Day 80 January 19, 2010

Considering how keen everyone is to get home, I was surprised that they all slept in until 8. Playing cards until after 10 every night is a habit we’ll need to break once we get home and school starts for the boys.
It’s surprising who you meet on the road. While packing up this morning, we got to chatting with our neighbours to discover they’ve come for a holiday at Narooma from Bilgola, just 2 beaches north of Mona Vale. I couldn’t help but wonder, “Why would ya?” I’m sure it’s nice here when it’s warmer.
As we left Narooma, I was pulled over at an RBT station and after 18,000km of driving without incident, this so amused Jacqui, she took a photo of the Policeman. We stopped off at Batemans Bay for a coffee while the boys played in a park and Jacqui searched through the local boutiques for new clothes to bring back. We stopped again at Ulladulla for lunch and by the time we got to Nowra, the traffic and agro drivers quickly had us back into city mode. Coming into the southern suburbs around La Peruse and then under the airport tunnel at the beginning of peak hour was a little daunting. With the van swinging off the back of the Jeep, I felt the early stages a headache building.
We made it through the harbour tunnel and across the Roseville Bridge with just a few beeps and a couple of hand gestures from the local natives before we started to slowly sneak along Parkland road, all of us straining for our first glimpse of home after almost three months on the road. The lawn man had come earlier today so the yard looked tidy and greener than we expected. Inside was as we left it and once I’d turned on the water, gas and electricity, we began removing the essentials from the van.
The boys are excited to be home and Jacqui is excited to catch up with her family and friends. I’m also looking forward to seeing friends and family but still a little unsure about how I feel being back. The 80 days seems to have flown past us so quickly. We’ve crossed state borders on 7 separate occasions, put the van up, and then down 40 times, celebrated Christmas, New Year, and 4 birthdays. We got the car bogged once, stayed in one hotel, slept in one beach shack, had one flat tyre, skinny dipped 4 times, and met a vast number of unique characters. We stayed in the White Cliffs Underground Hotel, had our clothes stolen at Broken Hill, drank at the William Creek Pub and got chased out of the Tanami desert by the local aborigines. We saw the brightness of the stars on a clear night in the desert, the sun rising from behind Uluru, the sun setting into the Indian Ocean, and the stunning but rugged beauty of Australia’s west coast. We’ve seen 3 states, one (Northern) territory, 6 deserts and 8 apostles. We’ve covered over 18,000 kilometers and taken more than 7,000 photos. I’m happy to have gotten everyone home safely, but a little sad the adventure is over. I wonder what the next adventure will look like.
Cheers,
The Dinters On Tour

Day 79 Narooma

I woke at 4am to another beautiful Victorian summer morning of pouring rain, van-rocking winds and a brisk 8 degrees with the expectation of a high today of a sweltering 18, with thunderstorms. Woohoo!! How can this be summer?
It was so cold, the family just slept, and slept, and slept until about 8am, when I woke the boys and then Jacqui, so we could make our escape by the 10am deadline. The guy that owns the park looks like an extra out of Underbelly. He’s solidly built with close cropped hair and seems unreasonably interested and nosey. I asked him what he did before buying the caravan park, (he’d volunteered that he was a new owner), and apparently he made his fortune as a salesman selling the plastic bases for flower pots. He must have sold a heap of em. He stood and watched and like many others, he was impressed with how efficiently everyone chipped in to pull the van down. We’ve had plenty of practice.
As we drove out of Lakes Entrance at 9:30, the temperature had climbed to an impressive 12 degrees but just 10 minutes up the road, it was back down to 10 and staying in the warmth of the car all day seemed like a good idea. We cruised through what is without doubt, stunningly beautiful (but cold) country, and we slowly made our way to what we intended would be our next stop, Eden.
We drove into the car park of the Australasia Hotel and found the sign promising a counter lunch before pulling up some chairs for a family conference.It’s cold and we keep seeing the signs showing the distance to Sydney. The boys are keen to see their friends and Jacqui would like to see them settled for a few days before sending them off to school. I am acutely aware of the text message I received from Eddie a few days ago saying, “the closer you get to home, the more you start to feel like a homing pigeon”. A vote was taken and the decision was made to keep driving to get ourselves into a position to make a run for Mona Vale on Tuesday.
I was keen to spend some time at the Eden Killer Whale Museum before heading north, so we ate lunch and then began scouting around town for the museum. The Museum was a great experience and we all learnt heaps. I’d never heard of the pack of Killer Whales that helped the shore based whalers during the 1920’s & 30’s by herding Humpbacks, Sperm Whales and Blue Whales into Twofold Bay, then alerting the whalers to come and get the catch. Who knew that a man at Eden was once eaten by a whale, but survived when the whale was caught and he was cut out of its stomach? Jacqui and the boys got an added bonus when they looked out to sea from the museum’s balcony and spotted a bunch of dolphins cavorting and putting on a show, just off shore. We spent almost 3 hours at the museum and it could well have been much longer.
We drove on through the mountains but by about 4pm, I was getting a little drowsy and told Jacqui that I’d be needing a 15-20 minute power-nap. I pulled into a little roadside stop on the side of the highway outside a small village called Quaama. I asked Jacqui to take the boys to a small table in a shelter and play cards, while I dozed off. I was a little surprised when I woke about an hour later and couldn’t see or hear Jacqui or the boys. I assumed they’d gone for a walk and when I saw the clips on the van unlocked, I began locking them down so we could leave when they returned. As I locked the clips, I faintly heard Jacqui calling, “Jorg, Is that you?” I looked around wondering where the voice was coming from when I heard it again. It seemed to be coming from the van but that wasn’t possible. The van was completely down, but for the clips. They couldn't possibly fit in but then I heard the voice again. I opened the door to the van and sure enough, there they all were, squeezed in like foxes in a borough. To escape the cold and the wind, they’d made some room near the door and squeezed themselves into the van. The only one with any chance to move around was Jacob. Jacqui said they’d opened the door a few times, much to the shock and surprise of people in their passing cars.
Now, completely awake, we all piled back into the front vehicle and made our way further north, to Narooma. It’s a pretty little town and if the weather was warmer, we could happily have stayed for a few days. While checking in, the caravan park owner told Jacqui that it had hailed here this morning so in our current circumstances, we found a spot for the night and settled in to prepare for the dash to Sydney in the morning.

Day 78 Lakes Entrance

I woke to the sound of traffic at 4:30am and began driving at 5. We made our way along the M1 through Warragui, Morwell, Sale and Bairnsdale before arriving at Lakes Entrance at 9:30.
I haven’t been to Lakes Entrance for over 30 years but I’m surprised that there are caravan parks dotted all over town. Strangely, people seem to have turned their homes into small, intimate caravan parks for 10 – 15 van, and the local council have obviously allowed the practice to thrive. It’s very clearly a popular holiday location as some of the recognised franchises are charging as much as $85/night for a standard powered sight. We settled for a small park just off the beach with, much to Jacqui’s joy, our own private bathroom facilities.
After setting up, Jacqui had a nap while I took the boys for a walk around town and the waterfront. They’ve taken some trees out on the main street but instead of removing them completely, the let a local artist carve the tree stumps into images of WW1 diggers and the families that were left behind. We took a couple of pictures of these unusual carvings. We also saw a local sand castle artist shaping a pile of sand into an ocean theme, again on the main street.
We were all pretty trashed after the long day and night on Saturday so other than diving into town for food now and again, Sunday was a very quiet day for us all. Its cold and wet so moving further north tomorrow looks like an appealing option.
Cheers,
Jorg

Day 77 Nar Nar Goon

We’d been looking forward to seeing the Great Ocean Road for such a long time now that when we woke up at Portland, we were all keen to get started. Jacqui and I were looking forward to seeing the 12 Apostles and Zach, Tom & Jake were just as curious to see what we were so excited to see. We pulled the van down and prepared for what we expected to be a fairly long day of Driving. The hand pump on the van had stopped working somewhere near Broome and we’ve been dragging 250 litres of water around the country ever since so with the fairly bouncy roads here in southern Victoria and the new front suspension highlighting the softer rear suspension, I took the opportunity to drain the tank just before we left the van park and thankfully, it’s helped making the driving much easier and less bouncy. I probably should have waited for level ground before draining the reservoir but who knew the ground was so hard.
We stopped off for coffee at Port Fairy about an hour after leaving Portland and got our first glimpse of the old English feel this south eastern corner of the country is known for. It’s a very pretty little town with lots of well cared for homes and boutique shops set on wide, tree lined streets.
With coffee in hand, we continued east and after about an hour, we passed through Allansford and the old Dairy Farmers Cheese making facility. It now has Warrnambool Cheese & Butter signage all over it and we were tempted, but resisted the urge to stop in at Cheese World to see if the Monty Python team were right when they said Blessed are the Cheesmakers.
Once through Allansford we began to get our first sightings of the spectacular limestone formations resting just off the rocky coastline. The sky was overcast and the wind cut through us as we parked and made our way along the well worn foreshore tracks. As we began our journey from the western end, The Grotto was our introduction to what we’d be seeing further along on the Great Ocean Road. It was OK and it was interesting, but not quite the spectacular stone formation we were anticipating. Thankfully, our next sighting at London Bridge was much closer to what we expected to see. This was followed by the Arch, then Sentinel Rock and Razorback, and at a single parking location, we saw Loch Arid Gorge, The Blow Hole and Thunder Cave. As we moved further east, we passed through Port Campbell which delivered the much anticipated pretty coastal village we expected to see as we travelled across the windswept peaks towards the 12 Apostles.
After Port Campbell, we finally arrived at the 12 Apostles and they delivered everything we expected. The overcast conditions spoiled the pictures a little but never-the-less, we saw what we were anticipating and while only 8 of these monoliths remain, I’m glad we came before there are only 7, or even 6.
After the 12 Apostles, it was off to Apollo Bay for a late lunch and for the boys to have bit of a play with the other kids in the park. While they played, we tried to find a camping ground but with everything booked up, it was off to Lorne. As we drove along the coastline, we began to see the type of landscape and scenery for which this road is famous. Up until Apollo Bay, all the action is off shore at sign posted stops. The drive itself is nothing special but this all changes once you arrive at Apollo Bay. The road winds and dips along the very edge of the ocean and feel that your living in a Vic-tourism television commercial. The views and the road are everything we’d hoped for. Amusingly, even with the cold and overcast conditions, every little beach we came to had holidaymakers playing in the waves in their wetsuits. Not surfers but people playing in the shore break wearing wetsuits. If you need a wetsuit, why would you do it?
We were immediately impressed by the scenery and the ambiance of Lorne when we arrived and its obvious why this town is so much loved by Victorians. We could easily imagine ourselves holidaying here somewhere dow the track, but not today. All the caravan parks had the house full sign out so we decided to head closer to Melbourne.
Not long after Lorne, we came upon a sign pointing us to a national park and with it getting dark, we decided to investigate the opportunity for a bush camp. About 5km along, we arrived at Point Adis and with the boys getting hungry, we set up in the car park at the lookout where we were joined by two other cars. We had coffee and dinner but then the wind picked up on the point and with Jacqui wondering if we might get blown off the point, we packed up and moved on, looking for a more protected location.
We made or way off the Great Ocean Road and headed north through Geelong, then Melbourne, and then Pakenham before finally pulling in for the night at a service station just off the highway at Nar Nar Goon where we slept in the car from midnight.
Cheers,
Jorg

Day 76 Portland

It was cold when we went to bed but who knew it would get down to 7.5 during the night, and it’s January. Isn’t it supposed to be warm in summer?
The cold must have affected us because we appeared to have saved our worst car-to-van hook-up for day 76. The packed the van up without any trouble but for some reason I failed to understand, we couldn’t seem to get the tow ball located under the corresponding hitch on the caravan. There was some sort of communication breakdown and with a stream of cars lining up to get past us, things became a little tense. Jacqui managed to find the tension release valve when she also found the local Beachport Jewellery shop. The owners were keen to relieve Jacqui of as much tension as was required to make the days travel easier to deal with.
We arrived at Mt Gambier in time for an early lunch and we then went in search of the Umpherston Sinkhole. Anyone who comes to Mount Gambier must go to see this thing. Apparently, some 15 million years ago, water eroded the limestone under the present sinkhole and with an earth tremor or some similar event, the roof collapsed into the hole. By the early 1800’s, the water table had lowered and the owners of the land, Mr & Mrs Umpherstone decided to landscape the bottom of the hole. The result is spectacular as we hope the pictures show.
Both before and after Mount Gambier, we noticed what appears to be thousands of hectares of pine forests and also the corresponding logging trucks. I’m not sure who owns the forest but with Carter Holt Harvey having a processing plant at Mount Gambier, my guess is that most of these millions of trees are destined to end up as toilet paper or tissues. As we drove through the coastal forests, we saw the differing stages of the trees with hectares of seedlings, then hectares of saplings and so on through to freshly cleared earth. They almost looked like steps in the landscape.
After Mount Gambier, we finally crossed out of South Australia and into Victoria. Without intending to be disrespectful to South Australians, we all heaved a collective sigh of relief as we crossed the border. We haven’t had a great time in SA other than our time in Streaky Bay. It’s been cold, wet, and fairly dull and we’re all keen to move around the coast into some warmer weather before our final border crossing back into NSW.
We arrived at Portland in the afternoon and had a drive around before heading for the van park. Portland looks to be a thriving community and it’s a pretty town in a great coastal setting. Formerly a whaling town, the locals have turned the town into a major whale watching location and tourism appears to have delivered the money to stop the place from fading away.
We finished setting up the grabbed the boys and walked into town for look around. We roamed along the harbour front and around the main commercial streets before settling into a waterfront pup, The Gordon Hotel, for dinner. We followed dinner with a quick visit to the travelling fair where the Zach and Tom survived the rollercoaster. Jacob and Jacqui joined them to test the Dodgem Cars before we convinced Jacqui to trust the rollercoaster herself. We survived and everyone had a good 1st day in Victoria. Tomorrow should deliver us our first view of the great ocean road.
Cheers,
Jorg

Day 75 Beachport

The man that can make the Men’s toilet smell less like a toilet will be a very rich man. Even with the sophisticated audience of Adelaide’s Vale Park, the toilet still smells like someone pee’d all over it.
And what’s the go with males wearing their jarmy’s to the communal bathroom? It’s bad enough that men are taking their jarmy’s on holiday with them but to be seen wearing your long PJ’s, or your nice silk dressing gown to the communal bathroom, when you’re still in you’re 20’s or 30’s is just un-necessary. What’s wrong with these people?
Thankfully, we escaped Adelaide just after 8am and by mid-day, we had arrived at Kingston, the home of the Giant Lobster. We got a lot of laughs when our good friends sent us a text photo of their kids at the Big Mango in Queensland, just as we drove past the Big Lobster in Kingston SA. Their message read, Leah & Hayden at the Big Mango. We immediately stopped the car, took a few quick pics on the phone/camera and Jacqui responded with, Zach, Tom & Jake at the Big Lobster. Sadly, other than the Big Lobster, Kingston has very little to offer which is probably very different to Airlie Beach and the Big Mango, so we headed further east. We arrived at Robe about an hour later and we cruised through town, only to be battered by the cold southerly winds. While Robe is a really pretty place, the bad news is that with all the seaweed in the bay, and the rancid salt lakes around the towns perimeter, the place stinks. Again, we decided to move further east and eventually we arrived at Beachport.
What a nice little town Beachport is. They found room for us in the caravan park and we had a little stroll around town. We would’ve enjoyed staying here for a few days but for one thing. It’s fffrrreeezzzing! We’re down to about 15 degrees and it’s expected to get down to 12 during the night. That’s about equal to the coldest day we had at Mona Vale all winter. We’ll probably sleep in tomorrow before making our way along the great ocean road and up towards Melbourne, and hopefully, to warmer weather.
Cheers,
Jorg

Day 74 Adelaide

With the delays we’re experiencing getting the suspension repaired, it looks like we’ll be missing Kangaroo Island entirely and we’ll be waving at Melbourne as we drive through, from Apollo Bay to Mallacoota. The 3 days in Adelaide has taken up any slack left in the itinerary and we don’t want to rush The Great Ocean Road more than we already are.
Our only city stop so far on this journey has been Adelaide and frankly, it’s been a major disappointment. With the rain yesterday, there was little to do once we’d confirmed the need to replace the shock absorbers, so we spent the morning in the city, then cruised through the afternoon.
Today, the sun was out again, but we had no car. The Koni’s arrived from Melbourne earlier than expected so I collected them with Jacob and then dropped the car at Pedders for the installation. I was told a couple of hours should do it so Jacob and I walked around for 3 hours.
We found Australia’s only licensed poisonous reptile retailer and stopped to have a look at the stock-on-hand. They had Black Snakes, Diamond Pythons, Carpet Snakes, Bearded Dragons, Thorny Tailed Minotaur’s, and giant Perenties, plus many more I couldn’t remember but that I’m sure will visit me in my dreams. After the reptiles, we found a donut shop and then a coffee shop, followed by the R. M. Williams Museum, before again visiting the reptiles on the return trip to the workshop. After 3 hours of walking the streets, we got back to Pedders to find that they had only just removed the 1st shock absorber.
Mitch, the Pedders dude explained that he didn’t realise he’d be required to remove the battery from one side of the engine bay, and part of the air-conditioning unit from the other side, in order to remove the shock absorbers. He did however explain that now that he’d learnt how to take out one side, he was certain the other side would be much easier. I decided that it would be best if I just left him to work it out so Jacob and I caught a cab back to the van to begin planning our escape.
At 4pm I called Mitch to be told that he was just finishing up and that I could come to collect the car. It took him 6 hours to do the job but sure enough, the front feels great and I’m now certain I’ll get the family home safely. Another day lost in the city of churches.
Cheers,
Jorg