That's the epic road trip over, the pictures'll be up soon, and I must say I'm glad to be back, not least because I miss hot food, but also because I have to get some work done on my minor thesis (which I may still have a shot at).
The trip, as those of you who follow me on twitter will know, changed quite quickly from the original plan, In fact I made it only as far as Melbourne before taking a short cut north, and the flooding in Brisbane (and above) ruined any chance to see the reef. I hear you really need to get to Cairns for a few days to see it properly anyway, and if I wouldn't be using the car when there, there's no point bringing it. I'll save that for a future holiday and just fly.
I'll be skipping through all the boring bits (or this could take as long as the trip itself), and start with the Great Ocean Road. I managed to get to, and halfway through, the G.O.R. on the first day, and found it crawling with tourists. The road ran along the cliffs at a safe distance, so the only impressive views were had by stopping at one of the many 'photo opportunity' points and walking to the edge. The weather was also slightly overcast, even a bit cold as the evening progressed, so after climbing down and having a walk along a narrow wet beach I stopped to sleep at a town halfway along the road.
The next morning I was up and away as the sun rose, so early in fact that I got a picture of the sun still touching the horizon. This meant:
1. There were no tourists
2. The sun was a beautiful deep orange
3. Nocturnal (and crepuscular) animals were still out and about
In other words I had the eastern half of the Great Ocean Road (that's the half where the road hugs the coastline meters from the water) almost to myself, only sharing with a few early morning runners and bumbling koalas. Honestly it's a wonder koalas don't die in record numbers along that coast, there are so many blind corners leading straight to half blind koalas lolling around in the road; when you stop right in front of them they don't even react, they just keep slowly heading whichever way they were when you found them. The road was epic, but the sharp corners and koala hazards compelled me, for the first time, to adjust my seatback to bolt-upright mode, and drive tightly gripping the steering wheel, watching the road like a caffinated conspiracy theorist (though that would not be for the last time), let's just say I wouldn't like to commute down it.
The G.O.R. ends near Melbourne, and the original plan had been to continue around the coast, but I was anxious to get to Brisbane (having still not watched, read or listened to any local news, I knew nothing of the terrible flooding). I bypassed Melbourne, and spent the day driving north-east. Late in the evening, after the sun had set, the fields I was driving through became filled with huge dragonfly-type creatures. The sun set, the light faded, and pretty soon my headlights were illuminating more bugs than road, that was the second bolt-upright seat-edge experience. The vast majority of them swooped around the car, or deflected off the shallow angle windscreen, but when I opened the bonnet the next day I found my radiator full of them, well cooked by that point. There will be pictures...
The next day was more North-East slogging. Still oblivious to the floods in Brisbane I was somewhat surprised to be hit by a torrential thunderstorm. However, having driven past innumerable 'this road is subject to flooding' signs, complete with two meter depth indicators, I knew flooding wasn't out of the question, and the road was so long and flat there would have been nowhere to retreat to had the levels risen. The sheer quantity of water pouring from the sky preveted speeds of over 40kph, and with my windscreen wipers on maximum, this was another white knuckle experience (still not the last).
I made it to the coastline by nightfall, and the next morning had a swim in the sea. It was still raining, but that didn't seem to be putting anyone else off, and the sea was pleasantly warm. The truly unique thing about swimming in such heavy rain is the collective image of millions of raindrops bouncing off the surface. You'll have seen liquid dropletts hitting the surface in slow motion in adverts, whether water, milk or paint, you get a little well forming on impact, then a little tower rises up, releasing a smaller droplet at the top; well imagine that happening constantly, average 10cm apart, forming little spikes a few inches tall, as far as the eye can see. Crazy. It's like swimming in a spectrum analyser.
After that I headed north to Brisbane, where there was heavy traffic and all the roads were closed. Strange that. I finally turned on the radio to find out what was going on, and learned the extent of the floods. After some consideration, I decided I really couldn't head further north, but I should at least see some jungle, and so headed up into the mountains. The road up was twisty and misty, and once again I had my face inches above the steering wheel as my luggage repeatedly changed its mind as to which side of the car would be best to pile up on. I did try having a walk that evening but had to give up when I discovered I couldn't see where I was putting my feet. The jungle is dark enough in broad daylight, trying to wander around it at night was a bit thick. I arrived back at my car to find my muddy feet were covered in leeches.
I had a more adequately lit walk around the jungle the next day. Lamington National park isn't really northerly enough to be proper jungle, it's in the crossover zone, making it home to both tropical and temperate plants competing for space. You really have to be quick at seizing opportunity to live here, as I discovered in the tenacity of the spiders. You could walk ten meters down a well trodden path, breaking through dozens of spiders webs, then turn around and walk back those same ten meters and a few spiders would have new webs already under construction, and that's only the ones I could feel myself breaking (i.e. the ones at face level). There aren't many dangerous spiders up there, and the ones that are dangerous hide, but getting an eyefull of web (with spider attached in some cases) is still uncomfortable.
Back in the car, back down the mountain. I found the road blocked by rockfall at one point, had to wait for the police and a digger to finish clearing a path. They were very relaxed about it though, must happen all the time. The road down was as twizzly and drizzly as I remembered it. Thoroughly sick of the rain, I headed inland.
Saturday, and at this point (note, only at this point, six days into the so called 'road' trip) I decided I might need a map. "You didn't have a map? You fool!" I hear you cry, well yes, I set out with written directions copied from google maps and a 10cm map on a back page of the Australia book my parents left behind (that's on a scale of 400km per centimeter, like setting out to explore Ireland from a map on your thumbnail). I think I should stop here to explain the preparation I DID do, which was to fill the car with adequate water (too much in fact, I left with 40 litres and only used 20 of them, despite the heat), and plenty of fruit. PLENTY of fruit, I had a 13kg sack of oranges, a few kilos each of bananas, apples and apricots, a box of cherries, small bag of plumbs and dates, and one rather large mango. I did go into a few "No Fruit" areas that were trying to control the spread of fruit fly, but I didn't actually stop or open my car windows until I'd come out the other side of the zone, so I recon it was alright (don't tell anyone though). I also bought a sheet of mosquito net and gaffed it to one of the back windows of the car, so I could have the window open at night but not get bitten, that was a smart move. I felt that covered the necessities of food, water and sleeping arrangements; though the back seats of my car do not fold completely flat, it was surprisingly comfortable, and neither excessive heat nor deafening rain could keep me awake at night.
But I digress, and if I keep on at this rate my personal experience might end up a little novel. After buying a map, and getting my bearings, I found myself in Glen Innes, which is sapphire country: half of the world's sapphires are currently mined around there. Well when in Rome... do as the other tourists do, the locals all got bored with digging a long time ago, so I was on my own in that field, digging and sifting through rocks all day. There's a constant nagging feeling that the next bucket-load will have a huge sapphire in it that'll make you rich, okay not this one but maybe the next (etc.), while wandering around the field deciding where to dig. In the end I found one small light blue sapphire (with bits of red in it, don't know what's going on there but I'm betting it reduces the value) and various bits of quartz, and moreover I learned that rocks are heavy and I don't like lifting them.
The following day up at Lightning Ridge I went in search of Opal, which involved less digging and lifting, but less profit, coming away with only one tiny chip of opal and a bunch of rocks. The best thing about Lightning Ridge was the (free) baths. They have a pipeline to the Great Artesian Basin (huge underground water reservoir... check wikipedia for more info), which supplies the town with water year 'round, and keeps the outdoor baths at a constant 42°C. Too hot for midday, or for vigorous swimming, but great for lounging around in the evening.
Monday I headed South. I covered a lot of ground that day, and was able to see Canberra on the Tuesday morning. The city looks impressive on maps, check one out, actually being there doesn't do it justice. Travelling West that evening I got back to Melbourne on the Wednesday, and actually went in this time. More museums, more city traffic, seems like a nice place to live, but expensive: I couldn't find a caravan park that'd give me a car space for less than $25, and that was 30km from the centre.
Tired of museums, whilst flicking through the guidebook that evening for things to do, apalled by the constant reports of flooding I was hearing on the news, I decided to go to tasmania. A phonecall confirmed there were tickets available the next morning, coming back on the Monday. I took the tickets (though I later found out the phone-booking cost ~$100 more than an online booking would have been) and I went to sleep as quickly as I could (several drams of whisky did the trick, yes of course I brought a bottle). The next morning i got up in darkness and was at the ferry for the 6:30 boarding. The only problem for me at this point was the fruit, which is blankettly not allowed to be transported to Tasmania without special permits and fumigation or something, but I was allowed to bring anything I wanted on to the ferry to eat on the trip. By this point I only had oranges left, so I boarded with a laptop, a book, and fourteen oranges. The journey was slow, lasting ten hours, so I had a lot of time to eat, but after the first nine oranges, and after playing computer games like minecraft made me feel a bit ill, I grew quite sick of them. I did a lot of reading, and just managed to force the rest of them down before customs.
Upon arrival it was raining, and it rained all through the night and the next morning. The number one road safety sign in Tasmania seems to be “People DIE on wet roads” so I gather it must rain there quite a bit. In fact I was told, when I stopped in Scottsdale, that I couldn't go down the East coast because the roads were flooded, turns out I couldn't escape the flooding even in Tasmania. Instead I headed down the main highway to Hobart where it was also raining, but being a (the) major city it had a museum (oh joy... actually it was pretty good, if a little eclectic), and I was able to get fish and chips straight from the harbor (I do miss fat Scottish chips). In the afternoon the weather finally cleared up, I tried to get a full city photo but wherever I went there were houses blocking the view, even up the sides of the hills surrounding the city, so no photo of Hobart I'm afraid.
Saturday was a big day, I set off from Hobart in the morning heading towards the West coast. The West coast of Tasmania being well-known as untamed (or unstained, depending on your opinions on nature), and the further I got from Hobart the higher the trees rose and the thicker the foliage became. The roads wound their way up and down the mountains, where I got caught in the rain again. Lots of rainbows chasing along beside the car, more white knuckles, more right angled seat position (but I do believe that was the last time). It was while driving downhill around a particularly long and smooth left corner that my wheels decided sliding was cooler than rolling, and the car started to spin. The road was banked on the right, so I didn't slide into oncoming traffic, but I wasn't going fast enough for a cool rally type maneuver, so I simply slid off the side of the mountain.
That is of course what would have happened, and may have happened before (remembering the 'people die on wet roads' signs), until a small chain fence was put up to prevent it. I was stopped abruptly by one of the posts supporting this chain. I restarted, reversed, reviewed the damage, and returned to the road. The experience left quite a mark, the post left quite a dent, my impact left... nothing. After I had gone, no trace remained save a little disturbed earth near the post. This sort of thing must happen all the time here.
The annoying thing is I was only a couple of km from the end of that road, and that was the last time I had to drive in such conditions. The road from there was a lot more relaxed, I followed it up to the North coast, getting a few gorgeous pictures on the way, and then headed to the East coast for the evening. The Sunday I spent reading on the beach during the morning, only heading up to Devonport in the evening to be ready for boarding the next morning.
The return ferry was less comfortable than the outgoing, the seas being a little rougher, but that didn't stop me playing computer games until I felt sick, and at least I didn't have so many oranges to finish. On Tuesday I made the final leg back from Melbourne to Adelaide, throwing good mileage to the winds I was speeding most of the way. Flooding throughout New South Wales had spread to Victoria so I had to take a few detours, and a few detours within those detours, but I made it home in the early afternoon, making sure to accompany my arrival with dramatic music. The first thing I did was have a cup of tea and check my emails, then I started work on this minor thesis proposal.
But that's another story.
Total distance covered: 8700km (or 5500miles), total spent on petrol: $750, ferry tickets: $430, parking/attractions: $150, campsites/trailer-parks: $100, food (purchased on trip): $10. There are some things money can't buy, for everything else there's generous donations from your family.
