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Published: November 5th 2006
Ahhh!
First time driving standard....don't kill me Jason!Origin of Travel: Cairns
Final Destination: Melbourne
Status: Achieved
Well, after about 3 weeks of driving from Cairns to the south of Australia, we have finally made it to Melbourne. Melbourne is a huge city, with 3 million people roaming the busy downtown streets in business suits. Very cosmopolitan.....my kind of city!
Well, I thought it would be difficult to sum my entire roadtrip into one travel blog entry, so I planned ahead, and kept a journal, writing the good stuff in it every night.
Day 1 (Saturday Oct.14/06)
We got our WICKED camper vans in the afternoon, and had a few VERY NECESSARY test drives after realizing they were STANDARD vehicles and that mine and Jason's van had an absolute shit stick shift. Our van was a beauty. Her name was "Ninja the Turtle" and even had a choke we had to pull out each time we started her up. Jason found it a bit difficult and frustrating to get used to the shifter, but after a few jerks and screeches, he got the hand. I actually didn't even stall my first time around. Everyone was quite impressed, while I was just nervous to be driving
on the left side of the road. I managed to turn the windshield wipers on, instead of the turning signal each time I went to make a turn. Hehehe, quite funny actually. Atleast our van had one out of three of the "must haves" Jason stated. We had a working radio. No air con or automatic car. Luckily I had bought an iPod transmitter, so we had wicked tunes the entire 6000km. We ended up leaving at 7:30 pm, because Brian got in a minor accident rear-ending someone. It was all good though, no damage done thank goodness. Our first stop was Edmonton! A small city just a half hour south of Cairns. The first night was spent in the McDonald's parking lot in Innisfail, and this was where I had my first Mackers meal since leaving Canada. I think I'll stick to Subway, thanks. Funny, how we hit two towns in a row that have the same city names as those in Alberta 😉
On Day 2, we spent the night in Cardwell. Now this is where I worked on the banana farm for 3 weeks, and a place I never thought I'd return to. It was my
third time there.
We just played card games, lied on the roof of our camper van, watching the stars, and put tree nuts on the road, while watching the big road-trains drive over them. Thats pretty much all we could do for fun in that town. It turned out to be quite alright.
Day 3 was a day of non-stop driving for us. We saw the first of the Red Centre and were amazed that just like that, everything was simply RED. Jason and I didn't realize we were out of gas until the meter was past the empty line. We freaked out a little, as we were in the middle of nowhere and couldn't see any gas station signs anywhere. We made it to this overly-expensive gas station just in the nic of time though. Saw a ton of very pretty waterfalls too.
Now Day 4 was a wednesday, and we drove again for hours and hours. It must have been 35 degrees or hotter, because all of us were seeing mirages, and drinking water like it was going out of style. Unbelievably, we came across an absolute Oasis in the middle of nowhere just waiting
Stick shift
My first time on the Australian Highway with ME behind the wheel. Too cool!!! for us. There was an artificial lagoon, a water-fall playground, and FREE showers. Infact, these were our first showers of the trip and well-needed. We took full advantage, practically throwing ourselves into the water after ripping into our bathing suits. A definite treat!
After showering, Jason decided to check our engine's water while it was STILL HOT!!!! Even though, the sign on the cap said, "Do NOT remove if hot to touch", Jason took it off. I was in the back of the van fixing something to eat, when all of a sudden I saw a fountain of brownish water flooding the front seat. It was quite funny! Lucky only a pillow (my fav. pink one), and MY purse were in the front, so only a few things got wet (MY stuff). That night, we spent in this little town called, Julia's Creek. We lied on our van, watching the stars that seemed close enough to reach out and grab while listening to the funniest Comedian ever, Dane Cook. If you get a chance, dowload "Harmfull if Swallowed" by him. It's too funny. After realizing how late it was, Jason and I snuck into a caravan park to use
Mackers
Our first campsite the toilets and get ready for bed. It was so dark, and we both had to pee really badly, so we just had a laugh attack when our flip flops got stuck in the mud. That night was a blast!!!!
On Day 5 (Wednesday), I drove for the first time and almost hit a vulture. Quite scary, but I managed to last about 6 hours behind the wheel, before giving Jason a try again. This day was quite a mix-up. We filled up on gas, and when I went in to pay for gas, I realized my wallet wasn't in my bag. I called the Julia's Creek IGA trying to remember where I had used it last, but was stumped. It turned out that when Jason checked the engine, which requires him to lift up the passenger's seat, my wallet got stuck underneath it. Thank goodness I had my wallet back, but one more little problem.......all my bank cards were bent out of shape. When we arrived in Mt.Isa, we took advantage of the air conditioned tourist centre for a while, then I headed to the Bank Machine to try out my card. CLEVER ME!!!! I forced it in
the ATM, and wierdly enough, it got stuck. Hahaha, perfect! So I went in to the branch, and they got it out for me. I still couldn't use itto get any money out though,so I also got them to send a new one to Adelaide where I could pick it up in a couple weeks.
On the Thursday, we stopped off @ "Devil's Marbles". This place was was so cool. There were huge, red boulders everywhere in the shape of marbles. We drove on, stopping at the UFO capital of the world. Just a little hick town appearing to state such a thing in hopes of attracting tourists. We also stopped at the Tropic of Capricorn, kinda cool I guess.
Now, that night we arrived in Alice Springs around 7:30 and headed straight to the Coles Supermarket to buy ground beef for dinner. We found the McDonalds in town, and parked our vans there. Brad and Brian were sitting in the Mackers, using their plug outlets to recharge everything from mobiles, and cameras to batteries and iPods. Hahaha, we had cords hanging all over that place. While the guys were watching our stuff get recharged, Jason and I
set up our little wooden table and chairs, and our mini gas burner, and made the best spaghetti dinner right infront of all the McDonald's drive-thru customers. Most just laughed when they passed us by. It even started raining, so we had to move under our van's back door to eat. To top off the night, we used McDonald's toilet facilitiesto get ready for bed before they closed. What a McDeal!
At around 1 in the morning, we had to move camp, because the manager said the cleaners needed to tidy the parking lot. We just moved around the corner to a vacant parking lot, where numerous drug deals were happening. Moved again, this time to a place which was SAFE! Too damn hot to sleep that night though!
On Friday, we finally headed off in the direction of Uluru, or Ayer's Rock, which is the world's largest monolith. Camped the night about 150km from King's Canyon at a truck stop. While Brad and Brian went for a nature walk to find camels and kangaroos in the wild, which they did infact find, Jason and I let a tumbleweed do what it was meant to do on this
earth - tumble.
That night, at around 10 at night, my friends, Amy and Andy who I worked with @ Pier Bar in Cairns just happened to stop at the exact same truck stop as us. We made a huge bon fire and roasted marshmellows, while catching up on eachother's roadtrip stories.
The next morning, Jason ran out to jump on Brad and Brians van to wake them up so we could get an early start at King's Canyon. Their bags were all piled up in the front seat and rolled off onto the horn, waking everyone up in the vicinity. The guys in the van were hardly phased by the loud noise, and Jason and I couldn't do much to stop it, as the doors were all locked. Hahaha, it was quite a giggle.
We arrived at King's Canyon around 10 30 am, not too hot, not too cold. Jason and I did the 2 hour hike, but ended up getting lost after not following the signs for an hour and a half. Thats when it started getting really hot. We each only brought a small water bottle, which we finished in the first half hour
of our hike, as well as our cameras. For the most part, we just sat on the rocks, talking about how good our lives had been and how much it would suck to perish in the Australian Desert. When we finally got back on track, one of the guides told us he often got lost, even while giving tours. We rushed through the second half of the canyon, which took another hour, barely looking up. As soon as we arrived back at the car park, Jason and I darted for the drinking water tank to fill and refill our water bottles. Note the time was 3:30. We had been with only a small amount of water for 5 hours. Not good, but we survived!
We drove back to camp, ate, napped, then headed back for the beautiful sunset. After that, we checked out the $45/person buffet. Decided to pass, and go for our usual...instant noodles and cordial flavoured water. Mmmmmm
On Sunday we finally made it to Uluru. It was a gorgeous sight to see. We payed the $25 National Park fee for a three-day pass, and immediately headed to the base for the sunset. Jason and I
The Oasis
This isn't a very good picture, but this is the lagoon we found after driver in the heat for hours made it half way up the steep rock, and just sat and watched the sunset from there. It was unbelievable, and please believe me when I say, the pictures do not do it justice. The bumpy formed rocks in the distance are the "Olgas", another famous rock formation. We would've done the climb to the top, but it was getting dark, so Jason and I headed down. It was scary to know that 35 people had died while doing the climb of Uluru, and numerous more injured. Jason and I were the last ones off the Rock for the night.
Day 10: Monday Oct 23/06
We were meant to wake up @ 5 am for the 6:05 sunrise, but Jason rolled into the driver's seat @ 5:45 and rushed to the sunrise-viewing platform while I was still curled up and dreaming in the back of the van. Brad found it hilarious that we only made it HALF-WAY up the rock the previous night, but the tables turned when we all found out the climb was closed due to strong winds at the summit. Half way turned out to be better than not at all. We went on a
Urrrgh!
I am just that strong :)
@ Deveil's Marbles
(WOW, it actually looks like I'm holding a rock up) FREE aboriginal tour instead, learning so much about the paintings on the rock, and the way in which Uluru was their home hundreds of years before. After the tour, we went for the most pituresque walk through the "Olgas", called the "Valley of the Winds". Jason and I seem to always be the last ones off of something, and added to that, when we finished our hike at 7:30 pm.
Tuesday, Day 3 @ Ayers Rock, was speant doing the 11km walk around the base. The climb was closed again due to temps. reaching higher than 36 degrees. Spent time at the cultural centre, then separated from Brad and Brian as they wanted to wait till the climb was open, hopefully being the next morning. Jason and I started journey towards Adelaide. We camped out at a truck stop again, and it was quite funny when I tried to sneak out to pee at 3 in the morning, because Jason thought someone was trying to break in, and started knocking on the van door to scare them away.
I will note that the climb WAS opened the next morning, so naturally Brad and Brian took full advantage of
that, and climbed it. Brian made it all the way up, but Brad - only halfway, just like us.
On Wednesday, we drove to Coober Pedy, which was a quite facinating little town, being in the top 3 for the largest Opal Factory in the world. There must have been a million Opal shops there. Jason and I rumuged through a few piles of rocks, but couldn't find any keepers. I guess we'll just have to stick to lottery tickets.
We made alot of progress on Thursday as we made it as far as Port Agusto in the south of Australia, did laundry for the first time, showered, and got a ton of helpful tips from the friendly gas station attendant on Melbourne. Now this guy was almost too friendly. He stopped by our van, which was parked for the night right outside the gas station, after his shift around 1 am to have a chat on the topic of Australia. That was alright, except for the fact that the talk lasted an hour, while the temp. was dropping, and the wind speeds were unbelievably fast. I was standing outside the entire time in shorts and a t-shirt,
just nodding my head, hoping he would stop to breathe for a second so I could say goodnight and get into the van where it was warm. Finally, there was a pause and I jumped in to thank him for his helpful tips. Finally some sleep!
On Friday or day 14, we finished the trip to Adelaide. We decided after driving through the busy, mixed up downtown streets, that we would park in a suburb when we arrived in Melbourne. We found an expensive $5/hour car park downtown, and ended up being an hour and 10, so were charged for the two-hour price. URRRRGH!
On Saturday, we got a 3 hour free parking pass, so took full advantage and saw more of the city. Although we weren't meant to spend money at the downtown market we were visiting that day, I recalled my fantastic bartering skills I possesed while in Thailand and saved Jason and I $10 on two silver rings. Pat on the back, thanks. I even got to check out my hotmail inbox for the first time since I left Cairns, which was a little full.....sorry for making you worry so much Mom and Dad! Drove
:)
Jason's pretty tough too I guess out of Adelaide to camp out at a beautiful viewpoint for the night, where Jason and I had Tim Tam Slams while watching a movie on his portable DVD player. It was absolutely freezing that night, so Jason and I had to resort to spooning.
Sunday, we drove to a small town, Millicent, which boasts the world's largest lobster. For some reason, the Australians are obsessed with the world's largest things, and has numerous such objects throughout the country. Ofcourse we took some funny photos before leaving town. On the drive to find a place to camp, Jason saw a warewolf. Hahaha, don't laugh! It was big and grey and moved across the road just like in the movies. I didn't see it, because I was picking a song on the iPod, but he's pretty positive he saw one. It's alot of fun to bug him on that little sighting. Hehe.
On Monday, we drove to the nicest little city right on the ocean; Portland. We parked our van right on the tip of a big cliff, overlooking the ocean, and made chili for dinner. It was absolutely freezing, so Jason and I bundled up with half the
clothes from our backpacks, and went for a walk, peering in all the beautiful mansions while walking by, and visiting the lighthouse.
Tuesday (Halloween) was the mark of day 18, and the start of our trip down the great ocean road. We stopped at a cheese factory, where we tried all the samples twice, and ended up buying two small triangles of cheese; a very nice mustard-pepper cheese, and a vintage cheddar. Our first viewpoint was that of the "London Bridge". Then, we visited the beach where the only two survivors of the Loch Ard ship were marooned in 1887.
The next view point, was the coolest, and definitely the highlight of our G.O.R. trip..... The Twelve Apostles. Jason and I just sat, looking at them for ages before heading back to our van for dinner. Immediately after eating, we headed back to see the sunset. It was beautiful! Everyone left afterwards, except for Jason and I, because we had heard that right before it gets dark, penguins will come in from the water, down on the beach below the 12 Apostles. Sure enough, three groups of little baby black penguins were riding the waves in to the
shore. They were so funny, seeming to put on a little show for us. They stayed together, so when all of them finally got onto dry land, one of them would always turn around and run back into the water, then of course all would follow. It was like, they were saying,"Nope, not ready to come in for the night, lets start from scratch!" Very, very entertaining! After the little show, Jason and I, once again being the last ones at the 12 Apostles,headed back to our van and camped there for the night.
On Wednesday, we had one last gander at the famous rocks, then were on our way to Melbourne. One last stretch, and we'd be there!
I must mention, we stopped on top of a cliff on the shoulder of the highway to get something to eat, and while cooking in the back, our van started to slowly roll forward. How scary is that! I ran into the front to step on the brake, while Jason pulled one last click on the park brake. Ninja was good to us for the 6000km, but we'll be ready to hand her back into "WICKED" on Tuesday.
We arrived in Melbourne at night time, showered, parked in a suburb, and headed into the city. We're having so much fun in Melbourne right now, but we've decided to fly to Perth on Wednesday to pursue a job, and possibly get some surfing done before our year comes to an end.
Now that was a SWEET roadtrip!!!!
😊
I will mention that we did only pay for THREE campsites the entire 28 days with the van. The other nights, we just camped at truck stops. Nicely done!
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Johanna
non-member comment
Great pictures
Hey you! I really liked your pictures, i recognised some of the places, been there done that, heehee :) Have a great time in perth. i promise to email pictures as soon as i get organised. take care Johanna