Life on the Road

Camping is the way forward....

Even though you are well prepared for the fact that your money won't go that far in Australia after being in the cash cushion of Asia....it still manages to take you by surprise somewhat. For example the bus ticket that I bought for all my travels in Vietnam..from the North to the South of the country cost $20 USA...To travel from Perth to Darwin on a Greyhound bus cost in the vicinity of $600 aussie dollars, obviously the mileage is somewhat greater in the latter of the two but you get the idea of the disparity.

Consequently hiring a campervan is an affordable way of seeing the country. It comes with fringe benefits too: you can stop when you want to break up long journeys, with a ten minute pit stop here and there or pull over if you see something of interest or stop somewhere for a dip in the sea to cool down and recharge. It also means that you get to stay in campsites where you generally only pay $20-25 for your pitch. When you split that between 3 or 4 people (along with the van hire too) indepedant travelling becomes a very affordable option...

And so sleeping bag in one hand...billy can in the other I left Perth with my friends in a blaze of colour in a psychedelic campervan...actually not quite as Scooby Do as that, it had a picture of a Ferrari spray painted on the side and the below logo on the boot. My friends ultimate destination was Alice Springs, mine was Darwin so it was agreed that we would go our separate ways in Katherine, a little town just south of Darwin However that was a mere matter of 4000km away!

Obviously there are downsides to life on the road i.e. thinking of what culinary delights you can conjur up using just one pan! As a result you end up living on a diet of noodles, tinned spaghetti and something called STAG, this is chilli in a tin and actually doesn't taste as repulsive as it sounds. However these foodstuffs are dramatically put in the shade when you drive into these little west coast seaside towns - fish is obviously bountiful and beautiful in these parts and it would be rude not to partake. The number of times we drove into somewhere clutching at our three minute noodles, when the aroma of fish and chips hit the air, we would glance at our noodles and toss them aside as they live to see another day. The fish is superb and a relatively cheap option if you stick to Fish and Chips style fish-its a must.

We're on a road to nowhere

WA (Western Australia) as it is referred to in these there parts is huge-Perth, for example is the most remote capital (state) city in the world, it is closer to Singapore than Sydney! WA is basically the same size of Western Europe.WESTERN EUROPE- just one state of this country is the size of WESTERN EUROPE..The sheer magnitude of this country never ceases to astonish me. However so so much of this space is totally inhabitable...just land for as far as the eye can see: imagine being able to turn yourself around 360 degrees to look for miles at absolutely nothing. The loneliness of the land cannot help but make you feel slightly anxious as the sun starts to go down..especially if you need to stop for a minute. There was one time when we stopped to get water out of the back and a Road Train pulled over in the same layby-it was slightly unnerving and the four of us agreed that if he looked remotely shifty we were to get in our Ferrari and speed off! he was actually one of the nicest blokes and we chatted for a few minutes about life on these roads..He told us of a story that had happened a few days previously when a young girl had tried to overtake a road train and it had ended in tragic consequences..

You can drive (and we did) for hours along solitary roads where you won't see but one person coming the other way, there will unfortunately by the odd bit of animal roadkill by the roadside (generally kangaroos) but thats about it. When you do see someone its actually rather exciting and depending on how friendly they are, you may even exchange waves! I found that quite comforting, a show of comradeship...'yes isn't this awful, its hot, its boring, its tiring but that Campsite isn't too far away...keep going matey'...maybe it was just a wave but it went deeper than that for me!!

Unfortunately as we know only too well with outback murders that have taken place this can be a tragically dangerous country. Consequently you cannot afford to be unprepared, there are many websites which will give you camping and driving in Australia advice. Take heed of them-research your routes and roads too as you may find that during wet season some of them are inaccessible. Always try and travel with someone who you can swap driving with and always try and get to your destination before night falls.

Roadhouses

Roadhouses....the one bit of respite that you get in a long day traveling in a tin van resembling a microwave on wheels..these little places/communities are a big part of life on the road and you can meet some real characters working there-well lets face it you would have to be mildly insane to choose to live somewhere where your just 'popping to the shops' means you won't return for two days.

My favourite roadside character was Trev. Trev ran a roadhouse in Paradoo which was 274 km from Broome. He greeted us with open arms in a manner I would have expected if we were his millionth customer and the winners of a complimentary Beef Pie.

Trev wore shorts that were far too short, Trev had a lumberjack shirt half buttoned, revealing exactly who had eaten all the pies and Trev had a mullet that can only be described as offensive, obviously Limalh was still in fashion when he last took his two day trip to the nearest barbers. However I loved Trev all the same. he also had a talent with accents and would switch between Ozzy, Scottish, Cockney and Irish, I was going to ask him if he spoke permanently in an english accent when we won the ashes but I still needed to get lunch so I decided best left unsaid. Trev made the best roast beef and gravy rolls, but it has to be said that that is another thing about Roadhouses...the culinary selection is somewhat limited. The words "I'll have the Greek salad but go easy on the olives" will never be uttered in these establishments. The emphasis is on fast greasy food: pies, chips, pies, burgers, pies, hot dogs, pies....you catch my drift....

Camping is the new Black

The campsites in Australia are friendly, more often than not being run by a family, they are clean and well equipped-generally very well run. A lot of the ones that we went to were good also in that you could park up even if you had arrived after the office had shut and merely pay the next morning. The only slight problem was that even at night the van got very hot and this was compounded by four people sleeping in a very very confined space...As my good friends know-I don't tolerate heat very well and there was the occasional moment when I had a bit of a hot panic attack where I woke up and still half asleep would start muttering "let me out, let me out" as I scrambled to open the door and fall onto the grass below. But the good times outweighed the bad shall we say!

I liked camping before this trip but now I love camping! In fact following this trip I have decided that camping is my new thing. When I come back home Millets will be my favourite shop and my social calendar will have to fit around my camping commitments. Yes thats right guys My name is Clare Marsland and I enjoy roughing it...

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