobar, our car broke down. It just came to a halt with the engine turning but no life. I suspected lack of fuel, even thought the fuel gage was on a quarter full. Weird. Anyway, I filled the tank up with the jerry can of spare fuel we had, but it still wouldn’t turn. I tried everything else I could think of, until eventually and old bloke in a truck turned up and offered to take one of us into town to get help. We decided Dibs would go and I’d stay with the car. This was bad-country (so the bloke told us) and he seemed worried. Luckily the heat wasn’t too bad, in the early 30s, and cloud was covering most of the sky. I emptied the car and continued to try and find the fault, but I was worried about Dibs and what might happen. Shit – should I have let her go alone? I was relieved to see a breakdown truck heading our way about 40 minutes later with Dibs in the passenger seat, dwarfed by a huge fat bloke called Mark, the local mechanic. He ran through the usual checks and seemed quite puzzled himself. In the end he agreed it was a fuel problem and due to the heat and distance from fuel tank to carburettor, we had to prime the carb with a little fuel to get it fired up. The car started up and fuel began pumping again and I’d learned two things. 1) Never trust a fuel gauge and 2) What to do when you run out of fuel and it’s very hot! My method would have been OK back in England!
He followed us into Wilcannia, a horrible looking town, where I topped up with fuel and changed my spare tyre (which Mark had noticed was faulty). He charged me $60 and the service/recovery was free, luckily I’d joined the NRMA before leaving Sydney. Mark told me how lucky we were that the weather was "mild" and that we’d broke down so close to the town, else he reckoned we could have been "fried alive" out there. Aussie outback story telling?
Whether that was just outback talk or what – we were happy to have been "saved"!
We continued along the highway to Broken Hill, and we saw many Kangaroos, Emus and lizards. Some of them alive and running around the road, but sadly most were road kill. Broken Hill looked like a very nice town. We got there just before dark and pitched up at the Lakeview campsite for $8 per night. We dove into town and settled into the local RSL club for a value feed and some well deserved ice-cold beers.
We spent all day wandering around Broken Hill, starting off with the "Heritage Walk". It’s a really interesting town with lots of large buildings with big verandas, wide streets and a real "colonial" feel to it. Later on we drove out to the ghost town of Silverton. It’s an old mining town set in the middle of rough terrain, quite an amazing place and although it’s called a "ghost town" a few people live there, mainly to serve the tourists who turn up now and then. The Silverton hotel is a famous little pub, which we went into. It was like a step back in time. We continued on past Silverton onto the top of a ridge overlooking the huge expanse of the Mundi Mundi Plains – a vast endless expanse of nothing! Temperatures weren’t too bad and things were made pleasant by a refreshing breeze, which was constantly blowing, although the sun was still fierce.
After buying some more supplies and cooking up a superb camp chilli-con-carnie, we drove out to the "Living Desert" sculpture symposium! Basically a load of sculptures created from various artists around the world, dotted on the top of a hill. The walk to the top was about 3 KM and the views and sculptures were well worth the hike. The sunset was fantastic and we saw lots of kangaroos.
We had a fairly easy day on camp. I renewed the points, sparkplugs, condenser and distributor cap on the car and gave it a good check over. The front RH brake was rattling a lot so I took it to a local Ford garage. They were very helpful and checked it out and told me the pads were the wrong ones, but the fit was Ok and there were no problems, as long as I could put up with the rattle. No problem! They charged my $18 for their time. The rest of the car checked out OK, although the jack is not very good (I’ll promised to get a new one). I also washed the car and tidied it up.
In the afternoon we popped into a local hotel, "Mario’s Palace", made famous by the film "Priscilla Queen of the Desert". We had a beer whilst looking around. Quite an atmospheric place with some beautiful ceiling paintings. In the evening we got chatting to a family originally from Bradford whilst bbq’ing some steaks.
23rd January 1996 Quorn, SA 447 km
Stayed up late chatting with Dave and Ginnie (the couple from Bradford) and slept soundly, apart from an early morning wake up by the local cats going through the bins! We left about 8:30 a.m. and drove parallel to the Indian Pacific railway line (we saw a train), over the border into South Australia. We saw lots of dead Roos, lots of live Emus and some huge Kites soaring above the road (looking for lunch probably). We stopped at the border post and ate our bananas as its illegal to take them over due to pests/bugs/etc. As we passed through a town called Peterborough the scenery started to change and we entered the edge of the Flinders Ranges. Lots of wheat fields and hills. We had planned to spend the night at a town called Melrose, but for some reason we missed the turning and ended up in Quorn, which is a quaint village nestled in the hills. For a bit of "luxury" we booked into a cabin (we had a 20% discount voucher) for $34 a night. Nice and clean with air-con. We cooked up some lamb and had a few beers and watched TV for a while. It had been a long day on the road and it was hot, so the air-con and comfort of settees and beds was well deserved.
24th January 1996 Port Augusta, SA 102 km
Got up early and drove a few miles to the beginning of a walk called "Devils Peak". The walk was moderate and took 3 hours to the peak and back. The views from the top were awesome, allowing us to get a good look around the Flinders Ranges. We had a drink and a bite to eat at the bottom of the walk as the whole area was extremely quiet, and observed some great bird life.
We pushed on in the afternoon Port Augusta and set-up camp at the Shoreline Caravan Park. Port Augusta is a bit grotty and the campsite was a bit bare, but in the evening we wandered to a nearby football club with Tom and Aidi (American/Australian), where we enjoyed a couple of cold beers and some good conversation.
25th January 1996 Coober Pedy, SA 531 km
Drove North along the Stuart Highway, stopping for lunch at the first small town, called Glendambo. The road was straight, long and barren. It was starting to get very hot and felt very remote, the distances between towns was becoming longer and longer. We got to Coober Pedy at around 4:00 in the afternoon after driving just over 530 KM. The road, although long and straight and remote, was in good condition and smooth, apart from the odd cattle grid. We saw very little in the way of traffic apart from the occasional car and a couple of road trains (trucks a quarter of a mile long!).
At first sight, Coober Pedy looked like a dump. A grotty town and mounds of earth everywhere. It’s an important Opal mining town and boasts something like 50 different nationalities living there. The whole area around the town was like a moonscape and we’d never seen anything quite like it. Unfortunately the centre of town was riddled with drunks. There are not that many buildings in the traditional sense, as a lot of people build their homes underground, to escape the intense heat and dust.
We decided to stay at the "Look Out Cave" motel, which is just out of town and cost $65 per night. The whole place is underground, bored into the rock. The room was nice with a queen size bed and a luxurious bathroom and the temperature is really refreshing and cool. Not claustrophobic like I had imagined.
We were going to camp but the heat and one look at the gravel patch that is called a campsite persuaded us not to bother!
In the evening we ate Burger and Chips in town and then went to the "Big Winch" lookout for sunset.
26th January 1996 Marla, SA 336 km
We woke up at 8:45 a.m. after a refreshing sleep. Because our room was totally dark and quiet we didn’t have a clue what time of day it was. Strange! We drove out of Coober Pedy to the famous Australian "dog fence" (which runs for thousands of miles and keep the dingoes out of South Eastern Australia), and attempted to drive out to the "breakaways" but turned back to the highway when the unsealed road became too rough. We stopped at "Crocodile Harry's" underground home and mine just outside of Coober Pedy. Harry is a Latvian ex-crocodile hunter with a lot of stories and an amazing dug out home and mine. He was a nice chap, but seemed to have a fixation with women’s breasts (carvings of them everywhere). Too many hot days mining or the lonely nights in the desert are to blame I expect! We returned to Coober Pedy to collect some films and ate some pizza at "Johnnies Pizza Bar". We drove on 236 KM to a small settlement called Marla to ease tomorrows long journey to Ayers Rock. The campsite was nice and grassy (and deserted) behind a lively bar. We had a camp feast of burgers, mash and beans and then showered and kicked-back for the evening. A visit to the bar was tempting but it sounded like it was getting a bit rowdy so we decided to give it a miss. The temperature got to 33 in the shade today and the forecast is for it to get hotter. Crocodile Harry had said to me that he thought it was very cool but "The Heat will come"! Dibs did most of the driving today – conditions were very good.
27th January 1996 Ayers Rock, NT 499 km
Today was very hot, almost unbearable. The inside of the car was like an oven and I dared to think what the actual temperature was. Opening the windows didn’t help, as the air outside was even hotter! We arrived at Ayers Rock at around 4:00 in the afternoon and set-up camp at the resort. It was expensive at $18 per night but there are good amenities. We had a quick glimpse of the rock from distance and then ate some greasy food at the Pioneer Lodge.
The temperature at 8:55 p.m. was still 25° C.
I couldn’t sleep last night, as it was far too hot in the tent, so I sat out until late in the camp chatting to two sisters originally from Middlesex. Dibs on the other hand slept like a log as usual! The highest temperature in the camp yesterday was 41° C. It’s easy to dehydrate in these conditions and I think the long hot drive had taken a lot out of us. I sat and drank six litres of water over the space of three hours – and didn’t even go for piss!
We got up in the dark at 5:00 a.m. and drove to Ayers Rock, or Ulluru to give it it’s aboriginal name, and started to climb it at around 6:30. We were one of the first few up there. It’s pretty steep and quite tough going. There’s a chain to help you pull yourself up the first bit. It was a good challenge and the views at the top were fantastic. I lost my cap in the wind half way up and Dibs wouldn’t let me venture off to get it. We even saw a group of Japs at the top with Champagne!
Ayers Rock is a wonderful place. It’s huge, and just sits there in the middle of nowhere. Apart from the Olgas which are nearby, there is nothing other than flat scrub and desert for miles around. It’s a sacred place for aborigines and a lot of people didn’t climb it, as the locals ask they you don’t. Unfortunately the temptation and challenge got the better of us and I was glad we climbed it.
We got back to camp after a walk around the base, just as the hordes of tourists started to arrive, and did very little during the hot afternoon. Later in the day we drove back to a good viewpoint and saw the rock change colours at the sunset. We found out that due to the intense heat the rock was closed for walking up at 10:00 earlier in the morning.
29th January 1996 Kings Canyon, NT 423 km
We got up early and changed one of the car tyres at a garage. It was bolloxed basically and near to blowing. A new tyre cost a whopping 130 bucks! We drove to the Olgas and walked around for a while before driving on to Kings Canyon. It was another long hot drive. We realised this morning that we hadn’t changed our watches – NT time is 1 hour behind SA time – no wonder we got the sunrise and sunset times a bit wrong!
Kings Canyon campsite is OK with a massive swimming pool and equally massive ants. We ate in the air-conditioned canteen as the flies and ants were getting on our tits, making cooking too much of a task, and then enjoyed some refreshing cold beers in the small bar. The temperature broke into the 40s again today and had reached 38 by 10:00 a.m.!
We got up at 5:50 a.m. - the early part of the day is the best for doing anything before the heat and flies get too much. We drove to the Canyon and completed a circular walk, which took a couple of hours. The whole area is fantastic with lots of interesting rock formations, pools of freshwater and little "forests" in some of the valleys. It was reasonably quiet, which is a nice way to see it, although later on the tour groups started to arrive and make too much noise, which spoiled the atmosphere. The canyon itself is huge, and I can't remember exactly how much time we had spent exploring. Luckily the temperature stayed in the 20’s and there was cloud and the odd spot of rain. We returned to camp later in the afternoon and relaxed in the expensive café (which is the only place to eat). We did a bit more swimming later on in the day when the weather changed and the heat started to become nasty. The thermometer reached 44 degrees in the early evening – very nasty.
31st January 1996 Alice Springs, NT 455 km
Last night in the Kings Canyon campsite it was both hot and noisy. A group of Contiki tourists turned up late and took over the place, acting (as usual) like spoilt kids, being very inconsiderate towards the other campers. This carried on until the early hours, despite requests for them to calm down and shut up. The temperature didn’t drop below 30° C in the night, so sleep was sporadic, and I started to get a bit delirious. At one stage I was apparently wandering the campsite naked searching for a cool spot or a breeze!
We drove to Alice Springs on the longer sealed-road route as we’d heard that the unsealed road was in bad condition, but we still made very good time.
Alice Springs is a lively little town and we decided to have a night in a caravan, with air conditioning of course, after our roasting in the desert. We stayed at the MacDonnell ranges Caravan Park and it cost us $32 for our small comfortable cabin. We spent the rest of the day by the pool and nipped into town for supplies and to check the post office for mail. A blissfully cool, quiet nights sleep was had by both of us.
We had hoped to stay in the cabin another night but it was already booked out, so we went to another campsite and decided to pitch tent as the weather had cooled and it was quite pleasant.
We spent the day in town and bought a Didgeridoo and a few other gifts and developed a few films. In the evening we stayed at camp and chatted to two funny New Zealand lads called Troy and Jonny. They were really funny guys who reminded me of the characters out of Wayne’s World! We exchanged stories about out outback car journeys!
Today we drove along the western side of the MacDonnell Range, stopping to look at Simpsons Gap, Stanleys Chasm and Ellery Creek Big Hole (for a swim). It was nice, quiet and interesting. We saw a few Rock Wallabies and Lizards and the temperature was quite nice. We drove all the way to Glen Helen, but decided not to stay as it was a bit deserted and run-down, so we returned to Alice and pitched up back at the Stuart Caravan Park, which is a great place. We cooked up a curry in the evening after finding some good old "Made in England" Pataks sauce. Delicious! Troy and Jonny ordered pizza and chatted to us before heading off to the local pub. They tried to convince us to join them, but we were conscious of our budget and declined.
Got up early to do some chores. We bought a mallet (the ground was getting too hard to drive the tent pegs into!) and some meths for the stove. It was hard to get the meths as it’s always kept behind the counter – apparently the aborigines like to drink it!
I needed to get a jack for the car and the one we had was no good. I went to Partco but didn’t like their prices - $34 for the cheapest jack. The bloke who was working there told me he had a 2nd hand one for sale for $10 so I bought that instead (and he gave me another jack free!). Nice stroke of luck.
I cleaned the car and managed to get off most of the caked dirt from the underside. I also blasted the radiator with a hose to get off all the dead insects. There were absolutely loads of them and some real monsters. We hit the pool in the afternoon and relaxed. The temperature was a "mild" 30° C and there was a refreshing breeze blowing. More evening fun talking with Troy and Jonny, who had spent most of the last three days rebuilding their car gearbox.
4th February 1996 Tennant Creek, NT 506 km
We left Alice at 8:00 and drove just over 500 KM to Tenant Creek. It was a real bastard of a journey as the heat got back up into the 40s and the sun was intense, making the interior of the car like an oven. How we wished we had air-con. When we arrived at the Caravan Park we just dived straight into the pool and stayed there until darkness fell! It was a real scorcher and night didn’t bring much relief.
We chatted with a couple of young Danish lads in the evening, both about 19 or 20 years old. I felt a little sorry for them, as they had been duped into buying an old Renault car in Darwin, the only one I had seen in Australia. The petrol tank didn’t even hold enough for them to get between fuel stations, and when they took it to a garage for a spare part; the mechanic hadn’t seen a car like it before! They ended up ordering the part from the only place in Australia which had them – in Sydney – and flying it to the where they were. At least they were seeing the funny side of it.
Dahbo said that they looked like they should be at home with their Mums, but I reckon the experience would do them good. They even insisted on jogging in the evenings, which in my book was suicidal in the conditions.
5th February 1996 Mataranka, NT 558 km
Got up early and left Tennant Creek at 6:30 a.m. in order to get some lower-temperature driving in. We stopped briefly at an interesting roadhouse in the middle of nowhere (as usual) for bacon butty and a coffee, but hammered on all the way to Mataranka. The journey took around 6.5 hours. As we drove the scenery started to change from the arid, stony desert to a more sub-tropical damper, lusher landscape. Hard to believe we were in Alice Springs only two days ago. Gone was the red earth and dry air, replaced by rainforest, rain and humidity. The temperatures dropped a bit, but it became very sticky.
We decided to stay in a "backpackers room" (a basic, scruffy room!) for $24 per night, which is good value and made a change.
Mataranka is a nice place to stop, and the little resort has good facilities. We went for a dip in its famous thermal pools after a refreshing drink at the bar. It felt very strange to be paddling about in warm – hot bath temperature water. It was crystal clear and the surrounding rain forest was beautiful. Luckily there didn’t appear to be any snakes or spiders around, and we were assured that there were no saltwater crocodiles in the area – only freshwater ones – so we shouldn’t worry!
Spent most of the evening relaxing in the bar, which was very quiet, and sitting under the cool fan in our room reading.
6th February 1996 Katherine Gorge, NT 143 km
Slept in a bit and left Mataranka at around 10:00 a.m. We drove north to Katherine, which is a pretty small, scruffy looking town, where we stocked up on supplies at the local Woolworth’s and visited the post office.
We decided to drive to the gorge and stay in the campsite there, as town seemed a bit grim. It turned out to be a beautiful spot and apart from the bitch in the kiosk who wouldn’t give us much advice or help at all, it seemed pleasant and very quiet. Not many people about at all.
There was lots of wildlife around, mainly Kangaroos and Wallabies, and we set up tent in a pleasant spot before heading off to do a 3-hour walk to some waterfalls.
The walk was tiring (due to the heat/humidity) but was fairly easy going, and the waterfalls, which were in full flow, were spectacular. Dibs even had the courage to take a dip, even though it was a very nervous one (still thinking about crocodiles!).
I was hard work walking back and we were exhausted and thirsty when we returned. We got back to camp and prepared food quickly as a storm was brewing in the distance. We got the BBQ out and cooked some "CHEVAPCHICHI" and potatoes. Don’t ask me what is was – it was on offer at Woolworth’s – but it was kebab-like and pretty tasty!
After our meal we sat in a shelter reading for a while and on return to our tent we spotted a snake slithering around it! Dibs was pretty nervous but the snake didn’t seemed bothered and slithered up a tree. I thought it was a python – harmless – and later confirmed it against some pictures I had.
During the night there was lots of activity outside, especially from the wallabies, which liked to rub up against our tent for some reason. They sounded like cows when they munched the grass around our tent.
We decided to take a boat cruise in the morning along the Katherine Gorge. The cost was $25 each and it lasted 2 hours. The gorges were beautiful and the trip was well worth the money. We saw plenty of wildlife (no crocs though) including trees totally jam packed with flying foxes (fruit bats). Very noisy and very smelly! Katherine gorge is simply spectacular.
We did eventually manage to get the 10% YHA discount on the boat trip (which we were entitled to) from the bitch at the kiosk, but it took Dibs a lot of had work It was like getting blood from a stone.
After the trip we packed up our tent and visited RepcoÔ (very American) to get some servicing stuff for the car – oil, filters, etc - $34 for the lot. We then drove to Springvale Homestead, which was nice but wet (it pissed it down for an hour), and eventually ended up back in Katherine at the Riverside Campsite. It’s very nice and cost only $10 per night.
The rain got quite heavy so we stayed in our tent for the night after eating some lamb chops.
Got up and changed the oil and filter & did a bit of a service on the car. I had a slight hiccup though when the filter wrench I had broke, so I went to a nearby mechanics and cheekily asked to borrow one. Surprisingly they lent me one; I did the job, and returned it within the hour – with a couple of cold cans of VB as payment!
We wandered into town and got a few supplies, developed some films and then returned to the campsite and swam in their pool. Also caught up with the UK news after buying a copy of the UK Express.