jollygreengiant

The adventure is over. I arrived home this morning. The final several thousand kilometres were travelled in fairly quick time, however the weather has not been the greatest since Adelaide. My arrival in Sydney was greeted with non stop rain and the coldest September day in 33 years. However despite the weather, the sign reading "Welcome to Sydney" which greeted me as I travelled north up the Hume Highway brought a slight tear to my eye. After 104 days and 31,300 kilometres of travel around this spectacular country of ours, I was ready to come home. Last Thursday I travelled from Geelong to Melbourne, where after a day trip through the city, trying to deperately understand the road rules in force in this city, along with dodging the odd tram, I met up with some former ... read more

Welcome to Victoria! I left Adelaide yesterday morning - interestingly enough the sun was out ... well I think I saw it for a fraction of a second anyways. I soon hit rain again as I headed out on the Princes Highway towards the east. Made me feel better about leaving Adelaide so quickly. My first stop was Portland - a town I skipped on my last journey across Australia. I had no idea what Portland had to offer - but here was my opportunity to find out. I was pleasantly surprised to see signs advertising a “seal colony”, “blowholes” and the “petrified forest” upon approaching the township. Sounded like my detour was going to be worthwhile! Unfortunately the walk to the seal colony was a 2 hour return trek - as it was threatening to ... read more

It rained, was cold, windy and generally miserable! What more can I say?... read more

DAY 1 : I begin this entry from Eucla - a town ... well more of a “property” .... about 700kms east of Norseman. I left Norseman this morning at around 7.30am, and as expected, I hit some light rain for the first hour or so on the road. Whilst not a huge amount of water, it was enough to raise a spray from the wheels of the road trains heading down the highway both east and west. Let me assure you that this does not make passing these beasts any easier - but most of the truckies are good and will flash their right indicators to specify when it is safe to pass. I have to say that the Nullabor so far is all it was written up to be - a mind numbing drive ... read more

Hey all Am not in Esperance at all ... but Norseman is not in the list (which to be honest ... is hardly surprising!!) Norseman is a small two-bit town (sorry guys!) which is at the start of the Eyre Highway - that imposing stretch of road which goes across the Nullabor. Having driven from Albany this morning - some 700 kms away - the plan is to rest here for the night and then start the drive across the Nullabor first thing in the morning. If all goes to plan, I should be in Adelaide in 4 days time - on Sunday afternoon. I have the feeling that the rain I experienced today - albeit just a sprinkle - which by the way, is the first rain I have experienced since the Qld not-so-Sunshine Coast, ... read more

Hey everyone .... I have made it to Perth! I have to say that as a city, Perth is great! I’ll be honest and say that I do prefer the more rural areas which I have visited during my trip, however in a race between cities - Perth is definitely up there. After leaving Monkey Mia I headed down to Geraldton for the night. Being a fishing port, I had to try the seafood and picked up some king prawns for dinner. The guy in the seafood store assured me that the prawns I chose were cooked just that day. In hindsight, I think I was taken for a ride! They were ok - but definitely not fresh unfortunately. Oh well. I was scheduled to hit Perth on the following day (last Friday) but a must-do ... read more

First of all, let me say that I am rather disappointed that no one commented on the title of my previous post - namely “Having a Whale of a Time”. I was sure that at least a few of you would have a go at me over it! :-) Am in Coral Bay for the night about 150kms or so south of Exmouth. Am still on Ningaloo Reef - however I have to say that I preferred Turquoise Bay - the water was a tad warmer, and the fish life was more varied, although I did see a Manta Ray in the water today. More on that in a little bit. I awoke yesterday morning to a howling wind roaring around the Thunderbox, so I immediately thought my chances of snorkelling again were looking fairly slim! ... read more

What a difference a couple of days makes! I have just spent my first night in Karijini National Park after driving down from Broome via Port Hedland on Tuesday. Being south of Broome, and further inland, it is bloody cold - particularly at night. The drive from Broome was fairly uneventful, and rather unexciting, except for the colony of termite mounds which the local miners had duly decorated with miners hard hats on the way into Port Hedland. I always knew Port Hedland as the location of the immigration detention centre up in the north west - apparently there is more to Port Hedland than just that. I read somewhere that 34% of the worlds sea based iron ore passes through the region. That is pretty impressive - but not surprising when you see the dark ... read more