That’s Serious Road Kill

Port Augusta to Pimba and Woomera, South Australia.

We weren't too too impressed by Port Augusta, i think primarily because it was bigger than the standard towns we'd visited over the last two days and we didn't feel like figuring out where everything was. We've grown accustomed to towns where everything you need is within a 5 block square radius, we're spoiled by simplicity I guess.   We decided to hit welcome centre for maps and a quick chat with one of the people there about the highway conditions and things we should know (like where petrol is, and where the last water stop is etc).We  then  ventured another 170 km north along the Stewart Highway to a small town called Woomera.

The Stewart Highway is long and flat. And is the only sealed road up the middle of Australia. When we turned onto the highway, our GPS told us to drive 1250km then turn left. 1250 KMs to Alice Springs! Take a 8 km detour through the town and continue another 600km to our final destination. Along the way we saw several road trains (that have now doubled in size and have fixed roo bars on them). In Port Augusta we were told to be careful of animals on the highway (and the highway has caution signs in five different languages),  and i noticed an increase in cars with roo (also called bull) bars.....used for night driving in the outback. It was here that I saw my first road kill of the trip. A cow. Yes, a 300kg specimen of road kill........most likely hit by a transport truck.......serious road kill my friends.....

Woomera is a pretty neat place, established in 1947 as a joint project venture between Australia and the UK to test rockets and missiles. It was here that Australia's first satellite was developed, and sent into orbit called the 'Red Stone'. The town later became the home to the European Launcher Development Organisation and then NASA moved in 25 km from Woomera to get some action in the space development going on in the area. Acutually, the Americans were here operating a deep space tracking station.....The whole town was actually closed to the public until 1982. While still administered by the Australian military today (and it looks like it too! Very military style), there is one hotel.

The Eldo Hotel. It once was the residence for all the European and American scientists living and working in the area.  Its organised into blocks and is huge! Very clean, very nice and very interesting, cinderblocks included. It actually looks like a 1970s university dorm. I was glad that there was vacancy in the hotel as the next closest hotel was 175 km away......

Tomorrow we're slated to explore the rockets on display at the Woomera town centre, and then head to Coober Petty, translated as 'white man in a whole' in the local aborigine language.

Broken Hill, Silverton and Mannahill. The Road to Katherine Continues....

 

 

Day two of driving in the outback left us 750 kilometers from Broken Hill, through an additional quarantine station (and impromptu pig out on apples, cucumbers, and a carrot all banned from entering South Australia), past Port Augusta to the small outback town of Woomera. We left the hostel bright and early Friday morning, did a quick twirl around the city, checked out the mines, streets off the highway,  and headed to a petrol station to fill up the tank for the long drive ahead. We also stopped in an outback store and I got a hat (yes, one of those cowboy hats that we were told to bring to the farm), some mozzie repellant for the bruuuuutal mozzies and a head net (for the blasted flies that seem to love smashing into one's head).  The hat is very comfortable and leather and well you know what they say about being in Rome, right? We also supported a small local supplies store and not a k-mart, which I think is a good thing.

After the impromptu shop, we took a 25 km detour to a small, ghost town called Silverton. The town made famous by the Mad Max movie and currently has a population of 8 across the hotel, cafe, mad max museum and a coin carver. Yes, a coin carver a chatty old man named Andy Jenkins who carves the back sides of Australian pennies (not in circulation, everything here is rounded up or down) and sells them as pennants. We stopped in to see the action and had a lovely chat with him. He told us that he'd grown up in Broken Hill and is planning on moving south once his wife retires. We stopped to have a look at the Mad Max Museum, and had a snack at the cafe. I had a spider, which turned out to be a coke float. I'm not sure why they call them spiders though...i should have asked, even if it meant i'd have to play the stupid tourist card.. the town itself was neat to see, although due to a lack of building materials in the area, most of the homes that once were in Silverton are actually in Broken Hill (which were moved after the boom-town of Silverton lost it's boom at the end of the 19^th century). They had a couple of other things to do and see including the Silverton Gaol (and old jail built in 1888, Australia was a convicts island after all), the Silverton hotel, and two very tiny churches. By tiny i mean enough to hold about 10 people.

After Silverton, we got in the car and headed west, stopping at a roadhouse for a stretch and a toilet. The town was called Mannahill and had a population of 7.  Outside the toilets, there was a sign for a roadhouse, selling goods, coffee, etc. It also said that the owners were having trouble keeping the place going, and that every dollar helps. We decided to check it out. Inside the Roadhouse there were three large tables, a little Christmas display (by the fireplace), and a small women behind the bar. We ordered some coffees and while she was preparing them, went into a tiny history museum of relics the women had collected from around the town. We later found out that the town used to be bustling when it was a train stop on the Ghan railroad, the famous and only rail line running from Adelaide to Darwin. The train stopped coming in the 60s and the town went from 200+ to 7. We were also told that recently someone moved into town and opened a refreshment shop 50 m from the road house and had stolen her business. From there we drove anther 150 kms through the outback, a road that is so straight that you can't see the end of it, and very very flat. At some points you could even see how the earth curves. The occasional transport truck livened things up...and towns were few and far far between.

After the coffee break, we got back on the road to South Australia, stopping only to have lunch, consisting of eating all the fruit and vegetables we were carrying that were banned from the state. It's funny because we had an impromptu fruit binge the day before when we entered our first quarantined area....I down two apples and a peach in 10minutes ....entering South Australia also meant that we were only 200 km from our initial final stop, Port Augusta. Port Augusta is the last stop before heading North, and the only place in Australia that connects to every point in the city.  En route we made a detour to elephant gorge, climbing a large hill overlooking the Flinders Range, and went to see a 500 year old Gum tree. Oh, and we drove through several swarms of lotuses, which in the heavy bits sounded like a mix of hail and pebbles hitting the car .After hitting a few swarms of them we could barley see through the front window due to all the guts from the lotuses. It was so bad,   It took us twenty minutes of DIY carwash scrubbing to get all the remnants of the bugs out of the car front.....

 

On the Road Again!

(this post is post-dated).....

Yup, 'tis true we're on the road again...this time via the great Australian Outback (which is unfortunately not the famous red dirt road....it's currently green because of all the rain this year). While the plans were to slowly make our way around this massive country (and continent), the tides have turned and a neat job offer on a cattle station has left us packing up the 16 year old 4WD and driving 4000 km through the desert.  Sounds like an adventure right?

Although I haven't finished (or hell, even started to talk about Vietnam and Cambodia)), I thought it best to skip through them and periodically venture into the world of Asian blogging in the future. For now, I must capture the now and with the help of a trusty laptop this can be done!

We left Sydney on Wednesday (a day early, which is why I haven't called home yet). We decided to get a jump start on the road to ease a bit of the driving allotted for the first day. It's good we did because it took us a while to get of the Blue Mountain Range west of Sydney. We brought a tent along for cheap accommodations (and a true 'outback' experience), and stayed the first night in Mudgee.

The camping ground wasn't exactly Ontario Parks style; in fact, it felt more like a trailer park to me.  We made camp in the 'grassy' open field behind all the semi to fully permanent caravans, which at first seemed nice as we were the only ones in the field. ....then I noticed the birds, then when they stopped attacking each other, the mozzies and flies showed up.  Oh man, by the time we got the tent pitched, a dinner half cooking we'd collectively received closed to a million bites, and I had more bugs flying at my head than I cared for. I think I few might have even ended up in the frying pan (We could barely see the food, and when it was done we quickly scooped it out, then inhaled it so we could get out of the flies (I guess the 'no food in the tent'  rule has stuck with me). Within 15 minutes of this occurring we were sleeping.......i guess when times dictate it, one really can get a move on....and one can suddenly become very tired at 9pm....

Going to bed so early i guess isn't so bad when one is awoke at 5 am by the very same birds that so pleasantly greeted us on the way in....this time the noise was like a symphony though, and while a 5 am wake up call is not ideal, the  Galahs waking up a sleepy camper is a much better alarm than the standard buzzzzzzz of my travel alarm clock.....we spent enough time to eat, pack up and use the 'facilities', then sped off 800 km to a small mining town called Broken Hill.

While the swarming bugs, moths and all things flying were enough to make even a bug lover nuts (is there such a thing as a bug lover?), the morning toilets were pretty interesting in terms of bugs.....there was one that looked like an ordinary house fly who ate an enlargement cookie from Alice in Wonderland. It was the size of my entire hand!  I would have taken a picture, but my approach to this sort of thing was 'do no disturb the unmoving thing, it has wings, and you don't want it flying at you". I told max about it and he told me that when those things get stuck in a mosquito electric trap, then tend to sizzle.....ewwwwwwww

Leaving the camp site at 7 am, arriving in Broken Hill at 7 pm, with a short sojourn in Dubbo meant a very long day of driving.....at one point the GPS said, "in 100 meters enter roundabout. Take third exit. Drive 547 kilometers"..... you could practically see that 547 kilometres in the distance (the road is THAT long and THAT straight). I think this is probably what the Canadian prairies look like....minus the 'watch out for kangaroos' signs posted everywhere.

In the 700 km between Dubbo and Broken Hill we drove through exactly three towns.  One, Nyngan, two, Cobar , (the first mining town on the route, copper is the name of its gain), the third town was Wilcannia.....I don't even remember going through this one....really...primarily because by 'town' they could mean anything from a small town to a gas station on the side of the road….then we hit  Broken Hill, population 18 000, home of BHP Billiton, the largest mining company in Australia. (this is where it started).  The town itself is quite large for outback standards, and we were excited to see a town after driving for 3 hours, passing exactly four transport trucks (called road trains here), and two other vans of backpackers. One neat thing about Broken Hill is that they have an art gallery with Picasso and a Dali painting (which is impressive seeing as it is about 800km from a town over 30 000 people, and all the streets in this town are named after metals. We stayed on Argent street (at a backpackers),  other streets included Silver st, Cobalt St, Bromide St, sulphide st,  and garnet street. Pretty cool I thought.

 

Tech-in-da-Bush

I (think) I've finally figured out how to work technology in the Bush....so they'll be plenty of post coming your way!

Right now, I'm thinking about everyone, especially those remembering Garnie, a lovely man with a kind heart and even funnier sense of humour. Mac-a-momo anyone?

 

So many people have contacted me asking where I was, why I was there and how did I get there. Easy questions with long adventurous answers, and so I shall retell them over the course of the next few days.....as I wrote them on the long drive up here (to where I am, which is the Northern Territory of Australia). 360 km from anywhere bigger than a roadhouse.

 

As an update from my end, in the middle of no where, things here have gone slightly mental. We had something like 15 people here for a couple of days (which meant waaaay to much cooking....having to make 30 and35 eggs every morning for four days was splendid ;)). really at 4 45 am... a greasy breaky is the last thing I want to see, touch, or smell.....I also have made some Canadian/North American things and had to laugh when I watched the aussie eat them. For example, Tacos. We had to explain to one of the guys what to do because he was dumbfounded by all the bowls of toppings sitting on the table in the kitchen. I think he looked slightly scared. Second, baked potatoes in foil (400 degrees, 1 hr Thanks Dad and Kelly!). Everyone looked at me and asked what to do with them. Then when I told them they were potatoes they looked at me like I hadn't finished making dinner, then took them out of the foil before putting them on their plates. I later found out that this was not a typical aussie thing . Then I made that famous 5-layer Mexican dip (you know the one with beans, and sour cream and cheese and salsa?). hehe. they ate it like soup, in a bowl with a spoon.

 

In terms of weather. We have been lucky that the flooding hasn't hit us. It's been raining and the yards are really muddy, but the heat of the searing sun in the afternoon usually wipes away all traces of rain anyway.

 

In terms of bugs. they are still here.  We was an infestation of flying ants/termites (that come with the rain) for a couple of days, it was annoying, but interesting all these ants arrived by flight, then shed their wings and roamed around. (of course, they didn't clean up after themselves, so we have ant wings all over the place). Apparently they are a sign of rain. It did rain for three days after that (including one massive thunder storm). The lightening storms occur almost every night, and they are really neat to watch because the farm is silent, but the sky just lights up like fire works. The storm is too far away to hear the thunder (or bring rain), so you can just stand outside watching it fairly comfortably…..last night was particularly cool because there were four of them happening at the same time (in different parts of the sky).

 

There are still lots of toads hopping around, but we have a bit of a toad cemetery on the main road of the station when Des, the truck driver came through with his transport truck. He managed to smooosh 6 rolling into his parking spot in the back of the 'camp'.

 

Lastly, I still think early mornings are evil.

 

So the next few posts will be out of order, recounting the 4000 kms to Camfield. Enjoy!

 

p.s. I would and should and wish I could post some pictures but the internet speed will not allow it. You'll have to endure more detailed accounts I suppose. Sorry J

Family of Animals living in my room

Farm animals are funny. Tropical farm animals are even funnier. Frank, the Gheko is currently living in my room on the ceiling. I am not really fussed about it because:

1) I am bigger than Frank.
2) Frank is afraid of me, so he won't come near me, or attack me in my sleep.
3) He likes to eat the other bugs in my room, including Mosquitos.
4) He can't get past my mozzie net.
5) He's cute and has cool hands and feet and very large eyes
6) He's quiet.


This morning I woke up with Frank on the ceiling (as always), but then max said the words 'Jess, don't freak out'.....not something I really want to hear first thing in the morning, especially living in the Bush.....

Turns out Frank had a friend join him in our room last night.....a green frog....hopping for dear life. Max got a broom and tried to get the damn frog out of the room but he wasn't a very smart frog and hopped around the room, tried to climb the wall (and failed, watching him slowly slide down the wall was kind of pathetic). Maybe the frog was actually the smart one because he managed to get two grown humans to chase it around a room, and was still alive to tell the tale.

My room is slowly being infiltrated my animals...and I don't like this at all.....

The sound of 4000 cows

This morning I woke up to a cacophony of cow calls. well, actually cow MOOOOOs.

the funny thing is that leaving my house to make a 5 am breaky, a feat that could only be achieved by getting up at precisely 4 :16 am, meant that I couldn't actually SEE the 4000 cows in the yards in front of me because it was still dark....but I could sure hear them!

For me, a city girl, my face to face interaction with cows never surpassed one, maybe two at a time, and only country road drive by's (where you wouldn't hear'em any way), this means that I never actually realized just how loud their moos really are. or at least the collective volume of 4000, 300kg pieces of meat are....the on the theme of animal noises, the toads don't make a sound, they just hobble around, afraid of all humans....the frogs could deafen a small child with their deep burping-sound calls. The ghekops are just cute. We had a whole mama, papa and baby gheko family living in our bathroom a couple of night ago! oh, and the chickens are just funny. they run around in pairs squawking at one another, looking like they are playing tag (or better yet, because of the arc of their necks, it looks more like one is peppy la pew trying to give the other one a big kiss, while the other one extends their neck so far the mr. la pew cannot get his kiss...).

Back to the cows. Normally there are not 4000 cows in my front yard. Normally (well according to the baseline normalcy from the 2 weeks I've been here), only the baby calf's (called Potty's or Potties), and the cows who need a little extra TLC live in the paddocks and yards in front of me. But because our station has a too many cows at the moment, they've decided to muster a few thousand to sell before the rain comes. We are technically in the rain season now, but it (the rain) hasn't started yet. The spent the first day mustering using two helicopters and 6 cowboys on motorbikes, yesterday they went old school and used horses. I walked by the lot of them as they were leaving after breakfast. It was such a sight to see six wide-brimmed hatted cowboys ride off into the sunrise on their horses.......if I'd had my camera with me I would have taken a picture, it was THAT cool.

On the menu yesterday was meatballs and pasta. Of course, as there were 12 of them, I made enough to feed 500 and am now drowning in left overs......I also made a swirly white and chocolate cake which was divine. Most of the cowboys seem to live savory things though (which is a problem because I don't, and don't know how to bake 'savory' things). But, experimentation is the key to success, right? Move it along is a mantra here so for smoko I made sausage rolls with left overs from breaky and puff pastry (the only thing that comes ready made here). I also made muffins (which were not savory so were not gobbled up).

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Sooooo... as most know, I am currently in the middle of the Australian Outback, about 900 km away from any sort of town bigger than 10 000. (the closest town is 360km away and it has a population of 9000).

I have been writing about my epic 4000km adventure to my currently outback abode, but slow internet and lack of technical expertise means that it's taking longer to get the posts here. on this blog.

BUT rest assured, the adventure from Sydney to Camfield will be told!

Anyway, so Christmas in the Outback. right. First of all, it didn't really feel like Christmas because it was 37 degrees. Secondly, 'Christmas' morning everyone gathered in the outside covered veranda and drank ice cold juice, sparkling wine and beer (yes, beer) for breaky. Third, everyone was wearing shorts and t-shirts, and were too hot for a hot meal. Fourth, because we are no where near commercial anything, there were limited decorations, carols and well the typical commercialized holiday cheer that I soak up every December.

But, there was still a little christmas magic here, Santa arrived with prezzies for everyone (I got some nice european soap (which my poor cooky hands appreciate very much), a bright pink tooth brush (with a timer!), and a present addressed to 'cooky' containing yummy Christmas delights. A pretty low key Christmas, but nice just the same! Boxing day was a sleep and movie day, followed by a driving lesson. then more napping, making up for the 10 day work weeks ahead.

Boxing day night 7 visitors arrived, meaning 7 extra mouths to feed. They're here mustering cattle to be sold in the next few weeks. This morning I saw them ride off into the sunrise on horses. It was pretty picturesque for a city girl tickled pink to be living it up on a 6-week cooking stint.

Hope everyone enjoyed Christmas wherever they are!


Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Jess (m.A).