MOOMINS M.C.

Friday 22^nd Feb.

Early start from Boulia today to try and get some distance in the cooler hours of the morning. All well and good but with all the photographic opportunities on offer that distance seemed to get longer and longer. I did get a bit of photographic goodness in and some of it required going off road and employing my car’s 4 wheel drivability to get it. I did in the end make it to Birdsville after checking in to a caravan park I made some dinner. Whilst waiting for the sun to get low enough to take some shots of one of the old buildings in the town I laid up for a bit of a rest in order to digest the two steaks that have been in the fridge since Sunday. All of a sudden I realised that it had gone dark and went outside to investigate. There was a sandstorm coming. High up in the sky was a roll of cloud coming straight for me. Never been in a sandstorm before. As the wife of the caravan park owner same over and asked me if I intended to walk to the pub or get a lift with her I nodded my head and kindly accepted her offer. Standing outside the Birdsville hotel with a cold can of beer the sudden heat of the wind driving the storm hit me. Like opening an oven only with much more force.

I ended the evening chatting to the hotel owner who was a keen photographer and four wheel driver. We swapped tips and I got some good advice about tackling Big Red, a sand dune about 40km outside of town. I might have a crack at it tomorrow and then continue on south to Maree. See how far I get eh.

Saturday 23td Feb

First thing I did this morning was to tackle Big Red which is the biggest sand dune in the Simpson Desert. Why? Because it was there. On my third attempt I managed to get tot the top of this substantial dune, and took a few quick photos as it was blowing hard and the sandstorm hadn’t really cleared properly.

Didn’t quite make it down to Maree. Got as far as Mungerannie Hotel which is about 400km south of Birdsville. Maybe I didn’t get enough local info about attractions and things, but there really wasn’t a lot going on. It could have been the remnants of the sandstorm obscuring things too as well. I did go through some of the roughest road so far though, not corrugated, not potholed, not anything in particular, just very rough. I was also starting to get that pain in the arse back again and at times my right hip was starting to play up, maybe it’s just too many hours at the wheel or something. I did end up having a couple of off road excursions though. All planned of course. I went to check out a river crossing, where there was no river flowing and then had a look at some hills covered in giber stones. The latter being far more visually interesting.

At the Hotel I decided to park up for the night. After setting up camp and cooking dinner I went back to the bar and ended up having a rather lengthy and lubricated conversation with the owners Phil and Pam. I will never the forget the annoying flies though. Insolent little buggers would crawl into your eye if you gave them half a chance!!!!

Sunday 24^th Feb

Early start once again to make the most of the cooler morning temperatures saw me driving in the remains of the sandstorm. I decided last night to head towards Cooper Pedy, about 600 km away. I got about 2/3 of the way there and decided to camp. Along the way though I’d had a lot of fantastic photo opportunities, mainly old derelict cars off the side of the road. Like the locals up this way they all have a story to tell. All these shots were done the film camera and required much focusing ( no pun intended ) due to the insolent flies once again trying to invade my personal space. The wind didn’t help either. I did come across some wonderful bits of human and natural wonders along the way: some bizarre sculptures in the middle of nowhere, and some springs in the middle of the desert. All highly interesting and fodder for my curious and artistic mind. I spent some time driving with more willy willies around me again and passed the long kilometres thinking about things like my photography, loved ones and mates of old who have passed away.

At the end of the day I pulled into a camel station to have a look at their natural artesian bore spa. There I came across a couple of blokes from Melbourne, who were camping up for the night. Turned out they had a flat tyre and no second spare so I got out my tyre repair kit and compressor and fixed it for them. At least it looked fixed, we’ll see in the morning I guess. They offered me some beers for which I was very grateful for and we spent the night drinking and talking crap like blokes do when they’re left to their own devices.

Tomorrow I will make Cooper Pedy and see what happens. Hopefully get to go and see a real working opal mine.

Unfortunately running out of time on this connection so have to fly, will try to load up more photos at a later date.

Current location:

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After a late start I made my way to Winton just in time to see a most amazing sunset. Along the way I spotted more flood damage, a few road trains and a surprising number of birds on the road, two of which met their fate at my bull bar. I stopped at one point to take some photos and only then realised why there were so many feathered creatures on the bitumen. The mesh I’d fitted to the bull bar in order to protect my lights from errant stones was now an entomologist’s wet dream. The variety of insects was only second to the variety of postures they’d placed themselves in during their final moments on this planet. Some parts of them even made it through the mesh and plastered themselves on the lights and bodywork. I’m not looking forward to cleaning the front of the car. Tomorrow I intend to pick some local brains about road conditions and various attractions on my route.

Tuesday 19^th Feb

I drove out of Winton to the only known site in the world where there is a fossilised record of a dinosaur stampede. It was interesting to stand there next to this story from millions of years ago, kind of makes you feel temporally insignificant. Today was my first lot of proper outback dirt road driving and I had to pay attention as there were quite a few sections of road requiring full concentration due to the water damage, cattle, horses, ponies, even standing and flowing water. Had the first proper creek crossing and it went ok. I then tried to drive to the ruins of a homestead and instead found myself at the door of the one which replaced it. There I met Nancy and her son Alan. They had just sold the 100 square mile pastoral property to their neighbour and were moving to Winton. They offered me cold beer and a chat, both of which I was very grateful for. From there I drove to a little opal mining settlement called Opalton. Unfortunately on the way I added a young kangaroo to the two birds and countless insects my car has claimed the lives of. Poor bugger didn’t die outright so I drove over his head a couple of times before his little heart stopped beating. I camped at Opalton and enjoyed a meal of Chicken fillets, mushroom, onion, carrots, corn on the cob and salad, washed down with some beer I managed to extract from the non licenced outpost.

Winton road train.

Nancy and Alan.

Fossil stampede!

Termites anyone?

Wednesday 20^th Feb

I started off with a quick morning chat with Anne and Ken who operate the outpost as well a couple of opal mines in the area. Ken was more than willing to share all sorts of stories from the area, including the nasty ones where people have murdered each other for opal / money, people who have gone missing as well as general stories about opal mining history. I bought a little polished opal from him and was also given a couple of little rough samplers.

Not long afterwards one of the locals turned up. Tarzan is an interesting character. Originally form Croatia he came to Australia in 1967. He’s been working in this area for 12 years. I was about to take off to fossick around for some opals when he invited me into his camp. Like all the other characters around here it was a bit rough, but obviously well sorted just for an old miner. As well as solar powered deep cycle batteries providing electricity for lights, radio, etc. it was sporting gas powered fridge freezer and stove. Essentially it had all the mod cons, they just looked a little different. Two caravans under a tin roof with a few little “rooms” with all sorts of bits and pieces lying around. I suggested we have a couple of the beers I had from the night before and that developed into a gourmet lunch into which we both provided food. Afterwards Tarzan was adamant I take some opals with me and just kept giving me more and more.

I did have a fossick and found a couple of low grade before leaving back towards Winton. I can see the attraction of mining for these little gems. They’re all individually beautiful and the chance of striking it big can be a huge motivator.

Tonight it’s bush camping on my own under the full moon and the southern stars.

Chalky, Ken, Anne and Eric.

Tarzan.

Let this be a warning.

Local birds hanging out.

Thursday 21^st Feb

This morning I charged my lap top off the car using the inverter, which is supposed to turn itself off when the voltage drops too low. Unfortunately the voltage got too low to start my car and seeing as I wasn’t parked on a hill I had to wait either for the battery to warm up and wait over an hour or so. Or I could flag down the next passing car which happened to be the Australia Post run. A little old lady who could hardly see over the steering wheel of her four wheel drive ute, had to be gently persuaded to pause her mail run to give me a jump start. Man when they talk about the mail getting through no matter what, they don’t muck about. Upon getting back to Winton I found some lovely vintage postcards from the 60’s and sent off a couple. After fuelling the car up I headed west to Boulia.

Half way along the 360km route is the Middleton Hotel, and that’s all there is there, but they do serve mighty cold beer!!!! Oh there are a couple of camels to draw the wagon, one racing camel and a helicopter used to muster cattle.

I proceeded onwards to a place where the ruins of an old hotel are accompanied by James Brown and The Cure. Driving through mesas then flat endless plains, surrounded by willy willies ( small tornados made of dust, the biggest I saw was about 30 metres across) was quite eerie, especially as there is hardly any traffic. All the locals give you a little salute as they pass too, ranging between the lifting of a finger off the steering wheel to a full armed wave. Anyway, the hotel site is also reputedly where you can see the Min Min lights, a strange phenomenon occurring for years and likened to an emu running around with a light attached to its bum. Upon arrival I was disappointed to find that the ruins consisted of and old graveyard, and lots of broken old bottles and some bits and pieces of tins cans and metal parts. It was getting ridiculously hot now and the hot northerly wind wasn’t helping any. I sat in the car and contemplated setting up camp but as there were no ruins to photograph at sunset and the possibility of seeing the Min Min lights was dubious I decided to keep going to Boulia. I was hoping to catch the sunset and photograph the old police barrack ruins, but the sun beat me to it. Tired, hot and bordering on dehydrated I turned around and headed to the local hotel. All I wanted was a cold beer, a steak and a room for the night. The beer was no where near as cold as at Middleton, the steak was pretty good and the room tidy enough, but the air con was a little asthmatic.

One thing I have come to appreciate is the fact that being the off season due to the incredible heat and rain, there are no tourists around. Mind you, I’ve not seen any rain since I left the coast on Monday, just hot hot hot, All the people I run into are locals and they are more than happy to share a yarn or two.

Tomorrow I head for Birdsville and check out some more desert like country.

Current location:

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Tonight I should be in Birdsville proper.



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After a very late night and decidedly drunk jam session on Thursday night with Glen I felt quite seedy, but very satisified.
I hadn't jammed with someone of his abilities for quite some time and it was an absolute joy to play some of our favourite tunes.



The following morning I took off on the two day trip to reach Townsville in time for Steve's 50th birthday on Saturday.
I wanted to get as many kilometres under my belt as possible for two reasons: 1) it would mean less k's the next day and 2) I was hearing reports of massive flooding further north, exactly where I needed to be the next day.
In fact the flooding in Mackay was some of the worst in nearly a century.
Over 6 metres of rain in 6 hours!!!!!
Surrounding areas were also flooding and the roads were being closed and there were also reports of salt and fresh water crocodiles being carried throughout the area by the waters.
I made it to Clairview after about 11 hours behind the wheel.


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The next day I pushed on north and made Mackay, although the waters had receded there was still evidence of the deluge that swamped the city.
I picked up a hitch hiker who turned out to be very useful indeed.
Upon coming across our first flooded area of road he instructed me to sit right up the arse of a semitralier and use the truck to clear a path through the water.
Pretty hair raisng stuff for someone who has never done it before.
After about three of these crossings we came to one which he claimed was the worst one, but was still confident we would make it through.
I put the car into low range four wheel drive and proceeded into the flood.
As we drove further and further into it I got that sinking feeling as the water seemed to be getting deeper and deeper.
At this point the hitch hiker proclaimed that he'd never seen it this bad before!!!
Not exactly what I wanted to hear.
A little later I dropped him off at a town and continued north.
Eventually I was getting closer to Townsville but I was aware that there was one more crossing to go and one of the locals had told me that if I went now I might be able to make it through.
Upon reaching this flooded road I saw a big line of cars ahead, so I moved up behind a semitrailer and went further towards the front of the queue.
There I saw a ute coming from across the flooded road and he told me not to go through it as he now had 4 inches of water in his car.
This was contrary to what the policeman told said to me.
He reckoned I might make it across, but his 3 tonne Landcruiser was being buffetted as the water wasn't very deep but was flowing fairly quickly.
Given his implied encouragement I had a go at it and managed to make it to the other side.
I got to Townsville at 3pm local time! Woo hoo!!
Townsville is much nicer than Gold Coast, it has character and hills, very pretty indeed.
Tomorrow I leave the coast and start my journey inland, heading south west towards the outback.

Current location:

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After getting away from Sydney at 2pm I finally arrived at my mate Glen's place at 2 minutes to midnight local time, so that's 11 hours driving for the day. Generally it went without a hitch, although I did cop a lot of rain and sat behind a semitrailer for about an hour an half. The coastal highway form Melbourne going norht is full of trucks, especially at night and they don't slow down or move for anyone. Merciless they are! I figured he knows the road better than me and I can just sit back and follow. Considering how hard it was raining and the possibility of collisions I felt it was best to use him as a buffer, if anything will go wrong it'll take him out first and hopefully give me a chance to avoid being hospitalised......again.

After a quick catch up last night and a big sleep in today I have finally had a chance to see the Gold Coast in daylight. Pretty much what I expected, full of badly dressed people who have more money than sense. They like flashy shiny things here.
All the canals make it look like some sort of McDonalds version of Venice, but I'm not here for that, just a chance to catch up with an old mate or two.

I'll be staying overnight and then proceeding on north. Two more full days of driving should see me in Townsville for my mate Steve's 50th birthday and then two days later I should be heading back south through the outback. Assuming everything goes ok, there's a lot of rain here and constant flooding, so we'll see what spanners get thrown in the works.

Current location is:

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Ok, so after a delayed start I made the 6-7 hour drive to capital Canberra arriving at 9pm Monday. Didn't leave much time to catch up with my mate Kate but none the less we shared a couple of beers and barbequed suasages at the Fringe Festival.
The next morning I was heading for Sydney a short 3 hour drive.

I have to include the very relevant story about a pair of driving lights I bought for the car prior to leaving for the Tasmanian leg of the trip. I had run out of time to fit them in Melbourne so I took them with me to Tassie and planned to fit them at my mate Scotty's mechanical workshop when doing the oil change and check over. Due to a slightly quirky nature of the headlight wiring in the Subaru and my running out of time I had to abandon the exercise and started packing the lights away. At this point one of them decided to part company with this world and even with my futile attempt to cushion its fall by placing my shoe between it and the concrete floor about to multiply the one piece of glass into many, it shattered. So now I had a pair of lights that were still not fitted or wired up and now one was smashed. I figured I will pick up another lens on the Monday before I leave for Sydney and just fit them at my leisure some time later.
Wrong! Not in stock I was informed, has to come from the supplier. Contact another store, still no luck. A cunning plan was hatching in my little brain, I'll just ring up one of their stores in Sydney and get one from there on my way up north. Apparently they don't have one either so it has to come from the supplier........in Melbourne. Fair enough, just get one in for me. I finally get to Sydney, find the store only to be told that the lens was ordered after the cut off time for overnight deliveries so it won't be in until Wednesday. Normally the delay would be a hassle but I had discovered another problem.

The right front drive shaft CV boot had split and emptied all it's grease all over the engine bay. It's not the delay the bothered me, it was the fact that this was the driveshaft I had replaced just before going on holiday because it was a bit dodgy. POOOOO!!!!! Anyway, the bloke at the shop with the lights made a call to a mechanic down the road to see if he could do the repair for me ASAP, and so here I am bloggin instead of driving the 900kms to the Gold coast near Brisbane, whilst Yousef fixes my car. All going well I'm hoping to be back on the road by noon.

Current location is here:
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A weird place with bogans, old ethnics, Indian fashion shops, more than enough sex shops for the area. The sooner I get out the better.
Here's hoping the rest of the trip will be more relaxing.



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