With a decision to head home made, it was with some reluctance that I packed and pulled out of Perth pretty much at midnight on a Thursday night/Friday morning (EDST to make this story easier, instead of the 4 different time zones I travelled through). Aiming to get some good km’s under my belt, I fuelled up at Mundaring before hitting the road proper. I had already swung through the supermarket to fill the fridge up with some goodies – food and drinks on the road become the biggest money waster…..
The first 320km’s felt tight, whether that was the old girl or me (or even a combination) I don’t know. But I clearly remember that distance on the odometer being the point where everything felt right. A bit of music, an open window or two and I rolled into Norseman to take my first stop of the trip. The old girl had run beautiful, hardly saw a soul and the spotlights once again were worth their weight in gold.
With us both now being refuelled (the old girl with diesel, me with coffee), we continued towards a rising sun. The km’s slowly continued to accumulate, with the speedo pretty much sitting between 95-105km/h the whole distance.
The longest straight came and went and to be honest I again didn’t bother with the normal photo that everyone stops for. I did however sneak a couple as I descended down to get another coffee at the end of it though! It really highlights the ‘openness’ of the surrounding area.
Eventually I wandered over the border and started the run along the coast. I’d had a little bit of trouble with the old girl running a tad warm. Not overheating or anything that silly, but you get to know your vehicle when you’ve had it for as long as I have. Deciding not to push too hard, I started to take some more regular breaks – aiming for every 2 hours or so.
The added bonus of a spectacular coastline is also worthy of stopping regularly. Unfortunately the flies were out in force this trip, with even the old spray and akubra not warding them off. Either way the view along there is worth any small discomfort experienced.
The last couple of hundred km’s into Ceduna I was starting to feel a tad tired. However as per normal I woke up substantially once I had refuelled so I decided to continue for the time being. Before long I was in Port Augusta again topping up the fuel tank ready to head down towards Adelaide.
Not long after departing Port Augusta the rain hit hard. It’s quite funny as I hadn’t seen any rain this year before that point – actually I hadn’t been cold either this year before then either! I decided at Snow Town to pull over for a rest, as it wasn’t worth pushing it in that kind of weather. It had been a good run for the day. 2000km’s down, 1500km’s to go.
Approximately 4 hours later a clap of thunder scared the shit outta me – e.g. it woke me with a start. I decided to head down the road for a cuppa and also sneaked in a toasted sanga – ham, cheese, tomato – you can’t beat it! I also grabbed some baby wipes which I had forgotten at the supermarket before departing Perth. Funnily enough I had been looking for a pack since the Nullabor and be stuffed if any servo I stopped at had any.
Not far down the road I pulled over and had the obvious bird bath (hence the wipes). With some fresh clothes on (well it’s the socks that matter), I ran the last little bit into Adelaide in good time. Dropping in to see Sarah unannounced I sneaked a quick coffee whilst we chatted. It was really good to catch up, albeit only for a short period.
Feeling quite refreshed and awake by now, I tackled the Adelaide traffic with patience. Before long I was climbing the hill with a quick fuel stop just east of the Murray River. By now I was starting to consider options for the night, as I’d managed to clear across a lot quicker than I planned initially.
By the time I crossed into Broken Hill I figured that if I didn’t catch up with Katie this time, she’d probably kill me. Now normally this might have some sort of appeal to it, but being freshly married I figured it was better not to tempt fate!!! 🙂
The last hour into Melbourne was the worst of the trip. The heavens opened up and the road became downright dangerous. I was unable to sit in the middle of the lane as the old girl was aquaplaning quite bad. I thought initially that it was just the old girl, but then I started noticing all sorts of vehicles having the same issues.
With concentration levels at an unbelievable high, I found that pretty soon everyone started following me. If only they knew where I’d come from, they might’ve though differently!!!
Finally arriving at Katie’s I gave the old girl a well deserved break. All up she’d done 3500km’s in 43 hours, not bad for a vehicle fast approaching 800k. Another big trip done with minimal hassle including pretty much 2 overnight drives.
After a few quiet beverages and a pearler of a steak consumed, I was asleep before the head even hit the pillow.
The next day I awoke and headed off after lunch to grab some supplied for the night sailing. I must again thank Katie and co for their hospitality – it is always greatly appreciated. Boarding the boat I sat down with a couple of books and enjoyed the voyage. The buffet was quite nice, and generally the weather wasn’t too bad at all.
The police chopper and a RAAF aircraft where circling around before I boarded, most likely for the Formula 1 race that was about to start. There was also a cruise ship in town, again I wouldn’t be surprised if it was for the race as well.
Arriving at Devonport I got real lucky by being off the boat by 0630h in the morning. I think I was about the 2nd vehicle off. The heavens again opened up, but nothing was slowly me down this morning. Arriving home I literally got mauled by the kidlets – I think Jess launched herself from 2 metres out!!!
I apologise about the lack of photos, but the reality is this was about getting through the km’s. I couldn’t afford to be stopping at everything I wanted too, however thankfully quite a lot of what I traversed we have done in the preceding years. There is certainly photos of the boat in previous reports as well as numerous trip reports throughout Victoria and even the V8s from Adelaide.
Cheers
Chris
P.S – this will probably be the last trip report with my little P&S camera. It has served me well whilst being away from home, but now will most likely find a home with one of the kids now that I’ve got the DSLR’s back 🙂