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Recent Adventures
- WOW – Facts and Figures
- Photos, Videos and More Photos
- Campsite Collection #4 – Esperance to Home
- Oh no!!!
- The Loop Closes
- Still reading
- Sunrise/Sunset Collection #2 – Alice Springs to Albany
- Campsite Collection #3 – Port Hedland to Albany
- No gymnasium required-we hope!
- QUIZ ANSWER: Road Signs
- QUIZ ANSWER: Photos
- OK so it’s been 3 weeks …
Current Discussion
- SusanBowler on Sunrise/Sunset Collection #2 – Alice Springs to Albany
- Leanne Watson on Oh no!!!
- Leanne Watson on Still reading
- Leanne Watson on Sunrise/Sunset Collection #2 – Alice Springs to Albany
- Mary-Lu on Sunrise/Sunset Collection #2 – Alice Springs to Albany
- Mary-Lu on Still reading
- rohan on Campsite Collection #3 – Port Hedland to Albany
- Peter and Judy Marburg on Campsite Collection #3 – Port Hedland to Albany
- Nanna & Poppa on QUIZ ANSWER: Photos
- Bev Eustace on Animals on the run
- Bev Eustace on REALLY BUSY
- Desley on OK so it’s been 3 weeks …
Categories
Previous Adventures
- September 2011 (29)
- August 2011 (34)
- July 2011 (8)
- June 2011 (2)
- September 2010 (5)
- August 2010 (1)
- July 2010 (2)
- June 2010 (1)
- September 2009 (1)
Monthly Archives: September 2011
WOW – Facts and Figures
Number of Days Away
54 (7-August-2011 to 29-September-2011)
Number of Different Campsites
33 (SA: 7, NT: 8, WA: 17, VIC: 1)
Total Distance Travelled
Falcon: 15660 km
Commodore: 15712 km
The extra 52 km travelled by the Commodore would be the result of the distance of a return trip between Endeavour Hills and Glen Waverley.
Number of Towing Days
33 (Falcon: 19, Commodore: 14)
Number of Non-Towing Days
21 (of this, 15 involved less than 100 km of non-towing distance travelled – short day trips, etc. The other 6 days involved longer day trips where more than 100 km were travelled)
Distance Towed
Falcon: 8300 km (approx.)
Commodore: 7100 km (approx.)
The remainder of the distance would be non-towing distance (day trips, etc. without the van attached)
Weather
Rainy Days: 7
Some Cloud (But No Rain): 14
Cloudless Days: The rest (including 28 days in a row without a cloud to be seen!!!)
Fuel
Economy – Both cars had approximately the same fuel economy, so here are the Commodore’s figures which can be used as a guide for both cars.
Overall: 10.15 litres per 100 km
Towing: 12.66 litres per 100 km
Non-Towing: 8.41 litres per 100 km
Total fuel used – 1601.54 litres for the Commodore.
Average fuel price (based on total spent divided by total used) – 160.3 cents per litre for the Commodore.
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Photos, Videos and More Photos
A grand total of 7604 photos and video clips taken over 54 days…
Digital Pictures: 7485
Digital Video Clips: 92
Film Camera (Underwater Disposable): 27
Yes, we must be crazy!
Enough said.
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Campsite Collection #4 – Esperance to Home
The final instalment of our holiday campsites – along the southern coast from Esperance in WA to home sweet home in VIC.
Port Augusta – we stayed at the same caravan park as the first time here at the end of Day 2 of out trip. I recall taking the photo of the campsite, but it seems to have gotten lost for the moment amongst the thousands of other pictures we have taken.
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Oh no!!!
Our wonderful trip is coming to an end. Our last night in our bedroom on wheels!! We have celebrated with a BBQ and a Red. Just before we we got to those Adelaide Hills, the lightning cut the clouds to show us a little blue sky and the thunder stopped rocking the road for us to glide down the hills with ease. We are staying in Bordertown for the night before we cross into the beautiful state of Victoria-the state ‘On the Move’. See you all soon.XXX
The Loop Closes
Yesterday we passed through the same intersection in Port Augusta that took us north, seven weeks to the day, along the Stuart Highway towards central Australia and beyond. This time, however, we entered the intersection from the West on the Eyre Highway, thus ‘closing the loop’ on our ‘Way Out West’ around Australia holiday.
It’s certainly been an unforgettable adventure, one that has filled our senses with:
- incredible sights (a 40 tonne whale fully breaching less than 100 metres away at Coral Bay; the sheer immensity of Uluru as it fills your entire field of vision; blindingly white sands and turquoise waters around Esperance; a brilliantly bejewelled night sky in the outback;);
- interesting smells and tastes, not all of them good! (the eclectic mix of smells and tastes of Mindil night market in Darwin; sulphuric gases of Mataranka thermal pools; the salty tang of pearl meat; the unmistakeable whiff of a ‘long drop’ bush toilet);
- amazing sounds (the rumble of thunder rolling across the Nullarbor Plain and out to sea in the Great Australia Bight at Eucla; the guttural roar of a 15 foot saltwater croc attacking its prey in Darwin; freight trains at night as they rumble by on their journey from the Pilbara mines at Port Hedland; the crunch underfoot of a dry salt lake in South Australia; the deafening silence of a Karijini night).
And these lists are endless.
Our experiences have also evoked a gamut of feelings and emotions in all of us: enthusiasm; joy; exhilaration; happiness; awe; sadness; wonder; frustration; anger; fear; exhaustion; sympathy; affection; thankfulness; satisfaction.
We’ve also seen some interesting and often thought provoking place names along the way: Iron Knob; Oodnadatta; Turkey Creek; Paraburdoo; Donnybrook; Pygery; Cocklebiddy; Grass Patch; and let’s not forget to mention the hundreds of names in the southwest of WA that end in ‘up’!
So, as we make our way south from Port Augsuta, skirt around the city of Adelaide, then turn east and make our way along the Western Highway into Victoria, we reflect on the unforgettable time we have shared and the memories we have made and, before we know it, we have arrived at the final destination on our journey, a little place simply called… home.
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Sunrise/Sunset Collection #2 – Alice Springs to Albany
Here’s the latest instalment of sunsets and sunrises. Enjoy.
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Campsite Collection #3 – Port Hedland to Albany
Port Hedland – I was tempted to write here that the camp site at Port Hedland was so bad that I simply refused to take a photo of it, but the truth is I simply forgot. Mind you, the place we stayed wasn’t exactly the height of luxury. Our original choice of accommodation – Cooke Point Holiday Park – which looked quite nice from the little we saw of it at the front entrance – was actually booked out for powered sites (in Port Hedland??? Really???) and we had to settle for the only other accommodation available – a place called Blackrock Caravan Park. It too, was (nearly) full to overflowing… with permanent residents, all of whom work in the mines or refining plants in and around Port Hedland. All we could get was an unpowered site (but we used a spare power point connected to the swimming pool shed anyway). Needless to say, there was a constant noise associated with the comings and goings of the shift workers, and our site was right near the front entrance (not to mention the freight trains that rumbled passed with a blast of their air horns just across the road from us)! Thankfully, we only stayed for the one night and we were on the road and headed for Karijini the next morning.
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QUIZ ANSWER: Road Signs
The winner of the Road Signs quiz is… FLOODWAY.
Of the 5 different road signs I listed in the quiz (and the reason I put this quiz on to the blog) FLOODWAY would out-number all the others added together – I have been simply stunned by the number of FLOODWAY signs I have seen – hundreds and hundreds of them – easily the most seen sign on the trip so far. All I can say is that if all of these FLOODWAY areas were in flood at the same time, Australia would be at least one-third under under water!
PARKING/REST AREA – this is probably the second-most seen sign (in its various forms) but well down on number compared to the FLOODWAY signs. There are of course many rest areas for travellers along the road due to the vast distances people travel between destinations.
The GRID sign is next. I would estimate that they are in similar number to the PARKING signs, but obviously nowhere near the top of the list.
The STRAY ANIMALS signs have been numerous, but would come in fourth on this list of signs. With regards to the distance displayed on the signs, it’s very haphazard, with one sign saying “STRAY ANIMALS NEXT 230km” and 50km down the road, there’s another one saying “STRAY ANIMALS NEXT 78KM”. Go figure.
The last sign listed (DRIVE ON LEFT) was really only included because I think it’s a funny sign. We only saw about a dozen or so of them, but they made me smile each time I passed one. Mind you, the number of foreign tourists we saw in their rented Britz, Appollo, Maui and Wicked campervans between Adelaide and Darwin was amazing, so I can see why the signs are needed.
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