Blogs from Australia, Oceania

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Oceania » Australia » Western Australia May 24th 2024

Friday 24 May, Bakers Hill Mileage 25489 travelled 304 KmWith the Greta Eastern Highway only meters from our camp site it was a cold and long night, the trucks stop for nothing and go all night, whilst they try to minimise the noise they still have to brake to go through the town bugg….Travelling through the wheat belt areas of Merredin and Tammin it is very obvious that the rains have failed and very few fields show signs of been seeded, with green shoots a rarity. At this time of year all the fields should be green having been seeded in April but it is not evident, looks like a lean year for the farmers.With familiar names of the small wheat belt towns it really feels like we are close to home now, with only ... read more
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Oceania » Australia » Western Australia May 23rd 2024

Thursday 23 rd , Southern CrossSouthern Cross Caravan ParkCost $30 per night, Rated by us 5/10 Mileage 25185 travelled 768 KmBack on the road and we hit the longest stretch of straight road in the world the famous 90 Miles Straight, which is actually 146.6 kilometres, of dead straight road going off to the horizon.Now we are warned of camels, Emus and kangaroos typical Australian wildlife that loves the road for some reasons, lots of “road kill” as the dead animals are known as in Oz. Again the landscape is much greener than I expected and or remembered as we wind our way to Southern Cross, long drive today. Rocky outcrops and dry lakes as we head further west, the rain has failed here and the land is now looking very dusty and ... read more
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Oceania » Australia » Western Australia May 22nd 2024

Wednesday 22 nd May, Cocklebiddy Cocklebiddy RoadhouseCost $30 per night, $4 for showersRated by us 5/10 Mileage 24417 travelled 755 KmBig push today to try and make the Cocklebiddy Roadhouse. We do not want to have to stay in the Yalat area as it is in strife at the moment with lots of tribal fighting and drinking issues. The landscape is flat and lots of nothing as far as the ye can see. Finally got a good shot of a four trailer road train when we stopped to change drivers, I am trying to do as much driving as I can to ease the load on G whilst we run for home.The landscape is much greener than I remember as we head onto the border of SA/WA.The Nullabor has many tracks and roads ... read more
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Oceania » Australia » Western Australia May 20th 2024

Monday 20 th May, CedunaBig4 Ceduna Caravan ParkCost $41 per night Rated by us 7/10 Mileage 23662 travelled 453 KmHaving decided not to investigate the Eyre Peninusula which is south and will be colder, we headed back north to cut across the top of the peninsula. Taking the back road across to Iron Knob cut off some 200kms from the trip. Even though it was not particularly early the kangaroos were out in abundance, the locals are obviously used to this road and slowed down in certain section, we followed their lead and managed to avoid hitting any roos with some clever braking from G.Iron Knob is the iron ore mine which supply's the smelter at Whyalla to make steel. At the moment, despite lots of government money, the smelter was closed for ... read more
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Oceania » Australia » Western Australia May 18th 2024

Saturday 18 th May, WhyallaBig4 Whyalla Caravan ParkCost $41 per night Rated by us 8/10 amazing view but windyMileage 23209 travelled 270kmWell we wanted to get out of the heat of Darwin and we have certainly done that with another freezing cold night buried under all the blankets we have in the van, talk about one extreme to the other!Before heading of to Whyalla, our stop for tonight, we headed off to the Woomera Open Air Museum, this was the reason for our detour off the main highway.The museum is by way off open air displays around the streets of the town. It is very obvious that this was once a military base as all the housing is uniform and well laid out. This was the testing base for the first British/Australian nuclear ... read more
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Oceania » Australia » Western Australia May 17th 2024

Friday 17 th May, WoomeraWoomera Caravan ParkCost $25 per night Rated by us 6/10Mileage 22939 travelled 433kmWe set off slowly into town to pick up some basic supplies and visit one of the opal mines.The Umona Opal Mine, unfortunately the mine tours had been cancelled until 4pm, so we looked around what we could and headed to the opal shop to buy a few gifts for the girls. As we left the museum I spotted a Sturt Desert Pea growing in the car park, it was bellyful the more so as it had chosen such a barren place to grow, I cannot grow them at home and they are amazing, took some good shots. As we left heading south on the good old Stuart Highway again, the mines are everywhere and have created ... read more
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Oceania » Australia » Victoria » Melbourne » Essendon May 16th 2024

Today we head home. But first up is a visit to the Naracoorte Caves National Park. Issy remains convinced that caves have been designed specifically to lull her into a false sense of security before thousands of tonnes of rock collapse in on top of her, so it seems I’m on my own. We read that there are 28 known caves in the park. Only four are open to the public, with the locations of the rest being kept secret from the general populace so they can be used for scientific research. I join a tour through the largest publically accessible cavern, the Victoria Cave. It might be called a Caves National Park, but it seems the big ticket item here is fossils. We’re told that the Park is one of the ten most important fossil ... read more
Prehistoric megafauna, Victoria Cave, Naracoorte
Victoria Cave, Naracoorte
Victoria Cave, Naracoorte

Oceania » Australia » Western Australia May 16th 2024

Thursday 16 th May, Coober PedyBig4 Stuart Range Caravan ParkCost $41 per night with membership, drive throughRated by us 7/10Mileage 22506 travelled 419kmThe Stuart Highway has to be one of the most uninteresting roads we have driven I can see why people say “I survived the Stuart Highway”. The road is straight and stretches for ever, we drove past a number of strange large rocks which seemed to be standing sentry like on the road side. We stopped at the Kulgera Pub for coffee this is the first and last pub in the NT, as we approach the border with South Australia. There is a Hills Hoist from which people have hung trainers not sure what that is all about, just an Ozzie thing. The pub is interesting and actually had a huge ... read more
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Oceania » Australia » South Australia » Naracoorte May 15th 2024

I’m up before dawn and head a few kilometres out of town to get an early morning view of the ruins of a Cobb and Co Coach House Hotel. It’s apparently famous for appearing on the front cover of the “Diesel and Oil” LP, which was released by the iconic Australian rock group Midnight Oil back in 1987. It just looks like a ruined farmhouse …. well apart from a sign pointing to stony a car park right in front of it, and another sign saying that you’re not allowed to camp. There’s absolutely no one here, and I think you’d probably have to be a slightly over-obsessed “Oils” fan to even think about setting up your tent here on the gravel, but each to their own I suppose. I was hoping to recreate the photo, ... read more
Burra Town Hall
Burra
Outbuilding, Midnight Oil House, Burra

Oceania » Australia May 15th 2024

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