Postscript

One last word after the last word. We are home again, so thought we would add the following photos (and they did not go in in the intended order):







Sylvia at the Opera House


Both of us back home in our natural habitat.

And me at the Sydney Harbour Bridge

This one is of a Koala (in the zoo - like most Australian animals, Koalas are nocturnal, so we never actually found one in the wild). This is Toronga Zoo, one of the few things in Australia we were disappointed in.

Closing the loop

So, we have turned in the camper van. After 15 weeks, it felt like we owned it, but I suppose we spent more time in it than some cars we have owned. Managed to get it back without any scrapes or dents. The circumnavigation is complete. By the numbers:
A total of 25272 km. Theoretically, you can do the “loop” in 16K more or less. I guess we made some side trips (the jaunt up to Alice Springs was about 3K, and Tasmania added 2K). We had planned for about 20K, so not so far off target.
Time enroute 106 days. All in the van, except for the two nights we spent on the Tassy ferry. We travelled on about 60% of days, and stayed put the balance. So, we averaged less than 400 km per day, on the days we moved.
Fuel cost averaged about $A1.40 per litre – a bit more than the $A1.30 than we planned, but it went up at least that much during our stay. Fuel economy of 11.7 litres/100km
The last markup of the map is attached to show the detailed route.

To cover off the last week or so:
Most of you will recall that I misspent some of my youth working on the Snowy Mountains project, here in New South Wales. So, we returned to the scene of the crime. Our trip through the mountains was great (the weather on the coast remained cloudy, but was very good in the mountains). The birds in the mountains were amazing, with pairs of Crimson Rosellas and Sulphur Crested Cockatoos around every corner. And there were lots of corners. Khancoban, where I lived, was a bit disappointing. The town was built for the project, and was going strong when I lived there – there were 2000 workers in the camp where I lived. Anyway, it is down to about 400 people now with zero economic activity, and has just about dried up and blown away. Too bad, because it is a beautiful area. I did manage to tip a schooner in the pub that was the centrepiece of the town when I lived there (poured more beer than any other pub in Australia for three years running – not sure which ones, but like to think I helped). The bar is only half the length that it used to be – the pokies (slot machines) in the background of the photo occupy the other half. I have a photo of the Murray 2 switchyard that I built nearly single-handedly, if anyone wants to see it. This is a greater accomplishment, if you consider that I was 18 and only there three months.
We spent our last three days, before heading North to Sydney (and the rain) camped on the beach at Huskisson (Jervis Bay). We got in some sun and beach time, and did some visiting with the Roach family, including Brad – one of Julie White’s many admirers. Bob (Brad’s Dad) and Brad took us golfing at their club. We didn’t golf that well, but it was a nice course and a lovely afternoon. As you can see by the photo, the course is overrun by ‘roos. Golfing in December is a bonus, anyway. One really annoying thing was the Kookaburra who seemed to go into his laughing routine whenever I shot. Hard to stay mad at Kookaburras (except at 5 in the morning), ‘though.
I include a shot of 7 Mile Beach just North of Huskisson, and the possum who was scrounging around the campground.
I guess this is the “Last Post” for DSWalkabout, at least the 07 version. Who knows, we may do it again. It has been an incredible experience. And, yes, those who picked Sylvia’s return date in the pool much earlier, will have to pay up. Now the long trip home and then Christmas.

-30-

More beach bums

Here are the photos to go with the earlier post

Beach bums

This time the text was no problem, but the photos failed three times, will try again later.


So, back on the mainland again, dealing with the flies. We did not experience any bushflies or mosquitoes while in Tasmania, so it makes the plague on the mainland even more noticeable. I have been entertaining myself by killing them and feeding them to the ants. We have sort of been puttering our way along the coast since we landed in Melbourne (from Tasmania), and are currently in the middle of at least three days in Eden, NSW (staying in the Garden of Eden Caravan Park – quite a nice place). We are about 500 km South of Sydney, where we have to turn in the van on the 17th. We expect to arrive in Sydney on the 15th (we actually changed our hotel booking to arrive two days earlier, as Bob and Sue from Toowoomba were coming down, but those plans have changed.) However, we will stay with that plan, do some shopping and tourist stuff in Sydney before our planned flight home on the 19th.
As you can see, the trip is kind of winding down – we are in our last two weeks on the road, and starting to think about going home. As much as going home will be nice, and Christmas should be fun, the thought of the cold and snow is a bit disconcerting. We are very much without current plans. We will have at least one more stop before Sydney, may spend a few days in one of the beach areas South of Sydney. We have been considering swinging inland a bit to visit Khancoban, the place I lived in ’65, although there is no real need to do so. That decision may be driven by the weather, and the practicality of us becoming total beach bums. The cloudy, showery weather of the past few days are pleasant enough, but not exactly beach weather. The beach right here is nice enough, although I don’t see anyone swimming.
Many of the people we meet in our wanderings are retired. No big surprise, as who else would have the kind of time required to do this sort of thing. Most of them have Australian accents, of course, but also have significant traces of accent from their original homeland. This is most noticeable in the European immigrants, less so in those from the UK. Many have arrived in their new land since my first trip here in ’65, and seem to have generally prospered in their new lives here. It does remind you that this rather old land is still a very young country – being a country of immigrants much as Canada, but perhaps with more of it recent. I expect the character of Australia to change as this generation passes on and hands off to a generation born in OZ. We ate dinner last night in a place that was hosting a busload of Italo-Australians from Melbourne. We visited with a bunch of them (did the judging for their dance contest) and have a standing invitation to the Australian-Italian Club in Melbourne.
Anyway, to this weeks photos:
The echidna – this critter was wandering through our campsite, so Sylvia hunted him down with a camera. Sort of a cross between an anteater and porcupine in appearance, he is fairly common here, and – being slow-moving, quite often road-kill.
The Christmas parade – we stopped in Sale (Victoria) for gas, and saw this parade forming up, so stayed to watch it. Kind of like a Burns Lake parade, except the Christmas theme. Still a little strange watching a pipe band with full kilt and regalia wearing Christmas hats and playing Waltzing Matilda. We still remark on the strangeness of Christmas preparations in a place where it is so warm. Still not quite as much fun as the little Mexicans singing Christmas Carols (mostly in English) in Cozumel, this time last year.
The parrot – is a wild one, part of a mating pair living in the trees across the way from here. Sylvia was gung ho to get a good photo, and one of the residents brought her out a hand of sunflower seeds, and attracted him/her right in. That is Sylvia’s hand – I actually prefer the photo where you can see the face she is making as the bird walks on her arm.
Sylvia’s shell collection – most from one beach down near Lakes Entrance, where she got a little wet getting some of them. Quite a conversation piece here. The following picture is Sylvia extracting the previous tenant with my needlenose pliers.

Farewell to Tasmania, your seabound coast...

Actually, I guess that song is about Nova Scotia. Well, the similarities with Tasmania and NS are substantial, in terms of terrain, vegetation, even climate and agriculture. The North Coast of Tasmania is heavy to agriculture, including dairy products. There are bits of logging and lumbering around the state – they cut both gum trees and (introduced) pine trees. The logging trucks represent the same hazard to anyone else driving that they do at home, although the trucks and loads are a bit smaller here. The West coast is rugged and is only populated with a couple of mining towns that look fairly poor (especially when you can see the wealth associated with mining in Western Australia). South Coast is mostly about Hobart and the history of the area (photo of Hobart attached). The East Coast is more about the tourist industry than anything much else, as you can see from the beach and coast photos enclosed, it is fairly spectacular scenery. The climate on the East Coast is allegedly a bit milder than the rest of the state. I think that the latitude of Tasmania is much like Oregon, and the climate might match, as well. Anyway, definitely put Tasmania on your list of places to visit before you die.
I am a bit disappointed in the lingo here. I was expecting a vocabulary something like Newfoundland (with the Australian accent, of course), given that they are both islands somewhat remote from the mainland. However, my ear has not picked up much in the way of difference in accent here. I would say that is true around the whole of Australia: while a student of accents would pick up the differences from state to state, I have found less difference than there is from Province to Province (or region to region) in Canada. The exceptions might be in South Australia, where we found more of an accent, and the young ladies in shops who are difficult to understand, when they can be troubled to wait on you. We did notice differences in expressions: When greeting someone in Queensland, G’Day (guhDie) still prevails, where Western Australia and the Southern States are more inclined to say Howyagownmate (yes, that’s one word) and Tassy might even just say Good Morning. The younger generation might very well just say Hi, which is proof to the older generation that the Americanization of the culture continues unabated. (I have certainly noticed that happening, during my five visits over the past forty-odd years.)
We are currently in a delightful place called Deloraine (same spelling as the place in Manitoba, somewhat different climate). Sylvia spotted a hairdresser that would make an appointment to cut her hair, so we scouted out the local municipal campground, down by the river (with water in it, if a bit muddy). So, we will spend the night here, then drive the hour up to Devonport for the ferry back to the mainland tomorrow evening. The distances here are quite small, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that the travel times are, as some of the roads are very narrow, crooked and hilly. We like it that way – sort of like Ireland in some places, Portugal in others.
Not sure where/when this will get posted. Maybe later today, Wednesday Nov 28th.

Text for earlier post

The first photo here should be of the Melbourne tram. “Melbun” tram, I guess I should say, to get the pronunciation right. We used the trams to get around while there – like we have been doing in all the capital cities, getting a caravan park near public transit, then using that to go downtown. In this case, it was about a two km hike to the tram line. The buses were right across the street, but they quit running far too early. The core of the city is much like the large Canadian cities, with substantial Asian population visible. Anyway, on the way in to the city, we went through one of the older neighbourhoods that looked intriguing (area settled substantially by those of Greek and Italian descent) so we resolved to try to jump off the tram and stop there on the way back, perhaps have supper there. So, that is what we did. We landed in the middle of one of their Saturday street markets, where the side street is blocked off to traffic, and booths and food of all sorts were available for purchase, not to mention wall to wall people. We found a restaurant back on the main street and had a very nice dinner. We did manage to get back on the tram, although did get a bit lost walking from the end of the tram line to the van park.
The crossing to Tasmania was much better than anticipated. The weather was quite calm, and the ferry itself was great. We had a two-berth cabin on the way over, and have booked a deluxe cabin for the return trip. We had a good dinner as soon as the boat sailed, then Sylvia went straight to the casino, hit on the slot machine (pokie), collected her winnings, and went off to bed.
We landed early in the morning (about 7), and could have sworn immediately that the boat had made a wrong turn and dumped us in New Zealand. Tas is as green as the rest of the country is brown. The roads are also as narrow and crooked and hilly as the others are flat and straight. Maybe this place should join NZ.
In an earlier post, I mentioned that there is some sort of quarantine between most states, preventing the importation of fruit and vegetables – seems to vary from place to place – kind of a remnant of the British Colonial bureaucracy. Well, Tasmania takes it very seriously: They have just the one point of entry for vehicles, at Devonport where the ferry lands. They have sniffer dogs to ferret out illegal fruits and vegetables. We saw them apprehend a bouquet of flowers, for which the mutt was handsomely rewarded. We are getting used to the routine and had consumed or tossed all of our fruit and vegetables, so our next stop was a grocery store to restock.
We spent our first day along the Northwest coast – very rural and agricultural, lots of dairy cows, overnighted in a neat touristy village named Stanley.
We then worked our way down the West coast, as near as you can. We went to the National Park at Cradle Mountain, did a hike around Dove Lake. (This is significant, since at 7 km, it is the longest one I have done yet. It went well enough, although we got caught in the rain and cold, and there was one section of a couple of kms that was quite steep and slippery. Progress was very slow.) The photo is of Cradle Mountain – had one with both of us in it, but got rain on the lens. We overnighted in the Park, the closest to bush camping we have done yet. Still had power, and the shower building was near at hand.
Since then, we have been working our way down to Hobart, (doing some of the short walks in the National Parks along the way) and intend to head in there today (Friday, 23rd) for a look around, maybe post this. While we were on the West Coast (actually at Arthur River) a sign noted that, if you looked straight West, you could see Argentina. It seems that at 42 degrees S, we are South of Africa.

In Tasmania

Can't seem to move the text over, so will make do with a brief description: Melbourne Tram, Spirit of Tasmania (ferry), updated map, Cradle Mountain (National Park) and Tasmanian devil

Some quick notes from Melbourne – we are going downtown today, so will probably find a suitable internet location to do an upload.
Expedition in search of the source of the Blue Nile. No, not really. This expedition to the Barossa Valley was in search of the source of the Red Wine. We spent a bit of time wine-tasting at the very impressive Wolf Blass visitor centre. The photo is of us in front of Wolf Blass’ monument to himself. They had a number of private tasting rooms for the high rollers, but we were not invited in. I looked for the Joe W tasting room, but did not find it. It is probably even more exclusive.
The roadsign: after 21000 km, now they tell me!
Christmas in Adelaide – some of the Christmas decorations in downtown Adelaide. Early November. Does not look terribly Christmassy to us.
Blue Lake, at Mount Gambier SA. Just before we crossed the border into Victoria State. The change was gradual enough, but the difference between the draught-ridden South Australian flatland and the bright green of the primarily agricultural (sheep and cows) hills of Victoria is remarkable.
The Twelve Apostles, along the Great Ocean Road, West of Melbourne. Lots of post-card quality scenery along the coast. Not unlike driving the Cabot Trail in Cape Breton

Red Centre,too

Maybe will work this time - different computer. This text belongs with the Red Centre photos.


We have just returned from “the Red Centre”, and are currently enjoying the sunshine and staying at a very nice Caravan Park just South of Adelaide. We will go into the city today for a look around, and maybe find an internet café to post this. I prepare it on the computer in the van, then save it to a jump drive. This place actually has wireless in the campground, so I could do it all right from here, but it looks to be a fairly weak signal, and their prices are quite high.
As Rob pointed out, you can enlarge the photos in the weblog by clicking on them. It figures that a Mac guy would discover the intuitive, simple stuff.
Anyway, the Red Centre: We were quite impressed with Alice Springs – “The Alice” – had kind of expected it to be flat, hot and dry – sort of a bigger Tennant Creek. The city is surrounded by rocky ridges – not really mountains, they refer to them here as “ranges”. Many of the lawns were green (okay, we were there in the spring. I am not sure what they look like in February, when the temps are in the mid-40s). I would compare it to Terrace, in terms of being a compact city along a river. The river is normally dry, of course. Probably it is similar to Whitehorse in some ways, as well. It is in the mid-20K population-wise and very isolated. The nearest town is Tennant Creek, over 500km away, and you have to travel 1500 km to either Darwin or Adelaide to find a bigger town. The other similarity with the Northern Canadian cities is the substance abuse problems with the indigenous population. In Alice, they won’t allow sales of boxes of wine (the 2 litre “cask” fits nicely in one of the van cupboards) until after six PM. I doubt if that rule keeps the people any soberer, but I guess it reduces the number of drunk abos on the sidewalk during the day. Sort of out of sight, out of mind. The other administrative measure they have taken is to ban the sale of regular unleaded gas (petrol) in most of Central Australia, and have replaced it with Opal Petrol. This is non-aromatic, therefore non-sniffable petrol. This seems like a creative, if drastic, approach, until you discover that the next pump with premium unleaded petrol is of the regular aromatic kind. They address this by not allowing the premium to be dispensed into jerry cans, and will not sell it to “them”, presumably the aboriginals.
One thing I meant to mention in an earlier post: Most of you will remember when the stores at home shut down at midday on Saturday, and stayed closed on Sunday. Well, the country towns here still do that. It is a little weird driving down main street on a Saturday afternoon, and no people in sight. I think this is a great idea for those who own and work in the stores, and think we have lost something along the way by going with wide-open shopping. It is a bit of a nuisance, when you go into an “inernet den” and the fellow tells you you can’t do anything major (like a blog update) because he is closing down for the weekend in a few minutes, and it is just lunch time. The big stores in the major centres are 7 days, long hours.
Anyway, on to Uluru, Ayer’s Rock. This is the Australian equivalent of the Eiffel Tower, or maybe Lake Louise. Given the location, it is amazing to see bunches of tour buses lined up along the desert. Unfortunately, that includes buses full of Germans and Japanese (you know, they pack 180 of them in one bus) tourists – the most obnoxious, with the possible exception of Americans, on earth.
The Rock itself is quite impressive, from almost any angle. I have enclosed the obligatory photo. I have quite a good series of the sun setting on Uluru. Did not get the sunrise one, unfortunately – cloudy, and awfully early in the morning. Have also included a photo of the Olgas, the next clump of rock down the road, and also of spiritual significance to the Aboriginals. It is arguably more interesting than the famous one. The park is under joint administrative control of the Australian Parks people, and the indigenous folks. Not sure it works that well, as the place could use a bit of maintenance. There is a small cultural centre with multimedia presentations of the Dreamtime and Bush Tucker gathering and presentation, and an aboriginal art gallery.
They discourage (not prohibit) climbing on the rock, on the basis that it is a sacred site. So, we did not climb it. I couldn’t, just now, anyway. Also did not do the walk around the base of Uluru, as the 8 km is beyond the scope of what I can currently do comfortably.
Other photos:
Thorny Lizard. We have been pursuing flowers and birds, now into reptiles. At least we were until the Skink (not a skunk – lizard that looks like a turd with legs) chased Sylvia off the road. If you think he is hard to see on pavement, you should see how well he (she/it) blends in with the sand.
Sylvia, Sand, and Spinnifex. Great Victoria Desert.

We are in downtown Adelaide, enjoying the hot weather. Will spend a couple more days here, then head toward Melbourne to catch the ferry to Tassy next Sunday the 18th.

The photos are the two of us at Uluru, Alice Springs, thorny lizard, Sylvia - Spinnifex and Sand, the Olgas

Have a problem with this computer, can't seem to add the text I prepared, so it may get put on later

The Red Centre

G'day from The Alice

One postscript to the Nullarbor crossing: The van has, as most vehicles do in Australia, a manual transmission – and NO CRUISE CONTROL.
To those who are using the “comments” button, thanks for the feedback. We look for those every time we upload a posting. It’s good to see that someone is reading this stuff.
Anyway, we spent a couple of days down on the Eyre Peninsula, South Australia. Weather was nice, but too cool to go in the water, so more sight seeing than beach time. Have included a couple of photos: the beach at Venus Bay (looks and feels like a Nfld outport – seemed like quite a nice spot. Lots of that coast looks like much of the Canadian coastline. Still beautiful.) Also included the rocks called Murphy’s Haystacks.
We have dealt with a lot of high winds while driving the past month. These are particularly difficult to deal with with the high top van. Haven’t been blown off the road yet, but into the opposing lane a couple of times – happily when there was no road trains approaching.
A thing you will notice if you drive in the Outback – most vehicles you meet will wave when meeting you. Having grown up in Burns Lake, with a similar practice, I had no trouble accommodating the custom.
I must put in a note about the time zones. If you look, it would appear that Australia has three time zones. About the same size and shape as the USA, which also has three, so that makes sense, right? Well, not quite. The Eastern States (Qld, NSW, Vic, and Tas) all share a time zone, at least on Standard Time. Then, Northern Territory and South Australia have the next time zone, but only a half hour behind the Eastern States (kind of like Newfoundland), and then Western Australia straightens things out by being 1 ½ hours behind it’s two Eastern neighbours. Sort of. You will notice, heading East across the Nullarbor, that there is a mini time zone in SE Western Australia, forty-five minutes behind SA, and forty-five minutes ahead of WA. Kind of strange, but not many people live there, so guess it doesn’t really matter. To top it off, Qld and NT do not recognize daylight savings time. So, currently, there are six time zones. Mostly we don’t know what time it is, but as long as we get to the ferries and planes on time, we should be okay.
Anyway, we headed North once more, as planned. We overnighted in Port Augusta, after they had had a day of torrential rain, streets were flooded and all that. They don’t get much rain there, so didn’t really seem to mind. Mount Gambier, a bit South of there, set a new rainfall record for the month of November (100+ mm) – by the fourth of the month. Anyway, that same storm swept through the Red Centre, and the front page pictures of Uluru (Ayer’s Rock) were with creeks running all down it, and purple in colour, where it is normally red. The locals urged us to go see this unique situation, but the weather was still showery when we got to Erldunda Roadhouse, where one turns off ot Uluru, so we carried on to Alice Springs, where we currently are. It looks to be quite nice here, and the weather is fine, so far (looking for a high today of 26, and it is normally hotter than a FPBG). So we may spend a couple of days here, then head back down to Uluru. We have booked our ferry trip to Tasmania for Nov 18th, so have to get to Melbourne for that trip.
On the way North, we spent a couple of days at Coober Pedy, the opal place (again, the weather was cool for there, but quite pleasant). Of course, we acquired an opal while there. There are three ways of acquiring an opal legally in CP. One is to get a license and go fossicking (that is underground mining, with a pick) the second is go go noodling – which is digging around in piles of dirt (tailings piles) left by other miners. That may need a license as well. The third way – preferred by the locals – is to do the tourist thing and acquire your opal from one of the many local shops, using a credit card as your only tool. We utilized the third method.I have enclosed a photo of the stone, another of a field of opal mines, adjacent to CP, and the third one is of an underground dwelling: 70% of the local population live underground.

Nullarbor.....

Nullarbor. Comes from the latin meaning “No trees”. I guess so – there actually are trees from time to time, adjacent to the highway. I think the original description was for the railway, which crosses the middle of the “treeless plain” a bit to the North of where we are here. Anyway, it is long and flat. One of the early pieces is a straight stretch called “90 Mile Straight”, which is, as advertised, 146.6 km long. The longest in Australia. So, there must be a longer straight stretch somewhere else, but I don’t know where. The thing that makes it less impressive is that most of the way across is straight, so an hour and a half of not turning the wheel doesn’t seem as great an accomplishment. It is about 1200 km of pretty straight road, from Norseman in WA to Ceduna in SA. We had anticipated this part of the trip for some time, particularly the issue of being well prepared for the extreme heat and long distances between services of this long road. Well, the weather solved the heat problem. On the first day (we spent two days and parts of two others, driving across) it was 3 degrees when we got up. Although it was sunny, I don’t think it cleared the low 20’s, for really quite a pleasant day. Day two, in this area where it never rains , it rained. Well, not very hard and kind of on and off, but it was very grey and showery. Windy, too, but every day for the past couple of weeks has been very windy. The main downside of the weather was the impact on our photos of the Great Australian Bight – would have been more spectacular in bright sunlight. We have a couple of hundred kms left tomorrow, at this time, but no problems, so far. Sylvia has a tea towel saying “I crossed the Nullarbor”. If we have problems tomorrow, I guess I will modify this before I post it.
Road Kill
In the last 16000 kms we have seen a lot of road kill. The most common victim of the roadkill is the kangaroo, but possums, emus, feral cats, feral camels, dingos, and the occasional Canadian in a rented campervan (well, I hope not) also get spread across the highways here. Most of the kill is, understandably, outside built up areas, but not so very far outside. Because the ‘roos are nocturnal by nature, most of the slaughter takes place at night. Since we don’t drive at night very much, we have not yet hit one. Some areas are worse than others. In Queensland, particularly in the outback, we think the body count exceeds one per km. There are great stretches without much road kill, but the Nullarbor is one which has quite a lot, and they tend to be the very large ‘roos. Most of them are killed by road trains (see photo in earlier post). You will recall that there was an an initiative to repatriate residents of the mental hospitals in Canada a few years ago, and the asylums were, by and large, emptied. They did something quite similar here, but they managed to get most of them jobs driving road trains. These monsters take their slice right down the middle, if it suits them, and do not swerve for man or beast. Or Canadians in camper vans. One of the photos shows three unfortunate ‘roos that appear to have bought it all at the same time. Should not play on busy roads, I guess.
Map
I have enclosed a photo of a marked up map, showing our route to date. The black line is, more or less, the route – starting from Sydney and heading North, then West. The green dots are the places we have stayed, sometimes one night, typically two, and as many as four in the same place. It will be my plan to update it again as we go along.
Photos
The other photos are of the Nullarbor Plain, and the Great Australian Bight.

Life in the van

Day number 54. That is magic, because we now have 54 days left. So, we have been taking our time in the SouthWest of Western Australia, the part of the country with the “Mediterranean” climate. Our time in Perth was a little spotty weather-wise, with one really cool day. We had a couple of cloudy days after that, but the weather has been good the last three days, 9 or 10 in the morning, warming to 22 or 24 in the afternoon. We have not been laying on the beach much in the past few days. However, we have been doing quite a bit of the birds and flowers thing, and have taken a slew of pictures. (One of the problems with digital cameras, amplified by the fact that we have two of them. We actually have downloaded everything to this computer, and backed up the first couple of thousand on DVD and mailed home. One for September is probably there now, and the October one we will mail in a week or so.) We are currently camped for a couple of days in an ecopark in the Stirling Ranges (a smallish mountain range North of Albany) and have booked guided walks for both birds and wildflowers. It is really nice here just now, and we are hoping the weather holds for a couple of days, not sure we have enough warm clothes packed for the hills if the weather gets ugly.
We had run out of bushflies along the coast, but they are back in force now that we are back inland a bit. I think they multiply here because it is an ecologically protected area. A good place to spray a tanker load of DDT, perhaps.
I have included some van-related photos:
Cooking. Sylvia has done more cooking in the van than anticipated. This is partly due to the fact that decent commercial dining facilities have been less available than I first thought. We have not found as many of the old-style bush pubs within walking distance of where we park as originally thought. Of course, disconnecting the van (pulling the power cord, and moving the sink drain bucket) is pretty simple and we have done a bunch of that. Anyway, the facilities include a two-burner propane stovetop, a microwave oven (assuming we have power, and we almost always do) and a pretty decent little fridge. Cupboard space is limited, but we manage to store about a week’s worth of food at a time.
Eating. We do eat in the van a lot, more as a matter of convenience than anything else – quite comfortable. We also have a folding table (besides the little one attached to the outside of the van) and chairs, so eat beside the van sometimes.
Sleeping. Have to make the table down, of course, but lots of room otherwise. There is about a two-foot gap between the bed and the cupboards (which the smaller vans don’t have), which is important if you have to get up during the night.
The other photos include me at Leeuwin point, where you turn the corner if you are sailing around Australia. Or driving, for that matter. And, another bird – the New Holland Honey Eater. If there is no bird picture, but a map of OZ, you will know I got around to photographing the map before I found high speed internet. Not sure when I will get a chance to upload this. This is actually internet access here, but much to slow for this type of exercise.
We went touring a bunch of wineries a couple of days ago. As much as we are fans of Australian wines, the Western stuff hasn’t won us over yet. Of the 20 brands/varieties we sampled, we bought only one rather expensive Merlot. Might have it tonight with prawns feattucini – even if a white would be more appropriate.