Tasmania. It always was such an intriguing name… I learned about it in school. Named for the Dutch explorer and sailor Abel Tasman, this island always conjured up images of steep, dark jungle for me. I have never been this close to Antarctica!
– it is wet and cold, instead of dry and hot!
It probably is not right to generalize. I’m sure it’s hot and dry here, too, at times. But right now Tasmania is the perfect transition to home for us. With its mountain tops shrouded in clouds and drizzle, it looks much like British Columbia. I’m so glad my friend Anne moved to Tassie, as it is fondly known, otherwise we might never have ventured here. I’m glad we did since it is gorgeous.
We took the ferry to Bruny Island – an island off an island.
And felt we were back on Salt Spring. Bruny Island has sheep, a cheese maker, a winery, lovely little villages and beaches.
But, unlike Salt Spring, it also has sand beaches and a penguin rookery.
Rain. Pounding rain and storm. Thunder and lightning. This is spring in Tasmania? Locals say it is unusual. I don’t have enough warm clothing. I just have sandals. The scenery is gorgeous: steep hills, green valleys, tree ferns (they look like a cross between large ferns and palm trees).
But oh, the weather. It is pouring, thunder and lightning!
Green fields with cows. Lots of sheep. This northeast side of Tasmania was settled first, in the 1800’s. Most of the wild forest is gone and it has been tamed to produce crops and keep livestock. Yet, throw in some wild gorges, a waterfall, some rain forest – and you have today’s Tassie.
By late afternoon we made it into Hobart. Enjoyed seeing downtown with lovely old buildings on the waterfront. We found a nice room in a backpackers’ hotel (read: lower prices than a luxury hotel). Right in the center of town. Walked through the Tasmania Museum, had a beer in a pub housed in an old customs house. Then a burger in an Irish Pub. Life is good.
Then drove through more wilderness, past Tasmania’s highest peak Cradle Mountain, via many hairpins curves to Strahan on the west coast, and on to Burnie on the north coast. Tomorrow, we continue our amazing race around Tasmania!
• Tassie seems to have much more internet access then the mainland did.
• Hotels and homes don’t seem to have any central heating systems. Just an electric heater in a room. But almost all beds have electric heating pads. In the south this means cold houses; in the north you won’t need any heat.
• Aussies love cake! Every town, even the smallest one, has a bakery with an enormous assortment of pastries and cakes in the window. They also always have meat pies.
• To send a postcard costs about three times more than to buy the card itself. Postage to Canada for a card is a whopping $2.65.
• No left turns allowed on a red light.
• ‘Lollies’ means candy, not just lollipops.
• The ferry to Tasmania costs 95.- one way. It cost us $39.- to fly from Melbourne.
• Size: Tasmania is about 62,000 sq km, The Netherlands a bit smaller at 42,000 and Vancouver Island smallest at 32,000.
• Aus is expensive. While the dollars are at par, minimum wage here is very high – some 20.- or 25.- dollars for a waiter. In the States a waiter would make perhaps 8.- and 10.- – 12.- in Canada. As a result, everything here is expensive for us. Groceries are about 1/3 higher. Eating out and accommodations are often about double.
• I love shopping in second hand stores, looking for a treasure. The shops usually benefit a good cause like a hospital or such. In North America these stores are always called ‘thrift’ stores – which, I think, makes them sound cheap and terrible. Here in Australia second-hand stores are called Op Shops. Op is for ‘opportunity’ – now, doesn’t that sound a lot more exciting?
MONA – What is Art?
Tasmania’s number one tourist attraction used to be Port Arthur, the convict colony where ruins of prisons tell the story of its gruesome settlement. Now, Tassie’s prime attraction is a museum built by a man with a lot of money made through gambling, a man who wanted to prove something to the world.
MONA – The Museum of Old & New Art.
The publicity surrounding the opening of David Walsh’s pet project, MONA in January 2011 extended around the world. The unique characteristics of the location, buildings and exhibits continued to please tens of thousands of visitors every month making it the most visited single attraction in Tasmania. MONA has encouraged people to visit Hobart, who would ordinarily never have contemplated it. Lonely Planet named it the top attraction.
And so we felt compelled to see it, even though we are not ‘into’ art and certain don’t love contemporary art.
The least I can say is ‘MONA is unique and thought provoking’. The overall experience of a visit is interesting. I admired the architecture, the way the building unfolds and embraces the natural landscape is a piece of art in its own right.
As far as the art inside is concerned – well, I did not care for any of it. Weird. Outlandish. Bizarre. After a while I felt like I was on drugs.
Each visitor is given an iphone with a menu that highlights and complements each piece of ‘art’. You can listen to the artist’s musings, read the ‘idea behind the piece’ or a bio. The iphone will give details on which ever piece you approach and is interactive. You can even save your tour, email it to yourself and continue reading about each piece when you get home. Pretty advanced, and cool, use of technology.
Art includes a handful of ancient Egyptian artifacts but mostly outlandish modern pieces, like a room full of TV’s blaring different channels. I’m sure there’s some socio-economic level of interest to it, but it’s kind of lost on me.
A wall full of bees: each one suspended from a thread on the ceiling, creating a 3D piece. Provocative paintings. A video of people crossing a street. A room simulating the inside of a computer. Two brooms on a wall.
A few humorous touches kept us on edge. The museum owner’s parking spot is identified as ‘God’s parking spot’. He must have a sense of humor. I hope. But mostly he must have a lot of money. Personally, I think there are better ways to put that money to use than to spend it on a trampoline with buddhist bells underneath or a blank library, a room entirely filled with blank white books.
Do I think it’s worth a visit? I’m not sure. In a way it was a waste of time and money. On the other hand, it got me thinking. What is art?
of artefact but I, like most of us, held a library card.
Two more days to explore. We drive our little rental Suzuki around the southern tips of Tasmania. One day along beaches, picturebook towns. I like the typical pubs and old hotels with their white, wooden lacework along the verandahs. I splash in the cold waves of the Southern Ocean.
We picnic on Roaring Beach: buns, chicken, fruit, cheese.
The very last day we drive all the way south to Port Arthur. This is one of the main attractions of Tasmania. But we decide that we don’t want to spend a fortune in admission fees to see ruins and learn more about the gruesome penal colony history than we really want to know.
So we walk along yet another white sand beach, have coffee in a lovely orchard and marvel at natural wonders along the coast: The Devil’s Kitchen, Blowhole and other amazing rock features with wild ocean water. On the way we are lucky enough to spot a real live echidna – a kind of small, Australian porcupine with a cute velvet snout that makes me think of an ant eater.
When we come home to our friend Anne’s place, we are even luckier. We are invited to crew on a 37’ sailing yacht in a sail race between the mainland and Bruny Island. So we spend a gorgeous sunny evening, with the perfect amount of wind, sailing across the bay. A glorious end to our three months adventure in Australia.
The next morning we flew from Hobart to Sydney. And just now I stepped off the plane from Sydney to Vancouver – 7900 miles, 14 hours. Then a short flight to Victoria, a taxi to the ferry terminal in Sidney and the ferry to Salt Spring. It’s been an amazing experience to have three whole months to roam and explore. We saw so much natural beauty, met many interesting people and visited places we had only dreamed of.
When we planned our Great Australian Adventure, we had many choices to make. How to travel, what to see. We decided that a camper was the most economical way, and it would give us relative freedom to go when and where we wanted. We knew we wanted to hike a bit somewhere and chose the southern cape area to do so once we dropped off the camper.
We also knew we wanted to experience one of the famous train journeys on this continent. The Ghan and the Overlander or Indian Pacific are legendary names. But when we first checked the website, we were blown way by the prices. Well over a thousand dollar would get us a ticket, for one person, from Perth to Adelaide. We read many travel sites and discovered that tickets ordered by phone were much cheaper. In the process we also discovered the cheaper way to go: the Red Section of the train. This came after Platinum and Gold. Way after. It was, in the end, the only affordable way for us to take the train as part of our three months journey.
Now we are here, in the Red Seats, happily wagging along on the tail end of the 600 meter long train. the train carries 250 passengers, about 30 of them are Red Seaters. It is almost comical how the old British class system is still evident on the train. We don’t get free coffee or tea like the Gold Seaters. We have to pay to go on a little excursion off the train, unlike the Gold and Platinum passengers. We hear announcements about “channel six on your control panel” but we have no control panels. Ha.
Our seats are much like airplane seats, about an inch wider and they recline further back. Sleep is difficult when the train gnaws and grinds long the track, clanging its chains and banging the tracks. But its rhymth lulls us to sleep eventually.
The view from the train is off an immense flat, empty plain: the Nullabor Desert. Null arbor: no trees. Foot high scrub, red sand and rocks. Suddenly we stop at one house in the desert. A town of two people who look after an airstrip and “run a B&B in case a pilot needs to spend the night.” We passed by one of the largest sheep stations in the world, over 300,000 acres. “It takes eight hours by plane to check the fences,” we were told.
500 km further down the track, is Cook. A town of four. The entire population comes out to see the train, and to collect their weekly mail, water and other supplies. Water here costs more per liter than fuel. A faded sign says ‘Please get sick, our hospital needs you.” Nowadays the hospital is no longer there. The local doctor is 12 hours away by car. With a deserted school this is a modern day ghost town that started as a telegraph station and now only exists because of the train.
We brought most of our food for the two day/two night journey. Kees said he’d buy a new bottle of softdrink in the next town. No such luck… The one and only town the train stops in on the journey from Perth to Adelaide is Kalgoorlie. Many people, in the Red Seats, bought tickets for a mine excursion here. We arrived in Kalgoorlie last night at midnight… The mine was pitch dark. All they got to see was Kalgoorlie’s red light district… Glad we opted not to spend A$64.- on this outing!
We appreciated that, on Remembrance Day – November 11, they played taps and asked for a minute of silence. So many young men from Australia died during both World Wars – a huge percentage of such a small population.
It is 2,700 km from Perth to Adelaide. And, mindblowing enough, the landscape does not change much. We slept a second night in our seats and each time I opened my eyes, it looked the same. Closer to Adelaide the flat scrub made way for flat wheat fields. A few more buildings here and there. And then – a lovely city. Staying in a fun colonial pub in the heart of town.
When we needed a place to spend one night in Adelaide, I searched on Google maps starting with the central bus station from where our bus departs at 7 AM. I tried many links but most Australian hotels are way up there in price. While we like to stay in good, clean places we also travel on a budget.
The Metropolitan looked more like a pub than a hotel. But the photos showed nice, large rooms and a modern restaurant. I emailed and was assured a room. No worries.
We arrived in Adelaide on the train at 7:30 in the morning. What hotel would let you check in at that time? We just hoped we could check our luggage and would then hang around til later. But we were welcomed with coffee and shown to our room right away. A large room with very clean linens, table, chairs and a fridge. We were even able to do our laundry.
The Metropolitan is one of Adelaide’s original pubs, dating back to 1883. With its 14′ ceilings and lovely decor it has the feel of an old country pub. But it is right in the heart of Adelaide, directly across from the Central Market. We walked to Victoria Park, to the State Museum and Library and all the shops.
Sure, the floors creak and there’s a curved staircase to climb. But that’s part of the charm of staying in an authentic place like this. AND.. it has free wireless internet!
We had a great dinner of pumpkin soup, schnitzel, good wine and warm rhubarb crumble. The restaurant even has a court yard. If you live near Adelaide, be sure to have a drink and dinner here. If you need a place to stay in Adelaide, this is the place!
As the bus pulls into the Melbourne Southern Cross Station, I spot our host. We’ve never met Rupert before but I know him instantly. He’s the brother of one of my best friends and, very matter-of-factly, had invited us to stay with him and his wife once we got to Melbourne. Typical Aussie hospitality is amazing. We drove to their beautiful home, have a great room and toured downtown Melbourne all day.
What a nice city – with old buildings huddled among modern architecture, the city buildings reflect a similar, integrated mix to its inhabitants. Parks, rivers, a bustling downtown. Tea and cake in a Jewish neighborhood. Mellow traffic. Art galleries. We liked what we saw of Melbourne.
Then, once the sun almost set, we drove all over town to the pier at the harbour. We walked way down the pier. It was almost dark. At the end of the pier, there were piles of rocks.
Suddenly we hear squeaking and grunting and tjirping. And there, from in between the cracks, peeked little tiny penguins! They came swimming up from the sea, at dark, and flip-flopped over the beach to hide and nest in between the rocks. They were so cute… so little. One wobbled out on the wooden dock.
Two looked like they were hugging and kissing. Too cute. What a treat to see penguins in their natural environment, without any commercial interference. It was hard to take photos since you couldn’t flash and it was dark! I wrapped red paper of my camera..
Our wonderful Melbourne host drove us all over today. Took us out to the Great Ocean Road – a gorgeous winding road along the Bass Strait in the Southern Ocean.
Would have loved to see an echidna.
Vistas of green hills dipping white sandy toes into blue waters. Had a coffee here, an ice cream there. The highlight was a campfire in a mountain park, to roast steaks. Tomato, avocado, bbq steaks and chocolate. What a lunch. We were surrounded by tall gum trees and, suddenly, heard loud grunting and snorting. Wild koalas! They sounded like wild boars. We spotted several in the trees around us. Then a gorgeous red and green parrot landed near us and stayed around. Very pictoresque.
Tomorrow – the last part of our Australian Adventure! Do you want to know what we still have in store?
Two weeks in Tasmania! So stayed tuned.
October 31, Halloween night and we are checked into The Witch’s Hat in Perth. This morning we were in the perfect campsite to clean out and pack our bags. Our groceries were perfectly finished after our last breakfast and lunch in the camper. Sad to say goodbye – both to the camper and to the lovely sites along the ocean.
Soon after leaving Yanchep we found ourselves on highways, heading into Perth traffic.
We dropped off the camper. Another efficient and friendly Britz office. Then the bus, loaded with our backpacks, into the city. Checked into the hostel. Feels cool to be among young backpackers from around the world.
could have lots of books without the weight. The problem is not so much that we don’t like reading on the iPad. It’s fine. The problem is that we don’t come across good books online. We find them in campgrounds, in second hand book stores, on shelves in the youth hostel, etc. So they pile up.
Pizza and beer in the city for dinner tonight.
So now we are spending Halloween night at The Witch’s Hat. We both chuckled when we heard we had room… 13.
So far nothing too spooky but the lights ARE flickering!
is it any wonder that I think of Dr. Seuss and Maurice Sendak every day?!
It was a short five minute haul in Augusta to our motel. We have a nice, self contained room with a kitchenette. Augusta is very blustery – a storm is howling through town right now. Getting here was a total climate change from the 30+ weather we had been having. It was 19 when we arrived, but a lot warmer today despite the wind.
This morning we embarked on our next adventure: hiking the Cape to Cape Walk, 135 km from Cape Leeuwin to Cape Naturaliste!
We booked the hike through a special agency. This way we did not have to do any of the research and bookings of where to stay, where to eat etc. They book everything, sent us a big book of the trail, step by step, with hotel information, dinners booked, and our luggage transported to the next place.
We are in Augusta for 3 nights so we can wash clothes, and make our own lunches here.
We started off at the Cape Leeuwin Lighthouse, by touching the corner stone. As the plaque states, the Dutch ship Leeuwin (Lioness) reached the southern most point of Australia in 1622 and the land was mapped as ‘land of the Lioness’. Fun to see all of the Dutch connections here.
The trail today was not easy. 25 km of bush wacking, clambering over boulders, trying not to step into deep blowholes, plowing through kilometer of kilometer of soft, sloped sand on the beach. Once in a while there was a nice section which made for easier hiking. But the Pieterspad was a piece of cake compared to this. The scenery is glorious, but a strong wind (thank goodness it was in our back) whipped up sand that pelted us.
Day 2 was more glorious scenery, great weather (hot sun and no shade anywhere!) but also more very strenuous hiking. Whenever there’s a real path in the woods, it is wonderful. But much of the time it was heavy slogging along the beach. In very soft sand that gives way with every step. Sometimes like quicksand, it pulled you down with every step. Try that for 2 hours… And then it was up the headlands, climbing quickly.
I decided that I was not enjoying this and so I am skipping Day 3. I don’t have anything to proof… The option of spending the day in a resort on a glorious beach, with pool and … with wifi, was just too tempting. Kees however is bravely trudging along. He loves the challenge. I did buy him some cold, dark beer. So he will be happy when he makes it here tonight!
The wildlife we saw included kookaburras, again finally!, a very large kangaroo on the trail and two very large (1.5 meters long) black snakes!
During our travels we always look for a book exchange. Almost every campground has one. In this manner we picked up some interesting reading.
This book was an eye opener to me. I don’t think I was aware of the fact that Britain sent thousands of young children from orphanages to live in Australia. Similar to the criminals that were sent earlier, they loaded ships with children to “get a better life” in the colony. Robert was about 6 years old and promised an education in Australia. However, many of these children ended up doing slave labor, like the author of the book who spent six years in a Catholic Boys Home where the children were terribly abused and used to built buildings and do farm work, trapping rabbits etc. rather than receive an education.
The book was very interesting to read, even more so because Robert Taylor ended up educating himself and becoming a pioneering park ranger, working in many of the national parks we became familiar with on this trip.
This book mentions another book called Empty Cradles, on the topic of child migrants.
2] Nomads At Large by Monty Dwyer, an Australia radio personality who traveled and interviwed seniors known as grey nomads. This book opened our eyes to the vast numbers of retirees who all buy campers and start traveling around the country, changing the economy of many places.
3] The Salvado Memoirs, a historical account of Australia from a particular Catholic mission in the mid 1800’s with the emphasize on aboriginal information. It is a biography of a Benedictine priest who ended up being a bishop and who established one of the first missions. The book gives amazing details on customs and language of the aboriginal people. We will probably bring this book back with us so you might want to borrow it!
4] LOVE a book I picked up called My Place by Sally Morgan. It’s labeled as an Australian classic, her biography about being part aboriginal and what it meant to her and her family. Fascinating story, well written.
5] Tanami, by Kieran Kelly. A good read about two guys who walk across this Australian desert with 5 camels. A tough journey combined with interesting history and good storytelling. Kelly picks up where two historic explorers left off, and successfully completes an unfinished trek through Australia’s hottest place.
Kees is speeding through several John Grishams and I just picked up a copy of The Collected Short Stories of Roald Dahl.
On the way to Geraldton we drove passed Pink Lake. The water is pink because of a microbe releasing beta carotine in the water.
Geraldton was the first regular city since leaving Darwin, several thousand kilometers ago. It was very nicely laid out, with large boulevards and a great waterfront. We’ve noticed in a lot of towns here that the waterfront is preserved as park, often with playgrounds and public beaches. It’s so much nicer than walking along private hotels and restaurants and not being able to get to the shore.
It was Kees’ birthday so we had dinner in a lovely place with view on the water. The library had good, free!, internet access so we got caught up on emails and work.
Now we are staying in Cervantes, right by the beach. Today we drove Nambung National Park to see the Pinnacles. We were curious to see these since they seem an Australian landmark. They are depicted on the cover of an Australian book we have at home. I always wonder what it would be like to be the first to come across a place like this. Normal scrubby desert and then, bang, bright yellow sand with thousands of stone pillars.
In 1846 a Spanish monk made his way to the new world after having been given the task by the pope of establishing a monastry in Western Australia and converting Aborigines to Christianity.
Dom Salvado had a somewhat unique view for the time. He did not try to convert and preach very hard but worked with the native populatin to win their trust. He appreciated the wisdom of the native population and made friends with them. Salvado eventually founded a small town in the Australian bush. New Norcia is a Benedictine monastic town. Separated from the Catholic church, these monks live in the town permanently and actively work to earn their own living. They grow and press olives, have a beautiful bakery and make a renowned wine and beer. It’s like a small Spanish town in the Australian bush country, with old mission buildings and palm trees.
We took a tour of the churches and several other buildings now used by educational institutions for retreats, etc. You can even spend the night in the monastary. If we weren’t running out of time, we would have stayed and experienced that. A night’s stay includes a small room, and three meals a day with the monks, time for meditation and prayer and just quiet time to relax and reflect. Salvado made several trips back to Europe to raise funds for the small village. By 1900 on his 8th trip he passed away in Rome and was eventually burried in New Norcia.
We opted to continue staying with our new Australian friends!
It was lovely to meet Australian people. We spent a few days with them and the last night they invited many of their friends for a little party. Wonderful to spend the evening with such friendly, jovial Aussies. They have a very admirable tight-knit community and take pride in building their own facilities like tennis courts, playing fields, a recreation hall and library.
On Wednesday we stopped at Yanchep National Park and, finally, saw koalas! They are so cute, clinging to the tree in their sleepy positions. They look as if they will crash to the ground if they let go. They’d move to a more comfortable fork in a tree, once in a while.
After that we found a lovely spot in Yanchep’s caravan park for our very last night in the camper! Exciting to now embark on our next adventure: a ten day hike from Cape Leeuwin to Cape Naturaliste in the south of Western Australia. Stay tuned for this adventure!
We continued down the road, another 100 KM to the tiny village of Denham. A motel, a marina, a supermarket, a gas station and then a lovely caravan park. Got a spot overlooking the ocean from a bluff. But we soon discovered they still had an ocean front site because the wind howls through here at 50 knots an hour… Can’t step outside without being blown out of your pants. I don’t need a hair dryer – just step outside and it’s blown dry in a minute. The showers here are salt water… so how can I rinse off after an ocean swim?
The first recorded arrival of white men on Australian soil, was right here. A Dutch man. A Dutch trading ship, under the command of Captain Dirk Hartog arrived here on October 25, 1616 – more than 150 years before Captain Cook. Hartog left a pewter plate, nailed to a post. The original plate is now back in the Rijksmuseum, but there’s a replica of it here.
Today we drove the short 25 KM to Monkey Mia. I had talked to many people who had visited this resort where wild dolphins come to interact with people. Everyone had said that it used to be really fun, but that now it is very touristy and regulated. But still. When wild dolphins come to the shore, I wanted to experience that. I did not have high expectations. I also suspected it to be commercialized.
BUT it was fun! It’s done in a lovely manner. You do have to pay $8.50 a person entrance fee, but that is often the case at wildlife or nature reserves. The rangers gave a informative talk and the bottlenose dolphins arrived around 8 AM. No one makes them show up, they truly do live free in the ocean. Of course they have been conditioned, know that there is a treat waiting by the shore. But I do believe the regulations are in the dolphins best interest. If they did not strictly enforce rules, people would feed them bread, or worse. They would touch them and affect them with sunscreen or bacteria.
Now, we all had a long, good look at the six wild dolphins that came to shore. They almost beached themselves and showed off. One mother brought a small calf. It was lovely. A few people were allowed to feed a fish to them and then it was over. The dolphins come back as they please but are only fed in the morning, and only up to five females, bringing males and other friends along.
Thirteen years ago when we visited Australia for the frst time, we rented a small camper van, a Toyota Hiace. It had well over 400,000 kms on it and every time we made a left turn the microwave fell on the floor. No airconditioning and since you are sitting on top of the engine in that van, it roasted your behind pretty good. So this time we decided to spent a few more dollars and get a larger, newer camper wth airconditioning and a large bed over the full width of the unit. We initially rented from the Cheapa company (the name should have warned us) but when we checked their reviews on Trip Advisor we found nothing but negative comments from previous users. So we changed to Britz and have been very very happy with their unit and their service, all first class. We used a broker to help us select the company (see Website: www.ausandnztravel.com) and were very happy with their services. You do see numerous rental companies that have units on the road. Not only Britz, but also Maui, Apollo and Kea are well known brands that are first class. There are several other rental companies that cater to different clientele and budgets. Make sure you check Trip Advisor before you rent anything!!
The rental units are mostly similar RVs to the ones you find in North America. Many class C motorhomes, small class B vans and many which would be classed as a large class B or a small class A. That is the one we now have, a Mercedes Sprinter fully camperized.
In North America there are more and more companies which use the Mercedes Sprinter (5 cyl. diesel) to build their motorhomes because it gets very good mileage for such a large unit. We are averaging 20 miles to the gallon, or about 8 liters per 100 kms. They drive well, however when you meet one of these famous road trains on the road (trucks that are 55 meters long and have 74 – 84 wheels) you better hang on to that steering wheel because you get hit with their draft pretty good.
The rental companies also provide many 4×4 camper units and that is a very good idea in Australia. Our (2 wheel) unit was only allowed on paved (sealed) road and as a result we had to forego visiting some National Parks or interesting sites because those would require us to travel down a dirt road (unsealed). A couple of times we needed to travel 10 -12 km on unsealed roads just to get to a campground and these Sprinters are not build for rough roads, that became obvious rather quickly. Next time we visit Australia we will get a 4×4 camper. A little more expensive to drive probably, but at least you can get everywhere you want to go.
The gas (petrol) here in Australia is a little more expensive, the cheapest diesel was $1.64 a liter but in the outback we paid as much as $2.20 a liter. You do have to be careful not to run out of gas because gas stations might be 250 km apart, however signs do warn you about those infrequent services and you would be pretty stupid if you did run out. Many people, especially those travelling the dirt roads in the Outback, carry extra jerrycans with fuel.
There are several other type of RVs on the road here in Australia and in campgrounds (caravan parks). First of all you see more types of trailers (called ‘caravans’ here) than I ever did see in North America. Many of them look rather low-slung when they go down the road, however as soon as they are parked a 1 or 1.5 foot pop up comes up that allows standing room in the trailer but allowed for less drag while going down the road.
Then there are the ‘camper caravans’, which we call tent trailers.
Another type we don’t see much of in North America is the ‘camper trailers’, these look like small utility trailers when being pulled behind a vehicle, but when folded out they become almost regular tents. And there are a few 5th wheels and even fewer large Class A motorhomes. The big Marathon, Prevost, Country Coach, Bounder etc. that you see in North American parks are rare here in Australia. You do see ‘slide on campers’ as they are called here, those are our pickup campers. And then something I have rarely seen in North America, the ‘roof top camper’. These are, usually small, tents that are carried on top of the car and which fold out, on top of the car, to a regular tent for which you need a ladder to get into it. It keeps you away from the snakes and spiders, but it seems a little awkward.
Since most of Australia is well endowed with a lot of sunshine many people use solar panels to charge their aux. batteries. Since the Caravan Parks can be rather expensive (we have paid between $32 and $52 for a site) many people stay in places where there are no facilities (dry camp). Especially the snowbirds (called ‘grey nomads’ or ‘silver seniors’ here) often dry camp for several days and then come into a Caravan Park for a night to replenish the drinking water, dump the grey and/or black water and get a decent shower. The facilities in these Caravan Parks are generally first class with laundromats, kitchen facilities and anything you can think of.
There is a major debate going on in the country between proponents of dry camping and the Caravan Park owners, who of course loose income if a grey nomad camps a few miles away in the bush while he has empty stalls. Several local municipal Councils have gotten into the act and decided to pass an ordinance to not allow dry camping within their boundaries. Or they are camper friendly and provide cheap (or sometimes free) camping spots for tourists.
All together we are very much enjoying the camping experience in Australia and I am already plans for our next trip down under!
Exmouth, Western Australia. It’s still a pretty isolated town. I felt that we had left the Outback but people here still calls this the Outback. We really like Exmouth. It feels like a small, laid-back beach town which might become really popular in a few years. It has a small centre with dive shops, a bakery, a grocery store. I have been to towns that boasted being famous for their wine, their cheese, having a giant lobster, or something like that. Exmouth holds the record for strongest mainland wind gust, measuring 267 kph! While we are here, it’s been trying to break that record. Very windy but that’s actually nice when it’s hot.
But Exmouth is also very different from what we expected. I had imagined the west coast to be a different landscape – hills, greener. I guess that’s because I’m a North American west coaster. Here the west coast, at least so far, is simply desert. Red rocks, shrub, even termite mounds right up to the ocean. There literally is only a row of sand dunes in between desert and reef.
We’ve all heard of the Great Barrier Reef. The west coast, has a similar reef. A bit smaller but still some 300 KM long… and this one is RIGHT off the main land. You don’t need to take an expensive cruise. You don’t need to go way out at 50 knots an hour… You simply put on your mask and snorkel, wade out into the turqoise water and voila…. coral bommies all around, red fish, blue fish, yellow fish too. It’s awesome.
Kees has graduated to wearing shorts, flipflops and a tan. We camped in town first where, to our amazement, a huge emu visited us. Then we found THE best spot in the entire Nigaloo Reef National Park – right off the beach with a view of the water and sand. The draw back is that national park campgrounds have no facilities. So we went unplugged and loved it. No TV! Yet we watched As The World Turns and The Blue Lagoon.
We had wine with fellow campers, listened to stories of kite surfing and sailing on the blue corral lagoon. Kangaroos lazed around us in the shade. Then we made dinner and watched the sun set. We watched blues fade to orange, pink, gray-blue. And then we slept, for about 12 hours. But I kept peeking out and saw the moon make a trail across the starry sky, until it was as large and orange as the sun. It slowly sank into the ocean to make way for another day.
At first light, we sipped tea and skinny dipped in the Indian Ocean.
And the best part? It’s Monday morning!
We’ve been telling you all about how wonderful our Australian travels are: warm temperatures, swimming, tropical beaches… Then we realized that, where you live it may be a blustery Fall. You may be going to work and get really ticked off reading about how nice our trip is… So we figure it’s time to tell you about the down side of traveling. How it’s not at all what it’s cracked up to be.
😦 The distances we have to drive here to get anywhere are terrible… One day we did 930 KM.
:-(The temperatures can be murder. It’s been an average of 33 degree, sometimes up to 41 degrees C.
😦 The flies are awful… they want to settle permanently up your nose.
😦 You always have to walk to a shower building, dragging all of your clothes, towel, toiletries, the key… Then you have to balance on one foot in a wet showerstall, trying to get dressed.
😦 The flies are terrible.
😦 There’s no Heineken to be found in the Outback. !
😦 It’s hard to find good coffee here, especially in the supermarket. Almost only instant.
😦 We track sand into our van all the time. Have to sweep piles of it out. All the time.
: -( You should see the flies here.
😦 Every night we have to take down the table, try to fit all the cushions into a bed and wrestle a sheet around it all.
😦 Every morning we have to take down the whole bed before we can sit at our breakfast table.
😦 We have a sunburn. And sand in unmentionable places.
😦 There’s just two of us. If you want a new conversation it gets limited sometimes.
😦 When we run out of a book to read, all we can do is hope to find a book exchange in the next campground. New paperbacks are $20.- here.
😦 Our stove has 3 burners but you can only fit two small pans on it at once.
😦 Did I mention the flies?
😦 Our fridge is about a quarter of a normal one. And it’s full of beer. “Baby beer,” Kees says, referring to the alcohol content of 2.5%.
😦 Almost no internet, and if we can get it it’s expensive.
😦 You should see the flies. They like beer.
😦 Our bathroom is about half the size of a small broom closet. Try pulling up your pants in that!
😦 We see more roadkill than houses.
There. I hope this makes you feel better.
Now I have to run. To the gorgeous white sand beach with the blue water and palmtrees. Sorry.
This is perhaps one of the most pictoresque beaches of white sand, with aqua water and perfect swimming/snorkeling anywhere in the world. I love it.
But the campgrounds aren’t great. We found a spot in the “beach front” rows of the campground closest to the beach. It really was just a walk past other campers and across the road. But it felt like we were camping in a parking lot, with cars coming and going, a petrol station right next to us. Busy, busy. $48 per night just to camp here. So we’re not staying as long as we would have liked to.
But the snorkeling is out of this world. Right off the beach you immediately float over amazing corral in all shapes and sizes with fishes darting everywhere, in all colors. Large rainbow colored fishes, trailed by little blue, yellow, black & white fishes. Even the occasional turtle. Fabulous.
This morning we walked along the beach to an area of the reef where reef sharks have their nursery. The shallow waters were teaming with reef sharks in all sizes as well as a small ray.
Coral Bay and Exmouth are two places we’d go back to, no problem.
But we did leave and drove 430 KM down the same, boring desert road. It’s called the North West Coastal Highway. It’s not truly boring – there’s something imposing in its emptiness – but there really is nothing to see. Kees loves driving the long distances and I’m getting the tedious sleeves knit on the sweater I’m making.
The same red earth (Uluru’s color really is not that special when you consider that the whole continent is red soil. It’s just that Uluru is so hard, a monolith that has not eroded).
The same dusty green shrubs.
The same dead animals along the road. Not so many wallabees as there were along the Barkly Highway, but kangaroos, birds, cattle, even sheep. The cows are huge Brahmin cows and, apparently, get hit by road trains. They lie on the side of the road with their stiff legs in the air, bloated and dried like gigantic leather purses.
We even see the same people. Similar to the Camino de Santiago, a long distance hiking trail in Spain where you often run into the same hikers each day, here you also meet fellow travelers going in the same direction. We recognize people we saw two, three even five days back in another town. Obviously making the same stops along the same route.
We pass one town of a decent size and do our groceries for the next few days. Fill up with diesel whenever we find a larger town with lower prices. Then we find the turn-off to Denham, Shark Bay and – my long awaited stop – Monkey Mia.
I just finished reading Bill Bryson’s In A Sunburned Country, in which he elaborates about Hamelin Pool and stromatolites. From his book, I knew about these rocks containing the earth’ first microbes. If they had not existed, billions of years ago, and decided to release oxygen into the atmosphere, we might have never ‘happened’. So I was curious to see to whom, or what, I owed this life on earth. Turns out stromatolites do not look exciting. The closest I can think of is lava. Black, grayish rocks sitting knee deep in saline water. No mysterious glow. No fluorescent frills. Not even gory green algae. Just rocks in clear water. But still. Cool to know that this is only one of two places on earth where stromatolites still ‘live’. They do not look exactly lively and I think that Kees was a bit puzzled by my wish to see them.
Manuel almost died five years ago.
He is an aboriginal man, 50 years of age, who, like many indiginous people, drank too much. He basically drank himself to death. After a 17 day coma, he actually survived. But the doctor told him “One more beer and you’ll die.” Manuel managed to not touch a drop of alcohol since then, and to turn his life around. He now offers a unique, cultural experience which we, as visitors to his country, thoroughly enjoyed. In most places you have no opportunity to interact with locals, and taking photos is not allowed. So when we read the advertisements for Top Didj Cultural Experience, we decided to give it a try. “It might be tacky, it might be touristy,” we thought. But it turned out to be fun, interesting and worth the money.
When we showed up at the art gallery, at 9 AM, we found a gallery and a store full of local art and giftware to browse. But we also found two tiny baby wallabees which we could pet and cuddle.
He explained family life, how clans can not marry within too close a circle of relations. How families go to other regions to meet families with suitable girls, which are promised to a certain boy at age 4. Once they reach 13 or so, the couple start living together. They don’t know the marriage ceremony. But, he said, much of their tradtional way of life, music, dance, painting and even language will no longer exist in a few more years. “Nowadays,” he said, “young people come home, sit in front of the TV with a Cola and that’s it.” We saw the exact same thing in Nunavut with Inuit people and their culture. But there they seem to have more support to hold on to language and culture. Here there is, apparently, none.
I love their term ‘dream time’. It refers to life before and after your current life. The ancestors live in dream time.
Manuel showed us how to paint a traditional turtle and kangoroo, using a certain number of lines and colors, dictated by his clan. If you know about aboriginal art you can tell which clan, family and in which region made a certain painting.
The hanting sounds of the didgeridoo lingered as we left the dusty town of Katherine behind us on our way to Western Australia and, hopefully, cooler temperatures than the 40+ degrees here.
Australia is paranoid about anyone bringing in invasive species: animals, flowers, trees… amything. And understandably so. In the past anything that was brought in, flourished and took off with a passion. Cats. Rabbits. Blackberries. They’re all out to conquer native plants and animals. I was utterly amazed when, upon landing at Sydney Airport, we were told to remain seated with our seatbelts securely fastened. Then the flight attendants opened all overhead compartments and proceeded to spray the entire inside of the plane with pesticide. My mouth had dropped open in disbelief but I quickly closed it and actually huddled under my scarf and tried not to breathe. The smell reminded me of the long banned Flit sprays my parents used in mosquito season. I come from Salt Spring Island where, if you so much as whisper the words “Round Up” people gasp and stare at you.
Last night we crossed the border between Northern Territories and Western Australia. And there we met the Cucumber Police! They have a real border station and uniformed guards who are out to get your veggies. I’m not sure what exactly they are looking for, but they seem to live in fear of your potatoes. I surrended two wrinkled oranges and some limp lettuce. But that wasn’t enough. The guard boarded our camper and proceeded to go through all cupboards. Two blushing tomatoes were caught in the act and arrested. An innocent zucchini was hauled off as a common criminal. A cold, baked potato was handcuffed and contained. Even the banana peels from the garbage got a life sentence.
Those guards do a good job protecting their state, I’m sure. But I’d hate to spend my life confiscating carrots.
Come to think of it, perhaps they should train all those rabbits. I’m sure they’d sniff out every last carrot from every passing camper van.
We did it! Crossed the entire continent! Left the east coast at Rockhampton and today we made it across the Outback to Australia’s northern west coast! We are in Broome, WA. I had read about a touristy, crowded town but on Saturday afternoon most things were closed and the streets were half empty. Strolled through a tiny Chinatown at 37º. Finally found something I wasn’t able to buy anywhere in the Outback: knitting needles. I had made due with a pair of chopsticks but now I can make more proper sleeves for the sweater I’m knitting. Campground is very close to the white sands of Cable Beach, supposedly one of the top 5 best beaches in the world. But not any nicer than our gorgeous Oregon beach!
“Can I swim here?” I ask in the campground office. “Sure,” says the lady. “Is it safe?” I want to make sure.
Aussies are such wonderful, lacksadaisy characters! Most men in the Outback are rugged cowboys. When you stopped at a roadhouse, hundreds of miles from anywhere, you see families buying an icecream, roadtrain drivers going for a meal and everyone else just getting petrol. I saw one guy get out of his car. Must have been 65, 70 years old. Standard bush clothing: rugged hiking boots with wool socks. Sleeveless vest showing heavy biceps.
Suntanned face in the shade of a leather cowboy hat (called a bush hat). This one had a long thin, white ponytail and instead of the standard dusty shorts he was wearing a long purle sari wrapped around his waist.
On our second day in Broome we got up at 5 AM for a long, 8 KM, walk on the beach before it got too hot. Lovely.
Spent the rest of the day doing laudry and cleaning the camper. Beat lots of red dust from the pillows and even mopped the floor.
But on Monday morning we continued our drive south. It’s kind of a bummer – no sooner have you made it to the gorgeous beaches of the coast or you need to go back into the desert. More than 500 KM from Broome to the next town. Same long straight roads through shrub and red earth. Even knowing that the coast is about 15 KM on your right, doesn’t help much if you can’t see it. The distances here are amazing. It kind of reminds me of Nunavut, Canada’s Arctic region. If those remote, isolated villages had roads connecting them, it would be similar to here. Hundreds of kms to the next town. And it’s easy to miss the one roadhouse in between where you can get gas. Often it literally is one building. But some places on the map turn out to be one shed with the name spraypainted on it. Have even seen several places that show on the map and are one big truck tire on the side of the road with the name spraypainted on it. Perhaps there’s a cattle station somewhere off in the bush. But you can’t see it from the road.
We followed the bright red track into the bush. It led to brilliant blue sky and a pure white beach: Eighty Mile Beach, which is actually 221 KMs!
They sure could use more surveyors in Australia. Not once have the distances on the maps and on the signs and on our odometer been the same.
Eighty Mile Beach. Life doesn’t get much better than this. White sand and an amazing array of shells. Turquoise waters. Little white waves to play in. Not really swim because of sharks, but still nice. Kees took a long walk, I searched for and found gorgeous sea shells. Watched the sun set with a glass of wine in the sand.
Decided to stay another day. The alternative is to drive another 750 KM. It’s some 500 to a town that does not sound attractive, then a roadhouse at 750 KM, after which it will be another full day to Exmouth, the next wonderful beach. So we’ll stay here for another day of shell searching.
It never ceases to amaze me how quiet these campgrounds are. Most campground are pretty much like parking lots. No privacy, the neighbors are mere feet away. Yet there is no noise at night. No people talking. No music. Just the tjirping of crickets.
North American campgrounds are much nicer, with large sites and usually much green between units. Here you are just lined up and right next to each other. But the facilities at the campgrounds here are amazing. Each one has several, usually very clean, bathroom units. There’s always a laundry room with washing machines and large sinks. Many drying racks to hang your clothing. I’ve never seen to many campers doing laundry all the time, everywhere. All the lines are usually full of clothing but also towels, sheets, quilts and blankets. It seems to me that Aussies are the cleanest campers on earth.
Each campground also usually has one or more camp kitchens. These have a large stove, a bbq, a sink, microwave, fridge for tenters to use. Especially in the heat it’s nice to cook here instead of in your own camper.
By now it is Wednesday and we’re driving, driving… Just went over 10,000 KM on this trip. Spent the last two days on the perfect, fabulous Eighty Mile Beach. Kees hiked long distances while I picked gorgeous shells.
But as soon as we’re on the road again, it’s windswept flat land with stubbles. Long stretches of road, road trains and a million traffic signs that say “floodway”.
The first thing we do when we get to a campsite, is plug the van’s power cord into a little post to give us electricity inside. Free camping sounds like a nice venture, but it also means no facilities. And when it’s +40 degrees, you do want your air conditioner on.
I’ve never traveled with so many items before that need charging. We have a cell phone (here called a ‘mobile’) which is great for making local calls or for our kids to reach us if need be. The boys also gave us an emergency thing with which we can text (but it takes us half an hour to type ‘help’. It also works as a tracking device in case you never hear from us again. IF we turned it on and IF it is charged.
Then there’s the GPS which tells us where to go. This is a lifesaver in big cities, which we are short of here. Unless the GPS is a bit outdated. She keeps yelling at us to “turn left now!” when there is no road to the left. Finally she sighs and says ‘turn around’ but we know we are on the right track. We argue a lot with our GPS but tolerate her for the times she got us out of trouble.
We also have a laptop so that I can work on manuscripts, update our blog, download photos, etc. The camera, of course, needs to be charged regularly too. And the iPad is the device we use most often, to quickly check email, skype with the kids and my sister and brother-in-law, find a campground, and much more. We love having the iPad. As long as it is charged it has proven to be our best way of communicating with friends and family. We bought the iPad specifically with this trip in mind, thinking it would allow us to bring 100 books with no problem. However, I have not found the iPad all it’s cracked up to be for reading books. In airplanes you still have to shut down any electronics for quite a while, even in airplane mode. You do run out of battery power, something you never need to worry about with a real book.
At home, before we left, I had started to read Bill Bryson’s book In A Sunburned Country. I didn’t want to lug this thick book around so I thought I would borrow the e-book from my local library. Brilliant idea, right? Well, by the time my turn on the waiting list came around, I was in the Outback with virtual no internet access. I saw an email informing me that I had 3 days to downloaded it before the book would go to the next lucky person on the waiting list. I never did find enough internet to download a book. After about a week, all I managed to do was put myself on the waiting list again. And, hurray, one day I was entitled to borrow the book again AND had access enough to download it onto the iPad. I was able to read most of the book this way, but when an e-book is due, it magically zips back into cyberspace. Taking all of my notes and bookmarks with it. So… I still much prefer a real book, thank you very much.
Then there are two iPods with music and a tiny but powerful speaker. That one has been worth the investment. We sing along loudly as we travel down the endless roads.
h the use of an adapter, to th Australian outlet we have in our camper.
BTW, many Australians around us put up large rectangles of solar panels in order to charge much more than we own: iceboxes full of beer. And fish. TV’s, computers, and whatever else waits inside their cravans.
The one thing we own that doesn’t charge anymore is Kees’ razor. And so he grows a beard.
Tomorrow… we go unplugged. We plan on camping in a national park, which means no electricity, no water. Just us on the white sand beach. Maybe we’ll see some electric eels…!
What’s In A Name? In Australia: lots!
Australia has the best place names ever.
I always liked the Alaskan town called Tok. But Australia has one better: Bukbukluk!
Did you know that the town in Alaska called Chicken, was originally called Ptargiman. But no one knew how to spell it so they changed it to Chicken.
There’s a town called Wishbone and a place called Useless Loop.
Wouldn’t you love to see a place called The Bungle Bungles? It’s a area of unusual rock formations.
If you had enough pieces, and if you were allowed names in Scrabble, wouldn’t you love to use Koombooloomba?
Goondiwindi and Toowoomba are not far from each other.
The longest place name is a hill in the south called Mamungkukumpurangkuntjunya! Say that one fast.
Many names here are, of course, British. Wales, Victoria, and so on.
But there’s also a bit of Dutch history, especially on the west coast where Dutch sailors either came ashore on purpose or by accident. We are near a town called Zuytdorp. There’s also Dirck Hertog’s Island. Today we visited Vlamingh Lighthouse. And of course Tasmania was named for the Dutch explorer Abel Tasman.
For now, we are on our way to the Ningaloo Reef. I can’t wait to see it, no matter how it is spelled.