Lazy days at Emerald Beach

Having endured our soaking at Byron for three nights, it was time to head back down the New South Wales coast, with the ultimate goal of Sydney, where I am to start work on the 21st April (we had received word that my working visa had been approved in a record time of three weeks while we were in Broken Hill). But first, we had arranged to meet up again with the Healys. Coffs Harbour turned out to be the most convenient place for their northward journey to coincide with our southward run, and we all checked in to a holiday park at a place called Emerald Beach, about 18km north of Coffs.

Right behind the beach, this holiday park turned out to be one of the best places we stayed in the whole of Australia! We booked three nights and ended up staying six. Best of all (for the Healys especially) the staff organised activities for the numerous kids roaming around the place (it is the school holidays right now) so giving the adults a bit of space. It would be misleading to say that Emerald Beach, or even Coffs Harbour, is the most exciting of places, but frankly that didn't matter. Everyone was relaxed and happy, with warm weather, a surf beach, and a bottle-o within walking distance.

Robin

The bottle-o or bottle shop is one of the curious things in Australia.  Supermarkets don't sell booze but the bottle-o does, like the 'offie' at home. Bottle shops are often attached to the local hotel,which is not usually a hotel as we would know it, but a pub. A pub with less atmosphere that is.  Within the hotel there is an area for gambling with many flashing gambler machines or pokies and some form of racing on the big screen t.v. (greyhound, pony and trap, horse racing). Or a rugby match, or a beach volleyball match, or any other sport you can think of. Often the bottle-o is one that you can drive through, meaning you can pull up to the forecourt so that you can easily load up your car with a block or a slab of stubbies (bottles or cans of lager).  I find the notion of a drive-thru off licence bizarre when you consider that Australia has quite a problem with drink driving, especially in the rural areas. However, driving through to the bottle-o did mean we didn't strain our drinking arms by carrying the slab of lagers and the 5 litre box of chardonnay back to the car. Thank goodness!

Hannah

Another highlight of our time at Emerald Beach was the abundant, and often bizarre, native wildlife. Eastern grey kangaroos live in the nearby Moonee Beach Nature Reserve, yet we were surprised to see quite so many on our wanderings, and especially so when we saw one grazing close to our van site. Better still, while we watched this 'roo grazing away, another one hopped up alongside the van, turned, and then hopped past the front bumper and off into the bush. The grazing roo then made a noise that made it sound like it was a bit miffed, then hopped off in pursuit. And then a possum popped up in the tree!

Other wildlife included a snake that the Healys found roaming their veranda (someone said 'oh, it's OK, it was only a carpet python' - not venomous but hardly a relieving thought!) and an echidna (like a marsupial hedgehog) on the path to the beach. And a couple of times we spotted an enormous goanna scuttling in the bush and climbing a tree. This enormous lizard was about 2m long and looked big enough to eat us. We paid it due respect.

Today is our last day at Emerald Beach, and we have booked introductory surfing lessons for this afternoon. Today is thus christened 'Big Wednesday'. Watch this space!

Robin

Back to Byron: Sea, Surf, and torrential rain.

We awoke in Tenterfield on Tuesday morning and it was still cold, although bright, so wasted no time in eating breakfast, re-organising the few things we had unpacked overnight, and moved on. First stop was 30km away at Bald Rock National Park, where we could climb the not-quite accurately named Bald Rock for magnificent views over the surrounding country. (I say not quite accurately named as it has quite a few trees and shrubs on it, clinging precariously to cracks in the rock, although most of it is indeed bald). The ascent was steep but the views were worth it, especially with the odd textures and colours of the rock (Australia's second largest monolith after Uluru) in the foreground. As we hadn't made it to Uluru on this trip, we were glad we had chalked up at least one monolith at last.

On the way down a few spots of rain came down, and by the time we got back to the van the rain had truly started - there seldom seems to be anything subtle about the rain in Australia - it pretty much seems to either be on or off. So off we drove back towards the coast, crossing the high country of the Great Dividing Range on the way. We stopped for lunch at a well-hidden rest stop at a clearing in amongst the high rainforest where it was freezing cold and drizzly. Not a good sign.

The rain slackened off after that until we turned off the Pacific Highway just outside Byron Bay, and the heavens opened. However when we parked up at the shorefront it had stopped, and we celebrated our return to the seaside after spending more than two weeks inland either to, from, or in, the outback.

We set up camp at the same place we had stopped before, and even erected our tarpaulin 'awning' just in case. How smug we were as it held off the light rain while we ate our dinner underneath! But then I heard a loud rumble coming from the rooftops of the buildings nearby. "is that... rain?" I asked Hannah, and the rumble got louder and closer. A few seconds later, a downpour of biblical proportions was upon us and we madly tried to push the ponding rainwater off the tarp. However the storm got the better of us, as we noticed that the soft ground was not holding the pegs down sufficiently, and fearing a peg flying off and through someone's window we quickly collapsed the tarp and poles and shoved them under the van. The ground had become a swamp by then and totally soaked, we climbed in the front seats of the van. Later we went to bed, with the rain still going. That was Tuesday night!

The next morning the weather had miraculously improved to the point that we got in the sea and did some body boarding first thing. But again the rain set in, forcing us indoors to eat a fantastic fish & chip lunch while overlooking the beach. Well, what we could see of it anyway, given the downpour.

Apart from occasional breaks in the weather it pretty much continued like this for the rest of our time in Byron. "What had we done?!" we thought to ourselves, having driven about 1300km from Broken Hill to get here! So instead of hanging around in the rain on Thursday afternoon we took a beautiful drive in the dank, hilly upcountry to Nimbin, the so called "hippy capital of Australia".

It seems there was some kind of freak festival here in the 70s and some of the freaks stayed on, with the result that although around the village there is an emphasis on all things green and creative, the overwhelming characteristic of Nimbin is its attitude to dope smoking. So much so, that despite its hippy credentials, the atmosphere on the main street was downright heavy (man), with crowds of decidedly non-hippy dope dealers hanging out, interrogating passers-by: "smoko?" was their call. In fact it seemed like a sub-tropical version of Camden market, with all that that entails! While having a coffee we saw two families engaged in a fight, and Hannah read in the local paper a letter to the editor stating how one concerned resident couldn't believe that she had seen a woman kneeing another woman in the head, in the street, one Saturday morning. Clearly this was a place with more than its fair share of social problems and we couldn't help but wonder about the effect of all that dope in one place, and the consequent draw (arf) of the place for all sorts of people, hippy or otherwise. Saw some nice parrots, though...

And the next morning we left - suffice to say that our second spell in Byron Bay was not quite as enjoyable as the first!

Robin

Tamworth to Tenterfield

Our night camped in Tamworth was a little chilly but not as cold as some of the evenings we've had recently; it's noticeable that autumn has arrived here in Australia, and the chilliness of the evenings has been a bit of a rude awakening for both of us, having previously laboured under the illusion that it never really gets cold here.

Anyway Tamworth was a pleasant enough place to stop and do some shopping / chores; the smart workers drinking coffee at the pavement cafes were a welcome counter to the general hick-dom evident in some smaller towns further west. We made a stop at the local 'big thing' - the golden guitar, which hilariously was dwarfed by the McDonalds golden arches next door. We took some silly photos and drove on.

Up along the 'New England Highway' we went, running along parallel to the north coast of New South Wales but about 200km inland. The New England Plateau turned out to be a surprisingly pretty part of the country, and as its a bit colder up here due to the plateau's elevation, the autumn colours of the trees were stunning. Armidale was a nice place to stop for lunch of a gourmet pie, eaten while admiring the colonial architecture and ornate wrought iron verandas - it's great where features like this have been preserved; often civic 'development' has seen old buildings like these bulldozed to make way for bland single-storey 'hotel motels' or strip malls.

We got to Tenterfield about 5pm and it was freezing. Only 200km away from Byron Bay and the coast, where we hope it'll be warm enough to get back in the sea for a spot of boogie boarding - we'll let you know!

Robin

East via the Warrumbungles

In Cobar we already noticed that the land around us had become steadily more green and leafy, and it continued in this way as we drove through miles (almost 400km) of farming country to the Warrumbungle National Park. The craggy outcrops of the park loomed in front of us during the last hour of our long drive.

Camping at the national parks has so far turned out to be one of my highlights of our Oz Odyssey. The camp sites are always in very picturesque settings, with plenty of wildlife to at least hear, if not see! Usually we are treated to kookaburras and parrots giving us a dawn chorus, with the latter sounding like squabbling old ladies at high volume.  We have seen possums and foxes while camping, but the Warrumbungles won all prizes in the wildlife spotting awards. Loads of eastern grey kangaroos (living and breathing thankfully) munching on grass and hopping about here and there, not in the least bit bothered by us or any other campers.

The Warrumbungles are a small range of rocky odd shaped hills that are situated in a part of NSW that has exceptionally clear skies, meaning that there is an observatory of world importance located in the national park.  And indeed, when sat around our camp fire and looking skywards we could really appreciate why.  There were millions of stars sparkling away, Patrick Moore would have had an orgasm!

Hannah

Onwards we drove the next day, another 200km or so to the 'country music capital of Australia', Tamworth. Apparently there is a 20m high 'big guitar' here, perhaps we'll go and gawk at it tomorrow. Anyway a big highlight of the drive was found in the small town of Gunnedah, which has one of the healthiest Koala populations anywhere. Indeed the signs welcoming you to Gunnedah even proclaim it the 'Koala capital of the world'. Wonder what the Koalas think. They seemed pretty happy; the staff at the visitor information centre even drew us a map showing several of the resident Koalas' current locations. So map in hand, off we drove through the suburban streets, stopping here and there to look up a gum tree in someone's back garden, spotting koalas dozing in the afternoon sun.

Robin

Broken Hill to Cobar

Leaving Broken Hill, we drove eastwards over 470km to the tiny town of Cobar. We passed through Wilcannia in a matter of minutes, 200km into the drive. It was a bit of an anticlimax, as it didn't look like it had been smashed up, and there weren't hordes of bloodthirsty local aborigines hanging around waiting to pounce.

The drive was quick; there was absolutely nothing to slow us down, driving through the practically featureless yet awesome red landscape of the outback, apart from changing drivers and rest stops. Oh, and the emu, that Hannah spotted on the side of the road just as I had started my first shift of driving that day, and promptly ran across the road, directly in front of us. Although we were doing about 100km/h, we just avoided hitting the stupid thing by braking and praying. Thankfully we didn't have to start counting dead emus for entertainment.

Robin

Into the Outback: Broken Hill

On the Wednesday morning that we left Mildura, the weather had changed: wind and cloud had taken the place of the beautifully clear sunny weather that we had been enjoying, and we took this as a sign to leave. To get to Broken Hill we needed to cross the Murray river, turn left and drive 30km or so to Wentworth, then turn right and keep going for almost 300km. Simple.

We knew that there wouldn't be much on the road between Wentworth and Broken Hill, but we weren't quite mentally prepared for the fact that there would literally be nothing on this stretch of road  (we did pass a herd of emus somewhere along this stretch. H) - although outstations and homesteads were marked on our maps, they were too far from the road to be seen; the only signs that they existed at all were occasional gates in fences and the owners' rudimentary mailboxes. The only place visible from the road, and indeed the only place to stop - was the lonely Coombah roadhouse (claiming to serve the best meals between Wentworth and Broken Hill) where we made the obligatory stop and changed drivers. Buying a cheese and ham toastie and a sandwich there for lunch seemed like the least we could do - it didn't look like the roadhouse made a lot of money.

Robin

Or get a lot of company - the daughter of one of the waitresses clearly wanted someone to play with and promptly had us making 'horsies' out of Plasticine with her!

So, fed and watered off we went. The wind had picked up to a roof rattling gale and the sand blew across the roadhouse forecourt as we pulled out onto the Silver City Highway.  The sky was no longer dark with clouds, more orange and pink from the desert dust that was being whipped up. The following 125km seemed to take forever as the squalling wind buffeted us and the orange dust became heavier. It was a dust storm, not uncommon in the outback apparently, and at times visibility was incredibly poor. A thick orange fog is the best way to describe it, one that made seeing approaching vehicles difficult, even with their head lights on.  This was not quite the 'outback adventure' we had envisioned, not least because we couldn't see any of the vast scenery associated with this aspect of Australia.

A note on car games:  The mechanic in Mildura had warned us to watch out for kangaroos on the Silver City Highway, and after seeing a yellow sign (the first of several) that said "Kangaroos 240km", we had our eyes peeled.  Before the dust storm we counted 17. Dead ones that is.  And by the time we had reached Broken Hill the count had risen to twenty. The dust probably prevented us from seeing many more.  The stipulation for including a carcass in the count was that it had to be recognisable as a 'roo, and not just a skeleton - of which there were far too many to count.  A gruesome game, but there aren't many ways to make a 300km drive fun. And thankfully, given the dust storm, we didn't add any 'roos to the body count ourselves.

Hannah

The dust storm was still going when we got to Broken Hill, so rather than get out and enjoy the apparently spectacular views we went to the airport, which is also one of the bases for the Royal Flying Doctor Service. Their tour was very worthy of course, because they do a lot of good work, and we got to go in the hangar and see a couple of the planes. AND we discovered that 'Coopers Crossing' from The Flying Doctors TV series doesn't exist: it was actually filmed in a place called Minyip, which we had driven through on the way to Mildura (In Minyip, signs for 'Coopers Crossing - home of the Flying Doctors' had caused both of us some confusion...)

The morning brought a beautifully clear yet chilly day, and we got even further out back by driving to Silverton, which is practically a ghost town, about 25km away. The Silverton Hotel (the only remaining pub) is famous as an archetypal aussie outback pub and has featured in lots of TV ads and films - Mad Max II was filmed nearby and there was a replica of Mel Gibson's Interceptor car parked out front.

We had to have a beer in the pub - this is pretty much the price for having a nose around. After that we wandered around the remaining stone buildings (including the gaol/town museum) scattered apparently randomly in the bush - the tin and timber shacks and houses that once stood in between having long since vanished. At the nearby Mundi Mundi lookout we looked out (obviously) over a dead-flat plain while dust devils swirled along in the distance. Driving back towards Broken Hill we even saw a herd of camels wandering along in the bush. (And a big lizard. H)

Back in town we drove up to the top of the enormous slag heap looming over the city centre and had a coffee - Broken Hill's raison d'etre is mining, and they've been extracting silver lead and zinc from the ground (the 'line of lode') for 125 years. The Broken Hill that the town is named after has long since disappeared, mined into oblivion, and replaced by the slag heap. Disused mines and equipment are dotted all over town, but a couple of modern operations carry on.

At sunset we again drove a short way out of town to a strange place known as Sculpture Hill, where in 1993 a group of sculptors were invited to camp out and create sculptures from extremely hard rock without power tools. Some of the sculptures are better than others, but the light and the setting made it feel pretty special. (And we saw some kangaroos on the way home- alive this time. H)

Tomorrow (Friday) we plan to start the long drive east. The next town, about 200km away, is Wilcannia. We had thought about staying there for a night, but Hannah has been warned against it by a lady she met here on the campsite who had just driven from that direction. 'Don't even stop there - there's roadhouses either side of town that you can use. The local aborigines have smashed up the town and everything's boarded up' was the advice. Looks like our Outback adventure is just beginning!

Robin

Up to Mildura: back to the warmth!

Our longest day of driving so far in Australia saw us cover over 400km north from the Grampians to the city of Mildura, at the very edge of Victoria state on the banks of the mighty Murray River and the border with New South Wales. I say 'mighty' as that's what the locals say - in truth it's not that wide here and controlled by locks and weirs, so actually pretty languid. This also disguises the fact that the Murray region is in a state of severe drought. But hey, the old paddle steamers doing the rounds of tourist cruises round these parts are a pretty enough sight...

The drive north was interesting for its sheer nothingness. Vast plains of parched and barren farming country gave way only occasionally to tiny villages consisting of a grain silo, a railway siding, and a couple of houses. The slogans of these villages, marked on the signs welcoming the motorists speeding through, got duller and less imaginative as the roads wore north... 'centre of the wheat belt' or simply 'barley country' were both seen more than once. We stopped for rest breaks and to change drivers at the towns of Warracknabeal and Ouyen. On an Autumn Sunday, with everything closed, this was long enough. There is no real Outback inside the state of Victoria but this drive was certainly enough to give us a sense of what to expect beyond Mildura.

Mildura is the biggest place for hundreds of kilometres in any direction: the city boundary is actually over a hundred kilometres out, although the population of the whole region is only about 50,000. Reminding us a little of Mendoza in Argentina, irrigation from the Murray supports citrus farming and viticulture, helped along by the warm climate - yes, we are back in shorts! What a relief after shivering our proverbials off further south. We ended up staying three nights in Mildura, which was longer than expected, as we needed some work done on the van (poor Tara!). However this we did not really mind, as although Mildura is probably not Australia's most exciting city, the locals are friendly (almost everyone has an Italian surname, which probably helps to explain the wine business around here), the campsites are amenable - even providing wireless internet (so explaining the fact that this blog has been updated more quickly than in the past...) and the weather is fab. Evidently autumn is a good time to be here - in summer the place is stifling apparently.

Robin

We are now looking forward to our trip north to Broken Hill. The tourist information pamphlets are filled with photography of beautiful scenery, typical to the 'outback.'  Yes, we are officially going 'outback', as confirmed by the mechanic at the garage. After the usual g'day and 'how you going?' (to which you reply 'fine thanks, how you doing?' he imparted the following wisdom: "Watch out for 'roos. About 150k's from here (Mildura) and you need to take it easy" or word to that effect. "So that's real outback then?" we asked, "yep" was the reply. 

Hannah