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Published: August 9th 2010
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Wednesday July 28th was a very crazy day. This was the deadline for us to leave Melbourne and begin our road trip around Australia. Because I worked up until the very last minute, I hadn’t really prepared myself for the big trip; which is no surprise to me now, I realize that I am a huge procrastinator when it comes to packing and travelling. Anyway, by the time we said good-bye to the roommates, packed the car, bought a new gas cap (we lost the first one somewhere) and got on the road it was almost 4:30 in the afternoon. This is a big deal, only because the number one rule of driving in Australia is don’t do it at nighttime, because that is when all the animals are moving around, and if we were to hit a kangaroo it would total our car.
Leaving Melbourne we headed west towards Adelaide, on the first night of driving we made it half way, and the only thing that I think we missed seeing was the biggest statue of a koala (like the size of a house). The first night sleep was spent in a rest stop, one of the fancy ones
with toilets, so I was very happy.
The next day we continued west towards Adelaide and made it, the drive was very beautiful, but sadly I saw no kangaroos, which I was promised were everywhere. On the way into Adelaide we had to drive through the Adelaide Hills, which is where we learned that Cricket (our car) can’t go very fast up hills or overtake another vehicle. This caused great concern and first thing we did when we got to Adelaide was find a mechanic, who happened to also be and Elvis impersonator. The appointment was made for the next morning so we continued onto the beach and went to one of the coolest hostels I have seen and where I took my first free shower without staying a place. That night was spent sleeping in the car on a residential street. This was a very weird emotional situation. I am living in car by choice but in a weird sort of way I was still very afraid of being judged by someone knocking on the window.
The next day in Adelaide, was getting Cricket fixed, exploring the market, seeing Rundall Mall, going to Penfolds Winery, and then
for a walk on the beach at sunset. That evening we continued our way North to try to get closer to the Barossa Valley.
Barrossa Valley is the Napa of Australia. They make mostly Shiraz wine but the area originally started out making fortified wines for medicinal purposes. The wineries that we visited were Jacob Creeks (gross), St. Hallett (which was my favorite), Yalumba (very pretty and the Viognier was fab), Torbreck (most wines they were sampling were between $200 to $700 bottle), and finally ended the day at Sepplefield (yummy ports, holy moly)!
The next stop was at Port Augusta, which was really just a shower stop and then onto Flinders Range. I want to take a second and talk about living in a car. Cricket is a station wagon that we removed the back seat out of and Dave built an elevated bed frame. So below we store all of our things. There is a kitchen, a storage area, a fridge (cooler), fruit and veggie storage space, an automotive section, and a wine cellar. On top of the bed frame, there is a mattress and clothes section, a pantry for dry storage, and a linen section.
At night when it is bed time, we do have to move have the guitar and wet suit to the front seat so that we can sleep. The nights are still pretty cold but thanks to our old roommate there are plenty of blankets. Showers are mostly taken (break time we just hit and killed our sixth bird, they are seriously kamikaze out here) back to the point, showers are mostly where ever we can find them, truck stops, hostels, public bathrooms. Toilets are pretty much like being on an overland again except there are plenty of rest stops around Australia.
So back to travelling, from Port August we went to the Flinders Range where on the way there I saw my first wild Kangaroo! That evening the plan was to get close to the place where we were going to hike the next day so we drove as far as we could to free camping. This was the first night that we cooked dinner; it was freezing but ended up tasting amazing. The next day we plugged in Karen (the GPS) and she indicated that we needed to turn around 50 km in the direction that we came
the night before to get to the Wilpena Pound Resort (according to Lonely Planet the gateway to the Wilpena Pound where the hiking is at). Please keep in mind, that we were looking at the map that was saying the city Wilpena was only 10 km away from us and Flinders National Park was about 5km away from us; we trusted Karen, headed back the way we came the night before. We did enjoy a nice hike on the way back through the Arkaroo trail. When we made it to the town and asked how to get to Wilpena Pound the lady told us to turn around again and head back the way we just came. Karen has been in the glove compartment since. Finally got to Wilpena Pound, the hike was just over 6 km round trip and took about 2 hours. To this point I am not sure what all the fuss is about.
The rest of South Australia is mostly “Outback”. You might wonder what that is, and I can tell you it is nothing but open land with lots of trees, bushes, and animals. On a sad note, I do need to talk about the
road kill along the Stuart Highway, which runs North and South through the middle of the Australian outback. Road kill here is like nothing I have ever seen before. They don’t use fences in South Australia so besides the usual dead kangaroo or bird we have also seen dead cows and horses, it is very weird. Besides all of that, the outback is very beautiful but it is huge, indescribably huge. One thing that was really great about the outback was stopping in the very small town (gas station and a couple of houses) and seeing my friend Sean from Jamaica. I hadn’t seen Sean in about 10 years. It was a great time catching up and hearing about his life living in Australia, and meeting his son Zeni.
That pretty much sums up the first part of Southern Australia, there will be more to come after we make it around the beast of the state Western Australia.
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Gary
non-member comment
Keep blogging.
We need a picture of your transportation!! Do you have a Garmin GPS. We have one and Karen is still our guide at home here in Canada. Shows you where I would like to be, doesn't it. Like the blog so far, keep it up. Enjoy your adventure. Gary