Here's a story about a
trip right around the continent plus up and down the Centre that
friend Paul and I did from the 9th of September 2001 to the 10th
of October, 2001.
We enjoyed it - hope you
do too!
Mornington to Perth - the long way!
(Part One) My newly retired neighbour
Paul and I are talking over the hedge. It's Wednesday afternoon
and I'm telling him about the hectic six-weeks around Australia
trip I'm about to start on Sunday. I see his interest and ask,
"Want to come?" His eyes light up. "What an opportunity"
he says , "Wait till I talk to my wife tonight"
He didn't wait until the evening - as soon as wife Christine
came home Paul was back with a positive, "Yes, I'd love
to come".
The reason for this madcap journey is that Universal Press have
contracted me to write the editorial content for an exciting
new 'Caravanning, Camping and RV Guide to Australia' and as it
had been nine years since I'd been right around the block, I
needed to refresh my knowledge by not only doing the trip again
but including the Centre as well. With an end of November deadline
to meet, I could only spare six weeks and with the distances
involved decided not to tow the van but try to get a campervan
at a reasonable rate, as this would be the most convenient form
of transport and accommodation.
Things had come together well once the dates had been settled
- I'd hired a laptop computer so I could write up the highways
each night during the trip, Big 4 Holiday Parks had generously
agreed to provide a powered site for each stop where convenient
and Heka and Co. Campervan Hire of Dandenong kindly agreed to
loan me a 2.5 litre turbo-diesel campervan at a very special
rate.
Heka and Co. are in the business of converting VW Transporters
into very exclusive campervans and have a hire vehicle as a showcase
for their work. It was booked out for the time I needed it but
as father Henry was in California and not using his own unit,
son Robert rang him up and they agreed I could use Henry's own
campervan. With only 23,000km on the clock, it was virtually
a new vehicle and Robert said it could be picked up on the Saturday
afternoon.
Unfortunately while it was in for service the day before, it
needed some extra work that meant Robert couldn't get it back
in time to have everything ready for us at the promised 4 o'clock
and I waited around as he meticulously attended to every detail
including a thorough wash although it already looked clean. A
chill wind had started to blow and as darkness fell so too did
the rain! By the time I left Dandenong it was pouring down, traffic
was heavy and I managed to turn the wipers off every time I tried
to signal a turn - Volkswagens have indicator controls on the
left of course, but remembering that didn't come naturally for
a while.
We decided against loading up in the rain that night and in the
morning we were up early, had everything stowed, said our fond
farewells and headed off into the murk.
The VW diesel motor purred away happily as we drove through the
hills from Lang Lang to Drouin and we were soon motoring along
the Princes Freeway and finding how good the cruise control was
for these conditions. With the manual gearbox in fifth gear,
the cruise control held the speed steady at a fraction over 100km/h
and the value of this was shown at the pumps where we found it
consistently returned figures of just over 7 litres for each
100km travelled.
The view from the lookout
at Lakes Entrance
By 5pm we were on our site at East's Big 4 park at Narooma and
getting cleaned up ready to go out to the Bowling Club with friend
from way back, Roy and wife Daphne. The chinese food was superb,
the company great and the evening was a foretaste of the many
treats we were to enjoy during our marathon journey.
Sydney Town
As was to be our pattern for the rest of the trip, we were up
early, had breakfast and were on the road soon after sunrise
with Paul usually taking the first two hour driving stint. By
the time my turn was over we were on site in the Lane Cove National
Park. We chose Lane Cove NP because Universal Press are not far
away and I had a date next morning with Harold, the Production
Manager, to sort out maps and format for the book.
We had fun at Vodafone (see - 'On the Wallaby' Nov. issue) picking
up a Telite satellite phone that was to give us such a great
sense of security during the rest of the trip. Please ignore
anything I've said previously about sat. phones and e-mail. Using
PocketMail, this phone has no trouble picking up and sending
e-mail - although on most occasions skinflint Mussell preferred
to spend just 40 cents at a pay-phone. More on this later.
With our business in Sydney completed by early afternoon we turned
the Veedubs nose northwards and were soon bowling along the motorway
towards Gosford with a stop for lunch right next to the Hawksbury
River.
Nightfall saw us safely camped in a green and pleasant Big 4
park at Karuah where they claim to have the longest privately
owned jetty in NSW. By this time we had established a routine
with Paul setting up his cosy little tent on the grass near the
campervan while I put up the pop-top roof and generally sorted
things out inside the van.
The Campervan
The Heka version of campervan is set up for a couple and the
seats turn into an extra large double bed at night. As Paul preferred
to use the tent (he probably objected to my snoring!) I didn't
need the double bed and contrived a different arrangement that
worked quite well.
The Heka Campervan at Coffs Harbour
As a long-time caravanner,
I found it strange that Heka had used a two-burner methylated
spirit stove in preference to LPG but Robert explained that this
eliminated plumbing gas lines, making room for a gas bottle and
the danger of leaks. When he showed me the Electrolux stove with
its leak-proof cassette-type meths containers, easy lighting
and simple controls, I was convinced, particularly when I found
how quickly it heated my coffee - my number one priority test.
The wardrobe also looked strange and small until you opened it
up and found it would hold a number of clothes hangers side by
side and also had plenty of depth for clothes to hang and yet
it took up little interior room.
There was a roomy cupboard under the stove and this was equipped
with two sharp knives mounted in their scabbards, a pair of tongs,
a ladle, slice, two saucepans, an electric frypan, a toaster
and storage containers. There were two more quite spacious cupboards
under the bench-top and two drawers - one for the two sets of
supplied cutlery.
Also supplied were two comfortable chairs that stowed in bags
under the seats - and there was room for a heap of gear under
there. In a neat bag was the loose base for the table so it could
be used outdoors if you liked - and when it got warm we did indeed
like.
Usually the table could be screwed into one of two mountings
between the rear seats and when not in use fitted neatly behind
the front seats and was held firmly in place by a piece of velcro.
There was another little table for outdoor use with the side
door open and this had an extending leg and clipped into fittings
on the side of the cupboard.
There were a lot of thoughtful little touches that we only discovered
as we became familiar with the unit and the standard of design
and workmanship was excellent.
We had hoped to do the journey with just the two of us but by
now if you regularly follow my adventures, you will have guessed
that Murphy (What can go wrong - will!) would not take kindly
to being left behind and would stow away.
Robert had explained how the unit was fitted with a state-of-the-art,
you-beaut, charging system to keep the auxiliary battery topped
up and to run the Engel fridge while on the move. The battery
was low when we picked it up and that was understandable as the
vehicle hadn't been used with Henry overseas, but Robert thought
a few hours running would soon have everything back to normal.
He reckoned without Murphy! Not only didn't the battery charge
but it was soon dead and so were the 12-volt lights connected
to it. Also no 12-volt fridge operation and as we were headed
for seriously hot country, no cold beer at day's end would be
disastrous. In practice the contents of the fridge stayed fairly
cool providing we didn't open and shut the door too often. The
fact that the pump to the sink also needed current to make it
go didn't bother us too much as we used water from the taps on
site.
Luckily we had both brought 240-volt portable lamps so were not
completely in the dark!
The pop-top roof contributed to the marvellously low fuel consumption
and gave us plenty of head-room but I still found it a bit hard
to raise - I'm just getting old I suppose.
Paul's been working out some facts and figures on performance
and I'll give you those later when we get home - as I write we
have covered 12,000km and this is our 22nd day since leaving
home.
They've been Everywhere Man!
Maybe not quite everywhere but we are having a good try! By getting
away early in the morning - I mean EARLY as in 6am - we are usually
able to get to our day's destination about 700km along the track
by early afternoon. This gives us time to look around a bit,
have an early dinner somewhere and still get a good night's sleep.
Oh yes - I forgot - I also spend a few hours typing each night,
ring Vi to check that all's well at home and download and answer
any e-mail that's waiting.
Perhaps a boring list of night stops would give you an idea of
our progress? OK - you asked for it and those marked with a *
are all Big 4s. *Narooma, Lane Cove NP, *Karuah *Arrawarra, *Hastings
Point, Yatala, *Point Vernon, *Mackay, *Mission Beach, *Port
Douglas, Normanton, Camooweal, Wycliffe Wells, *Alice Springs,
Elliott, Timber Creek, Halls Creek, Derby , Eighty-mile Beach,
*Karratha, *Carnarvon and Cervantes.
The road from the Atherton Tableland to Normanton is now sealed
all the way although in some places it is just one lane and needs
care if you have to put your near-side wheels off to pass someone
coming the other way. Dennis at Glengarry Caravan Park at Port
Douglas told us the road was sealed - I'd imagined it all rough
and dusty just as it was the first time I used it years ago.
It goes out past the entrance to the Undarra Lava Tubes.
At Normanton we had dinner in the Purple Pub and a very
nice piece of Barra it was - washed down with a stubby of 'Gold'.
.
We climbed the lookout at Mt Isa and discovered they have
built an easier access ramp to get to it and have smartened up
the wonderful sign giving directions and distances to places
far and near
In the Alice I was disappointed they no longer do Ploughman's
lunches out at Chateau Hornsby - in fact they don't do any lunches
at all but Dennis Hornsby will still pour you a taste of anything
you fancy and we came away with some of his delicious 'Horny
Tawny'. We completed our Alice Springs experience by looking
through the fairly new and very worthwhile, National Transport
Museum, went to the Henley-on-Todd races and what a turn that
was, before rounding off the day with an excellent dinner at
the restaurant near the McDonnel Ranges Caravan Park. The Ord River downstream from Lake Argyle
We checked out the Daly Waters Hotel, looked at Queensland's
highest bar at Larrimah, walked to the Thermal Pool at Mataranka,
renewed acquaintance with Faye and Mike Miller at the Red Gums
Caravan Park in Katherine and marvelled at the restoration of
the town since the disastrous floods, found Max's Tours had closed
for the season at Timber Creek, went out to Lake Argyle and took
heaps of pictures, 'did' Broome and Cable Beach in an hour, loved
what they have done out at Eighty-mile Beach CP, had our driving
licences checked on a lonely stretch of road south of Port Hedland,
took pictures of the Dampier gas installation before most people
were up and today went to see the strange and fascinating Pinnacles
at Cervantes.
By the time you read this we will have been down the South West
of WA, across the Nullarbor, up to Ayers Rock , back to Adelaide
and returned to Melbourne via the coast.
We'll be in Perth tomorrow after calling at New Norcia and the
York Motor Museum. I'll let you know how we go for the rest of
the trip and tell you more about this great vehicle we are travelling
in next month.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Perth to Mornington - the Long Way
(Part Two)
You will remember that when I left you last month we were heading
for Perth next morning having travelled something like 12,000km
to get there in our hired VW campervan.
The college at New Norcia
Once again we took the long way - detouring out to New Norcia
to take pictures of the monastery and college, calling in for
a look around the motor museum at York before bowling up to the
Perth International Caravan Park to check whether it was as good
as readers had told me. It was!
Owners Leo and Veronica rolled out the red carpet and gave us
a guided tour including a look inside their very nice villas.
The park was full for a reason we hadn't thought of - the round
Australia trippers had all drifted down the coast as the weather
warmed up in the north and were all now in the southern part
of WA getting their breath before setting forth across the Nullarbor.
An excellent park worthy of the praise and awards it has won,
the 'International' although big - and a Big 4 - still manages
to exude an air of friendliness and care. If you hate combination
locks on toilet doors as much as me, you will rejoice that the
first thing Veronica said, after returning recently from a trip
staying in caravan parks, was that the combos must be removed
from the ladies loos. There were none on the gents to take off!
An evening with friends and a delicious meal of home made fish
and chips completed our visit to Perth and next morning saw us
driving down the coast past the lovely district around Mandurah
on our way to Albany.
Murphy and the Tarts
I talked about the Denmark custard tarts in 'The BIG ONE' and
made Paul's mouth water on our way there as I described their
crisp pastry cases and sweet, smooth custard filling. Entering
the shop in anticipation, my eyes roved over the display cases
but not one custard tart was to be seen. It was the one day of
the year they hadn't baked any! B.Murphy I'll be bound.
Something new was the treetop walk in the Valley of the Giants
near Walpole
.
A great engineering feat and
a wonderful experience as you walked up in the tops of those
majestic trees - although the swaying of the platform underfoot
was a little off-putting. I asked if they had leaflets telling
about the construction. "Yes we do - but we are out of them
at the moment". Him again.
The 'Green' Centre
At Port Augusta we turned left and headed for the Centre which
was remarkably green with lots of wildflowers and shrubs in full
bloom. They had lots of rain this year for a change and so their
colourful display made up for the rather sparse wildflowers we
saw in the West this year.
At Pimba we turned off the highway to have a look at Woomera
and found a new facility, complete with interesting audio-video
presentations, housing the exhibition of the rocket and guided
missile range. It was very well done and a great improvement
on the previous display.
I bored you last month with a list of parks we stayed in - so
I'll do it again. After *Middleton's Beach it was *Esperance,
Border Village, Wudinna, *Coober Pedy, Yulara, Glendambo, Adelaide
Beachfront and home to Mornington. (The *s are to denote Big
4 parks who kindly gave us a free powered site when we stayed
with them.) Most parks were good, a few were excellent and a
couple were pretty ordinary. The best was probably the spacious
and well located Arrawarra Big 4 in NSW, tying for a very close
second would have to be Ian Beadel's huge and sumptuous Big 4
park at Hastings Point just south of the Tweed together with
the previously mentioned Perth International.
Not the usual bright view of the 'Rock'!
It was raining on the Rock
Yes - it poured with rain the day we got to Ayers Rock and the
campground was a muddy red mess. We saw what few others see and
that was cataracts running down the sides of the rock and cascading
over ledges and this was a most impressive sight. We also ate
one of the best hamburgers with the lot you could wish for in
the Yulara shopping complex - this was after getting a fright
with the advertised $40 a head, 3-course meal at the cafe opposite.
After a brief stay in Adelaide to visit son Chris and family
we did one of our longer stints to arrive home via the Coorong,
Mount Gambier and the Westgate Bridge just four weeks and four
days after leaving home on the 9th of September.
We covered 19,500km in 32 days, spent $1,600 on diesel fuel,
used just over 7 litres of fuel for every 100km driven, averaged
about 600km a day and were on the road around 8hrs each day including
stops for fuel, lunch and sightseeing.
The five cylinder, 2.5 litre turbo-charged VW ran like a clock
for the whole journey. The motor did sound a bit like a tractor
when it was idling but underway it could hardly be heard. The
acceleration was remarkable when required to pass road trains
pulling three or more 'dogs' and the seating position was very
comfortable with the raised driving position giving a great view
of the countryside as we sped along.
Up north the lack of air-conditioning could worry some people
although I tend to agree with Henry that a/c makes you feel the
heat more when you go out into it. The manual five-speed gearbox
was a joy to use and fifth gear would pull away smoothly from
fairly low speeds although we usually used lower gears in towns
and traffic.
The 'sat' phone
One of the reasons I wanted the use of a satellite phone for
our journey was because Mum hadn't been too well before we left
and I wanted to be able to keep in touch wherever we were. In
the event she stayed extremely well - remarkable at nearly 92
years old.
The other reason was to gain practical experience of their usefulness
for the communications section of the new guide.
Bob Humphries of Vodafone was kind enough to lend me a Telit
dual mode handheld phone and this proved invaluable half way
across the Nullarbor. I used it to check on the situation at
home as Vi had mentioned Mum hadn't been too well the previous
day. We were at one of those wonderful lookouts not far from
Nullarbor Homestead and a family with a converted bus had spotted
me using the phone where no phones work. Coming over he asked
if it was a sat phone because a family with four young children
were stranded down on the highway with a broken drive for their
diesel pump. Their vehicle was a huge Scania converted coach
pulling a very large trailer complete with a Toyota Landcruiser.
We stopped and offered the use of the phone and for the next
hour or so listened in while Martin made numerous calls - first
to his own mechanic in Sydney as they have a fleet of Scania
trucks - then to the RAA in Adelaide and their local agent who
was too busy to come out from Ceduna and then to the NRMA in
Sydney who put on the nice music and kept coming back to 'Thank
you for your patience'!
When someone finally came back on the line it was a firm in Ceduna
who had everything under control and would get the parts needed
and come out to fix up the motor. Meanwhile Dave, the fellow
who had spotted the phone, had come down with his vehicle to
tow the Scania - all 23 tonnes of it - back to the rest area
and off the highway.
The family was so grateful and it certainly proved the worth
of having a sat phone if you intend travelling in remote areas
- thanks Bob. I won't be quite as cheerful when the bill comes
but it was worth it to be able to help a fellow traveller.
Pictorial Record
During the trip I fired off thirteen rolls of slide film which
will amount to nearly four hundred colour slides to sort through
- a few are on these pages and many of the others will feature
in the Guide next year.
It was a fantastic trip and well worth the effort although it's
not the way I would suggest for a nice restful holiday!
Thank you Heka Campervans, Big 4 Holiday Parks, Vodafone and
not least, my co-driver Paul who made the trip so much easier
by sharing the driving, doing the shopping and looking after
our log and statistics.
What day is this? Saturday? Must be in Mornington!
