Melbourne
The overnight flight from Taipei to Melbourne was uneventful although it turned out to be China Airlines instead of Qantas. Since I had 20,000+ steps that day I went to sleep immediately. I landed a bit early and took the Sky Bus to downtown. Ginny and Jocelyn had arrived earlier and checked in to the Airbnb in the heart of the central business district, $130 a night. Unfortunately, they went out for a walk with the key and did not respond to calls or texts. Eventually, they meandered back and I got settled. That afternoon we went to the Immigration Museum. That evening we met a friend of Jocelyn’s son for dinner. We ate at a Mediterranean small plates place and grazed and gabbed until we all started to sink.
Thursday we hit the streets first going to the Victoria Market. The flea market side was a cut above average including several Aboriginal vendors. The food side was lovely and the prices were much better than ours. We stopped at a light and Jocelyn took a picture of what we thought was an ugly building. While we could not see it with the naked eye (you have to be further away), the camera showed a face in the facade. It had been done by shading the balustrades. See https://www.amusingplanet.com/2017/06/the-melbourne-building-with-face.html for more information. It was an amazing piece of architecture. From there we went to the old Melbourne gaol. It started with a mock arrest and then a tour through the facilities. We even saw where Ned Kelly was hanged. Then we walked to the State library to see Ned Kelly’s armor but it had been temporarily removed from display. The exhibit of the history of the book was very interesting starting with a Sumerian cuneiform tablet from 2050 BC. Lunch was at Sally’s restaurant. I was not very hungry so I just ordered a starter of potato wedges. It would serve two ironworkers. The soups Ginny and Jocelyn ordered came in serving bowls. This is the only country that has servings bigger than in the states, yet we did not see obese people on the streets. After lunch, we walked thru Hosier Lane, noted for its street art. We rode the free city circle streetcar back to the hotel. Dinner was at a Vietnamese place nearby.
Friday we started with the Royal Botanical Gardens. They were extensive and when our feet gave out there was a nice tea house in the middle. Our only other stop was at the Melbourne Museum which had a wonderful exhibit on Aboriginal culture. We had a reservation on the overnight ferry to Tasmania, $350 with a 4 berth cabin. We grabbed some BLT+avocado sandwiches and a bottle of wine from the cafe next door and took an Uber to the docks. The sailing was smooth but it was dark the whole time. We got some great photos of the Melbourne skyline as we pulled out of the harbor.
Tasmania
We picked up our rental car from Europcar, $47 per day with $0 deductible and a one-way drop charge. We drove up towards the northwest, stopping at a couple of overlooks and one old lighthouse. Eventually, we got to Stanley, one of the cutest villages on the island. Just outside of Stanley is what they call “The Nut.” It is a huge old volcanic core that looks like Ayers Rock. There is even a chairlift to get you to the top. Further west we hit the Indian Ocean at Marrawah. The beaches were beautiful but very cold. The best view was a place called The Edge of the World. The waves were crashing over some very large coastal monoliths and there was driftwood piled up everywhere. We were getting tired by that time so we cut short our drive along the west coast and decided to cut thru the Tartine forest. Big mistake. It took two and a half hours of winding road with downed trees and the forest was mostly just saplings. Eventually, we got to Burnie and our Airbnb was huge and fabulous. Three bedrooms, 2500+ sf, mid-century modern, a lovely place, $132. Dinner was at the Bayviews right on the water, fantastic food, I had the hapuka fish in a delightful sauce and a geat Tasmanian pinot noir.
Sunday we struggled to find an open place for breakfast, finally settling on Food & Brews as the only option at 8:30 am. It was about an 80 minute drive to Cradle Mountain national park. We had bought a pass for all the parks on the ferry, $42. From the parking lot, we took a shuttle bus to Dove Lake and hiked up for the view. Most of the trails were quite long, 6.5 hours around the lake to six days for the longest one, so we just took pictures and drove on. Sheffield was a cute village with murals painted on the sides of most of the buildings. Launceston was our destination for the night. Garmin found the location of our Airbnb but finding the entrance was much more difficult. It turned out to be the lower level of a big house set in a grand garden, $132. Dinner was at Five Steps on George, a lovely tavern. Ginny and I had Tasmanian steaks and Jocelyn had the biggest piece of pork belly I ever saw served in a restaurant. With appetizers, a shared dessert and a bottle of local pinot noir, $140. Since you would have to be a mountain goat to walk back to the Airbnb, we took a taxi.
Monday was cloudy as we headed towards the east coast. Our aim was Freycinet National Park and Wineglass Bay. When we got there the wind was howling and cold. It was beautiful but we could only stand a few short walks to take pictures. Lunch was at Freycinet Marine Farm. Oysters $15 a dozen, mussels, and Abalone sashimi, Yum! On the road to Hobart, we crossed the river Wye, which had a smaller sign that said: “Cuz it is bigger than a creek.” It was a long drive down the coast to Hobart. Our Airbnb was amazing, four bedrooms, two baths, 3000+ sf, on a hill overlooking the city and harbor, $160 a night. Dinner was at Osaka Izakaya and truly authentic Japanese. The walk back up the hill after dinner was certainly aerobic.
Hobart
After doing laundry we had breakfast at Chrome Coffee, a funky place with great food, $35 for three. We headed down the Tasman peninsula and stopped by Eaglehawk Neck or some fabulous sights including the best ocean blowhole ever, and some amazing cliffs with eroded caves and a sea arch. Port Arthur is an old convict prison from the 19th century. The tour guide droned on and the harbor cruise was kind of boring. In those days 7 year olds went to adult prison, but people were lucky to live past 20. The best stop was the Unzoo which was a Tasmanian Devil sanctuary. We learned about the devils, saw a bird show and got to play with some kangaroos. They really liked being scratched under the chin. The whole place was very well done for a private sanctuary. We barely made it back before dark. Dinner was at the Roaring Grill. Perfect racks of lamb, local wine, ceviche, $150 for three. We took a cab back up the hill.
Wednesday we all started slow. Breakfast was at Born in Brunswick and the menu was local ingredients, highly creative, and huge, like all the breakfasts have been. The vanilla cotton candy on the orange poppy seed hot cake was over the top. We took a short drive to Richmond, a cute English like village with the oldest bridge in Australia. Lots of galleries, cafes, and craft shops. We skipped the Pooseum. Back in Hobart we stopped at Salamanca, famous for its Saturday market. Many artist shops and cafes. We climbed the Kelly steps to Battery Point, where the cannons used to be. It is Hobart’s oldest neighborhood with cute houses and a view of the harbor. Dinner was at Fish 349 and quite tasty.
Brisbane
Thursday we had breakfast at Providence Cafe, and the food was great but the portions were so large that none of us could finish all our bacon. Our destination was MONA (Museum of Old and New Art). It is a private museum on three levels underground hewn from solid rock, admission $17. Some of the exhibits were very strange and some marvelous. You really needed to use the device they provided, to navigate as well as understand. I guess I will have to start getting comfortable using one in the future as more and more museums seem to be going to interactive, computerized exhibits. The setting and structure alone were worth the trip and entrance fee. We had a 1:30 flight to Brisbane which was 20 minutes late. We got upgraded on the car to one identical to the one in Tasmania. We navigated to our Airbnb, with no wrong turns, in the gathering dusk. The condo was on the 20th floor in South Brisbane’s cultural district, with an unbelievable view of the river and central business district, 2 br, $127/night. Dinner was at the Old School Fish Eatery. Three mains a nice shared salad and a bottle of local dry riesling, $85 for all three of us, and OMG good.
Friday we decided to drive up the Sunshine Coast highway. All of our guidebooks said it was a beautiful drive. It was mostly multi-lane motorway and no matter how close to the coast we tried to get there were always houses and condos between the road and the ocean. Eventually, we reached Noosa Heads which turned out to be a noisy, crowded beach town. The beach was beautiful and packed on a weekday. We gave up on the coast and turned back to the Koala refuge in Brisbane. There was a major wreck on the motorway and everyone was trying to leave the city for the weekend, it took three hours to reach the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary, $17. They had over 130 koalas and you could get a picture holding one, $18 extra. We also saw emus, cassowaries, wombats, kangaroos, and even platypuses. The day was saved. That evening we could not get into our first choice so we went to Gauge. The food was very creative and amazingly yummy. One of the appetizers was an oyster in an elderflower mignonette, OMG.
Saturday we took the CItycats ferry, $3.50, which went up and down the river for a couple of hours. I was beat, so I just wandered thru the Southbank Gardens, the performing arts center, and the Queensland Museum. Jocelyn needed more walking and set off thru the central business district. Dinner was at Toncini, which did not look like much more than a street side cafe. The food was pure Italy, Arancini, carbonara, ravioli, risotto, and a good bottle of Montepulciano, $81 for all of us. A good day and I never got in the car!
Road to Sydney
The start of a new week and we were determined to drive down the coast. After getting thru the Mother’s day walk in Brisbane, we navigated to the road closest to the ocean. It looked like south Florida, condos, strip malls, surf shops. We even drove thru a stretch marked as Miami. Eventually we arrived at Byron Bay, a picturesque place with a pretty lighthouse a great beach, and horrendous crowds. Fortunately we were staying further south in Lennox Head, a tiny laid back surfer town. Unfortunately the Airbnb was very hard to find. The address was on one street but the house was on the street behind with no number or entrance indication. Eventually we contacted the host and got settled. It was a short walk to the nearly deserted beach and we took a long, much deserved stroll. We tried to have dinner at the most highly rated place in town, but it was still Mother’s Day and it was booked. While Jocelyn was talking to the Maitre d’, a guy sitting at the bar recommended a Thai place just up the road. It was really great. Mixed seafood in green curry, a lamb dish, and duck with mushrooms, $76.
Since driving the coast seemed to be such a bummer we headed inland on Tuesday. The first hour had a lot of traffic but then it thinned out. Breakfast was in a town called Casino at the Zeebra Cafe. Best coffee of the trip and breakfast was only $29. They do not do brewed coffee anywhere we have been so far and a latte or cappuccino costs the same as black coffee. The country was green with rolling hills and farms, eventually giving way to what they call the Tablelands. They looked more like what we imagined of Australia than anything so far. We stopped at the Information office in Tenterfield and the old guy there was a gusher of information and loaded us up with maps. Tenterfield is considered the birthplace of the nation because of a speech in 1889 that triggered the drive for federation. They call the area New England. By mid-afternoon we reached Ebor and the dramatic two-level waterfall. Next was Dangar falls which were almost as pretty and the lookout was much closer. We started down Waterfall Way and stopped at Dorrigo National Park and walked out on their skywalk which was a trestle thru and over the treetops maybe 120 feet high at the end. They had another waterfall but it was a 2.5 hour trek and we did not want to be driving in the dark. The road from there got very twisty and narrow, one lane in places. There were a few small waterfalls right next to the road. We finally pulled into Port MacQuarie just at the glooming. Our Airbnb was a lovely three bedroom house close to the beach, $108 a night. A long but rewarding day. Dinner was at Bill’s Fish House, a dozen oysters, three yummy fish mains, drinks, and a shared dessert, $96.
After 10.5 hours in the car, we decided to take it easy for a day. A late breakfast was followed by a long walk by the beach and thru town. We worked out our next two stops and took a short drive to North Haven and watched the surfers from a magnificent, miles long beach. Then we drove up to the North Brother lookout in the Dooragan National Park. As we drove up the one-lane, twisty, steep road, a huge branch dropped out of the sky into the middle of the road. Apparently eucalyptus trees do that often. The lookout included both north and south and was certainly worth the drive. Jocelyn saw something labeled “The Old Bottlebutt” on the map and after we wound down a long dirt road it turned out to be the largest red bloodwood tree in the southern hemisphere, over 53 feet around at the base.
Wednesday we drove to Sydney early, stopping at Tuncurry for breakfast at The Deck, which overlooked the bay and a sandbar with pelicans. The breakfast items were quite creative and they made a good latte. Partway to Sydney, there was a road sign with distances including “The Future” 12,689 KM? We arrived in Sydney at about 1:30 and found our Airbnb, which was in a row of shotgun apartments looking over the harbor, $250 a night. Ours had recently been restored and most of the rest of the row was under restoration. It was quite nice and they even left a bottle of champaign to welcome us. Parking, however, was an additional $35 a day. We were close to the Barangaroo Reserve which made a nice walk and looked out over the harbor and Sydney bridge. Dinner was at the Lord Nelson, the oldest pub in the city.
The next day I set out to find a cell phone repair shop as my battery was lasting less than an hour. I found a little hole in the wall and a young Bangladeshi woman replaced the battery in 15 minutes, $60. The Contemporary Art Museum had two mesmerizing exhibits, one was some dramatic fabric sculptures and the other was a video presentation that struck me and held me for 20 minutes. I just wandered and people watched for the next few hours. I had been to Sydney 18 months ago and it only had two days worth of interest and I did not want to repeat what I had the last time I was here. I spent some of the afternoon walking the Barangaroo Reserve park overlooking the harbor. That evening we met an Australian couple that Ginny’s daughter knew, for drinks and then had dinner at Fish on the Rocks, the highest rated place in the neighborhood. It would be a top-rated place anywhere in the world. I had a baked whole snapper that made me swoon. I do not know how every place we eat can be so good and priced so reasonably.
Canberra
Friday we tried to leave early. I had seen an elevator in the Barangaroo park that I thought went down to the garage I had parked in. It went down to a different garage. We asked several people, most of whom admitted they did not know, and finally, a worker told us to go to the B2 level and walk across. After we did that we walked up the entrance ramp and eventually found the right elevator but I thought I had parked on B4 and there was no car there. So we tried B5 and finally B3. After getting out of the garage, $70, We took the wrong road while waiting for the GPS to find a satellite. Then we got stuck in construction traffic. We got back to pick up our bags 45 minutes after we left. An hour later we stopped at the Shaggy Cow in Mittagong, which was just past the highway sign for the Pink Fluffy Unicorns? You have to love a highway department with a sense of humor. I had a nice porridge with rhubarb sauce, $7, that I might try to replicate at home. Once we got settled in our Airbnb, $165 a night, we started walking. It was quite a trek to the National Capital Exhibition where we learned the history of Canberra. We also learned that there was a free shuttle that went to all the main sights. We took it back to the condo. Dinner that night was at Yat Bun Tong Dumpling house, three kinds of dumplings, noodles, and duck, $65, yum yum.
Another perfect but cold morning dawned and after breakfast at Rye Cafe we got on the free shuttle. The shuttle started at the Canberra Museum and Gallery. That Saturday it was a voting station and there was a long line for out of state voters. There was also a good exhibit of early Canberra including a magnificent pair of panoramic before and after photos of the site showing bare prairie before. Our first stop was the Parliament building which is mostly earth sheltered. The intent was that by allowing the public to walk on the green roof, it would symbolize the people being over the legislators LOL. From there we walked thru the federal triangle to the National Gallery and its aboriginal art collection which was like nothing I had seen. We were starting to tire but made it along the lake to the National Library with its stained glass windows and Captain Cook’s diary. Canberra deserves at least three days and I wished I could have made it to the National Museum, an eclectic structure across the lake from us. Dinner was all lamb at a modern Afghani restaurant, Bamiyan.
Back to Melbourne
We headed out to our last group stop on a beautiful, but cold, Sunday Morning. Canberra does have real winter. About an hour out we stopped in Cooma for breakfast at 123 Coffee Shop. In the park, next door was a community fair with food and stuff for sale. The bread looked wonderful but we just bought a small cherry pie to go with dinner. Ginny bought merino wool socks. By mid-afternoon we reached the Buchan Cave Reserve. We had booked the 3:30 Royal Cave tour online but got there in time for Jocelyn to run and catch the 2:15 Fairy Cave tour. The reserve was in a beautifully wooded canyon with campsites and hookups. Ginny and I wandered around the site until it was time for the tour. There were only three of us for the tour and Paul, the tour guide, was very personable and knowledgeable. He was a geologist by education and explained the plate tectonics of Australia and why there is almost no seismic activity. The oldest of the caves is 40 million years old. They are limestone with stalactites and stalagmites and various pools. For small caves, 500 meters, they were delightful. When we emerged, there was a wallaby sitting and seemingly waiting for us to take his picture. Our final Airbnb, 3 bedrooms 2 baths, $117, was in Lakes Entrance, a beach town. We picked up a salad and ate our leftovers from the previous night.
Monday was overcast, breakfast was at the Funky Monkey, and the waffle was so pretty it deserved a picture. We were still tired from the long drive the previous day, so we just visited some of the small towns in the area. Metung was an especially cute resort town. Bairnsdale was a dud. A high point was an old wooden railroad trestle across a canyon that had been used until 1988. In the afternoon we walked the beach, both on the ocean side and the bayside. Dinner was at the Ferryman, built on an old ferry and docked in the harbor. I had a whole grilled sea bream, $20 with a salad.
The next day we headed back to Melbourne so Ginny and Jocelyn could fly home (way too soon). Breakfast was in Sale and pretty ordinary. We checked out Port Albert which was cute, but we did not have time to go to Phillip Island to see the penguins. We did turn off to see an historic suspension bridge, but it turned out to be a pedestrian bridge that was closed. After dropping them off I continued on to Geelong. My Airbnb, $56, was a mini house with a Viking theme, and cute as a bug. It was an easy walk to the restaurant row and I had arancini and fettucini with a dozen scallops, $25, but I think they forgot to charge me for my wine.
The Great Ocean Road
My Airbnb host warned me to get an early start on the Great Ocean Road and I was out the door by 8 am. The first part was quire urban, Torquay and Bells Beach felt like a continuation of Geelong. I got to Lorne in an hour and stopped for coffee and a muffin $7. Across the street was an Information office and an older lady gave more than I ever expected, including several off the beaten path suggestions. Lorne also had the Grand Pacific Hotel built in 1875 and beautifully restored. The road was nice and the first good lookout was Cape Patton. After Apollo Bay the road turned inland and I stopped at Maits Rest which had an amazing rainforest boardwalk, about 1 km. Cape Otway lighthouse was a 19 km detour, which was a pretty drive but at the end, they wanted $15 to get in. Since all I wanted was a picture, I did not stop. The only highlight in the next stretch was a koala sitting in the middle of the road. People were trying the shoo him off but he was not buying any of it. Just before Port Campbell, I came to the Twelve Apostles the official highlight of the Great Ocean Road. The official stop was a mob scene, sightseeing helicopters buzzing everywhere, masses of people milling about. The Aussies had organized it pretty well, a passage under the highway and paved walks out to several viewing platforms. The apostles (really only seven) were monoliths that had eroded away from the cliffs and stood like soldiers in the sea, quite an impressive sight. Further down the road there were many many great viewpoints to trek out to with few people, especially around Peterborough. There were cliffs and sea arches and caves and blowholes and innumerable coastal monoliths.
By this time the sun is getting low and I am exhausted, but there is one more place that the lady in Lorne said not to miss; Childers Cove. Garmin cannot find it and Google Maps cannot find it. I am following a pink line she drew on the map where there was no road. Finally, as I was about to give up I see a tiny road sign – Childers Cove Road. I turned down a dirt track, after 8km I passed a nice overlook. Then I passed a great overlook. At the end of the rutted track, I came to Childers Cove. It was beautiful. There were stairs down to a beach without a single footprint. I could have spent a whole afternoon there; WOW! But, I needed to find my Airbnb before it got dark. Warrnambool was not far and in spite of the construction road closures, I found it as dusk settled in. It was a lovely suite with its own entrance and parking right in front. The router was not working and Peter came to reset it and he gave me many suggestions for things to see in the area.
My first stop the next morning was at the harbour where they were exercising racehorses by swimming them in the ocean and riding them up and down the beach. Nearby Thunder Point was a good place to sit and watch the ocean crash in. Port Fairy was a postcard pretty village of older buildings. I had to stop at Portland because of the name, but there was not much except a tiny tourist tram that ran along the seafront. Just past there were the Bridgewater Blowholes. I don’t think I have seen the ocean churn and boil that much anywhere else. Adjacent to the blowholes was the petrified forest. The original theory was it was left from an ancient forest, but actually it is made up of limestone solution pipes, a natural but rare formation. Most of the pipes were a foot in diameter and 3 to 10 feet tall but there are some as much as 65 feet high. The road meandered inland but I got back to the coast at Port MacDonnell which had a lovely seaside promenade. I had skipped dinner the previous night and was getting hungry so I stopped at Periwinkle Cafe for lunch; a nice piece of grilled John Dory, salad, fries, and a glass of good Sauvignon Blanc – $18. Mt Gambier was touted in the guide books, so I stopped there to see the 250 foot deep caldera with the city water supply. In the summer it turns cobalt blue from the calcium carbonate crystals precipitating out. Beachport had several old buildings with wrought-iron decoration as well as a wonderful scenic drive thru the dunes by the coast. Robe was another picture postcard beach resort town, very low key. I finally reached Kingston, an old fishing port. The Lacepede Bay Motel was a clean two star place fronting right on the beach, $63, There was a nice long jetty to walk out on and watch the sunset.
Adelaide
I did not plan to stop in Adelaide but the spacing of the towns made it inevitable. My usual plan of driving somewhere and staying for a few days to explore the area did not work in Australia. Most places have a nice beach/river/park walk, a few oldish buildings, and a quasi historical site or two, but nothing to keep you there. Everything is so far apart that day trips just don’t work out. What does seem to work is picking a place 4 1/2 hours away or so, leave early, breakfast on the road, take every scenic drive, stop at most overlooks, walk out to every remotely interesting signed site. After 8 or 9 hours you reach your destination, have seen some interesting sights, probably have your 10,000 steps, and feel like it was a good day. The secret to not being worn out by the drive is getting out of the car at least every hour.
Nothing much was open as I drove out of Kingston but I did catch an open bakery out of the corner of my eye, Littles. A good latte and a bacon and potato pie were only $8. The drive was mostly coastal wetlands for the first half. I stopped at a pelican lookout and saw lots of birds but no pelicans. I did not have time to drive the whole Fleurieu Peninsula but wanted to see Victor Harbor. A slight variation on the recommended route took me over a free ferry and saved 30km. Victor Harbor is a weekend getaway from Adelaide and their claim to fame is a horse drawn tourist tram. They did have a beautiful beach. I skipped the wineries, as I wanted to see a few things in Adelaide.
I checked into the Ibis, four star, $67 plus $15 parking. Adelaide is a quite compact downtown. The university, the big Rundle Mall, museums and parks are within a mile. I started at the Gallery of South Australia. Their main rooms were curated with a mix of aboriginal and traditional art. It was quite well done. They had a special exhibit of Quilty, a contemporary Australian artist, which was good but not wonderful to my taste. The botanic garden was very well done. It leaned to the more formal English styling but with local flora. Dinner was at Peel St and the best meal so far in Australia. I showed up on Friday nite without a booking and they squeezed me in at the end of the bar. The hostess said the plates were generous so I had 2 small plates. The snapper carpaccio was superb and the lamb dumplings were like no dish I had ever had, yum. The wine list is quite good, $64.
Driving North
Saturday dawned cold and gray and I trudged off to the Adelaide City Market. Just at the entrance was a Columbian cafe serving arepas for breakfast, yum. The market was a mix of cafes and food vendors. I picked up a sack of mangosteens and some passion fruit and bananas for the road. There appeared to be a section that looked more like a flea market, but that did not interest me. It spit a bit of rain as I walked back to the hotel. It was a three and a half-hour drive to Port Augusta and there was not much to see along the way. I could have detoured into the wine country or the mountains, but I was looking at long, long drives in the next few days as I headed north into the “red center” of Australia. I did check out Port Wakefield which had many nicely restored old stone buildings, but someone had rolled up the sidewalks and hauled them away. There was nary a car or even a stray dog on the streets.
Port Augusta is a crossroads of pavement and rails going north and south as well as east and west. I would have loved to take the train to Alice Springs and Darwin, but it only runs once a week and costs $2700, yikes. The visitor’s center fixed me up with maps and guidebooks covering all the way to Darwin. They also had a very good interactive exhibit about Australia and the outback, from 900 million BC to the current day. The first European to make it from Adelaide to Darwin took nine months, I think I will take nine days. I stocked up on supplies for the outback (wine and water) and checked into the Poinsettia motel, $70 with a cooked to order breakfast delivered to my room in the morning. I walked across the street to Ian’s Western Bistro for dinner and had a T-bone with all the trimmings and a large Cabernet, $30.
I was looking at five and a half hours to Coober Pedy. There were two roadhouses (truck stops with petrol, food, and rooms) in the first half and nothing in the second half. It was the emptiest road I ever drove. They have what they call road trains, usually trucks with three trailers, 120 feet long, sometimes four trailers, 160 feet long, and rumored to be up to five trailers in the Northern Territory. The first half was gently rolling with scrubby trees but then it turned into salt flats and finally was pancake flat with not even a bush. I understand why it is called the Red Center as the dirt is brick red. The road even had a red hue looking back in the mirror. The number of roadkill kangaroos told me do not drive after dark. They leave wrecks on the side of the road to warn you about drowsy driving. And why put a cattle guard in the middle of the highway when there are no fences on either side? Coober Pedy comes from two Aboriginal words meaning white man and hole. It is the opal capital of the world and there are millions of holes that have been dug by the miners over the years. They just peg out a claim and start digging, leaving a cone of dirt and a hole. It gets into the high 120’s in the summer and many people live underground. My B&B was underground as were several of the motels. It was kind of cute, cut out of solid rock which must have had a coating to contain the dust, $75. The town had a wild west mining town feel. With all the piles and holes, it had a post-apocalyptic feel and many movies such as Mad Max and Pitch Black were filmed there. I checked out the few sights including the underground churches. I passed on the myriad opal jewelry shops. Being Sunday most shops were closed anyway.
Monday I was looking at another five hour drive, flat, dry and red. The BnB was fix your own breakfast, but I wanted boiled eggs and there was only a fry pay. Fortunately, I had some yogurt and fruit. I did chat with a man from Brisbane driving a Land Rover. He said he avoided the bitumen and had not had a proper shower in a week. Apparently Australia’s largest lake only has water in it every 30 years or so and lots of people were anxious to see it full this year. I stopped at a rest area to stretch my legs and realized I was in fly country. They will fly into every opening, keep your mouth closed, and totally ignore bug repellant. Fortunately, they do not like being in the car so I just roll down the windows and they fly out. I got to Erldunda Roadhouse at about 2 pm. Maybe I should have shot for a bit further but it was a very nice stop, $85. All the caravan spots were booked but the rooms were mostly empty. Petrol, however, was 50% more than in Adelaide, over $ 5.60 a gallon. Dinner was solid, I had the roast of the day, pork and gravy with a mountain of perfectly cooked veggies, $21.
When you are in the red center of Australia you must see Uluru (formerly Ayers Rock). I left early and the sunrise was spectacular, a camera could not capture it. Eventually, I stopped at Curtin Springs for coffee and a bacon and egg sandwich, $11. The place reminded me of road stops in New Mexico in the 1950s, charming but rough-hewn. Pretty soon the monstrous form of Uluru looms on the horizon. The park entry fee was $18. The first stop was the cultural center where a white girl was explaining aboriginal culture. The desk selling park guides was unmanned so I just read the sample copy. Signs everywhere said no pictures. There were several indigenous artists working and lots of artwork for sale at impressive prices. I slowly drove around Uluru counterclockwise and started to understand how imposing this sandstone monolith truly was. It is 1000 feet high and the aborigines ask that you do not climb it as it is sacred. Of course there was a steady stream of whities trudging up anyway. Then I went to the other main sight in the park, Kata Tjuta, a cluster of domed schist piles that was much less traveled. I walked thru one of the canyons, in spite of the flies. Naturally, I left my hiking pole in the car and suffered on the way back down as a result. It was not too late and the light was changing so I decided to go around Uluru in the opposite direction, it really is ever-changing with the light. I drove thru Ayers Rock Resort which was a depressingly tacky place for those with more money than imagination.
90 minutes brought me back to Curtin Springs and a $133 room in a modular building. Curtin Springs is a working cattle station (ranch) and they run 4000 head of cattle on over a million acres, in a good year. They opened the wayside inn to help in the dry years. I had dinner with two couples from Queensland. One couple said they were from Texas which turned out to be a town in Queensland. Dinner was a T-bone and half a bottle of an excellent Shiraz from Western Australia, $32. The servings were the usual oversize, but the Aussies polished their plates, at least the men did.
Alice Springs
Back on the road in the morning I headed north towards Alice Springs. The speed limit had gone from 70 to 82, which seemed fast for a two lane with no shoulders and most people were pulling caravans. There were only a couple for places to check out that did not require 4×4 on the way. I stopped at the Henbury Meteorite craters dating from 4000 years ago. There were 12 craters as the meteorite broke up in the atmosphere. I passed a few wayside inns and as I neared Alice Springs I turned off to the Ewaninga Rock Carvings, ancient carvings by the aborigines. The flies were still thick but as long as they stayed out of my eyes and I kept my mouth shut it was tolerable. I was the only person there and a sign said no Aboriginal women and children allowed on the site, religious reasons I guess. On the way back towards town I saw a satellite tracking station that was a joint Aussie US operation. In Alice Springs my motel was a typical Best Western, the Elkira, $70 a night. I was really tired of driving and just ate at the Motel, delicious kangaroo, $23 with wine.
The next day my objective was to stay out of the car after eight one night stops. Cooked breakfast (eggs benny) with brewed coffee at the hotel was pretty darn good for $10. I walked down to the Tourist office on the main mall and picked up some info on “The Top End” as they call the far north. The galleries on the mall were VERY proud of their indigenous art. I wanted to see the museum of Central Australia because it had the fragments of the meteorite that made the Henbury craters that I had seen the previous day, There were two, a 44kg piece and a 56 kg piece, both solid iron. They had other meteorites and some interesting photos of early Alice. I wanted to see the botanic gardens and the first one looked like a dog park on the side of the almost always dry Todd River. The other was just some scrub dessert plantings like I have seen at several arid gardens. In the afternoon I spent some time at Tangentyere Artists, where several aboriginal women were producing paintings, some of which I did love. I wound up haggling a bit and buying a piece. Their prices were much better than the mall and probably a fraction of what the export market would pay. Aboriginal art is a thing right now. Back at my motel, a knock on the door about 4 pm. She looked, and smelled, like a hooker and claimed I had called. I said wrong room. After a bit, the reception called and asked if I had ordered a massage? No! And she was not selling a simple massage. Dinner at the motel was a very good rack of lamb, $25 with wine.
On to Darwin
The road to Darwin is long with few accommodations and not long after I crossed the Tropic of Capricorn, the first remotely interesting sounding pull off was Ryan’s Well, which was just that. A stone structure enclosing a 90 foot deep hand-dug well and the ruins of the support buildings. Next was Aileron which had two giant steel statues of man 56 feet tall and of a woman and child, also tall. Ti Tree farms are famous for mangoes but they were out of season. Eventually, I reached the high point of the day, Karlu Karlu, know as Devils Marbles, a massive group of granite boulders, some perched very precariously on each other. It was all a result of a peculiar kind of erosion. I got to Tennant Creek mid-afternoon, just after the indigenous art and culture museum closed. When I pulled up in front of the Goldfields Hotel it looked very rough. As I was checking my reservation a huge bear of a man, Jason, came out and asked if I was looking for a room. He led me thru a bar filled with loud drunk natives. He found my reservation and sent me around back where the room was quite nice. At 4 pm all the natives left the bar and lined up at the bottle shop where a policeman was checking their ID; as there is a limit of how much liquor they can buy each day, I jumped the line to pick up some wine and Jason was directing traffic. That evening I went to the pub, which was deserted, for dinner. Jason was cooking. The bartender recommended the rissoles, which is an Aussie favorite of ground meat, carrot, onion, and spices fried up in a ball. It was quite tasty, $18 with a beer. Jason seemed to run the place and he was certainly the most unique character in the outback so far.
I was afraid the long drives were going to start to feel like work, but when I hit the road the next morning it seemed like driving was just an integral part of the adventure. I noticed little piles of mud by the roadside, some were small and spindly like phallic symbols and others looked like a child’s mud castle. When I started to notice much taller (3-4 feet) ones in the trees, I realized they were termite nests. There were millions of them. They outnumbered the trees. When the trees gave out they looked like a cemetery with hundreds of grave markers. About an hour out, I stopped at the Renner Springs roadhouse for breakfast. Three eggs, three fat 9” sausages, four slices of bacon (we would have called it country ham) grilled tomato and toasted homemade bread, $12. The place was totally offbeat, outback and unique.
I stopped at several small townships along the road. Newcastle Waters had a statue of a drover. Daly Waters had an abandoned WWII hanger and the tackiest roadhouse ever, but the beer was nice and cold. Larrimah had the pink panther hotel but was mostly abandoned. I finally rolled into Mataranka mid-afternoon. The thermal springs are the main draw here. I stayed in another small but new room in a modular building, $77. I changed and drove to the pools. The setting was beautiful. The pools were deep so people were clustering on the entry steps. Unfortunately, the pools were only tepid, not even warm, so I did not stay long. The Mataranka Roadhouse did not serve food, it only had a hot box of over fried, unidentified objects. I walked over to the pub down the street and notice a disturbance in the park. The Indigenous were hollering and setting fires in the park. I asked but no one seemed to know what the issue was, but they were closing the pubs. I finally found a nice outdoor restaurant in a caravan park and had a T-bone as big as the plate, $31.
Darwin
I wanted to see Katherine gorge, now the Nitmiluk National Park. The only boat tour available on a Sunday was 8 am, so I left Mataranka in the dark. Partway there, some of the bush was burning which lit up the night in an eerie manner. Fortunately, there was a cafe in the park for breakfast. The river has 13 gorges separated by cataracts. My tour did two of the gorges $67, with a short portage between. For a bit, we thought there would only be four of us but a busload finally showed up 15 minutes late. We still got the front row of seats. The gorge was beautiful in the early morning light and worth the early drive. I stopped in a small town that had a sign for a Sunday market, but there was only one stand and it was just stuff. The Darwin City Hotel, $70, was two blocks from the coast and right in the heart of everything. I got settled and walked to look out over the Timor Sea. There is no swimming because the saltwater crocs have a bad habit of eating people, and then there are the box jellyfish too, sometimes fatal. Dinner as at Wharf One, a spectacular setting. All the outside tables were booked, which turned out to be good as the wind picked up and most people moved inside where I had a window table. The special was whole grilled fish and when I asked what kind of fish the waitress said ”Grilled.” I ordered it anyway and the presentation (upright) was stunning and the taste was even better. It was a lot of fish for one person, $57 with lots of wine.
While Darwin was as far north as I could drive, I decided to take a boat another 80 km to the Tiwi Islands, $84. I had booked online but accidentally booked two tickets going and none coming back, they said no problem and I was aboard. Fortunately, the ferry was a catamaran as the sea was choppy with white caps. When we arrived there was not even a dock, the ferry just grounded and put down the gangplank. There were organized tours but that was an extra $175. These islands are inhabited by a distinctly different group of aborigines. They even look different. Their isolation seems to have helped them maintain their autonomy. The village was ramshackle like many indigenous villages around the world. The historic mission church was nice. The museum was fascinating, covering both indigenous culture and history since the Europeans arrived. The people seemed poor but they had their stuff together. I wandered until my feet wore out and then had a light lunch in the local restaurant, I was the only whitie. Lunch was a beef pie and a passion fruit soda, $6. I finally found Tiwi Design, which had some fabulous totems, among other things. After much perusing, I bolstered their economy. The ride back was pretty rough. They were passing out barf bags left and right, I went to sleep.
Tuesday was a bit cloudy and cool for the tropics. I needed a day of zilch, so I stayed in town. I did my laundry. I checked out the Art Gallery and Museum of the Northern Territory. They had a special exhibit on didgeridoos. They are made from trees that have been hollowed out by termites. Of course, the old men made up stories about spirits and such that determined the sound. There was also a significant exhibit on Cyclone Tracy that hit on Christmas Day 1974, destroying 80% of the homes and killing 71 people. The Botanic Garden was one of the best. Later, as I was walking around photographing the government buildings, a woman approached me saying she had seen me in the museum, and we had a nice chat. She recommended I see the stained glass window in the Anglican Cathedral which her grandfather had designed after the cyclone. There are only a few remnants of buildings from before the cyclone. Dinner that night was at Manoli’s Greek taverna, and the sardines were perfect. While I was having dinner, a few blocks away, Australia’s first mass shooting since 1996 took place.
Back South and then East
Wednesday I had to leave Darwin and I headed for Kakadu National Park. I left early and they were burning the bush all along the road. I stopped at the entrance to buy a park pass, $28, and ask about the Guluyambi Cultural cruise, but they were clueless. When I got to the visitor’s center, they showed me where the cruise started from, said I had to call. I called as I drove and the lady put me on the 1 pm cruise, $55, as she said I could not get there in time for the 11 am. I sped along and arrived at 10:45. A little sweet talking with the man with the long beard got me on the boat! The guides were Aborigines and they kept up a constant patter about their culture and living in the wetlands. We saw many huge saltwater crocs (they could easily swallow you whole) and native birds. It was a beautiful day on the water and ashore, and I learned quite a bit about local life. As I got off the boat, I again saw the woman from Darwin and learned that the cruise company was owned by her father (with the long beard).
After the boat trip, I drove to Ubirr to see the rock art. It was the most rock art in such a small area probably anywhere. The art varied from over 5000 years old to less than 2000. I managed to have it mostly to myself for an hour, but as I was leaving two busloads of school kids arrived, Timing is everything ;-). It was a long drive to Katherine. The only thing of note was the termite nests got up to ten feet high and huge. The Katherine Motel, $63, was a basic motel but spotlessly clean. The bed, however, could have been in the Hyatt. It was the most comfortable of the trip. Kathrine being a large town, (for the northern territory) I thought there might be a decent restaurant. Google recommended Loong Fong and the menu looked good. They seated me right away but there were still dirty dishes at one end of the table. 30 minutes later I literally grabbed the waitress as she went by and then she took my order. Another half an hour later I got my soup. 45 minutes later I got my Barramundi. It was delicious but enough for three people. I never got my beer and the dirty dishes were still on the end of the table when I left, $29.
The next day was just doubling back to Tennant Creek so I could then head east. I turned off into the Cutta Cutta Caves nature park just as the ranger was opening the gate. The first tour was not for another hour, and I have seen many karst caves, so I just did the savannah woodland walk. The walk was nice especially as I was the only one out there. I had to stop again at Renner Springs, for a beer, just because it was the best roadhouse so far. In Tennant Creek, I again stayed at the Goldfields Motel, and again had the rissoles for dinner.
Aussies love to drag their caravans around the outback. This makes a lot of sense as finding a room is often problematic. Apparently it is fine to just stop for the night at a rest area. They also love their bush cars. A bush car may be a Land Rover, but more likely it would be ruggedized Toyota Land Cruiser. Bush cars have huge tyres, two spares strapped on the roof along with extra petrol cans and water jugs. There is an awning rolled up at one side of the roof. In the front, there is a massive bumper/grill guard with two pairs of additional headlamps and a winch. Finally, there is a fat, long antenna for satellite communication. And they say “Bush cars go everywhere.”
Friday I turned east towards Queensland. After about two hours I stopped for coffee at the Barkly Homestead. It looked more like a desert resort than a roadhouse. A true oasis, I wish I could have stayed there but the spacing just did not work. The road was the straightest, flattest, most boring I have ever been on. Some places were pancake flat with not a tree in sight. Eventually, I crossed into Queensland where the time change was +30 minutes. At one point I had to pull off the road as the biggest bulldozer I ever saw came by on three trucks. The blade was wider than the entire road. Mt Isa is a big mining town. The Leichhardt accommodation turned out to be more like a workers camp than a tourist motel but it was fine, $77 with breakfast. The only problem was the sink in the bathroom was so small I could only wash one hand at a time. Dinner was a green seafood curry at the Red Earth Thai restaurant, $29.
Saturday I learned that the mine works two 12 hour shifts. Blasting is at the end of each shift, 8 am/pm, every day, and the whole town shakes. The big attraction is the Hard Times Mine tour, $59, named after the horse of the man that discovered the lode. The mines produce lead, silver, zinc, and mostly copper. To do the tour you had to put on coveralls, gumboots, and hard hat before you go down the hoist. The actual mine is over 6000 feet deep. Fortunately, I know a bit about mining because, between my bad hearing and the guide’s Aussie accent, I did not get much of what he said. We got to operate an air drill and had miners lunch, white bread with butter, minced pickles and chipped beef. Not as bad as I expected. The information center was well stocked with info on northern Queensland and I loaded up. In the afternoon I drove out to Lake Moondarra, created to supply water for the town and mine. It was an idyllic place for a picnic. People were canoeing and if it was warmer they would have been swimming. I also stopped at the Mt Isa overlook; the town looked like suburbia and the mine looked industrial gothic. Dinner was an excellent rump steak at the Isa Hotel, $28.
Sunday, the queen’s birthday and a national holiday, had not a cloud in the sky. The road east from Mt Isa was thru nicely rolling terrain. Cloncurry had some interesting sounding historical sites, but everything was locked uptight. I turned north and hoped Burke and Wills might be worth a stop, but it was just a small roadhouse. The road was paved all the way but long stretches just had one lane in the center paved, you had to share with oncoming vehicles. Normanton is a town with a history tied to the gold rush days. It has several interesting old wooden buildings and a replica of the largest crocodile ever documented, over 28 feet long! If I had known about the local rodeo, I would have booked a night there. Karumba, great name, is at the end of Matilda Way which had started at Cloncurry and is the only sealed road to the Gulf of Carpentaria. It is a retiree, fishing village with a treed pub terrace at the point where I could have sat for days, drinking, writing, and watching the sunsets. I finally arrived at Croydon and checked into my tiny, prefab room, $63. The only place to eat was the Club Hotel. It is the only pub left of 37 during the gold rush in the days. The only thing to eat was the bar-b-que plate, $15 with a beer, steak, sausage, ham, potatoes and two salads, not bad. I chatted with some locals about what there was to see. They all talked about the floods that devastated the ranching business this year, the ranchers did not believe the projections and lost over 600,000 head.
Monday was a day for exploration of Croydon. I started at the tiny grocery store across the street and they had eggs benedict on the menu, which were not bad at all. The visitors center had a film about the town, and a back garden full of old mining equipment. Gold was discovered in 1885 and they mined for 30+ years. It became one of the largest cities in Queensland. It is now virtually a ghost town, but they have put a lot of effort into creating almost an entire village museum. There is an historic precinct covering a couple of blocks with restored buildings you can walk thru. A short drive north at the Iguana mine site was a mining museum; one restored building and lots of rusting equipment. I drove out the Lake Belmore, the city water supply, and it was idyllic and deserted. On the way back I stopped at the Chinese Temple ruins. The Chinese were part of the infrastructure of the mining town. They were legally discriminated against but provided much of the fresh produce, bakery, laundry and misc labor that makes a town function. I walked slow, dawdled, meditated, and finally just sat on the porch of my room and enjoyed the silence, punctuated only but the sounds of the birds. For dinner I walked back down to the Club Hotel and had lamb chops while sitting on the veranda and watching the sunset.
I got an early start on Tuesday, again not a cloud in the sky. I had breakfast in Georgetown and briefly thought about going to see the Cobbled Gorge which had great reviews. It was 50 miles, one way, on mostly dirt roads, so I passed. My next stop was at the Undara National Volcanic Park. It is known for its lava tubes which are over a mile long. I had not done my research and missed the tour by 30 minutes and the next one was not for two hours. A little bummed, I kept driving until I saw a sign saying, Mill Creek Falls. I love waterfalls so I gave it a shot. I turned out to be the widest single drop falls in the country and was spectacular. I continued on the road to Millaa Millaa just because I liked the name. As I got close there was a sign for a scenic loop, which I took. The first third was a one-lane thru some beautiful dairy country and the last part was thru some nice heavily forested terrain. The turn off to Millaa Millaa falls was before I actually got to the village. The falls were impressive and people were swimming in the plunge pool at the base. As I pulled out of that parking area I spotted a sign that said Waterfall Circuit, another detour. The next two falls were also beautiful and I had them basically to myself. It was then getting late so I opted to take the shortest route to Cairns. It was over a set of mountains and the windiest road imaginable, I never got over 25 MPH, and could not look at the scenery as I drove. I did make it to Cairns before dark, but not by much. I had booked an Airbnb, $90, which was bigger than I needed but two blocks from the beach. Dinner was at Cock & Bull, a massive pub a block away. I had Shepards Pie (quite tasty) and a beer, $17.
Wednesday was my first overcast day and showers were in the forecast. I had booked the scenic trip to Kuranda and had a 20-minute drive to the staging area. There was a shuttle bus to the narrow gauge, scenic railroad. I love scenic rail rides and this one had 55 bridges and 15 tunnels. At one point we crossed a bridge right in front of a massive waterfall and some of the spray came thru the window. Close to the top, we stopped to take pictures of Barron Falls. Even though a lot of the water has been dammed and diverted for irrigation, they were still quite a sight. Kuranda is a little village up in the rainforest that attracted a lot of hippies in the 1970s. They are still there, in their 70’s and selling crap, just like they always did. It was misty and at time raining quite hard, as I wandered thru the various markets. I had a latte to kill time until my scheduled trip back down. The trip down was in an almost five-mile gondola. I paid extra to get a glass-bottomed gondola and it was well worth it, looking straight down into the rainforest was an extraordinary sight. There were two places to get off and go out on the boardwalks to see the overlooks. The gondola was way more fun than the train which I did not expect. The round trip was $95. I saw a farm stand on the way back and loaded up on fruit for the next few breakfasts, $15. Dinner was Thai, $18.
The Great Barrier Reef is one of the seven wonders of the world. I booked a trip out of Port Douglas, an hour north of Cairns. When I got up it was raining. The drive hugged the coast and was quite pretty but I did not see the sun. I boarded the Quicksilver, $177, at 9:30 with about 100 others, but it was not a quarter full. Just after eleven, we reached their pontoon anchored on the reef, AND the sun came out. I hustled off the boat so I could be on the first semi-submersible trip. It was way better than a glass-bottom boat. The trip was 25 minutes and you could go as often as you wanted, I thought it was worth the whole price of the trip. After that, I changed into my swimsuit, tracked down a lycra suit that fit over pretty well. They had corrective lens face masks and I found their largest fins. As I stumbled to the water (I had never snorkeled) someone asked about my swimming and then insisted I use a flotation vest, probably a good idea. I paddled around for long enough to figure out that I was not going to drown, and then I went to lunch. I had a half-hour to kill before my next misadventure, introductory snorkeling with a naturalist, $54. I checked out the underwater observatory, but it was too tame after the semi-submersible.
Soon enough it was time for my tour. Naturally, I was with the group with flotation vests, which included a guy that looked exactly like the star in the movie Black Panther. Once we got into the water, we all flailed and kicked one another. I separated myself from the group and was happily paddling along, head down, amazed at what I was seeing when I felt a tug, the naturalist telling me to stick with the group 75 yards back. One of the best things I saw was a school of 1.5 inch electric blue/green fish which suddenly disappeared into a brain coral the size of a VW bug. The second time I happened to paddle off, she made me hold on to a float with a rope so she could keep track of me. She also criticized my kicking. I am sure that the proper technique uses less energy, once you get used to it. However, the first time you try it, you are using muscles you never used before and you are exhausted in about 10 minutes. I really did not care what she was saying about the reef and its denizens, I just wanted to paddle along, looking down in awe. Besides, when we stopped for her to gab, the vest tried to make me float face up and then my fins wanted to float up, so it was an effort to turn over and get going again. By the time the hour was up, I could barely stand to get out of the water. It was marvelous, magical, amazing! I needed a beer on the way back to Port Douglas. That evening I could only make it the one block to the pub for dinner, Roast lamb with salad, potatoes, and roasted squash, $15, and I ate all of it.
Back to Brisbane
As I drove south I started to realize that I had been staying in North Cairns and there was a whole big city I had completely missed. Most of it seemed pretty industrial, so I probably did not miss much. The roads were lined with sugar cane fields on both sides. I stopped for coffee in Innisfail, a town known for its art deco buildings. There were a couple of blocks of them, many lovingly restored. I went into the Queen’s Hotel and ordered a cappuccino at a beautiful art deco bar, and sat on the veranda to watch the world go by. I drove the loop out to Mission Beach because it has the greatest concentration of wild cassowaries. Since there are only about 1000 left in the wild, I did not manage to see any, but there was a nice seaside walk. Cardwell was as perfect as a seaside town could be, Eventually, I got to Townsville, a vastly underrated city. There were many classy old buildings and a long strand for walking, swimming, and beach sports. I stayed right on the strand at the Shoredrive Motel, $73. I walked up the hill to the old fort and watched the sunset. The Fish Inn was deserted and smelled bad, the motel restaurant was way too crowded and noisy, so I had dinner at the Odyssey, a greek place, spanakopita and salt & pepper calamari salad, $42.
Another day and miles of highway ahead of me. I stopped at Ayr at the Chill Parlor Cafe for coffee and a muffin. I had a nice chat with a local lady while I enjoyed the morning on the porch. I drove thru Bowen, which is another charming seaside town that would be good for a long weekend. Horseshoe Bay was one of the prettiest beaches I have seen and it was barely occupied on a warm Saturday. I planned to stop at Mackay because the guidebooks said it was delightfully untouristed. It was supposed to have many art deco buildings and I drove down two of the streets where they were, but saw only a couple for flourishes above the newer canopies. Google could not find any of the three top buildings. For dinner, I drove to the Mackay Marina Village billed as “a beautiful promenade with shops, bars and a variety of restaurants.” There was a sports bar and a fish and chips place, neither of which had many people. So I drove over to Galleons, the top-rated restaurant in town; one table was occupied. The barramundi was good but pricey. Apparently the only reason for Mackay’s existence is the export of all the sugar from the cane fields I drove by for two days. My hotel, the Mackay Oceanside Central, was neither oceanside nor central. The reception was unstaffed, so I did the self check-in and discovered they had overcharged me 15%, supposedly $71. The room was very nice, but the restaurant that was supposed to serve breakfast was closed.
So now it is Sunday, not a cloud in the sky, and I am looking at another 6 ½ hour drive, oof. About an hour south I saw a sign “coffee ahead mates”. I slowed down and pulled into the Flaggy Rock Cafe, a charmingly ramshackle kind of place. Two young women were trying to make a go of it, and they served a very nice breakfast, $15. Later in the afternoon, I turned off to do the Gladstone loop, just because I had not turned off anywhere yet. Gladstone is a major coal exporting terminal. The size and extent of the loading facilities were enormous. The town had a muscular, company town, kind of feel. At least it was a change of scenery. A bit later I reached 1770, a town named for James Cook landing there on May 24th, 1770. If I ever was going to have a beach house it would be in 1770. I trekked out to the Bustards Bay Lookout which was sublime, and I was the only one there. Then I backtracked to Agnes Water, named after a ship that was lost in 1873. The Mango Tree Motel, $84, was steps from the beach and I enjoyed a perfect sunset walk as the tide was coming in. Dinner choices were sparse and fish and chips was the best I could do, $12.
So Monday I was only looking at only a 5 ½ hour drive. I drove thru Bundaberg because I like the ginger beer that comes from there and I did not want to double back on the previous day’s road. I found Oodles Cafe for breakfast and had zucchini fritters ;-). There was not a lot worth stopping for on the rest of the drive except for Maryborough. It is one of the oldest towns in Queensland and chockablock full of late 19th century buildings that have been restored. The city park and riverwalk were lovely too. That night I stayed at the Ascot Budget Inn, $50 close to the Brisbane airport and Doomben racecourse. About two blocks away was the Hamilton Bowls Club, which had a lovely grilled snapper, $25, for dinner. When I got back to my room, I realized I had left my phone on the table and had to do a little more walking before bed.
Fremantle and South
The breakfast at the motel was pathetic so I ate at the airport. It was a 5 ½ hour flight to Perth, kind of like my daily drives. The new rental car came with GPS which started arguing with my Garmin so I tried to turn it off. Even off, it warned me about speed cameras and school crossings. I booked a very traditional B&B in Fremantle, the Hamptons Inn, $90, built in 1913. It was tastefully updated and even had a jug of port in the room. I checked myself in and strolled past the Old Fremantle Prison, they do love their old prisons in this country, to the information center. Dinner was at Manuka Woodfire Kitchen. I had a crab pizza, sounds strange but was very tasty, $34.
In the morning I met the owner of the B&B, Neil, and he and I hit it off immediately. After gabbing for an hour I set off wandering. Fremantle (Freo to locals) has an incredible number of Victorian buildings, nicely restored. Oddly, there were few people or vehicles on the streets. Apparently the bohemians, artists, and musicians the town was known for have been squeezed out by rising housing costs, old story. The maritime museum, $5, was quite interesting, especially about the pearling industry and its use of forced labor. The seafront was a pleasant stroll. Dinner was at Joe’s Fish Shack at the fishing harbor, grilled snapper, $35. Most of the other places seemed to be fish and chips.
Thursday was back on the road again, after another long chat with Neil. Lots of little villages as I drove around the southwestern end of Australia. Bunbury has a big dolphin discovery center, and Busselton had a magnificent beach and park stretching along Geographe Bay. I drove out to the end of the road at Cape Naturaliste. They were charging to go up into the lighthouse so I just walked out to the lookout. When the trail petered out, I turned back. Heading south, at Yallingup they were surfing in the Indian Ocean. The road was dotted with signs for caves and then the wineries became plentiful. I went thru the town of Margaret RiverLate it was cute but quite touristy and I did not see a tasting room. As I continued down Caves Road, there were more caves and fewer wineries. I stopped at Red Gate winery and picked up a lovely Cabernet Franc. Late in the day I came to Augusta and drove to the end of the road at Cape Leeuwin lighthouse. There is a famous walking track from cape to cape but it takes days, 123 km. With so many stops it was time to turn to Nannup and the Holberry House, $104. It was set in a massive English garden with a long winding drive. The house looked like a hunting lodge. There was a wood fire burning in the main room and the rooms were huge and nicely decorated in period style. Dinner was at the Nannup Bridge Cafe, a cute funky place that had an excellent pasta with sausage, chicken, spinach and a cream sauce special. $23 with two glasses of local wine.
I stayed in Nannup because it was not far from Denmark and I was planning on meeting Garth and Lindy Wilson for lunch the next day. They are friends of an old friend of mine. They had generated a list of things to see in Western Australia for me and we had been corresponding via email. When I arrived at Holberry House I got an email that Garth had been rushed to the hospital that morning. While I was at dinner, I received a message from Lindy that he was not going to make it. I had not even met them yet but it felt like losing a friend.
I started late the next morning and my first stop was Pemberton, described as quaint and laid back. I guess if you are still working, a small town with a few shops and nothing to do seems attractive. I continued down the deserted highway and soon there were giant Karri trees lining the road. They can get 300 feet tall. I did a detour when I saw a sign for “Giant Forest Trees Road”. It was a 14 mile, one way, unsealed loop. About two miles in there was a big pile of brush blocking the road. I saw the dead branches that probably started the mess. I could drag them aside and I moved most of the brush, but there was one small tree across the road that was wedged somehow. I figured I could drive over it and did. The drive started out with very large trees but finished with more normal sized ones. Back on the main road, the Karri trees continued. I turned in to the Valley of the Giant trees, which had a suspended walkway in the trees. You were 120 feet up and the trees still towered above you. I did not stop in Denmark but they had several little shops and galleries. I stayed in Albany, the oldest town in Western Australia. I tried to get into Liberte, the top-rated restaurant but it was booked and the bar was packed. The next close restaurant was Mean Fiddler. There were few people (a bad sign) but it looked ok. No fish on the menu so I tried the meat pie, and it was cold, so I sent it back to be reheated, $22 with a pint.
Perth
There looked like two things I needed to see before I left Albany. The Gap and Natural Bridge were in Torndirrup national park about 15 miles away. It was quite windy but the viewing platform was safe a brand new. The Gap is a small inlet in 130-foot high granite cliffs and the natural bridge is a short walk along a stunning granite coast. The other thing is the Historical Whaling Station. The station turned out to have been built in the 1950s shortly before whaling died out. Also, you had to buy a ticket that included a wildlife park and a botanical garden, neither of which I had time for. I did have a nice breakfast with a window seat looking over the harbor. The drive to Perth was another long grind. Hotel Pensione, $115, was in the heart of the CBD. Dinner at Jun felt like I was back in Japan, sushi, yakitori, and the best ever okonomiyaki, $44. I was the only round eye.
Sunday was overcast and spitting rain. It was a short walk to the Art Gallery of Western Australia, free. They had a couple of the masters, Rodin, Henry Moore, and a great Arp sculpture, but most of the work was local artists. There were many very interesting pieces especially the indigenous works. I then walked towards the harbor on a series of elevated walkways, some cutting thru malls. The Bell Tower was a beautiful structure and the bells had originally been in St Martin of the Fields in London. They made a lovely sound. The Quay was pretty and I walked along the Swan River for a bit. At one point, I looked across the park only to see a huge blue Jacobs sign! The mint had a nice tour, $20. They only do commemorative coins now. Aussie are still digging up huge gold nuggets, the largest was 72kg and 90% pure. Dinner was a Petition, $55, broccoli salad with nuts and seeds, and a grilled red emperor fish. The fish had been grilled on just one side so it had heavy crust but was perfect.
North of Perth
The clouds had cleared as I headed north. Once I got out of town the countryside had huge trees with meadows in between, it reminded me of where they raise those lovely gray pigs in Spain. Unfortunately, the Indian Ocean Drive was not exactly along the coast. I detoured to a few small towns, like Two Rocks, but they were just subdivisions of ranch houses jammed together. The countryside soon gave way to scrubby trees and occasional mountainous sand dunes. These dunes would be 40 feet high and half a mile long, just rising out of the scrub. By lunchtime, I reached Cervantes and the Lobster Shack. It was a big commercial operation with a restaurant attached. Obviously all the tour groups stopped there. I ordered a lobster roll, a lobster lager, and sat on the deck overlooking the bay. The roll was better than any in New England. I kept on, stopping in Greenhead at Dynamite Bay, which certainly deserves its name. By late afternoon I reached Port Denison and the Dongara Tourist Park. I had booked a chalet which was a nice new modular building with an ocean view, $63. That evening I walked the waterfront at sunset to Southerly’s Harbor View Bar & Restaurant, which did not have a view of the harbor. The seafood trio was ok, $31.
My penultimate day dawned bright and sunny, as I headed up the coast. Greenough is noted for its bent trees from onshore winds, the trunks lean and the branches all point due east. They have a historic district of restored buildings but they are over-restored and the crumbling ones scattered thru town are more interesting. There was no cafe in Greenough so I had breakfast in Geraldton at Cafe Fleur, eggs and mushrooms on toast, $15. Geraldton, Pop 37,685, is the largest city between Darwin and Perth, 2450 miles! The highlight of town was a stunning archaeological museum with a great exhibit of three Dutch ships that were wrecked at the beginning of the 17th century. The next town was Northampton, an old mining town with many late 18th century buildings. As you approach Port Gregory there is Lynton, an old convict hiring station, apparently, they rented the convicts out to the locals for building. On the other side of Port Gregory is Pink Lake, shocking pink from some kind of algae bloom. My goal for the day was Kalbarri National Park. Just as you enter the park there are dramatic coastal cliffs including a natural bridge. The park is also noted for some impressive gorges, but I had piddled the whole day and had to pass on them. Back in Dongara I found the Dongara motel restaurant and had an excellent duck, $34 for dinner. I had a lovely conversation with Gen, one of the waitresses. She was excited that I came from Portland because it was on her bucket list.
My final day dawned drizzling rain. Most of Australia is wet in the summer but dry in winter, Western Australia is the opposite. I looked for the starfish cafe, it was not open, but I did see a pair of young women putting on their wetsuits to go surfing in the storm. Breakfast was at the Seaspray Cafe which was almost in the surf. I wanted to see the Pinnacles National park. It is a bit of desert with hundreds of rock pinnacles sticking out. They do not understand the formation process, but the sight is eerie. The rain had almost given up as I drove along a narrow sand track with huge puddles. The pics would be better with a bit of sun. I stopped briefly in Lancelin which is a fishing village an unusual T-shaped jetty. I guess there is a reef because about 500 yards offshore there were huge surf breakers. I planned to spend some time walking Kings Park in Perth but the rain curtailed most of that. My last dinner was a Frasers, a very upscale place overlooking the harbor and the CBD.
The aboriginal people arrived in Australia about 65,000 years ago. They were part of the first wave of humans leaving Africa. This wave went east. They are not related to the polynesians or people from SE Asia. Within 200 years of the arrival of Europeans 80% of the indigenous peoples of Australia were wiped out through disease, starvation and massacre. The last recorded massacre of Aboriginals was in 1928.