At what point do you start to wave to passing traffic? This is a long vexed question that I had pondered as I got on the road again leaving Goobang National Park.
The wave can take many forms. There is the one finger wave - where you leave your hands on the steering wheel and slowly lift your left index finger. This is the favourite of the truckies (more out of boredom I think). There is also the fly swat wave - this is where you begin to wave your hand then realise that the oncoming car is ignoring you so you pretend to be swatting a fly. You find that you are inclined to wave more if it is a fellow compatriot ie; caravaner to caravaner, camper tourer to camper tourer or local to local. The wave can say so much in a passing moment as the two of you rush pass each other.
G'day mate.
G'day.
Traffic been ok?
Yep. Having a good trip?
Sure am. It's great to be out in this great country.
You betcha.
Have a safe journey
You to.
For me the first wave occurred between a little town called Tottenham and Buddabaddah ( no I did not make that up). From here it was back on to the Barrier Highway before turning off at Cobar to make my way to Gundabooka National Park for the night. I got there just as the sun disappeared over the low flat mulga so it was a quick dinner then bed in the hope for an early morning sunrise.
At what point do you really feel like you are on holidays? I can tell you it is not the first two hour drive to get out of Sydney. While I thought I had planned everything there was one thing I forgot. That was the day I decided to leave was the long weekend. The trip over the mountains is slow at the best of times (especially with the trailer in tow) however a line of weekend escapees did not help. The great thing to know however is that most of those in the traffic only had a couple of days away. Me on the other hand - I was just beginning my adventure.
The first day was to see me make my way out to Orange then to take the road less travelled along Banjo Paterson Way (don't you love some Australian road names) through Molong, Cumnock and Yeoval. It was somewhere between Molong and the strange steel sculptures on the side of the road that I finally felt like the trip had begun.
The sun was slowly setting in the West (never good when you are driving directly in to it) so it was good timing to make my way to the first camp for the night - Gobong National Park - and the first of many campfires to come.
“The purpose of life is to live it, to taste experience to the utmost, to reach out eagerly and without fear for newer and richer experience.” ― Eleanor Roosevelt
The word adventure conjures up different things to different people. For some it is the idea of going out in to the city for a big night of partying and drinking. For others it is often associated with Captain Cook, Scott of the Antarctic or Hillery -those that were willing (or silly) enough to overcome their fear and venture to places unconquered by man. But what about “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” or “The Adventures of Tintin”?
While I can’t claim that I am going to a place no one has ever been or that this blog will ever become as popular as Tintin, it is still an exciting trip that will provide some great memories.
Does adventure also mean dangerous? I am not out there walking solo and have the luxury of a well equipped 4WD and off road camper trailer. However the desert is an unforgiving place and it’s is only the foolhardy or German overseas tourist that ventures in to the centre of Australia unprepared. So the last few days has been finalising the packing and making sure I am as well organised as possible.
I recently completed reading the book “In to the Wild”, a true story about Christopher McCandless (his real name Emile Hirsch) who left his middle class existence in pursuit of freedom. His travel leads him into the wilds of Alaska. His aim - to spend time with nature away from the trappings of the modern world. So this is my aim as well. To spend some time exploring this great land, to gaze up to the million stars and escape the rush of Sydney. Now for those that read the book (or saw the movie) Christopher McCandless died in the wildnerness so I am hoping my organisation will deliver a better end to this story.
Ps: lucky my camper trailer is branded “adventure off-road” – it couldn’t fit any better
What if I break my leg and cant drive? What if I am bitten by a snake? What if I have problems with my eyes and I
cant see? What if I need someone else to
drive to the nearest town for more beer?
These are not normally the kinds of questions I have with my wife but
they were important seeing we are about to head off on our trip to the outback.
While Kathy is a very capable driver (I had to say this as
she is probably reading this post) and drives the 4WD every day to and from
work, I realised that the speed humps in the local shopping centre were
probably not a good enough test of what we may experience over the coming months. So with this in mind we went and did the 4WD training
course which is run by the Toyota Landcruiser Club which we are a member.
This involved 2 days of learning:
- The difference between winches to snatches (I though this
related to previous people I knew);
- dead man anchors (lets hope I never need to do that);
- why high lift jack are designed for macho men to stick on
their car roof and serve no other real purpose;
- how to repair a tyre with a piece of chewing gum, string and
kitchen fork (well something like that);
- successful water crossings without being eaten by crocodiles
(it turns out children are the perfect size for walking the rivers to see how
deep they are);
- how to climb steep hills and then come down them again
without rolling over;
- how to avoid large rocks jumping out and damaging the car (oops
– I don’t think I leant that this weekend)
It was a great chance to really experience where the car is
capable of going. It also turned out
that the women drivers mastered the course better than many of the men on the
course…..except me obviously.
A special thanks to the volunteer teachers from the Toyota Landcruiser Club who did a great job. I can highly recommend it.
As a major part of my job has been building a new Library I
thought I would do the right thing and actually go and borrow some books. I thought this would be a great opportunity to
do some reading to get me excited about the big trip ahead. The question was – what to look for?? So trusting technology I went to the library
book search and typed in “outback”. I hope
this is not a bad omen but the first two books that came up in the search were:
‘Left for Dead in the
Outback’
and ‘Surviving Australia – A
survivors guide to travelling through the Australian Wilderness’!!!!
Now I know I was after some ‘exciting’ reading but I am not
sure if this is what I had in mind. Luckily for me the next book on the list was not as bad (‘The Grey Nomad’s Guidebook’).
While I must say the grey hair is starting to come through (not helping by the above books) I don't think I qualify as a grey nomad so I settled on a couple of other books hopefully more relevant.
Lets just hope I don't need a camel to rescue me!
