On the road in Tasmania



We arrived in Devonport, Tasmania on the 3^rd of December on the Spirit of Tasmania and instead of taking the Moke on the trailer behind the bus we decided to drive both vehicles. This meant a considerable saving on the fares and we will use the bus as base camp and do lots of exploring in the Moke.



St Patrick's River

We started our explorations in the Devonport area with visits to the surrounding towns, driving through the lush green countryside where the roads are lined with fields of potatoes, onions and other crops including pale pink fields of poppies. We have been buying cherries and raspberries at the farm gate and enjoying other fresh Tassie produce. At Sheffield any bare side of the buildings is decorated with murals of pioneer scenes of life in the district and Railton township has made topiary it’s specialty with bushes trimmed to many animal shapes and even a big hedge trimmed to be an almost life size engine and carriages.

Zig-zag road to the top of Mt. Barrow



We moved on to stay at a reserve about 30km past Launceston and once again parked the bus to use as a base for local exploration. Myrtle Park reserve is a huge area by the St. Patrick River in a valley in the mountains and the camp fee is only $3 per night. We have driven up and down mountain roads where the panoramic views are amazing even if the wind is freezing. The beautiful old buildings in Launceston are still in use, the city being small enough to avoid replacing them with modern high-rises. We also spent a day driving up the east side of the Tamar River to Low Head at the mouth of the river where we visited the Pilot House Museum were pilots used to row out to sailing ships in all weathers to guide them past reefs and safely into the river, then up stream to the port at Launceston. On this day we saw three other Mokes on the road!

11 Santas manning the ship

We are presently at Scottsdale in the north east having driven the bus up and over the mountains and we will tackle another pass to get to St. Helens on the east coast for Christmas. Meanwhile we are finding more mountains and country roads to explore in Scruffy.

WW 1 memorial carved from trees at Lederwood near Scottsdale



 I'm glad we have a run around vehicle as there are plenty of roads unsuitable for an RV and the best scenery is up those roads.

BACK HOME

We’re back home in Melbourne so it’s time to fill in the last leg of our trip.



P.S. Melbourne still runs on the 100 year old steam engine

At Mildura we had beautiful sunny days so we decided to go for a river cruise on a 100 year old paddle steamer which took us down stream through the lock gate which controls the water level for that section of the river.



Begg's Bend



Our next stop was at Begg’s Bend, a free camp spot beside the Murray River. Lots of space but we were the only ones there so we camped right on the river bank where we could watch the Whistling Kites feeding their chicks in a tree on the opposite bank. The interesting thing was that these birds of prey seemed to be raising two lots of chicks in one nest. There were two half grown with some of their feathers, and two that were much smaller and only had white fluff. (See video -hope it works!)

After two nights we continued along the Murray to Nyah, a small town near Swan Hill with free camping behind the race track beside the river. That night they held the last ever trotting meeting there, future races will all be in Swan Hill as the Nyah track is “too short” it will however be strongly supported as a training venue.

The rest of the trip home was spent wandering through central Victoria with 6 nights spent at Green’s Lake between Stanhope and Elmore. Once again a free camp site, right beside the lake which is popular as a weekend and holiday site for locals and even though it was still October  children were spending all day in the shallow waters and others were water skiing and playing on jet skis. Once the weekend visitors left it was nice and quiet and the fish were jumping just off shore. There were also quite a lot of trails in the area, excellent for exploring in the Moke.

So now we’re back home till early December when we head over to Tasmania for the summer.





BROKEN HILL

We decided to finally have a really good look at Broken Hill having been there twice and not getting much of a look around so from Gilgandra we headed north west again determined to see all the sights. This part of our trip was the worst for weather with some heavy rain and strong head winds which lasted for several days and affected our fuel usage calculations badly. Before leaving Melbourne in June we had the fuel gauge repaired but it only lasted about 300km so we had been dipping the tank and calculating mileages quite successfully for 10,000km or more without problems. However 3-4 days driving into the wind caught us out of diesel 60km short of our destination.  Quickly rolling Scruffy off the trailer Allen back tracked and got fuel but the hand pump to pull the fuel through to prime the system wasn’t working. Thank God for RACV Total Care! A mechanic came from Broken Hill with a 12volt fuel pump and managed to get us going. Towing would have cost around $1500!

Our camp at Broken Hill - even undercover parking!



We got into Broken Hill and spent a week parked at the Racecourse. We visited the Miners Memorial overlooking the town – it lists all the deaths since mining started in the area, the youngest was only 12 years old!

Replicas of cars from Mad Max II are dotted round the area 

A day was spent out at Silverton, a former silver mining town now a popular tourist spot as the movie Mad Max II was filmed in the area and many locals had minor roles. Over 100 movies and commercials have been made in the BH area. The old township has only a few well-spaced old sandstone buildings as less substantial houses were moved to Broken Hill or were only shacks and soon disappeared.

The rail museum is based at the old Silverton Tramway Station in Broken Hill. The tramway was a privately owned railway but could not be called a railway due to govt. regulations even though it ran huge W class locos right up into the 1970’s and carried passengers and freight from BH down to South Australian ports.



Another destination worth a mention was the Living Desert and the hill top sculptures created by visiting international artists from as far afield as Georgia, Mexico and the middle east.

From Broken Hill we took two days to get back into Victoria at Mildura. The most memorable thing about this drive was sharing my icecream with a cheeky grey miner bird who sat on my knee.

Charleville to Gilgandra



The streets of Mitchell have lots of these bottle trees

After our Birdsville Safari ended at Charleville and we cleaned the worst of the dust out of our bus, we headed east stopping at Morven for the night. There were emus wandering across the highway in the little township and lots of kangaroos in the paddock next to the recreation ground camping area. From there it was on to Mitchell for a soak in the artesian baths before spending the night camped beside the weir on the river.







Amigo's Castle, Lightning Ridge




Astronomer's Folly



We did a bit of fossicking (no luck)



At Roma we turned south again and stopped each night at small towns or rest areas until we got to Lightning Ridge, famous for the beautiful black opal which is found in only a few other places on earth. Of course it’s not actually black but has all the fiery reds, rich greens,golds and blues which make it so desirable. We did a half day tour which took us down a mine and to many of the local attractions with a very entertaining tour driver who knew all the history and lots of stories about local identities. Some of the old time miners had very colourful backgrounds including one who had been convicted of murder. Many of the miners were loners from all parts of the world and some found interesting ways to pass their leisure time. One has built a castle, another has carved over 500 figures into the walls of the underground tunnels and another built an astronomers monument which covers a large area with hand mixed concrete pillars.



After Lightning Ridge we moved on south to Gilgandra to collect our trailer and Scruffy which had been in safe keeping there for the duration of the Birdsville trip.





Birdsville Safari Pt 2

 

George felt quite at home at Calcory Ruins


From Birdsville we headed east and spent the first night at Calcory Ruins, an abandoned pastoral homestead. It sits overlooking a creek which during our visit had waterholes with plenty of birdlife but the property had too many drought years in the early days and the owners walked off it. It is now part of a much larger enterprise.

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Bedourie Races

From there we travelled through the channel country, also known as The Diamantina named after the river system which naturally irrigates the channel country when there are good rains to the north. The water flows and spreads through the flat areas between the ancient scrub covered sand dunes which run generally north-south. This is one of the best cattle raising areas in the country and after good rain and plant growth stock can gain 2 kilos per day.  We stayed several days in Bedourie where $15 got us into the local rodeo, The Bedourie Races, and a Saturday night meal with a band for entertainment. The races also included a Ute Muster and a travellers’ muster, and as there were so many motorhomes they had a special section for us. This really is the outback - Bedourie still does not have mobile phone coverage!



Stock on the road in the channel country



After Bedourie we continued east stopping at Windorah and Quilpie and by then we were back on narrow sealed roads. As we moved towards Charleville in the last days we got back into an area with more trees, mostly Mulga but still moving through unfenced cattle country so as well as watching for native and feral animals such as emus, kangaroos, goats and pigs, there was always the chance a large steer could appear out of the trees and decide to cross the road in front of the vehicle.

These outback towns are almost always beside a substantial river around which their stories of survival and triumph over hardship and disaster through flood and drought have shaped the character of the local people. The people you meet in this country are friendly, courteous and always ready to chat about their town. They are not politically correct and the language is sometimes colourful but they are the heart and soul of the bush. Perhaps not Crocodile Dundee but some of the characters would fit right in as support roles.

Our safari finished at Charleville with a camp oven dinner at the racecourse where we all said farewell to the friends we’d made on the trip with hopes to meet again somewhere in our travels.

Birdsville Safari Pt 1

A week after the Dig Tree Safari we were on our way again, this time starting from Broken Hill with 70 motorhomes in convoy ranging from small 4WD compact campers to top of the line Winnibego motorhomes and a converted tour coach, several towing cars or trailers. After our experiences on the previous trip we decided to leave Scruffy and the trailer in safekeeping with a friend until this trip was over.  



Wall mural at Hawker



Everyone travelled pretty well spaced out over the first few days across to Yunta in S.A. and on through Peterborough to Craddock where we camped amongst the prickles behind the pub. From Craddock we went to Hawker where there is a panoramic painting of Wilpena Pound on the inside walls of a silo type structure and there are also some floor to ceiling scenic murals all painted in great detail.  

Flinders Ranges



From there we moved into the Flinders Ranges which are 500 – 600 million years old and are just the crumbling remains of huge mountains – still magnificent! The spring wild flowers were all coming out and the grass under the trees was green so everything looked nice and healthy - good to see after so many dry years. This was the first bits of unsealed road and came as a bit of a shock to some travellers who had never been off the black stuff, causing some to slow down considerably so that the group bunched up and so learned their first lesson about travelling too close in the dust.

 After a night camping in a creek bed at Beltana Sheep Station we continued north to where the real adventure began. Lyndhurst is the end of the sealed road and here we split into 2 groups, some going to Maree and then up the Birdsville Track where they had to cross the Cooper Creek by ferry, and the smaller group which included the vehicles too large for the ferry, went via the Strezlecki Track, Innaminka, Dig Tree and then north via the Annabury Road, so that we all met up again at Birdsville for the famous annual races.

 We chose to go with this second group of 13 motorhomes as we were only repeating a short distance of our previous travels. There were a few problems along the way with two Coaster buses stopping at Innaminka to repair a shock absorber and also trailer springs, and there were a couple of flat tyres from debris off the road such as a horseshoe nail.  

Feral camels



Once again we saw lots of native birds and also the usual kangaroos and one morning we finally saw some camels. As you read in my last blog it was VERY dusty but we enjoyed every minute and although the land is basically flat, it is constantly changing and showing new vistas of vast open country and the bare bones of this remote and ancient land. It is much more interesting to travel through than the more populated and “civilized” areas.

     Our last stop before Birdsville was at Betoota where there is nothing but a pub which is closed, the local cattle station homestead and a race track. We stayed at the race track and after getting the generator and pump working we had toilets, hot showers, fresh water and power!

Montecollina Bore- hot water from the artesian basin



Several stops on this trip were “freedom camping” with no facilities at all – just the wide open spaces and starry skies. Montecollina bore beside the Strezlecki Track is a fine example.

My next blog will cover the second half of this trip.





DUST!

Road train approaching - pull off and wait for the dust to settle

Let me start by saying we have had a great time on the Birdsville Safari, and I’ll write about that in my next blog however I just have to share these photos with you. You cannot imagine how much dust has got inside our bus!







Red dust road



The guy who fitted it out obviously never intended to go off the sealed road so he didn’t seal anything. There are large gaps where pipes and cables come through the floor but the dust is so fine it finds the tiniest cracks and gaps as well and penetrates everywhere.







Dust under our mattress!



The dust on these outback roads is like fine talcum powder and is either white or red so if you can imagine a 20kg bomb of pink powder exploding inside the bus and then being fan forced through everything you might have some idea of what it’s like.



Dig Tree Safari

It’s been a few weeks since the last blog as we’ve been out of internet access areas on safari with the Campervan and Motorhome Club.
We left Gilgandra (eastern central NSW) on the 2^nd August and travelled west and north through Cobar up to White Cliffs which is an opal mining area with underground homes and tourist accommodation. In places the roads have torn up patches of seal from flooding earlier in the year but repairs are mostly complete. It is good to see water in creeks and rivers and green growth in the flood plains.

Roller coaster dirt roads

That was the end of the sealed road and from there on we were on sandy, dusty gravel and much of it was badly corrugated. 



Milparinka courthouse at sunset

The next stop was Milparinka (population 4) but where there is a beautiful restored sandstone courthouse and police station. From there we went to Tibooburra and then on to Cameron Corner where 3 states meet. This road was really bad and the constant hammering of the corrugations caused a repeat of the metal fatigue problem on the left side of the trailer. The upside was that I got to drive the Moke into Cameron Corner while Allen followed in the bus. We were at Cameron Corner for census night, blowing the local population out by around 2000%.We were able to get the trailer fixed overnight and were ready to move on to the Strezlecki Track and the Moomba Gas Fields next morning where we were the first tour group to visit their installation.



Roadside patch-up on trailer



From there it was on to Innaminka on the Cooper Creek and here it was repairs to the right hand side of the trailer, then on to Dig Tree famous for the Burke and Wills expedition final camp. Wide areas of this country were flooded and these small communities were cut off for several months in 2010.
Even though these areas have very sparse populations often towns have populations in single figures, the wider local communities are all very active supporting the Royal Flying Doctor Service and we were treated to fund raising BBQs at several sites on this trip and camp fees were usually a donation.
We travelled on to Noccundra (just an old pub by a river) then to Targomindah and finally we were back on the sealed road taking us to Cunnamulla and finally back into NSW to Bourke were we had a final official dinner, this one as a fund raiser for local Meals on Wheels service.
These small outback towns all have fascinating and often unique history and wonderful characters keeping it alive. They are all struggling to survive often in very different ways but all have the great outback spirit and down to earth approach to life.

Cooper Creek, Innaminka. Dark tree trunks indicate flood level

The colours of the outback are so vivid – red earth, blue sky, silver and green vegetation and sandy blond grasses and it seems to go on for ever. The nights have so many stars with the milky-way like a fuzzy stream across the skies. This was a wonderful time to see the outback with water in many of the creeks which can be dry for years and the waterholes are alive with birds including pelicans by the hundreds.

 It has taken us 4 days to clean the dust out of the bus and try to seal up the worst gaps. We had a wonderful adventure and made some new friends along the way. We enjoyed it so much we are off on another safari in a few days, some of it over the same roads but taking us into new territory.
















Gilgandra and surrounds

While spending a week or so in Gilgandra, we did a couple of side trips in Scruffy.

The first was to Dubbo to pick up our mail so we took the opportunity to the Western Plains Zoo. Probably not the best day for it as it was a bit overcast and cool but we drove round in the Moke and saw some of our favourites – meerkats, ring tail lemmas, cheetahs, the tiger, otters and much more in open range style enclosures.

 We visited the old Dubbo Gaol which had Gaol which has some excellent displays set up in the old cells with automated dummies made to look like actual former in-mates, and as visitors pass a photo cell sets off the automation and the “prisoners” tell their stories. Each dummy has individual features and there is even a female escapee going over the wall.

 We also spent a day exploring the Warrumbungles National Park. Some great camping areas easily accessible to motorhomes and there is plenty to see without tackling the many walking tracks. Good sealed roads, very enjoyable for Moke driving. There are some amazing rock formations left from the volcanic activity 13 million years ago and revealed by erosion. Just outside the park is the Siding Springs Observatory which is well worth a visit for the views from the mountain top and the facility itself.

In Gilgandra we visited the Rural Museum and spent some time going through all the farm machinery, tractors, trucks and ingenious home-made equipment. Gilgandra area once had hundreds of windmills and there were four different types out the front. They have been superseded by solar pumps as these are more efficient and at the sunniest, driest time of year there is often no wind.

Introducing George

Before we head off into the outback I thought it was time you met our travelling companion.

His name is George and he travels in the Moke when we’re on the road. It is really funny to see the looks on people’s faces as they spot him when we’re parked anywhere . When we stop and set up camp he usually sits in the passenger seat of the bus and creates a real talking point.

We tell people he’s our security guard. Also, as we have house sitters at home, we couldn’t leave any skeletons in the cupboard.

We get comments such as – “you need to feed him up a bit!” “Is it the boyfriend or the girlfriend?” “Where does he sleep?”

Wandering southwards again

    

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We spent three days at Ipswich, visiting the Railway workshops Museum - Excellent! very modern display methods and interactive stuff for the kids. Sunday morning a country market set up near us in the showground where we were camped so lots of good food bargains and stuff to see. We had to leave early Monday morning as the  circus was moving in on us so we ran away from the circus. We met a couple of fellow travellers who do signwriting so now the bus has some decoration.

    

At a lunch stop this Willy Wagtail cleaned all the bugs off the stoneguard



The road from Ipswich took us up over the Dividing Range for the third time and we knew we had a climb ahead of us as the signs said Cunninghams Gap as we approached the ranges. They also said 8% grade for next 7km. The highway was good with a passing lane most of the way up so we didn’t hold up faster traffic. However as we got towards the top we caught up with all the other traffic at some major roadworks. The road was down to one lane, one way at a time as the rest of the road appeared to have fallen off the edge of the mountain. There were several kilometres like this and in one place a double height row of shipping containers to stop the mountain falling on us! Then we were over the top onto the tablelands and heading for Warwick.
Straight through Warick and on to Goondawindi for 3 nights then back to Moree for another soak in the hot pools. This is all very flat country, growing wheat and cotton - lots of cotton - there is enough scattered down the sides of the road to stuff dozens of mattresses.

We are now at  Tamworth, the Country Music capital of Australia and in a couple of days we'll head west to join a group of motorhomes travelling the outback for about 6 weeks - can't wait!







Mokes and other things

We travelled over 2000km before we met up with another Moke!

 We stopped for one very chilly but fine night at Glen Innes and there was a Moke parked at a cabin in the caravan park. It was a “bits & pieces” car with identifiable parts covering a range of years. The young owners were on their way round Australia in so we wish them good luck.  On that frosty morning the ignition switch was frozen and everything had a coating of frost as they are travelling with just a bikini roof and no side-screens, just lots of layers of clothing.

From there we travelled through Tenterfield and over the Dividing Range to Casino to find another Moke belonging to a friend at the Casino Motorhome Village needing some help with brake repairs. Two and a half weeks later it was finally fixed after a saga of  wrong parts supplied and new problems to be solved.

Casino Village was a great place to stay with very good facilities and fine weather almost every day. Plenty of birdlife and rabbits in the camp area. We spent the time between car repairs relaxing and doing some local sightseeing and eating good country food at the local hotels and tourist sites such as New Italy which was settled in 1880 by Italian immigrants rescued from a disastrous settlement scam north of New Guinea.

Yesterday we moved north to Ipswich near Brisbane so we’ve made it into Queensland. As we left Casino we set the GPS for Ipswich but it wanted to send us through the twisty hill roads we’d already explored (in the Moke) so we took the easy route which confused the GPS completely. It then instructed us to “Proceed 60,000km”- hmmm, always knew that shortcuts were the longest route. Someone suggested it was trying to send us to Ipswich, England!

The bus has a name - BERTHA - pics on our next blog!

Still moving north

We are slowly moving north, about 150 – 200km each time. We travelled through Eden and up over Brown Mountain to Cooma – that really tested the bus! It snowed on us (just a little) at Cooma, then on to Goulburn, Bathhurst, Mudgee, Dunnedoo, Gilgandra and tonight we are at Narrabri. It has been overcast, windy and today it’s rained most of the day but nowhere near the rain that they’ve had on the coast.

We stayed 3 days at Bathhurst and had a drive round the race track and a look at the National Motor Racing Museum. Also 3 nights in Mudgee and went to the Henry Lawson Festival in Gulgong were they had a street parade etc and also there is an excellent pioneer museum – best I’ve seen. The highlight of the parade was an early ‘70’s Ford Falcon breaking down and being towed up the hill by a 1920’s Dodge ute.

We stayed in a little town called Tooraweenah last night – used to be the murder capital of Australia – 5 in 12 months but that was quite a long time ago I think. Allen met an emu walking down the main street at about 7.30am.

After problems with Lucas, Prince of Darkness, we have a new gremlim – Il-Lumina, Demoness of Unwanted Light. The headlights are turning on unexpectedly – even when parked in the middle of the night! So we have faulty switch that needs sorting.

We are still heading for Casino in north east NSW but we’re taking our time hoping the weather will improve by the time we get there.

Finally Away!

Finally away! It took us all morning to finally get everything packed and loaded so we got away about 1.15pm. Lucas, Prince of Darkness launched a last minute attack with a flat battery in Scruffy.

A bit of disagreement with the GPS to start with – we need to get used to each other I think.   It didn’t help when it tried to send us down roads which never got constructed and got upset when we missed a detour sign, adding 10km to our trip.

The bus is running well although the gas stopped working on day two – seems to be a faulty fuse and it’s working again.

Problems however with the tandem  trailer.  Just out of Orbost, our destination for day 2, a weld broke allowing the brakes to lock and in 200m we had worn a hole right through two tyres. We off loaded Scruffy and removed the damaged wheels from the front axle of the trailer so it would run on the back wheels only.  Got it into Orbost OK with me following in Scruffy. Settled into the caravan park by 3.30pm and by 4.30 had arranged new tyres and the welding repair for Friday.

All fixed and ready to hit the road again Saturday.

This is our first post and we are still getting ourselves and our bus ready for our big trip.
We ran into a few delays with some major problems discovered with the  brakes and wheel bearings during servicing. Many $$$  later we got him? (we need a name) back just before Easter so the break has been spent doing a few more little jobs and working out where to stow stuff.
The trailer is ready to go and Scruffy needs one tiny job done so he's ready. He got a wash today ready to take part in the ANZAC day parade at Upway RSL.
There are still a few jobs to be done before we get away so departure date is probably going to be the 2nd week of May.

I hope you will follow our travels over the next couple of years and find something of interest in our wonderings.