Day 3-10: Aussie Road Trip
Hi... I'm still alive and still driving around this damn big country of mine. Holy crap. I've driving something like 3,800 kilometres (2360 miles) and I've only visited three states, and one of them (my own state, Victoria) I was only in for about 320 kilometres. New South Wales and Queensland are bloody big!
I finally made it to the 'OUTBACK!'
A quick run down, with a LOT of SMALL photos of what I've been doing.
Day 3 - Coonabarabran, NSW to Armidale, NSW
I've travelled plenty of roads like this one. Long and straight, up and down. The roads a pretty much the same, however, the scenery changes like woah!
Brown, dry land. It's hard to figure out how anything grows or lives in some places. This was in cow country so I don't think they mind the slightly crispy grass.
Gunnedah - The Australian Koala Capital of the World! Unfortunately, this was the only koala I saw despite the numerous Koala 'warning' signs along the side of the road. (Not so much to warn you not to stop in case a crazed koala attacks you but to warn you that there might be koalas crossing the road.)
I finally made it to Tamworth around lunch time so I was only 18 hours late. (Tamworth is where I was aiming for on Day 2.)
The Big Golden Guitar! As the sign above says, Tamworth has long been known as the Australian Country Music Capital. Every year the Country Music Association of Australia holds it's Country Music Awards - the 'Golden Guitars' in Tamworth during the annual Tamworth Country Music Festival held over 10 days during January.
I can never pass up a photo of something Supernatural related. The 'Tamworth Firearms' store sells Winchester rifles.
After not making it to Tamworth on Day 2, like I'd planned, I was all set to stay in Tamworth tonight. However, I missed the turn to the motel and realised I was on the highway out of town. As it was only 4:30 and I'd done everything I wanted to do in Tamworth I decided this wasn't such a bad thing and just kept going. I ended up staying in Armidale which is about an hour up the road from Tamworth. This ended up making Day 4 a lot easier.
Day 4 - Armidale, NSW to Surfers Paradise, QLD
Armidale has lots of churches.
Lots and lots...
... of churches.
A rare green paddock on the road from Armidale to Surfers Paradise.
And we're back to the brown grass.
And sparsely leafed trees.
I liked that this was someone's front gate. I can just imagine the directions they give to people who come to visit. "Right. So you need to drive 198 kilometres and when you see the tall tree and white tyre, turn left and go under our railway bridge. Continue along our driveway for another 5 kilometres and that's where we'll be."
An autumn road in Tenterfield. Most native trees in Australia are evergreens so we don't see a lot of 'fall' colours except around towns where foreign species of deciduous trees have been planted.
I finally arrived at my hotel in Surfers Paradise around 6:00pm. It was a tough drive today - lots of hills and twisty roads, and the busy Surfers Paradise roads. After driving through the countryside and towns with either no traffic lights or just a handful of them, driving in Surfers was like driving through a city. It was such a relieve to get there and park the car and know that I didn't have to drive for a couple of days. :)
Day 5 - Surfers Paradise, QLD
Swim between the flags. All along the Gold Coast beaches there are Surf Lifeguard towers with two flags, like this one, out the front. These are the parts of the beaches which have surf lifeguards supervising the water. As you can see, the water is quite rough and it's quite windy. I'm pretty sure no one has every drowned on an Australian beach whilst swimming between the flags.
Surf, sand, and skyscrapers.
Some random dude jogging with headphones.
Tonight I went to the Australia v New Zealand Rugby League test. This was before the game, when the NZ team were doing the Haka.
Australia won and Melbourne Storm's Billy Slater was one of the stars with two tries.
Day 6 - Surfers Paradise, QLD to Brisbane, QLD
Today's drive was very short; only one hour. Yay!
View of the Brisbane River from my hotel room by day.
View of the Brisbane River from my hotel room by night.
Tonight's entertainment was a nail biting game between Brisbane Broncos and Melbourne Storm. Storm eventually won but it was a close game that came down the dying minutes. This is 'Buck', the Bronco's mascot. Each time the Broncos score, Buck (and his rider) do a lap of the ground.
Day 7 - Brisbane, QLD to Goondiwindi, QLD
Back to the days of long drives today. I have to admit I took the wrong turns quite a few times today so I'm sure my drive was at least an hour longer than it needed to be. Oops.
I don't have many photos from today but I decided taking a photo of Millmerran's water supply was worthwhile so I'll share that with you. I thought it was pretty.
Day 8 - Goondiwindi QLD to Walgett, NSW
MacIntrye River at Goondiwindi, which marks the Queensland / New South Wales border.
See the white stuff on the side of the road? That's cotton! It's cotton picking season and all these little bits fall off the huge road trains carrying the bails of cotton.
Most of the cotton fields were bare, having just being harvested, but there were a few full crops.
I think it looks more like a popcorn crop in this pic. :)
One of the enormous bails of cotton to be loaded on to a truck. No wonder there are little bits of cotton littered all about the countryside.
I almost came unstuck with my accommodation or rather lack of accommodation tonight. There was only three motels in the town of Walgett and two of them had no vacancies. The third one, which I ended up staying at, only had a room left which had been recently flooded so the carpet had been ripped up leaving a bare concrete floor. Believe me when I say it was better taking the dodgy room than driving the 2 hours and 45 minutes it would take to get to the next town.
The time, wasn't so much of an issue, but it was getting late in the day and one of the problems of driving in the 'outback', or any country areas of Australia, at dusk are the kangaroos. At dusk and in the morning they are on the move, looking for food or heading back to bed, and their paths often take them across roads. As a result, the number of kangaroos I have taking dirt naps in the middle of or on the side of the road has been incredible. And sad. Poor roos. :(
Day 9 - Walgett, NSW to Cobar, NSW.
Random lone tree.
Another front gate to a property with no house in sight.
The Darling River at Bourke. Bourke, in New South Wales, is seriously in the middle of nowhere.
I stopped at at the first rest stop on my way out of town to take some photos and noticed this aerosol can all rusted up and squished as flat as a pancake. Goodness knows how long it's been lying there, run over time and time again by trucks and cars.
"And what does make the roads red?"
About 7 kilometres out of Cobar, where I was stopping for the night, a warning light started flashing on my dashboard. Oh noes! The car didn't seem to run any differently so I tried not to stress about it too much. When I got to my motel I quickly called my mechanic (well, the dude who runs the place where I get my car serviced) and told him about the warning light. He told me that it's probably just an overheated transmission (there were a few hills and I had been pushing the car fairly hard). Once the car cooled down, it should be OK.
Well, long story short, it cooled down and the warning light still flashed. :(
Day 10 - Cobar, NSW to Broken Hill, NSW.
First thing I did today was call the NRMA (Road Assistance) to get somebody to come take a look at my car. The warning light was still flashing. The mechanic showed up, looked a few things, asked a few questions, and then told me it shouldn't cause me any dramas getting to Broken Hill. He did, however, suggest I get the auto transmission checked when I get home because that's what the flashing light relates to and also with my car there is no easy way to check the transmission oil level without hoisting the car up and undoing something or rather. OK, then...
Broken Hill is about 500 km from Cobar. The road has very little mobile phone coverage and one towns. There are two roadhouse/petrol stations, the first being 160 km from Cobar, the second 80 km from Broken Hill. The town is about two-thirds of the way along. I really really hoped it wasn't going to cause me any dramas.
Before leaving Cobar, I had a look around town.
Cobar is a mining town. The mines are why Cobar exists.
Originally they mined copper but eventually they also started mining for gold. This is the New Cobar Open Cut Gold Mine. For scale, you can see a car making it's way up the path from the bottom of the open cut. It's about half way up the photo.
In Australia we have a mania for BIG things. There's a 'Big Pineapple' and a 'Big Banana', there's a 'Big Rocking Horse' and a 'Big Koala', and in Cobar there is a 'Big Tinny!'. (eg. Big Can of Beer!)
I finally left Cobar at about 1:00 PM. Despite making a stop at the little girl's room before setting off, by the time the first roadhouse came into sight, I was busting to go to the loo. I pulled off the road, did what I needed to do, jumped back in the car, and set off.
OH-OH. Why did my car just make that noise? And again? My car is an auto and every time it changed gears it made a clunky noise. Now, the NRMA guy this morning asked me if it was acting weird, and up until then, it hadn't been. I didn't panic and since I was already 160 km into the trip, I just kept going. Going along at 110 it wasn't behaving any differently to normal. I had to stop again before getting to Broken Hill for petrol and to stretch my legs. Once again, when I took off, it made the clunky sounds going through the gears.
Luckily, I made it to Broken Hill in one piece and so did the car. I phoned Road Assistance again and they sent a guy out. After what the guy had said and done this morning, I'd already guessed that this guy couldn't do anything to fix the car in the motel car park. My reason for calling was more to get a referral to a local auto mechanic who could take a proper look at the shop and figure out what is going on. And that's exactly what happened.
Tomorrow morning I have to take Brett in to see the mechanic so he can, hopefully, be fixed, ready for my drive back home on Friday & Saturday. *fingers crossed*
(If you made it this far - Thanks for reading!)
I finally made it to the 'OUTBACK!'
A quick run down, with a LOT of SMALL photos of what I've been doing.
Day 3 - Coonabarabran, NSW to Armidale, NSW
I've travelled plenty of roads like this one. Long and straight, up and down. The roads a pretty much the same, however, the scenery changes like woah!
Brown, dry land. It's hard to figure out how anything grows or lives in some places. This was in cow country so I don't think they mind the slightly crispy grass.
Gunnedah - The Australian Koala Capital of the World! Unfortunately, this was the only koala I saw despite the numerous Koala 'warning' signs along the side of the road. (Not so much to warn you not to stop in case a crazed koala attacks you but to warn you that there might be koalas crossing the road.)
I finally made it to Tamworth around lunch time so I was only 18 hours late. (Tamworth is where I was aiming for on Day 2.)
The Big Golden Guitar! As the sign above says, Tamworth has long been known as the Australian Country Music Capital. Every year the Country Music Association of Australia holds it's Country Music Awards - the 'Golden Guitars' in Tamworth during the annual Tamworth Country Music Festival held over 10 days during January.
I can never pass up a photo of something Supernatural related. The 'Tamworth Firearms' store sells Winchester rifles.
After not making it to Tamworth on Day 2, like I'd planned, I was all set to stay in Tamworth tonight. However, I missed the turn to the motel and realised I was on the highway out of town. As it was only 4:30 and I'd done everything I wanted to do in Tamworth I decided this wasn't such a bad thing and just kept going. I ended up staying in Armidale which is about an hour up the road from Tamworth. This ended up making Day 4 a lot easier.
Day 4 - Armidale, NSW to Surfers Paradise, QLD
Armidale has lots of churches.
Lots and lots...
... of churches.
A rare green paddock on the road from Armidale to Surfers Paradise.
And we're back to the brown grass.
And sparsely leafed trees.
I liked that this was someone's front gate. I can just imagine the directions they give to people who come to visit. "Right. So you need to drive 198 kilometres and when you see the tall tree and white tyre, turn left and go under our railway bridge. Continue along our driveway for another 5 kilometres and that's where we'll be."
An autumn road in Tenterfield. Most native trees in Australia are evergreens so we don't see a lot of 'fall' colours except around towns where foreign species of deciduous trees have been planted.
I finally arrived at my hotel in Surfers Paradise around 6:00pm. It was a tough drive today - lots of hills and twisty roads, and the busy Surfers Paradise roads. After driving through the countryside and towns with either no traffic lights or just a handful of them, driving in Surfers was like driving through a city. It was such a relieve to get there and park the car and know that I didn't have to drive for a couple of days. :)
Day 5 - Surfers Paradise, QLD
Swim between the flags. All along the Gold Coast beaches there are Surf Lifeguard towers with two flags, like this one, out the front. These are the parts of the beaches which have surf lifeguards supervising the water. As you can see, the water is quite rough and it's quite windy. I'm pretty sure no one has every drowned on an Australian beach whilst swimming between the flags.
Surf, sand, and skyscrapers.
Some random dude jogging with headphones.
Tonight I went to the Australia v New Zealand Rugby League test. This was before the game, when the NZ team were doing the Haka.
Australia won and Melbourne Storm's Billy Slater was one of the stars with two tries.
Day 6 - Surfers Paradise, QLD to Brisbane, QLD
Today's drive was very short; only one hour. Yay!
View of the Brisbane River from my hotel room by day.
View of the Brisbane River from my hotel room by night.
Tonight's entertainment was a nail biting game between Brisbane Broncos and Melbourne Storm. Storm eventually won but it was a close game that came down the dying minutes. This is 'Buck', the Bronco's mascot. Each time the Broncos score, Buck (and his rider) do a lap of the ground.
Day 7 - Brisbane, QLD to Goondiwindi, QLD
Back to the days of long drives today. I have to admit I took the wrong turns quite a few times today so I'm sure my drive was at least an hour longer than it needed to be. Oops.
I don't have many photos from today but I decided taking a photo of Millmerran's water supply was worthwhile so I'll share that with you. I thought it was pretty.
Day 8 - Goondiwindi QLD to Walgett, NSW
MacIntrye River at Goondiwindi, which marks the Queensland / New South Wales border.
See the white stuff on the side of the road? That's cotton! It's cotton picking season and all these little bits fall off the huge road trains carrying the bails of cotton.
Most of the cotton fields were bare, having just being harvested, but there were a few full crops.
I think it looks more like a popcorn crop in this pic. :)
One of the enormous bails of cotton to be loaded on to a truck. No wonder there are little bits of cotton littered all about the countryside.
I almost came unstuck with my accommodation or rather lack of accommodation tonight. There was only three motels in the town of Walgett and two of them had no vacancies. The third one, which I ended up staying at, only had a room left which had been recently flooded so the carpet had been ripped up leaving a bare concrete floor. Believe me when I say it was better taking the dodgy room than driving the 2 hours and 45 minutes it would take to get to the next town.
The time, wasn't so much of an issue, but it was getting late in the day and one of the problems of driving in the 'outback', or any country areas of Australia, at dusk are the kangaroos. At dusk and in the morning they are on the move, looking for food or heading back to bed, and their paths often take them across roads. As a result, the number of kangaroos I have taking dirt naps in the middle of or on the side of the road has been incredible. And sad. Poor roos. :(
Day 9 - Walgett, NSW to Cobar, NSW.
Random lone tree.
Another front gate to a property with no house in sight.
The Darling River at Bourke. Bourke, in New South Wales, is seriously in the middle of nowhere.
I stopped at at the first rest stop on my way out of town to take some photos and noticed this aerosol can all rusted up and squished as flat as a pancake. Goodness knows how long it's been lying there, run over time and time again by trucks and cars.
"And what does make the roads red?"
About 7 kilometres out of Cobar, where I was stopping for the night, a warning light started flashing on my dashboard. Oh noes! The car didn't seem to run any differently so I tried not to stress about it too much. When I got to my motel I quickly called my mechanic (well, the dude who runs the place where I get my car serviced) and told him about the warning light. He told me that it's probably just an overheated transmission (there were a few hills and I had been pushing the car fairly hard). Once the car cooled down, it should be OK.
Well, long story short, it cooled down and the warning light still flashed. :(
Day 10 - Cobar, NSW to Broken Hill, NSW.
First thing I did today was call the NRMA (Road Assistance) to get somebody to come take a look at my car. The warning light was still flashing. The mechanic showed up, looked a few things, asked a few questions, and then told me it shouldn't cause me any dramas getting to Broken Hill. He did, however, suggest I get the auto transmission checked when I get home because that's what the flashing light relates to and also with my car there is no easy way to check the transmission oil level without hoisting the car up and undoing something or rather. OK, then...
Broken Hill is about 500 km from Cobar. The road has very little mobile phone coverage and one towns. There are two roadhouse/petrol stations, the first being 160 km from Cobar, the second 80 km from Broken Hill. The town is about two-thirds of the way along. I really really hoped it wasn't going to cause me any dramas.
Before leaving Cobar, I had a look around town.
Cobar is a mining town. The mines are why Cobar exists.
Originally they mined copper but eventually they also started mining for gold. This is the New Cobar Open Cut Gold Mine. For scale, you can see a car making it's way up the path from the bottom of the open cut. It's about half way up the photo.
In Australia we have a mania for BIG things. There's a 'Big Pineapple' and a 'Big Banana', there's a 'Big Rocking Horse' and a 'Big Koala', and in Cobar there is a 'Big Tinny!'. (eg. Big Can of Beer!)
I finally left Cobar at about 1:00 PM. Despite making a stop at the little girl's room before setting off, by the time the first roadhouse came into sight, I was busting to go to the loo. I pulled off the road, did what I needed to do, jumped back in the car, and set off.
OH-OH. Why did my car just make that noise? And again? My car is an auto and every time it changed gears it made a clunky noise. Now, the NRMA guy this morning asked me if it was acting weird, and up until then, it hadn't been. I didn't panic and since I was already 160 km into the trip, I just kept going. Going along at 110 it wasn't behaving any differently to normal. I had to stop again before getting to Broken Hill for petrol and to stretch my legs. Once again, when I took off, it made the clunky sounds going through the gears.
Luckily, I made it to Broken Hill in one piece and so did the car. I phoned Road Assistance again and they sent a guy out. After what the guy had said and done this morning, I'd already guessed that this guy couldn't do anything to fix the car in the motel car park. My reason for calling was more to get a referral to a local auto mechanic who could take a proper look at the shop and figure out what is going on. And that's exactly what happened.
Tomorrow morning I have to take Brett in to see the mechanic so he can, hopefully, be fixed, ready for my drive back home on Friday & Saturday. *fingers crossed*
(If you made it this far - Thanks for reading!)