Advertisement
Published: January 28th 2008
Edit Blog Post
All went smoothly when we picked up the car, it turned out to be a Toyota Corrolla saloon, much better than the getz. The rain continued to pour down so after collecting all of our stuff we headed inland where everyone was sure it wouldnt be raining. We drove for a couple of hours and it was still raining so we carried on for another couple and guess what it was still raining. About an hour before it was due to get dark we decided we'd just have to find a campsite and put the tent up as quick as possible to stop it from getting wet inside. By some miracle the rain actually turned to a drizzle for the 15 minutes it took us to get set up so it wasnt too bad. When we woke up the next day we poked our heads out of the tent and nearly jumped for joy when we saw the blue sky, then we made the mistake of looking behind us when we saw some very black clouds coming our way- lets just say the tent was put down in record time!
We drove through the day, stopping at
a couple of places including Parkes to see the Radio Telescope (a big dish), which is one of the worlds most powerful telescopes and as made faous by the film "The Dish". The last stop of the day was Dubbo where it was dry and actually quite hot! The campsite was really busy so for the first time we decided to use our little portable gas hob, amazingly it worked really well and we didnt even have to walk the few metres to the camp kitchen- excellent. The only problem occured when Gra wanted a snack and decided to make some popcorn, I've never seen such black half popped popcorn in my life and our pan will never be the same again- his reason was was that he'd used the wrong oil!
The main thing in Dubbo is the zoo so as we didnt make it to the Steve Irwin Australia zoo due to the rain we decided to give it a go. It was a really nice day and by ten oclock the strange thing in the sky that gives off heat had come out (anyone would think we were in oz). The park was huge and all of
the animals had loads of space which was nice to see compared to some of our zoos back in the uk. Then back to the campsite to cook up some more snags on our little hob.
After another day of driving we arrived in Mildura, a really nice town inland from Adalaide. Here the sun really came out and the temperature rocketed up to about 45 degrees and thats hot even for me! We made our usual trip to the visitor centre to see what there was to do and made our plan for the next couple of days. The first thing on the list was the whispering wall, which is a dam and when you stand at one end of the wall you could whisper something and you could here it at the other end- very strange but very cool (and it entertained gra for a while). Then off to Mungo National Park, they offered trips out to this or you could drive yourself but they were unsealed roads which you're not meant to take hire cars down- ofcourse we decided to give it a go rather than paying out for a trip. Lets just say
after 5 minutes Gra was abit nervous and very nearly turned around but we didnt want to be seen as cowards so we carried on (and held on tight and just prayed that the car would survive), the road was mostly rock and sand, not one bit of tarmac in sight! After the long 60km we made it to the visitor centre, had a look around and got our tickets and headed towards the "Great Wall of China", no not THE great wall of china- that would just be silly. It was called this by chinnese men who worked there at one point and the name just stuck. Basically the park is where a huge lake used to be and where they found the oldest recorded human cremation in oz. It was amazing to look at but as soon as you got out of the car you were attacked by about a hundred flies and they just would not leave you alone no matter how many times you swore at them and how fast you tried to run from them (gotta say thanks to Cara for the fan she gave me as this came in very useful for keeping the
little sods away from my face). We couldnt do the whole road trip around the park as the roads got worse and we really didnt want to risk the car so headed back into town and stopped at a couple of winerys including Stanleys/Hardys which is what we'd been drinking quit alot of recently and did abit of wine tasting.
After abit of a sleepless night (it was still about 40 degrees outside and not much cooler in the tent) we headed to Lindemans winery and then to a little place in the country where they made jewellery with all kinds of stones from around oz and had demonstrations on how they were made etc. I couldnt get Gra to buy me anything but he did convince me to go in the big maze outside, I thought a maze made from trees well atleast they'll be some shade ad how hard can it be?? I was so wrong on both of these things, shade didnt make a slightist bit of difference and after 1 hour it wasnt seeming that easy! Atlast we made it out and decided to treat ourselves to a Mcdonalds hot fudge sundae (the best icecream
in the world and available all over the world, trust us we've had a few!)
Our next main stop was the Barossa Valley which is famous for its wines- heaven for alcholics like us. So ofcourse the day after arriving we headed out to the valley and spent the day tasting lots of nice (and some not so nice) wine including the famous Jacobs Creek- we actually stood at the creek. And Gra even found a brewery so tried a couple of home brewed beers there too, so overall a great day had by all!
Next stop Adelaide..............................................
Advertisement
Tot: 0.129s; Tpl: 0.016s; cc: 7; qc: 45; dbt: 0.0611s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb