Wandering through Australia continued..

Almost 12,000km later and we’ve crossed Australia to the East coast. Since last months blog we’ve traveled down from Kalgoorlie to the south coast, turned east along to the SE corner , back up past Margaret River, then turned east again across the middle of the southwest. We were thwarted by lots of road closures due to rain, which was unfortunate, as Robbie had set his sights on the red dirt! But we found some good alternatives and some wonderful campsites. The west coast is pretty touristy, (at one stage we were counting one caravan per minute driving the other way) the south coast wild and wonderful.

At the start of the Nullabor highway, Norseman, we picked up two very young German boy scouts who wanted to go to Adelaide (about 2000kms away) .We were trying , with language gaps, to figure what they were asking us for – they looked scared when Robbie asked if they had money! Didn’t realise quite what he meant.But anyway we gave them a lift to the next roadhouse before we stopped for the night. We spotted them again halfway across at another roadhouse but we’d already driven our quota for the day so had to leave them to their own devices. Is there a “travel with no money “ scout badge? Who knows, but good on them for trying.

We drove across the Nullabor, more than a thousand kms between WA and SA . Nullabor literally means “no trees” but actually it’s only like that for few 100 kms, the rest is either low mulgar scrub or gum trees. There’s a wild bleakness to it, and you definitely need a good playlist or some lively discussions to while away the kms. We were lucky to have a tail wind, especially when diesel hit almost $3/litre in the centre.

There are quite a few 24 hour reststops where you can camp for free, the trick being to choose ones which are as far from the road noise as possible. 

Mostly the road is well inland , but occasionally you can venture out to the clifftops on the edge of the Southern Ocean. An especially memorable place was at the top of the Australian Bight, where we perched on the clifftop and watched Southern Right whales flipping about with their calves! They stop here to breed and feed before their long swim to Antartica. 

We’d been warned to clean the mud off our vehicles before we reached the WA/SA border, so stopped on the side of the road to try and chip off about a ton of Pilbara red dirt which had set like concrete. The toilet brush was a good tool! 🙂 We also read on the govt website that we couldn’t take fruit or veg across so we ate what we could for lunch and I made homemade pasta sauce and froze it. Got to the border and there was no one there! No signs apart from the one to tell us to drive on, which we did. At least our bowels are healthy. Eventually , a few 100km later we reached another border crossing and they did go through the fridge. I think they’re much stricter about what comes into WA than what leaves, who knows. It really is like a separate country.

Once we’d travelled across to Port Augusta we headed up into the Flinders Range for a few nights- an amazing National Park  with 500,000,000 year old rocks. A welcome from members of the local tribe helped explain what this place means to them , very moving.

From there we drove to Broken Hill , such cold nights that the caravan “brain” froze and we had no water ,lights or power! Luckily it came back to life after a reboot when the day warmed up. 

There were lots of caravans headed out there for the MundiMundi Bash- an annual music festival in the desert.

A quick visit to the Royal Flying Doctor centre then we headed up a pretty rough dirt road to Neila Garrie Station. We camped here last trip and loved it.  A few nights out here under the stars revived us , camped by the Darling river under the red gums. We even had a visit from a platypus! And lot of pelicans.

But we knew we still had a lot of miles to cover, so headed off to the north east . We drove to the Warrumbungle National Park and camped , another favourite spot , then on up through the vast NSW tablelands. 

Wheat and canola farms as far as the eye can see, this is sobering country, It was here in 1838 that there was a round up of local aborigines and at least 28 were marched off from their families and murdered by local settlers.12 of these European settlers were eventually tried ,with 8 being  executed, which caused even more anger on both sides.

Up until 1967 in Australia the Aboriginal people were classified as flora and fauna. Unbelievable.

It’s very sad and sobering to think about this as you drive through the countryside.

We carried on up through the back of NSW and onto the New England Highway, eventually reaching Toowoomba. Another border crossed, this time into Queensland, and I was ready to defend my avocados but luckily didn’t have to!

We stopped there for a day or two and enjoyed the beautiful parks and the Cobb and Co Museum. 

Next down to the Sunshine Coast where we plan to catch up with friends and family for a few days before we head south down the coast to Coffs Harbour. 

I’m delighted to say that I’ll be teaching a watercolour bird workshop up at Armidale on the 17th/18th with our good mates Lucy and Barry McCann. Both amazing artists and I feel honoured to be offered this opportunity.

Then a week or two sorting our vehicles for storage before we head home.

It’s been a great adventure ..

Favourite spots? 

Windy Point (yes it was a big storm) in SW Australia, The Pilbara Desert, Wilpeena Pound, Neil Garrie Station…

Favourite food? 

Australian apple turnovers are pretty damn good!

Lessons learned?

How to put up and take down a pop top caravan.How to drive a pop top caravan! Not to panic when being passed by a 50m road train. I think we’ve both learned a lot about each other… Robbie has had to trust me directing him backing into tight caravan parks. I’ve had to learn to trust him when we dive off down 300km dirt roads that are just dotted lines on the map.

Australians? 

Almost always they’ve been friendly and engaging, ready to offer help if needed. There’s been a wonderful sense of delight in their own country and they certainly like to get out there and enjoy it. We’ve been made welcome. We’ve met a lot of Kiwi though , who’ve lived here for years and still are slightly homesick for NZ!

Memorable moments? 

Meeting a cockatoo called Syd Vicious who offered me a drink (and he bites). Holding a live python (under supervision), laughing at the odd road signs. Checking out the book exchanges … a pink fridge on a cattle station, every camp has one in the laundry. The Australian windmill museum.. the Giant Galah! The Giant Merino! The Giant Prawn!

Painting?

 Not as much as I’d hoped! We  have had to cover quite a few miles each day and by the time we’d packed and started early , driven, found somewhere to camp and sorted dinner etc, there often hasn’t been much painting time. And yes, I am making excuses! I have sketched bit though and taken 1000s of photos. 

There are lots of paintings waiting in my head.

It’s been an amazing adventure and I think we both feel very privileged to have crossed this incredible continent. We hope to come back next year and explore some more before we’re too old and wobbly to drive these kind of kms.

See you back in NZ in a couple of weeks 🙂