Early December we took a side trip in Ranger to Melbourne. In addition to celebrating our god-daughter who graduated from Melbourne Uni Medical School (yeah Dr. Laura!!!), we had a few year-end appointments with doctors and dentists, a family Christmas barbie, a ceremony and a party. Ceremony??? Well, yes, after nearly 5 years I have become an Australian citizen. It’s an honour to be able to live in this amazing country. And so now I too, like Joe, am an…
We are on the last leg of our 2016 episode of On the Road Again. The Melbourne interlude in early December was more about winding down. We are eating from our freezer and stores and not replacing things. We stopped in Wagga to celebrate my new status with the Connolly’s again. Back in Moss Vale we took Silver out of storage and were relieved to find that she survived 10 days without incident. Although we are really smitten with this…
We left the coast for some different scenery – the hills and forests of the Great Dividing Range. The most direct route to Gloucester (gateway to Barrington Tops NP) is via the Bucketts Way, a picturesque route through undulating pastureland, but it seemed to us to be the roughest paved road in NSW. Our plan to spend a day hiking around the Gloucester Tops was foiled by a forest fire that closed the access road so we went with another…
We’ve left too little time for NSW but because it isn’t quite so far from Melbourne, I have tried to tell myself it will be easier to return. The Great Dividing Range follows the coast and we wanted to really spend some time here, but it’s surprising difficult to explore these mountains because a lot of it is wilderness and roads are not abundant. We nearly got nailed by a low bridge which loomed before us on a lonely narrow…
Noosa impresses once again with both a stunning ocean- and riverfront. Hiking Noosa Heads is an extraordinary experience with diverse landscapes and views and the spit has a lot of trails that present the best of river access. We also made a couple day trips to the lakes north, the hills southeast, and the Sunshine Coast south. A visit with our friends the Lambert’s gave us a chance to explore Brisbane for a few days and service Silver. We spent…
Here is another reference to Capt Cook and his first landing in Aus in 1770. Everyone loves this spot and it is indeed beautifully sited on a peninsula. The oceanside claims to be the northernmost surf beach on the east coast; the inland/river side claims sunsets and lots of sand bars at low tide. Fishing is a major attraction but we couldn’t find a single seafood market. We had a long drive from Carnarvon Gorge and arrived at the most…
For my birthday we were at Boodjamulla NP which, if you are following this blog intently, you know is a gorge that features outstanding swimming holes. For Joe’s birthday we were at Carnarvon Gorge; its star feature is its hiking. I’m not sure how many more gorges you can bear to read about, especially since I’m running out of superlatives. But we kept hearing about Carnarvon Gorge and how spectacular it is – even people who have never been here…
We had a few days in Airlie Beach in advance of our sail, as well as few days after. It was school holidays again so the caravan parks were crowded with youngsters and Main Street was alive with backpacking uni students. We chilled a bit and did some hiking in the parks and bicycling along the shoreline. We worked our way south, with stops at Sarina and Cape Palmerston. The latter was surprisingly pleasant and we stayed 3 days. The…
We needed a holiday from our holiday! Since I first met Joe during our nautical years, I have been itching to sail through the Whitsunday Islands off the mid-QLD coast. In June when we spent a few days in Airlie Beach (the gateway to these islands – post 4) that longing became more dire. So when we considered the route for our journey south, we booked a catamaran sail for 4 days/3 nights on the yacht Whitsunday Getaways. We joined…
We wanted to spend a week on housekeeping after 2+ weeks in a world of red dust. We chose the coastal city of Townsville because it is has a Ford dealer and we needed a 15,000 kilometre service on Ranger. With a population of 170,000 it would have anything and everything we might need for Silver. Our last visit to Townsville was in 1981 during our honeymoon. Our friends there now live in Burleigh Heads (our first stop in QLD…
The drive to Charters Towers – day 3 heading east from Boodjamulla – was the easiest of the outback roads to date. And not because we shared the 250 km drive (yes, I have finally gotten behind the wheel of our 14-metre rig), but there were no road works, no “development” aspect to the road, and no varied speed limits except for the occasional tiny roadside town consisting of a pub and motel. Charters Towers is another gold boom town…
To drive the Queensland Outback is to experience roads that are different to any others we’ve driven in Australia. And I mean the Outback in Northern Territories and Western Australia, both of which are really remote and sparsely populated. Sure, they all have unsealed roads and rough roads and narrow roads without shoulders. But here there are “developmental” roads and this often means one sealed traffic lane and a dirt shoulder on either side. If you happen to approach another…
Traveling from Cobbold Gorge to Karumba on the Gulf of Carpenteria was a history lesson amidst a flat featureless landscape. We were advised that Croydon was a worthwhile stop and considered staying 2 nights…until we arrived and discovered it was about 4 blocks square. Indeed, it has a rich heritage from the 1885 gold rush that local historians are proudly displaying, particularly admirable since the population was 7,000 at its peak and is now less than 300. But we were…
We’ve made our first foray onto unsealed roads after serious preparation for the inevitable dust that might infiltrate our home. My motto is “death to dirt” and I was keen to keep the dreaded particles out of our caravan, so we duct taped two vents. The trip off-road was actually innocuous: no potholes, a few corrugations, but really quite tame. We were able to cruise along at 80kph for most of the 50 km on this road in the middle…
Heading west along the Savanna Way from the Tablelands, the dense green forests change to a dry landscape. We entered an area of thicker trees at Forty Mile Scrub NP. The one significant thing we learned from the short interpretive walk is that this is a “dry” rainforest. As explained, from December to April this particular spot gets tons of rainfall from the coastal monsoons especially given its elevation at 800 metres. The rest of the year it gets little…
This fertile plateau above Cairns sits at an elevation of about 1000 metres (3200 feet) so temperatures are more pleasant here. It also gets about 1000mm (40 in) of rain a year. I think it must all be falling while we are here. We had two one-week stints in the town of Atherton at the Woodlands Big4 CP, the first when we couldn’t extend our stay in PD and the second on the way west. Surely my favorite CP so…
Cooktown is as far north as one can travel on the east coast on paved roads. It’s another brutal 800 km to the extreme northern tip – Cape York. The “road” follows an old telegraph line and is pretty rough on humans and machines with lots of corrugations, potholes and water crossings of various depth, depending on the season. Although both our 4WD truck “Ranger” and our Outback caravan “Silver” have the capability to handle this in the dry season,…
In Daintree National Park I was expecting something out of Lord of the Rings, a thick jungle of vines and twisted trees and creepy crawly things, sodden in mist and muck. Instead, I got all good things and none of the bad! Didn’t see a single spider or snake or a surprise crocodile and I was looking because I sure didn’t want to inadvertently step on one of them critters. The environmentalists have done a magnificent job of creating boardwalks…
Not quite like the gorges we usually imagine….deep fissures in solid rock with raging waters carving even deeper fissures over time. No, but Mossman Gorge National Park is still impressive, especially since it is ably managed by the traditional owners of the land, the Aboriginal people of this area. It’s a striking landscape and we took a tour that gave us more insight into the culture and way of life of the Kuku Yalanji. …
About one hour north of Cairns lies a beautiful beach town called Port Douglas. The best aspect of The Port is the fact that there is no development directly on the shoreline. The four-mile stretch of sand is fringed in palms and casuarinas, is pancake flat which makes it ideal for walking the distance, and firm which means its bike-friendly. The resorts that lie beyond the border of woodland are no more than three stories and the one road into…
It’s not just the tropics, it’s the wet tropics. That’s Far North Queensland for you. Central to this region is Cairns (pronounced Cans, America), a town that grew from a coastal hamlet to a small city of mid-rise beach hotels that hails as a gateway for a trip to the Great Barrier Reef and/or a supply hub for a trip into the outback territory of Cape York. It offers a few interesting land activities but we found that most of…
Nearly a week in Burleigh Heads on the Gold Coast, Queensland and we start to get more comfortable as we figure out where to best store things, try out the washing machine, bake an apple tart in the oven, that sort of thing. The van gets its first service and now we feel better about traveling at higher speeds. We meet up with Karin & Ferdi, our traveling companions from our Darwin trip two years earlier, as we take to…
Our plans began in April and nearly two months later, after a few grueling days of moving from our apartment into a small storage unit and the caravan, we took off on our journey north on 17 June. Our first couple nights were spent in Bendigo so we could get a stone guard custom made for the caravan. Once this was successfully added we drove up to New South Wales where we had a couple days in Wagga Wagga with friends…
For the requisite shakedown cruise we drove to Daylesford, a charming little town about 110km northwest of Melbourne. It’s especially pretty with its well-kept Victorian architecture and hilly surroundings. With the onset of the rainy winter season it’s grassy meadows have greened up and a few trees retained a bit of autumn color. This is spa and wine country, with hospitable lodging and famed dining options. Naturally, the residents sport a genteel nature and the shops on the high street are…
We’re moving!!! But it’s not quite how it sounds. While our intent was to head to Europe for a long stint once I got my (pending) Aus citizenship, it’s getting too late in the year to plan a lengthy stay that would allow us to enjoy the best weather there. At this time every year we begin thinking of our winter sojourn. So…this past week we made a couple big decisions. We bought a: Ford Ranger XLT dual cab pick-up…