2010/09 Australia trip - Cape Shanck |
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Saturday September 18th
The work continued in between breaks for visitors.
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Sunday September 19th
The weather had been OK but a bit damp. Sunday looked better and John took us down to the coast. He’d asked where we’d been before and the area around Hastings sounded new to me but I recognized it as soon as we arrived.
However we took some different walks around Cape Shanck, and the weather had changed and places look different in the wind and rain anyway! We all walked along the cliff top, sharing the trail with kangaroos, and then John and I
went on further, looking for a view over the sea, but running out of light and returning by moonlight.
Monday September 20th
It was time to get serious about the trip and start packing. We stocked up with food and drink, and a phone card. Spirits like rum are just as expensive as in Canada, but wine is about a third of the price. Phone cards are much cheaper than using the satellite phone, but of course you have to first find a working phone box. I was also pleased to find that Australia still has short shorts rather than the uncomfortable long shorts that are fashionable everywhere else.
The shopping trip was also an opportunity to get used to driving with a manual clutch and on the left and under Australian rules. Most rules are similar to either England’s or North America’s, but there are some subtle differences that nobody mentions. North America treats a wide road with no markings as strictly two lanes whereas in England and Australia you can squeeze in as many lanes of traffic as will fit.
I wanted to get some “recovery mats” as we were going to be driving in sandy areas. The mats go under the wheels to get the camper out of deep sand. Our map of Melbourne was confusing and we ended with a long walk to Dandenong’s four-wheel-drive store, only to find that they were out of stock. We’d have to buy them somewhere along our route.
We had some vague ideas as to our route to Cape York; we planned to drive north through Wagga Wagga and Dubbo, up the west side of the Great Dividing Range, mostly dry country but not far enough west to be in the desert, and return south along the coast, at least 3000 miles each way by road. We’d be crossing a wide range of latitudes from temperate zones to the tropics, equivalent to driving from San Francisco to Panama or from Spain to Nigeria, but a lot safer than either trip!
We’d chosen September and October for the trip as the south would be enjoying Spring, mainly dry and hopefully not too cold at night, while the north would be towards the end of its Dry season, probably very hot, but not yet into the deluge of the Wet season. We expected to find that many creeks and rivers were dry, poor for visiting waterfalls, but easier for driving and digging for gems.