Family Life, Geocaching, Holidays, WA NT Trip 2016

Now that is a straight road …

May 25, 2016 Scott Leave a comment

Given that it rained most of the night, we were not expecting much of travelling today. We awoke to more drizzle, low cloud on the hills and a lot cooler than yesterday. This wasn’t to last though, with the cloud lifting to sunshine and no wind a couple of hours into the day.

Not a lot to see on this part of the trip but the wildlife started to show and we are not just talking the dead roo roadkill that littered the highway. This provided a rich food source for the crows and Wedge Tailed Eagles which were plentiful. There were even a few live roos that played chicken with road trains in front of us.

At one point there was a flock of camels (flock doesn’t sound right but caravan or train don’t sound right either). They hung around to get their photos taken and we were on our way again.

Just after Caiguna, it was time to engage cruise control and kick back for 90 miles or 146.6 kilometres as this section of the Eyre Highway is Australia’s longest straight section of road. The end of the section is near Balladonia and apart for a few stops for geocaches and the camels, all went uneventful.

One of the geocaches was an earthcache (GC2NNJ6 – Caiguna Blowhole) which is a virtual cache that relates to geology. This blowhole is an air blowhole rather than the water ones that are normally found near the coast. Instead of water, air is expelled and as I was carrying a portable weather station (doesn’t everyone), the measured air speed from the blowhole was 10 kph. Very interesting.

At one point, a road train overtook us and struck up a conversation to where we were headed and suggested that instead of Norseman as todays final destination, he suggested Fraser Range Station. It was 100 km short of Norseman and we were headed into dusk so Fraser Range Station it was for the night. Look forward to seeing it in daylight as many friends have raved about this spot.

Family Life, Geocaching, Holidays, WA NT Trip 2016

Wind not so glorious wind …

May 24, 2016 Scott Leave a comment

Checked the forecast for our travels to the border today and it was to be clear sailing with light winds and sunshine. How wrong that was. The clear skies was right, it was just the winds were closer to 30 kph than light and they moved from a cross wind to a head wind for all of the day.

Fuel economy went out the window. I had been achieving around 20 litres/100 km but today that shot up to 27 litres/100 km. And with increasing fuel prices the closer we got to the border and further from civilisation, I did not need that.

Knowing that fuel price was going to skyrocket to $1.67 at the border and then drop to $1.48 over the border, continual calculations were made to ensure that there would be enough fuel to at least Eucla if not Mundrabilla.

After filling at $1.179 in Ceduna, we topped up at Penong ($1.199) and Nundroo ($1.209) which should be enough to get through to Mundrabilla. We bypassed fuel at Nullabor ($1.619) and Border Village ($1.67) making it into Mundrabilla with 17 litres to spare.

Some of the highlights today included the impressive display of windmills over the ages at Penong and the breathtaking views from the cliff tops of the Great Australian Bight.

Border Control heading into Western Australia was interesting with all those fruit and vegetables that Jenny had bought a day ago were taken to be destroyed. Seemingly WA does not like any produce from any other State. What a great way to sell your home grown produce. We asked if they supply a local restaurant at the Border but the reply was that it is all destroyed – what a waste.

The highlight of Eucla is the Old Telegraph Station and having last seen it when I was a way lot younger, when it was covered with sand, you would have suspected for it to have disappeared by now but it seems to be the same. Do they have a crew that keeps digging it out – I wonder.

It was coming on dusk and the wind had abated so it was an uneventful last 70 kilometres to Mundrabilla where we filled up with fuel and booked into the caravan park.

It wasn’t long when our van must have just been enough to trip the circuit breakers for the power supply at our end of the park. After all they were plugging in 2 vans into a 10 amp socket. To solve issues, we moved our van to the last power box available and then down came the rain.

Met up with some Victorian Geocachers we had been trailing for a couple of days – Maccamob, Alansee and Micaparamedic before going to sleep with the gentle sound of rainfall on the roof.

Family Life, Geocaching, Holidays, WA NT Trip 2016

Time for some Big stuff ….

May 23, 2016 Scott Leave a comment

An early morning walk to grab a geocache in Mambray Creek afforded views of the local kangaroos and on return to the caravan, I was welcomed back by an emu sniffing around.

It wasn’t long and we were headed north to Port Augusta. Just out of town were the familiar stacks of the now closed Playford Power Station. It is unusual not to see the smoke emanating out of the stacks. Something new next to the power station was an strange looking tower which is part of the Sundrop Farm using seawater and sunlight to grow high value horticultural crops.

My huge mistake was to follow with allowing Jenny to go shopping. An hour later and we were finally on the road again, but I now have some new thongs (given that the puppy had eaten my old ones yesterday).

With a stop for the Big Galah at Kimba and the Big Farmer at Wudinna, we arrived at Ceduna just after dusk.

Family Life, Holidays, WA NT Trip 2016

Darwin here we come – by the long way round

May 22, 2016 Scott Leave a comment

With me coming off night shift and Jenny having a cub scout sleepover overnight, we were never going to get away anytime early.

Today was only meant to be a short leg to get out of Adelaide so as to avoid the traffic tomorrow. A great spot to camp was Mambray Creek which is 273 kms away and according to Google only a three hour drive.

With some strong winds and severe weather on the way, timing was going to be everything. There was a couple of hours in the morning before the rain was due to arrive so we spent that time packing the caravan with everything we would need for the 6 week adventure.

Just after lunch, the rains and winds arrived and we were almost ready to go. Just the shopping and dropping off the budgie to my parents to go. With the kids responsible for looking after themselves, 2 dogs, 1 rabbit and 1 budgie while we were away, we decided to lighten the load.

By 3:30 pm the weather had abated and we hit the road. It looked like the timings were right and we travelled in between storm fronts but there was still a bit of wind buffeting just after dusk.

After 4 hours, we arrived at Mambray Creek Campground. Even though I have a Parks Pass for camping, I still had to find a spot with phone coverage as all bookings are now done online. That has not been well thought out by the National Parks Service.

Day 1 one done and dusted with a good head start on Day 2.

Family Life, Skiing

A bit warmer today, sort of …

September 24, 2015 Scott Leave a comment

After yesterday’s shocker of a day temperature wise, today was warmer but not by much. We awoke to 4 below zero and 12 below zero with the wind chill. Even with the increase in temperature, a number of the lifts were on wind hold, so no rush to get up there. It had been snowing on and off all night with a fresh layer of snow ready to be skied.
After finally getting motivated enough to get up to the top of the mountain, we were met with wind blowing and snow falling (well sideways). Given the conditions, the skiing was pretty good with the fresh powder on top of the solid base. This seemed to scare the boarders off so it stayed like this to well into the afternoon.
The kids decided that today was boarding day so Wombats Ramble was their choice of runs. It was their first day on the boards for a while but the conditions broke them with Rachael piking out after lunch.
Jenny wasn’t much longer before heading back. Bradley and I kept the team going until the cold and heavier snow called an end to the day around 3 pm.

Family Life, Skiing

Damn it’s cold …

September 23, 2015 Scott Leave a comment

This weather is unbelievable for this time of the year. What happened to global warming. It was 5 below zero and with the wind chill, 20 below zero. And don’t let the occasional glimpse of sunshine, it was cold, damn, cold. On top of that snow fell almost all day with a reprieve every 20 minutes or so for around 5 minutes.
Not a huge rush to get to the top of the mountain, as most of the lifts were on wind hold. When we finally made it up there, it was actually good skiing conditions with not too many enjoying the snow.
The only down side was having to put up with the wind while sitting on the lifts, which were on slow speed due to the winds, so got to spend a lot more time on them.
It would have been perfect for a wing suit particularly on Ruined Castle run. You could just point your skis down the slope and lean forward and not be concerned with going over the front as the wind held you upright allowing you to try some great turns on the snow.
Eventually the wind took a toll on us. It was just getting too cold so ended back in the Lodge around 3pm.

Family Life, Skiing

Not much Spring going on …

September 22, 2015 Scott Leave a comment

It is a first for us, travelling over yesterday without stopping overnight in Swan Hill. Left at 815 am following me getting home from night shift (only 15 minutes later than expected) and had an uneventful journey only stopping for fuel and 3 geocaches. We arrived at Schuss Lodge in Falls Creek after 11.5 hours.
We did encounter heavy downpours at Mt Beauty, just as Jenny was grabbing a friends snowboard, but when we arrived at the top of the mountain, there was little indication of rain.
This morning saw temperatures of around 2 below zero with a wind chill of 10 below zero. We were not prepared for this, after all it is Spring skiing time. It hovered around zero for most of the day.
With the end of the season only two weeks away, staffing of the various outlets are not what is normally here so getting our skis and boots took a little longer than expected.
Finally on the slopes and it was a mixture of weather with sunshine and wind one minute followed by overcast, wind and snow the next. Despite this it was a good day skiing, which allowed for the fine tuning of skills that are a little rusty following a year since we last skied.
Following 5 hours of buffeting by the wind and snow, I called it a day with the rest of the clan lasting another hour before returning to the Lodge and plummeting temperatures.

Family Life

One step closer to Grey Nomad …

February 22, 2015 Scott Leave a comment

I have been looking at caravans for a while but not as a retirement thing (that is years away) but more getting away on short trips more and more.

And why do we need to wait until retirement. Might as well pay it off while still working so that we are debt free when retirement actually comes.

Initially I was looking at Cell Caravans that seemed to have everything and had good comments from owners that I know. Today the SA Caravan and Camping Show was on at the Wayville Showgrounds and with a temperature of 40C, we were glad that most of the caravans were in the pavilions. We felt sorry for the vendors outside as they weren’t getting a lot of traffic.

One of the first stops was Cell Caravans to see if they lived up to our expectations. They had 4 of their vans on show and not exactly the ones we were interested in but those on display didn’t really grab us. For vans with slide outs, it still felt cramped inside. Oh well, it was good to check them out in the flesh.

One of the High Range 4WD Club members mentioned they had a Jayco Outback and were very happy with it so it was off next to check out the Jayco Caravans. We have a number of friends with Jayco Caravans with no complaints and in fact there is one stored in our driveway at the moment.

The first van we walked into was the Silverline 24′ Outback and almost immediately thought this was the one. It was well set out, felt spacious and had all the bells and whistles but not an enormous price tag. For the next hour, we looked at all the different Jayco models and options but still the first one had everything we wanted.

But you need to check out other options, so another hour looking at different makes of caravans, most with an extra $30-40000 on the price tag for little or no extra features. It is scary the prices that some of these vans are going for and how do they justify it.

After a couple of calls to a mate that has owned some Jayco vans over the last 10 years and in fact lived full time in them for the last 5 years and it was back to the salesman to talk deals.

At the end of the day we have signed on the line for a Jayco 24′ Silverline Outback for a show special of $4500 off the RRP with extras including solar and satellite. I would have been happy to grab the demo model they had on display but it had already been sold as had every other model on display.

The caravan goes into production in July with delivery mid-July, not in time for my Northern Territory trip. Jenny is happy as she didn’t want me to go away in the first trip without her. I explained it would have been a perfect opportunity to put it through its paces and get any warranty issues sorted early in the piece.

Now just to shore up the finance to pay for it and to work for a few more years to pay it off. Might be time to go back on shift and get some overtime. 🙂

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Family Life, Geocaching, Holidays, NZ Holiday 2014, Out and About

Lets head to the mountains …

November 28, 2014 Scott Leave a comment

We awoke to blue skies and warmer temperatures than yesterday afternoon but I feel that will be short lived as the clouds started rolling in at 10:00 am. Another day and another struggle to get kids out of bed.

Even though we didn’t do the observatory tour last night, you can still drive up during the day to have a look around and check out the view. As it turns out all tours last night were cancelled due to the weather and it doesn’t look very promising for the rest of the week.

It is fairly steep going and a tight road up to the top and it is amazing how many people make the trek up by foot but we got up there in the motor home.

The view from the top is spectacular with snow capped mountains to the west and the bright blue Lake Tekapo to the east. It even started snowing while we were up there.

I did the short walk around the mountain grabbing some geocaches and we seemed to have grabbed some passengers for the return journey. A couple of Malaysian girls that had done the 2.5 hour walk from town appreciated a lift back to Tekapo.

After dropping the girls off and filling with diesel it was traveling time again – this time to Mt Cook which is only a couple of hours with a few stops along the way to take photos of the lakes and mountains. It seems that every time you come around a corner there is another breathtaking view or vista.

First stop at Mt Cook was the information centre which had a lot of useful information on the glaciers and the history of the region.

It was now time to do some walking. We decided on the Tasman Glacier walk first. Even though there is a new sealed road to the start of the walk, the first single lane bridge is original and the motor home just fit through it. This walk soon gets the blood pumping and even though the distance isn’t too long you have to climb up the moraine piles to the viewing areas. It is even possible to get down to the Tasman Lake to touch the water and given that there are icebergs floating in it – it is cold.

Walking back to the motor home, rather than stick to the track we headed cross country over the moraine piles and of course the kids didn’t want to follow Dad and Mum and guess what we were back 20 minutes before the kids.

Tonight’s campsite was at the base of the mountain – what a backdrop. Jenny got to try the oven out and roast lamb was had for tea.

Tomorrow will be a big walking day with a couple of glacier walks.

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Family Life, Holidays, NZ Holiday 2014, Out and About

Look out Christchurch – here come the Thompsons on segways …

November 27, 2014 Scott Leave a comment

Today we needed to be in town by 10:30 am for a fun adventure but it was still a struggle to get the kids out of bed in time. We were going on a tour of Christchurch City with a difference – we were doing it by Segway.

Urban Wheels instructed you in the use of a segway then took you on a tour of the rebuild of Christchurch following the earthquakes that were almost 4 years ago now.

After about 20 minutes instruction we hit the road, footpaths, parks and malls by segway. This was a real fun way of getting around town and a line of 5 segways moving around created plenty of interest of its own. I even found time to play Ingress as we went – not a bad way to do it.

There certainly a huge difference to what I remembered of Christchurch with 1600 buildings having been demolished and the rebuild started with a lot of activity and money being spent but I get the feeling that the locals don’t think it is happening quick enough.

A lot of the old facades are being held up with concrete filled shipping containers and the buildings behind demolished. There are art and community projects called Gap Fillers on sites that will eventually have new buildings. The earthquakes have given the City an opportunity to redesign itself and part of that will be apartments for city living being built which is a foreign concept here.

A focal point for the rebirth is the Restart Mall which is made entirely of shipping containers and has actually changed locations already with shops, cafes and banks.

We were lucky to get 3.5 hours on the tour instead of the 2 hours as he didn’t have another tour today and was enjoying our company.

To finish off the tour, Graham got us to race in Hagley Park. It is amazing that when you want to go fast, the segway actually tries to slow you down so it is not that easy to race but the overall loser was Bradley and he will be cooking our meals for a couple of nights.

Time to hit the road again but not before getting the electricals fixed in the motorhome. It turns out that the auxiliary battery was at the end of its life and this is why we were getting unusual things occurring last night with the lights and battery charger.

A three hour drive and our digs for the night was Lake Tekapo. An amazing place with a turquoise green lake surrounded by mountains. It was a little overcast with what looked to be snow falling on the mountains in the distance and the temperature was getting cold.

We were going to go up to the Mt John Observatory but luckily it was booked out as it would have cost us $600 for a couple of hours and I can see better value going to the Observatory at Arkaroola. We will get up there during the day and check out the view.