Dingo Den's Travels: Perth via Darwin

Day 1 July 19th

I have decide to enlist the assistance of my nearest and dearest so am posting her write ups and adding some information - Enjoy

To our family and friends an insight into our wonderful travels here in Australia. Dennis has been in planning for over a year now with this trip. His working out our stops overnight and booking of caravan sights have been quite a daunting task but with persistence he has managed and done a wonderful job of planning. He has worked out the spending of monies with data put onto the new age gadgets called the iPad and now wants me to learn to do it while he is driving and now contemplating whether I should or not. Big grin on my face at the m moment. Anyway the much planned trip is now underway but let’s not forget my part in this too. I had the tedious task of meal planning for overnight stops, packing the caravan and seeing to all the nutty gritty of everyday life on the road.

We're on our way

And now so the journey has begun this day the 19^th July 2014 with our first stop at Maco’s with the whole family to wish us on our merry travels. We left just after 8 with the weather over cast and raining on and off and into our journey was quite misty. Some farmer had a wonderful artistic idea by making a huge teddy

bear out of hay a great tourist attraction. Going through many towns with lots of heritage buildings and I’m sure lots of stories I’m sure they can tell. We stopped at one of the rest areas for lunch and a leg stretch just outside Culgoa and then again to ditch an avocado in the bin due to fruit fly quarantine much to my disgust as it was a good avo too but law is law. It was not long after this that we arrived at our destination for our first stop which is in Mildura at Calder caravan Park. Unhitched the caravan and went sightseeing around the town and ended up at the Famous Murry River. Peaceful and beautiful. We came back to camp had dinner and caught up with the photos and writing of our travels. It’s time to retire and will continue this story tomorrow.

While saving the days travel in Memory Map i managed to loose most of the info however I do know that we traveled 561 Km at an average speed of 92 Km/h

Day 2 July 20th

Our day started off with a well-rested sleep and a shower that was a race through the hot water, drying ourselves and a dash to the van to get warm. Temperature was 3.5 brrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!.

Sun Rise

We survived and decided to just pack up and drive to Maco’s and have something to eat. We left Mildura at 8am and actually feeling quite refreshed this morning. Taking the back roads and heading towards Port Augusta. Terrain changing quite dramatically from lush green hills to a dry small bushy terrain which carried on for K’s. It was most enjoyable. We over took 2 tankers travelling together quite early on in our travels. Heading towards Morgan but having to cross the Murry River on a Ferry to get there which was most enjoyable. Just before reaching Morgan the citrus farming lands were seen.

As far as your eye could see the orchids roamed the country side also alongside of it were grape vines. There were also honesty box fruit stalls. We left Morgan and drove towards Burra where we stopped and had homemade lunch with a good cuppa right in front of the Peacock tower.
We also filled up the car as it need juice, I’m sure the engine had a good smile when it got fed. We left Burra and there on the road were these 2 tankers again and so once again it was passing them and waving to the men. We drove to Jamestown driving towards Port Augusta when we saw these two tankers again in front of us now this was mind boggling as we have no idea how they were in front of us. They must know some shorter road to get to their destination. We finally arrived at Port Augusta about 3.20pm. and our overnight stop at Shoreline Caravan Park. Parking our home in a drive through spot with an on suite. We had to go and buy some veggies and fruit before our next leg of the trip and the reason for this is we had to past a fruit free fly zone and border between the two states one is not allowed to carry any fruit in the car across the border from Victoria to South Australia they check the car.

Border Crossing

The Two Tankers

A most enjoyable days travel, not sure how we did it but we ended up doing about 50 Km on sand!! we did 556 Km at an average speed of 87.8 Km/H

Day 3 July 21st

…Oh No, what on earth was Dennis thinking when he set his clock last night. I don’t think he lives on my planet. Well, let me tell you the truth about clock setting in my household. The night before Dennis could not get his bedside clock to work and moaned about the stupid thing as he calls it. Then last night he discovers something about the clock and realised it was not a stupid thing and set the clock and alarm clock. So off to bed we go and for some unknown reason we both woke up before the alarm went and Dennis decided to get up and go and shower. I remained in bed until he returned. Then it was my turn to shower, I did not even think of questioning him about the time. Anyway I returned from the shower and Den had to do something but in between this he kept on opening the door to see the sun rise but no sun was to be seen then he looked at his watch on his arm and asked what time was it and then discovered he had gotten up at 4.30am and it was now 5.30am.Oh give me strength what am I to do with this man. Him and his watch and alarm clock , the question is am I going to survive this trip with this going on’s. He has sure had his issues so far on this trip with his fingers doing the wrong things.

Well as you can see today started off rather early and we left Port Augusta after having some oats for breakfast. The road was rather quite as we headed off into the outback bush. The terrain changing from time to time. We encountered 2 kangaroo’s on the road who wished to watch the cars go by in the middle of the road and as we approached slowly they hopped off into the bush, beautiful creature they are and so graceful when hopping. We also saw a lot of carcases along the road from hits. We stopped off at Lake Hart for a cuppa and Trim Healthy Mama brownie cake and cream which was just delightful. We took some lovely photos of this area. The Road then became busy with road trains and lots of caravans. We passed a sign with the distance to Alice Springs 1050k’s quite a distance still to drive. Then the hunger pains started and so we stopped off at a rest place to enjoy a salad I had made before leaving, it was truly scrumptious.

With the road been a long drawn out one we decided to read out loud the book called “The Blood moons” by Pastor John Haggee. I read into 3 chapters which was most informative and learnt a lot about the sun moon and stars in the Bible. Then the distance to Coober Pedy became shorter and the mining of Opals were becoming more noticeable in the fields. Taking heaps of photos coming into town and stopping off at the entrance of Coober Pedy with the blower machine on a stand took photos and the surrounding area was full of sand dunes from the mining. We arrived at our destination at 1.45pm and set up camp but when getting out the car there was a strange noise coming from the engine which thankfully Dennis found what the cause was. What a blessing to have a handy man and able to rectify the problem without causing the bank balance to sky rocket. It was 2 rubber stoppers holding the air coolant which had worn and Dennis did a mod to it and fixed it. We drove around the town and went into a few Opel shops but nothing caught our fancy. Went to the shops for lettuce and tomatoes and spent $9 for them, a bit shocked but then what can you expect when you in the middle of no where. Dinner was served without any hiccup from the pepper grinder and enjoyed our meal and now it’s time to relax and lights out not far from now.