Day 12

 Day 12

Guess what???! It was another cold night's sleep! Our plan had been to head to The Grampians and camp there for a couple of days, but the forecast was saying it was single digits in that mountainous area, and we just are not equipped for those sort of temperatures, as you may have worked out by now! We packed up without breakfast again, and drove to the Grampians for a day trip. 

We did a little walk to The Beehive Falls (The Mackenzie Falls were closed, for anyone who knows that area) which was nice. No wildlife, but nice to get the legs pumping a bit.

Beehive Tinkle?

We then headed to Boroka Lookout, which would have been really lovely if it was a clear day 😉

There is a place called The Grand Canyon, so we had to go there. I have been to The Grand Canyon in the US before, so it would be interesting to see how they compare 😂 As expected, this one was a little smaller, but it was still very lovely. Up until now, walks we've been on have been just us. We've barely seen a soul! But this walk was very different - there were people everywhere! Anyway, the Canyon itself made you feel off kilter, as the rocks look like they are placed diagonally. It's hard to describe, but it feels like you're on a slope, although you know you're on flat ground.

The Grand Canyon

It was a bit cold to begin with!

Stunning.

There was a bit of clambering to do, and I only had trainers on which, it turns out, have barely any grip on them, so I almost slipped a few times on the smoother rocks. There was one guy in the group ahead of us who was just leaping around like a mountain goat. I was envious. I am the unfittest I have been in my whole life - a combination of an office job vs a shop job, medication, living through 2020 and not going to the gym anymore have taken their toll. I have decided that I am in "My Montage Era." You know in movies where the character has a goal of getting fit, or good at something, and then there's a montage of them getting better/fitter as the enthusiastic music plays, until they've made it! Well, as I am not in a film, I have to do that montage bit in real time sadly, but every hike I do brings me closer to the end of Eye Of The Tiger song and much easier hikes in three months time, if you know what I mean!

With My Montage Era (MME) in mind, we got to the end of the Canyon walk, and were then faced with a decision: go back to the car park or do a 1.7km trail to The Pinnacle. Please remember that we had had no breakfast or lunch (other than an apple and a hot cross bun for me, and an apple and some crackers for Chris) We had had no tea or coffee yet, and we had brought less than 800ml of water between us. But we thought "it's only 1.7km, that won't take long" and so we ploughed on. It's all for MME, after all!

It might have been a mistake. We'd been walking and going up steps for at least 45 minutes before we got to a sign that said "halfway there" and we were still going up! We were this far in now, so we had to do the whole thing, didn't we?! It was incredibly tough for me, but it was a very interesting walk. There were tricky bits and scrubby bits, and narrow bits and climby bits. I just wish we'd had more water. And fuller stomachs - Chris' was rumbling on the way down!

Us at the top. I look a lot less red faced than I thought I would!

The view to the right

The view to the left

A narrow, climby bit

We drank the last mouthful of our water, took a photo and then headed back down. It took an hour to get back to the carpark, and once there I saw a sign that said the Pinnacle walk was a 2.5 - 3 hour return walk, medium - hard grade, take 2 litres of water per person 😂😂😂😂😂😂 To be fair, if I had actually read that sign before going, would I have done it? I'm not sure. Even for MME I definitely would have brought more water. Glad we did it though.

After a massive drink and a change of clothes (I was soaked in my sweat) we hopped on the car and drove down to Port Fairy, where the temperatures were supposed to be a bit milder. We had an early (but much needed!) dinner and then went for what was supposed to be a three minute walk to look at the lighthouse. Turns out that was how long it was to drive - Chris didn't change it to "walk" on google maps 😂. It was problaby more like a 30 minute walk on our poor legs! Port Fairy is one of the oldest settlements in Victoria, and it's full of gorgeous old houses. We looked at house prices and most are way out of our price range, so we won't be moving there any time soon, sadly.

The Port Fairy Lighthouse

Guess which route we chose?!

It started to rain on our way back, and as it was Saturday, we thought "let's go to a pub!" There was live music playing and a really good atmosphere. After two drinks, we made our way back to the swag for a well earned sleep.

Days 10 - 11

 Day 10:

Goodness me what a terrible night's sleep! The wind picked up, Chris was snoring, it got really cold, my pillow was so uncomfortable. The night was never ending! I felt very sorry for myself.

Turns out I was sleeping on Chris' pillow so that answers that question...

After a cup of tea and some breakfast, with a huge flock of galahs swooping around above us in the trees, I felt more human and we got ready to go on a walk around Lake Crosbie. It was still pretty chilly, so we wore long sleeves. Chris also brought the snake bite kit with him 😂

Snake first aid kit on Chris' hip!

There was heaps of evidence of kangaroos around, but we saw no wildlife whatsoever, apart from a couple of birds, which was disappointing. 

I know they looks like dragon's talons, but this is actually kangaroo tracks

The walk itself was really good though. It took about two and a half hours to walk around the lake and we had all the weather turn up - windy, sunny, cold, rain, wind, sun. It was very interesting to see how the colour of the lake changed as the weather and our location changed. It really was very stunning.

Fact time: pink lakes are pink due to the salinity of the water and the algae that lives in there. The algae produces red pigment to proctect itself from the sun. The salt in these lakes was harvested (I think that's the best word, but Chris says mined is better. You choose your own adventure 😉) right through to the mid 1900s. It was horrible work. It had to be done during the hottest months of the year, as the most evaporation happened then. Workers would be constantly covered in salt, their shoes would wear through easily, and I imagine they would have been blinded by the brightness reflecting off the salt. Not a job for me, I can tell you that much! Some of the old equipment has just been left there to rust away, which could be classed as rubbish, but it was pretty cool. I did not take photos of any of that though 😂

Here are a bunch of photos of the lake. It was really gorgeous.

Pink!

Pink salt

It really was this pink!

Evaporation

Fly nets were needed!

We got back to camp, had some lunch, Chris did some computer work and I tried to write the blog. The wind got up so much and we had a bit of a debate of whether we should stay or pack up and move on. Even though we'd had such a bad night's sleep, we wanted to stay as 

a. it was nice to have a day off of packing up the swag

b. it really was a gorgeous spot

c. it was free

d. we might see more kangaroos bounding across the vista.

Chris checked the weather and said the wind was supposed to die down in the evening, and really, how could it be a worse night than the night before???

We ended up hunkered down in the swag to get out of the wind. I had a nap. The wind got so strong it was lifting up the end of the swag, and each gust brought sand in. It was a bit miserable, but we were past the point of leaving now as we'd be driving during prime kangaroo time. We'd definitely come off second best if we hit a big one.

After we pinned the swag down, we ventured outside to cook some dinner - chicken with pasta, tomato sauce and leftover coleslaw mix. Due to the wind and the cold, it took aaaaaaaaages to cook and I decided we couldn't have pasta with it as I wasn't sure if the water would ever boil! We had chicken with slightly cooked coleslaw mix and some cheese on top. The cheese blew off in the wind, and the entire meal was cold as soon as it came out of the pan 😂

We returned to the relative sanctuary of our swag and played yahtzee. The dice gods must have taken pity on us that night. I rolled a yahtzee in my first go, and four more were thrown over the next three games! Unbelievable!

Guess what?! It was another terrible night's sleep 😂😂😂

Day 11

We packed up without making breakfast, or tea, and got out of the cooooooolllllld place. We tried to pull over a couple of times to see if we could make tea, but it was just too windy.

We drove to a small down called Warracknabeal, where we camped in a caravan park. We really needed to do some washing and were hanging for a hot shower. (There was only a long drop loo at the lake). First stop was food though, and went to a pub called The Creekside Hotel. I have never met a more welcoming and lovely publican! And the mushroom gravy that came with my schnitzel was drool worthy!

We then did our washing, made a cup of tea and played some yahtzee whilst we waited for it to dry. There were no where near as many yahtzees scored that afternoon.

It was Friday night and it was still cold and windy, so I suggested we go back to the pub for a drink, and maybe some chips with that delicious mushroom gravy. Chris was in agreement, so we went. We walked along the creek to get there, galahs squawking in the trees. The gravy was as delicious as it had been at lunch. It was a good call! After a couple of drinks, we braved the cold and walked the seven minutes or so back to our camp-site. I had my head torch so I could see all the spiders' eyes glinting like jewels at me. I don't know why I enjoy that so much, but I do. It also seems that the bigger the glint looks, the smaller the spider...

Anyway, we heard a crash in a tree, and I saw the tail end of something grey and furry scurry up. I didn't see a tail, so I was pretty sure it was a koala which was very exciting! When we got back to camp, I saw two eyes reflecting in my torch, so I gently walked over and there was a possum staring back me. It scurried up the tree and now I think that the "koala" was probably a possum, actually. What a shame!

Days 7 - 9

 Day 7:

After a peaceful night's sleep, we packed up and headed into town for our walking tour.

Terry was our guide and over the next three hours, he told us stories about a wide range of histories of the town: mining, silver, art, working unions, train lines, trees, and so much more. Not that I've ever really looked into the history of Broken Hill or thought about it much (other than the drag queen ad of course!) but I was quite shocked about how forward thinking people living in this town were. The mining union stuff was very strict and there were some very long strikes, and say what you will about unions and strikes, but essentially the miners of Broken Hill paved the way for a 35 hour work week, paid holiday leave and were at the forefront of what is now workplace health and safety.

If I could remember all that Terry said, I'd be here for ages writing it all down. It's probably a blessing for you (and for me!) that I am not very good at retaining information. All I can say is that if you are passing through Broken Hill, spend a couple of days here. Ideally not a Sunday and a Monday as many things are closed, but we still had a good time!

After all that walking and learning, we were very hungry, so we stopped for some lunch and then headed out to the Royal Flying Doctors Service Outback Herirage Experience, where we learnt yet more things that I can't really remember, ha ha! It was a fascinating look at the history of the RFDS; how John Flynn started it all and the amazing inventions that Alfred Traeger produced to aid in long distance communication, like a pedal powered Morse code machine. There were lifesize models of the different planes that have been used over the years, and a video of people telling their stories of when they've had to use the RFDS. It was a really interesting couple of hours.

We then decided that as we'd had a cooked lunch we didn't really need a cooked dinner (I just didn't want to deal with the moths again, really) so we just grabbed some snacky things and headed back to camp. We were going to do a walk, but when we got there it was closed for the day, so we just had some tea, played some cards and waited for darkness to descend and the flies to go away.

Day 8: 

We did that cultural walk before we left the state park (no snakes this time), which was very enjoyable, and then had lunch near the memorial to the 800 miners that have died working at the various Broken Hill mines.

Me with some Aboriginal story poles local students had made

Some miners and their dog taking a break by their mineshaft. I love the art stuff that's just randomly here!

We drove to Wentworth to see where the Murray snd Darling rivers meet. Not much to see to be fair, but here's a picture:

We then headed to Mildura, which felt like a bustling metropolis after all these small and tiny towns we've been through! We needed a few things from Bunnings and BCF, so ducked in there and then headed for our free camp-site for the night, which was right on the bank of the Murray river. It was very picturesque apart from the jetskis bombing past!

Our riverside view

Fly nets were one of first things we grabbed at BCF. Don't I look hot?!

Day 9:

The temperature really dropped in the mid morning and I wished I had jeans on instead of shorts! We had a little wander around the more historic part of town, before grabbing some lunch - delicious pizza. We had the "Nonna's Favourite" which had pineapple on. Does that answer the long running detate? 

We decided that we weren't too fussed about Mildura, so we made plans to go down to Murray Sunset National Park and camp by a pink lake called Lake Crosbie. It was about a two and a half hour drive down. It's a gorgeous little spot and as the sun was going down, a red kangaroo hopped right across our vista. I didn't get footage of that, but this is the vista:

The lake doesn't look terribly pink there, but just you wait!!

Chris looking hot in his fly net

Me cooking in rather windy conditions

Days 5 and 6

 Hello! 

Day 5

We started the day with a walk to look at some Aboriginal art. At the start, there was a kangaroo eyeing us off as we walked along the path. We eyed it back as it just stood there, watching. All of a sudden, Chris whacked my arm and yelled "stop!" 

A snake slithered across the path. "I nearly stepped on it!" a shell shocked Chris said. "I only saw it cos it moved a little, otherwise I definitely would have stepped on it. I just wasn't paying attention." 

(To be fair, I'd kind of forgotten about snakes. We'd spotted spiders in the undergrowth last night, as their eyes reflected in my headtorch light and they looked like jewels, glinting in the light.) We (carefully!) went over to where it went for cover for a better look. Although there is more to snake identification than simply comparing images (there are multiple colour and pattern variations of brown snakes for instance), the snake we saw was a dead ringer for several stock photos on google, so Chris thinks it was a King Brown snake (which is actually a black snake by genus - don't ask!) It is the 6th most venomous snake in Australia, so, yeah. A bit of a close call. We stomped our way through the rest of the walk, and saw no other wildlife 😉

Can you spot the snake?

We then drove to Wilcannia, which was to be our stop for the night. The inverter in the car had stopped working, so it was difficult for us to charge things and Chris needed to do some work on his laptop. We were going to get a cabin for the electricity, but they were all a bit expressive, so we ended up staying at a powered site at Victory Park Caravan Park for $30. It was very luxurious there, actually - great showers, lovely toilets and washing machines. There was lush grass to camp on. The Milky Way was out in force and we saw shooting stars.

Day 6:

A great start to our day - we finally worked out the secret of rolling up the swag and getting it in the waterproof cover easily, yaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyy! We've had to fight with it up til now - it just never wanted to go in. What a celebration! 

Chris hefted it onto the roof of the Jimny, whilst I packed up other stuff and I heard a swear word come from the other side of the car. Then another one. This was different to his normal level of swearing so I was alarmed. Chris' carabina had opened and he'd dropped the car keys at some point, somewhere... I mean, it HAD to be when we were camping on 6inch tall, lush green grass didn't it? Not the bare dirt we had been camping on until now...

We painstakingly searched through the grass, retraced steps to the showers, checked the car and had no luck finding them. 

"I wonder if they're in the swag?" I said. 

We had to get the swag down off the car and unroll our beautiful work - what a waste! 😉 But there, on top of the mattress were the keys - phew! And you know what, we were able to roll the swag up as well as before so we definitely cracked the code!

Our next stop was Broken Hill. I had this ad playing in my mind every time I heard the the name:

https://youtu.be/GdQ4LIrcnQM?si=78X_Q7c1nQ2_RQLW

We went to the information centre to gather some intel on the area and signed up to a walking tour the following morning. We made our way to The Boken Hill Pub for lunch, where I was totally expecting normal pub grub to be on the menu - this being a middle of nowhere mining town after all - but there were all sorts of fancy dishes on offer. And the food was delicious! We decided to stay a couple of nights and booked at a camp-site in the Living Desert State Park. After wandering around the town a bit, but most things being closed as it was Sunday, we grabbed some food for dinner and then headed to our camp-site. 

"The Swag Illuminations"

After the heat of the day had gone down a bit, we made our way over to the Living Desert Sculptures, which is a group of carved rocks made by a bunch of international artists in 1993. It turns out that Broken Hill is a bit of a Mecca for artists. There are several galleries around town, lots of other sculptures and art, and this is where the five Brushmen of the Bush collaborated too. It was a lovely place to be as the sun went down and changed the colours of the rocks around us.

After a shower (and the flies had gone to bed) we went to cook dinner. There were BBQs up for use, so we thought we'd cook that way to save our fuel. Unfortunately, the BBQ wouldn't turn on, so we had to walk over the main campervan cooking area. As soon as we turned the light on, we were bombarded by moths. As you may or may not know, I quite like insects and crawly things, but with two exceptions - cockroaches and moths. I HATE them. Moths are fast, flighty, erratic, and sound horrifying when flying past my ears. I'm always scared that they're going to get caught in my hair. And some of the moths were HUGE. Maybe 6cm across. Terrifying. The food was taking aaaages to cook and more and more moths joined us. It was a traumatic experience and I won't say anymore about it. The beer back at our swag was much needed...

Roadtrip numbers...

Flies eaten so far: at least two, could be more

Moths eaten so far: not known but probably 10+. Many landed on the BBQ whilst cooking 

Echidnas seen so far: none.

What a good looking pair of roosters

Real time map of our travels!

 I've set up a map on Polarsteps, which shows where we are in real time. If you're into stalking, this is the place to go to 😉

 Link to map

Days 1- 4

 Hello!

Here is a quick update on what we have done since we set out on our adventure five days ago (please excuse typos. I'm on my phone and have a lot to type!)

Day 1:

After leaving Steve and Beck's, we drove via Plainland to get the car checked over by Brian, Chris' mate from work. We then drove to Stanthorpe and camped at a free camp-site nearby. It was quite near the main road so it was a bit noisy, but it did the trick. We cooked pasta, broccoli and sauce on our little gas stove and had a couple of beers. It was very cold overnight but our two blankets did the trick. Felt very sore and achey sleeping the swag 😔 

Our set up on the first night

Day 2:

It was a long day of driving, we didn't see much, really. Did another free camp in Walgett, where diesel was $3.00 when we went to sleep and $3.10 when we woke up! Thankfully the Jimny runs on ULP so it was only $2.50 😉 Walgett camp ground had showers, so that was very nice! I slept worse than the first night, but Chris did better!

Day 3:

We drive to opal mining town Lightning Ridge and had a lovely time driving around the town and visiting a few sites.

First stop was a cactus garden that was 80 years in the making. There were some very impressive specimens there. The owners were lovely and very chatty.

Massive!

Bit rude!

So many cacti!

We then had some lunch in town before making our way over the The Chambers Of The Black Hand, which sounds like a weird cult but is actually an old mine where the owner spent decades carving into the sandstone with mainly a butterknife. He carved famous faces, superheroes, ancient Egyptian things and buddas to name just a few. It was one of the most fascinating places I've been too. So much dedication, effort and talent!

This was carved by butterknife!

Nefertiti I think.

One of the massive buddhas (there were 4)

Lots of Aussie politicians. Carved by butterknife did I mention?!

We then drove to Bourke and made camp at a place called May's Bend, which was a gorgeous spot along the river. We ventured into cooking over wood. It was the first night we could see the Milky Way. It was gorgeous. The best thing about camping.

Our set up at May's Bend

Day 4:

Bourke is one of those places that is a bit legendary. There's a saying that when you go to the Outback you go to "the back o' Bourke" We were truly in outback NSW now and boy did we know it with the flies!

We looked at a few historic places around Bourke- the historic wharf, the historic cemetery, Betta Electrical (ha ha! That one's not historical but we needed a cigarette lighter charger thingy) We then grabbed some more beers and food for dinner and headed to Gundabooka National Park to camp for the night. I thought this would be great place to camp- great for stars, support the national parks, go on some walks. I did forget about the flies. Or at least I didn't expect quite as many as there were. As soon as we stepped out of the car at Dry Tank Camp, we were besieged by flies. And biting ones too. It was awful. We sprayed ourselves and then headed on a walk. We turned around halfway. The flies were so annoying and it was so hot, I just couldn't cope. We were wholly underprepared for this! We got back to the car, set up the swag and sought refuge in there until it went dark. Once it was dark and the flies went to bed, we cooked over the fire again and then the stars came out. It was a very peaceful night and the best I've slept so far.

Action shot of Chris swatting the flies away

This doesn't quite show how many flies there were on me, they went up my nose and under my glasses 😢I had to put on earphones to muffle the buzzing. It was a maddening noise!

The adventure begins!

As you are all aware, our plan for for our gap year got a bit turned on its head in January. Chris and I have changed tack, and are now going to go camping around Australia for three or four months.

It's been nearly two decades since I've done serious camping like this, so it's going to be quite the adventure. How does a 42 year old body go sleeping on the ground for weeks at a time? How am I going to go with very limited cooking facilities? 

I thought a blog would be the best way to keep everyone informed of our adventures. I'll be able to include lots of photos, which you can't do on email. Not everyone has Instagram either, so this seems the best solution.

Chris has been very busy getting his Jimny up to scratch for our trip. Improvements include:

• A long range petrol tank
• New 4WD tyres (plus two extras!)
• A winch
• A full service
• Diff breathers for water crossings
• A new windscreen (Jimny windscreens are notorious for getting chips and cracks easily, and ours was no exception!)
• Recovery tracks

Camping gear bought includes:

• A double swag
• A shower cubicle that hangs off the side of the car
• Tubs for food and clothes
• A hammock
• Gas stove
• Fire pit for extra cooking room
• A fridge (our old one was busted unfortunately)
• And much more!

We are planning on starting the trip on Tuesday 17th, so it's getting real close!

Bear with me as I get used to how to post blogs, but I'll try to post at least once a week. I'm also going to track our trip on Polarsteps, so if you are interested in seeing the journey on a map, that'll be the place to go!

See you on the flip side!

Karin xx