Life’s a beach ….

Posted on October 3, 2013 by Mike

Quick pop quiz :
Which are Australia’s two most famous beaches ?
One would probably be Bondi :

Bondi Beach

Bondi Beach

And the other ? Whitehaven in the Whitsundays ? Cable Beach, Broome ?
Or how about “Summer Bay” :

"Summer Bay"

“Summer Bay”

The fictional beach from TV soap “Home and Away” is actually at Palm Beach, a few kilometres up the road from where I’m staying.
The surf club makes some tidy money from selling “Summer Bay Beach Patrol” merchandise and there are plenty of people paying for “Home and Away ” location tours. Apparently they are very popular with the English backpackers !

Anyway, I’ve been to both over the last couple of days while the sun was shining and I’ve still got my car to get around in …after all, I cannot leave Sydney without ever seeing Bondi, can I ?

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In other news, I’ve got my gear down to an acceptable level, I’ll only have to pay for one suitcase to go as “unaccompanied baggage”. It is a bit scary, to look at 3 bags and think that is all your worldly possessions !
I’ve still got to get rid of my ute, the trouble is that things have started going wrong with it ! The indicators keep blowing fuses, and the air-con just died suddenly …maybe I finished the road trip just in time !
If I cannot fix them these little things will make it harder to sell …oh well, there is always the wreckers yard, LOL. After 13 years and over 270,000 kms I’ve got my money’s worth out of it so I am not too worried about how much I get for it, I’ve just got to get rid of it before next Tuesday, as then I am moving from the YHA here at Collaroy Beach into the city for the last few days. That will make it easier to get out to the airport early on 12 October with all my luggage.
Catch you later, that’s all for now …

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The end of the road

Posted on September 24, 2013 by Mike

Well, that’s it …after nearly 50,000kms the trip is over. I’m in Sydney, with a bit less than 3 weeks to go before my flight to Thailand.
The last couple of weeks, since Birdsville, have been a bit of an anti-climax knowing that it was all over bar the shouting, so to speak. Even driving down the Birdsville track was anticlimactic, every kilometre just taking me closer to the bitumen and the final drive to Sydney. I had planned to take a detour and spend a few days at my favourite campsite, Geehi in the Kosciusko National Park, but the road in was closed by a landslide so that was not to be.
routemapfinal
The final stats :
Total mileage : 49973 kms
fuel used : 5115 lt
fuel cost : $8292
food : $3892
Accommodation : $ 2841
repairs and replacements : $4977
tours, entry fees and miscellaneous : $ 2251
Nearly half the repairs and replacements cost was for new tyres that I would have had to replace anyway, and good 4WD tyres don’t come cheap. Unlike several other people I saw along the way I had no tyre problems, not even a flat tyre, let alone the punctures and shredded tyres that others received.
I did a lot more distance than most people, zigzagging all over the country instead of the usual lap around the coast, which is why it’s nearly 50,000kms rather than the usual 30,000 or so, and pushed up the other costs consequentially.
So was it worth it ? Yes, definitely yes.
Would I do it again ? Probably, but longer and slower in a caravan or mobile home. I’m not getting any younger and I think my days of swagging it are probably over ! There were many places I could have stayed longer, and would have with a bit more comfort and a solid roof over my head.
Will I do it again ? That all depends on how things work out in Thailand ….who knows, perhaps the expat life is not for me and I sneak home disillusioned after a year or so ?
As some of you may have guessed from the blog title I’m a Jimmy Buffet fan, and as he sings in one of his songs

And it doesn’t work out there’ll never be any doubt
That the pleasure was worth all the pain


I guess I’ll find out one way or another, but I’m going to give it at least a year, so I guess that will be a blog subject for October 12, 2014.
For now I’ve got enough to worry about with getting rid of my car and sorting all my stuff down to necessary, not needed, and a whole lot of in-between ! I’ve used my frequent flier miles to upgrade to business class, which gives me 30kg baggage plus frequent flyer club bonus of 10kg, but my camera gear is going to take a big proportion of that, plus books and documents that I need/want to keep. So I think I’ll be paying for a suitcase of unaccompanied baggage.
I’m prepared to sell the ute and camping gear for a ridiculously cheap price of $3000, I did have one person here at the hostel interested but he failed to ring me back yesterday to confirm ….maybe he was all talk and no cash.
If he does not see me today, I’m not going to hold it any longer, the For Sale signs will be going up in every hostel I can find.

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Woohoo

Posted on September 18, 2013 by Mike

Woohoo, NOW I’m a professional photographer !
At the beginning of last year I signed up at “dreamstime’ microstock website just in case I might one day get a really good photo. I uploaded a few shots from the Sydney Gay Mardi Gras, and then got discouraged by all the knockbacks from the editors…lighting too harsh, too high ISO, not in perfect focus, etc.
Then a few moths ago I tried again with some shots from this road trip, and what do you know, somebody recently bought one !
road sign
I would love to know why anybody wants a photo of a road sign ?
You need to have a huge portfolio with lots of sales to make any money with microstock though, I earned $0.42 for that sale ! But, it’s my first sale, and it’s given me a bit of encouragement to try uploading some more images from the trip.
Now, what can I spend that 42 cents on …….

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Birdsville to Melbourne

Posted on September 15, 2013 by Mike

What passes for a landmark along the Birdsville Track ….an old abandoned ute :

"The Blue Ute"

“The Blue Ute”


Otherwise it is just plain flat and boring for most of the way:
Flat and boring

Flat and boring


birdsvilletrack-3
Until finally you reach South Australia :
Old ruins, South Australia

Old ruins, South Australia


After 40,000kms+ I’ve had my first major mechanical troubles, the rear right wheel bearing has worn out, so the bearings had to be replaced. Luckily it happened when I was in civilization, not while coming down the Birdsville Track. The mechanic says they start to fail at around 200,000kms so I cannot complain seeing as mine has done over 370,000km!
I’ve just spent the weekend in Melbourne, and now I’m off towards Sydney this morning. There was a photographic expo on during the weekend, so I went along to check that out and ended up spending 2 days there, lots of interesting seminars and demos …wish I had learnt some of those landscape tips before this trip !
Topez Labs had a stand, demonstrating their “magic” …I’ve got some of their software, but I’ve got a lot to learn about how to use it !And of course all the camera companies were there with a constant queue to play with the big lens and new cameras. All in all a pleasant way to spend a couple of afternoons in Melbourne.
And then last night I went to the casino and somehow managed to turn $50 into $500 ! Bonus !!!!

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The race weekend

Posted on September 9, 2013 by Mike
nothing beats Birdsville in September

nothing beats Birdsville in September

“The Melbourne Cup of the bush”
“The race at the edge of the world”
That’s a couple of the slogans for the Birdsville races, which is just one round of the Simpson Racing Carnival. The other two are at Betoota and Bedourie but never attract the same attention as Birdsville does. You would have to be a keen race goer to stay out here in the dust for 3 weeks to watch the full carnival !
Like the rest of the area, the race track is hot and dusty. Some people opt for comfort, some dress up. I even spotted Elvis in the crowd, and Big Bird too. He would certainly have been hot !


I’m not a race goer, and don’t usually even bet on the Melbourne Cup, but did n’t do too bad with the bookies. Must have been lucky, because I had no method to my picks ! On Friday I lost about $40, but came home $30 ahead on the Saturday. You cannot complain about that ! the only real downer was the queues for the shuttle buses back to town …some people walked the 2 or 3 kms back to the camping area and beat friends on the bus back to their camp.
Saturday night was a charity auction for the Flying Doctor, the Birdsville Clinic, and Frontier services, which raised quite a lot of money from auctioning off race week memorabilia and other stuff, such as your height in XXXX cartons ! That evening I went to watch the boxing show, even if you don’t like boxing it is worth seeing Fred Brophy get up and give his spiel before the show as he drums up customers and challengers. He is a 4th generation showman, and the last of his kind, the only touring boxing troupe still going around. Apart from the challengers for his fighters there were 2 young kids who wanted to box each other in his ring, so he put the gloves on them to start the show. After 3 very short rounds he declared it a draw, and people started throwing money in to the ring for the boys …they ended up with over $500 between them ! The challengers did not put up much of a show, they all lost to Brophy’s fighters, and so did n’t get a cent !

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Sunday morning saw many people off early, I’ve stayed an extra day so that hopefully there will not be too many people driving down the Birdsville Track tomorrow, or it will be one big dust cloud all the way south !
So it is down to Maree then eastwards, but I’m not sure exactly what route to take. I want to be in Sydney by about 20th September, it’s now only 5 weeks until the big move to Thailand. I’m getting both nervous and excited about it, but I’m committed now.
I don’t know when my next post will be, I’ll catch you all later …

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Birdsville

Posted on September 8, 2013 by Mike

This gallery contains 9 photos.

While I’m sure that at least a couple of my readers ( Jillaroo Jess and Outback Joe ) know about Birdsville somebody somewhere might be wondering where the heck the place is, and why I’m going there ….or then again, … Continue reading →

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