First Test Drive

Well, its time to do the first preliminary run. I have planned to take about 2-3 weeks running up the NSW coast, then go a short distance away from the coast to check out any possible problems before returning to Sydney to have them fixed. The weather at the moment is less than good, lots of rain about, so on my way up the Freeway and then on to Myall Lakes it is quite wet but by the time I find agreat spot to camp, the sun is out with wonderful views across Myall Lake, a lovely backdrop of mountains in the background.

Looking along the shore

This is a really lovely spot, only a few fellow campers with their kids as they will return to school from their Easter holidays next week.


The view from my camp spot

In the morning I drive out and along the way walk over the sand dunes to get to the beach that is running a thundering surf. Only 4 other people there and lots of Sea Terns on the sand, their heads pointing into wind. I get back onto the main Highway, turn north and drive-on to Forster, a holiday township that is popular with many people from Sydney. I go to the Supermarket to pick up a few supplies and then make my way to the caravan park. There has been a lot of rain, my allocated site quite muddy to get into, but ok because I am on a concrete slab.

By morning the clouds are mostly gone, blue skies yet again, although I have decided to head inland where the weather is supposed to be much better. I have driven about 390km since leaving Sydney, which means I will have to re-fuel and then drive out towards Gloucester, about 100km to the west.


On the road to Gloucester, rolling hills...

The weather is turning out quite promising, driving through the rolling hills as I drive the winding road towards my destination. Its a lovely town located in a wide valley, all is green, certainly a town that has a real nice and clean feel to it, with a few Cafes and their tables out on the footpath, lots of friendly faces. I am going to stay for two nights.


View over the Gloucester valley from the hills.

Rawnsley Park Station to Broken Hill, Cobar and on to Sydney

I get on the road quite early, as I want to take a flight across Wilpena Pond and the flight is to take off at 8.30 this morning. When I get to the airfield, Chris, the Pilot is already there warming up the engine of the aircraft. I can see by the call sign on the fuselage that its the same aircraft as the one I was supposed to fly in 2 days ago. I already know that the window glass is badly cracked by the sun, to take photos through these windows will result in poor quality images. I decline to fly under these circumstances. He had advised that another plane would be available for this morning's flight, but as it turned out was not returned from Servicing as anticipated, the night before. I am sorry that I missed out on that flight because the conditions would have been near perfect in the early morning.

I drive south through Hawker, the turn left onto the "RM Williams Way" that will take me through Carrieton, Peterbogough, then onto the Barrier Highway to Broken Hill in NSW. The weather is sunny, great views along the road, Savannah grasslands, some scrub, ochre coloured earth shining through under the golden grass. In the background the hills of part of the Flinders Ranges.

I arrive at Broken Hill around 2pm, find a spot at the campground and then take a drive through this old Silver Mining Town, that still provides employment to miners even today. Like in all mining operations there are large hills of tailings that have come out of the mine shafts over the years. It looks prosperous even today, the mainstreet housing many shop fronts as well as most of the major Banks. I also take a walk arount the town centre and go to the Visitor Information for some maps and check out places around town. There are several Art Galleries around town showing various artists, also Aboriginal Art.

The following morning I take a drive out to Silverton, some 25km out of town, where the movie "Mad Max" had been filmed. I visit the local Pub, chat with the bar maid while I drink my beer. There are many pictures along the walls of the bar showing various actors that were part of the cast of the film.


The Pub at Silverton

The road to Silverton is a rather bumpy ride as there are many indentations in the road to help water running off in this flood plain. When I get back into Broken Hill I visit the Pro Hart Gallery in order to get a better impression of the work he had done before passing away in 2006.


One of the pictures by Pro Hart in his Gallery

When I pack up at Broken Hill, the weather is threatening with dark skies. I get on my way quickly, after breakfast and drive east where the sky looks somewhat brighter. My next stop will be the town of Cobar, about 460km east of Broken Hill.


I also went to see the airbase for the Royal Flying Doctor Service with their friendly and most engaging staff. I was very impressed by all the services this organisation provides to all in need, all of it provided FREE to anyone.


The RFDS base at Broken Hill

The landscape slowly changes, a little more hilly, the road good in large sections but lots of the old roads are still in evidence, winding and very bumpy. Welcome back to New South Wales, the worst roads in the country.

A Road Train driver I talked to, back in South Australia, told me that driving on the Highways in NSW they always have to slow down. In his case, he told me, he was driving what they call "Two Up" with two drivers, one resting while the other is driving, but there is no way you can sleep on those bumpy roads. I get some rain. off and on, by the time I drive through Wilcannia, the sky brightens up for a short time, the Highway now turning South, before turning East again.

Its now raining steadily, the sky dark. The Highway east of Wilcannia is quite good again. The closer I get to Cobar, the more wild goats are grazing by the side of the road. I also notice not a single road kill of the goats, although there are a few Kangaroo carcasses. I try to photograph the goats but each time I stop they all disappear into the scrub. Pretty smart, I think. I do manage to get a couple of shots simmply by slowing down rather than stopping. They also seem to come in any shade of colour, usually quite long fur and quite straggely looking. One of the bucks in the midst of his Harem has long twisted horns standing out sideways from his head.


Wild Goats west of Cobar

Cobar is a mining town, also seems to be doing well with lots of shops, the caravan park run by the local council is also nice and green. It rains for most of the night but its not cold. I leave quite early, after breakfast, the sky still dark, but not raining.

Along the highway from Broken Hill to Cobar

My next stop will be Narromine, my old Glider-flying base. When I get there, it turns out, there is a weekend event going on with Ultra-light aircraft, the surrounds of the runways with lots of aircraft tied down waiting for a break in the weather. I decide to drive on as there are no vacant spots available. Dubbo is only 38km further West. The landscape quite different now, lots of grassland, lots of cultivated fields, many large stands of poplars by the road, some of them already turning yellow. It does add a "european' note to the look of the land, quite different in its colours to the dry land I have left behind me. I re-fuel at Dubbo and continue on to the town of Orange which is about halfway to Sydney.

When I leave Orange in the morning it is still wet with a drizzle of rain. It is now Easter Sunday, lots of traffic coming west but very little going my way, east.

At Lithgow I refuel again, the lowest price for Diesel in a long time ($1.10/L). I am not driving the main highway via Katoomba but follow the initially windy road toward Windsor instead. When I get to the top of the Blue Mountain Range, I can look south, seeing plenty of clear blue sky again. What a wonderful sight to behold! The further east I drive the brighter it gets, a nice welcome for me coming back to the city I have called home for almost 27 years.

Flinders Ranges in South Australia

Perfect weather today to discover part of the Flinders Ranges. I have decided to check out a drive through the Bunyeroo Gorge and the Brachina Gorge so I can get an idea what the Flinders Ranges are all about. I leave about 9.00 am this morning.


View of Rawnsley Bluff from my campsite

The drive north takes me past Wilpena Pond where I stop to check my email and make some calls. The place I am staying at has zero phone or internet coverage but once I drive into Wilpena I get full signal.

The visitors centre is a very nice design which seems to fit well into the environment. About 5km north of Wilpena is the turn-off, a dirt track that will take me into both gorges. The scenery is very nice and colourful, the gorges though are much wider than the ones I seen at Karijini National Park, back in Western Australia.

The trees mark where usually the water flows


The dirt track leads right into the bottom of each gorge, then either criss-crosses dry riverbeds or follows them. Rough going for my van and I have to drive real slow because I am driving along, across or even inside creekbeds. Many large Eucalypts are growing inside those creekbeds, only ever getting water when there is some flowing, which is by no means a certainty, often over long periods of time.

Brachina Gorge seems to be much deeper with walls of stone rising on both sides of the riverbed. Four 4-wheel drives pass me in convoy when I stop to make space. They are the only vehicles I see, so it seems that I have the place mostly to myself.

Exit to Brachina Gorge

When I finally exit the park track I come to a well graded dirt road where I can finally speed up again. Driving at slow pace with so many obstacles on the way one needs to pay 100% attention so as not to end up in the ditch and is quite tiring. As a result of feeling quite tired by now I drive south to Hawker, to re-fuel and from there drive back to my campsite.

Streaky Bay to Port Lincoln then north-east toward Port Augusta

Driving south along the western shore of the Eyres Peninsula started out with the usual scrub either side of the highway.


I turn right to visit "Murphy's Haystacks", a rock formation of some pretty bizarr shapes which I photograph from various angles.

Murphy's Haystacks

Continuing south on the highway, the scenery changes from scrub to open, slightly hilly countryside, all of it covered in rocks of various sizes that litter the ground even though I can't understand how anything can grow on ground like that. As all the fields are fenced it will have to be farming country. I pull out at Elliston to take some pictures of the coastline before I follow the highway south east to Port Lincoln where I am spending the night at the local caravan park.

Yes, there is washing to do and that is only possible at the "official" caravan parks. I fry up some Roesti from some boiled potatoes I have in my fridge, eat it with some Pate and some chilli gherkins, wow, pretty good.

Tonight is changeover from daylight-saving to standard time, which means all clocks need to be turned back by one hour. I get up at 7am, make coffe with my breakfast, then put away yesterday's washing and clean my solar panel as well as the roof of my van. Quite surprising how dirty it all got, lots of bird shit from where I had my vehicle parked under trees at Perth.

The weather has turned wet overnight with low clouds and a drizzle of rain. I decide to explore Port Lincoln with the hope that the rain will stop and some sunshine again to help warm up the place again. (I must be spoilt from all the good weather I had on my trip so far)

Colourful sunrise at Port Lincoln before the drizzle sets in


Its Sunday, so everything is closed in South Australia except the Newsagent. After driving around Port Lincoln I check out lots of new developments around town that were recommended at the Info Centre but in the rain it all looks rather sad. No people to be seen anywhere...

I decide to 'escape' the rain and to drive on toward Whyalla on the eastern side of the peninsula. The countryside is wide open, the ocean to my right, it looks like wheatgrowing country, the crops long since harvested, now running lots of sheep there instead.

Escaping the rain...

Looks like I am in luck, the weather is turning sunnier as I go north. I decide to pull into an off-road campsite by the ocean about 23 km south of the town of Cowell.

View from my campsite, blue skies and all...

It is very windy on the waterfront so I decide to hide behind a caravan already parked there. I am now sheltered and its quite warm outside my van - good thing I have put out my awning.

Kalgoorlie, Norseman and through the Nullarbor

The car has been serviced and checked through, so I am on my way south toward Norseman, where the highway across the wide expanse of the plains og the Nullarbor intersects with the north - south highway from Kalgoorlie to Esperance. I am again fascinated by the colouful display of tree trunks of the Salmon Gums growing along the highway, except for a long stretch of road where all trees are dead due to a bush fire. Only the undergrowth has re-grown, the ghostly whites of the dead trees in contrast. I re-fuel at Norseman and make my way into the Nullarbor Plain.

The Roundabout at Norseman with the tin camels

Often I have heard the Nullarbor referred to as a desert, a place where you might expect to see lots of sand and dunes along the way, but nothing is further from the truth when I see instead a mixture of scrub, trees and in parts vast expanses of grassland. The scenery is everchanging with the blue scrub and the flat yellow savannah grasslands. Not a sand dune in sight anywhere.

I pull up at a bush camp along the way as I see two other couples with caravans pull in. Its a little windy and as it gets dark all traffic on the highway ceases and for a while there is perfect stillness, the stars bright in all that darkness, the Milky Way making its way right across the sky as well. One of the two campers has turned on his generator to supply power to his caravan, so there is now a steady hum of the motor a short distance away. Quite a number of cars with tents arrive even after dark with a number of Japanese chatting on while they setup their tents in the glare of their headlights of their cars. After everyone is settled the quiet sets in again, even the generator is turned off. It is now 8.00pm, me tired from a long drive ready to turn in.

It turns out to be quite a cold night, me not used to those cold nights wake in the early hours feeling cold. Yes, I do have a secong doona which I retrieve and now I am as snug as a bug in a rug, nice and warm again. I am ready to leave at daybreak on a cold morning, lots of fog on the ground as the sun is just rising out of the mist.

Sunrise in my bush camp

Quite a sight, if only I didn't have to drive directly into the sun, as I am heading east.

Into the rising Sun

I am going slowly, stop a few times to take some pictures, also to allow the sun to rise further to make driving easier for me. An hour later I pull up by the roadside and finally make some breakfast, the day having warmed up so I can shed my long-sleeved jumper.

Early morning mist in the Nullarbor

I finally cross the border to South Australia from Western Australia, just after midday with the notion to find a camping spot soon.

View from the top of Eucla Pass on the border to SA

Unfortunately, the one I have earmarked on my map has been closed off with a trench dug right across the roadway. The next campsite is deserted so I decide to drive on to Nullarbor Roadhouse as I am also in need of a shower and fresh clothes.

Looking across the great plain

There is also a time adjustment to be made, South Australia being in a different time zone so I have to advance my watches by one and a half hours against WA time.

Perth to Kalgoorlie

I arrived Monday 30 March in Perth to pick up my van, do some shopping to re-plenish the contents of my fridge. I spend the evening talking to friends at the campground, have a good night's sleep and drive out of Perth next morning, following the main highway east to Kalgoorlie. Most of the way I am traveling through the wheatbelt with fields on either side of the road stretching to the horizon, then later, lots of Eucalypts with the cinnamon-coloured treebarks of the Salmon Gums glistening in the afternoon sunlight.

Salmon Gums along the Highway

I check several campsites along the way but find all of them deserted, not a sign of life in any of them. I do not intend to spend a night as the only vehicle by the roadside and so continue on to Kalgoorlie where I last was in October last year. A good opportunity to to get my van serviced before heading out across the Nullarbor. So later this morning I will drive south toward Norseman and then turn east toward Eucla.

Turning a Page

Finally, on the road again. This time it will be a return trip to Sydney via the Nullabor. Why? Well, while I was in Sydney I bought a Motorhome to replace the van I have been traveling in since last year.

The new House-on-wheels

Life can be real good on the road, provided there is just a little comfort while you are traveling. The van is a little on the rough side, particularly when the weather is not playing ball. So, the choice to move to something a little bigger and more comfortable was not difficult to make, also, when you consider that this will be my home (on wheels) for some time to come.


Looking towards the front, door on the left.


Stove Grill and sink


Looking towards the rear

Naturally, there is also a downside when it comes to driving on bad dirt roads which will be somewhat limiting where I can go with my new acquisition. From past experience though, I can say that I have been avoiding the real bad stuff anyway so it will be just fine.