Winton, Longreach, lots of National Parks,and home

  Sydney, Australia
Saturday, August 11, 2007

Thurs 2nd August   Winton-Longreach
   MP is up earlier and banished to the streets, as he goes to sleep early, and sleeps through the night, and consequently gets about three hours more sleep than Dianne every night. Walks the town, taking photos of "Arno's Wall" -

001. Arno's Wall - Winton

Thurs 2nd August   Winton-Longreach
   MP is up earlier and banished to the streets, as he goes to sleep early, and sleeps through the night, and consequently gets about three hours more sleep than Dianne every night. Walks the town, taking photos of "Arno's Wall" - a collection of machinery, vehicle parts and found objects plastered into a 3m high masonry wall, a hundred metres long around 3 sides of a house yard, behind the North Richmond Hotel free camping area. It is quite well done, even has some unfamiliar items. MP takes photos of the streetscape,

002. Main street of Winton

the Waltzing Matilda sculptures, old machinery.
   After breakfast, we head south to look at Bladensburg National Park. It's generally quite flat and pebbly ground, with clay pans,

003. Bladensburg NP is a bit bare

and some very muddy (healthy?) watercourses,

004. River at Bladensburg NP

and an interesting homestead complex, now the park headquarters. Stop at a pleasant, shady camping area on the bank of a river, and check out a small watercourse with rocky cliffs beside it. Interesting enough, but nothing special, so back into Winton. Find, with difficulty, a brand-name petrol station ($1.37 per litre), then check out the "singing fence", a tightly stretched wire fence, with fret boards so it can sort-of be played as a guitar.
   Make tuna vita-weats to go, and head out on the Matilda Highway towards Longreach. Not a lot to see until we cross the Thomson River, just before Longreach. Avoid the CBD, and drive around, looking for the Gunnadoo Camping Area. Found a lot of streets with bird names, and eventually find the map, and the camp. We have booked a cabin ($80 per night for two nights) so quickly get organized. Find that it is a giant camp, and we are right up the front, in a new cabin area, quite separate to the caravans and camping where all the action is. We may as well be in a motel.
   Book in for the roast dinner tomorrow night ($13.50 each) - not taking any chances, we've missed out too many times before because these functions are quite often booked out even before you arrive. Do a machine wash, improvise pegs and clothesline space on the fence. Check out the main camp, which has three hot spas, but not many using them, then DP heads into town to use the internet.
   Down to the campfire early to get seats, them MP back across the camp in the dark to get drinks. The singer/comedian is Tom McIvor, a sometime rodeo rider and long time singer, songwriter and bush poet, who has a good voice and excellent, professional style.

009. Tom McIvor-Longreach camping area

  He's great at telling jokes - about firewood collection, eyesight,, "John Wayne" toilet paper,  Blackall. End up contributing gold coins and buying a $20 CD.
   After the show, go to look for the recommended truck stop for a feed, and find it 200m from home. Have fair meal of steakburger, sausages and the inevitable chips, while we take in the truck-stop ambience.  Back to the cabin for a good night's sleep, DP finally catching up.
   Friday 3rd August           Longreach
    Able to sleep in, then put out washing. Decide against walking to the Stockman's Hall of Fame,

006. Stockman's Hall of Fame, Longreach

which was just as well as we find it was a long way, past the overpriced Qantas Museum. Pay our money ($49.50 for two), and check out the first section while waiting for the 11am live show. The exhibits are very well presented, a broad range of Australian outback rural history, and exploration history.
   The live show is well presented, with a good description, and demonstration of droving and work with horses, cattle, sheep and dogs.

005. Show- Stockman's Hall of Fame, Longreach

Quite a few plugs for R.M.Williams. Have a meal in the cafe, and get away about 2pm. Drive down to the Thomson River, where they run daily sunset cruises. River is very muddy,

008. Thomson River, Longreach

007. Wildlife - crested pigeon

and doesn't seem to be that much to see on a cruise. One thing we have noticed is that every town is trying very hard to have sights and activities to interest the tourists (and take some of their money).  Even if there is no natural site, they'll stretch the truth to get one e.g Burke and Wills passed near here in....  (well, they may have passed within 30 kilometres, but the site is celebrated in a town or on a highway).  If they don't have real dinosaur bones, they'll have a fiberglass replica of a dinosaur etc etc.... There is a very large free-camping site in a flat, graveled area near the river, with lots of Grey Nomads occupying it.
             Back into town, where DP is dropped at the library to internet, and MP goes to the powerhouse museum - an excellent presentation on the powerhouse itself, and machinery in general. The power station ran gas engines, powered by gas from charcoal produced locally until the wood ran out in the '50's, then from Blair Athol coal into the '80s, before the grid was completed. Gasification was preferred to steam power as there was enough bore water for engine cooling, but not enough for a steam plant.
   The gas engines are massive 8 cylinder horizontal opposed units, running at 214 rpm, developing 600kW, and weighing over 100 tonnes each.
  Afterwards, buy apple cider, and get to the 5.30pm start of the camp meal. We are slightly late, and a long way back in the line for seats. We are invited to join a baker and his wife from rural Victoria.
   The meal turns out to be pickled pork and corn beef instead of the advertised roast, but is ok at $13.50 each. The show after includes our singer from last night, plus Jimmy Green??, the Wunda from Jundah, and an older man who played the button accordion and mouth organ. Very cold, having forgotten the meal is inside, but the show is outside. To bed late after TV
   Saturday 4th August                   Longreach - Emerald
   On the road pretty early to Ilfracombe, to check out the machinery display and the Wellshot Hotel. We are too early for the hotel, but MP finds some very unusual machinery, including a 1917 kerosene engine driven crawler tractor, with a steering front wheel on a turntable. Obviously a very early diesel engine driven design, without any of the elegance of contemporary steam engines. There was also an unusual steam driven excavator for dams and ditches.
   The road is good and we make good time into Barcaldine. Find the Australian Workers museum, but balk at $12 each to glorify the unions. Drive the back streets, photograph some classic Queenslander houses, and what is left of the Tree of Knowledge exhibit. Find a bakery, and end up with some mega-thick cut currant loaf, and buns. Not a great buy.
    Head to the gemfields, and take photos of the murals, pubs and streetscapes in Jericho and Alpha, and push on to the Anakie turnoff through increasingly mountainous terrain, seeing the mountains of Peak Downs to the north.
   Anakie is not as wild-west as MP remembers. They are preparing for a Gemstone festival, with a large marquee in the sport ground, and plenty of caravans in the camp. Drive north to Sapphire and Rubyvale, which show plenty of signs of mining, but also plenty of tourist traps, with buckets of "virgin scrub wash" available for do-it-yourself fossickers, underground mine visits, and gemstones for sale. Take photos of the more colourful mines, plants and scrap dealer's yards, and a "brag" board where miners can record their finds.

010. A battler's sapphire mine near Rubyvale

011. "Brag" Board for miners

The place is a lot more populated than back in the '90s when Murray used to come up here frequently for work, but not nearly as "wild west"
   In Emerald, find no cabins at the camp, but get an $80 room at the Lodge Motel, in the main street.
   Have a rest, then out to look at the town before dark, taking photos of the "Giant Sunflower Painting", celebrating a local farm product (another example of making a tourist attraction if you don't have one),

012. Giant Sunflower painting, Emerald

and railway station, then out of town and up a hill for photos of a very pretty sunset.

013. Sunset over crops - near Emerald

   Locate the Botanical Gardens for tomorrow, then look at dining Thai at the golf club, but don't like the price for a meal of which we will probably only eat half. We park back at the motel and check out the town by foot, settling on the $8.50 special at the local pub, watching various locals playing pool, having shooters on the way to a formal function, and pissed at the bar, but not refused service.
   Watch TV in the room till late.
   Sunday 5th August                Emerald - Moura
   Use the internet in the manager's office to look up the National Park site on Blackdown Tableland, but decide against booking as not sure we want to stay. Head out to look at the Botanical Gardens. Do a walk around the East side, but find it not much different to the last 4000kms. The West side is greener, with palms and lawns. Talk for a while with some fellow grey gypsies from WA.
   Stop at Comet to look at the Leichhardt Dig Tree site then carry on to Blackwater, where we do a sentimental tour for Murray, who came here often for work. It is a lot bigger - plenty of construction, a big Woolworth's, lots of new mining and expanded old mines. Do a circuit of Bluff, which hasn't changed much in 15 years. Turn into Blackdown Tableland National Park access road, and are surprised to find the 8km road all the way to the top of the steep climb up the escarpment is newly tarred. This park protects a sandstone plateau rising 600 metres above the flat plains.
   There is supposed to be a phone at the entrance signboard, but the board seems to be ahead of the phone service. Have a look from the nearby lookout, which has impressive views to the north and west, before heading out to the waterfall at the east side, via the campsite, which is being rebuilt, and has no on-site registration.

014. Blackdown Tableland National Park

015. Blackdown Tableland National Park

   At the waterfall, talk to a local couple then walk the 2.8 kms to the lookout on a good, downhill path, not seeing a lot until we get to the edge of the gorge, where we get good views of the escarpment and the creek gorge. At the lookout, get good views to the north, and glimpses of what the waterfall might be like, so decide to climb down the 240 steps to the base of the waterfall, which is a lot better than we expected, with fair sized pools and lots of palms, ferns and greenery, but not much flowing water.
   Decide against staying the night, and drive straight back to the highway, stopping for a couple of photos looking back to the escarpment from the flat plain,

016. Blackdown Tableland from the flat plain

 then proceed to Dingo, where we are determined NOT to stay, then head toward Duaringa, but encounter police blocking the road. There are a lot of freight vehicles, plus the typical low-slung, brightly coloured hoon vehicles stopped, but we are waved through, and turned off the highway onto a service track beside the railway. We can see a line of cars on a similar service road on the other side of the tracks, know there must be a major accident ahead. We see a pop-top caravan with a damaged top, dropped on its towbar, without a towing vehicle, but this is minor, possibly unrelated. We come upon the accident, a car and a crew cab ute, mangled, locked together, and burnt grey, just as we negotiate a deep gully. This gully is why only normal cars and 4WD's have been let through. The police are erecting a canvas sight screen as we pass, so we assume fatalities. Later find that one person was killed, and another three are fighting for their lives. Get a photo on the way past, hopefully without dead bodies in it.
   We fill up at Duaringa, where they know about the accident. Shortly after, we turn off onto the Baralaba road, which is a good sealed road for a while, but changes to corrugated gravel. We encounter some road trains, which pass in a dense cloud of dust, and a hail of gravel, forcing us to stop until the air clears. Definitely our worst road-train experience. Amazed that we don't get a broken windscreen.  We drop down a major escarpment to more fertile irrigated flats on the way in to the Dawson River weir at Baralaba, which is larger than MP remembers, but looks like progress has passed it by. We see some interesting landscape, including bottle trees,

017. Sunset with bottle trees

as we find our way through a maze of roads to the Moura road. It is now getting dark, and we have to keep a lookout for kangaroos on the road.
   Hitting the main road east of Moura, are surprised to find a tower on the south side of the road with a blaze of lights. This is certainly a new development (turned out to be a gas plant).
   Moura doesn't seem to have changed in ten years. Drive around the town, but don't see much in the way of accommodation except for the Moura Motel, which has a flashing light, hopefully indicating vacancy. Hard to find the office, but get a run at $95 per night. This is the old Burradoo Motel MP has used before, but only looks slightly familiar. The "take off your boots" sign, and the coal-stained carpet are familiar.
   Head down town to the deserted Chinese Cafe, think we are doing them a favour, but they are busy with take-away, and we can't get anything for an hour, so back to the Coal and Cattle for a fair counter meal, having not looked hard enough for the Bistro, as we weren't expecting it to be open.
   Get all the warm blankets out, and have a good night's sleep. Woken at 5 by our neighbour's diesel, but otherwise, it's not too bad.
  Monday 6th August                          Moura - Cania Gorge
   Another drive around Moura. Get a pull-apart and an apple turnover from the bakery, and head out towards Moura Mine, stopping on the way to look at the seam-gas plant, the source of all the lights we saw last night.

018. Moura-gas plant with overburden heaps

   The mining at Moura has proceeded a long way west from when MP was there, and the overburden heaps are a lot higher, being built up by trucking as well as drag-lining. There is an enormous spoil heap on the north side of the road as well. Take photos and head east, looking for the minor road down beside the mine lease, but end up in Banana without finding it. Banana looks a lot more prosperous than in the '90s, but hard to believe the large Banana Shire is related to this village.
   Turning into the Leichhardt Highway, we encounter a large, flash yacht, Paper Doll, on a low loader with an escort. This is a reminder that this back route from the south is routinely used by heavy transport.
   Take photo of green fields and scenery,

019. Black soil plains- good farming country

also of a strange crop, like rows of spindly trees, which have been trimmed a metre off the ground. In some areas they have green leaves, in others they have been burnt brown.
   Coming into Theodore, we get into seriously green irrigated crops, and old houses and farm buildings. MP fills up with some sort of mystery petrol while DP goes to the information office. Independent servos are all the go in Qld.
  We get national parks information, and by chance MP asks about the origin of Theodore. Can remember something about it being a town created from scratch. The volunteer woman in charge brings out a pamphlet about the creation of a perpetual lease settlement for selected applicants, with annual rental to cover irrigation costs. The town was designed by Walter Burley Griffin, but only a small part of the overall design has been used. We are told that the mystery crop is "Leucaenea", a legume which has a high biomass and nitrogen fixing function, makes good cattle feed, but is no good for horses. The brown crops have been affected by the unusual frosts they've just experienced (we told you it's been COLD at night), but should grow back. Interestingly, this is the same plant that was making the lemurs in Berenty (Madagascar) sick, and eventually killing them.
. We get info on Isla Gorge, which we are heading for, and uncover the great Isla Hoax. The photo in the Queensland National Parks book, which has been the inspiration for Murray's  route design, since right up in the Gulf, turns out to be a photo of Carnarvon Gorge (where we have been previously), as on another brochure of Carnarvon, we see a part of the same photo. The Isla photos in the info office are not at all impressive.
   This brings about a reassessment of our route, and we decide to reverse course to Biloela, and out to Kroombit Tops National Park. There is some good scenery on the way to Biloela, and we see a lot of Biloela while looking for the 35 km long Kroombit access road, which passes through flat, green farmland, to the Kroombit Dam, completed in 1982, and now only about 2 percent full. We have lost any National Park signs, but have signs to Kroombit Camp on Lochenbar Station, a 10000 acre meat-goat and cattle station providing an outback nature experience. Turns out to be a very rustic cattle station theme private park, with bar, mechanical riding bull etc. (later find out the main customers are Oz Experience bus trips, which are full of young people wiping themselves out, so glad we didn't stay). The part of Kroombit National Park that we want, with the escarpment and views over the coast, can only be accessed via the Dawson Highway, and is two and a half hours away. Thwarted a second time today, we abandon the idea of Kroombit Tops, and decide to head for Cania Gorge National Park. Take a black soil road shortcut, passing some good farming country, and hit the highway just before Thangool, home town of Mal Meninga.
             Arrive at Cania Gorge National Park in late afternoon.  Drive to Lake Cania and the dam to check it out (it's a popular fishing spot), and take photos of the escarpment behind it

020. Escarpment behind Cania Lake

021. Cania Lake lookout

then back to the park entrance to book into a cabin at the Cania Gorge Tourist Retreat (for $65 per night). It's nestled in the gorge beside Cedar Creek, a lovely setting, and there's a good feel to the place. Have a late lunch/early dinner in the camp kitchen, then down to the community camp fire about 6pm, where we talk to some of the guests, including a French couple with a very bright 3-year old who is enjoying her Australian experience. Check out the bettongs, which come in every night as a plate of food is left for them near the office.  Eventually retire to our cabin, with an electric heater, as it is FREEZING and we can't get that close to the fire as it is set-up for large crowds and "safety", with a barrier around it, and chairs around the barrier.
Tuesday 7th August  Cania Gorge NP - Bunya Mountains National Park   
             Up early, pack our bags, and drive to the start of the walking tracks.  Do the "Dripping Rock" and "The Overhang" walks (3.2 kms return). It started in eucalypt woodland and dry rainforest, which indeed was pretty dry, and with signs of a lot of storm damage in the trees. However by the time we got to the "Dripping Rock" it was very attractive.

022. Cania Gorge National Park

023. Cania Gorge National Park

024. Cania Gorge National Park

There were plenty of weathered caves, with yellow and red ochres.

025. Cania Gorge National Park

026. Cania Gorge National Park

At the "Overhang" we continued along the creek bed, clambering over rocks, for quite a while. We then backtracked a bit, and up to the Dragon Cave and Bloodwood Cave, before returning to the car.  Decided against further walks, and headed towards Bunya Mountains National Park via Monto, Eidsvold, Mundubbera, Gayndah, which claims to somehow be the oldest town in Queensland and Kingaroy, which is famous (infamous?) for Joh Bjelke Petersen and growing peanuts. All these towns are pleasant enough, but similar to a hundred others in Qld. Stop off at the Tourist Information Centre, and have a look at the museum, which is staffed by two very friendly, older locals who are quite informative, especially about farming. Photo of display of all the local grains grown.

027. Kingaroy -display of grains grown

             The drive through the Bunya Mountains National Park is through a very attractive, dense forest, including lots of bunya pines hanging over the road, but it is late in the afternoon, too dark for photographs. Look at a basic camping area, which does have on-site registration, but already it's freezing and quite windy, so don't feel like pitching a tent. Decide to continue on and, hopefully, find some accommodation. Get to Dandabah about 5.15pm, which seems to have lots of signs for houses to rent, but no motels or vans.  Find out that the accommodation bureau closes at 5pm, but luckily they've been held up on the phone, so take the only accommodation going - a 3-bedroom chalet for $90 (high season price $120). Find the chalet has a slow-combustion wood heater and plenty of firewood, which we really appreciate as it was about 0 degrees C during the night.

028. Bunya Mountains - our chalet, Mirabooka

We have kangaroos grazing on the grass when we arrive, and again in the morning.   
Wednesday 8th August      Bunya Mountains National Park - Brisbane
             Return the key to the office when they open at 9am, and borrow the key to one of the two locked estates. We were very surprised to arrive last night and see such a populated area, although it's all basically on one street which backs on to the National Park, and two other gated communities that are reached through the locked gates, which we can access because we're staying in one of the properties. We'd expected the road to be a couple of hundred metres long, but were surprised to find it went for a few kms, with the houses discretely built among the trees on ˝ acre blocks, with kangaroos grazing on the lawns.

029. Bunya Mountains - the gated community

030. Bunya Mountains -kangaroo and baby on la

Some had magnificent views out over the National Park, and the most were available for renting, although privately owned.  It was a bit similar to the Snowy Mountains in summer, and would definitely be good for an extended-family get-away.
             Returned key, and into National Park to walk the 4km scenic circuit which had some excellent examples of the magnificent bunya trees in the rainforest.

031. Bunya Mountains NP - bunya trees are big

032. Bunya Mountains NP- bunya trees are big

At Pine Gorge Lookout the landscape suddenly changed to open vegetation, where we could look back to the houses in the gated community. Back into the rainforest proper, with some excellent examples of Strangler Figs, including one you could walk through.

033. Bunya Mountains National Park

034.Bunya Mountains NP-strangler fig walkthru

             Back to the carpark for a quick picnic lunch, and photos of the King Parrots

035. Wildlife - Australian King parrott

who hang around to be fed at the kiosk, and into the car to head to Brisbane via some smaller roads so we can investigate some areas we haven't been to before, including Yarraman, Blackbutt, Kilcoy, Woodford, Mt Mee and Beerwah .The minor road, part of the Bunya Mountains Drive, through Maidenwell, with an interesting pub, down into Yarraman, was incredibly direct and steep, for a public road, needing low gear to keep the speed reasonably safe. The countryside around here is incredibly dry,

036. Country north Brisbane-incredibly dry

which is to be expected as Brisbane has serious drought problems, and severe water restrictions, but would be very pretty in a good season. Have a great view of the Glasshouse Mountains in the distance, rising straight out of the flat plain.

037. Glasshouse Mountains

             Arrive at Evan's (Murray's brother) in the late afternoon, where we spend a quiet night.
Thursday 9th August                 Brisbane
             Fairly late start.  Evan's place is at Toowong, on the Brisbane River and it is only a short walk to the City Cat stop at Regatta, where we purchase an all-day off-peak ticket for $4.10 each. Take the catamaran all the way to the end at Bretts Wharf, then return till we see the floating walkway, where we get off.

038. Brisbane - floating walkway

  It has been built (at incredible cost no doubt) so people can still walk past waterfront homes that are privately owned. The homes still have to have water access for boats, which entails a very complicated (and expensive) section of moving footpath.  Apparently there have been some design problems, and it will be closed tomorrow morning for "maintenance" so we're lucky we came today. We end up walking all the way to Riverside, the CBD stop, and then continue through the very dry Botanic Gardens and  QUT (Queensland University of Technology) grounds and mangroves, cross the bridge to South Bank where we wander around before getting the City Cat to the end of the line at University of Queensland. Stay on for part of the return journey, hopping off at Guyatt Park, where we have a fair walk back home, to rest our weary feet. Brisbane is looking better every time we come.  They've done marvelous things with the waterfront, which is now quite swish.
             When we recover, we head out to Kenmore to see our niece Jenny, husband Esben and their four young children, then home for an early night.
Friday 10th August            Brisbane - Coutts Crossing
             Today's our 34th wedding anniversary! Head out of the city without too much trouble, considering we didn't have a map. Find our way to Surfers Paradise, which seems to have more high-rise every time we come.

039. Surfers Paradise high-rise

040. Surfers Paradise beach

Buy some fresh prawns direct from the trawler (for $25 per kilo), but unlike Karumba, these are delicious. Continue down the coast, stopping at various lookouts. Near Kingscliff, take a photo of an osprey which has nested on a communication tower.

041. Wildlife - Osprey

Follow the coast road down to Pottsville, where we have afternoon tea with Mike and Bev, who are now back in their lovely new home.
             On the way, have a quick look at Salt and Casuarina, two enormous new upmarket housing developments which have been built on reclaimed sand-mining land.  At present there are plenty of houses, but don't seem to be many conveniences like shops.

042. Casuarina - housing

043. House at Casuarina

             By now we're running late for our 6pm dinner meeting at Grafton with Adrian, Murray's other brother, and Barbara. Finally meet up with them at the Crown Hotel (they were even later than us), have dinner, then back to Barbara's for coffee, before heading to Adrian's home at Coutts Crossing (another half hour away) for the night.
Saturday 11th August             Coutts Crossing - home
             Finally find our way to the coast road, after having to backtrack after what we thought was the gravel short-cut road petered out into a logging track.  Detoured in to have a look at Red Rock, which has figured in Dianne's life a fair bit, and which hasn't changed much over the years.

044. River at Red Rock

045. Beach at Red Rock

However we had to drive past Corindi to get there, and couldn't believe how much bigger it was. The beach and camping area were also better than we remembered.
             At this stage we're eager to get home, and we've seen this coastline plenty of times, so spend most of the day just driving.  Stop at Kempsey to buy a roast chicken for lunch, which we eat "on the run".
             Call into Newcastle as we have a couple of chores to do for Dianne's mother. Find we can't do anything, as we'll need an electrician, so after visiting her mother about 7pm, decide we may as well head for home tonight, which we do.  Our trip metre shows that we've done 11,475 kms!!
    
Summary of our Trip
1. Places Visited
             We visited LOTS of National Parks, with lots of wonderful rivers, rainforests and waterfalls and rock formations.  These were the highlights of our trip, especially the marvelous Lawn Hill National Park, which was one of the best gorges we've ever been to. We can't praise it too much. Cobbold Gorge was also great, and different to most gorges, although it would have been better if you were allowed to get out of the boat and explore further along the gorge. Being a highly supervised tour on private property probably accounted for the regulation.
 By the end of the trip we were a bit immune to the scenery as, although wonderful, a lot of it was fairly similar.
             We found the "Dinosaur Trail" around Riversleigh, Mt Isa and Richmond quite interesting.  You don't hear a lot about this area, and the exhibits were better than we expected.
             Longreach is doing a good job of creating interest for tourists, based around "The Stockman's Hall of Fame."  Those campsites in this area that were encouraging guest participation by providing entertainment around the fire were also great.  Some of the other towns were trying very hard to manufacture tourist sites of interest, with varying degrees of success.
             We didn't spend much time at the coast as we'd visited it on numerous occasions before. The weather was unusually cold this year, which also made the coast less desirable, as it was too cold for swimming.  The only swimming we did the whole trip was at Lawn Hill National Park, where it was about 32 degrees, and we were doing lots of physical exercise.
2. Mode of Travel
             We were very happy with our mode of travel - Subaru Forester with a large "pod" on the top for all our camping gear.  Our preferred accommodation was a cabin, on-site van or donga at a camping area, as we preferred the friendliness of the camping area to a motel. We camped when accommodation wasn't available, which was usually in National Parks.  We also tried not to camp for just one night at a time.
             We saw every combination possible during our travels - buses towing cars, 4WD's towing enormous caravans with fold-up trailers hooked on the back and boats on top of the 4WD, Winnebago's, 4WD's towing off-road trailers, 4WD's towing fold-up campers, and a million other variations.  No combination was perfect.  Those with ordinary caravans tended to have to leave them behind when they left the tarred roads, and go back to pick them up.  Those with Winnebago's couldn't even go up to the supermarket without having to pack it up, and we were turned off by  the work involved in packing and unpacking some of the fold-up campers.  Our way of travelling would be too expensive for an extended period (accommodation was usually between $60 and $90 with a few exceptions, which is quite dear by world standards, and VERY dear by Asian standards).  Camping was really cheap (usually about $9 to $20 per night), but is not very practical if you're only staying one night at a time (particularly if you're not keen on packing!).
3. People Travelling
             What we say here could be a bit contentious.  We met some great people travelling, but we also met a lot of very suburban people who were living the same very suburban lives they'd always lived, only in the warmer North rather than the cold South. We also met a lot of "Grey Nomads" who had retired, then decided they'd follow the dream.  They'd bought their very expensive caravans and 4WD's, kitted them out with every conceivable luxury (toilet, bathroom, airconditioning, TV), and set off around Australia. However they found they weren't as keen on caravanning as they thought, and end up setting off home much earlier than planned, and from then on their trips are only a few weeks at a time.  It was also quite common to find one partner who LOVED it, and the other who was there under sufferance.  However, as well, there were LOTS of people who were having the time of their lives, crisscrossing the country as the mood took them, heading North in Winter, and South in Summer.  What we couldn't believe was the sheer NUMBER of older people travelling.  On the coast, you had to book in advance at all the major caravan parks to get a place.
             We now know that we won't be joining them, certainly in the near future.  We enjoyed our trip, and saw some fantastic scenery, but there was not the real excitement of not knowing what was around the corner, and seeing different cultures, like our trip to Mali and West Africa early this year.   In the foreseeable future, we'll be continuing our overseas adventuring, with short trips to places of interest in Australia.