This Adventurous Age

January 28, 2018
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2001 Travels September 26

WEDNESDAY 26 SEPTEMBER CURRAWINYA NATIONAL PARK

Although the nights are fairly cool, the days are very pleasant.

The tent is certainly adequate for this type of camping, although in wet weather it would not be big enough to “live in”, unless the bedding was packed up every day. But it is fine for sleeping and the big veranda provides shade for cooking and sitting. It is definitely going to meet the purposes we intended.

09-24-2001 currawinya NP camp by paroo.jpg

Today we went driving, to the lakes area in the NW corner of the Park, some 30kms from camp. The track was good going, despite being tagged as 4WD only.

The country, of course, was fairly flat.

There were some trees in flower – we thought they were beefwoods. They were really spectacular, standing out from the predominant dull green mulga of the region.

09-25-2001 blossom.jpg

The two lakes – Numalla and Wyara – as well as a host of smaller lakes are central to what makes Currawinya so special. They fill from local rain and run-off, some from floods when the Paroo overflows and spreads out over its floodplain. The Paroo River originates from up to the NW of Charleville.

Unusually, Lake Numalla is a fresh water lake, Lake Wyara is saline. Only about 3kms of sandy country separates the two lakes, at one point.

Lake Wyara

The lakes provide very different habitats and thus attract a wide variety of bird species. Over 200 species have been listed for the park.

We ate our packed lunch out at the lakes. looking first at Lake Numalla, then driving around to the access point for Lake Wyara.

Lake Numalla

Despite their significance, I had to admit that we didn’t find the lake scenery particularly special. Nor did we see much in the way of bird life on the lakes. Presumably, it was the wrong time of year for the migratory ones to be passing through.

Lake Numalla

Once we’d wandered about and enjoyed the lakes, drove back to the Woolshed area, where we sampled the showers. It was pleasant to feel clean again, though we did not linger – the water was cold, and I also felt quite exposed! If you were staying here with a group, you would get to know your fellow campers perhaps more intimately than expected!

The showers at the Woolshed

Inside the showers – communal style!

Back to camp and our nightly relax by the river and the camp fire.

Afternoon reflections in the Paroo

January 25, 2018
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2001 Travels September 25

TUESDAY 25 SEPTEMBER CURRAWINYA NATIONAL PARK

It was during today that I realized about John’s birthday.

After a lazy morning in camp and lunch of roti breads cooked over the open fire, we drove back up to the Woolshed complex, to have a look at that.

Enjoying the morning by the river

Currawinya was a sheep grazing property in its previous life, and the rather grand old woolshed is one remnant of this, as are some bores that still remain, and some sections of fencing.

The current National Park status came about because of the wetlands of the river, swamp sections, and the lakes – together important enough for it to have Ramsar listing. It is an important site for migratory birds.

Powdery, fine silt flood plain by the Paroo

The old woolshed was really impressive. Made mostly of corrugated iron, it was surprisingly large. We were able to wander around inside and inspect the holding pens, shearing bays with their ramps to eject the shorn sheep outside; there were even old wool presses left in there. The building still smelt strongly of sheep. There were piles of old manure under the building. We hoped that this shed – relic of past times – would be preserved as part of the Park.

Currawinya shearing shed – corrugated iron construction

09-25-2001 currawinya shearing shed interior.jpg

Inside the shearing shed – 6 shearing stands here, sheep pens and hatches for shorn sheep to be despatched down

09-25-2001 currawinya shearing shed yards

Sheep yards – more corrugated iron

09-25-2001 machinery currawinya shearing shed.jpg

Wool press

Apparently, this area is used for accommodation for groups of volunteer workers and the like. Showers had been constructed nearby, consisting of hessian “walls” on metal frames around the perimeter, with shower heads coming off a pipe in a row inside. As there were few interior dividing walls, I guessed it would be group showers! The water was cold, of course. I couldn’t tell if there was any water heating facility when they had a group staying.

After a good wander around the Woolshed area, we drove about 15kms out the old Thargomindah road, to the rock formations known as The Granites.

The Granites

As the name suggests, these were substantial outcrops of rock. It seemed unusual to find such an outcropping in the midst of this sandy country.

09-25-2001 the granites currawinya.jpg

Then it was back to camp to watch the late afternoon reflections display on the water, while we drank beers and reflected on the day.

09-24-2001 paroo river by our currawinya camp.jpg

Late afternoon at the Paroo

January 22, 2018
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2001 Travels September 24

MONDAY 24 SEPTEMBER CURRAWINYA NATIONAL PARK

The first night’s sleep in the new tent was fine. It was really quiet at night out here – we had started to forget the quiet of the bush at night.

The height of this dome tent is what we needed. It was much easier getting dressed when one could stand up!

We spent the day relaxing around camp. The day was fine but not hot.

09-24-2001 johns 61 birthday by paroo.jpg

John spending his birthday by the Paroo River

I wandered about, taking photos of the camp area. I was rather fascinated by the expanses of river gum tree roots exposed by erosion during floods. The root systems extended over such a large area.

Such an extensive root system

It was very pleasant by the waterhole and without crowds of people around.

Ourimperee Waterhole on the Paroo

It was John’s birthday – a fact I managed to totally forget!

The Ranger came by during the afternoon, to collect our camping fees, and even when discussing dates with him, the 24th didn’t register as significant. It turned out, later, that John was quite pleased I forgot, because it “evened” us up for when he forgot mine a couple of years ago!

Camp oven meal

The riverbank tree reflections in the waterhole in the late afternoon, and at dusk, were worth trying to photograph.

09-24-2001 paroo sunset.jpg

January 22, 2018
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2001 Travels September 23

SUNDAY 23 SEPTEMBER BOURKE TO CURRAWINYA NATIONAL PARK 249kms

After a good breakfast, and minimal pack up (cabins are good in that regard!), we headed out of town.

At North Bourke, after crossing the Darling River, where the Kidman Way turns to the north, we kept going to the north west, on the Hungerford road. This soon became a good unsealed road that was very pleasant driving. The country was flat, but there was variety in the vegetation types – from open grazing country to different sorts of scrub land.

09-23-2001 Hungerford rd out of Bourke.jpg

Good gravel road out of Bourke

At one stage we drove through thick stands of mulga on each side of the road – almost felt like some sort of avenue!

Avenue of mulga

There were a couple of hamlets, entrances to pastoral properties, the occasional river or creek.

We came to the tall fence and gate that is the dog-proof fence that extends along the NSW/Qld border. This fence extends from the Darling Downs of Qld to the Great Australian Bight in SA, Built in the 1880’s and intended to keep wild dogs out of the sheep grazing lands of the southern part of the continent, it is over 5000 kms long – the world’s longest fence.

I had to get out and open the gate for us to pass through.

At the gate, a strip of bitumen road began. This went through the centre of Hungerford, the tiny hamlet right on the border. From what we could see, it was essentially a hotel and a few houses. We stopped for fuel at the hotel – diesel variety!

The Royal Mail Hotel also dates from the 1800’s and was a single storey, mostly corrugated iron clad building, rather showing its age.

We continued on, trending north east, soon crossing the several channels of the Paroo River. The sealed strip of road had soon ended.

We entered the Currawinya National Park, our destination for the next few days, we hoped. This was a relatively new National Park, it only being ten years since the former pastoral property became Park. I had not been able to find a great deal of information about it, except that there had not been much in the way of park development. It was kind-of on our way to John’s target of the Yowah area, and so I’d been able to persuade him to come this way – and to stay a while if what we found was to our liking.

Currawinya National Park (from Qld NP brochure)

About 20kms from Hungerford, we turned off the “main” dirt road and took a side track to the old Currawinya Woolshed and, beyond that, a couple of kms to the bush camping area at the Ourimperee Waterhole on the Paroo River.

We liked what we saw. No facilities – there were showers, of sorts, and toilets back at the woolshed complex. One could set up camp amongst the trees that lined the river. Even better, we saw no other campers there!

09-24-2001 currawinya camp from distance.jpg

Our camp by the Ourimperee Waterhole

We set up the new dome tent, for only the second time. All I could say was that we will get better at it, with time! Set up the assorted camp gear where we wanted it, used the air compressor in Truck to blow up the lilo. Had lunch, went wandering and gathered some firewood, then relaxed by the river, for the rest of the day, feeling ourselves very fortunate.

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The new tent, set up

After tea, we sat by our campfire for a while before bedtime. Back in the bush again – wonderful!

09-26-2001 morning coffee.jpg

First night in the new tent……

09-23-2001 to cnp.JPG

January 22, 2018
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2001 Travels September 22

SATURDAY 22 SEPTEMBER HAY TO BOURKE 590kms

Another day of travel.

Fine weather. Good roads. Not much traffic, despite it being school holidays in Victoria.

From Hay, we travelled to Goolgowi, then north up the Kidman Way that we’d travelled before, through Hillston and Cobar to Bourke.

We reached Bourke in the late afternoon. Accommodation was another caravan park cabin. We had decided we’d not be setting up the tent for single nights, when there were other options available! Besides, the nights were cold!

Tea was meant to be cold meat and salad, but John decided he wanted a bacon and egg toasted sandwich. That was alright – we had all the ingredients to hand.

Overnight cabin accommodation

When we travel like this, the Chescold fridge gets unloaded from Truck and put onto 240v power in our accommodation. We don’t have a 12v connection for it in Truck. It stays cold all day without being turned on. Just have to make sure that when it is being moved out again, we turn it off 10 or 15 minutes before moving it, to allow the electrical element to cool down. A fridge mechanic somewhere once explained this makes the element last longer.

09-22-2001 to b

January 18, 2018
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2001 Travels September 21

FRIDAY 21 SEPTEMBER HOME TO HAY 440kms

We completed the packing of Truck through the morning, and left home before midday.

I presume that I am coming too?

I’d arranged for a neighbour to come in and feed the cats, and replenish the litter trays. The cats live inside most of the time, and it wouldn’t hurt them to be confined to quarters for the duration. One of them acted like he knew we were going off and leaving them – again – and he followed us closely all morning.

We travelled the McIvor Highway to Heathcote and then on to Echuca.

Ate our packed lunch as we went.

We had fine weather for the day, and it warmed up as we got further north.

From Echuca, struck north, through Deniliquin to Hay, which was the night’s destination. We did not stop in any of the towns to sightsee. The aim of the first two days was simply to get to the first place we planned to spend time at.

We spent the night in a cabin at the Hay Plains Caravan Park.

Tea was fish and chips – John went out again in Truck and bought these.

It was so good to be on the move again, albeit for a short time.

09-21-2001 to hay

January 18, 2018
by wendyviney 1 Comment

2001 Travels September

SEPTEMBER 2001

During the year, we lashed out and bought a new dome tent, to be used when camping away from the van, at times when we were just overnighting and did not want to put up the big tent.

The small dome tent that had accompanied us until now was unsuitable on a few counts. It had been holed by an exploding bottle. It had proven too flimsy to make us feel secure in areas where there were dingoes or feral pigs. It was too low for John’s ease in getting in and out.

The new one was made by the same company as our big tent – which meant that it cost much more than we’d budgeted for – but it would last forever. It was of a size that we could actually use it for extended camping, at least in good weather when we didn’t have need of an inside living area.

We decided on a quick trip away, in the September school holidays, to try it out and to get an outback “fix” again. John could only get two weeks work free, and there was a question mark over whether the lady I’d filled in for would be fully fit to return to duty. So, a school holiday jaunt it was – shades of the old days.

For once, we applied brains before the event, rather than in hindsight – and practiced putting up the new tent in the back yard, before the trip. Good thing too. If only tent makers could write logical and clear instructions……….

January 18, 2018
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2001 Travels April

2001 – BACK AT WORK

As we drove the width of the continent, late last year, coming home, we had resolved to try to at least take the van away for some 4 or 5 day breaks, through this year. This would sustain us until we could, somehow, arrange matters to allow us longer travel again.

But life has a way of altering plans.

At the start of the year, John was offered work with a company making high end vehicle tracking devices. It combined his knowledge of computing and GPS technology – just too tempting. The work was part time, and erratic. Some weeks, five days. Sometimes just once or twice a month.

This made planning ahead rather hard.

The job also involved a hefty commute across the suburbs. In Melbourne peak time traffic, it meant at least an hour in traffic, each way.

The Great White Truck was definitely not the ideal city commuter vehicle!

In the middle of the year I was asked to return to teaching, for a term, to fill in for someone on sick leave. Senior Politics teachers were a somewhat scarce commodity.

It had been about three decades since I filled a solely classroom role in a school. I found it quite pleasant, not having any other responsibilities in the place, apart from delivering senior Politics, History and Literature.

However, the experience underlined the fact that I had no desire at all to resume my career – that travel was what I liked best!

APRIL 2001

After four months of sitting in one place, the van was dragged out, at the end of April, and packed for only a few days away.

The occasion was a family wedding in Shepparton in north-central Victoria.

While packing the van, I discovered a zillion ants nesting in the freezebox of the fridge. Their close relatives had taken up residence in one of the van tail lights.

I couldn’t think of any way to extract the colony from the fridge, except to spray much Mortein in there, shut it all up overnight, then wipe out all the corpses I could find. The fridge needed a good air out after that.

We had to dismantle the tail light to clean them out of there.

Ants are the bane of a caravanner’s life! Ours had arrived, this time, we thought, via a shrub branch that was touching the van – in a corner of the parking area that was hard to see. I resolved to be ruthless in pruning the garden around the van, in future.

We drove north, via the usual Yea route. It was so good to be mobile again.

Stayed three nights at the Victoria Lake Caravan Park, which was quite pleasant. There was water in the lake and so some bird life to watch.

04-27-2001 lake by caravan park in shepparton.jpg

Lake Victoria

Some walking tracks went round part of the lake and continued on to other areas.

The weather was very pleasant – lovely autumn days, nights just a bit cool.

Early autumn colours by the lake

The nuptials and associated events occupied us for two full days.

That was all the time we had free, so the next day it was back the way we came.

Just a little taste of travel. Just enough to sustain the talk of “maybe next year”…..and all sorts of plans that were tossed around, some more feasible than others.

January 18, 2018
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2000 Travels December 15

FRIDAY 15 DECEMBER HEALESVILLE TO HOME 36kms

We took our time getting away in the morning, clearing the park just by the 10am checkout time. We had the day to fill in, in order to allow K to get clear and the carpet cleaners to do their job.

We had a leisurely browse around the Healesville shops and bought some lunch there.

Drove down to Lilydale and went for a walk around the Lake.

Eventually we headed for home, getting there at 2.30pm.

The carpets had been done – they must have been early – and everyone was gone. The carpets were still damp, obviously.

The house was fine inside, as we expected. But the gardens were a dreadful mess, also as we expected, but worse. It was hard to believe they had been allowed to get that bad.

The vegetable garden was a wilderness, with blackberries over two metres tall.

Once was the vegetable garden

However, K had made an effort and the lawns were freshly and neatly mowed.

The pool was bright green, with large scummy clumps floating on it.

12-15-2000 pool.jpg

We would certainly not be short of things to do in the coming weeks and months! This was not the way we’d have chosen for the travel time to end.

John discovered that the shed guttering/drains had been blocked, so water had come in onto the floor of the shed and wet some of the things that V had stored there, including a mattress and base that would now only be good for the tip.

The cats were very pleased to see us.

Cat rediscovering bed – this is more like it!

After we’d had a quick look around, we backed the van into its parking area and unhitched Truck – for the last time for some time, we guessed.

Resting place for ? long……..

Tomorrow would begin the tasks of unpacking our house belongings back into place, emptying and cleaning the van – that would be a sad process!

When the house was more or less in order, then the gardens could be tackled.

It seemed really strange to be in a house sized residence again, instead of the very small van that had been our home for three years. The rooms that were empty of furniture echoed!

Most of our house is in this room!

John went and bought fish and chips for tea.

At least, with our bed permanently made up in our room, all we had to do was clear things off it and we could fall into bed.

To work, tomorrow. Tomorrow is also my birthday……..

The trip was 1076 days long – almost 154 weeks. The decision to take early retirement and do this was the best decision we have ever made!

THE STATISTICS FOR 2000 (those for 99 & 98 in ( ) for comparison)

Note that our 2000 travel was 16 days short of a full year.

Kms travelled for the year: 36,129 (32,450 29,845)

Kms towed: 16,587 (10,827 8220)

Cost of diesel: $4291.91 ($3061 $2532.21)

Average fuel consumption: 8.1kms per litre (8.1 8.3) Approx 12L per 100kms

Dearest diesel: $1.35cpl – Kalumburu ($1.15 Mt Dare 93 Seisia)

Cheapest diesel: .76cpl – Claremont (.56 Toowoomba .63 Charters Towers)

Accommodation cost: $5263.70 ($4757.35 $4845.10 )

Dearest accommodation per night: $33 – Middle Lagoon ($26 Yulara $19 Toowoomba)

Cheapest paid accommodation per night: $2 – Opalton ($5 National Parks $10 Boulia)

Average cost fuel and accomm per week: $191 ($150.36 $141.87) Budgeted for $200

Number of different places stayed at: 58 (56 46)

Longest stay in one place: 40 nights-Hobart (over 99/2000) (26- Healesville 35- Atherton)

Number of times moved camp: 66 (60 53)

The introduction of the GST in mid 2000 did have an effect on our travel costs.

************

January 18, 2018
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2000 Travels December 14

THURSDAY 14 DECEMBER ECHUCA TO HEALESVILLE 272kms

We got away from the park at 9am.

We were not hurrying, because John wanted to go to the red gum saw mill, where he bought a platter making slab and some small pieces that he would make chisel handles from. That lot cost $50.

The man at the mill persuaded John that, when he makes the red gum chairs to match the table that is already done, it would be better to cut out the chair frames, rather than try to steam bend them. I was pleased about that!

It was not too hot today, so was a comfortable drive.

We travelled towards Shepparton, as far as Undera, than south through Murchison.

We had lunch by the lake at Nagambie – a very pleasant place.

Then it was the usual route from Seymour, through Yea to Yarra Glen and then Healesville.

We reached the familiar Badger Creek Caravan Park by mid-afternoon. We had a drive through site, for $20.90, so were able to stay hitched up.

Our last night……

We had to phone K to get him to contact Telstra to authorize handing over of the home number to us. He’d told us a week ago that this had been arranged, but did as we asked and then John was able to arrange what he needed to with Telstra.

We went for a walk around the grounds and up into the bush. There were lots of birds – parrots, doves, wrens, cockatoos, and there were currawongs calling. It was so long since we’d heard these that I’d forgotten how melodious they sound.

Tea was sausages, potato, salad.

There was a cool tinge to the night air. The tropics are so far behind us now.

So – this was the last night of our life on the road. Very sad.

12-14-2000 to h