My Ramblings

Our continuing adventure. WARNING, lot's of photo's

After the long, dusty road we stayed overnight at Norseman
before setting off next morning to cross the Nullarbor                                                      
where we saw some amazing "trees"
with some fantastic "foliage"  These trees are known as Nullarbor Trees, and it's interesting to see the things that people leave on them.  One was covered in plastic drink bottles, and glistened beautifully in the sun.
Once across the Nullarbor, we stayed the night at a place called Nullarbor, again setting off early the next morning. We stopped for lunch at Ceduna and the kids went off for a swim only to find that there was broken glass everywhere.  This didn't seem to bother the local Aboriginal folk who were happily splashing away in the water.
After a short sojourne here we were off again and that night stopped at Kimba.  We next stopped for a break at another "beachy" area at Port Augusta.
This time the water was safe for swimming.  Not too long and we were off again, stopping that night at Glendambo.
That turned out to be the worst night of the trip.  It was very hot, and not a bit of breeze.  It didn't cool down till around 0530, and we were placed next to large lamps which were not only very bright, but put out a lot of heat.  The tent was like a sauna and I awoke the next morning dehydrated, with a migraine and feeling very sorry for myself.
You can see the lamp behind us in this photo.
Thankfully it was only a couple of hours to our next port of call, Coober Pedy, where we booked into an underground motel and I very thankfully took myself off to a lovely, cool and very dark room for a couple of hours till I was feeling better.
The outside,
the inside,
and inside Natalie's rooms.

That night all the adults except Natalie's husband (who stayed home with the kids) went to an underground pub, where some of the adults played at the worlds only underground pokies. We stayed 2 nights at Coober Pedy, and then headed for Uluru, formerly known as Ayers Rock.  As this is already very heavy with photo's, I will leave the rest for next time.

Take care everyone, and happy knitting.

The Road.

I wrote this at the end of the first days travel.  Hopefully you will be able to appreciate what I am trying to signify here.  This is my impression of the road between Hyden and Norseman, Western Australia.

The road. Long. Very long. Very straight; well, mostly straight. As far as the eye could see; one single, solitary road. On either side, sick and dying land; not a single animal or bird to be seen or heard. Desolate.

 

A little ahead of us and a little behind us were the two other vehicles travelling with us. Suddenly we are enveloped in a thick, swirling cloud of dust, obliterating our vision as the car ahead hits the dirt road. We quickly drop back till the car in front is only visible as a dust cloud ahead. No doubt the car to the rear had a similar experience, and can only recognise two dust clouds ahead. Eventually we notice that the dust cloud ahead has disappeared, and so has the one following, leaving us alone in this inhospitable, almost alien landscape. The eerie silence is broken only by the sound of our own car engine.

  View to the front,

and to the rear.

Each rise brings hope of a changing vista, but heralds only more, much more, of the same long, straight, dusty road, broken only rarely by an oncoming vehicle; the only other sign of life. Until now there has been no indication of distance to our destination and I had just remarked on this when we saw a sign indicating N 200. We had only completed 100 kilometres, one third of the distance, and this could have been a source of disappointment had we not already worked that out. Still the road stretches ahead, lonely and dusty, with still no sign of our travelling companions. Gasp!! What is this? Life. A single, solitary, dusty lizard crossing the single, solitary, dusty road.

 

The road is long; very long. Very long, very dusty, and mainly straight. Aha! A road sign indicating a winding road ahead. Around a fairy significant bend, then a long straight road ahead. Perhaps a single, solitary, honest to goodness bend constitutes a winding road in these parts.

 

Nature calls and necessitates a stop. Very soon our companions to the rear catch up with us, a very welcome sight.

Soon after resuming our journey we come across our leading group who have stopped to wait for us. A quick chat and we are on our way again. N 100. I know at least one person would have been disappointed to see that.

 

As we continue along the long, straight and still dusty road, we come across a more welcome sign, N 50. Our journey is almost over and not long after the road becomes less straight as it wends its way through the stark, dead, whiteness of salt pans on either side. The road is very narrow here, and I imagine trying to pass an oncoming vehicle and sliding off the road to sink into the salty mire. Vehicle tracks on the salt pans soon prove my imagination wrong, but I still can’t shake my feelings of nervousness and I really wouldn’t want to be travelling this road in the dark, especially alone.

 

Bliss: we see a town ahead and know that our journeys end has arrived. More importantly we are on a sealed road again and can leave the dust behind. Today’s journey is but a mere hop, skip and jump in the greater, 5,600 kilometre journey we have undertaken; from

Perth

in

Western Australia

, to Townsville in

Queensland

.

 

The fun has just begun.

That is enough for today.  I will tell more of our journey, and show more photo's over the coming days.

Take care, and happy knitting everyone.

Travelling

We spent 2 and a bit days in Perth before we set off on our travels.  On the Sunday we went to the Royal Kings Park Tennis Club where Natalie's sister-in-law is a member.  We sat out on the terrace and had a sumptuous brunch.......one could really get used to this sort of thing.
Natalie, at the tennis club.

          

Natalie's parents-in-law, Bill and Leah.

   

TPH (Natalie's hubby Aaron) and Gage, Declan and Maisy.

      

Reece.

Natalie's sister-in-law, Heidi who is the member at this lovely club.

      

We left Perth on the 7th January and spent the first night in Norseman, still in Western Australia.  We had to travel to Norseman via Hyden as the road we originally planned to take was still closed due to bush fires.  This added a bit of extra distance to our trip, but all was fine.  The next day we crossed the South Australia/Western Australia border, otherwise known as SA WA.  The second night we originally planned to stop at Border Village, but decided to travel further and eventually stopped at Nullarbor.  Next night was at Kimba though we had meant to get as far as Port Augusta which was a big ask. Finally made Port Augusta next day, and stopped for fish and chips for lunch. That night we stopped at Glendambo, which so far has been the worst night of our trip.  Hot, hot and hot.  It didn't cool down and it was like sleeping in a sauna.  I was quite dehydrated the following morning, plus I had developed a migraine.  I was no use to anyone at all.  We travelled on to Coober Pedy where we spent the next 2 nights in relative luxury in an underground motel.  I managed to get a couple of hours in bed in darkness, which made me human again.  Folowing Coober Pedy we went to Ulury (Ayers Rock).  Unfortunately, our party wasn't able to make the climb (I was never going to anyway) due to high winds.  After one night's stay we headed for Alice Springs which is where I am writing this.  It was hot during the day, and I can feel the sun heating up already, even though it's only just after 0730, but it was cool enough to sleep overnight.

I have taken lots of photo's, but haven't yet loaded them onto the computer, so you will have to wait a while to  see  them.

May I suggest you go to this great site  to see where we are travelling.  Go to the map maker (or plan your journey, it may have changed) type in the start point and the destination, and it will give you all the relevant details such as direction, distance, places of interest etc.  For the first day, it would normally show you via Coolgardie, but as I said, that was was closed, so you would need to type in via Hyden.  It's a great Aussie trip planner site.

Knitting.......hahahahahahaha.  Some was planned for Natalie, Leah and I, but so far just hasn't been suitable.  Maybe when we get to Tennant Creek tonight we may be able to manage a bit......we'll see.

OK folks, that's it for now.  Take care, and happy knitting.
The Happy Traveller.