The New Project

I have started a new project :
a three wheeled motor tricycle I call a "Shuriken".

You can find it here

How To Do Your Head In ...

Well it's been a while but I was talking to someone just yesterday when I came to an important realisation. Motorhoming as a full-time permanent lifestyle is not for me. Anyone who has followed this blog for any period of time will realise the importance of that little statement. I still enjoy travelling in my motorhome, I just can't slow down enough to sit under a tree for 3 days and think that's the best I can do with my life. It just feels a bit too like waiting for it all to end; well there are still to many things to do for that to be comfortable. Which in fact leads to the part which is doing my head in . . . I have been fortunate enough to have been able to travel to a number of different countries over the years but never to "UK/Europe". When I was young it seemed like everyone went on a pilgrimage to Europe, but being a contrary B***** I decided to go everywhere else, and thoroughly enjoyed it, however the idea of going there now, for a number of irrelevant, for the purposes of this discussion, reasons, is quite appealing. I have no work commitments, I have approx. 1/2 million frequent flyer points and can afford to spend a reasonable amount. "So what's the problem?" I hear you ask?? :) It's a fairly well understood phenomenon in psychology that people get confused by too many choices. Think about that . . . I can go anytime, for (say) three months to anywhere I like . . . too many choices! It's too long to spend on one trip after another, you need some down time every now and then. My current (not very clear) thinking is, because of my interest in photography, to base myself somewhere in the UK (easier because of the language), probably in Scotland and make one or more "trips" to "the continent" on organised tours. I am discovering rather rapidly that all of the things I would like to do that I can organise for myself require advance bookings of up to a year or more. Try getting into a Charlie Waite photography workshop in 2011 !! In fact it seems a general trend that booking up to 6-12 months or more in advance is the only way things become possible and affordable, discounts can be over 50% when booked in advance even for things like train fares! AND travelling as a single person is only about 10% less than travelling as a couple because of the "single supplement" which is charged. Another stupid thing I have discovered is that "self-guided walking and cycling tours" ie the kind where they give you a map and a bike and point you in the general direction (they actually move your luggage to the next nights accomodation as well but how hard is that?) are MORE expensive than being driven around in a air-conditioned bus! I guess that's a premium for not having to sit next to some drivelling idiot who wants to sleep all day and party all night, well that's what I remember of my last bus tour. So that's it ... too many options that have to be booked too far in advance and no really great "must do's" ... that'll do your head in!
PS You may notice the photo in the title has changed ... That's because the motorhome has now become less significant and my photography more so, and the new photo is my first competition winner :)
There are more here .

Not Much to Report . . .

Since returning I have parked the truck and done very little to it.
There is much to contemplate but I am not inclined to wax philosophical at the moment.
Maybe when I have had a little more time to consider everything . . .

I am thinking of a little trip around the South West of WA in the next couple of weeks so there are a few small items to fix.

The squeaking bed mechanism was caused by one of the chains slipping a tooth on a sprocket causing the bed to not be horizontal and thus rub on the guides. Relatively easy to fix.

The pesky drawer catches really need something purpose made so a few hours on the milling machine fixed that and produced these.


















Being made of acetal they are very strong and will not break. The pin which fits into the block is supported by the close fit so hopefully it will not break off. The slotted holes allow the catch to be positioned so it all works properly and then the two front screws will lock it all in place. So a half hour was spent fittting these new catches.






















I also remembered that the last time I checked the sacrificial anode in the hot water system it was corroding faster than I had imagined it would so I obtained a replacement.



















When I checked however it hasn't seemed to deteriorate significantly more than when I checked last time so maybe the country water supplies are less corrosive than the main Perth water supply???

There are plenty more little improvements I could do but I'm not going to make any major changes until my head has settled down.

In the mean time, bike rides, photography and catching up with friends and family come higher on the list.

Updates will be slow for a while . . .

Great Central Road Days 23-26

Day 23

A nice bitumen drive to Broome. I haven't been here since 1968 and I am quite intrigued to see all the changes that have been wrought to make this one of the top holiday spots in the North West since that time. I plan to maybe stay here for a couple of days and catch up with myself.

The first stop in town of course is the Tourist Centre for a list of all the caravan parks. I need to sit down and digest this for a while as everything is over $35/night!

The place is not that big so I decide to have a look around and see if any of them actually justify this sort of pricing. It's very strange to me. This is now a more popular place with more people and better access on the coast etc. etc. but to tell the truth Katherine "feels" nicer and is a damn sight cheaper for everything. I am glad I am carrying enough fuel that I don't have to fill up here. I feel an overwhelming sense of "Club Expensive" about this place. It's where the beautiful people come to show how much money they can spend doing the same stuff they can do everywhere else a lot cheaper, but of course it's easier to be seen doing it here.

After working my way through a couple, which look remarkably similar to most of the other caravan parks I have seen, except the last one I look at has the speedway next door, you are not allowed to run generators at all and asking the price before you book in is taken as the ultimate sign of a poor upbringing!

I decide to go and park on the famous beach for a while and cool off while I sort this out in my head. You can get to about 300metres away in the carpark if you feel like negotiating the 50 or so "traffic calming devices" on the way. Now there is the ultimate oxymoron in my opinion, install a device which causes frothing apoplexy in the average driver and call it a "calming device"! Never the less the phone and internet are available so I go for a walk and make a few calls and do a bit of internet update and it occurs to me that the real reason for staying IN any of these towns is for precisely that and I have just done most of what I wanted to do. I have no desire to ride a camel along the beach at sunset . . . I would be sure to get an ugly one with a bad temper and there is way too much deja vu going on there. To me it doesn't compare with the week I spent on the last horse based muster on Minilya Station over 40 years before. And my doctor says it is not a good idea to sit in the sun for long periods of time and some of the things that are thought suitable for attire in a bikini these days are completely beyond my comprehension. I can't understand why I can't get Herman Melville out of my head.

No, sorry. Doesn't look like I am going to be able to sort it out here.
I think it's time to head home for a while.
I know the inland route is a couple of hundred kilometres shorter but for some crazy reason I choose the coast road, maybe it will be cooler at least.
So now it's just a long drag with little to see along the way.
The towns have changed some since my last visits but on the whole are still recognisable.
A stop in Carnarvon, where I worked in 1967-68 and explored much of this region from at that time, where there a couple of friends in town for a while and then back on the road.
The overnight stops at the new style shire "rest points" are some of the nicest so far. The weather is cool enough for the first time, apart from Yulara, that you don't need air conditioning to prevent heat prostration but it's still "boring as batshit" down this coast.

Again the few obligatory "nice" sunsets and finally back where I started.







































A lot to think about for a while now with regard to how well the truck "works" and the lifestyle it represents.
I am sure this trip was not representative or really even indicative of what to expect for true long term cruising but it sure tested a few concepts both physically and mentally.

Great Central Road Day 22

Despite being up early and another lap around the park I can't find any better photo's and I'm not going to wait here 'til May. I'll have to come back.
I have spoken to a couple of people at El Questro who have come up the Gibb River Road and tell me it has been graded from the South as far as Mitchel Falls but I have decided to have a look at The Bungle Bungle
















and save GRR to another time. Back the way I came to the main highway. I can’t think of any reason to go into Wyndham so it’s turn right at the highway and drag all the way down to Purnululu National Park. You have to go 30km across Mabel Downs Station to get to the park entrance and the another 30km to the park proper.
















There are restrictions on the type of caravans you can take in, no dual axles and vehicles must be 4wd. The logic appears to be the trailing axle scrubs and breaks up the track. What complete and utter trash! Not that I mean it doesn’t happen but the road is so bad it could only improve it to break it up a bit. Turn it all into sand NOW. These corrugations make the ones in Kakadu pale into insignificance. I think, OK, I will go slow and just take an hour or two even to go the 30km I can do that. No I can’t! My speedo doesn’t register that slow but the GPS tells me I am making3-5km/hr average. My brain must have been bruised by all the shaking because it takes me a whole hour to decide there aren’t enough hours in the day to make it there so I turn around and spend another hour crawling all the way out. The video here looks quite easy! I would like to leave the truck out on the highway and take the motorbike but there is nowhere even remotely safe to leave it. The local wisdom is it takes less than 24hrs to trash and burn a vehicle by the wayside. It is very frustrating as a normal 4wd with soft suspension can go over it at about 50kph, and quite a number do as they pass me both ways, but it seems the truck suspension is just too hard and for reasons explained once before I don’t want to let the tyres down anymore. I’m really ticked off but I have broken enough already so once back on the highway I head off toward Derby. Halls Creek is a straight drive through and just short of Fitzroy Crossing there is a nice sunset
































and then a pleasant overnight spot with about 10 vehicles at Mary Creek.
That’s enough for one day.

Great Central Road Day 21

Day 21

I pressed the wrong button on the GPS sometime today and lost the track but it goes between the two overnight stops for Day 20 and Day 21 . . . the yellow bit and part of the grey bit.

This is the park at the end of the main street in Kununurra.

I can’t believe Kununurra has the second most expensive fuel I have come across $1.70/l!!

But I really don’t have a choice so $350 later I head off to El Questro.

I’m told that the area around there is as good as anything down the Gibb River Road but that’s a big call. Never the less it’s about 60km off the main Gibb River Road and 50% is bitumen so I’ll take it quietly and see how we go.

Some great views in this part of the country but hard to photograph at 11am with pretty bright skies.

It’s not a bad place but of course they get you in subtle ways. The $20 park pass so you can wander around plus the $20 camping fee (unpowered).

It’s only just after lunch by the time I get there as the road is pretty easy so I get the bike down and have a blast to all the 4wd lookouts and tracks. For some reason despite the light I quite like these couple of images.

In fact by tea time I manage to cover everything but the gorge walks which I am told are really best done in May. That’s a good reason to go back!

A quick blast out about 20km to the boating jetty produced this just before it was time to return for the evening.

On the way back I finally worked out what was wrong with what I was seeing in El Questro. I remember when it first started to be promoted and there was always a photo of a building overlooking a gorge but I could not find it in the main part of the park. But if you go down a "Private Road" you can see it's the main homestead for the station. ie the owner's house. Great for advertising but not for public access.
















Fair enough . . . the rest of the park is pretty good anyway.

Great Central Road Day 20

I had this strange suspicion it wasn't going to work.
I got up at dawn and rode the bike around to all the spots I could get.
The sun came up way too quickly and with no clouds around there isn't much in the way of favourable light.
















And by the time the gates were open it was all over. . .





























So back to the campground to work on my professional camper skills.
I decided to fix the roof vent as although I had power for the air conditioner last night I wasn't sure about tonight and definitely not the next couple. Also a few squeaks and rattles needed attending and I may as well wash bedclothes etc. as it is cheap to wash here and everything dries instantly with the lack of humidity. Surprisingly little humidity compared with the NT parks even though right on top of the dam! Then of course there was lunch, read a book, have a nap, read some more, put the motorbike back on the truck, fill the water tank, empty the toilet tank and before you know it it's 3pm and time to move to the next camp in Kununurra itself. I keep running into a bloke "John" (and his apparently nameless wife); with whom I was discussing this business of moving and camping etc. . In his enquiries of others "in the trade" it appears that the average move per day is between 80 and 150km. I think that means I can't go anywhere else for another two months!! I knew I was doing something wrong.

The bloke at the quarantine station crossing into WA said the Hidden Valley caravan park was the cheapest so I went straight there. $29 per night down from $35 but because I "bitched and complained" they would make it $25 so I decided on "no power but generators allowed"for $12. The only problem is they have very restricted generator hours until 7pm. Normally it's 9am to 9pm everywhere else. I guess I still haven't got it quite sussed yet, but I'm working on it . . .

Great Central Road Day 19

Day 19

Well no breeze but plenty of lightning and at some time 20mins of what sounds like heavy rain. You know that stuff that comes down in drops the size of golf balls but no wind at all. Still it does cool things down a little and I have worked out how to make the roof fan draw in outside air through the windows at each end of the bed so it does get a little cooler. But the vent opening handle has broken so I am going to have to fix that tomorrow or the fan/venting system is not going to work properly.

Packed up at dawn but it’s pretty uninteresting light wise so try to creep the truck out of camp without waking everybody. I think the reason people are relaxed about travelling is they sleep a lot and every time they do anything it’s a great accomplishment.

There is not really a lot to see until the Victoria River area, part of Gregory National Park which is in several chunks along this road. It’s quite a large area but I’m pretty sure it’s for those serious off-road people and their tricked out 4WD so I am not inclined to get too far off road in this part of the world.

The Victoria River is quite large and meets and/or crosses the highway at a number of places for the next 100km or so. It is of course very seasonal but like all these northern rivers when they flow they flood. I’m standing here on the old bridge, which replaced the “crossing”, and looking at the new bridge which now does away with the annual week or two wait during the rainy season while the water flooded over the bridge.

There is still quite a lot of water around and they run cruises up and down the river, billed as the last of the true “wild water” tours. I’m pretty sure it’s not actually during the wild season that they run the tours however.

A little further on I stopped for lunch at this bridge to nowhere. There are locked gates on the other end and the sign says “Defense Department” , never heard of it!!

River is still pretty big at that point.

After chatting with a bloke I had met before in Katherine and Kakadu who was sitting in a roadside stop i.e. parking bay, at least with trees and BBq’s and even toilets if you’re game, for the second day and night in a row while waiting for mail to catch up in Kununurra I decided to go on a bit further. The guy at the quarantine station at the WA border recommended a few stops down the road and a caravan park in Kununurra but the turn of to the Ord River Dam appeared and I decided to turn that way instead. It’s quite a spectacular area in many ways. The caravan park offers $20 powered sites with all the facilities and is actually quite nice and I do like to be able to run the air con all night in this weather so here I am. It’s only 4pm (we are back on WA time I realise) so I take the bike off and go for a ride around the dam area while I still have time. It’s absolutely beautiful but they kick you out at 5pm and won’t let you back in until 7am tomorrow.

But I’ll be waiting at the gate . . .

(This is my favourite photo so far.)

Great Central Road Day 18

Day 18

100% Humidity is not my idea of fun.

I have had two cold showers while packing up this morning.

I drive down to the end of the bitumen just to have a look at the “Safari Camp”, a strange place which is a mixture of permanent tent on raised floors and other odd scattered tents around the place and a couple of converted containers for an office and a shop. It really does somehow remind me of those big safari camps you see in movies. Hatari or something??

Here I have to decide whether to complete the loop back into Darwin via 50km of gravel or turn around and go out the way I came in via Batchelor. I can’t see the point in looping back to Darwin and I quite like the road through the park so it’s back the way I came. Only a quick look at the attractions which are on the main road none of the 20-30 km side tracks this time and before you know it I am back out on the main highway. This time I am filling in the bit I missed by going through Kakadu and get to see Adelaide River on the way. Railway Museum or War Memorial ?? Should have gone to the War Memorial. Nuff said!

This way is much shorter to Katherine, where I have to go to turn off to Kununurra. I really need to do a load of washing but I cannot find a laundomat that is not in a caravan park, and I refuse to pay $25 so I can pay $8 to do a load of washing. It will have to wait, I still have clean clothes and the old ones can go in a sealed bin for a day or two.

Today I am determined to stop before it gets too late but 3-30pm is just too early and all the rest stops are grotty. About 4-30 I spot one with toilets and tanks and shelters and BBQ’s etc and just one little Toyota van parked up the far end. I pull into the near end about 60metres or so from the van because I intend using the generator to keep the air conditioning going for a while tonight. I decide to go and say “Hello”, as there appears to be somebody sitting in a deck chair in the shade near the van, and to explain why I pulled up so far away, and I think it is less scary for other people when you say hello in day light rather than just wandering around at various times. It’s a lady about 50+ something who has spent the last 5 months getting from somewhere in Qld to here and thinks it will take several more months to get to Perth. She is giving herself a year to see how she likes it . . . well that’s the story. Must have nerves of steel I think to just be out in the boonies by herself. I know that’s a bit sexist but I do think it’s different for guys.

So we’re both settled in at opposite ends of the park for about ¾ of an hour and someone else with a motorhome arrives and pulls up about 10metres away from this lady right alongside her and proceeds to set up camp. What is wrong with these people?? Eventually over the next hour or so there are another 6 vans and cars etc. and then for some reason the dickheads with the motorhome decide to move it another 10 metres away. At least now it’s not right in her face.

I start the generator up about 6pm and go for a walk. It’s funny but the sound of the air conditioner is louder away from the truck than the generator. I deliberately have the generator side away from the camp and that seems to be working. For some reason however it all then goes haywire. The charging system keeps tripping over the air conditioning or vice versa and keeps overloading the generator so it shuts down. It takes the next two hours of reprogramming re-routing cables etc. to make sure what is working and what is not. It appears the air conditioning start up is confusing the charging system so I reprogram the charger to less than it’s rated capacity then start up the air conditioner and then gradually increase the charge load to what it should be. It’s been running now for an hour so it’s time to turn it all off and open up the windows and let the heat in . . .

I hope there is a breeze out there tonight.