Two Tonkins In A Kombi

We Made It!

2008-08-03T18:00:00.003+09:30

Yep, the trip is officially over (boo hoo) and Jefro, the kombi has done us extremely proud by not only being one of the coolest modes of transport on the remote, outback roads of Oz, but also because even though he had his moments (Tennant Creek...Cough, cough), we were able to drive a complete 360 degree loop of our country without worrying about our set of wheels too much.

Our trip, the basics:

- 29,600km driven

- 242 days away

- Six states and one territory crossed

-Breakdowns: One major (Tennant Creek), three minor (Queenstown, TAS, Yorke Penninsula, SA and Mount Isa, QLD).

-Most expensive petrol : $2.05 at Uluru

-Cheapest petrol: $1.34 in Sydney, the day we left!

-Favourite places (so hard!): Broome, Esperance, Exmouth, Coral Bay, Cradle Mountain, Coles Bay, the Grampians, Flinders Ranges, Port Douglas, South West Rocks and the list goes on!

-Days without internet access: One (Tarraleah, TAS) That's not bad, Next G.

-Longest time Luke went without a shave: Four months, hence the impressive bush rangers beard

-Trip must-do: Swim with the whale sharks!

-Furthest distance travelled in one day: 1540km across the Nullarbor

-Best caravan park stayed at: Cable Beach Caravan Park, Broome

-Most expensive caravan park: Karratha at $45 a night, followed closely by Byron Bay at $43

-Car accidents/ prangs: Zero! Good on ya, Jefro!

Luke and I have had the time of our lives on this trip and are so grateful that we've been lucky enough to be able to take the time to explore Australia in this way. You guys should try it! The amazing people that we've met, the impressive sights that we've seen, the unforgettable experiences that we've had, have made for one exciting year. And for anyone thinking about doing a similar trip and waying up whether it will be worth the organising or the money or the time away from the 'real world', our advice? Jump in the car and hit the road!

But for now, Luke and I have been busy cleaning out our kombi, printing photos and adjusting to showering in a proper bathroom. Bliss! Back in Freshwater, Sydney, Luke's online business (which funded our trip!) is going great guns - check it out at http://www.allthingsstainless.com.au/ and I'm back at Pacific Magazines, this time as Deputy Editor of Girlfriend magazine (http://www.girlfriend.com.au/).

Thanks so much to everyone who left comments on our blog and kept up with our travels! We hope you have enjoyed reading about our trip and that we may have inspired some people to buy a VW and take off on their own road trip! As for Jefro, he's finding it a bit more difficult to adjust to the city life (traffc lights, fuel costs...) and actually having his own garage to hang out in. We're hanging on to him for now and can't wait to hit the road for long weekends away as soon as we can!

Yours back in the real world,
Odette and Luke

The Long Drive Home

2008-07-24T13:46:00.006+09:30

After visiting Byron Bay, it was time for Luke and I to high-tail it down the coast to one of our all time favourite camping haunts, South West Rocks. Even after (almost!) completing an entire lap around this beautiful country of ours, the seaside town of South West Rocks is still a favourite when it comes to stunning Aussie getaway spots.

The beautiful river that runs into the ocean, the protected aqua waters of Horseshoe Bay, the amazing caravan park at Trial Bay, where you can camp super close to the beach and just under the hill, which is home to the ruins of the old Trial Bay gaol, as well as the friendly locals, make South West Rocks our perfect kombi stop over. Oh and did I mention the amazing views from the lighthouse, where on most days you can spot a whale or two!

The trip is sadly coming to an end but we're so lucky to have places like South West Rocks, Port Macquarie, Hallidays Point and Forster at our doorstep for future mini-breaks. After heading back to work after cruisin' for so long, I'm sure we're going to need them!

Yours in the great outdoors,

Odette

Kombi Capital

2008-07-17T07:50:00.004+09:30

Most people who have been to Byron Bay will know that the town is filled with two things - more Sydney ex-pats then ol' London town and a whole heap of kombi vans. It seems like a bit of a cliche that there would be a ton of kombis cruising the streets of this popular surfing haven, with it's preference for all things alternate and organic and it's beautiful beaches and laid back vibe. But whether it's the local surfers with their boards in the back, hippy families from the hills or city kids in search of a simpler existence, VW vans are in demand on this stretch of the NSW coast.

So it's always nice driving into town in our own van. We've been to Byron a ton of times before in three different kombis and we always get the same welcoming comments from locals and tourists alike (although this time we splurged and booked one of the super expensive powered sites at the caravan park by the beach ($42 a night!!) instead of parking the kombi near some bushes at a park like we did a couple of years back, uni student style).

And there's no shortage of kombi souvenirs to buy either, to remind you of your stay in Byron Bay. Most shops sell kombi something-or-rathers and this shop below in the main street sold kombi everythings!

But the real reason why we like heading to Byron Bay is not to play spotto with all the vans driving around town. It's to grab a cold beer and enjoy the view from The Great Northern pub at the end of the main street in town.

And to sample some of the local produce and coffee beans in any one of the now hundreds of organic cafes that line the streets.

Visitors to the area should take the 10minute drive into the hinterland to discover the charm of the neighbouring town of Bangalow. There are shops as trendy as those found on Little Collins street in Melbourne and great food too but without the hoards of people that pile into it's coastal cousin. Oh and Aussie singer Pete Murray is just one of the celebrities that lives around these parts as well and guess what? He drives a kombi too.

Yours in the great outdoors,

Odette

And Then The Rain Came...

2008-07-13T12:04:00.004+09:30

Travelling in a kombi can be squishy at the best of times but when things get a little wet and wild outside, suddenly instead of Luke and I feeling as snug as two bugs in a rug in our van, when the rain set in as we made our way into Brisbane, we began to feel more like a couple of elephants trying to move around in Barbie's toy convertible.

We've been so super lucky this whole trip in terms of weather - and that's just as well because as anyone who has survived camping in the rain will know -wet clothes, wet camping chairs and tables, wet bath towels, wet umbrellas, wet everything, all stuffed into a car with a couple of less than happy travellers is a sure-fire recipe for a one-way ticket home.

We flew through Brisbane at lightning speeds (okay, kombi speeds, which is around 100km an hour max) and didn't get a good chance to explore this riverside city because the heavens had conveniently opened up right on top of us. We did experience the seedy Saturday morning crowd at the Brunswick street markets in Fortitude Valley though - we saw a bunch of people who looked like they needed more than a morning coffee pick-me-up (maybe a quick stint in rehab would have been a better remedy) and a bloke who was obviously experiencing the after-effects of a night on the drugs, being man-handled into the back of a paddy wagon by about eight policemen. All this at 9am in the morning, in what we had been told was the 'trendy' part of Brissy. Hmmm.

Back on the highway, and the view of Surfers Paradise was just as ominous. Where had this rain come from? Doesn't the sky know that we only have days left of our kombi adventure and a little sunshine to help us deal with the fact that we will soon be leaving our lazy tourist days behind us would be greatly appreciated? Hello? Anyone?

So with the foul weather playing havoc with our holiday plans, there was little else for Luke and I to do than join the rest of the Queenslanders, in a kind of farewell to the state, for dinner at the ultra classy all-you-can-eat foodie joint, yes, you know what I'm talking about - Sizzler. Although somehow, eating cheese bread at this Queensland institution and hitting the salad and desert bar wasn't nearly as good as I remember as an eight-year-old.

Yours wet but very, very full,

Odette

When In Rome...

2008-07-06T20:29:00.002+09:30

We've hit the sunshine coast of Queensland and have made an amazing, yet unexpected discovery. This stretch of sand and high rise apartments is actually where all the body beautiful 20-somethings that onced paraded in designer outfits and sunbaked for hours on Bondi Beach, retire to. I know! I always thought they ended up in Gosford, too! But the kilometres of cycle and walking paths along the beaches from Noosa to Maroochydore make for the perfect playground for any outdoor loving, tan sporting, velour tracksuit wearing so and so and that's why Luke and I had to try our best to fit into this sunny paradise.

I grabbed my joggers and bike helmet and tried to look the part riding along the foreshore, then stopped with the 'in' crowd to sip a latte (a soy decafe to be precise) at a stylish cafe overlooking the beach at Mooloolaba - there was even a bowl of water at each table in case I had decided to bring my sequin coat wearing poodle along for the outing.

Luke on the other hand, spent days at the caravan park gym (these may or may not actually exist) working out and toning his pecks to perfection so he would go undetected on Noosa beach in his new sparkly speedo. It works well with the now well established beard, don't you think?

Yours enjoying the good life,
Odette

Coastal Sailing

2008-07-01T10:42:00.010+09:30

With our return to the real world looming and now a date in which we have to be back in the big smoke of Sydney, Luke and I have had to pick up the pace and stop dawdling in tourist info centres and coffee shops and hightail it down the Queensland coast a little faster that what we may have liked (and at a pace that we just aren't used to!).

Nevertheless, even if you have just a few days in your travel itinerary, you can still see some pretty great places without having to resort to Northern Territory-style driving tactics (i.e. 500km a day).

Here's what we saw:

Tully: A little town built in the side of a rainforest covered mountain with a big gold gumboot welcoming visitors to Australia's 'wettest' town. With a sickly sweet smell bellowing out of the nearby sugar cane mill, this little town was a tad sentimental for me. Why? Because it was named after my little brother! Well, not really, but my bro does share his name with this Queensland community and Luke and I wasted quite a bit of time laughing and taking funny photos of all the places with his name 'Tully' on them.

Bowen: A town often left off many traveller's touring schedules, with most skimming through in search of the famous juicy mango, then scooting back to the Bruce Highway as fast as you can say, "Pass the napkins." But hold up and stay a while, because the beautiful Horseshoe Bay is a pretty slice of paradise that's no where near as exploited and packed as our next stop...

Airlie Beach: Perfect one day, destroyed the next (or so the hugh billboards protesting a new marina canal development warned us on the way into town). And yes, the man-made beach overlooking the Whitsunday Islands is what postcards are made of, but unfortunately for us, the rest of the place was as overused as a public toilet on New Year's Eve. Highrises, construction and buses and buses of backpackers make this place a good spot to drive into, then leave behind as you sail away on your own personal yacht to Hayman or Lindaman Island to visit your old mate Richard Branson, who has the cocktails waiting. Or...

...you could stay at the Wanderers Beach Resort in Airlie Beach instead, like we did, and experience what was hands down the most filthy, revolting and unmaintained caravan park / hotel that we have stayed at during our entire Aussie Adventure to date. Big call? Maybe, but we weren't the only ones feeling like we needed a shower after checking out of this place after just one night. This is what Luke found written on the back of one of the toilets in the guy's block.

Sarina: Just out of Mackay, we stopped at the Sugar Shed - a cool looking corrugated tin building on the edge of town near the sugar cane mill. You can take sugar mill tours here or just grab a coffee - which looked amazingly impressive and was gigantic (but tasted like a cup of skim longlife milk that had been boiled until breaking point). I had to do a swifty and pour half my bubbling brew into a nearby pot plant while the waitress lady, who confessed to being a novice when it came to using the coffee machine, wasn't looking.

Rockhampton: The beef capital of Australia, while you're in Rocky, you really should play this super fun game called "Spot the plastic cow." It's really very surprising how long the game can last, with life sized replicas of the prized Brahman, Santa Gertrudis, Braford and Droughtmaster bulls all over town.

Gladstone: Industrial but not to the point that the houses are stained red with iron ore like in Karratha, Gladstone's best kept secret is Tannum Sands. About 14km out of town, the sea side village is sweet, with bike tracks and apparently crocodiles (that we didn't know lived down this far of the coast until after we finished our 1 hour walk around the mangroves...gulp). Thanks for the well place signage, council Gladstone.

The Town of 1770: Strange name, cool place. Except that we arrived on the same day that the entire population of school children on holidays from Queensland also decided to check in. The caravan park was chaos and we witnessed two car prangs in about 20 minutes as 4WD's battled to park their huge rigs in spaces as small as President Bush's brain. Seriously, I felt for these guys!

Bargara: Another little gem, on the outskirts of Bundaberg, where instead of getting blotto on the town's famous drop - Bundaberg Rum, Luke and I hit the kilometres of bike trails on the Bargara foreshore and checked out the great ocean views. How very sensible!

Where to next? Only time will tell!

Yours in the great outdoors,

Odette

The Mission Is Clear

2008-06-29T17:09:00.004+09:30

There are so many beautiful places to visit in far north Queensland, but it's not so easy to find a holiday spot that hasn't been completely overused and developed to the point that it looses all of it's original charm and appeal. But we've had a few weeks to travel slowly down the coast, and we managed to find a place that is yet to be overshadowed by rows and rows of high rise apartments and where you can can get a decent cup of coffee or a fresh coconut off the beach, without too much searching. Heaven! Where is this little slice of paradise? Wouldn't you like to know! Ah, kidding. It's a town called Mission Beach.

Now Mission Beach is pretty much smack, bang in the middle of Townsville and Cairns so I doubt it will remain peaceful and relatively construction-zone free for long (Wait up - it may be already too late as we did spy a new Woolworths complex in the process of completion...). But it is worth putting aside a night or two to soak up the beautiful and relaxing vibe of this seaside town - actually Mission Beach is really four separate little towns connected by 14kilometres of sandy, coconut tree lined beach.

There's a bunch of lovely eateries, a few art galleries and even a tropical fruit winery in the tiny main street, and if you stay at the Dunk Island View Van Park (like us!), your $25 will buy you a 50metre stroll to the beach that has a view of... arh, you guys are just too clever! You're right! Dunk Island! You can push your relaxating break to the next level by staying over at Dunk Island too or take a day trip and snorkel and swim and parade around in a bikini pretending that you're on the set of Blue Lagoon.

So channel your inner Brooke Shields immediately and get your butt to Mission Beach pronto (before the rest of the Cairns/ Port Douglas crowd get sick of camping on top of each other and sunbaking on grass and high tail it to Mission too!).

Yours in the great outdoors,
Odette

Cairns to Kuranda

2008-06-25T20:12:00.001+09:30

Cairns is like the gateway to the far north Queensland tropics - you can fly in from most capital cities in Australia and use it as a launching pad to explore the nearby Great Barrier Reef or hire a car and take a road trip up the coast or into the hinterland. Cairns itself was kinda like a really mini version of Surfers Paradise (complete with hundreds of junky souvenir shops and Japanese tourists) and although I'd heard about the Cairns foreshore, I still didn't believe that there was no actual beach in Cairns, until I saw the mudflats complete with crocodile warning signs, myself.

Once you've finished sunbaking on the grass foreshore with the hundreds of pastie white backpackers looking for an instant tan, check out the Rusty Fruit and Veg Markets. Cheap fresh fruit and vegetables are spilling onto the pavement and you can also sample some of the tropical delights that this part of the world is known for - a freshly cut coconut with straw will set you back three bucks.

But one thing that every Cairns tourist should do, is visit Kuranda - not by road, but by Skyrail or scenic railway or both! Yeah, it's pricey (A combo ticket for a ride in a Skyrail gondola and then a trip on the historic Kuranda Scenic Railway will set you back $80 per adult - Phew! I know!) but it's a great way to see some truly beautiful rainforest and the little town of Kuranda in the Cairns mountains.

We caught the Skyrail over to Kuranda (it's an impressive 7.5km long with two stops along the way where you can get off and do a few short bushwalks) and the views were beautiful.

If we had our day again though, we would have caught the train to the town of Kuranda and the Skyrail back - only because you can get on and off the Skyrail whenever you want, but the train only departs at two specific times in the afternoon which you book in the morning before your trip. We chose the 3:30pm ride home, but after wandering around the souvenir shops and tacky tourist traps in Kuranda, we wished we could have come back earlier! Kuranda was once an alternative town, but now, it's pretty much a town built on this tour - with markets that are permanently set up and selling overpriced Chinese junk. There wasn't a handmade or locally produced product in sight!

Except for the delicious German lunch that we had at a traditional cafe complete with music straight out of Euro Vision! It was a classic! Check out the beef and cheese sausage with onion and sauerkraut that we threw in our gobs faster than you can say dahnk-uh shoon! Hmmm!

Oh and after lunch, Luke ran into his long lost brother whilst we were walking around in town...

When it was finally time to catch our train back to Cairns, I was so excited! I felt like we were boarding the Hogworts Express!

The train gently winds it's way down the mountains and through 15 man made tunnels while passing waterfalls and thick rainforest. It's takes about an hour and a half and this includes a stop at the Barron Falls lookout, and there's a guy recorded on a loud speaker, who has a voice a lot like the man from the movie The Man From Snowy River, who tells you all about the amazing history of the railway.

What a great day!

Yours in the great outdoors,

Odette

Kombi Mechanic Cairns

2008-06-25T19:43:00.004+09:30

Even though Jefro the kombi has been going quite well of late (although I think we could handle a breakdown in Port Douglas a little better than in the outback), it was hard to believe that we had driven some 6000km in less than a month, since our last service in Darwin. To make sure we'd make it back to the mid north coast of Australia in a couple of weeks time, we booked the van in for his final service of the trip, in Cairns.

And when we pulled up in the car park of the VW mechanic, we realised that we weren't the only ones with a kombi looking for some TLC. We went to Werners VW Centre (http://www.wvw.com.au/), which was a 5 minute walk from the centre of town in Cairns (so you can grab a coffee or go and see Adam Sandler's latest funny flick You Don't Mess With the Zohan at the movies like we did - if you liked Happy Gilmore, you'll be in your element). The VW workshop is run by a young German guy called Toby who has a thing for 'newer' VWs but still appreciates and loves the original hippy bus. He was really helpful, friendly and did a thorough service of our ol' boy that didn't cost us a bomb.

If you're in North Queensland and need a kombi man, here are his deets:

Werners VW Centre
29 Hartley Street

Cairns 4870 QLD
Ph: (07) 4031 7017
Fax: (07) 4031 7155

Yours in the great outdoors,
Odette

Port Douglas Paradise

2008-06-23T09:14:00.006+09:30

If you're holidaying in Port Douglas, there are a few ways you can go about it:

1. Total relaxation - This option requires you to do nothing but sit on the beach, read the paper, have lunch at a different restaurant each day and drink coffee at the many cool little cafes around town.

2. Adventure plus - This next option means you won't have time to pull up a towel at the beach because you'll be too busy exploring the amazing rainforest and lookouts and bushwalks in and around the place. This option includes a day trip to Cape Tribulation and the Daintree because, hey, what's another 40km up the road?

3. Kombi Combo - This option would be the one Luke and I created just for us and comes highly recommended - it's a mixture of both options 1 and 2, with a few coffee stops, lunch out at a pub, beach walks but also some more serious bush walks and drives to really check this place out. But where to begin?

Why not check out Mossman Gorge on your way further north just up from Port Douglas - it has some lovely rainforest walks and you can swim in the gorge too, if it's not too chilly (like it was the day we visited). Spot a bush turkey or a Cassowary if you can!

The next stop is the town of Daintree, which to tell you the truth, is kinda random and not what you expect. It's basically just a really small town at the foot of the mountains, with no walks into the rainforest or anything... but it is the place to go if you want to catch a boat tour up the Daintree River and maybe spot some crocs along the way!

From the town of Daintree, you may as well keep going up and jump on the car ferry to Cape Tribulation, the highest town that you can drive to on the QLD coast along sealed roads. The ferry is $18.00 return and takes about 2 minutes each way to cross - it runs from 6am until 12 midnight as well, so you can spend a good day across the water or even camp in Cape Trib and come back a few days later!

Now the drive to Cape Tribulation is a pretty special one. The lush rainforest will have you feeling like you're on some exotic tropical island (Duh... like Australia?) and you will be peering through your binoculars like Luke and I, trying to see Tarzan swing from a nearby vine.

And make sure you stop at all the boardwalk rainforest walks - they will take you even deeper into the rainforest where you can see all types of trees and vines and animals unique to this part of the world.

The actual town of Cape Tribulation isn't that big but there are some nice little cafes and restaurants for lunch, just in case you forgot your tin of vegetable soup, unlike us. And you must stop on the way back to the ferry and wander down to the beach, where you can get a bigger taste for just how beautiful this World Heritage listed region is. The rainforest literally spills into the ocean. I bet if we had seen this place on a cloudless sunny day, we might not have returned at all!

Trip highlight? The Daintree Ice Cream Company. Pure. Heaven. You drive past a bunch of unusual fruit trees on the way in and this is where the ice cream flavours come from! For $5 you get a bowl of ice cream with four different flavours to sample - ours included Black Sapote (chocolate pudding fruit), Yellow Sapote (caramel flavoured), Wattleseed (cappuccino flavour) and Coconut. The flavours were just gorgeous and they make all the ice cream on site!

Back in to town and the next day was our 'lazy' day in Port Douglas, where we pretended that we were staying at the Hilton and not the Big 4 caravan park. The lookout over Port Douglas will give you a nice little introduction to the town - the tropical gardens and coconut trees will instantly make you feel like you're in holiday mode.

Then head down to the sand and soak up the sun before...

...choosing a cool cafe or pub to enjoy a lazy beer and yummy lunch. We had humongous hamburgers at this lovely pub below in the main street and dreamed about owning a house with an outdoor entertaining area somewhat similar to where we sat...

And if all of these activities don't leave you tired and in need of a holiday, you can also head out to the Great Barrier Reef for a tour or snorkel. We decided to pass, after spending a couple of weeks checking out the reef in W.A. and also because our bank balance doesn't seem to be quite as healthy as our appetite for homemade ice cream.

Yours in the great outdoors,

Odette

Heading North

2008-06-22T18:02:00.005+09:30

After our little 'car' dramas, we weren't sure if we would get to travel any higher than Townsville on the QLD coast. Don't get me wrong, I know there would be a few people out there that would prefer a week in Tennant Creek than Port Douglas (Okay, maybe one person? Anyone?) but Luke and I always thought our trip around Australia in our kombi just wouldn't be complete without travelling through far north Queensland as well.

Driving up the coast from Townsville to Port Douglas, is like stepping into a magical world where everything is sooo green and with the mountains on one side of the road and the ocean on the other, it really is a tropical paradise. Yeah, it rains a lot and it was raining on our trip north bound, but that just adds mystery to the place, as the mist and clouds hang low over the forest covered mountains.

On first view, we thought this thing might have been the cloud maker?

But no, that would be a little too 'Willy Wonker's Chocolate Factory' for the real world -although it did turn out to be apart of another 'sweet' business - a steam chimney from one of the many sugar mills scattered up the coast amongst the hundreds of acres of sugar cane. Yum!

Next stop - Port Douglas!

Yours in the great outdoors,

Odette

Tropical Treats

2008-06-19T19:55:00.003+09:30

With all the kombi dramas of late, Luke and I were sooooo excited to make it coast! Growing up by the beach, the ocean has always been important to us and seeing the water again gave us back our bearings after such a long time in the desert!

Townsville was our first stop and although it was a little colder than what we would have liked (Hello? 30 degrees - where are you?) it was like paradise after our unexpected extended visit to Tennant Creek. The Townsville foreshore pumps with water parks for the kids, bike riders and rollerbladers everywhere, people having picnics and even the entire North Queensland Cowboy cheer leading squad practicing their routine for the next home game, all making the most of the great space on the waters edge. Luke quickly found himself a rock and soaked up the sun and views of Magnetic Island.

Oh and the best news of all? We found a mobile auto electrician who, after Luke pulled out our busted alternator, came to the caravan park to pick it up and dropped it back again that afternoon, as good as new! Whoo hoo! With both batteries now charging properly, we're back in stress-free camping business! (Well, as stress-free as camping and travelling thousands of kilometres in a 32-year-old van can get!).

Yours in the great outdoors,
Odette

Splitty Spotting

2008-06-17T20:29:00.004+09:30

Travelling with a kombi obsessed critter like Luke and being married to him for a couple of years now, means that whilst we have been trawling this great big country, we always have our eyes peeled for... yep, you guessed it... kombis. And while there seemed to be a bit of a VW drought as we crossed the Kimberly and down to Uluru, heading from Tennant Creek to Mount Isa proved pretty exciting for us!

First we spied this little beauty, which to the untrained kombi spotter eye could look rather like an old rusted out shell of a car, that has been stripped bare and left for dead. Well, that's pretty much what it is, but it's also a split screen kombi from the 1960s. You know, the rare kind? Anyway, Luke did a crazy maneuver on the Barkley highway, about 93km west of Mount Isa, just to see this guy up close and decide whether it may be worth calling our old mate tow truck driver from Tennant Creek to rescue him too. The verdict? Unfortunately this old boy kombi is a little too far gone and is best left to add an interesting glitch to the barren landscape of central Australia and a little excitement to any kombi fans driving past.

We also discovered this split screen van at a top secret location (hey, these things are like finding a massive gold nugget to the kombi fanatic) and we're kicking ourselves that we didn't take the time to go and chat to the owner. But we're not going to forget this little splitty just yet and have been playing detective for the past few days in the hope of tracking down the person wanting to get rid of this pile of 'junk' from their backyard. We'll take it!

Yours in the great outdoors,

Odette

Kombi Not Quite Crusin' But On The Road

2008-06-14T16:10:00.005+09:30

Okay, so where was I... Oh, yes, that's right - stranded in the middle of nowhere, waiting for our kombi Jefro to be fixed. So Luke and I drove around to meet our new best mate, the Tennant Creek mechanic called Les, at his state of the art workshop. Yesterday we agreed that 8am would be a great time, so we could hopefully get the kombi back and be on our way by no later than 10 or 11am. Well things happen a little differently in Tennant Creek, like much of the Northern Territory, and when Les finally rocked up at 8:50am, he didn't mention us eagerly waiting at the gate like kids waiting for a lolly shop to open, but instead, chucked Luke the gate keys and said he had to quickly help out a mate with a truck. Bloody hell.

Our mechanic finally reappeared an hour and a bit later (and by this time, Luke and I had been joined by Brian the tow truck driver, Les' wife and two young kids who were running around with no shoes on and some random 'swagman' (his words) who drifted into town and had been hanging out at Les' workshop for the past two weeks) and was now ready to finish our van. Luke played 'goffer' to Les - i.e Go find me a screw driver, go find me some degreaser, go find me a bucket load of concentration and a couple of litres of determination so I can finish this blasted kombi!!! I could see Luke was getting more and more frustrated, not because Les wasn't a good mechanic, but because this guy had so much stuff EVERYWHERE that it took him half an hour every time he needed a different tool. He actually kept his tools in an old weather beaten wheel barrow. That's right.

Ah well, finally the motor was back in the car and we were on our way (minus $850 ($500 for the gear box and $350 for labour) which we thought wasn't too bad considering a mechanic could charge pretty much what they wanted in Tennant Creek as there aren't a lot of options if you say no). Finally! Yippee! Whoo hoo! Party time!! I was so excited to get our car back and get out of this town that I almost did a small victory dance on the side of the road while Luke was getting petrol. But I'm kinda glad I restrained myself because our car troubles were not quite over.

The Barkely Highway runs from Tennant Creek across the Queensland border to Mount Isa and is a really desolate road. In the 560 odd kilometres between the towns, there is literally one roadhouse/ petrol station and one small village called Camooweal (pop: 400), 13km east of the QLD border. Because we didn't get the kombi back from the mechanic until 1pm, we wanted to drive as far as we could away from Tennant Creek that afternoon because - 1. We were understandable quite eager to leave this part of our trip WAY behind us and 2. If we were to (heaven help us!) break down again on the N.T side of the border, guess where the NRMA has to tow you? Yep, straight back to good ol' Tennant Creek.

But as we were making our escape, the battery indicator light came on and the further we drove, the brighter this bad boy light glowed. Nooo!!! Luke wasn't too concerned at first, as he thought it was just the fridge draining the battery (because we'd had no power to the van for a few days whilst it was being fixed), but when we pulled up on dark at Camooweal, we thought we'd be pushing our luck to drive another 2 hours in the dark to Mount Isa. So with no food in the fridge and our cupboards almost empty, it was a true campers dinner of tinned spaghetti on toast for us!

The next morning, we were up early and hit the road to Mount Isa. We'd made it! But then, after we'd shopped up a storm, we had a flat battery. Now I'd just been reading along the way that Mount Isa was the rodeo capital of Australia and who should come to our rescue? Two cowboy hat wearing, RM Williams totting country boys who gave us a jump start from their humongous ute, complete with piggin' spotlights and a set of bull horns. Classic.

But even these boys couldn't bring poor Jefro the kombi back to life for long... And this is when I realised that there were a few sides to Luke that I had been seeing quite a lot of lately.

This one...

And this one...

And this one...

Finally he found that the main alternator cable hadn't been re-connected to the battery. Was this Les the Tennant Creek mechanic's way of letting us know how annoying we were by putting the pressure on him to finish our van? Well, haha. You got us. (But I think we'll be the ones laughing when we get home to lush green NSW and realise we don't ever have to go back to Tennant Creek again!)

A quick call to the RACQ to make sure all our batteries were now charging and unfortunately our main battery still wasn't. This meant we had to get to the closest caravan park as soon as possible to manually charge the battery which will get us to Townsville so we can find an auto electrician who can recondition our alternator because it had burnt itself out after being unplugged for so long. The dramas!

In short, I had a moment of weakness where I actually thought we may have avoided some stress and a few sleepless nights by trading our kombi in for a brand new 4 x 4... but then I came to my senses. Where's the fun in that? Luke, on the other hand has treated the last week as a kind of express course in VW mechanics and is stoked at his new found kombi knowledge! Ah jeez. We're both just happy to be back on the road.

Yours in the great outdoors,

Odette

Kombi Break Down... Noooo!

2008-06-11T17:58:00.009+09:30

Okay, so for those of you keeping an eye on our travel tracker, you'll be no doubt thinking to yourselves, "Why the hell have Odette and Luke decided to stay five nights in Tennant Creek?" and the answer to that is not that Tennant Creek has a secret five star health retreat hidden behind the local Food Fresh supermarket that is T.D.F (to die for, for all your oldies), the simple reason for our extended stay in the middle of freakin' nowhere is that poor Jefro the Kombi has broken down.

It's a dramatic story, and one that I'm sure is getting a little more animated with each telling but believe me. It really was as bad as it sounds. Here goes:

So we had left Alice Springs, excited to get on the road and back track the 500km to Tennant Creek (where we intended to stay the night - just ONE night) so we could continue our travels east to the QLD coast. After passing through Barrow Creek and laughing about how terrible it would be to break down anywhere near this remote roadhouse and imagining the scary things that went down ten years ago on the night of the Peter Falconio murder (who along with girlfriend Joanne Lees, were also travelling in a kombi let me remind you), guess what happened? We heard a terrible scraping noise. We pulled over and Luke quickly diagnosed the problem. The gear box was screwed. I think that's the technical term but for all you mechanical novices, basically we'd lost fourth gear and oil was starting to leak from the gear box all over the road. Jeepas! Noooo!

In the middle of nowhere and seriously ten kilometres from where the Falconio incident occurred, we had no choice but to drive another 80km to the next roadhouse at 60km an hour. Either that or wait for some kind soul called Bradley Murdoch to pull over and kindly offer us a lift... Okay, enough - but this is pretty much exactly what was going through my very vivid imagination. But we managed to make it to the next roadhouse, still some 125km from Tennant Creek, and Luke and I just looked at each other as if to say, "Haha, what a HILARIOUS joke! I wonder where the hidden camera is and all the people to jump out and say "Surprise! You're on candid camera!" But, alas, our nightmare was just beginning. (Gee that does sound terrifying doesn't it!)

Stranded at Wauchope Roadhouse, we walked into the petrol station (which doubles as a seedy-looking bar) and about ten filthy dirty men, straight from the bush, all looked at us as if we were aliens or had three heads - whatever was more foreign in these parts. When we told them that we had broken down in our VW, they all cracked up in hysterics and said "You guys are screwed! The last guy to break down in a kombi in these parts was that Flaconio bloke and look how that ended up!" HAHAHA. Um, again, not funny. With tears in my eyes, we made our way to the phone box and called the NRMA, who were great, and immediately sent a tow truck out from Tennant Creek to pick us up. But 'immediately' in Northern Territory speak, means hang tight, have a few beers and we'll be there when we can. Almost 2hours later and our knight in shining armour arrives - Brian, a young bloke with a ciggie hanging out of his mouth and covered from head to toe in oil and grease. Even so, I wanted to hug him for rescuing us from the sticks.

Now new laws in the Territory mean that instead of no speed limit (this is how it used to be), you now have to drive at a very sensible maximum speed of 130km an hour along the main roads. But in a tow truck that looks like it may be in need of its own tow in the not too distant future, with our kombi strapped to the back by two flimsey looking chains and not a seat belt in sight, 130km feels very, VERY fast. We arrived in Tennant Creek in darkness with the rain pelting down and the desert temperatures dropping fast. Yep, this is EXACTLY how I'd imagined our return to one of our not so favourite towns in the N.T.

And it seems we should have bought a lottery ticket that morning before leaving Alice Springs because our luck couldn't have been better. Not only were we stuck in a town with a population of 3000, at a pretty crumby caravan park called The Outback (I've never wanted to be in Sydney more than now) but there was a public holiday on Monday, so no one was going to be able to even look at the van until Tuesday - and that's if we were lucky according to our new mate Brian (whose wife drives the local icecream van and whose father-in-law was the town undertaker).

So we had a few days to kill in Tennant. Now a day in Tennant Creek is not so bad - there's a tourist info centre to look at, a great Aboriginal art centre and a recreational dam just out of town that we were told was worth a look. Oh and we found a BP petrol station that made a very average cup of coffee to satisfy Luke's caffine addiction. But now what?

Tennant Creek doesn't really have too many shops (they have an IGA sized supermarket, a butcher, a newsagents and a few pubs) and the town population is about 80% Aboriginal and 70% of those people tend to hang out on the streets or under trees, just cruisin'. I must admit, it was initally pretty confronting and the first day we weren't quite sure what the go was, but after spending almost a week here, it seems like these guys just love being outside with their family and friends. And the kids are just so beautiful and curious about everything that's going on. They ask 100 questions and want to know all about where you're from. It's been interesting and quite good to get to see this little town for what it is and it turns out that it's not such a bad place. Although five days here with nothing to do has been far too long...

There are some sad areas though, where you really can't believe the state of some of the houses. It's like a third world country. Again, the problems run deep and aren't easily fixed but whatever the case, it seems living a half/ half existance for most of our Indigenous people just isn't working. Staying here makes you think about what the answer might be - maybe our politicians need a little breakdown stopover out this way as well?

So after this break down, all I can say is that if you're planning any kind of extended trip, it is TOTALLY worth bumping up your roadside coverage to the premium package. Luke and I signed up to the top NRMA cover before we left (it was like $40 extra for the year) and the NRMA looked after us so well from the moment we broke down. They covered the tow into town, up to $700 worth of accommodation (not a lot to choose from in Tennant so we stayed in a cabin for a few nights and a motel for our extra, unexpected night) and gave us a brand new Mitsubishi Lancer to drive around in until we were sorted (rememebering that there are about 5 streets in Tennant but so handy to have in case we decided to ditch our broken kombi and flee across the border).

Anyway, Luke just spent 3 hours with his head in the engine bay of our kombi, playing apprentice to our funny mechanic Les, who has already spent two days putting in a gear box, only to find out it was the wrong one (an 1800 instead of a 2 litre - NOOOOO!). He has promised to meet Luke back at his very organised, very tidy car yard (see pics below...) tomorrow morning at 8am to put the motor back in and make the final touches. Fingers crossed we will be out of here by mid morning.

We will keep you posted...

Yours really looking forward to hitting the QLD border and getting ol' boy Jefro back,

Odette

Kings Canyon

2008-06-10T09:27:00.005+09:30

If you're making the 500km drive from Alice Springs to Uluru, then you may as well take a 300km return detour out to the breath taking Kings Canyon. Like Uluru, there's not a whole lot on the way to see, but keep your eyes peeled for wild camels - they're everywhere and interestingly Kings Canyon Station, a roadhouse/caravan park 30km from Kings Canyon is the biggest exporter of camels and camel meat in Australia! Check out this guy that we saw sitting in the bush on the side of the road!

Kings Canyon Resort is the only other place to stay out here because there's no camping in the National Park. It's a good park but they have a pretty bad problemo with dingos at the moment - these cheeky pups trek around looking for food or shoes or camping chairs or pretty much anything they can wrap their mouths around that's left out over night, so buckle down!

There are a few great walks through Kings Canyon at Watarrka National Park. There's a short walk into the middle of the canyon, which gives you a great view of the towering vertical walls and pockets of 'lush' vegetation protected in sheltered gullies amidst the vast and harsh desert that surrounds the Park. But most people take on the canyon rim walk. The sign says this 6.6km walk will take about 3-4 hours (which scared the hell out of Luke and I - we had set our bush walking limit at 2 hours max!). But whether we have somehow managed to become super-humanly fit by sitting on our backsides in the kombi for so many days on end or the information sign was being a tad lenient, either way, Luke and I were back at the carpark, walk completed in an hour and 20 minutes! All those 5 o'clock beers must be giving us extra energy or something?!

It's a beautiful walk and there is so much to see. The contrast between the red earth, the blue sky and the lush greenery is beautiful. Well worth the trip!

Yours in the great outdoors,

Odette

Some Pretty Impressive Rocks

2008-06-09T09:29:00.003+09:30

We took a pretty big detour back down the middle of Australia, to see some rock that a couple of other million people seem to think is worth the trip. But as we drove along the highway and saw this on the horizon, Luke and I both said to each other, "Gee, that doesn't look like the rock printed on tea towels in all the souvenirs shops...".

And that was because it wasn't the same rock printed on all those tea towels. This was actually Mount Connor, another massive rock formation that tricks hundreds of tourists just like us on the drive to Uluru or Ayres Rock. The two formations are about 100km apart and obviously poor ol' Mount Connor is the black sheep of the family and has received far less publicity.

When we finally did make it to the famous Australian icon, we couldn't help but be impressed. Uluru was just as huge, just as red and just as... well... Australian.

The only place where you can stay at near the rock is Yulara, a man made resort town that has it's own supermarket, bunch of restaurants, cafes, newsagents, tour booking office and of course, range of accommodation, from deluxe five star penthouse suites to $33 a night powered sites. We'll take it! Camping amongst the red sand dunes, with the odd dingo sneaking around and the shape of Uluru in the distance is amazing. We'd finally made it to the real red centre!

Exploring Uluru can take a while as well - there are plenty of walks that you can do around the base, and every corner reveals a new face of Uluru that's just as interesting as the last. There's caves, crevasses, waterholes, rock art and sacred Aboriginal sites - it's all very interesting.

Oh and you can climb the rock as well, of course, but the Aboriginal owners discourage tourists from doing so, as a way to respect their land. Plus it's pretty dangerous, with some 35 people dying either by falling from the rock, or from a heart attack or similar condition after pushing themselves to get to the top. We chose to watch the hundreds of ant-like tourists from the bottom, as they skimmed over the warning signs and started the upward trek anyway.

But Uluru is just one of the wonders in the central Australian desert. While you're here, you have to drive the extra 37 kilometres to see the beautiful Kata Tjuta (or Olgas). This collection of rock formations is different again from Uluru and there's some great short walks that will take you in amongst the huge structures.

Oh and if you do nothing else, don't miss a sunrise or sunset at either of these rock sites - even if the desert temperatures will make you want to sleep in until noon!

Yours in the great outdoors,

Odette

Alice, Alice, Where the #$%^ is Alice?

2008-06-08T14:15:00.004+09:30

Our arrival in Alice Springs wasn't quite how we planned it. We actually ran out of petrol about 1km from the nearest petrol station on the edge of town, after only filling up what we thought was the exact amount of petrol we needed to get us to Alice at the last Roadhouse (C'mon! It was $2.12 a litre!).

Never the less, after an initial stumble, we found Alice Springs to be a nice little country town, with plenty of great Aboriginal art galleries, a bunch of coffee shops (Gloria Jeans, too!!), a few shopping centres and a cinema, where I dragged Luke to the Sex and the City movie (You can take the girl out of Sydney, but you can't... arh, you know the rest!). Oh and it had one of the best caravan parks that we have stayed at - the MacDonald Ranges Big 4. In the shadow of the MacDonald Ranges, it had a cool games room, roomy and grassy camping sites, great facilities and a free pancake breakfast on Sundays (even though we had to wear a daggy name badge and line up like school kids for our supper), this place was camping heaven.

The local markets are on every second weekend and are really worth a look. There's a mix of fresh food, crafts and a lot of the local Aboriginal artists sell their works directly to the public. It's in the Todd Mall, which is a paved pedestrian strip with a bunch of cafes and restaurants and shops that spill onto the sidewalk.

But my favourite place in the whole of Alice Springs was the Olive Pink Botanic Gardens. Founded in 1956 by Miss Olive Pink, an amazing woman who is still remembered in Alice for her community work. The Botanic Gardens aren't that big and contain a lot of desert plants, so they look a little bare and arid, but we were lucky enough to visit after a local outdoor sculpture exhibition had just opened, and it was fantastic! The artworks were all made out of recycled products and were so interesting. Such a highlight!

Yours in the great outdoors,

Odette

Kakadu to Alice

2008-06-04T20:24:00.005+09:30

We had another family stop over on our way down South to Alice Springs - seeing people you know and sitting on a real lounge while you watch TV never feels as good as when you've been travelling for a while. Here are the other highlights from this 1000km trek to make it to Alice Springs.

1. Mataranka

This place looks like heaven in the brochures and the thermal springs in Elsey National Park are lovely, but we were a little disappointed by our visit to Mataranka. First up, the caravan park that is really close to the springs (the Mataranka Homestead) had the most filthy toilets and showers that we had seen on our entire trip so far. Not good considering we have stayed at... oh, around 1000 caravan parks in the last few weeks! Also a dip in the thermal springs was more like a visit to the local swimming pool in a suburb of Sydney on a really hot day. In other words, it was packed and the warm 34 degree waters was playing on my mind with all these bodies crammed together. Ewww.

2. The Stuart Highway

Long, straight with red sand on either side. There's not a whole lot to keep you entertained while driving in these parts - except trying to spot abandoned car wrecks in the bush, cows thinking about crossing the busy highway and counting down until the next roadhouse. Plus our Navman is a little sick at present and won't recharge it's own batteries, so we can't even see how many hundred kilometres we have to go. Are we there yet? Are we there yet?

3. The Devils Marbles

These aren't just rocks in the middle of nowhere. They're really cool rocks... in the middle of nowhere. Well, not totally, just south of Tennant Creek actually. You can walk on them, go for bush walks around them and take some pretty fun photos.

4. Wild Dogs

There are a bunch of road houses along the way between Tennant Creek and Alice Springs and we decided to stop at the bigger one called Ti Tree for lunch. We'd barely opened the door of the kombi to make our sandwiches, when we became surrounded by dogs. And not just any dogs. These poor pups were skin and bone and a little on the wild side and definitely not what you'd call 'pure breeds.' They kept looking up at us with these sad hungry eyes and Luke was so scared of them licking their lips that he wouldn't even get out of the van, in fear that they may latch onto his leg and not let go! At one point there were 12 dogs outside our van. Yikes! The poor dogs had come from the nearby Aboriginal community where there were too many pups to count. And then after we left, the dogs simply moved on to the next car.

Yours a tad sick of 7 hour days in the car,

Odette

Kakadu Dreaming

2008-06-03T08:43:00.000+09:30

The crocs of Kakadu are pretty impressive but those big bitey reptiles aren't the only attraction in this beautiful National Park. One tourist hot spot, just 35km from the small town of Jabiru (by the way, there's not a whole lot in the town of Jabiru - just a tiny supermarket, a petrol station, a bakery and a bunch of different types of accommodation) is Ubirr - and it really is worth joining the rest of the visitors and checking this amazing site out.

Ubirr is a group of rock outcrops in the Northeast of the Park, where you can walk to the top and see Arnhem Land in the distance. Not only is the amazing view over the lush floodplains a magnificent sight, the area is seeping in Aboriginal history. There are tons large rock overhangs that provided excellent shelter to Aboriginal people over thousands of years. Plus Ubirr is really close to the East Alligator River which means that food would have been abundant and this is reflected in much of the rock art here. These ancient artworks are some of the best I've seen across Australia.

There are also images of the Rainbow Serpent said to have created much of the landscape as well as mischievous Mimi spirits and the story of the Namarrgarn Sisters. You could spend a couple of hours here, reading the stories behind the art and trying to imagine the Aboriginal people standing in the same place all those years ago.

Yellow Water Billabong is another great place to see the beauty of Kakadu up close. You can take a tour on the waterways and see a huge range of water birds, flowers and of course, the famous salt water crocs all living in harmony. Just beautiful.

Yours in the great outdoors,

Odette

Kakadu Crocs

2008-06-01T20:48:00.008+09:30

What can you get for $25 these days? A couple of pizzas, a bottle of wine, five litres of petrol... But $25 big ones at Kakadu is going to buy you a brush with death, some heart starting fun and the chance to see a bunch of prehistoric creatures so close you can almost feel them breathing on your leg. Yes, $25 well spent is an adult ticket on the Adelaide River Croc Jumping Cruise, just off the highway, on your way into Kakadu National Park.

About two minutes after our boat pulled away from the jetty, we saw huge saltwater crocodiles sliding into the muddy waters, swimming towards our boat like a dog to a bone. And it was a big hunk of pig that these guys were after (although I swear one of the crocs had his sly, 360degree rotating eyes on me).

After the tour guide revs up his freshest boat load of tourists with his story of not needing a life vest if the boat sinks because you won't last five minutes in these infested waters, the fun begins. Our guide ties a big chuck of meat to his bamboo fishing rod contraption and dangles it in front of his first subject, a croc called Butch, who doesn't appreciate being teased and made to jump for his supper.

When the croc grabs his lunch, he disappears under the water and we continue to cruise up the river looking for our next victim. When we spot big boy Agro, a six metre male crocodile who's tail was as thick as a tree trunk, I can't believe how close the tour guide is positioning our boat to the mud flats and consequently Agro himself. Yikes! The meat comes out and here he comes!

What I want to know is, how can old mate Agro decipher between a nice piece of pork and the tender pink flesh of a tourist's arm holding out a camera?

After seeing these big animals in action, the only croc I want to stumble over in the next few days in Kakadu are of the plastic kind.

Yours in the great outdoors,

Odette

Darwin Kombi Mechanic

2008-06-01T20:22:00.007+09:30

After travelling another 6,000km, the first thing we did after arriving in Darwin, was check Jefro the kombi into the mechanic for a checkup. After searching around on the net for a VW guy in the Territory's top end, it turns out that the only kombi mechanic in Darwin servicing older model VWs is MBN Automotive. So that's where we took our van.

Don't bother looking for a sign at this place - there isn't one - Just a heap of old kombis and beetles to let you know you're at the right place. Owner/ mechanic Myron Nettuch was a top bloke - one of the friendliest VW mechanics we've met (and they can be a strange bunch...). He was full of helpful advice and knowledge about the old buses and didn't burn a hole in our wallets for his time either. He had a couple of old split screen kombis for sale that Luke wanted to get his hands on, but unfortunately with petrol prices hitting $2bucks a litre in parts up here, getting them home would have sent us bankrupt (plus I don't think his parents would have been too happy with the extra addition to their garage - along with all our other stuff!).

We totally recommend these guys - they had Jefro purring like the lion he is!

Check the deets:
MBN Automotive
VW Specialist
08 8947 2111
Shed 7, 370 Stuart Highway
PO Box 39992, Winnellie,
NT 0821

Yours in the great outdoors,
Odette

N.T's Capital

2008-05-29T18:01:00.004+09:30

Darwin, Darwin, Darwin... where do I begin.

Your beaches are beautiful, yet filled with deadly nasties like saltwater crocodiles and box jellyfish.

You are the Northern Territory's largest city, yet your city centre is barely three streets wide.

Your sunsets are straight from heaven, yet your hungry insect population make them hard to enjoy.

You boast relaxing caravan parks in tranquil rainforest settings, yet they're all built under the flight path of your airport that has no time restrictions on it's flights.

You rave about your stunning warm climate, yet lying awake at night in 30 degree heat is not all that pleasant.

You claim to be multi-cultural, yet there's plenty of injustice on your streets.

But boy do you have some happening markets at Mindel Beach, with hundreds of different stalls and hundreds of different freshly cooked foods to sample and hundreds (and hundreds) of tourists. Quite the shock to the system after not having seen this many people since Perth (just look at Luke's face)!

Yes, Darwin, you are a land of contrast and contradictions. The Tonkin jury is still out on you.

Yours in the great outdoors,

Odette

Litchfield: A Water Wonderland

2008-05-28T21:53:00.003+09:30

The drive up to Darwin from Katherine is an easy three hours and if you plan your trip right, you can drop in and see two of the most amazing National Parks in Australia on your way. It's still super hot up here, so we decided to stop over at Litchfield National Park on the way up to Darwin, leaving Kakadu for the way back.

Litchfield National Park is kinda like Wet-n-Wild on the Queensland Goldcoast (minus the pricey entry cost, the scores of people and the million dollar water bill to power all the water slides). The drive into the park is a little deceiving, with tons of spot fires along the sides of the roads raging and the dry bush scattered with termite mounds - hardly the lush wonderland we have been told about. But keep driving. The pockets of paradise are just up the road.

The first is the amazing Magnetic Termite mounds, that look like some kind of spooky cemetery. There are two different types of termite nests at this site, some over five metres high and all aligned north-south, apparently to keep the inside of the mound from getting too heated by the sun (which tracks east-west).

But the termite mounds are just a little appetiser for the fun times ahead at the Blueys Rockholes and Florence Falls. The cascading freshwater is soooo refreshing and I didn't think about getting eaten by a crocodile once! (There are freshies and the odd salt water croc around these parts but apparently freshwater crocodiles are harmless... still, they've got sharper teeth than me and I bet a nastier bite as well!).

You can check out the beautiful Florence Falls from the top and then brave the steep climb to the bottom for a dip. It's definitely worth it - the clear water and thrill of swimming right under the thundering waterfall is just awesome! The walk up hundreds of steps back to the car park? Not so awesome...

Yours in the great outdoors,

Odette

Katherine: Gorges, Snakes, Family and Fun

2008-05-26T17:38:00.009+09:30

I was so excited to cross the border into the Northern Territory and make our way up the highway to Katherine. The N.T's third largest town, was a tad surprising (as in rather small) but don't let the lack of shops fool you - this town has something for everyone!

And something extra special for me, as two of my cousins call Katherine home. My cousin Lauren (20) and her little bro Adrian (18) decided to stay put in their home town, when my aunt and uncle and their youngest boy Hamish, made the big move to the NSW mid-north coast late last year. This, after being flooded twice - both times losing everything. We really are glad Lauren and Adrian decided to stay, so we could see a few familiar faces after so many weeks travelling as a twosome.

Odette with Lauren and David

Oh and another cool part of staying with my relos, was getting to see the enormous (and terrifying!) snake collection that belongs to Lauren's boyfriend David. David just happens to be the resident snake man in Katherine, and is contracted by National Parks and Wildlife to catch any unwanted reptiles that make their way into the houses or backyards of local residents. Despite my reservations, David took us to visit his 'shed' where he breeds snakes to sell. What a sight! From huge Olive Pythons to King Browns and Death Adas - this guy has them all. And hundreds of baby ones too. Ew!!! But this job doesn't come without it's downside - David has been bitten tons of times by his snakes - and twice by a Death Ada. Scary stuff...

Once in Katherine, you have to head out to Nitmiluk National Park and see the beautiful Katherine Gorge. There are a bunch of Aboriginal artworks in the caves nearby and the view from the top escarpment, is magic.

The hot thermal springs, about 5 minutes from the town centre in Katherine, are a must-see as well. A constant 30 degrees, this natural spring is complete with waterfalls and the best bit? No crocs in sight. Phew!

No trip to Katherine is complete without a visit to the local Katherine Museum, where you can read all about the colourful history of this town and watch a film and see the pictures of the incredible destruction that the floods of 1974 and 1998 caused.

The 1998 Australia Day flood bought the already full Katherine River up another 21.3 metres and the town was declared a natural disaster. Check the picture of the bridge below and where the water rose to. Yikes!

Yours in the great outdoors,

Odette

Territory Time!

2008-05-26T17:14:00.004+09:30

Yes! We made it! Western Australia is officially the biggest state in the WORLD! After a few months in W.A, we were beginning to think we would never see the border of another state again, but here it is! After adjusting our clocks an hour and a half, we are all but Northern Territorians now, ready to fearlessly battle crocs with our bare hands, tuck into a wild camel steak on the BBQ, add words like 'mob' and 'struth' to our vocabulary and....

...finally get to see what Jefro the Kombi is made of - on long stretches of road, with nothing but the annoying sound of huge, human eating insects slapping against our windscreen, keeping us from really unleashing the powder of the VW.

On second thoughts, with temperatures still tipping the 40 degree mark (and it's May... is this insane?) we are probably best to drive at a more respectable 90 kilometres an hour in case Jefro blows up and we are stranded in semi-arid terrain, cooking in our own skin while we wait for the next passer-by (Hello? Wolf Creek, anyone?).

Yours in the great outdoors,

Odette

Kimberly Country

2008-05-21T20:47:00.006+09:30

When crossing the Kimberlys from Broome to Kununurra, you really do need a four wheeled drive if you want to get amongst the rugged country and take on some of the numerous dirt roads in these parts. The Gibb River Road is a popular trip for tourists with off road cars and we were even told by one enthusiastic Derby local to give the rough road a try in the kombi (this despite the three river crossings, the need to carry all your petrol for some 500km and the crazy creatures like crocs and snakes that inhabit these parts. I think we'll pass this time!). We chose to save Jefro the kombi some heartache and stick to the main highway - which is still an amazing drive through some truly beautiful country.

Here are the highlights from this 1200kms of Oz.

1. The Big One

Luke and I took to the jetty (again) in Derby to try our hand at catching some dinner and it was quite remarkable to watch Luke's fishing improve, literally overnight! On our first try, Luke caught this...

...a moderately sized catfish that we threw back. But on our next day's fishing adventure at exactly the same spot on the jetty, Luke got this...

... a massive 15 kilo dew fish! And then gave it back to the rightful owner, a shaking 60-year-old guy who took 20minutes to pull the fish in on his 30 pound line. Luke caught a similar sized fish for himself though, in his dreams, later that night.

2. Indigenous Art
The Kimberlys is home to some of the most beautiful Aboriginal art in all of Australia, and each little town that we passed through had a few wonderful galleries where you can check out these amazing works. Still in Derby, the Mowanjum Art Gallery is a relatively new centre that has been built in the Mowanjum community, a couple of kilometres out of town. We took the dirt track and ventured out into the community to marvel over the beautiful canvases and hand carved boab seeds. These are a talented people who are internationally acclaimed for their art. A visit to the gallery was inspiring.

3. The Boab Tree

These beautiful trees are unique to Australia's top end and really are an amazingly unusual site. Boab trees scatter the roadside all the way across the Kimberlys and there are a few extra special Boabs that really are worth a look. The Prison Boab in Derby has a sad history - it was apparently used to hold Aboriginal prisoners temporarily, until they could be shipped to Broome in the olden days, where they were forced to work the dangerous job as pearl divers. There are also a bunch of enormous Boab trees in the main park in Kununurra - they're just huge!

4. Living Outback

You can't drive through the Kimberlys without passing through a few iconic outback towns. Fitzroy Crossing, Halls Creek, Turkey Creek and Timber Creek are a few of the places along the way, where you'll need to refuel and take a break. With a predominantly Aboriginal population, these towns offer the chance to purchase your own amazing local art work by many talented Indigineous artists and if you're lucky, you can chat to the local elders about days gone by. But these towns also give you an insight into a side of Australia that's often pushed aside and not spoken enough about. The problems with alcohol in some of these Indigenous communities is appalling and upsetting and both Luke and I were amazed at just how debilitating the disease of alcoholism is, not just for the individual but for whole communities in the outback. It's a huge issue and one that will take a great deal of energy and time to address but after passing through these towns and seeing first hand how a white man's drink is slowly killing our Indigenous people, the solution can't come quick enough.

5. National Parks
There are a bunch of amazing National Parks to explore throughout the Kimberly area - the most famous being Purnululu National Park and it's world hertitage listed Bungle Bungle range. Now we arrived at Kununurra on one of the busiest weekends of the year (Jimmy Barnes had come to town for a huge outback rock concert) so when we called around to book our flight over the Bungle Bungles, they were all booked out for the next few days. Darn it! Without a 4wd, a flight or a tour is the only way you can get into see these amazing bee hive rock formations. We satisfied our bush walking urge by visiting Hidden Valley National Park instead, home to the 'mini Bungle Bungles'. Just 10 minutes from the town centre of Kununurra, this national park was enough to tie us over until the day that we can return to the Kimberlys and see Purnululu for ourselves.

Yours sad to leave Western Australia behind,

Odette

Tourist Ticks In Broome

2008-05-18T21:56:00.006+09:30

1. Hire A Scooter

This is the best and most fun way to see Broome! For about $35 a day, you can leave your car behind and hit the road to discover all of Broome's little secrets on a scooter! Everyone rides them in this town, and although they only go a cracking 50km an hour, whizzing around town with the wind in your hair (just) really makes you feel like you're on holidays.

2. Visit The Japanese Cemetery

While you have your scooter, don't forget to stop and check out the some of the amazing Japanese pearling history that is embedded in the town of Broome. The cemetery is a good place to start - it's unusual headstones reveal just how many young men lost their lives while working in the pearl diving industry.

3. Sun Pictures Cinema

This is the oldest outdoor picture garden in the world, which is a pretty cool claim to fame. Watching a film in a sun chair, under the stars, with the smell of frangipanis mixing with your butter-infused popcorn is an experience you'll never forget. We saw The Kite Runner, a film I strongly recommend (but read the book first - it's terrific!).

4. Sanctuary Garden

This peaceful garden is owned by The Cable Beach Resort but anyone can pop in for a peak at the yoga classes going on in this relaxing space, meditate under a Boab tree or marvel at the four metre Buddha made out of quartz.

5. Cable Beach Resort

If you're not lucky enough to be staying at this resort, then at least have a drink at their Sunset Bar and pretend you're minted enough to afford a week in luxury instead having to share a bathroom with 50 other people at the caravan park on the next street around.

6. Blooms Cafe

A Broome institution apparently, this cafe became our favourite haunt and we became daily visitors. The iced coffee is delish, the artworks hanging inside are inspiring and the staff are great. 8/10

Yours playing Broome tour guide,

Odette

Cable Beach Sunset

2008-05-17T07:35:00.004+09:30

Watching the sun set at Cable Beach is a must for anyone visiting Broome. Luke and I caught a few when we were in Broome for just over a week, and each time the sun went down, it was just as impressive as the last time we had witnessed it! And we weren't the only ones enjoying the colourful display on Cable Beach - some nights the foreshore resembled New Years Eve in Sydney, with people everywhere - having picnics on the beach, BBQs on the grassy area, swimming, playing football, and you can bet there would be quite a few marriage proposals happening down on the sand, under the setting sun.

The Sunset Bar, which is a part of the beautiful Cable Beach Resort, is a great place to go for a cocktail while you watch the sky transform from bright blue to pink to purple to red. But be prepared to join the crowds - a cheaper option is to take your own bottle of vino down onto the sand and a picnic blanket. How romantic!

And of course, if you want to play the complete tourist, a ride on the famous Cable Beach camels is a must. They walk the beach for an hour every sunset and sunrise and it's about $35 per person. We watched them make their way home each night (their paddock was right near our caravan park) and were impressed at how well they were behaved. No spitters here! I guess they must love their office environment as much as we did.

You'll never see so many budding professional photographers as you will at Cable Beach on sunset (me included!) but there really is something about the place that makes you want to try and capture the moment so you can begin to explain to your friends and family just how beautiful it really is.

Yours watching the sun go down (again!),

Odette

Broome - A Little Slice of Paradise!

2008-05-16T10:07:00.005+09:30

Broome really is a little slice of paradise amongst a land that can be pretty harsh and unforgiving. After travelling through the hot and dirty towns of Port Hedland and Karratha, a relaxing holiday is what we needed... and Broome was the perfect place!

The town is set out in a way that's very easy to get around, with the town centre on one side of the point, the port at the end and Cable Beach on the other side. And even though the town has a population of around 14,000, Broome has an influx of over 100,000 tourists a year. With this many people flying or driving into town, the facilities in this place are great - you could eat at a different restaurant each night, spend hours shopping in all the great little boutiques or at the markets on Saturday and Sundays, have a few cocktails at the huge number of bars and pubs or just relax on the beach in your hired banana lounge, under an umbrella.

But the natural beauty of this place is what really got to us. The vast red desert meets the azure blue sea and there are white sandy beaches in between. Paradise! The weather is also a huge draw card with most winter days averaging a lovely 33degrees, with nights dipping to the early 20's. No wonder people warned us that we could quite easily slip into 'Broome' time, and in fact we did, staying eight nights instead of the three or four that we had originally planned! And we would have stayed even longer if the temptation of sitting in the lovely cafes with an iced coffee in hand and drinking beers at the Sunset Bar while watching the famous Cable Beach sunset each night, didn't take a huge chunk out of our bank account.

Cable Beach really is heavenly, but the beach was closed a few times during our week-long stay. The first was due to a shark sighting (in which there are a lot around these parts - sting rays too) and on another day, a tourist was stung by an Irukandji jellyfish, but was thankfully okay, as these jellyfish can be fatal. Yikes! Lucky our caravan park had it's own pool!

Another attraction you have to see when you rock into Broome, is the Gantheaume Point area. This point has amazing rock formations and vibrant colours and gives you a great few of Cable Beach as a whole. But the coolest thing about this point, is that when the tide is really low, you can see real life Dinosaur footprints that are over 120,000 million years old! Broome is actually one of the homes of the most recorded Dinosaur footprints in the world. Pretty crazy stuff!

I think we were able to really get into the relaxing vibe of Broome because we happened to score one of the best campsites at the beautiful Cable Beach caravan park, a 7 minute walk from the beach. The office lady was soooo sweet and actually thought we were on our honeymoon (two years too late, honey!) so she booked us into a great little powered site, right next to the amazing tropical pool, so each night we'd fall asleep to the gentle sounds of the pool waterfall! Bliss! See that scooter in the picture? More on that later! So much to say! So little time! But one thing's for sure - Broome was bliss.

Yours in the great outdoors,
Odette

Highway Highlights

2008-05-14T22:39:00.002+09:30

Although the days are often very long when you're trying to get from one town to the next in northern Western Australia, there are a few highlights to keep you from dying of boredom along the way.

The colours of the landscape outside your car window are breath taking. Reds, greens, blues, yellows - it's like looking at a moving painting.

The days can get long but this means you may be lucky enough to witness a few W.A sunsets in your travels. Magic.

We thought there were plenty of roadtrains across the Nullarbor but there's even more up in these parts of Oz. Some are coming from the mines, others are taking supplies to remote communities and most of the truckies who drive these monster vehicles are really nice. One guy even waited for us to get petrol at a road house so we could catch a ride on his tail (and save ourselves some petrol money and allow us to gain a little more speed - we stuck with him for over three hours! What a guy!).

There's random wild animals lining the sides of the road, like these camel-like cows that kept popping out from the bushes on the sides of the highway. Emus and kangaroos are common too, as well as eagles and wild camels, although we didn't see any. Understandable with the size of the roadtrains plowing down the roads, there's plenty of roadkill as well..

The road houses are few and far between and look a little like this... Yep, a petrol station with a few dirt filled powered sites out the back. But gee it's good to see one, when your petrol tank is sitting on empty and you haven't seen another car in either direction for 30minutes.

Yours racking up the kilometres,

Odette

The Money Mines

2008-05-12T22:03:00.004+09:30

Way, way, away, in the middle of nowhere, there are a couple of strange towns that appear on the horizon, as if out of nowhere. These towns are hot and filthy. They're built on dirt so red, that the walls of the houses and the concrete pavements are permanently stained. They have an average yearly temperature of 30 degrees and when we passed through, the air was a suffocating 40 degrees. But despite all of this, people are flocking to Port Hedland and Karratha. These guys aren't after a sea change. They're after the big bucks.

We rocked into Karratha late, after travelling some 600km from Exmouth (with nothing but two petrol stations in between) and were told that there was only one powered site left at the only caravan park in town (the other park has been transformed into a permanent-only park, cashing in on the accommodation shortage) and it was going to set us back $42. Now, even at the most touristy of places that we have visited over the past few months, the most we have ever paid for a powered site is $35 (at Cradle Mountain in Tasmania). So $42 for a patch of dirt for less than 12 hours at a town where the biggest tourist attraction is a guided tour of an iron ore mine, seemed seriously pricey. But as we found out the following day, it wasn't just accommodation that was a little steep in the mining town of Karratha. A cup of coffee was around $5 and the rent for a very average looking three bedroom house advertised at the local real estate was $1800 a week. Yes, a week! Yikes! Check out the price tag on this average looking three bedroom twenty year old house...

But if you're like the other three out of four people who are employed by BHP or the other mining giants or the gas shelf project in these towns, then money isn't your biggest worry. What to do in a town as small and as isolated as Karratha or Port Hedland when you have your next week off (after working 12 hour days for the past three weeks straight) and what to spend your massive pay check on is what will keep you awake at night.

If you're interested in the W.A resource boom, wondering where China gets all their iron ore from or wanting to know where some pretty heavy duty environmental damage is taking place, then you'll find these two towns (which are about 250km apart) worth a visit, and if you're a tradie of any kind, an engineer, an apprentice or a machinery operator, then the huge pay checks and attractive working conditions - fly in, fly out work, food/ transport/ uniform allowances (as an indication as to what you could be in for, second year electrical apprentices were being paid around $150,000 a year in Karratha) then you may find yourself living in one of the many demountable-type temporary housing options that fill both towns and trying to make your fortune. But unfortunately, for all the guys who return to the east coast and pay for their first home in cash, there are just as many who develop a bit of a taste for gambling, alcohol and other guilty pleasures and finally get sick of the heat and dirt, leaving with not much more than they arrived with.

Luke and I couldn't wait to hit the road as soon as we drove into Karratha and even spent a night out at Point Sansom, a holiday-style town on the outskirts of Karratha, so we didn't have to take out a loan for another night at the Big Four caravan park in town. Port Hedland was a little better but it became clear to us, that we'd never be making our millions out here.

Yours in the great outdoors,
Odette

Swimming With Whale Sharks

2008-05-10T20:26:00.007+09:30

For those who have decided to make the long trek to the town of Exmouth and it's amazing Ningaloo Reef, a good proportion have done so for one reason and one reason only - the opportunity to swim with the world's largest fish, the whale shark.

Every year from April to July following the mass spawning of coral, whale sharks congregate in the Ningaloo Marine Park. These massive filter feeders can grow up to 18m long as they cruise the world’s ocean in search of concentrations of plankton to feed on. Ningaloo Reef is one of the only places where they appear regularly in large numbers, so lucky for us, Exmouth can offer you a once in a lifetime opportunity to get in the water and swim with these gentle giants.

Now, I was a little hesitant to sign up for a whale shark tour when we first arrived in Exmouth. And this is why:
1. Swimming with a whale shark is not cheap. The average price of these tours is $350 per person and when you don't currently have a job, $700 for Luke and I is alotta powered sites and alotta sausage sangas.
2. You're not guaranteed to actually see a whale shark on any tour (these ARE wild animals we're dealing with here and not some trained circus pony that arrives on cue) and there's no refund policy, just the opportunity to join another tour when the next spot is available (which could be two or three weeks away!).
3. Apparently the waters get pretty chopping out past the reef where we would have to go, so sea sickness was a good possibility.
4. And finally, and the most obvious reason for my apprehension -we would be willingly swimming with sharks! Hello? I know whale sharks are harmless but jumping in open water where whale sharks reside holds the very real possibility that OTHER less friendly and more bitey sharks could be happily crusin' around looking for lunch too!

But the opportunity to see a whale shark in the flesh, in their own habitat and before they become extinct (these guys fetch big dollars on the black market - in some Asian countries a moderately sized shark can sadly come with a $200,000 price tag, if caught) was just too exciting, so we booked a tour with Ningaloo Whaleshark-n-Dive.

The tour bus picked us up at 7:20am in the morning (At this point I wondered whether everybody in the caravan park was coming on this shark tour? I could have sworn the company said a maximum of 20 people were allowed... but why else would so many people be up at such a ridiculous hour? Hmmm) and we made the 40minute drive to the boat harbour on the edge of the Cape Range National Park. Once we were ferried out to our boat in a black rubber zodiac (very James Bond), morning tea was served while we were driven to our first snorkeling spot on the reef. We all went for a practice snorkel (so the tour guides can determine your level of confidence in the water) and checked out some amazing 'bommies' (sections of coral reef with a high density of marine life that are usually only accessible by boat). This was great and it was amazing how much sea life we got to see - and so early in the morning.

Luke only just awake after such an early morning start!

Luke, Jenna and myself, tucking into some morning tea while waiting for 'the call'.

At 10am, the company sent a spotter plane into the air to search for the whale sharks. Now this is when the tour guides brief you about what to do when they actually find a shark (be ready to jump in the water within a few minutes of the 'call', follow your whale shark spotter in the water and remain 3 metres away from the shark at all times and 4 metres away from his or her tail, be prepared for the shark to dive if it gets scared and swim like you've never swam before - these guys can be quick!) and what NOT to do (attempt to touch or ride the shark (Darn, that riding a shark sounds like fun!) or swim in front of the shark because these guys tend to swim in a straight line and as a 12metre king of the ocean, they ain't movin' for anyone!).

The day we went out was pretty cloudy, so we were starting to think all the whale sharks were playing hide and seek, when the call came over the radio at about 11:30am that they had spotted a 6 metre shark about half an hour up the coast. We were all told to hold on, as the boat slipped into top gear and sped up the reef so fast I was sure we were going to blow a motor.

Holding on as the boat races up the coast to the whale shark's location.

When the skipper wasn't too far off the spot where the shark was swimming (oblivious to the crazy mayhem happening above the water in order to find him!) we were divided into groups of ten and told to get our snorkel and flippers on ready to go. Each group had it's own 'whale spotter', who was a fully qualified marine biologist and who's job it was to swim out and find the shark and then swim along side it with one arm in the air (not an easy task - but these girls were so fit!), so the boat and the next group of swimmers were aware of where the shark was at all times.

We were in group one, so we were up first. When we reached the shark, the skipper parked the boat in the path of the whale shark, so when you jump in, the shark is pretty much coming directly for you. The mix of adrenalin, excitement and nervousness was crazy!! While the boat was still going, we were told to line up along the back marlin board of the boat and when the tour guide said "Now!" we all jumped into the water and swam for dear life!

Now, lets just say on the first dive, things are a little crazy. People are kicking and splashing all over the place trying to follow the 'spotter', while keeping their eyes peeled for this big fish and attempting to take gulps of air from a water-filled snorkel. So I'm swimming like a crazy person, and there's bubbles from the person in front's flippers in my face, and I'm finding it hard to breathe because I haven't swam this hard or fast since the 50metre freestyle swimming race back in high school but then... I see it! And it's coming straight for me! I quickly paddle backwards in a fury as if I'm about to be eaten alive by a garbage compactor but the whale shark is oblivious and sails right past me, as if I'm a boring billboard on the ocean highway. Wow! These things really are huge! And super fast! Our first shark was so quick that after our whale shark spotter told us to stop so the next group could take their turn to swim with this fish, I was gulping for air, with heart palpitations and a thousand thoughts running through my mind. But mostly I was thinking, "Oh my god. That was amazing! Can we do it again?".

Gear on and ready to go!

Simo and me, on the boat marlin board ready to jump!

And we're in! The spotter is the girl in the blue rash shirt - she's outta there!

We were lucky enough to have two dives with this first whale shark and then the call came over the radio that another, bigger shark had been sighted. We decided to race up the coast and get up close with this whale shark as well. We ended up having five more swims with this next whale shark, who was, lucky for us, much slower and more relaxed then our first friend. Each time we'd dive into the water, my adrenalin kicked in and I kept saying "Wow, wow!" into my snorkel, which roughly translates to "Roowowerwo" in underwater English. It was just such an honour to be able to paddle next to this huge, unusual creature, which dates back to prehistoric times.

The tour guides can recognise some of the sharks by their crazy injuries (although this guys only eat plankton, this doesn't mean they're immune to a little bite here and there from other marine life). Mostly it's other sharks like the Great White or Tiger shark that inflict injuries on the whale shark, with one poor guy sporting a huge chuck out of his dorsal fin, and another with a bite mark out of his tail. But they don't seem too phased, and just seem to mind their own business, swimming along with grace.

What a day! We ended up being dropped back at the caravan park at about 6pm that night, so it's definitely value for money (oh and you'll be pleased to know I did feel a little queasy at times but there were no over-the-side fish feeding sessions going on from me - phew!) and the banquet lunch was great.

What an amazing day!

Yours in the great outdoors,

Odette

Exmouth Was Excellent!

2008-05-07T21:12:00.003+09:30

After hanging at the very laid back Coral Bay for a few days and exploring all that was on offer of the south end of Ningaloo Reef, we were very excited to drive the next 180km to the place where the famous reef begins - Exmouth. We'd talked this place up since leaving Perth as we'd heard nothing but good reports of how amazing this part of Western Australia is, and this would be the place where after a week in the sun, Simo and Jenna would leave our little travelling convoy and head back to Perth for work.

The drive between Coral Bay and Exmouth is kinda interesting too, with hundreds of bright red earth termite mounds lining the road, plus the remains of a the once huge Australian Navy presence (random war-looking bunkers included). But as we drove into the town of Exmouth itself, we couldn't help but feel a little disappointed. The town is set back from the beach, so there were no lovely ocean views, the main street of Exmouth consisted of a few fish and chip and dive shops next to an IGA and the reef was a good 40 minute drive from town! We were starting to think we should have extended our stay at Coral Bay...

First impressions aside, we booked into the Big 4 Caravan Park which had great facilities (including an outdoor cinema with free movies, a beautiful pool and a good camp kitchen) and decided to explore Cape Range National Park and the Ningaloo Marine Park the next day.

And this is all it took to win our hearts and make every single kilometre of our long trip from Perth and every sandfly bite and every burnt coffee at the only cafe in all the small towns along the way, worth it.

Cape Range National park is a spectacular place of rugged limestone ranges, breathtaking deep canyons and 50km of pristine beaches. You can look one way and see red earth and deep rocky gorges teeming with wildlife like red kangaroos and huge eagles, and then turn the other way and the contrast of aqua ocean with amazing coral reef gardens just metres off shore is amazing.

We did a self guided drift snorkel at Turquoise Bay (you can get a brochure about this from the National Parks headquarters) but basically you swim out onto the reef at one end of the beach and the gentle current takes you all the way around to the next tip, while you look down through your snorkel at sea turtles, sting rays, manta rays, coral, tropical fish that put Finding Nemo to shame and even the odd reef shark and sea snake. It's like swimming inside Sydney Aquarium, only you can get so close to the fish (I reckon they're totally onto the fact that these waters are a marine sanctuary and we can look but not touch or eat!) that you could stay in the water for hours. I kept making this funny "Aw! Ooo! Wow!" sound into my snorkel because the marine life was so beuatiful, forcing Luke to set up some sort of hand signal, so he didn't freak out and think I'd spotted a Great White Shark every time he heard my weird underwater noises!

But the reef is only one amazing aspect of Exmouth which sees people travel from all over the world to visit this tiny town. Exmouth is also home to some pretty unreal diving spots. The old Navy Pier, just 20 minutes out of town, is rated by many world famous diving figures as one of the top ten shore dives in the world. At last count there were at least 200 different species of fish, including big schools of trevally, snapper and barracuda, as well as highly photogenic specimens such as graceful firefish, colourful angelfish, moorish idols and large Queensland gropers. The site can only be accessed if you join a tour and you have to have at least six months worth of diving experience to go along. This place is so amazing, that the site has a 24 hour security guard (armed with a gun, mind you!) patrolling the area to keep out unwanted fisherman who would have a field day at this marine wonderland.

So if diving or snorkeling is your thing, you have to get over to Ningaloo Reef...well...now! (It's the best time to visit and you know you deserve a holiday, don't cha?) And if underwater action isn't your thing, come anyway, because the fishing, bush walking, camping under the stars in the National Park and the history of Exmouth (Like did you know it has a tower as tall as the Eiffel Tower which was set up in the 1970's by the Australian and American Navy that detects any submarine movement for two kilometres underwater, all the way from our west coast to the west coast of America? Or that Exmouth is home to the only collapsible set of wind turbines in Australia, so if a cyclone hits, the turbines can be folded to the ground to prevent being damaged? Crazy, I know!)

So c'mon, yeah it's expensive and this place is in the middle of nowhere but tomorrow we're diving with whale sharks! Where else can you do that, hey?!

Yours starting to resemble a mermaid after so much snorkeling,
Odette

Coral Crazy At Coral Bay

2008-05-02T10:59:00.002+09:30

For anyone making the trek up the Coral Coast of Western Australia, it's easy to bypass the little turn off to Coral Bay and continue on the extra 155km to Exmouth. But this would be a big mistake. Huge! Coral Bay is the southern gateway to the world renowned Ningaloo Reef and it's a little slice of paradise.

I'm not sure if you could call Coral Bay a town. The whole place consists of two caravan parks, a resort, a pub and a tiny shopping centre with an IGA and a dive shop. There are a few houses nestled in the sand dunes but this whole place is strictly monitored by the government, and you can only live in Coral Bay at one of the few houses if you work in Coral Bay. You can never buy your own home in the town either - they are all on 99 year leases to prevent further development. So basically, there's no retirees, just a big tourism trade which sees both caravan parks jam pack full and weddings and things held at the resort (there was one on when we arrived).

But the very best thing about Coral Bay, is that the Ningaloo coral reef is just metres from the pristine white shores, bringing the amazing underwater world into easy reach of even the most inexperienced snorkelers.

The reef at Ningaloo is widely described as ten times better than the Great Barrier Reef and you really can walk up to your waist in water (which is a beautiful 26 degrees in temperature), put your head down with your snorkel on and see sea turtles, sting rays, a huge range of tropical fish, colourful coral, the odd reef shark and the enormous snapper that this place has become renown for.

Because much of the reef and ocean front in Coral Bay is a sanctuary zone, you can't fish in the area and this has lead to a really friendly bunch of norwest snapper making these sandy shores their home. Every day at 3:30pm, you can feed the snapper and it really is a fantastic experience. They'll eat the fish food right out of your hand and rub up and down on your legs like a puppy dog. And they have the most friendly, lovable faces and look you straight in the eye as they splash around your feet. But I couldn't help but notice the drool on the lips of a lot of the people feeding these magnificent fish, and the thought too, did cross my mind as to what a lovely dinner one of these guys would make!

A few tips and suggestions for your next stay at Coral Bay:
- The place has no town water and this means after a lovely day swimming in the ocean, you can enjoy a bore water shower in the caravan toilet blocks, with the water smelling something like a black sand mine and almost as salty as the ocean itself. Gross. We found a dip in the salt water pool to be more refreshing!

-Bring your own snorkeling gear with you. It's sooooo much cheaper to buy some flippers and mask at KMART in Perth, than at the super dopper expensive dive shops in town.

-Fill up with petrol before you arrive, as we paid $1.89 to get us to Exmouth.

-Bring bottles of aeroguard and some mozzie coils as the sand flies, normal flies and mozzies are really, really friendly.

-If you're keen to do a glass bottom boat cruise, do it here instead of Exmouth as it's cheaper and you see the same things on the reef, but if it's whale sharks you're after, wait until you hit Exmouth as there are four times as many tour operators and the prices drop by around $60 per person.

-If you can't afford the $35 for a powered site, join the flocks of other Wicked vans and hire motorhomes on the beach foreshore carpark, all sleeping under the STRICTLY NO CAMPING signs.

Yours in the great outdoors,

Odette

Fishing Frenzie!

2008-04-30T22:27:00.002+09:30

It's been a while since we've had a successful fishing trip, but after arriving in a town like Carnarvon, where there's nothing much else going on, we decided to try our luck again and took our rods down to the local jetty.

Now I've caught a few fish in my day (most tiny brim or flathead and a few too many toad fish or puffers from the wharf at Ceduna...) but fishing at Carnarvon was like nothing I'd ever experienced before! We walked to the end of the jetty where there were a bunch of locals and tourists all jumping around, looking very excited and then we saw them... the fish these guys were pulling in were huge!

We started chatting to a couple of local ladies in their eighties, who had set themselves up at the end of the wharf and were hooking some massive fish. They decided to call it a day and gave us their left over bait and a vital fishing tip - just one peeled prawn with a small hook on heavy line, and hey presto! We were in business!!

I caught two Golden Trevally and Luke caught three! Simo and Jenna were fishing with us too and had some good luck as well, except Simo kept hooking onto a couple of snake-like Longtoms, with huge sharp teeth!

The excitement of hooking onto these fish was crazy and they fought all the way into the jetty. We had so much fun! And let me tell you, the fish and chips we ate that night was delicious!

Yours in the great outdoors,

Odette

Snakes And Modems

2008-04-28T23:11:00.003+09:30

Whilst we were staying in Denham, Luke (accidentally!) put his knee on our internet modem (which is a little sticky-outty thingy which connects into the side of our laptop. The thing pretty much snapped in half. This posed quite the problem considering Luke uses the net each day for work, and I need it too for important things like keeping you updated on our blog and replying to friends on Facebook.

Anyway, to cut a long story short, we found a business card for a technical repair man in this very small town with a population of 1000 and thought we'd give him a go instead of forking out another $500 for a new Telstra modem (the fact that we wouldn't see a Telstra shop for another 3000km is beside the point). We rang the guy and he said to come over to his house and he'd have a look out our broken modem.

I waited in the car while Luke explained the sito and the next thing you know, the computer guy comes strolling out of his place with an endangered Woma Python around his neck. He and his wife do some wildlife regeneration work so were keeping the snake at home after they found it badly attacked by an eagle. Yikes!!! Snakes give me the creeps but this slithery fellow was surprisingly soft and silky and very placid. I asked if I could get a photo and the computer dude grabbed the thing off his shoulder and started putting it around Luke's neck, much to Luke's shock (note the smiling/ terrified expression below)!

It's not everyday that your computer guy gives you an education rundown on endangered snakes but we are in Denham, W.A and things happen a little differently around here. After the guy fiddled with our modem for about three hours (and we became more skeptical that he had no idea what he was doing), it was fixed and worked even better than before! But jeepas, three hours work at what we thought would be around $70 an hour was going to be expensive... Um, no... Guess what the guy charged us? $25. Bargain.

Yours in the great outdoors,

Odette

Dolphin Time At Monkey Mia

2008-04-25T23:13:00.005+09:30

Since arriving in Western Australia, one place that all the tourist brochures have talked up, is Monkey Mia, some 11 hours from Perth. A pretty solid detour off the main highway, you have to be pretty keen to see the place, as it's adds a good 3 hours onto your trip up north. We thought the Nullarbor was remote, but I swear up this end of W.A, there's more roadhouses then actual towns and most places are a good 300 or 400km apart.

So after taking the turn to Denham (Monkey Mia isn't actually a town, but a resort and caravan park, where the famous wild dolphins swim right up to the beach, so most people stay at the town of Denham, 23km away), our first stop on the drive along the World Heritage listed Shark Bay peninsula was the amazing Shell Beach. No prizes for guessing why this place is called Shell Beach (well, duh!) but seeing all the tiny little shells covering some 13km of coastline was beautiful. Walking in bare feet on them was even better! Apparently they mine these shells for all sorts of reasons including to feed to chickens to harden the shells of their eggs (weird, I know!) and to crush and make cement blocks to build houses out of (I wonder if you can hear the ocean from inside these places?). But I think they're best left where they are, as there's nothing quite like seeing the waves lapping a shell covered shore.

Looking out from Eagle Bluff over Shark Bay was our next turn off and was pretty spectacular. There are 23 different breeds of shark living in these protected waters and apparently you can usually see a few cruisin' in the shallows from this lookout. We saw a couple of rays, but that was about it, which was probably a good thing because it might have been a hard task getting me in the water otherwise.

Denham is a friendly little ocean town but there's not a whole lot there so you really do need to be pretty self-sufficient and bring your own water and food with you. We got up early the next morning to try and beat the rest of the touro's out to Monkey Mia for the first dolphin feeding (how wrong were we!) and ending up lining up along the shores with the swarms of other campers waiting for the dolphins to arrive. Everyone thinks it's really crazy how these wild animals swim right into the beach and interact with humans, but truth be told, the dolphins were encouraged and fed by local fisher people waaay back in the 1960's and after enjoying a bit of a free feed, they have simply kept coming back. Hardly a natural phenomenon.

Now the Monkey Mia dolphins are big business but luckily National Parks have taken strict control of the tourist attraction and don't allow people to touch or swim with the dolphins and only feed each animal a few tiny fish each day, so they are encouraged to still fend for themselves in the wild. There's something about dolphins that send most people a little batty (I coped a few elbows as fellow campers fought to get as close to the dolphins as they could) but I must agree, they are pretty magical creatures. They look you in the eye like they're trying to tell you something and seem to radiate relaxation and calm. Seeing them play around our feet was definitely worth the extra kilometres.

To top off a great day, we took some advice from a local lady we met wearing bike pants and a tie dye singlet and sporting a face that looked like she'd seen so much sun that you could easily whip together a nice little leather handbag from each of her cheeks, to hit the local jetty that night for a guaranteed catch of squid. True to her word, there she was at 6pm with her rod in hand, pulling in squid left, right and centre. And minutes later, we were too! Salt and pepper calamari for dinner...mmm. All our new friend could say was "Told ya they'd be on, Love! We're the winners! We're the winners!" while delicately balancing a ciggie in her lips. Classic.

Yours in the great outdoors,

Odette

Many Faces Of Kalbarri

2008-04-25T22:27:00.004+09:30

Kalbarri is about a seven hour drive from Perth and a 100km detour off the main highway up the north coast of Western Australia. But it's really worth pulling off and spending the extra cash on petty because Kalbarri is just beautiful. A favourite with Perthites for holidays (as we found out first hand by arriving in the second week of the school break - I'm sorry but it should be illegal to take kids camping... do you know how much stuff you need for a simple weekend away? Phew!), this gorgeous town has a bit of everything for everyone.

There's an inlet where the river meets the sea - the fishing is really good anywhere along the rocks and the waterway is full of all sorts of different things from paddle boats to canoes and cruise boats that head up and down the river, showing off the town's sights.

There are surf beaches with good waves, if you can brave the rocky entry points and the ever-present fear of what's lurking beneath on these largely untouched coastlines. But if surfing is not your thing, there's plenty of lookouts and bush walks along the cliff tops where the red earth rocks meet the aqua ocean - it's quite an amazing sight.

But it was Kalbarri's gorges that really impressed us. 30km from the main town centre (along a stretch of dirt road that we thought was going to shake loose whatever nuts and bolts are holding the kombi together) you'll find a bunch of lookouts and walks that you can do to explore the amazing Kalbarri National Park. There's a $10 entry fee but it's worth every penny with the view over the colourful country breath taking. We even had a burst of extra excitement when we almost stepped on a baby brown snake, while walking to one of the lookouts. Far out, those things move quickly! Ewww! I hate snakes!

A few words of warning before you book your bus ticket from Perth to this lovely spot though - pack your credit cards if you expect to stay in town for long. We spotted Capsicums at $17 a kilo at the local IGA (and this was the ONLY supermarket in town and for a radius of 300km in any direction) and petrol is up around the $1.70 per litre mark. But as they say, some of the most beautiful places in the world are miles away from anything, so the amazing National Parks and waterways made up for our $5 coffees.

Yours in the great outdoors,

Odette

Blown Away At Geraldton

2008-04-22T22:42:00.002+09:30

As we headed up the north coast away from Perth, we noticed that two things started to blow out. The cost of petrol was the first. Bloody hell. I wish the kombi came in a hybrid model. The other thing that was blown out was the weather. We had wondered why towns surrounding and including Geraldton kept raving on and on about the great wind surfing and kite surfing that they offered. That's because it's so windy that you can't do much else outdoors. Just have a look at what the trees looked like on the way into Geraldton.

Get my drift? But that's not to say that you shouldn't visit the region. Hold onto your hat and enjoy the great fishing, stock up on supplies at real supermarkets like Coles and Woolworths (because trust me, you won't be seeing one of these for a while if you continue up the coast...) and make sure you visit the HMAS Sydney memorial, that will undoubtedly be changed in the coming months in light of the discovery of the actual Sydney wreck off the Geraldton coast.

Yours in the great outdoors,

Odette

Kombi Door Breakdown!

2008-04-22T22:24:00.003+09:30

Oh no! Just when we thought everything was going smoothly with ol' boy Jefro the kombi, his sliding door goes and slides right off! Well, not exactly but the little roller in the door has warn all the way through (it happens after 30 years of use), meaning the door won't close without a hideous scrapping sound, that sends a shiver up my spine.

After a fellow kombi dweller at Geraldton caravan park told us the story of how he bought a roller door slider from Bunnings to replace HIS broken door, we thought we could do the same (as kombi mechanics and spares are few and far between in northern WA). But after Luke and Simo worked for a few hours trying to fit the thing, it was clear that either the VW guy with no teeth was telling porkies or we'd lucked out with the size of the slider we'd bought from the hardware shop. Never mind. A phone call to a kombi parts supplier who said they'd send the necessary part to meet us at Exmouth post office and we're back in sliding business. Phew!

Yours climbing through the front seat,

Odette

The Pinnacles

2008-04-19T23:13:00.003+09:30

We've hit the road and left the big smoke, um, I mean Perth, behind! Teamed up with our new travelling buddies Jenna and Simo, we stocked up on groceries and water and are now on the upward straight, travelling north in Western Australia. We loved Perth and hanging out in the city for over two weeks was great, but it's weird how quickly the feeling of getting back on the road and heading off to discover more new places with waaaay less people caught up with us. Oh and I think Luke was looking for any excuse to not work another full day in an office again. 500km of road is a pretty good reason!

First stop was Cervantes, about three hours from Perth. There's not a lot in the town itself (and this is why we chose to drive the extra 20minutes up the road and set up camp in the pretty Jurien Bay, instead) but the main reason why tourists add this place to their touring map, are the Pinnacles.

These things are random. But so awesome! Nestled away in the Nambung National Park, the Pinnacles are a series of eerie limestone formations sporadically scattered over vast yellow, rippled sand dunes. They really are a sight. And we couldn't believe how close we could get to these unusual natural structures. After passing through the National Park office, the pamphlet maps out a 3km drive that takes you up and through the actual Pinnacles. Driving on sand, you can stop along the way and walk around the formations. But what are these things? Rocks? Termite nests? An artists sculpture that got a little out of control? Nope, nope and nope. The Pinnacles were actually formed from lime leaching from the sand and by rain cementing the lower levels of the dune into a soft limestone. Hmm... interesting, huh?

Jefro loves a bit of off road action - notice the new additions on top too? Our kombi is so loaded up with gear, I'm surprised we didn't get bogged!

Seeing emus wandering around amongst the Pinnacles was like a post card moment. But you should have heard the noise coming out of this thing when some guy thought it would be a great photo to get a close up of Mr Emu. Not happy, Jan!

As if seeing the cool Pinnacles wasn't enough excitement for one day, a walk out onto the wharf at Jurien Bay that afternoon revealed this little guy, playing in the water at the end. The cheeky seal had the local fisherman sussed as well, eating the bait right off their hooks!

Yours loving Western Australia more each day,

Odette

VW Mechanic in Perth

2008-04-19T22:35:00.002+09:30

We've been trying to keep our van Jefro well serviced to avoid any little breakdowns in the middle of nowhere - these are never fun... So even though our kombi has been running really well, we thought we better book him in for a service before we attempt the upward journey into Northern W.A.

A lot of forums had recommended VDub Repairs and Spares and seeing as though we were staying just up the road in Fremantle, we left Jefro there for a check up and spent the day hanging around Freo. Again. We feel like locals!

The mechanics at VDub Repairs and Spares were really thorough, if not a little pricey in comparison to the other VW mechanics we had been to in Melbourne and Adelaide. No major problems (thank goodness!) but with four new light truck tyres (I know! Random!) and a clean bill of health, we felt confident to brave a few more isolated roads!

Check them out if you need a good VW guy in the Perth area. Nice guys.

VDub Repairs and Spares
125 South Terrace
Fremantle WA 6160
Phone: 08 9430 4180
Email:vdubrepairs@optusnet.com.au

Yours in the great outdoors,

Odette

Perth's Delights

2008-04-17T11:20:00.006+09:30

I thought after travelling through most of Australia's biggest cities, I would inevitably come across a few that I just couldn't wait to get out of. But, nope. So far I've loved them all! And Perth was no exception. But I do feel for poor ol' Perth. I guess it could get a little lonely for W.A's capital city, standing tall and trying to contribute a few sky scrappers to the city scape, in a state where long stretches of empty highway edged with red dirt out number the escalators and lifts in office buildings 20 to 1.

Perth has sooooo much going for it. And the best thing about the place, is that everything is within a 20-30 minute radius, so you can see a lot in just a few days. Here's a few touristy bits we thought were rave worthy.

The Swan Bell

Okay, not quite sure what the purpose of building this thing was, but I tell ya, when tourists pay $10 to climb the thing and ring the famous Swan Bells again and again... and again, I'd be taking ear plugs to work. It's down on the Swan River and there's a bunch of lovely little cafes overlooking the water close by for a lunch break or coffee stop. And word in the local news over here, is that the Swan Bell could be joined by a London Eye-type Ferris Wheel some time in the near future...

City Sights
The city of Perth kinda reminds me of Adelaide with its country charm and heritage churches and court houses squeezed in amongst new additions to the city business district. You can walk the shopping strip in an hour but there's plenty of quirky and fun art pieces and alleyways to discover that could see you easily spend a day or more exploring. One day when we caught the train into the city, what seemed like the whole of the Western Australian University were out in force, dressed up as anything from bumble bees to pirates, selling their Prosh newspaper (check out the website at http://www.prosh.guild.uwa.edu.au/) which is a satirical and hilarious report on current news events. Luke and I laughed out loud whilst reading it on the train back to Freo. This must be a common occurance though, as the suits and business-types, didn't look twice when passed by a hot pink bikepant wearing 21-year-old guy selling papers for charity.

Kings Park

This beautiful park and botanical gardens is the best place for amazing views across Perth, over the Swan River and surrounding waterfront suburbs. The gardens are gorgeous, the tree top walkway is excellent (and free!) and the water features, lush lawn and BBQ areas see this place resemble Sydney's Pitt Street Mall on weekends.

Perth Zoo

Not as impressive as Taronga in Sydney or Dubbo, but still full to the brim with interesting animals and great exhibits. The Orangutan enclosure is world class, with two new baby monkeys getting up to all sorts of trouble. Luke even managed to find himself a super-dooper sized numbat to ride - you don't see those in the wild!!

Hillary's Boat Harbour
You're best off heading back to Margaret River if you're after a wave in Perth, but the beaches are great for swimming and Hillary's Boat Harbour is a perfect little spot on the coast to kill a few hours. Marvel at the million dollar boats, swim in the protected beach, dine at one of the many restaurants or cafes or check out the markets. There's something for everyone.

We could have spent another few weeks in Perth, just checking out the laid back vibe of the city and we will definitely be back, maybe down the line when we have kids of our own because it's a great spot for little ones with so much to do.

Yours in the great outdoors,

Odette

Jamie Oliver Eat Your Heart Out... Again!

2008-04-14T09:23:00.003+09:30

First it was pizza that husband Luke was whipping up on our kombi gas stove, and now its gourmet, mouth watering, lip smacking, can-hardly-get-your-mouth-around Aussie burgers. Get a load of this thing. (Please pay special attention to the super-cute kombi plates!)

If you want to try making this little baby in the privacy of your own home, you'll need BBQ burger patties or rissoles, onion, egg, bacon, pineapple, lettuce, tomato, beetroot, capsicum and BBQ sauce, all placed gently on a lightly toasted hamburger bun with melted cheese. Wow.

Who said camping meant eating two minute noodles and baked beans for dinner?

Yours seriously full and in need of a napkin,

Odette

Filling In The Days In Fremantle

2008-04-13T21:36:00.008+09:30

There are so many ways to fill in time and enjoy the sights in beautiful Fremantle, just 25 minutes from the city of Perth. I managed to entertain myself on the streets of Freo for an entire week, while Luke worked to pay for all my purchases! Okay, not exactly true... I found tons of things to do for free, don't worry Luke!

1. Hit the Esplanade

First stop for any Fremantle first-timer should be the wharf or Esplanade. There are tons of fish and chip shops right on the water, that all claim to sell "The Best Fish and Chips in Western Australia!" Why not sample them all and let your taste buds be the real judge? Then check out the cool brass statues on the water and walk to the nearby swimming beach.

2. Head Along To The Markets

There are more markets in Freo, then AFL fans in Perth. Okay, that would be impossible because AFL is like a religion over here. But you know what I mean! The weekend markets are on each...ah... weekend? Duh! Funny thing is, they actually run from Friday to Sunday at the old council building in the main street and have everything from fresh fruit and veges (get there late Sunday arvo where everything gets reduced to next to nothing), clothes, art, craft and food. The Art Markets are held every Thursday right near the info centre and actually were a little disappointing with not a lot of stores set up the day I chekced them out and you can find the eMarkets down at the old wool sheds near the train station every Saturday and Sunday - these are more like permanent Sydney-style Paddies Markets i.e there's a lot of junk like stuffed kangaroos and fake 'Crocs' for sale.

3. Sample An Ale At A Brewery

We managed to drag ourselves along to two local drinking spots that each had their own micro-brewery out back. Little Creatures is a Fremantle institution and a must for any visitor, regardless if you like beer or not. Ooooo but you really must sample the beer. It's really, really good. Sail and Anchor is another place we sipped a coldie at. Nice drop and a great place to people watch from the pub balcony but we almost had to put our drinks on layby with two beers setting us back $17.50.

4. Check Out The Local Boutiques

There are so many cool little shops to discover. In these cool shops, the shop assistants are cool. The things they sell are cool. The background music heard playing is cool. In fact, the only thing not so cool in these shops was Luke and I, both starting to resemble disheveled travellers in great need of a hair cut, sporting funny looking short and thong tans.

5. Admire The Locals In Their Native Environment

I don't know if it was a special weekend where a whole bunch of strange characters came out to play on the cappuccino strip of Fremantle, but in the space of two days we saw a Mohawk wearing, bagpipe tooting punk doing pelvic thrusts in the middle of a circle of quite a few people, all holding cameras to capture the moment....

...and a drunken Fremantie (I've coined this term to describe a person who resides in Fremantle permanently) who thought it would be hilarious to take off his shirt and pants, give himself a front wedgie and dance around in his undies in front of his drunk mates on the main street while we all watched on from the Mexican restaurant across the road (it was about 7:45pm at the time - click on the image to enlarge and laugh like we did). I've practiced a bit of self-censorship here and chose NOT to include the next pic which was taken about 5 seconds later, when this intoxicated fellow took his risky behaviour one step further and ripped off his undies as well. Yes, a dancing naked drunk man. And all his friends could do to save any last sceric of this guy's dignity was to take photos of him on their phones. Coming soon to Facebook, no doubt. The police arrived in record time.

So as you can see, Fremantle has something for the entire family to enjoy! Who knew?!

Yours in the great outdoors,

Odette

Living It Up In Freo!

2008-04-08T12:57:00.007+09:30

I feel kinda awkward calling Perth's funky suburb of Fremantle 'Freo'. It's like when an international tourist visits Australia for a week and they're already saying "Wanna meet up Mondie arvo for a coldie at your local?" I mean, c'mon. At least give yourself a few weeks before you start throwing around words like 'breakie' and 'chucking a sickie.' These words are sacred Aussie slang!

But after trading in the kombi for a one bedroom apartment right in the heart of Fremantle last Wednesday and exploring the place for a few days, I accidentally said to Mum on the phone the other night, "Yeah, Freo's the best. I love it here." I realise I've only been here for a mere hours and I apologise! But in my defence, Fremantle is the kind of place where it's easy to fit in and feel like a local. Whether you're sipping your morning coffee on the cappuccino strip, wandering around the foreshore or lazing in the park with Sunday's paper, Fremantle has a great vibe about it that's really welcoming.

So here's some piccies of the place we've been staying at for the past few days. Much to his dismay, Luke's been doing some work over here for the software company he used to work for in Sydney and has been struggling with the 9-5 days of sitting at a computer. I, on the other hand, have been surprised at how easily I've adapted to this new lovely little existence of waking up late, doing yoga, going for walks near the beach and checking out the markets and shops around our new temporary home. Did I just say that out loud? All of that in between piles of freelance writing work and organising the next leg of our trip, I assure you. Cough.

The view from our unit - we booked it over the internet so we were stoked to see how close we ended up being to the city and the foreshore!

Look how excited Luke is to go to work... He even forgot to pack his proper work pants and had to wear jeans! Whoops!

I can't tell you how good it feels to have a shower without thongs on.

Yours hanging out in Freo (Darn! I did it again!),

Odette

The Boom

2008-04-07T12:28:00.003+09:30

After travelling around Western Australia for a few weeks now, there's one thing that we just can't seem to get away from. No, it's not the infamous self titled 'Grey Nomads' that out number us 30-1 in all the camping grounds. It's not the constant fear of your clean clothes accidentally dropping off the tiny hooks in the caravan park showers, only to land in a pool of water that could have been there for as long as a week. And it's not even the annoying IGA supermarkets that want to charge us a bomb for a few BBQ rissoles that look like they could have been made pre-Christmas '07. Nope, the one thing we really haven't been able to avoid since crossing the border into the West, is talk of the W.A. 'mining boom'.

The local television news runs daily stories on it, all the people at the petrol stations ask us if that's why we've made the trek cross country and the job section in The Western Australian newspaper is twice as thick, filled with jobs because of it!

But while there may be plenty of work for Uni graduates, new opportunities for small towns and a whole heap of money being poured into the hands of Western Australians, I can't help but wonder what impact this economic boom is having on the environment.

From untouched stretches of coastline near Cape Le Grand National Park in the state's far south, the closer you get to the city of Perth, the more obvious the urban sprawl - with its new canal developments and sub-divisions on show. And check the size of the places that are popping up in towns like in Mandurah, some 74km south of Perth.

Hmmm... I'm a little worried all this new money might be helping people make quick decisions without too much thought about sustainability (in both paying off loans when the boom finally subsides and protecting our natural resources for the generations to come).

Yours in the great outdoors,

Odette

PS Speaking of the job boom, even all the way over here in W.A, over 3000km from home, we managed to bump into one of Luke's old school friends Shawn Simpson and his girlfriend Jenna, who have taken the plunge and set off from Taree, NSW to work in Perth for 12months. I can't tell you how nice it was to camp with some familiar faces! We plan to drive up to Exmouth together before Simo and Jenna return to start work in Bunbury. Yay!

Go Fish!

2008-04-03T19:16:00.001+10:30

Our fishing exploits haven't been very rewarding since we crossed into W.A, with no fish for dinner, even after several attempts (and Luke getting more and more frustrated with catching nothing but herring and toad fish). So driving into the beautiful town of Busselton, we decided that the only way to see some serious fish without going to the deli section of Coles, was to visit the Underwater Observatory at the Busselton Jetty.

One of the most popular eco-tourism icons in Western Australia, the Underwater Observatory lets you descend eight metres below sea level to see a huge range of amazing sea creatures. It's like scuba diving without getting wet. There is one catch though. The Observatory is built at the very end of the jetty. And the jetty is 1.7km long. The longest wooden jetty in the Southern Hemisphere (haven't I read that somewhere before?). So to see the fish, you get a nice little dose of exercise thrown into your admission fare.

Tours depart on the tour and the guide we had to take us down into the Observatory was so passionate about marine life, I swear she may have had a few scales hidden under her uniform. But this passion, mixed with an amazing facility that clearly lets you see the waterworld below the jetty and an array of fish that call the jetty their home, makes for a pretty special experience.

The Observatory from the outside. The nine metre round room was dropped into the ocean

as a whole and filled with water to sink it into place, then drained to create the facility.

Pretty cool, huh?

We saw so many fish, Luke was salivating but the Observatory has a 50metre fishing exclusion zone around it and is petitioning for more, so you'll find no dinner here. The community is also rallying the local council for a million dollar upgrade because the wharf is pretty old and unstable in parts. Our guide said they rarely see sharks in the calm waters of Geographe Bay but regularly spot manta rays, gropa, tuna, star fish and a huge range of spawning coral. It really is another world down there and definitely worth a look. The most impressive part is that unlike a normal aquarium, the fish and coral in the Busselton Jetty Observatory are all 100% natural - so fingers crossed the fish feel like making an appearance on the day you visit!

Yours in the great outdoors,

Odette

Dollars In Dunsborough

2008-04-02T18:45:00.001+10:30

Anyone that visits the Margaret River region is assured of one thing - there's plenty of money in the West and a lot of it has congregated down South. And about a 25minute drive from the center of Margaret River is the coastal town of Dunsborough and it comes with a golden price tag. It's a must-visit on your drive back up to Perth, with it's white sandy beaches, sheltered Geographe Bay and the beautiful Cape Naturalise National Park just a 10 minute drive away. The walk from the lighthouse is breath-taking.

But if you want to extend your stay in the town of Dunsborough, then you better get your credit card out, because the restaurants, cafes and boutique shops are very fancy... and pricey. We found a lovely little spot for a coffee called Food Farmacy that wouldn't have looked out of place in Surry Hills, Sydney - it oozed style and flare. With a pharmacy theme, even the coffees had a chocolate medical cross on top, while all the extras you may need (sugar cubes, salt, pepper, chili) were displayed in test tubes on each table. The best bit? You don't need a science degree to appreciate the beautiful food here.

Food Farmacy
Shop 9, Dunsborough Park Shopping Centre,
Dunn Bay Rd, Dunsborough
Phone: 9759 1877
Open: 7 days a week

And if you decide you could get used to the designer fare in this little coastal town, you might need to get a second or even third job because the average house looks just like the one below and comes with a price tag of about $1.5 million. If you prefer to build you're own dream home, we had a peak in the local real estates (which were on every corner in town) and found you can nab an acre of land for as little as $700,000. Jeepas! Or like us, stay in the caravan park near the inlet for $28 a night.

Yours in the great outdoors,

Odette

River Meets The Sea

2008-03-31T11:29:00.004+10:30

Maragret River isn't just the place to go to for wine and fresh local produce... you've probably heard there's some pretty good surf there too. Prevally is where all the beach bums tend to hang and it's where they hold the world class surfing events, like the Drug Free Pro which is happening next week. It's a five minute drive from the centre of Margaret River and it's really beautiful.

Although be warned. Along with the pretty serious rips and currents that help create some awesome waves for locals and tourists to enjoy, you'll also have to steel your nerves, as the tales of visits from some pretty scary underwater creatures are many. Our wine tour guide, who was a pretty serious surfer too, said he went out four or five times a week at the Prevally break. Two years back, he told how a mate of his was attacked by a Great White shark about an hour after he'd gone home from catching a few waves together. Andy said his mate was paddling back out after a set and was grabbed. I asked whether he was okay and Andy just looked at me blankly and said "No chance. Dead." Yikes. He said the key is to stay in a pack and try not to be the unlucky surfer on the edge of the group. Bags not! I think I'll just watch the action from the beach.

And if you go for a little wander around the rocks, you'll see where the Margaret River meets the sea - although the inlet was closed when we were there. The white sand and aqua blue water are postcard pretty.

So if you visit the area and get a little over all the sipping and spitting at the wineries, chill out on a picnic rug with those yummo cheeses you've just bought at Prevally (and dream about becoming a millionaire so you can own a house there - starting price $2 mill. Phew!).

Yours in the great outdoors,
Odette

Cheers To Margaret River!

2008-03-29T17:57:00.007+10:30

People tend to go to Margaret River to indulge. In food, fashion, art and of course, wine. And what were we to break with tradition? I was excited just thinking about all the delectable wonders to sample!

After driving up the beautiful Caves Road from the windy Augusta, we weren't really sure what to expect when it came to the Margaret River area. It's got a reputation for being the 'Byron Bay' of W.A and once we drove into town, we could see why. A main street filled with designer clothing shops, gourmet food stores, health food and alternative medicine practitioners and tons and tons of restaurants and cafes. So many, in fact, I wondered whether they would be able to stay open through the slower times of the year - like in winter. But I quickly learnt that Margaret River doesn't seem to have any 'slow' times anymore, with tourists flocking to the town for weekend retreats or weeks of relaxation.

The famous wineries that attract most are really spread out across the countryside, so the best way to see all the sights and taste all the flavours of the region is on some kind of tour. We booked into the Cheers wine tour and prepared ourselves for a big day. And we weren't the only ones. We ended up befriending a bunch of American girls, a Perth local and an Irish lass, all up for a day of delights, so teamed with our trim looking part-time surfer, part-time P.E high school teacher and part-time tour guide Andy, we were sure to be in for a bloody good day!

After a gourmet BBQ on the banks of Margaret River itself, with a glass of vino in hand (at 11am mind you, they don't muck around in these parts), I was having flash backs to our messy evening in a Barossa Valley caravan park...

First stop, Watershed Wines, a corporate, multi-million dollar wine producer that's floated on the stock market. The visit is worth it just to see the amazing architecture of the restaurant and cellar door, with a view out onto the vines.

Next stop Redford wines - a middle range winery that's big enough to employ cellar door staff and showcased a wine called Bin3455, which was a Shiraz, Cabernet, Merlot mix. I'm no wine expert but this drop tasted more like some kind of rocket fuel that we used to make out of goon at Uni, than an award winning vintage. No sales from us here, but we were quite happy to taste away!

Venison was next, as we visited an award winning farm that sold all sorts of deer products. From handbags and hats to sausages, salami and kebabs - I was feeling for the two vegos on the bus.

Onto a small wine grower/ maker/ seller, a crazy guy called Greg from Bethany Wines who ran his own show and did everything from help pick the grapes to teach his son how to come up with a killer brew. So good a teacher he turned out to be, that in fact his son's Lost The Plot First Blush Rose wine that's infused with chili, outsells his Dad's 18-years in the making Chardonnay, 3:1. We even bought a bottle it was that good!

All that drinking obviously made Luke hungry (that's the excuse he's using anyway) for going back to the sample bowl at the Margaret River Chocolate Factory three times and piling his hand high with choccie buds - white, dark and milk. Okay, I went back three times too, but I'm blaming the frenzied atmosphere created by the bus loads of drunks.

Some marinated feta and soft-as-silk tasty cheddar at the cheese factory helped our thirst return, and what better way to quench it and finish the day, then with a paddle of six different beers at an award winning micro brewery. What time is it? Where am I? Who cares!

So thanks Cheers and our tour guide Andy (who had an uncanny resemblance to the American actor Tim Allen, from Home Improvement, lame jokes included) for that headache and empty wallet. We had so much fun!

Yours in the great outdoors,

Odette

Big, Big Trees

2008-03-24T22:31:00.006+10:30

One thing we didn't expect after driving across the treeless plain that was the Nullarbor into Western Australia, was that this state was home to some of the biggest and most beautiful trees we'd seen since Tassie. Seriously massive!

And with the Easter long weekend meaning all holiday accommodation on the coast of WA was booked out some 12 months ago - this from the girl on the phone from one caravan park, "What? A powered site? Honey, is this some kind of joke? We booked out last March. As in 2007." O-kay. No need for the attitude, just trying to get a piece of turf so the Easter Bunny can find us, that's all.

But turning inland away from the beach turned out to be one to the best things we'd done in a while (after cashing in our credit card points for petrol vouchers, that is). The Southern Forests down this way are spectacular and are home to ancient karri, tingle and marri trees that will have you looking at nature in a different way and making you feel very small in the scheme of things.

Highlights of our little forest field trip included:

-Seeing a backpackers in the main street of the town of Walpole (which is surrounded by Tingle trees) with the name Tingle All Over. Nice play on words guys, but people may have taken you a little literally from the look of your empty car park. Ewww...

- Drinking burnt coffee in a diner called De Javu in Manjimup because it was the only place in town open on Good Friday. Warning: This cafe was the only place open on Good Friday in such a small town for a reason.

-Laughing at all the places in a 200km radius that end in 'up'. Nanup, Manjimup, Kojonup, Kendenup, Nornalup, Porongurup, Daranup, Yallingup, Boyup, Quinninnup, Boyanup, Jerramungup, Ongerup, Gnowangerup... and these are but a few. No joke. Someone must have been sick of coming up with names for towns over this way so mixed a few letters around and stuck an 'up' on the end and hey, presto!

-Feeling my legs turn to jelly as Luke and I attempted to make the climb up a 61 metre Karri tree in the Gloucester National Park near Pemberton. There are three climbing trees in the area with dodgy looking metal pikes sticking out of them and a sign that warns people not to attempt the climb if they're unfit or afraid of heights. The trees used to be fire lookouts before the age of the helicopter and are free to climb - actually there's no one around at all except for testosterone infused tourists wanting to conquer the tree, but the brochures say no one has fallen in over 40 years and more than one million visitors have made the climb successfully. I should have been more honest with myself because at half way up, my legs froze and I started to sweat and had to back down to the ground and leave Luke to climb the next 30 metres on his own! But he made it and said the view from the top platform was amazing.

-Feeding the purple-crowned lorikeets and rosellas in the National Parks and at our caravan park as well. These guys were everywhere.

-And finally, being five minutes shy of getting arrested for indecent exposure after deciding to throw caution to the wind and skinny dip at Big Brook Dam. Seemed like a good idea at the time but who knew other travellers would also fancy a swim on a hot autumn afternoon and drive the windy 10km dirt track seemingly into the middle of nowhere to find the perfect spot. Just as we did our nudie dash for the shore, a bunch of people came meandering around the corner. Close. Very Close.

Yours in the great outdoors and wishing you all a very late happy Easter,
Odette

PS The Easter Bunny may have gotten a little confused as to our current address (understandably, of course) but the Easter Bilby decided to jump out of the bush and deliver us more chocolate then we know what to do with! (Okay, we stinged it and went to Coles on Easter Monday and stocked up on the half price stuff. Excellent idea!)

Albany Coffee Break

2008-03-23T20:04:00.003+10:30

We loved the town of Albany. But we did have one little drama shortly after we arrived... namely, Luke snapping off our internet modem and breaking it so we could no longer communicate with the outside world. Shock! Horror! What was to be done? Luckily Albany is quite a big regional town - about 25,000 call this seaside place 'home.' So that means if our computer's internet device was to break anywhere, Albany was a much better place for it to happen then say, Quorn (Population 56).

A trip to Telstra (who couldn't help us out because unfortunately warranty doesn't cover people breaking the USB stick right off. I know, we couldn't believe it either...), so we continued on to a little electronics guy who had TV's piled up around his ears. Bingo! $50 later and we had a pretty much brand-new internet connection device (if you looked past the glue and cracked cover and duct tape). Phew... No internet? That would have been as disastrous as a caravan park shower and no thongs. What a close call!

But mostly our stop over to Albany was spent at an amazing coffee house called Dome Cafe. This place is housed in the old Albany Primary School and is a cross between an American style diner that we loved in the US called Denny's, Gloria Jeans and a tiny backstreet coffee shop with all the latest magazines hanging around for you to read plus comfy leather lounges to snuggle into. We went back two days in a row.

Dome Cafe

Open daily for breakfast and lunch, from 7.am to 6.pm Monday to Friday, Thursday 7.am to 9.pm and Saturday/Sunday 7.am to 5.pm.
98 411 933

Hot Chocolate: $3.50

Cappuccino: $3.00

Yours in the great outdoors,

Odette

Kombi Update

2008-03-19T18:52:00.004+10:30

As our trip continues, we thought it was about time we gave a little update on Jefro the Kombi. The poor van seems to be getting more and more loaded up, the longer we're away and is now sporting some VERY attractive added extras. Let me explain...

As you can see from the pictures above and below, we've added a few little essentials to the top of the car.

-A 20 litre water container in case we get stuck somewhere isolated and become parched (or need a shower very badly - whatever happens first).

-A 20 litre petrol container, obviously in case we run out of juice. Luke has attractively wrapped the petrol container in a heat reflective car windscreen protector in the hope of repelling the sun (The container has a 'Keep out of direct sunlight warning' and this was the best solution we could come up with without having to sleep in car full of petrol fumes).

-A hose for Luke's now famous 'Porta-Water' TM. More on this later.

-A totem tennis set. Okay, this isn't 'essential' but it's a lot of fun when the caravan park doesn't have a games room.

Making use of every bit of space we can find, Luke bought back a piece of poly pipe and used two hose clamps from Bunnings to attach it to our rear bumper bar. Inside are our two fishing rods, ready to go! Oh, and we can't forget the 'Porta- Water,' an invention that Luke thought up and got his Dad's stainless steel factory to whip up while we were home last (yep, he bought it back on the plane...). The basic idea behind this ingenious device is that caravan parks often have one tap per site, that's miles away from where you're actually camping. So with Porta-Water, all you have to do is run a hose along the ground and stick your new stainless steel tap where ever is most convenient to you - and you now have water for cooking, drinking etc right at your door! Call Luke for orders 0414 266624.

And as you can see the kombi is in a real need of a wash. We probably cleaned up a couple of thousand insects on the crossing between South Australia and Western Australia, although with heavy water restrictions continuing across the border, Jefro might have to wear the bugs for a little while yet...

But one thing hasn't changed. We still love our good 'ol '76 van as much as the day we left and swear we've never slept better than we do snuggled up in the back. Thanks Jefro for running so well so far on our trip! Impress us even more by not breaking down again until we get home! Wee!

Yours in the great outdoors,

Odette

W.A = Paradise

2008-03-19T17:24:00.004+10:30

After spending soooo long in the car the day before crossing the Nullarbor, the two hours from Norseman to the coastal town of Esperance was a lazy Sunday drive. And we were super excited to arrive in a town that had... wait for it... a Woolworths! Grocery shopping at tiny country IGA's and Foodworks can get expensive and they often don't have much on the menu either, so Luke and I walking into Woolies to do a full food shop, was like two kids in a lolly shop, not knowing where to look first!

Esperance is gaining in popularity as a great little holiday spot and it's not hard to see why. It's still a decent seven hour drive from W.A's capital city of Perth, but they run daily flights from the capital so more and more people, we're told, are discovering this little slice of paradise. And paradise it is. The town has about 25,000 people so there's your fair share of choice when it comes to lovely coffee, fresh seafood restaurants and a great selection of arts and craft shops. But it's the natural wonders surrounding this place that make it so special.

First stop, the local wharf, where we're told one of Esperance's best natural wonders hangs out each day. And there he was, Sammy the seal, all 400 kilos of him (or there abouts), lazing around under the jetty. He doesn't seem to mind being the centre of attention but some local fisherman told us that he won't hesitate to chase tourists up the beach if they get too close with their cameras. (I can't see it happening myself... Sammy needs to lay off the hot chips with his fish)

Next up, is a drive along the Great Ocean Road tourist drive (and you don't have to drive all the way back to Victoria to do it!). The 30km loop will take you from the town centre, past the beautiful Twilight Beach, which was named 'Most Popular Beach in W.A' and really is amazing with it's aqua waters and unusual rock formations.

But nature really turns it up a notch if you drive the 60km out to Cape Le Grand National Park. You can camp out there in a number of basic National Park sites that are soooo close to the water that you might want to do your tent up extra tight at night, just in case you wake up spooning a seal. Frenchman Peak is a beauty with a 2 hour walk to the top, and we could have hung out at Lucky Bay and Thistle Cove for the next few months if we didn't have more pressing things to do...like read magazines or go for a bike ride or enjoy a cold beer. We saw emus running around but unfortunately no kangaroos lazing on the beach, which the ladies at the tourist info centre assured us happened quite regularly.

So add it to your list of places to visit - and jump on the band wagon soon before everyone over in the East discovers there's plenty of land to be developed on the coast and end up destroying the whole area in one go.

Oh and don't stay at the BIG 4 caravan park in town. We didn't notice the train track that ran pretty much directly behind our heads until 11:30pm at night when a train came hurtling down the hill to the Port. Nice.

Yours in the great outdoors,

Odette

The Nullarbor

2008-03-16T22:01:00.009+10:30

If you're in South Australia and you want to visit, say, Perth, then there's pretty much only one sensible way to get there. Fly. But if, by chance, you're heading around Australia in a kombi and you get to Ceduna, then unfortunately flying is out of the question, so to reach Western Australia you have to drive straight. Straight across the Nullarbor Plain.

According to Wikipedia, the Nullarbor Plain is part of the area of flat, almost treeless, arid or semi-arid country immediately north of the Great Australian Bight. The word Nullarbor is derived from the Latin nullus for 'nothing' or 'no one' and arbor for 'tree'. And that's pretty much what's out there for about, oh, say 1197km.

It's the world's largest single piece of limestone, (impressive, huh?) and occupies an area of about 200,000 km². This said, Luke and I were understandably a little apprehensive about tackling the trip. We'd heard good and bad stories from fellow travellers, so it was with a mix of nerves and excitement that we got up super early (5:30am! Wasn't this supposed to be a holiday?) and set off into the darkness at about 6:15am.

After you leave the last South Australian town of Ceduna, it's a long 1200km before you see anything that resembles a 'town' until Norseman in W.A. So here's the few things that kept us entertained whilst driving (at about 95km per hour, mind you) across the Nullarbor.

Roadhouses
These pop up every 200 kilometres or so - there's ten Roadhouses across the plain, most with accommodation and VERY expensive fuel. The most we paid was $1.91 per litre. But you've got no choice but to cough up, unless you fancy a long, long walk or a long, long wait for a tow truck. These Roadhouses also have pretty average looking accommodation (Motel rooms and powered sites for caravans and tents) and very average looking food. Fancy a week old pie from the warmer, anyone? Our tip? Take plenty of water and snacks with you. Luke couldn't do without a morning cappuccino and paid very dearly for the privilege of drinking long-life milk froth. $5.30. Ouch!

Road Signs
You would have thought the Commonwealth Bank or McDonalds would have bought up all the road side space along the Nullarbor to advertise with big billboards, but the only signs you'll see along the stretch are either warnings for strange outback animals (camels, emus, kangaroos, wombats) or to let you know that there's an insanely long road coming up. Here's a few of our favourites.

Crossing the Border
After about five and a half hours of driving, we finally spied the quarantine station up ahead, handed in a few apples and a jar of honey and crossed into Western Australia! Whoo, hoo!

Road Workers

When we were fishing on the jetty back in Ceduna, we met a local lady who said her husband drove the grater along the Nullarbor for council, cleaning up the sides of the road. Once he got to the W.A border, he'd simply turn around and travel back the 600km to Ceduna where he would start all over again. She said it took him more than a month each way. What a job! We saw them working away in the 37 degree heat near the Eucla Roadhouse. I hope he has an 80 gig iPod.

Amazing Scenery

Although there are stretches with no trees at all, believe it or not, there's plenty to see whilst driving the Nullarbor. The kilometers of native grasses meld into coastal scrub as you weave in and out from the ocean. And the view of the rocky cliffs that are over 90 metres high, are just a few kilometres off the side of the main highway. They're part of the Great Australian Bight National Park and are spectacular. It's like being on the end of the earth!

Road Trains

Besides the odd caravan and camper van, road trains make up the bulk of the Nullarbor traffic. These trucks are three and four trailer deep. And being in a kombi, we were overtaken by our fair share - now that's a scary experience. Having said that, when you see one on the horizon speeding towards you, we had to hold onto our seats and just hope that the kombi didn't rattle to pieces. See for yourselves!

Luke and I started out with the plan of staying overnight along the Nullarbor, midway at Eucla, but after the temperatures reached 37 degrees, we decided to keep driving into the afternoon. Next think we knew, we'd programmed the final destination town of Norseman into our Navman and decided that we'd rather try and do the whole stretch in one day than face a second day on the road. The kombi drove like a dream (although both Luke and I were sooo nervous when the car coughed and stalled at the final Roadhouse, with 200km to go). We finally arrived at Norseman Caravan Park at 8:30pm that night, after driving for 15 and a half hours. It would have been 10pm, had we not changed time zones!

Phew! A shower never felt so good! We made it!

Yours excited to be in Western Australia and oh so proud of Jefro the Kombi,

Odette

Split Screen Kombi Wreck

2008-03-13T20:16:00.004+10:30

Look what Luke spied in a backyard in Ceduna! An old double door panel van kombi split that was in need of some TLC.

Luke thought about the logistics of getting the old girl back to NSW for ages but we both agreed this van would require a lot more than a little backyard reno.

I bet we see it on ebay in a few weeks for $3,000.

Yours in the great outdoors,

Odette

Eyre Peninsula - Fishing Frenzie

2008-03-11T17:31:00.007+10:30

We were given a set of fishing rods for Christmas (Thanks, Pa!) so Luke strapped them up in a piece of poly pipe and bought them back on the plane the last time we were home. And gee did they get a work out on South Australia's Eyre Peninsula!

The Eyre Peninsula is a triangle piece of land, with the Spencer Gulf on it's East and the Great Australian Bight on the West, with the Gawler Ranges in the North, discovered by Edward John Eyre. Known for its farming and fishing industries, it probably wasn't the greatest timing for us to visit the region with South Australia in the middle of it's worst heat wave in something like 40 years. We had nine consecutive days where temperatures were over 36 degrees. Yep, pretty darn hot. But it also gave us ample reason to really lap up and enjoy the beautiful waterways on the Peninsula because going for a dip was the only way to cool off. Oh, and we did a spot of fishing too.

So Luke's never been a terribly keen fisherman. Sure, he enjoys throwing a line in at his parent's place on the river in Cundletown but he's not one of those crazy obsessive types who live and breath tidal charts and bait variations. Until now. Let's just say Luke became slightly 'hooked' on catching the elusive big one and every time we pulled up at a spot for longer than five minutes, he'd say, "I think this is it. I think this is the place where we'll catch a great feed. I've got a really good feeling about this place. Just an hour, I promise," and drag me out onto the wharf, lathered in suncream to try our luck.

Here's how we went:

EYRE PENINSULA FISHING DIARY

Day 1

Where: Whyalla

Temperature: 39 degrees

What: The second biggest town on the Peninsula, Whyalla is a busy shipping port, but the huge variations in tides meant unless you had a tinny, it was hard to drop a line in. Suffice to say, we spent our day swimming instead.

Fish tally: Luke - 0 Odette - 0

Day 2
Where: Tumby Bay

Temperature: 38 degrees

What: After Whyalla, the towns grew smaller and were more spaced out then before (about 40km at least in between places). Tumby Bay was a quaint, lazy fishing town with a population of 200. It had a really relaxing vibe about it and the caravan park was right on the water. We met a guy on the wharf who was in his sixties and had never lived anywhere else. He made the trip to the local jetty every afternoon after work to put his line in and told us that he didn't know life was meant to be this good.

Fish tally: Luke - 2 (both Rock Cods) Odette - 1 (a Taylor - extra small)

Day 3

Where: Port Lincoln

Temperature: 39 degrees

What: Port Lincoln is the biggest town on the Peninsula, with both a Coles and Woothworths and even a Country Target! We watched the local Aboriginal kids spear fishing in the inlet for a while and playing off the jetty - the heat didn't phase them at all! Fishing charters are really popular on these crystal blue waters, but with Luke's new found fishing prowess, we took to the jetty solo style.

Fishing tally: Luke - 2 (both Tommy ruffs) Odette - 0 (But I did get a very nice picture of the passing pelicans. Like that counts!)

Day 4

Where: Coffin Bay

Temperature: 40 degrees

What: Coffin Bay is about 40 kilometers out of Port Lincoln, on the tip of the Peninsula and has a series of inlets and beaches - all stunning. The town has a population of 400 but this swells to about 4000 during holiday times. The National Park is really beautiful and worth a visit and again, the caravan park is right on the water, so guess how we spent the afternoon? This place was a favourite for us. I'd love to go back and stay a week.

Fish tally: Luke - 5 ( a couple of Whiting and an Ocean Trout, which we ate for dinner. Yay!) Odette - 3 (All whiting)

Day 6
Where: Elliston

Temperature: 39 degrees

What: The drive from Coffin Bay to Elliston was sooooo hot. The water spray bottle was in overdrive and we had to stop a few times to refill our drink bottles so we didn't evaporate into thin air. We braved a six kilometer dirt track detour to see some impressive caves and amazing surf beaches (a favourite breeding spot for the Great White) and we also saw a poor kangaroo who'd gotten himself into a bit of a pickle on a sheep fence...

Fish tally: Luke - 0 Odette - 0 (This was despite spending about 3 hours with our rods in the water on the jetty and beach)

Day 5

Where: Ceduna

Temperature: 40 degrees

What: After being turned away from Smokey Bay and Sneaky Bay caravan parks because they were both full, we made the trek to Ceduna a day early. The caravan park was on the water again, and we spent 2 days fishing and getting organised to cross the Nullabor. Alas, the only big fish we'd seen in days (a snook) fell off my line as I was pulling him in (Promise!) so we ate salt and pepper squid at the local pub that night instead.

Fish tally: Luke - 6 (We're not sure what the real name of these fish were but the local Aboriginal women who were fishing with their hand lines near us said they call them 'Shitties') Odette - 5 (All Shitties)

Okay so we didn't have glorious seafood feasts each night while we were on the Peninsula, but Luke promises me that it must have been the bait and that we'll have much better luck in W.A. Oh, I can't wait!

Nullabor here we come! Yikes!

Yours in the great outdoors or as Rex Hunt would say, Ayibbita, yibbita, that's all folks,

Odette

Magical Flinders

2008-03-08T21:38:00.004+10:30

Equipped with a new air conditioning system to beat the heat whilst travelling in the kombi (a $1.45 plastic spray bottle filled with water from a Port Augusta bargain shop - Luke and I have turns spraying each other as we drive. Are we insane??!) we were back on the road and heading out of Port Augusta asap. Next stop, the Flinders Ranges National Park.

The trip out to the Ranges was a tad scary. There was nothing for 200km except for red dirt, signs that said 'Beware of Free Roaming Stock', a tiny place called Quorn, whose main street consisted of four open pubs (it was 10am in the morning) and that's it, but the silhouette of the Ranges in the distance was worth every second of the long, hot drive.

There are two caravan parks near the Flinders Ranges but we decided to stay at the 'resort' caravan park because it was right inside Wilpena Pound and closest to all the great bush walks you can go on. The 'resort' was pretty rustic and basic but sleeping under the pines and stringy bark gums was cool. Oh and the kangaroos and green parrots were as friendly as the Germans camping next door to us (Who, by the way, LOVED the 38 degree weather and thought that's how hot Australia was all the time. Nana German spent most of the day sunbaking in her camping chair in her undies).

We waited until 5pm before attempting the two hour walk into the Pound and still almost died and became adventuring legends like Bourke and Wills because it was so darn hot. We were also almost eaten by the flocks of wild goats that were doing a great job of scaring the bejesus out of us whilst destroying the native flora. But you'll get yours, little matey's - we saw signs everywhere saying that the National Park would be closing the very next weekend for a massive 'feral' clean up. Mwahahah! (Evil laugh). But sweat, blood and tears aside (Okay, that's a little dramatic) and we arrived at the top lookout for a spectacular view over the Pound. And they say it's even better by air.

The next morning, we made an unusually early departure from our camp site so we could beat the heat and do another 2 hour walk to some Aboriginal artwork in caves near the base of the Ranges. What an amazing experience. And what timing we had, as we arrived at the scared site just before a local tour guide rocked up with two cashed up British tourists who had paid the guy to escort them to the artwork. The 20 minute commentary on the significance of the 5,000 year old site was great! Thanks, Mike. Cheques in the mail.

38 degrees or not, a side trip from Port Augusta to the Flinders Ranges is pretty special. Having said that, a bush walk in scrub land just out of Taree, NSW would have been breath taking too, when you're coming from Port Augusta.

Yours in the great outdoors,

Odette

Hot As Hell

2008-03-08T21:08:00.006+10:30

Arriving at Port Augusta, the self-proclaimed gateway to the Outback, was a day I'll never forget. The temperature had been steadily rising from the moment we left Adelaide, as we made our way around the Yorke Peninsula, but as we drove into Port Augusta, the mercury seemed to make a dramatic shift from hot to unbelievably, stupidly, ridiculously, bloody, stinky HOT! After quickly taking solace in a BIG W store, (Yep, shops! We couldn't believe it either!) we found out that the actual outside temperature was a measly 38 degrees... And this "isn't even really THAT hot," the girl behind the register was telling us. O-kay.

Other than having extremely pleasant weather, Port Augusta seems to be the place where travellers pass through on their way to somewhere even hotter i.e the Nullabor or the Northern Territory via Cooper Pedy. So with it's couple of shops more than most other towns in South Australia, a Macca's, two Subways and a couple of caravan parks, this place may seem like a mini paradise to some.

Looking for a bit of relief from the heat, we decided to check-in to the caravan park early (You have a pool? We'll take it!) but unfortunately extreme heat in semi-desert country means huge water restrictions and not a lot of grass. Check out the lushious, welcoming caravan park...

Obviously we only checked in for the one night at this little slice of 'paradise'.

Yours sweating it up in a South Australian hell-hole,

Odette

Nothing To Do But Fish

2008-03-05T21:46:00.003+10:30

We'd planned to stay our next night at Port Pirie, on South Australia's York Peninsula, but after rocking into town and doing a lap in about 30 seconds and discovering that the port is more industrial then tourist-friendly, we thought we'd drive a tad more up the coast.

This is when we stumbled upon the paradise that was Port Germein. In the brochure it boasted excellent fishing, a lush and welcoming water side caravan park, coffee shops and kiosks and an impressive record for the longest wooden jetty in the Southern Hemisphere. But alas, it seems the brochure was printed in 1975, because when we arrived, the fish were non-existent, the caravan park had long turned to dust (literally!), all the shops in town had closed down except for the pub and the wooden jetty had lost a few metres due to storm damage.

Too late to go on, we booked in for the night and got our bikes off the back of the car to ride the 1.7km each way along the wooden jetty (in which the water only became visible somewhere in the final 500metres). Yep, a record breaking long wharf. Congrats, Port Germein. At least the brochure got something right. But what really deserves an award and national recognition is how the local fisherman get their boats out of the ocean.

With no boat ramp because of the huge low tides and because the sand bank is so long and flat, these crafty fisherman have invented a crazy cross between a tractor, a giraffe and a turtle i.e. A tractor with really, really long legs. That drives in water. Check it out!

And now watch it in action!

Yours still marvelling at this masterpiece,

Odette

Yorke Peninsula

2008-03-05T18:38:00.004+10:30

From the vines of the Barossa, the next stop on this trip around Australia couldn't have been more different. The Yorke Peninsula looks like a hot, dry piece of earth from the highway, but once you hit the coastline, it's pretty special.

We met some fellow kombi travellers at Moonta Bay, who say that the area is one of the most beautiful places they've had the pleasure of camping at. There's not alot in the town itself (or for a radius of about 200km) but the caravan park backs up to the ocean and the sunset is truly magic.

The view from our camping spot by day (the town is known for its great fishing off its wooden jetty - you can throw in a net and you're sure to catch at least 10 blue swimmer crabs in about an hour.)

The view from our camp spot on dusk.

Enjoying the sunset with our new kombi mates. (We took turns touring each other's vans. Lame? Maybe just a tad!)

Yours in the great outdoors,

Odette

Drunken Tales From the Barossa

2008-03-03T18:47:00.005+10:30

It's difficult visiting a wine growing region without sampling some of the produce of the area. Maybe difficult isn't the right word. Impossible. Yep, that fits a little better. So after making our way out of Adelaide and loving that the kombi is going like a dream, Luke and I decided to check out what else Adelaide has to offer. First up, a night at Belair National Park, a pretty spot just 20 minutes from the city centre of Adelaide with some great bushwalks - even though it's terribly dry at this time of the year.

Next stop was the Adelaide Hills, which are a truly beautiful side-step out of Adelaide and definitely worth visiting - just fly into the city and hire a car for the weekend. Go on! If English style gardens, award winning cafes and restaurants, and heritage-drenched towns are your thing, you'll love the 'Hills.

And if you're out that way, you can't go past the German town of Hahndorf. Some might say it's kitsch but we thought it was kinda cool with all its kranskys and beer mugs.

And after you've eating y0ur wienerschnitzel, drop by and see something else that's totally out of the ordinary in the pretty backdrop of Adelaide's hinterland - the world's biggest rocking horse. But be prepared to pay $2 if you want to climb the thing. It's in Gumeracha.

And finally we make it to the beautiful Barossa Valley. Let's just say that it all started where Adelaide's first wine was made - at Jacob's Creek. Although obviously times have changed from when an English settler took up camp on the creek bed of the actual Jacob's Creek and thought the Barossa's mild Mediterranean weather was perfect for growing wine grapes. Now, the business of wine is BIG business. And often how popular or well-selling the wine is can be measured by how expensive and architecturally lavish the vineyard is. Jacob's Creek must be doing well at LiquorLand.

Penfolds has obviously sold a drop or two as well...

But as the afternoon wore on, all the wines started tasting pretty much the same. And the music coming from our laptop was getting louder and louder. Oh and I also want to take this opportunity to apologise to my sister Noni for that phone call pretending to be a Thai restaurant ringing with her takeaway order. We thought it was funny at the time. hehe.

And if you can wake up at a reasonable hour the next day and your head isn't pounding from all that sampling, throw on your darkest sunnies and check out the Barossa Farmers Market. All the foodies from around the area are there to sell their wares. We bought some homegrown strawberries and fresh pumpkin bread. Delicious.

Yours in the great outdoors,

Odette

Bad Wrap Banished

2008-03-02T18:24:00.006+10:30

Adelaide seems to cop a lot of bad press so I couldn't wait to meet and shake hands with South Australia's capital city to see why people give her such a hard time. And after spending over a week exploring all that Adelaide has to offer, the only conclusion I could come to as to why people would call this city 'boring' or 'waaay too small to worry about' or 'pretty uneventful' is because they really haven't given her a fair go.

Adelaide is a gem. A small gem in comparison to say, Sydney's urban sprawl, but a very pretty gem with plenty going on. If Adelaide were an ad in the local newspaper's personal column, this is how she would read:

SMALL TIME GAL WITH BIG HEART SEEKS ONE TIME COMPANIONSHIP, REOCCURING FRIENDSHIP OR SOMETHING MORE PERMANENT

-Looking for a good time? One of Australia's oldest cities is too!

-Intelligent and well-read with an arts and festival scene to rival none other.

-Shopaholics need not apply but those with an interest in vintage wares and up-and-coming designer duds won't be disappointed.

-All religious affiliations welcome - there's a church on every corner.

-Must have an appreciation for fine food and fresh, locally grown produce and wine.

-Lovers of the great outdoors graciously accepted, with National Parks, agricultural land and the ocean all promising good times.

-Children and animals welcome.

-Looking forward to an exciting future together!

Oooo... see? A quick weekend affair with Adelaide seems more and more appealing, doesn't it?

There are SO many things to do in this city.

We celebrated our two year wedding anniversary with a yummo meal at the newly rejuvenated seaside suburb of Glenelg. There's tons of restaurants to choose from and whether you decide to dine day or night, there's always a bunch of people around which adds to the holiday vibe.

If it's shopping you're after, go straight to Rundle Street Mall. This is where all the major chain stores plus a bunch of smaller, more unusual shops can be found. Oh, and don't walk past Haigh's chocolate shop. Their stuff's so good, not stopping to sample some of Adelaide's best chocolate would be a crime. Or take a free tour of the factory. Hmmm... And pat the bronze sculptured pigs in the mall. Or get your photo sitting on one. Whichever you prefer.

A walk along the Torrens River is a must, and while you're going, check out the University of South Australia, the National Art Gallery and the Botanical Gardens (the only place in Australia that grows MASSIVE lillypads straight from the Amazon!) - all within walking distance. All prove to the Adelaide sceptics, that this place has a lot going on in it's small city grid.

Next stop, the Barossa!

Yours in the great outdoors,
Odette

As Good As New

2008-02-28T18:04:00.003+10:30

We were having some pretty major problemos with our kombi Jefro before heading back to NSW for our two week break, so our first stop after arriving back in Adelaide was to a VW mechanic. Is it just me, or is anyone else experiencing a touch of deja vu?

We had the van booked into Volks Care, after it was highly recommended on the VW kombi forums online (HOT TIP: If you ever need a kombi mechanic and you're away from your home town area, check out http://www.kombiclub.com/ for recommendations of trusted kombi mechanics from other kombi owners throughout Australia).

In the end, after Luke replaced Jefro's condenser, fuel filters, points and tried carbie cleaner and metho in the petrol (C'mon, props to the boy for trying!), the tiny part making our van sick was the rotor button. Replaced, tuned and back on the road and the kombi is going like a dream.

Hence, if you're after a VW mechanic in Adelaide, we highly recommend:

Volks Care

22 Tania Avenue, Windsor Gardens, South Australia

Phone: 08 8369 1233

Yours in the great outdoors,

Odette

We're baaack!

2008-02-28T17:43:00.003+10:30

Luke and I are back on the road after two lovely weeks back in NSW, that seemed to fly by.

Here's a few of the things we got up to...

Caught up with family (L to R: Little bro Tully, little sis Noni, me and Luke) at the parent's place before getting my wisdom teeth out.

Witnessed our beautiful friends Sarah and Adrian get hitched at Newport. Congrats guys!

Hung out with the girls! (L to R: Newly married Sarah, newly engaged Jess, newly promoted Kate Boosty, newly graduated from Uni Kate, myself and newly off the plane from London town for a quick visit Erin!)

Babysat our gorgeous four month old niece Morgan, who is smiling and getting bigger and bigger every time we cuddle her.

Ate ice cream with Luke's nana to celebrate her 80th birthday. Thanks so much for having us!

So with so many catch-ups and get-togethers going down over the past two weeks, our time away from the van seemed like but a day. But now we're back on the road, there'll be no trippin' on over the border back home for quick visits for a while (have you seen how much an airfare costs from Perth to Sydney!! Yikes!). Miss you all already!

Yours in the great outdoors,

Odette

Giddy Up!

2008-02-20T20:18:00.003+10:30

If you're after an animal encounter on South Australia's Fleurieu Peninsula, Victor Harbor is a great place to start. For those who like their animals relaxing and rare - visit in winter and see the Southern Right Whales basking in the shores of Encounter Bay. For those who like their animals bitey, and a little more elusive, the Great White Shark breeds in the Southern Ocean, just off the coast. But for those who like their animals placid, dependable and well tempered, head over to the Granite Island jetty and meet the beautiful Draft horses (Thomas was the horse on duty when we said hello) who will take you on a ride to discover one of Victor Harbor's most beautiful city sights.

Granite Island is just 2km from the city centre of Victor Harbor and is a refreshing burst of nature on a beautiful stretch of the coast. You can catch the famous horse drawn tram from either the mainland, or from Granite Island - it departs every 40minutes, or you can throw on your sneakers and hit the pavement instead.

We decided to walk across to the Island, which is full of beautiful walking tracks that overlook the amazing limestone rocky coast. There's a great view of the town of Victor Harbor looking back from the Island as well, which is worth the 10minute wander getting over there. A visit to the lovely Granite Island Cafe for a little treat is a must, before catching the horse tram back to the mainland. The tram is $7 return or $5 one way and is a great way to take in the surrounds. What a nice day out!

Yours in the great outdoors,

Odette

P.S. I'm writing this little post, overlooking the beautiful Manning River at Luke's parent's place in Cundletown. Luke and I have once again taken a little holiday from our holiday to party on down at a friend's wedding in Sydney and catch up with friends and family. Oh, and I had two wisdom teeth taken out as well, just to make the plane ride worth it. Ouch! We'll be picking up Jefro the kombi next Tuesday to continue our Aussie adventure.

Travel in Pictures

2008-02-15T13:22:00.004+10:30

After moving on from Mount Gambier, we came across so many beautiful places in South Australia that really should be seen first hand to be truly appreciated. But while you put in for your next work holidays and book your flights to Adelaide for a little road trip, here's a few images that captured the next leg of our trip.

1. Beachport, S.A.

Dingys tied up on aqua blue water at one of the longest peers in South Australia.

2. Robe, S.A.

The red and white stripped obelisk on the limestone point.

3. Murray Bridge, S.A.

Weeping willows dip their leaves into the beautiful Murray River, while a lonely tree stump projects it's shadow on the greenish water.

4. Strathalbyn, S.A.

A clump of seashell-like snails cling to the rusty fence posts, kilometers from the ocean.

5. Luke with head in the kombi engine bay, all over S.A.

With the kombi still not running right, Luke has kept a close eye on what's going on inside the van, until we make our VW mechanic appointment in Adelaide on the 26th.

Yours enjoying the view,

Odette

BREAKING NEWS

2008-02-10T22:07:00.001+10:30

Luke just finished reading a book!!!!!!

Yes, my friends, a book.

But there's more unbelievable news.

He actually enjoyed it. Shock! Horror!

I knew this trip would be life changing but I had no idea...

Yours astonished,
Odette

PS The book in question is the international bestseller Into The Wild by Jon Krakauer. For those who haven't read it or seen the new movie version directed by Sean Penn or know the tragic story of Chris McCandless, you really should get your hands on a copy and read about the true story of a well-to-do young man who hitchhiked into the Alaskan wilderness and never returned. Hell, it must have been good if Luke finished it.

City Sights

2008-02-10T21:26:00.000+10:30

After experiencing a little car trouble after crossing the border into South Australia, Luke and I ended up staying two nights in the second largest city in S.A, Mount Gambier. Now first up, discovering that Mount Gambier was, in fact, the second largest city after Adelaide in S.A was a tad disturbing for us Tonkin's, who called Sydney home for four years. This place has a McDonalds and KFC yes, but there be no shopping mall bigger than a regular sized Woolworths in this town, or a cinema that plays current new release films either for that matter.

But Mount Gambier has a few special features of it's own that more than make up for it's lack of Gloria Jeans and Sportsgirl stores. First up there's this crazy blue lake.

Yep, it's as blue as blue and really is beautiful to see. But make sure you plan your visit between November and March because the blue lake turns a mysterious grey, apparently overnight as Autumn rolls around.

And there's this very pretty Cave Garden.

It's right next to the main street, so there's no way you'll miss it. Apparently it used to be half filled with water but has since dried up. It's a cool place to go and eat your lunch though, if you're looking for a break from your computer at work. Sure beats the windowless lunchroom.

Oh, and you really must see the Umpherston Sinkhole.

This thing is remarkable. A family discovered it back in the 1800's and turned it into their own private oasis from the summer heat of Mount Gambier. They planted an English garden in the crevasse, they built a little hut in the hole (which is now no longer) and they even had a row boat that they sailed on the now dried mini lake which also existed in the sink hole. Random. But also totally cool.

Mount Gambier. Who knew?

Yours in the great outdoors,
Odette

Running Rough

2008-02-09T17:15:00.000+10:30

See this picture of my uncle's dog Ziggy?

He's a good boy but unfortunately he is exactly how our kombi Jefro is running at present - like a dog. Suffice to say, we're lucky we're not stranded in a little town outside of Mount Gambier right now, after spending two nights there trying to fix the blasted van. He's been coughing and back firing and basically just behaving badly and stoping poor ol' Luke from having a good night sleep from worry.

Anyway, we've solidered on after Luke did some running repairs and after meeting a few Tom, Dick and Harry's along the way who all put in their two cents worth as well (Water in the fuel? Bad petrol? The points may need adjusting? Maybe replace the condenser? How about a new engine????). But we're not trading him in for a Britz van just yet. He's booked in for a once over at a VW mechanic in Adelaide with a very good reputation - so good in fact, he has a minimum two week waiting period. And we're taking it super slow until then.

Yours now scaried to tackle the Nullabor in a car from the 70's,
Odette