Head West old men

For the last 10 years dad has been saying that we should do a road trip with them. And for the last 10 years I’ve been looking at the logistics and just not finding a way to make it work. They have a caravan and take off for 3 months or more at a time and only travel a few hundred kilometres per day. We travel on a motorcycle and camp with a tent and travel faster and further. And we only have a few weeks to travel. Then added to that they live 1,300km from us.

The numbers just didn’t stack up.

Then one day I was rewatching the great Australian movie Charlie and Boots starring Australian comedians Paul Hogan (Charlie) and Shane Jacobson as his son Boots, on an epic road trip to the tip of Australia to go fishing.

… what if dad and I just jumped in the car and went for a drive …

But where to…

My parents have travelled extensively on the east coast of Australia in their van, but they haven’t done the centre, or the Nullarbor. So they seemed like reasonable options in the time I have available, drive to Eucla (just inside Western Australia about 4,600km round trip) or Uluru (5,200km round trip). That should be achievable in two weeks.

A plan was hatched, and a date was set. And by plan … I mean destination … everything else we’ll make up on the fly.

This is our Charlie and Boots trip. In a Holden but with no fishing, no hitch-hikers, hopefully not getting booked for speeding while being towed (I love that scene!), and not ~~any~~ much shenanigans…

Day 1 – Canberra to Hay 550km

Someone wanting to join us on the boy’s road trip.

First stop Wagga RAAF museum.

Another painted water tank for the collection

Of all the old jets – this is my favourite – the F111

It’s funny you travel the same road over and over and never stop. Everytime I ride passed this old railway bridge at Narrandera I always think I should stop and take a look.

To my surprise, when I turn around to look at the other side, and the property next to the bridge is called Canberra.

So I leave Canberra this morning, look at the Canberra bomber in Wagga, and then the property named Canberra at Narrandera.

And finally a quick picture of the painted water tank in Hay honouring WWII vets.

On the recommendation of the servo attendant we stay at the Big 4 caravan park next to the pub for dinner, great plan except they don’t serve dinner on Sunday nights.

Accommodation – caravan park – $135

Day 2 – Hay to Burra SA – 700km (with a couple of detours)

From Hay, our journey continues west. I can’t remember the last time I drove across the Hay Plains as I’m usually on the bike. It feels wrong in the car.

Entering Mildura, we saw the Holden museum, and unlike Charlie, we weren’t that keen to call in to recall the history of the Holden cars in Australia.

However, like Charlie and Boots we had fruit with us and needed to eat / dispose of it as we entered South Australia.

*No family* *size punnets* of *strawberries here though*

I always like catching ferries and one of the rides I’d like to do is follow the Murray River around and take every ferry crossing. From memory there’s about 12 of them. This trip we made a small diversion and caught the ferry across the Murray to Cadell.

Followed by the ferry back across the Murray to Morgan. We timed our run perfectly as we had to wait on the front of the ferry while the Murray Princess paddled leisurely passed us. Apparently, the Murray Princess is the largest inland paddlewheeler in the southern hemisphere. Not a paddlesteamer as this is diesel-powered and not steam-powered.

From Morgan, we took a slight detour to look at the painted silos at Eudunda.

Note to self … probably should’ve filled up earlier … I was nervously watching the fuel gauge edge further into the red while hoping Eudunda was big enough to have fuel … all while not letting on that I was mentally calculating options.

*A beautiful silo art connecting the two local histories by a single threa*d.

Mmm, I’ve never seen structural cable ties before…

Accommodation – motel – $150

Day 3 – Burra to Kimba – 390km

From farming crops over rolling hills to mountain ranges down to seaside villages and out onto the wide brown land … today had it all.!

We passed a number of different crops today, but the number one crop was wheat. Short stubby wheat as far as you could see following the contours of the landscape, only broken up by the occasional house or tree. It is amazing how consistent it is, like a carpet stretching over the landscape.

Our first stop today was the small township of Wirrabarra to look at their painted silo. A beautiful depiction of the local area in sepia with the main two characters popping in full colour – a forestry/agricultural worker and a rare local bird called the Red Capped Robin. The scale and detail in these paintings always amaze me.

From the plains we travel down the range (a nice bike road … maybe a little rough) and as we emerge we can see Whyalla across the other side of the Spenser Gulf.

*The road edges were all done with blockwork which look to be made from the local rock from the cutting.*

Pulling into Port Germein we were ready for a coffee and a walk. Port Germein’s claim to fame is having the longest wooden pier at over 1.6km long. Unfortunately, it was closed due to storm damage earlier in the year. We were gutted! We were really looking forward to walking out to the end … well … that’s our story, and we’re sticking with it.

From Port Germein, we continued over the top of the Spencer Gulf and again we were pointed west. The roads are straightening and the landscape is changing yet again.