Out of Range of Everything

I found Kai sitting at the table with his head in his hands the other day, 'Kai, what's wrong' I asked thinking he must have had a headache or was unwell. His answer: 'Ive only got 20% charge left on my ipod'..... And now we have subjected them to no mobile network or even power for the last week or so, our devices have lost charge and, in the case of the ones that cannot be charged through the USB port in the car, have died - like the computer and our talking books!

We stayed at a beautiful little campsite at Farina. This was once a booming town (100 years ago) but is now, as it seemed to me, the Australian version of Pompeii (!!). Away from the ruins, the campsite was...grassy - what a treat! - and very peaceful. The kids had fun climbing on the old railway line which freaked me out a bit because it was quite high with biggish gaps between the sleepers.

At Marree we joined the Oodnadatta Track, another looong stretch of unsealed road. There were two highlights of this day: our lunch at Williams Creek, when we finally reached it (population of 12) and where I wish I had taken a photo of the size of Kais hamburger which he managed to finish. The pussy willow was just outside the window where we dined, and the boys decidedly took the seats with their back to the tree.

This is as close as Sol would go to it.

The other highlight was the trip out to Lake Eyre. About 65km from Williams Creek, and a beautiful time of day when we went out. But, oh, so windy. We mucked around on the salty surface of the lake for a bit before taking refuge again in the car and driving back into town as the sky was turning pink. In summer there is not a skeric of shade and we passed a monument for a Caroline who perished out there in December some years back.

And now we have finally reached civilisation and a sealed road again. Not to mention internet and phone connection. Tonight will be our second night in Coober Pedy, and it was very noticeable that we have been spoilt in regard to our recent campsites, when, at hefty prices we find our caravan about 2m from our neighbours van (and I could even hear him snoring last night!). That's the city for you. Today was a catch-up, regroup, recovery, maintenance, shopping and washing day. We managed to visit an underground gallery, see some opals and visit a kangaroo orphanage in time for evening feeding.

North Flinders

Driving days through flat desert country, we turned off the Strzelecki Track and headed down to the North Flinders Ranges at Vulkathunha Gammon Ranges National Park. We had a couple of nights at Weetootla Gorge campsite. Once again the vastness and space and very sparse population of the campsite was noticeable. And excellent. More campfires and more damper! The kids completed a 12 km hike with us, up through the gorge, following the Balcanoona Creek, and beyond, until we reached Grindells Hut. From the balcony of the more modern hut, we could have a spectacular picnic lunch, surrounded by the ranges.

Grindells original stone hut was behind this one. Read the kids blogs to learn about the true nature of Grindell...

It is rugged hiking country so the kids did really well, reminiscent to me of the Macdonnell Ranges – jagged rich red cliffs, rugged, rocky ground, shady pebbly river crossings, beautiful gums as well as scrub and tortured dry trees. The kids were intrigued by the mountain goats who bleated at us from way up on the way back, we observed them through the binoculars.

Corner Country

From Pincally we proceeded further up into ‘Corner Country’, no sealed roads around these parts. We stopped for lunch at the pub at Malparinka. This is like an outback ghost town, I think the family who own the pub – with their 4 children – are about the only permanent residents. The eldest son Luke is in Lucy’s and Mrs Owens class. And you would think you may be served by some salt-of-the-earth Aussie character, however we are finding that it is often a European backpacker behind the counter. At Malparinka Pub the backpacker was from Amsterdam, has only been there 5 days straight from Sydney (for a 3 month stint) and our lunch was the first she prepared unassisted. My mind boggled as to what she could do in her spare time – she said lots of movies and reading.

In Tibooburra we stopped for a couple of days to catch up on things like washing and some repairs to the van. Cem did an excellent job in sourcing some supplies and fixing the smashed (by flying rock) water pipe under the van. One lady even, on her day trip to Broken Hill to pick up here husband after surgery, picked up a part for us, calling us from Broken Hill to make sure it was right etc. Tibooburra was quaint and friendly. Had a fabulous dinner one night at one of its two hotels. Very full of character – as you would expect an outback hotel to be.

Then we left ‘civilisation’ (ie electricity and mobile network) and headed into the outback for the next week or so. It was hard core driving with absolutely nothing but desert out the window for days.

Camerons Corner is the junction of the 3 states. In this photo Sol and Ayla are both in South Australia, Kai is in NSW and Cem is in Queensland:

This is also where we saw the ‘dog fence’ which follows the states boundaries and stretches 5500km. It was adapted from the rabbit proof fence and now separates dingos in Central Australia from livestock in SE Australlia. From the Great Australian Bight to SE Queensland, apparently it goes through 5 deserts and Camerons Corner is about half way along the whole thing.

For any teachers following, we are keeping maths mentals up (so far that’s about all). Here is our outback classroom.

More desert, rough roads. They varied actually. Sometimes you couldn’t talk for the corrugations, on other stretches they flattened out to almost as good as sealed….but never for long.

An outback camp at Montecellino Bore, on the Strzelecki Track:

Here Cem and I spent a fabulous evening speaking only German and drinking red wine with Walter and Christiane from Tasmania (originally from Frankfurt/Munster) around their campfire. They were hippies (now with 3 adult children, and about to become first time grandparents) who admitted they could now never fit back into the way of life in Germany. Again the generosity of strangers was displayed here with Walter pulling out his entire tool collection (including crowbar!) to help us adjust our shank which had bent down leaving the van looking very low at the front. The guys simply turned the shank 180 degrees and we may try and get something welded to fix it in this position.

To date the kids are travelling well. This is helped by the audiobooks I have downloaded, as well as the dvd screens we have installed on the back of our headrests. On this stretch we finally finished War Horse, long and epic but sad and I think it got most of our attention.

Pincally Station

From Bourke via Cobar, Wilcannia (overnight) and White Cliffs we arrived late in the evening at Pincally Station and were welcomed warmly by Matt Gale the owner of this 65 893 hectare property. We were camping at 'the swamp' which was another 6km from the homestead. It was a fabulously isolated spot where we had huge campfires, cooked for the first time on our new 'dutch oven' and soaked up the space and quiet. Here at Pincally, Sol perfected his damper making skills:

Pincally Station is home to Matt and Zanna and their three delightful girls. It is 70km off the Silver City Highway (to the west) which links Broken Hill and Tibooburra. The primary products grown at Pincally are wool, lamb and beef. We were lucky enough to arrive in the middle of a frenzy of sheep shearing (early, but wool and sheep prices good at the moment.....) and the next morning was largely taken up around the shearers shed where we saw the whole process from shearing, to classing, then baling and labelling. Each bale was roughly $1500 worth and let me tell you there was a lot of bales. Then there was the drafting which was dividing the sheep into those to be sold and those not. We were welcomed into the Gales home and also had the fabulous opportunity to sit in on Lucy and Millie's School of the Air lessons. This is run from Broken Hill with formal lessons, class teachers and even a school uniform for when they meet up in BH. On site was Amy, the 'Governess' who actually was also a qualified teacher and assisted in passing on the curriculum as an addition to the teacher in Broken Hill.

This is Millie's Year 3 English lesson, you can see the teacher is behind one of the other classmates on screen, the interaction was just about as close as you could get to a standard classroom situation, Millie had about 12 or so in her class:

Then we have Lucy's Year 4 HSIE lesson. As you can see I have made our kids stay and focus on the whole lesson, which initially, with Millies lesson, caused a few shuffles and grumpy faces, but then I hissed the alternative of being put on the train back to Warrawee Public School and missing the rest of the journey, and they then got the message that I was serious. It was a good lesson and in the end it did get their attention, the topic was the Aboriginals and the English settlement which was quite apt as they are missing the Aboriginal week at WPS this term. There are about 10 or so other students in Lucy's class. Lucy's teacher who you can see on screen there is Mrs Owen.

This is Amy assisting in the additional work when the actual 'air lesson' is not on. The girls have one air lesson per day. Otherwise with Amy its normal school hours: 9 - 3ish

And here is the crew outside the classroom, a separate structure set up across the yard from the homestead:

Back at the swamp, this is OUR form of current schooling. We are, at least, doing maths mentals on a regular basis, we (?), at least I, find it an easy low maintenance way to get through maths.

Huge thankyou to the Gales for this excellent experience. We bade our farewells and headed north over many more kms of dirt road. Here are the beautiful Lucy and Millie (older sister Bella - Year 7 - is at Boarding School in Mittagong and will be home again in 2 weeks). Thankyou girls! Thankyou also to Amy.

And this is the typical roads to get to and away from Pincally, for kms and kms.....and with lots of gates.

Signs of Bourke

Warrawee Public School would probably suggest polished shoes and red ribbons in the hair, Bourke High Schools request is a bit simpler.

This one made me smile:

This was in the footpath of the main street of Bourke. Its worth taking the time to read.

First Post - bit technical, bit of drama, but we made it to Bourke.

Today was Day 4 and I think we are still finding our rhythm. We are in Bourke. Its good to be here; the main street is lined with some beautiful old buildings, there is this huge timber wharf structure hanging out over the very attractive Darling River - attractive because of its meander, the huge river gums lining its banks and the squawking birdlife which filled the sky, also the day was beautiful; sunny and mild. I feel like we have finally escaped the city and pace can slow down a bit.

That's the Post Office above, and then the courtyard of the Old Court House. Heres the Darling, you could climb down and under this wharf, massive timber structure, couple of storeys high:

For the technical minded (Dad!) we had a new hitch/coupling fitted in Lithgow on our way up. Cem was worried about the standard ball and cap coupling of van/car and it perhaps bouncing off if it got rough. He had read about the McHitch and it so happened that McHitch are in Lithgow, which was our first stop to wave bye to Stephen and Susan. It was cold and rainy and a public holiday but Mr McHitch (Joe) was only too happy, without any previous notice from us, to put the rest of his work aside (that's why he was in on the public holiday) and fit the hitch for us immediately. Apparently this model has been on the market 3 weeks. Here are some photos of it. It is rather phallic don't you think?

We stayed on Sally and Johns driveway in Bathurst and had a fabulous evening with them and the kids. For those schoolies following, just look how grown up her 4 beautiful children are, they are adults! Jess, Ben, Adam and Brad, and so gracious were they in entertaining our 3 'babies' in comparison.

If anyone is planning on taking the kids to Dubbo zoo we can recommend our campsite at Goobang National Park, which is about 50km out of Dubbo. Very good bush camp site, great birdlife, kangaroos hopping by, great toilets, gas bbqs, open fire pits, good cycling for the kids. We had the whole place to ourselves this time. For us we were revisiting; we stayed here 18months ago when we went to the zoo. It was good to come back to somewhere familiar on our second night of the journey. You can use the map on the right to zoom right in and get the exact location if anyone actually wants to go there.

And now I guess I have to report on our slight drama coming into Bourke yesterday afternoon. We are not around to cop dads wrath and Kai has already made mention of it on his page, so I may as well spill the beans totally:
I was the driver yesterday, and so its my fault of course... I should have filled the tank in Nyngan where we stopped and had a lovely little picnic lunch in town, but no, after lunch, like city drivers, we hopped in the car and continued on our merry way to Bourke which is 200km away. Well before long we realised that our tank was very low. At about 100km out of Bourke the fuel light came on. Coolabah had no fuel. We then learnt at the next hotel that there was no fuel until Burke. Well, whether rightly or wrongly we pushed on. There was some place called Byrock (about 40 km out) that we figured we'd stop at and Cem would then get a ride into Burke and bring some diesel back. But we never made it to Byrock. We ran dry, which is not a good thing to do in a diesel fuelled car. I pulled onto the shoulder with the remaining momentum and almost before we could hop out of the car a huge triple trailer truck passed and pulled up on the road just in front of us. Well, we have two absolute saviours here. The first one, Rodney, the driver of this truck, who insisted on helping us. He was going to give us some diesel from his own tank when lo and behold our second saviour, Al, coming from Burke and driving of all things a huge diesel tanker (!) pulls up and fills our jerry can with premium diesel accepting no payment. But then the car wouldn't start, if you run dry in a diesel air gets in the pipes. There was no way these two guys were leaving us, it was dusk by this stage. Under the bonnet Al was able to do something (Cem witnessed it and reckons he knows what to do next time - there wont be a next time though!!!) that got the air out and after several failed attempts and with great relief the car finally started. Rodney then followed us into Burke, then once in town led us to the closest service station. What legends. It was dark by this stage. The alternative if it wasn't for these guys was not looking good and this sort of luck that we had certainly cannot be relied on, just so lucky. And it wont happen again, as I say, best way to learn is through experience.. Today I read somewhere that out here, if you have car trouble, don't worry, someone will definitely stop, that's just the way it is. Well, we can verify that one. And also: its always good thing to know how far you can travel once the petrol light goes on....
Here are these fabulous men:

Al

Rodney