More and more common, at least in the USA
Really? Just about every RV park I've seen recently is using some kind of trailer for those guests not pulling their own. The prevailing trend is use vintage Airstream trailers for this purpose. It's kind of nice ---.Originally Posted by Lifemagician
Mark
Well Mark, something must have got lost in translation. Certainly nowhere I went did they even know what I was talking about. Of course, this is a few years ago, as it is not what I was looking for on my last trip.
Just another example of two peoples divided by a common language.
Lifey
Peterborough
7th June
Last time I was in Peterborough, I just passed through. This time I thought it would be nice to stop and see what there is to offer. It was just 150km down the road, so a leisurely drive straight down the R.M. Williams Highway.
Stopped in Orroroo for a break, a cuppa and a visit to the visitor centre of this tiny town. What intrigued me most here was, the highway on which I was driving was designated B80 on my map, and on all the road signs. In the visitor centre, however, on their big wall maps, it was designated B83. And no one could explain it to me. Said they did not know; had never noticed (yet there is one of those large green signs right outside their door); had never been asked. And I never got an answer.
It did highlight to me just how little notice the average motorist takes of detail along the road and on maps. Always having been the navigator in the family, little things like that have always been important to me.
None-the-wiser, I continued on to Peterborough, the railway town, and a regular stop for the Indian Pacific. The railway museum looked interesting, but just too much walking for me.
The best part about these little towns is you don't have to make too many decisions. One service station, one supermarket, one caravan park.... I mean, who needs two? The local caravan park had a lovely and cosy van available, and by late afternoon, I had settled.
8th June
Less than 300kms to Broken Hill, so need to rush. Spent a little more time driving through Peterborough before moving on. This trip ended up taking me through country similar to where I grew up. I found myself reciting the poetry I learned at school. The sun was shining, though the breeze was chilly.
Olary!
In Olary I stopped to make a cuppa and eat the snack I had made that morning. I was not the only one with that idea. A couple of residences and a small store, make up this settlement.
Broken Hill - The Silver City - is full of old historic buildings, and I chose to stay in one of the best known, The Palace Hotel. This establishment was the location for some of the film, Priscilla, Queen of the Desert.
When I walked in the front door, I was stunned to see the whole place decorated with wall murals. Every wall, every ceiling had a mural on it. The first thing most folk do when they walk in the front door, is get out their camera. And of course, so did I.
The first thing one sees on entry.
Looking straight up to the ceiling, three floors above.
Ate in their restaurant that night, and turned in early. Side affect of that is, that I also wake up early.
Lifey
[These last few days have been somewhat of an anti climax. I seem to have used up all my sight-seeing energy in Coober Pedy, over Lake Eyre and along the Oodnadatta Track.]
Homeward Bound
9th June
It was 3.30 when I awoke, and no way could I get back to sleep. By 6am I was ready to hit the road.
It had been my intention to photograph some of the beautiful historic buildings in the morning, but now, it was srill dark. So these are the only ones I have, of the Palace exterior.
Palace Hotel, Broken Hill.
Close up of the decorative iron lace work, so popular at the time.
Around 7am the dawn came with a shimmering strip of light on the horizon, to my left. I hoped it would be a sunrise worth some photos.
More than an hour into my trip I came to Coombah Roadhouse, the only services along the Silver City Highway to Wentworth. A couple of hundred metres south of the roadhouse there was a clearing at the side of the road, just as the sun was peeking over the horizon.
The morning mist had not yet disappeared. It made for perfect pictures.
The Sunraysia, the north west corner of Victoria, is a fruitfly free region and to protect its rich citrus and grape industries, fruit and vegetables may not be carried into or through the region. And so it was that I came to the sign and bin where these items need to be dumped. It was then that I realised that I still had six oranges in the car... oranges I had bought in Coober Pedy for a small fortune. I was not to keen to throw these out.
When I leave home, I pick up my 'camping box', in which are all the things I like to have with me... just in case. One of these is a juicer. And so, to save my precious oranges, I sat down and juiced them into a jug. Poured it all into an empty water bottle, and found I had 600ml of orange juice. There is no ban on carrying orange juice.
By now it was after 9am and I continued through Wentworth - gave the Outback a drink - and continued on to Mildura, the other side of the river. I was now back in my home State.
Another historic bridge over the Murray (there are very few modern bridges over this river) took my interest. This bridge, between two major urban centres, is a one way bridge. The traffic light at each end controls the movement of traffic. It is barely wide enough for the big trucks to cross.
Single lane bridge over the Murray at Mildura.
Most times it is hard to find a spot from where one can photograph a bridge, so I was glad to see a clearing where I could pull over and get a picture.
Drove straight through Mildura. I wanted to be beyond Mildura traffic in the morning. The people at the Colonial Motel in Red Cliffs were really nice, and the place was cosy. It gave me an opportunity to relax, catch up with a few things online, and sort things out in my car. By now everything was everywhere.
10th June
Thought I might do the scenic drive through Hattah Kulkyne National Park and see Hattah Lakes. But when I got that far, the road was closed. So the drive home was going to be straight down the Calder, all the way to Melbourne.
North of Wycheproof, there is a little place. A few silos by the rail siding, store, etc., but if you were to blink (so to say), you could miss it. There is no reason to stop here... well, there used to be no reason to stop here, until Nullawil came into the twenty-first century, and made themselves indispensable. At both ends of the town are roadside billboards declaring Nullawil an internet zone! I did not stop, but it left me wondering how many do, and what benefit it has brought to the community. Guess those who stop invariably buy a drink or something.
Now I had planned to be home by Friday evening 10th June, primarily because this was the eve of a holiday long weekend. I wanted to avoid the extra cost of accommodation not to mention the traffic. At times like that many local communities along the major highways set up a
STOPCaravan in a nearby rest area, offering free coffee, tea, and hot chocolate, as well as biscuits. They find this preferable to having to cut the dead and injured out of wrecks.
Revive
Survive
This one was at Wedderburn and run by the local Lions Club. Of course I stopped to get my cuppa and have a chat before continuing on my way. The ladies from the Lions Club were manning the caravan and the men were doing surveys of the drivers... when did you leave? where did you start? what time? where are you heading? etc. (I do recall, in 2004 coming across a similar service north of Seattle on I-5.)
Got home in time to make another visit to my mechanic to check a couple of things, get the car washed and fill her up again.
It was good to be home.
[I haven't forgotten about The Flight. Now that I have finished posting the roadtrip, I will get the photos organised to illustrate that magnificent experience.]
Lifey
A summary
In my preparation for this trip, I had been persuaded to equip myself with an Epirb, and had also upped my road side care from standard to total. Small insurance policies I hoped I would not need.
Most meals were home cooked, and all non-perishables (rice, noodles, cereal, coffee, tea, sugar, honey, etc.) were brought from home.
So here is how things came out in the washup:
Time: 10 days;
Distance: 4087 kms - about 20% on unsealed roads and 244 kms on dual carriageway;
Fuel: $650.00; 412.02 ltr ulp - ave $1.578 ltr;
Accommodation: $449.00;
Everything else: $865.18; (includes insurances mentioned above as well as gift, etc.);
Good to see it all came in under budget. Much cheaper than all the commercial tours. And look at how many places I went, how much I did and saw.
Last edited by Lifemagician; 06-11-2011 at 11:48 PM.
The Flight (1)
It was 11am on 4th June, a bright sunny day, when Sarah steered the four-seater Cessna 182 down the runway, up, up and away, ENE towards Lake Eyre.
The tiny settlement of William Creek consists a couple of residences, caravan park, pub and flight office, and not much more.
William Creek from the air.
It is situated on the private property of Anna Creek Station, probably the largest cattle property in the world. We were about to see it from 1500 feet up in the air.
Anna Creek Station near William Creek
Looking out across the countryside, the first thing I noticed was the dunes. I recalled learning in school, that much of the centre of Australia is covered with dunes which run roughly north south. They were spectacular.
Central Australian Sand Dunes
Sarah pointed out to us the only track which leads to Lake Eyre North. It was clearly visible. This is a track, not a maintained or graded. She told of the people who have come to grief on that track, and of those who perished there.
The Track, you'll need to look closely...
... it is more than 60kms long and covers challenging country.
There were also mustering yards to be seen, as well as large dams filled from the Great Artesian Basin.
One of the many dams and a mustering pen (middle right). Note also the track.
[It is said that because of water being so available to wildlife, there are now something like 200 kangaroos for every one when Captain Cook first landed on the continent.]
The other thing which struck me is how much the land looked like an aboriginal dot-painting. I wondered if that is the origine of native art.
And finally we got to the Lake. Sarah now dropped the plane to 700' to make it clearer for us to see. The shore looked like a moonscape, with the salt and the colours in the water.
In other areas there were cliffs and escarpments at the edge of the Lake.
Cliffs along the shore of Lake Eyre.
The Lake is not completely full yet, and may of course, not fill completely, though there is still a lot of water coming down the Cooper.
As the water evaporates it leaves behind sediment on the salt floor of the Lake.
Eventually the wind will blow the sediment away, and the salt will be sparkling white again.
The Flight (2)
The Lake started filling around Christmas 2009, and has had almost continuous water flowing into it since. The last two monsoon seasons have been very wet, and with the ground still saturated from the previous year, this year's wet has had the effect of almost filling the Lake.
The water in the Lake is saltier than the ocean. However the water which comes in from the rivers is fresh water, and at first does mix. There is a clear embarkation line between the fresh and salt water. The fresh water is darker than the salt water, which is bright blue.
The fresh water coming in from the northern rivers creates a channel down the Lake.
These two photos also show how difficult it was to see the horizon. We were told that more than one plane has gone down in the water.
Once we had crossed the Lake, we turned NNE, which took us from the southern end of Lake Eyre North, to the northern part, whence we headed NNW till we came to the northern shores where the great rivers flow in.
On that course we flew over a small island at the mouth of one of the inlets (there are many islands in the Lake), which is a pelican rookery. As the plane approached, the noise made many of the birds take off in flight.
Pelicans in flight.
Of course I do not have the sophisticated photographic equipment which would have shown them much clearer - the way we saw them.
We were now over the channel country, where all the water from the monsoons comes down from the Northern Territory, inland Queensland and outback New South Wales. These channels form the rivers, which flow into the Lake.
The largest of these are the Cooper Creek and the Warburton River.
Typical channel country.
It takes months for the water to come down from the north before it actually flows into Lake Eyre. The Warburton River effectively drains most of the top end. There is still a large volume of water coming down the Cooper which will not arrive till around the middle of July. We were told that it could have a significant effect on the water level in the Lake - which by the way, is as big as the country of Holland.
All too soon the two hours were up, and we were on our way back to William Creek, at an altitude of 1500'. As we were flying over Anna Creek Station, Sarah was telling us why the mustering this year was late, and why it almost did not happen at all. With all the water which has been coming down, the ground was just too soft to use the ATVs, without getting bogged. The mustering had to be done on horseback, the way it always was. Problem was, they had great difficulty in finding sufficient cattlemen who were skilled enough to ride the outback country. It has become a lost art.
Sarah put down the plane ever so gently on the outback airstrip.
William Creek airport.
As we stepped out of the Cessna one of my fellow passengers was heard to say, "Worth every cent of it!"
I concurred.
[Quite early on I gave up on trying to take perfect pictures, with the horizon level and without parts of the plane included. With Sarah zigzagging and circling over the lake and rivers, that was impossible.]
If you would like to see more of the pictures I took, go to my album, Flight over Lake Eyre.
Thanks.
I was looking forward to the flight pictures and I am not disappointed, nice work !
Really enjoyed the report on this vast land, thanks !
Great report. Loved every post and every pic.
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