Trekkin

Day 5 – Saturday 24 July 2021 – 314km

We left our Aramac campground and headed off towards Muttaburra, a distance of around 80km. The road was surprisingly good with the countryside grassy plains on either side. Signs told us we were in the Lake Eyre Basin catchment area.  We made comfortable progress and parked outside the Muttaburra Dinosaur Interpretive Centre. This is a great little building made from stone & corrugated iron, with the story of the finding of the Muttaburrasaurus dinosaur bones nearby.  There is a great replica of the dinosaur presiding over everything. The gardens outside are nice with a great barbed wire sculpture of a grass tree.

Over the road was Aunty Fiona’s café were we had a burger & coffee for lunch, another great burger. We asked about the road conditions both north and south and decided to head south to Winton. There are lots of great sculptures located around town.  The road is about 80km of dirt to reach the bitumen highway. This road starts out OK but quickly turns into a dirt road through farmer’s paddocks. Glad it is dry, it would be a nightmare in the wet. Lots of causeways and cattle grids to slow us down. We did not see another vehicle in the whole two hours we were on this road, most unusual. We made the bitumen without incident and the next 100km to Winton was easy travelling. We stopped at the Winton Dinosaur Interpretative Centre and booked in for a 9.30am tour tomorrow. The views from the centre are stunning.

Back to Winton & we turned south on the Jundah Road then turned into the Long Waterhole to camp for the night. My goodness, there must be at least 100 caravans camped here next to the water, it is crowded. We set up camp away from everyone else and cooked dinner as the full moon starts to rise through the trees. Not a cloud in the sky and 20C, food is great & life is good. Another great day.

Day 4 – Friday July 23 2021 – 476km

A later start today, Sue wasn’t well last night, the Red Lizard campsite was very good and quite. A recommendation to stay here again.  We drove the short distance into Charleville and refuelled with diesel and AdBlue.  

We parted with Sue & John here because they went to the hospital emergency where they couldn’t help her & recommended for them to return to Canberra as there are few & far between large hospitals in the outback.  This really put a damper on our trip.

Our drive through to Tambo for lunch was uneventful, more long straight flat roads and lots of caravans coming from the other direction. The scenery was more of the same, horizon as far as the eye can see, grasses, short trees & scrub. The Fanny Mae’s Café in Tambo served great food and coffee, it was a popular stop for the locals and tourists alike. Outside were some amazing horse sculptures from dried tree branches.

Barcaldine was our next stop and at the railway station is the Tree of Knowledge monument, the place where the Australian Labour Party was formed and the union movement was started in Australia by the shearers. A fairly impressive and very large monument with long timber chimes making music in the wind. We refuelled again and headed towards Muttaburra, stopping just south of Aramac to set up our bush camp for the night in off the road a bit. The caravan park in Barcaldine was packed full like sardines.  It is so pleasant out here by the river with only a few other caravans’.

The dinner, sunset & moonrise were all very good. Another great day.

Day 3 – Thursday July 22 2021 – 453km

A pleasant morning in Bourke and after breakfast we headed off towards the Queensland border and Cunamulla. Lots of dead kangaroos, long straight roads and some roadtrains and caravans headed south. Very flat desert landscape with sparse vegetation, grasses and small shrubs. A harsh landscape.

 On the midday news they announced that the QLD border would close at 1 am.  We already crossed the border, but close.

Outside Cunamulla we were stopped at a Police checkpoint to check our Covid travel credentials and our permissions to enter Queensland.  The police officers were very pleasant & polite & recommended the camel burger at the Cunamulla Café.  We parked near the Cunamulla Council chambers and walked the short distance to the main street & the Cunamulla café.  The camel burger was tasty and the coffee was good. We had some nice chats with some of the locals & got some good advice on where to buy fresh vegetables.  Amazing, I ran into a former work colleague from Canberra as we were checking out of the café, what a small world.

The road to Charleville was another 200km and just as uneventful, more dead kangaroos, lots more birds & lots more desert landscape, with large sand dunes near the road. A few roadtrains & a few cars with caravans heading south. We stopped at the Red Lizard campsite a few miles south of Charleville, bare red dirt amongst the trees but with great amenities. They have some good tin sculptures of brolgas & an eagle as well. Tereza cooked up Thai beef salad a great birthday dinner that we shared with Sue & John plus a few glasses of red that James gave me for my birthday. (great choice James). Tereza even produced a birthday cake. The temperature was a pleasant 20 C.  We sat outside enjoyed the beautiful sunset.  Very pleasant indeed. Another great day.

Day 2 – Wednesday July 21 2021 – 447km

What a cold miserable wet & windy night. The train driver passing nearby seemed to take great delight in long blasts of the train whistle as the train slowly trundled past. There were a few noisy trucks stopping at the one-lane bridge traffic lights near the caravan park as well. The morning was cold and we took an early morning walk down to the flooded Lachlan River skirting the caravan park. The flood water was full of log and branch debris as it flowed quickly past and under the bridge. We packed up and on the road by 9am with a brief stop in Forbes for breakfast.

The road to Bogan Gate was surprisingly good with not much traffic, wide roads and wide flat agricultural land with new wheat crops bright green on both sides.  Bogan Gate is not very large, but has a large wheat silo in town next to the railway. We turned right and headed towards Trundle.

Trundle’s claim to fame is a hotel with the longest verandah in Australia, Trundle also hosts an annual Abba festival to try & attract tourists. It needs something as it is a long way from anything. We passed through Tullamore, another small town with a large wheat silo on the way to Nyngan.

Nyngan is a largish town for western NSW and we stopped for light lunch at the large & nicely kept Rotary Park just west of Nyngan on the road to Bourke next to the Bogan River. This was a pleasant opportunity to stretch our legs & take a break from driving. The road to Bourke was another 200+ kilometres away along a very straight & flat road.

The trip was uneventful, a few road trains coming the other way and some roadworks. Tereza had a few small naps & I reassured her that she didn’t miss much, the scenery is fairly unchanging, trees, bushes, grasses and shrubs with some bright red dirt now and then. We made good time & arrived in Bourke a bit after 3pm and refuelled before heading a few kilometres north of Bourke to the Kidman’s Way caravan park. This park is very nice indeed, after setting up Tereza & I went for a walk to the banks of the Darling River. This river is also flowing deep and fast, with lots of dried mud on the bank from recent flooding events. There is a paddle wheel river boat tied up to the bank, PV Jandra, built in 2000 and modelled on an old original paddle wheel steamer. The Jandra is used for pleasure cruises along the Darling River.

The walk back to the park is equally pleasant.  What a difference a day makes, the temperature is 16C and we Canberrans felt quite comfortable to cooked & sit outside with Sue & John for dinner & a glass or two of red chatting [RT1] as the near full moon rises & lights up the sky. As the sun goes down it gets cold & we retreat into the heated comfort of our vans for the night.  Another great day.

 [RT1]

Day 1 – Tuesday July 20 2021 – 298km

We had planned to leave Canberra around 11.00 am. Well, the best laid plans and we left at 1.50pm.  We were going to get out of bed by 6 am, of course we didn’t struggle out until 8 am – we were both to blame, too cold.

The main problem was my fault, I needed a new wheel and tyre as the spare in the car is only a skinny emergency spare. The new rim was in Singapore and arrived Monday, the new tyre was in Sydney & was freighted down overnight so arrived Tuesday morning. Two trips to Fyshwick delayed me packing and tidying. The caravan was packed except for the fridge, medicines & toiletries – my sweetheart did all that

Canberra was 5 degrees and sprinkling rain when we left. Our trip was uneventful, steady rain, we refuelled at Cowra. Our revised destination is now Forbes as we left Canberra so late. John & Sue left a little before us and are already in Forbes Caravan Park when we called from Cowra & they have booked a spot for us. Still more steady rain & we set up in the rain just as dark was falling.  I have asked a few times whether we should have left our comfy home, but Ron assures me that I will change my mind when we will get into warmer climates & the beautiful National Parks.

Grilled toast with a glass of red with light rain on the roof & the heater on in the van.  Life is great.

Day 33– Monday 15 2018

Upon Reflection – 3,438 photos later

Visiting the Middle East was never on our bucket list, the only reason we went there was because of Monica, Charles & the grandsons.  We were very pleasantly surprised!!  Our first stop in Dubai was amazing, clean, big & very modern.  I never thought that I would call a jungle of high rise buildings beautiful but in Dubai they certainly achieved that wow factor in their very modern architecture. Their malls are enormous with waterfalls, restaurants & huge aquarium or other theme parks attached to them.  The most surprising thing (already at the airport) was the beautiful Christmas decorations right though the shops & mall with piped Christmas carols.

We drove on fantastic roads with Arabic & English road signs.  You knew the desert was there because on the side of the road & if you looked further on the sand was there.  Abu Dhabi is modern & a lot of building going on.  There are big theme parks, Formula 1 race track, mainly attached to very huge beautiful malls & once again everywhere Christmas decorations.  Monica & family live on the 9^th floor in an apartment like a resort.  They do not lock their door when they go out – something sadly in Australian cities we cannot do any more.  There are some things that we are losing or lost in Australia, it’s a way of life over there.  We are still very lucky for so very many reasons to call Australia home. The UAE & Japan (when we were there) are the two places that we truly can say we felt the safest.

The whole family went to Jordan, Christmas decorations in the hotels & in the middle of town Christmas village.  Wonderful experience to swim (more like floated) in the Dead Sea.  The drive past   those enormous barren mountains & then Petra.  Petra was only a dream & to actually see it was amazing.  The people are friendly, they do have police/military check points.  The roads we drove on were very good.  The hotels have a similar check in like at the airports.  We didn’t feel unsafe.

Back in Abu Dhabi we had a wonderful Christmas & New Year with the family.

We all went to Oman where they still had wonderful Christmas decorations up in the hotels.  A beautiful place.  A great experience driving through some big barren mountains & to see the Jebel Sham canyon.  Friendly people.  Always felt safe.

We are very happy that we went to visit the UAE, Jordan & Oman, it opened our eyes & minds to a different culture.  It was amazing to see how they have the Christmas magic in Muslim countries where we visited, it is very sad how some want to end it in Australia.  We are comforted that Monica & family live in a lovely safe place & the boys are getting good education.  Monica, Charles, Jackson & Austin made our time with them very nice & special, couldn’t have asked for better.  We miss them like crazy.

It is nice to be home & to have caught up with James, Venetia & grandchildren here today for lunch, we missed them like crazy when we were away.

Day 31 & 32 – Saturday 13 & Sunday 14 January 2018

Awake at 5am & away at 6.30am, Charles & family drive us the 15 minutes to Dubai Airport where we hug & kiss & say our farewells.  We queue for a fair while at check-in, then through passports & security then the short train trip over to our departure terminal & then the long walk to our departure gate.  Fortunately there are some café’s nearby so we have time for coffee & breakfast while waiting for boarding, as we finish breakfast the boarding commences.  The plane is an A380 & is full so it takes a fair while for everyone to queue & find their seats on the plane.  Our departure is delayed a bit waiting for some passengers so we take off around 15 minutes behind schedule.

Our flight to Bangkok is uneventful, around 7 hours, we watched some movies, however, in Bangkok everyone has to get off the plane, taking all personal belongings, walk through a full security check.  A lot of people are unhappy, especially the ones that bought alcohol in the Dubai Duty Free & continuing to Sydney as it is all confiscated from them.  A long walk through the terminal & back through the transit part, then another bag check before the gate lounge.  We have to wait a long time in the lounge area, a lot of people standing.  Our flight departs around an hour later than scheduled.  This could have been done a whole lot better.

Our flight to Sydney is uneventful, around 8 & a half hours, we watch some more movies & sleep a little before landing at 9.30am Sunday morning, an hour behind schedule.  Our landing is eventful, because there was a strong wind.  The plane has cameras on the top of the tail & below the cockpit.  We approached the landing sideways to the runway, the pilot did a great job keeping the runway lined up.  The left set of wheels touched down first, followed by the right, then a bounce, then a straighten up before the nose wheel touched & a little shimmy before braking hard, lots of people applauded the pilot for being so skilful & getting us down safely.  We passed though Passports fairly quickly, however our bags took about half an hour before appearing & then it was a rush to try to get to the bus stop.  I did not think we would make it, the bus was due to depart at 10.25am.  We arrived at the bus at 10.27am & the driver was just about to shut the luggage compartment.  As we sat down, the driver closed the front door – we were just in time & the bus departed at 10.30am.

Our bus trip to Canberra was uneventful, we slept on & off most of the way.  It was great to see our son James who was waiting to pick us up at 1.30pm.  We were home at 2pm, then chatted with James for another hour.  Great to be away, but great to be home.

Day 30 – Friday 12 January 2018

Up early again & bags packed, moving day again, off to Dubai today.  The drive is uneventful, just so much sand with a magnificent highway through the desert.  Dubai is busy & we head straight to our hotel to drop our luggage & check in, our room has a view over the pool & creek (a big one).  The Dubai Creek wharfs are across from our hotel on the waterfront so we head out for a walk down towards the spice & gold souks.  But we are all hungry so we stopped at a seafood restaurant, “Creek View” we choose to sit outside & so have hundreds of flies.  The place is a bit rough & ready with pictures of Italian cities, Marilyn Munroe, Mona Lisa & some musicians from a different era, Arabian music is playing.  Two wishful cats are sitting next to our table (they are lucky Jackson shares his food with them).  The waiter is very nice & offers us a table inside away from the flies but we are Aussies, we can deal with the flies.  The menu has mainly Arabian food & to our delight it is tasty & we enjoy it.  Now we are full of energy & ready for the long walk along the side of the creek.

There are many boats offering food & cruises up the creek.  There are some very old small wooden cargo boats moored picking up or dropping off cargo – new fridges, washing machines, air conditioners, bolts of fabrics & heaven only knows what else or where these boats are coming from or going to.  We are in the old part of Dubai with older style houses but they are still worthy of photographing.  We reach the spice souk, they are in alley ways where they sell spices by the bucket loads.  They also sell scarves, watches & cheap looking souvenirs – we just say no thank you & keep going.  Some ask us where are we from & when we tell them, Australia they all seem to know “Ozi, Ozi oi, oi, oi”.  Ron started to talk to a nice Arabian store keeper who was born in Dubai & owns 25 of the stores in the souk.  He said if the tourists wouldn’t come & buy there would be no souk because the locals don’t come.  We didn’t buy anything from him or anyone else.  We walk along some back streets to get to the gold souk.  Once again it is alley ways but more orderly with little stores displaying some amazing gold & other jewellery.  Ron was holding my hand, not because he is romantic but he didn’t want me to stray into any of the stores.  Once again we left without a little trinket souvenir.

We now hurried back to the ferry wharves where they have some small ferry boats that can carry about 20 people.  We stand in line with lots of other people & catch one boat & go across the other side of the creek for 1 dirham each.  On the other side we repeat the process & returned to where we started from.  What a lovely experience, we really enjoyed it.  Now the long walk back to our hotel for a quick pit stop.  Poor Charles has to drive through heavy traffic, but worst still he has to cruise around the Dubai Mall with a very full parking area before we strike it lucky, someone was leaving, then a rush to get us in line to get up to the Burj Khalifa Tower, the tallest building in the world.  Lucky Charles had already bought our tickets online otherwise we wouldn’t have got up the tower.

There were so many people going up to the tower, Ron & I went up on our own because the others have been up there a few times & they went to the “Apple” store to look for a new computer for Monica.  A very fast lift took us up to level 124, at 452 metres above ground level.  We then walked up many steps to the final/top viewing level 125.  Wow, wow, what a fantastic view!!!  We watched the sun set over Dubai & the dancing fountains, they were good but not as spectacular as the last time when we saw them from below at ground level.  The night lights came on – they certainly put on a fantastic light show, beautiful – after many photos we joined the queue & came down.  There were so many people watching the next dancing fountain show that it took a while for Charles to find us.  Once again everyone is hungry.  Monica & the boys want to go to the Cheese Factory Restaurant but we would have to wait at least 25 minutes to get a table, they bought some cheese cake slices to take away.  We decided to go back to the Hotel & eat there.  Once again Ron & I are so grateful that Charles drove us back safely to the hotel in very heavy traffic.

From our Hotel window we watched a beautiful fireworks display – most probably it was specially put on to farewell us.  We went to a Thai restaurant at the hotel & we only just got a table because about 80+ Asian tourists had the other tables reserved.  The food was good but spicy.  We are all tired & have to go to bed because we are all getting up early to get Ron & me to the Airport.  What an exciting & fantastic day we had, thank you Monica, Charles, Jackson & Austin.

Day 29 – Thursday 11 January 2018

We woke up to Austin’s good morning cuddle & kiss.  We will miss that so much.  Austin is getting very clingy – last night he wanted the 3 of us to sleep on one bed, he says it isn’t fair that we are going back to Australia, we should stay with them, & how long before he will see us again, etc.  I tell him that Australia is our home we cannot stay, we have to be happy for the nice time we had.  He certainly plays on our heart strings.

It is school & work day again today.  We have our breakfast, do the washing & watch another movie with Monica.   Ron catches up with more business, email & research on the computer.  We go to the shop & buy things I will need for the Pavlova roll, a surprise for Jackson – it’s his favourite.  The boys get home early on Thursdays & after afternoon tea we all go down to the pool & have so much fun that even sooky Ron stays until he is freezing.  We came back from Oman last Saturday afternoon & we wondered what we would do until today.  Nice quite time with Monica, catching up on things & some classic movies.  The days just slipped away so very quickly.

Charles came home & cooked us a treat & the Pavlova was a hit.  Ron & Charles enjoyed a few glasses of good Ozzie red.

Austin read his school book & then we went through his Arabic words – like we have been every day this week, he laughs at me – he says that he will think of me when he is learning his words because I was so funny.  We have some more smooching & whys & why nots before he goes to bed.  Jackson played Xbox with Ron for a while & afterwards we watched some (very ordinary) young person’s TV shows while I massaged & scratch his back – something I used to do when he was little.

Tomorrow we are off to Dubai for the day & we are all staying in a Hotel for the night so that we can leave early in the morning for the airport.  Our bags are packed & it is bed time.  Another great day.

Day 28 – Wednesday 10 January 2018

Another school day, another 7am start & more of the same today, a couple of lazy old movies this morning, some more on-line learning & a walk to the shop.  The grocery store nearby is very interesting, the fresh fruit & vegetables are from all over the place. Mangoes from Kenya, limes from Spain, Valencia oranges, Brussel sprouts & watermelon from Australia, cucumbers local UAE, garlic from Spain & China, peaches from France, kiwi fruit from Spain etc.  All very fresh looking & good quality.  There is also something I never expected to see in a muslim country, there is a cool room special section with all sorts of pork products, a huge variety of sausages, salamis, ham, bacon, crispy pork skin, lard, pork ribs, pork legs & pork belly, etc.  There is a large sign over the door that states “Pork section for non-muslims only”.

Another thing I never expected to see is a liquor store, these are uncommon & very discretely placed, usually tucked away in a distant corner, sometimes in underground carparks with no obvious signage.  To buy alcohol you have to apply for a special licence from the government & it must be presented when you purchase, the licence is not available to muslims.  The selection is amazing, all types of alcohol & lots of very expensive brandies & whisky, some bottles more than $2,000 Australian.  There is a good choice of quality Australian wines, expensive though & the beer selection is mostly European, not so bad at all & reasonably priced.

Not all palm trees we see are palm trees, there are some very tall ones that you sometimes notice have a metal post or two poking out the top, disguised mobile phone towers, a really great idea.

Tonight Charles plays squash & I go with him to spectate.  This is the first time Charles has been to this venue, it is a new one & we find the location OK, finding the squash courts is a lot more problematic.  Lights are off & we go to a few spots asking if they know where the courts are, we get a few loose directions then end up meeting a player from the other team who knows the spot.  We walk through a darkened entrance, through a few open glass doors then get to a door labelled “Anti-doping testing”, we are assured this is the door to go through.  We walk along a long corridor, we pass another door labelled the same, then down a flight of stairs then along another corridor then a plain white door.  Behind this we find the two squash courts with a small group of people waiting to play.  Signage is not all that good here in the UAE, though the signs that you do see are mostly both in English & Arabic.

Chatting with one of Charles team-mates helped to break another pre-conception I had about personal safety & security in the UAE.  She had moved back to England after a number of years working in Abu Dhabi, then after having their house broken into six times within a year living in England decided to move back to Abu Dhabi for the safety & security being so much better in the UAE.  Crime is not something you hear very much about, the penalties are severe.  Any expatriate committing a crime serves their jail sentence & is then deported, for any crime.  Drink driving is prohibited, any driver detected with any alcohol is jailed for a minimum 3 months.  For serious crimes such as rape, the person is executed within a week of sentence.  It is a very safe place to walk around.

We got home to a nice Thai beef salad dinner.  Played a little bit of Xbox with Austin.  Charles & I had a nice chat for a while over a few glasses of Australian red wine before we realised that it was after 11.30pm.  Another great day.