After being delayed several times by unanticipated events, Pam and I finally towed our new caravan out of Perth at nine o'clock on the morning of Saturday, 4th December 2004 for our much dreamed of trip around Australia. Were we scared? A little. Were we excited? Were we ever!
I'm Peter, by the way. Pleased to meet you. Pam is my wife who, in these
pages, is variously known as Mrs Bucket (don't ask) and other names. She's
a good natured sort until pushed too far, then watch out!
Our initial destination was Ceduna in South Australia, and after that
. . . who knows? On that first day we drove for ten hours before camping
at dusk in a rest area twenty kilometres outside Norseman, still in Western
Australia. By the time supper was ready it was quite dark, but still warm
enough to sit outside and eat. It was very quiet out there under the stars
until Pam jumped up and, pointing behind me, exclaimed "What's that?"
Three bright lights were approaching quickly through the trees almost
directly towards us. Next second a big freight train roared past. In the
poor light we hadn't realised that we had camped right beside a railway
line.
That night our sleep was interrupted by road trains on one side of us
and railway trains on the other, so we were up by 05:00. After filling
our tanks - both fuel and water - in Norseman we were soon heading east
on the Eyre Highway which goes on for ever. The driving was easy
but we had to watch approaching trucks and road trains as the highway
was narrow and their closing speed was around 200 k.p.h. There was scarcely
a metre's clearance as they passed and several times their bow waves left
our mirror extension hanging off. We finally found a way to attach it
safely and it didn't happen again.
On
previous short caravan trips we had discovered that caravanners, being friendly
people, wave to one another when they pass on the road. We had learned to
do that. On the Eyre Highway we found that most drivers gave a little wave
as they passed us. We studied this wave carefully so that we could do it
right and be 'one of them'. The right hand is draped over the top of the
steering wheel, not really holding the wheel but just resting there - there
isn't a lot of steering to be done on the Eyre Highway. As a vehicle approaches
in the opposite direction the index finger is slowly raised, still bent,
to about 45°. And that's it! We practised this carefully. It gave us
something to do as the long hours passed, and it was the only exercise we
got. Some drivers didn't wave back but we weren't too offended. We'd done
the right thing and that was what counted.That night we again camped by the roadside. We'd put 1,450 kilometres behind us and we were shattered - but not too shattered to spend a little time marvelling at the night sky. Until you've gazed at a clear, night sky with no city lights within a thousand kilometres you can have no idea how many stars are up there. There's millions and they're so bright!
I have to admit that I was a little nervous about our non-reflective bretheren, the Aborigines, as we camped alone in the dark. I had heard many myths about them in suburbia but I needn't have worried. The truth is - and I'm adding this five years on - that you seldom find Aborigines far from white settlements except in the far north of Australia. Aborigines are like a race of lost children. Their hunter-gatherer skills are gone and many have become addicted to alcohol with which they can't cope. In outback towns they are quite scary as they roam in groups and are given to shouting loudly and aggressively. However, they shout at each other, not at white people whom they appear not to see. That works both ways; white people don't make eye contact with them either. On our travels we never, repeat NEVER, had a problem with Aborigines. But back to our travels.
The
flimsy little white box onthe left is our 'big' caravan!
If our drive to Ceduna did nothing else, it made us appreciate the truckies, the men and women who drive the road trains across the continent and back. Those rigs are just enormous. We thought our caravan was big until we parked next to the two refrigerated semis in the picture. That flimsy little white box on the left is us! Those trucks have 42 tyres (not counting the spares) - all but the front wheels are in pairs.
As
it turned out the meal was really excellent - as were the two bottles of
wine that went with it. However, a certain little lady was not going to
be satisfied with just two bottles, she tried to refill one bottle as the
picture shows. Perhaps it was just as well the restaurant was empty! We are quite used to seeing signs along the highway warning us of the danger of kangaroos on the road, but along the Eyre Highway we saw signs warning us of emus, wombats and even camels on the road! Fortunately we didn't see any camels, dead or alive, though we saw many, many dead kangaroos and a dead emu. We also saw a dead snake with a wedgetail eagle feeding on the remains. Waste not, want not.
Another unusual sign we came across a few times warned us that a stretch of the road on which we were travelling was an emergency landing strip for Royal Flying Doctor Service aircraft - one such sign is pictured below. But why not? The road is straight enough and wide enough. Beats waiting twelve hours for the nearest ambulance if there's an accident. What we did find rather disconcerting was that there was a "Road Narrows" sign on the right hand verge at around the point where an aircraft would touch down. So unless the R.F.D.S. aircraft had very high wings or a very alert pilot, it would stand a good chance of losing a wing tip at the very least. If you look carefully at the photo (below right) you can just about make out the white 'piano key' markings on the highway signifying the runway threshold.
Finally we reached Ceduna. It was wet, it was cold and the wind was blowing a gale. But we'd made it! We booked into a nice caravan park for three days to regroup, plan our next move and recharge our batteries. And not just our personal batteries; the caravan's battery, the computer's battery, the camera's batteries, the mobile phones batteries and the torch battery.
And so ended the first of many stages of our journey around Australia.
