#Hand Car Wash Port Melbourne

[smithlee1221]

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[stacyharmon27]

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[mollygomezplanners]

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[amjons]

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[bookmaxicabmelbourne20]

Why Maxi Cabs getting More Popular in Past Decade

Book Maxi Cab Melbourne offers taxi services in the city of Melbourne. We have a range of small cars up to 11-seater minibus. The majority of drivers we work with have a 10-seater Toyota HiAce commuter minibus. We cover all of greater Melbourne. All our cabs are always super clean and we welcome guide dogs in our cabs too.

The popularity of maxi cabs can be gauged with fact such as the largest taxi company in the Southern Hemisphere, Taxi Combined Services of Sydney, chose Toyota HiAce maxi cabs to help cope with passenger numbers during the Olympic Games in Sydney in 2000.

Maxi cabs have been introduced in the taxi industry at the start of 1999. The then minister for road and ports announced a new depot for 100 new maxi cab's which was also called a High Occupancy Vehicle (HOV) or Wheelchair Accessible Taxi (WAT). Maxi cabs Toyota HiAce is equipped with computer communications systems, air conditioning and one of three types of rear hydraulic lift with a 385kg capacity. This lift can be used for moving wheelchairs and also for loading and unloading luggage.

The normal taxi cabs accommodate up to four persons while the taxis which are SUVs can accommodate up to six persons. On the other hand, if you book maxi cab it has an accommodation capacity of eleven to twelve people. Melbourne Maxi cabs and wheelchair-accessible taxis can usually carry:

1 wheelchair and 8 other passengers at one time.

2 wheelchairs and 5 other passengers at one time.

The wheelchair is secured using various systems, commonly including some type of belt and clip combination, or wheel locks. You can pre-book these taxis and they offer discounts too. Book taxi online by visiting www.bookmaxicabmelbourne.com.au

Taxi cabs and Melbourne maxi cabs are regulated by Commercial Passenger Vehicle, Victoria. Drivers apply to the Taxi Services Commission to get a driver accreditation. To cater to the demands of People with pram and children or older people with disabilities or those who are travelling in a group for all such cases regular taxi cabs and wagon taxis were not able to fulfil the demand. As the travel industry started to boom in Victoria people started to look out for options where if they are a big group they can travel together. Not only this, if you are travelling heavy with the luggage then also maxi cab is a good option to look out for.

An alternate to taxi cab was promoting maxi cab for use as high occupancy vehicle for groups or people with luggage as at the airports or ferries. With maxi cabs, transfers have become easier than before. You don't have to stuff your luggage with you into a small car. With a maxi cab, you get ample space for your luggage and for your family members too. Each maxi cab is driven by top-class drivers who are safe and reliable, they pick you up on time and drop you at your destination, safely.

Sometimes people carry large surfboards and bikes when heading to the airport. We can easily fit your bikes and surfboards. Best way to get in touch with us is book taxi online and once we receive your email, we will always send you a confirmation email.

Maxi cabs in Melbourne are so versatile they are often hired to collect bulky items such as LCD TVs, washing machine, fridges, king/queen/double/single mattresses, bed frames, tyres or any type of parcel can be delivered in record time. Maxi cab can also be used for moving houses/shifting but the prices are different. For best prices and availability please ring on Maxi cab Melbourne phone 0456108581

Rather than paying a distance fee, Book Maxi cab Melbourne can tailor some packages so you have better control of how much you will spend on transport service for guests. We can arrange a sweep pick-up and drop-off for group taxi bookings in Melbourne. If you're planning an event and would like to book taxi online service for your guests, call our friendly team on Melbourne maxi cab phone 0456108581 and ask for hourly rates and availability. Paying a deposit may be required to secure the booking.

Travelling with children's can be quite stressful as you cannot carry a baby seat with you. When you book taxi online with Melbourne maxi cabs just let us know that you need a taxi with a baby seat and we can send you the right driver. We can provide all kinds of baby seats including front-facing, rear-facing and booster seats. But as per the VICROADS rules in Victoria, you don't need to have a baby seated in a baby seat if you are travelling in a taxi.

The rule is if the baby is less than 2 years old when he/she needs to be on the lap and put the belt across. If the kids are over 2 then they need to sit on the back seat and put the belt around them.

To conclude and summarise here are the benefits of maxi cab why it's getting so popular

Sheer Size when travelling with a group or carry heavy luggage

Convenience: 24*7 Availability. No issues with late-night airport trips. Maxi cab to Melbourne airport or Maxi cab to Avalon Airport

Accommodative: wheelchair friendly taxi

Cost: Easy on the pocket with no surge pricing

Accredited and fully trained drivers

[shazmastuff-blog]

Carrera Car Wash

[kneewall49]

Life in Queensland

27th August, 2019

No one has asked what’s it’s like living in the sunshine state, but I’ll tell you anyway.

Life’s good here, it’s simpler, and as it should be.

Major difference is the ease of getting around by car/bike. No traffic lights keep traffic flowing and once your use to roundabout efficiencies no one gets held up except those that don’t understand the rules, the etiquette or are procrastinators.

No multi level car parks to lose your car in or get held up by a senior trying to work out how to back into a space, or big family with multi kids loading the once a month food shopping of fizzy drinks, pet food and cheese twisties.

Lots of marked motorcycle parking in prime spots is a bonus (for us).

No queues is another bonus, except for gelato on a weekend arvo. When you go to the motor registry, which we have had too on numerous occasions to sort licences and regos, the following happens. You walk into a near deserted customer area and head to the ticket machine. You’ll notice the 4-5 counter staff have eyes fixed on your hand. As you select your required service and the little paper ticket starts to emerge from the kiosk there is movement at the counters as the staff try to get your customer number to light up their counter before each other. It’s a bit like a quiz show. As your checking your number a loud speaker is already calling that number.

All shop staff (except cafes) greet you with ‘want you want luv’ and ‘thanks darl’ as a closer.

Heaps of cafes with good coffee and environs, craft brewers are also springing up everywhere with big budget establishments which are nice to dissect their architectural and detailed construction.

No aeroplanes in the sky, which I miss, but lots of noisy helicopters for some reason, maybe tourist joy flights.

Wed, Sat and Sunday markets are a nice outing for either a stroll, or provisioning. Eumundi markets are very busy and expensive, (even Manabu’s - x CiSRA QA engineer’s Açai) Noosa market is expensive but very high quality and mainly locals, while Yandina market is herbal, bit Scotland Is. like, but good cheap fresh vegetables and interesting second hand tools. Noosa market has apparently the world’s best Portuguese Custard Tarts, but as I’m yet to experience them to date.

We are slowerly getting use to water efficiency, being mindful our tank isn’t bottomless. A washing load uses 50 litres a cycle, 2x showers and there’s another 50 litres even when turning water off to soap up! We are now using the ‘grey’ water to water the new trees and shrubs we have planted rather than using the tank water. I’ll try to jerry rig some roofing to collect ‘free’ rain water but don’t want to over do the squatter development we are creating.

A day now consists of working in the morning till about 12/1 then to the beach on bike for a swim and picnic lunch, then back to work at 2:30/3 till dark. Bit hot in direct sun around lunchtime, but beautiful in the shade. Hope summer is not a killer, but probably will be. Might have to hang at at the freezer section at Woolies during the hot days.

I’ve also discovered 7eleven $1 coffee is on par with a good $4.50 cup, except for the crema. A trip to Bunnings in the morning or arvo includes a $1 coffee stop. I kid you not it’s acceptable (the quality). I buy ground coffee for home at Padres at Noosaville, settling on one blend after trying a few. It’s a cool place with nice but pretty coffee serious staff.

The best cake/bread shop is actually at a Shell garage at Noosaville too. You have to be told, you’d never discover it unless getting petrol. Just awesome French style stuff with lots of choices and they are constantly baking.

Paddler Andy Ross, another refugee from Sydney, has started a TT on the Noosa river on Sunday mornings so that’s now part of the weekly timetable, as is a training session on Friday mornings run by the local kayak shop. Nice bunch, glorious weather, champagne water.

The hinterland provides miles of great roads, cooler weather and cute little villages for stops. Too many craftie shops for my liking but that’s ok, old people have to have something to enjoy. A ride or drive up the hinterland is nice to have a break from digging.

Can’t find any boxing classes unless you pay $20 + for a session, Matt’s classes st North Ryde were a bargain, and hundreds of yoga classes if that’s your (not my) thing.

The beach. Noosa main beach is beautiful as you know. Minimal surf unless the swell is running which makes for a very pleasant cool off. Hastings Street is fabulous too. Just like being in some swish Melbourne Street but right on the ocean. If you holiday in Noosa I’d recommend paying a bit extra and staying on Hastings, it’s worth it by a mile. Forget the car just walk, eat and swim. Staying anywhere else in the area is hardly worth coming for.

Been very dry since we moved. The creek has stopped flowing over the little weir. Grass still nice and green except where I have driven the tractor over it infinite times, turning it to bull dust. Suppose to rain this week which will be interesting to see if we survive the camp out in a wet spell :).

Haven’t seen a snake yet, but I’m told it’s just a matter of time. I walk around like I’m in a mine field. We have jumping ants as we have mentioned which we are gradually eliminating. We also have a ‘cheese tree’ (look it up), which should be called a pumpkin tree, which has the unfortunate attribute of housing those seething balls of catapillars. Bit creepy, especially for Tokyo girls. We have BBQ’d two lots to date. Apparently coming into skin contact with them is not a recommended experience.

Anyway back to work. Digging the driveway at present. Want to get it done so the Port-a-loo lorry can get to down to our loo without having to go thru the neighbours. Everyone needs a goal :).

Btw we now have a lounge available in the annex for one overnight visitor. Who will be first?

[lindoig8]

The Tanami Track

Sunday, 6 June

(Wow! It is two weeks since I posted anything so I will try to catch up, albeit slowly.)

We had quite a few little jobs we wanted to do in Alice before setting sail for the Tanami and that took a couple of hours – testing and topping up our water tanks, a bit of cleaning in the car, reorganising things in the van in case of really bad roads, emptying the loo and disposing of rubbish and recycling, last minute hand washing – and of course, we had to move the van from one site to another because someone else had been allocated our site before we had booked the extra night – more packing up and unpacking, but we didn’t do more than necessary in the hope of making it easier to get on the road tomorrow.

We did a bit more supermarket shopping – just topping up a couple of things – and Heather had knitted a few more beanies so we dropped them off at a mission.

Monday, 7 June

Finally, the Tanami itself!

We said goodbye to Bill and Linda at the caravan park and hit the road at about 10.15. We called in at A-one Autos who had worked the minor miracle on our car a few days ago. I thanked them again and picked up a few business cards because I promised Linda I would get some for when people asked her for a reliable mechanic.

We also purchased 187 litres of diesel – thirsty beast that it is – and finally we were off on the trip we had planned several times before. (It reminded me a little of our attempts at the Darling Run – planned quite a few times before we finally achieved the objective.)

It was all bitumen to Tilmouth Well where we imagined we would stay overnight but it was not yet 1pm so we just topped up with fuel again (40 litres for 187 kilometres) and let some air out of the tyres in anticipation of some pretty rough road ahead. Ten years ago, we had stayed at Tilmouth Well and did a day-trip out to Birdlife Australia’s sanctuary at Newhaven. The first 40 kilometres of that was on the Tanami Road and it was the worst road I had driven at the time with inescapable corrugations 8-10 cm deep all the way. This time, it was good bitumen almost all the way to Yuendumu – they were sealing the last few kilometres as we went through.

Yuendumu was about 80 clicks further up the Tanami Track than we had been before and it seemed something of an achievement to have reached it. Alas, Yuendumu is just a very sad little aboriginal settlement about 3 or 4 clicks off the Track and we just drove in for a look but never got out of the car. There is only one shop and accompanying fuel stop that visitors are allowed to use, but we just drove past and headed back to the ‘highway’. I remember the Yuendumu Mission being talked about at Church when I was young and Mum seemed to mention it quite often, perhaps romanticising it a little – but it is an outstandingly poor, sad, dilapidated place in real life. (And I think that would be the best description of Yuendumu Heights – unfortunately, it seemed to be entirely lowlands.)

From then on, the road was all gravel, much of it heavily corrugated, with only a small percentage being easily trafficable – the driver had to pick his way back and forth across the road for most of the way, looking for the best and smoothest path. Initially, I didn’t think the road was quite as bad as it was last time we set our wheels on it, but Heather reminded me that 2011 was a long time ago and we are now much more experienced in driving goat-tracks than we were – and of course, with the caravan in tow this time, it is almost impossible to compare.

There were quite a number of patches with groups of small birds all along the sides of the road through to Halls Creek. Alas, they often flushed and flew across the road immediately in front of the car and I fear we may have contributed (just a little) to the risk of extinction of mainly Budgerigars (still millions of them around) and Zebra Finches (that almost equal the Budgies in number.)

We camped in a truck lay-by about 40-odd kilometres west of Yuendumu and spent a couple of hours cleaning dust out of everything. The van had been shaken around viciously all day and we picked up a few odd screws and brackets off the floor that we couldn’t identify – at the time. More on the damages later…..!!!

The sunset was spectacular and the stars totally awe-inspiring in a pitch-black sky. A couple of cars passed us very late at night, but otherwise, it seemed as if we had Australia totally to ourselves. If I was a Toyota driver (as I am), I would probably leap up and shout ‘Oh, what a feeling’. I didn’t, but it was a feeling to savour for years.

Tuesday, 8 June

It was very calm and quiet overnight, but a breeze kicked up soon after breakfast and kept the dust flying for two whole days. At times, everything took on a slightly blurred yellowish tint due to the dust in the air.

Not far into the day, we saw a group of about 10 or 12 raptors circling ahead and when we reached them, we saw they were circling a small dam around which were literally many thousands of Budgerigars and Zebra Finches as well as a smaller variety of woodswallows, doves and other birds. The smaller birds were wheeling around in huge clouds then swooping down to grab a quick drink and off again as another thousand took their place – again and again and again. The raptors were mainly Black Kites and Whistling Kites, but we saw a Square-tailed Kite and a Black-Breasted Buzzard – and a Peregrine Falcon swooped in a few times just before we left. We watched for half an hour or more and most of the raptors left the immediate area although we could see them perched in trees half a kilometre away. One Black Kite stayed in the tree overlooking the dam and dozens of smaller birds shared the same tree, obviously aware that the Kite was unable to catch them whilst perched. Interestingly, although the raptors made dozens of passes through thick clouds of birds, we didn’t see a single strike – there may have been a few, but we never saw them and the raptors just kept up their diving and swooping for quite some time before they tired of it.

The little birds perched so close to the Black Kite had me thinking of other situations where little birds seem to have the upper hand. Obviously, they don’t always come out on top or the raptors might starve, but we have seen scores of examples of birds a tenth the size of ravens or raptors harassing and chasing much bigger birds away from their nests. I am sure that if the raptor turned on the smaller bird, it would turn the tables quickly enough, but it never seems to happen and even very small birds will harass much larger birds again and again for quite some time until the larger bird gives up and flies away. Just another little quirk of nature!

Later in the morning we stopped for a couple of minutes to chat with a guy on a push-bike heading back to Yuendumu. He had a small low trailer behind his bike and said he was actually heading somewhere south (at least 200 kilometres to the nearest settlement as far as we could see) but there was a problem with his trailer and he had to ride back to Yuendumu to get it fixed – and he was still well over 100 kilometres out. That is really doing things the hard way! I watched him when he was riding – he was going very slowly (no wonder!) and every corrugation was a mini-ride uphill followed by a downhill one with the front, back and trailer wheels all out of synch – really hard going!!!

We also passed and re-passed two giant trucks 3 or 4 times when we detoured off the road for lunch or to look at things. They had huge pieces of equipment on them and were travelling at a comfortable walking pace – 6 or 7 kph at a guess. We think they were both driverless although one of them had a guy in it who waved at Heather when she took a photo. Probably the Union Rules require a driver to be in all driverless trucks even if he was sleeping or reading most of the time.

We called into a place called Chilla Well, another very small sad aboriginal settlement 3 clicks off the main road, with just a ramshackle house, a few tumble-down sheds and at least 24 tents of various sizes. We only saw 2 rather unwelcoming guys in a car that came up to us to see what we were doing. I think we may have been on aboriginal land without a permit, but there had been no signage anywhere that we needed one. We were trying to figure out a problem at the time. I had to do a 3-point turn to get out of the place and as I turned, there was a huge bang and a light came on in the dashboard. We were reading the manual to see what it meant and in the absence of anything useful, I used our sat-phone to ring Toyota in Melbourne to see if it was still safe to drive. It seems that something untoward had happened and we lost all our traction control features – but it was still safe to drive with some extra care – great news, given that we were still 700 kilometres from Halls Creek. I did notice a very minor change in handling the rig on the rougher patches of road from then on, but it may not have arisen from the loss of our traction control capability. A couple of days later, I noticed that one of the big brackets attaching our sway-bars to the drawbar was seriously bent and that the right-hand sway-bar was completely missing. I suspect that my 3-point turn at Chilla Well may have almost jack-knifed the rig and bent the bracket, loosening or disconnecting the sway-bar – it happened a few years ago when the Port Hedland Caravan Park put us on a small trailer site and it was virtually impossible to manoeuvre onto it.

We stopped a couple of times to photograph The Granites – strange rocky outcrops popping up almost grotesquely out of a fairly flat landscape. They were quite strange but not all that extensive, at least not close to the road. (In retrospect, I think they were a lot more extensive than I thought at the time. We saw very similar formations further west and again just north of there as we travelled to Halls Creek and back to Katherine a few days later.)

Another feature of the trip was the termite mounds. There were a few small ones around Alice, but as we went further west, they became much more prevalent and at times, I reckon we could have counted a thousand of them without moving the car. Very few were more than about a metre high, all very phallic, but after a couple of hundred clicks, they were slowly replaced by fewer (but still many) big lumpy ones, some 3-4 metres high and almost as wide. Once we got into Western Australia, there seemed to be fewer again, but a mixture of both and our research suggests that they are the building projects of at least two species of termite. Whatever…… but termites must hugely outnumber the millions of budgerigars out here – maybe even their mounds might outnumber them!

We camped in another truck lay-by 326 kilometres from last night’s camp – a surprisingly long distance given the conditions. Once again, we were drowning in dust – maybe not quite as bad as yesterday, but still a big cleaning job to make our little house comfortable for the night. And alas, we started to notice the damages to the caravan.

We were on the rough road 4 days and at the end of each one, we found a mysterious bracket on the floor. The stove is held in place with a bracket in each corner and we now know where the brackets originated! The stove-top is now held in place with our favourite silver sticky duct-tape – a bit like Gaffa-tape but more stretchy. The microvave now slides in and out of its cubbyhole, prevented from falling out on to the floor by the strap we have installed across the front of pretty much everything. Heather’s bedlamp was dead – but I fixed it by pulling it apart and reassembling it. The innards had simply come adrift and needed to be plugged back together. A section of trim had come off the freezer and that is now held in place with duct tape as is one of the fridge shelves (later all three) that had a piece broken off its anchor-point. (We have a couple of replacement shelves under the bed but we will wait until the damage becomes worse before installing them.)

Wednesday, 9 June

We woke to discover that the caravan had a flat tyre, necessitating a sizable job unpacking the car and caravan boots to access all the required jacks and tools – our newly-acquired trolley-jack (on which I had placed a lot of reliance) couldn’t find a safe jacking point under that wheel so I had to do more unpacking to get the caravan jack accessories out. By the time we had changed the wheel (first time I had used our absolutely brilliant rattle-gun too) and repacked the car and van, it was almost noon and it was 12.15 as we drove back onto the Track with the Western Australia border about 90 clicks away. We crossed the border, passing both the non-existent quarantine and border control checkpoints, and stopped for lunch half a kilometre inside Western Australia.

We wanted to visit the Wolfe Creek Meteor Crater that was about 25 kilometres off the main track so we went in and set up camp for the night in the free camping area half a click from the crater carpark.

We noted a few more minor damages. Two of the window winders are damaged and the windows were loose and flapping so they are now securely taped down too. A little cupboard over the stove had its door swinging and was taped down – but I subsequently fixed that by replacing the lost screws from one of its hinges. One of the car’s extension mirrors had lost a bolt and was hanging loose – lucky it didn’t come off completely – and I replaced the bolt with a temporary one I bought next day in Halls Creek. As always, there are costs involved in undertaking our adventures but there is no way we will sit at home and forgo the fun and challenge of our lifestyle just to avoid a little occasional discomfort and added expense. Life is simply too short!!!

It was strange being in a new time-zone, moving from the extreme east of one zone to the extreme west of the next so that dusk and dawn shifted close to two hours in the space of a day. It was well after dark before we were ready to eat dinner and light well before we were wanting to wake up next day. Makes one think about the marvels of the most basic laws of physics and astrophysics in particular.

Thursday, 10 June

I was going around the outside of the caravan before breakfast tightening up some of the screws holding the panels in place. I had noticed one screw almost out when we were taping up the window so went around much of the van ensuring that no others were loose. In the meantime, Heather was cooking all our vegetables to avoid us needing to discard them due to the absurd quarantine restrictions.

We had a walk around the camping area looking at birds and plants, then packed up and drove up to the Crater. It is truly spectacular. It is the second largest meteor crater in the world from which they have recovered part of the ‘payload’. It is about a kilometre across with very steep sides and at least three clearly defined concentric areas. It is quite dangerous to go into the crater due to its rugged steep sides but there is a central heavily vegetated area, then a broad grassed area ringed by a closely defined circle of shrubs and low trees, another grassed annulus and finally the steep crater wall. We walked a little way around the rim but it is 3.6km of steep, loose, rocky goat-track so decided to spend the predicted 2.5 hours in other ways.

For me, there was a bonus at the crater. As we climbed the outer rim, I saw and photographed a Black Falcon perched in a dead tree 50-60 metres off the track – not a bird I have seen all that many times before. It took off and flew low over us and was then joined by its mate and they soared and plummeted aerobatically in a wonderful spectacular display. I was trying (unsuccessfully) to video them from the top of the crater, when a third Black Falcon flew in to join them. As I was trying to describe the wonder of the first pair, the third flew into the frame, and as I finished the video, a fourth arrived – and then a fifth. For the next half-hour or more, there were almost always 2, 3 or 4 birds floating around, hovering on the updraughts or undertaking the most dramatic flying displays imaginable. For such big birds, they were every bit as agile as any smaller birds I have seen and it was an absolute awe-inspiring wonder to watch them. I am pretty sure there must have been at least one breeding pair with a nest out of sight almost right below us where the cliff was too steep for us to see – and either their fledged offspring or another pair all living securely in the area together. I took more than 100 photos of them but because they were so fast and so acrobatic, flying far away then hurtling back at 3-4 metres right over our heads, the results were quite disappointing. But photos or not, neither Heather nor I will ever forget the majesty and wonder of such a unique experience.

Eventually, we had to leave the crater with its fabulous avian performers and we arrived in Halls Creek early in the afternoon to enjoy the comfort of a shower and reliable power for the fridge. But I reckon we had done pretty well with everything in the car and van freezers still frozen after more than 4 days with only the car battery to provide the power.

It took us quite a while to get set up and do a bit of extra dust-eradication (still plenty, but several kilos less) and I had a walk around the area to check out several species of bird that I haven’t seen since we were in the area 4 years ago.

We really enjoyed the showers – great to remove a few layers of dust with plenty of hot and cold water (and with not too much sulphur or calcium in the water either). But we were pretty tired after such a big achievement (well, we saw it is an achievement!) so rather than cook, we bought chicken and chips for dinner. It went down fairly well, but it was by no means the best or most generous serving we have had. In fact, ……… (No recommendation on TripAdvisor!)

In review, we are both very glad we drove the Tanami, but in a few respects, it was something of a disappointment. We had cherished (and possibly romanticised) the idea for so long that the reality was a little anticlimactic. It was a big achievement for us, fulfilling a long-held ambition to traverse such a remote iconic stock-route – a truly unique Aussie symbol in our minds. But it is all being chewed up with bitumen and is fast disappearing. It was 1085 kilometres of mainly hard driving in poor conditions and there is not a lot to see along the way. It did more damage to our rig than we would have liked, but nothing too tragic. For a lot of the day, we were hot and absolutely everything was constantly dusty and gritty. At night, the sky was awesome and the solitude absolute – and the heat was replaced with near-freezing temperatures. We had some memorable experiences that will live on – but as much as we enjoyed it, we would hesitate long and hard before tackling it again. After all, life (and the next few months) offers plenty of other new challenges!

[smithlee1221]

Car Wash South Melbourne | Car Wash Port Melbourne | Carwash Melbourne CBD | Carrera Car Wash Café

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[stacyharmon27]

Trained Car Detailing Melbourne | Car Services Melbourne | Carrera Car Wash

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[mollygomezplanners]

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[amjons]

Car Detailing Port Melbourne| Car Wash Port Melbourne | Hand Car Wash Port Melbourne| Carrera Car Wash Café

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[j-and-b-walkabout-blog]

WEEK FOURTEEN (Feb 2 - Feb 8)

MELBOURNE, VIC, AUS  

We've started to begin most mornings with a two mile run if it isn't unbearably hot outside. After running, we took the van to a self-service carwash to get it sparkling like new again since we were going to be showing it later to some interested backpackers. We spent the entirety of the afternoon demonstrating the van's features and allowing them to test drive. It was a strange feeling knowing we were slowly inching closer to the day we'd have to give up our beloved "Voyager" (and eventually leave Australia). Since we had already spent a good portion of our journey road tripping / camping, we figured it had become time to part ways with it and use the money for more traveling and plane tickets back home. Several calls later, we arranged for the van to be inspected on Monday at a local automotive car shop in order to set a fair selling price for both us and the purchasing party.

The next day we took the 8 tram down Lygon Street to the CBD for some more exploration of Melbourne. We walked around, shopped a bit, and ended up sharing a plate of dumplings in Chinatown. Melbourne boasts about being home to the world's oldest Chinatown, however, this claim is based on a technicality. San Francisco's Chinatown was actually established before Melbourne's, but the original SF structures all burned to the ground during the 1906 Earthquake, and needed to be rebuilt. While waiting for the tram to head back home, we witnessed a giant congregation outside the Victoria State Library protesting Donald Trump's presidency and the current refugee ban restricting the inflow of refugees from war torn countries into America and Australia. We decided to pass up our bus, and instead joined the protest for a while before they began to march down Swanson Street in the CBD. It has been difficult being so far away from all the action (marches / protests) back home, so it felt empowering to stand in solidarity with likeminded people against inequality and bigotry.

We had a pretty lazy weekend with the house to ourselves, but we still managed to stay productive. Two loads of laundry were washed and hung to dry, we cleaned the bathroom, and vacuumed / cleaned our bedroom. Our downtime was spent playing guitar, writing, drawing, cooking, and Brittany began preparing the digital scrapbook of our adventures thus far.

Monday finally rolled around, and we drove the van to a nearby mechanic early in the morning to see what repairs were needed before selling the vehicle. We dropped it off, walked home along the Merri Creek Trail, and waited all day for them to call us. By 4:30pm, we still hadn't heard back, so we decided to take a stroll back to the mechanic's, fearing Jed had cited his callback phone number incorrectly. When we arrived, we received a detailed list of what needed to be repaired for safety and ended up leaving the van overnight for them to prepare us a quote. The next day, we waited at home until 2:00pm (mechanic said they'd call 'after lunch'), but not wanting to waste another day inside, we hopped on the tram to Fitzroy for $3 Taco Tuesday specials at "Beach Burrito" on Gertrude Street. We ate lunch in a booth next to an empty skate-able concrete pool inside the restaurant. Jed unfortunately left his skateboard at home, so the only shredding going on was the meat in our beef tacos. Brunswick Street in Fitzroy is full of second-hand clothing and record stores, and is popular among both locals and tourists alike seeking a taste of Melbourne's bohemian culture.  After poking around several shops, we headed back to Brunswick East to pick the van up from the mechanic. Once the price of repairs was deducted from our original asking price, we came to an agreement with some French backpackers to sell the van as is, and arranged to meet again on Saturday to hand over the keys.

The weather forecast for Wednesday was predicting quite the scorcher, so we packed our beach essentials and jumped on the tram to St. Kilda Beach. It was so hot out that the woman on the tram's intercom reminded all riders to carry water bottles and stay hydrated. An hour later, we finally arrived at the beach, and swam  in Port Phillip Bay. We laid out in the shallow water on partially submerged sandbars to stay cool. After two hours in the sun, we grabbed a bite to eat at "Veludo" on the lively Acland Street in St. Kilda, where we enjoyed tasty food and happy-hour Coronas. The restaurant was situated near the last stop for the 96 tram, so we easily got on and road back all the way to the opposite end of the line in Brunswick East. Since the Queen Victoria "Summer Night Market" happens every Wednesday night from 5pm to 10pm, we took quick showers, changed clothes, and then headed right back out to catch the tram to the markets. Although there are not as many goods vendors as there are in the daytime, the Night Market is much more lively with tons of food stands, seating areas, and musical performers. We waited in line for specialty iced tea, took photo booth pictures, and ate ice cream cones while listening to a Hawaiian band. Everything closed down around 10pm, so as the atmosphere died, we walked to the Melbourne Central to catch the tram back home.

[zoedart-blog]

Gran’s Story

Grans Story

 I was born in Kensington, Melbourne on 5-1-1923. My family lived near the Flemington Racecourse. My mother Agnes Grey McKissock and father- Joseph Purcell Brown had a lolly shop next door to the theatre. My mother came to south Australia by sailing ship- My grandfather George McKissock was 6ft1in, He came from Paisley, Scotland and had lovely snowy white hair and beard and a beautiful accent, he was a sailor on sailing ships. Stephen has a couple of signing off certificates in his possession. They came to live in Port Melbourne where his wife Kate Lavina Grey rented a double fronted house and the front rooms were turned into a midwifery hospital. Kate took on women who wanted nursing whilst having babies. My grandfather eventually got a job on the wharves. My father’s mother and father apparently had over time a few country inns around St. Leonards and Sussex Way. He was a sailor in the British Navy, I think he left the navy in Sydney and joined the A.I.F his number was 206. I remember living behind a lolly shop next door to a theatre in Racecourse Road, Flemington. I can remember at the age of 3 kneeling on a chair in front of an ice cream can digging ice-cream out with a spoon at theatre intervals. My sister Betty Ellan was born there and not long after we shifted to Ascot Vale to a delicatessen shop where my mother did ALL the cooking- (pies which we had for lunch every school day) fish, cold meats etc etc.

 The Depression was on and sadly people owed them a lot of money, the shop was situated in an area where there were a lot of horse trainers, jockeys where they used to tick up everything, so once again we shifted. To Brunswick where I went to school, I was about 6 years old. We had to wait till our house was ready in Merlynston, North Coburg. We had enough money for a deposit on a three-bedroom weatherboard house at 39 Orvieto Street Merlynston, eight hundred pounds and my mother paid 1 pound a week till they paid it off.

My brother Donald George Harry was born here, and we were all so happy. My father at that time was employed on two ships going back and forth to Tasmania, hit his war wounds were a big problem and he eventually received the TPI pension. We bought a car, at least my dad did and each weekend in the spring and summer we ALL mum, dad and 3 kids, uncle and aunts etc would go to Seaford. The car had a big front seat and two dicky seats on the back of it and a big back seat. So, held quite a few bodies. We also went to Hanging Rock for New Years Day and picnics in the autumn a wonderful time for us kids.

It was such a sad time for my mother and father, our long-awaited brother wasn’t doing to well and it was found he had double cataracts in both eyes and some double mastoids in both ears. My mother had measles whilst carrying him for so many years he had to have many operations, the result was vision- 16 inches and partly spastic. My poor mum had to do so much for Don and my Father, taking Don to a private school 3 days a week. My dad was also in and out of hospital.

At the age of 58 years my mum collapsed and died.

The doctors said, “there was nothing they could do for her, she was worn out”. My dad went on to be manager of the Masonic Club dining room in Flinders Street, all voluntary and he died at 72. During all that time mu aunt Kate looked after Don and Dad. She died at 64 in 1963 and then Allen and I took over the care of Don, looking after him. He was living in a cottage environment for many years he had spent 5 years with us. He was 18 when he came to live with us.

So much for my family.

My sister and I went to church 4 times a week each Sunday, 10am Christian Endeavour, Church, Sunday School and church again at night. My dear grandfather would give us threepence every Sunday if we had been good, many a time I would only get a penny. Bet seemed to manage a threepence. We sang in the choir in the Methodist church in our street and each summer and winter we’d get a new dress only to be worn on a Sunday or for something special. I was also a Sunday school teacher until I got ticked off for wearing lipstick at 16 years old.

 My life at home- I always had to clean the brass. Perhaps that was how I got to love it so much. I can remember 4 brass candlesticks they had been given to my mother as a wedding present, I had them dated 17th century. I have them here and Tina’s put her name on them, Brass taps, plates etc. We would as kids have to set the table, always a white cloth and a vase of flowers in the centre, a big oval table and then we had to wash up after tea. In those days no dishwasher, only children. As we did that, we would sing our heads off until dad told us to shut up. I also had to mow the lawns, with a hand mower of course and that took hours. For pocket money on Saturdays we’d get sixpence to go to the local pictures and threepence to spend. If we bought our lunch on Friday whilst attending Merlynston Primary school another threepence- one penny for a pie. 1 penny for a luscious family ice block and a lolly. Bliss. I made many long-life friends at that school, 23 of us met in Melbourne 1st Monday in December. The girls who live in Melbourne met monthly, but there is always the phone, not short cats, they’re lovely long ones. Of the 23 girls present last December only three were under 80 (only just). We met at school, friends through teens, dances, shows, weddings and babies. We all knew each other’s families, husbands, some children until we all went off to different places but now, we are mainly widowed, sad really. Some of the girl’s names- Val Creighton, Lil Westwood, Peg Woods, Clarice Roberts and Norma Joyce the only one of us to marry a yank and head odd to the USA but came back here eventually Olive Stubbs, Peggy Cash, Lorna Watts. We played cherry bobs, basketball, have school reports, concerts exams. My dad gave me my first watch when I passed my merit certificate at 13 1/2 , I could leave school then. My first job was at Allen’s music shop, at the information desk, a bit boring, seven shillings and sixpence a week.

Then I got a position at the posh end of Collins street to learn Millinery at Thommy Harrisons. It was the most exclusive salon in Melbourne where I learnt to make hats and sell them. Only people with lots of money could afford to shop there.

My girlfriends told me that first night after I said after I had a few dances with him “hands off he’s mine” and he was. We had a wonderful time together dancing, dinners at lovely places, theatres etc until he went overseas. We got engaged before he went to Manus Island with the 79th Spitfire Squadron on active service. Allen’s brother Jim was in the Navy, he served in some dangerous countries for 37 years, his brother George was in the 6th Division Middle East, Greece and was captured in Crete and was a POW in Germany and came home safely after the war. Arthur was also in 6th Division and was sent to Malaysia, was captured and died on the Burma Railway. Four sons in the forces, his poor mother she has such a lot to bear. Allen came back to Australia to pick up more spitfires and was given leave to come home from Oakey, Queensland. Two days to get home, three days here and two days back there a week and they let him come home again. We married on the 31st of January 1945 at St Linus Church of England in Merlynston at 5pm, I arranged the wedding in 3 days and we had 4 days honeymoon- I don’t know why my granddaughters had to take 12 months or more. We had the reception at the Federal Hotel in Collins Street, and I wore a lace dress with a train and a veil borrowed from a Catholic Convent. The nuns made them and lent them out to all who would like them. They asked what time we were to be married so they could pray for our future happiness. I thought it was a lovely thought perhaps that is why Allen and I had such a long (58 years) wonderfully happy life together. Everyone has their ups and downs and to succeed one must give and take and look after one another in sickness and health. Then whatever setbacks one can always get above them if there is plenty of love about. We had part of our honeymoon at the Hotel, room 21 with a bathroom, very posh and then had two days at the Georgian Inn. So, we had seven days of married life then Allen went off again to Moratie and several other islands. The war ended in August 1945 and Allen was discharged in Bairnsdale 1945.

I went up there to live and keep house for two months. I couldn’t cook much, but I soon learnt, not like you girls- we weren’t allowed in the kitchen, perhaps because of food rationing. I don’t quite know why as my mother was a lovely cook. We had three honeymoons altogether and between postings it was at Bairnsdale I learnt I was pregnant, thrilled to bits we were. When Allen left the air force, he went to Tech school at night to brush up on his carpentering. We lived with mum and dad in Merlynston. Ian was born 19th of August 1946 and by then we had bought a block of land for 55 pounds at 14 Edward St, Fawkner and were planning our home. Materials were very hard to get, and one had to go on a list to buy things. We gad enough money to build the back of our house, one bedroom, nursery, big kitchen, sunroom, laundry and bathroom combined. Allen worked very hard to get it ready for when Stephen arrived on the 17th of October 1948. We shifted in when Stephen was three weeks old, we furnished our house very comfortable with bits and pieces relations gave us and were quite happy to do that. Later on, we built on a bedroom, hallway, bathroom, and lovely big loungeroom. In 1950 Allen decided to join the police force, he did very well in all his studies often coming 1st or 2nd. He was the only married bloke in No.5 squad and lived out. The single fellows lived in barracks, he even learnt to swim. Allen’s first police station was in Brunswick and by then we decided we’d like a little girl. Ian was at Lynch Road School and Stephen had just started, Stephen and Ian shifted into the middle room, us in the front one (even had a walk-in robe!) The nursery was empty, Robbie John arrived on the 11th of May 1955, and so we gave up the idea of trying for a girl. Allen’s mum had 9 boys and two girls; the girls arrived last. Allen finished off our house and we even had a road made by then, he was doing very well in the police force. Allen was promoted to uniform to plain-clothes detective and went to Airlie College and came out 4th of 36. It was very hard demanding work, all shifts life was a struggle in those days, but we managed to buy a car, a Morris for 100 pounds then in 1952 an A model ford for 50pounds, Allen’s pride and joy. What fun we had picnics, rabbiting, mushrooming, wood gathering. A picnic consisted of a cooked leg of lamb, jar of beetroot, pickles, loaf of bread, butter, tomatoes, white onions and fruitcake- wonderful. Pop and Gran Mumford lived 5 minutes away across the paddocks, we all used to go to Sunday school night tea. Geoff, Dorrie, Jean were home enough to have a footy or a cricket team, great times.

Then, Allen was talked into trying for a country station, Wedderburn the first, what excitement, had to rent out my lovely family house everything just right. Garden was lovely- we shifted just after Christmas 1958. Allen had the Ford all done up as he had to use it for the Police work and away we went with the trailer on the back, on board more incidentals plus bikes, dog, dog kennel, 4 bantams on eggs, 1 possum and I imagine a lot of pot plants. I was his unpaid offsider, After Wedderburn we went to Violet Town the Yarra Junction, each town provided for all us new experiences. Wedderburn was a small town, 3000 people all very friendly, a lovely big old house and an office looking out onto a village green where cricket was played in the summer. Stephen went down to the local milk bar, he was breathless when he got back, the man said we could have a loan of a cow and he had two and not enough feed as we had a Lucerne paddock we accepted. Me on the condition I did not have to milk her. Flossie, A jersey cow. I did learn how to milk later as Allen would sometimes be caught up with work and the boys would be playing sports etc. I also had a piglet given to me for Mother’s Day, when sold 5 months later $79 came my way. I mothered in the first 6 months, 5 baby lambs, a clucky hen who sat on 10 duck eggs, rosella parrots and galas on my combustion stove hearth who all had to be hand fed. We had a possum who ate roses, fruit and chocolate. I even made my own butter, separated the milk and supplied everyone who called in with jars of cream and homemade jams. My town friends could hardly believe but it’s all true.

Our inspector came once a month for lunch and this day Allen had Fred, a simple lad in the lock up. He was caught flashing himself off to school girls. I had to give him lunch also, so inspector said “what are you going to give Fred for lunch?”, same as you I said, but I put a bit more bacon on yours” and the inspector said “are you going to put it on a plate with a fork and knife?”. “yes” I replied. “well” said the inspector “He could break the plate, cut his throat, stab himself with knife and four times with the fork” so, Fred’s lunch was on an enamel plate with an enamel cup and a spoon, one soon learns. Another time, a runaway boy who I had already made him a great heap of sandwiches, Allen came in and said “he was still hungry”, we had, had a flower show and cooking competition, I won the lamington prize and I bought the prize fruit cake, I don’t know if Allen told him what he was about to eat but he never left any.

Next stop Violet Town- Allen’s mother and father were born at Boho and Warrenbain in time we found we were related to half the town. We’d have weekends when Allen’s parents would come up and have open house and all wonderful stories these relations would tell. The Hume Highway was very bad for accidents, dreadful ones- trucks-many times I’d have injured people to look after and feed till their relatives would come and pick them up. Once, Allen and the shire engineer (he said he would help) a truck with milk powder and a truck with 250 sheep collided, what a mess. Both trucks caught fire and by the time Allen got there the sheep were running up and down the highway with their wool on fire. All the sheep had to be destroyed, nothing much left of the two truckies but the shire engineer never offered to go with Allen again.

Next Stop- over the mountains to Yarra Junction. What a difference. Mountains. Huge gumtrees. Ferns and a house on the side of a mountain and facing Bencairn near Donna Buang. Within 3 days it was all on fire. I didn’t see Allen for four days and then I saw him on the TV. Allen and a ranger tried to get two boys and their grandparents to leave their house as it was in a valley surrounded by trees, but they said “they would stay” so Allen couldn’t do much about it. After the fire they went back to find them. They had all perished on the way out in a ute. The house was still standing, so very sad. The fires were over by Wednesday and Dianna Trask’s wedding was on the Saturday. Allen in one car containing a policeman, his wife, myself, 3 boys and two girls in the back of our station wagon, we were the crowd control.

People came from everywhere to Warburton it really was a circus, church windows full of faces, the brides father had his wallet pinched out of his pocket, after all that Allen had to make way for the bride and grooms car to the reception with a green Holden station wagon with all of us in it and one of the kids yells out “look they’re kidding!” what fun we all had. After the fires the ferns grass and trees were all starting to shoot after 10 days. Plenty of snow in the winter to play in.

After two years Allen and our family had to shift back to Melbourne to Seaford to take up a promotion what a shock to our systems, the people were so rude, always in a hurry and didn’t care about one another. After a while I was a bit lost after having been so busy for several years. I was lucky to meet with Winifred Moss a well-known dressmaker for the wealthy, also did beautiful society weddings, entered the gown of the year 7 times and won 3. Winifred wanted someone to do beading and bridal headgear. I started at 3 ½ days a week and ended up doing full time. I was offered a position at Haileybury College looking after 700 boys and masters in sickbay. I loved it, I also had to show overseas visitors over the school and do flowers and decorate the reception rooms when needed.

Allen was not at all well and became very ill and was discharged on medical grounds, as a family his boys and I were very proud of our policeman and the wonderful life he had provided. I retired from Haileybury and we bought an old house on a big treed block near the beach in Rye. We spent many happy years renovating and creating a lovely garden. My garden was featured in Home Beautiful as the best CWA garden on the peninsula.

We decided six months after finishing the house to move to warmer climes, to Maroochydore where we had, looking back 5 ½ years of holidays. But we returned to Victoria as our granddaughters were growing up without us around.

Ian, Heather and four granddaughters in Tinamba

Stephen and June and two granddaughters in Canberra

Rob and Sue in Lakes Entrance

We settled in eagle point and the mozzies made us move to rosebud, where the traffic made us move to Maffra, just the right type of place we were looking for. Lovely little town, very caring people, loving friends and I hope I have many more years among you all.

Sadly, Allen passed away in April 2003, a brave man.

We now have 6 granddaughters and seven great granddaughters, and hopefully someday maybe a great grandson.

[mamosefan]

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[lindoig]

Days 78 to 85 (post Gibb River Road)

TICK!!!  Been there and done that. I will fill in the past several days events, but I need to interject here to record that the famous/infamous Gibb River Road is behind us.

The north-west of Western Australia was always regarded as very remote when I was growing up in Perth – seemingly as remote as Melbourne or the Moon and the thought of visiting these places engendered the romance of impossibility. And here we are in Derby having driven the full length of the Gibb from Kununurra.  I have always imagined some of Australia’s iconic road trip challenges to include the Gibb, along with adventures along the Birdsville Track, the Oodnadatta Track, the Strzelecki, the road to the Tip, the Nullarbor (before it was sealed and became Nullarbooooring), the Tanami, the Canning Stock Route, the Gunbarrel Highway and maybe a few more – but we have now achieved at least five of these adventures in our dotage and I still get a huge thrill ticking off another of these great experiences – totally unforgettable achievements – exploits to be savoured and recalled time and again.

Back to last Thursday……

We drove from Kununurra to Wyndham – another of the remote romances of my youth.  We called in at The Grotto on the way up.  It was dry, but it is obviously a huge waterfall dropping into a very deep narrow gorge in the Wet.  We stayed at the top, but there is a zigzag set of incredibly steep steps cut into the side of a very dramatic cliff (with no handrail) that are enough to dissuade any sane person from going down for a swim – crocodiles or not!  There must be a lot of non-sane people around!

Wyndham was a bit of a surprise.  It was small, but quite a nice little town surrounded by huge areas of water and tidal flats.  We drove up to the Five Rivers Lookout high above the town and you can see all 5 of the rivers that converge in the area.  The tides can be very high there and the volume of water that flows into the estuary area during the Wet must be mind-boggling.  Yet, it is an all-year port with the wharf and loading facilities built high and strong enough to allow operations to continue regardless of the water level.  We went to the Rusty Shed for a toastie and milk-shake – served in a jam-jar.  It was an experience, but not much more.  We drove back the way we had come, very glad that we had taken the trip out to such an interesting and historic township.

Friday, we commenced our Odyssey on the Gibb.  First, we had to get some repairs done on the van – a couple of minor leaks fixed to our water supply and some undercarriage adjustments because one of our tyres had scrubbed out badly.  One of the U-bolts was a bit loose that may have allowed the wheel to slide back a fraction and damage the tyre, but they said it is almost impossible to do an alignment on our sort of suspension – and it would be cheaper to replace an occasional tyre than to rebuild the undercarriage anyway.

Rigged and ready, we hit the road at noon and rolled along the first 70-odd kilometres on blacktop. Then the fun started.  We drove another 102km on moderately rough road that day before pulling into a disused gravel pit to camp a little after 4pm. The road was a little better than I expected, but speeds varied from under 5kph to close to 70, depending on conditions.  At times, I actually had to stop the car completely – not easy when no wheels are on the road.  On some of the bends, the corrugations were so bad that the car and van were crabbing sideways towards the scrub, but I soon learned to pick my line through the bends and slow down before reaching them.  Cars coming towards us were also a problem. All of them drag a curtain of dust right across the track that reduces visibility to half a metre (from eye to windscreen) for 50 metres or so until it clears – and sometimes they came in pairs or mini-convoys so, with no vision at all, we had to hug the left-hand side of the road in case someone was trying to pass when we were level with the first rig in the line. Some of the approaching vehicles were a little more pernicious.  Some drivers think that travelling at 120 or 130 (or more) avoids the corrugations. They simply bounce from crest to crest – but are also all over the road, swerving erratically to maintain momentum and a modicum of direction.  These vehicles drag the usual curtain of dust, but it is accompanied by a wall of rock wider than the road and travelling at maybe 200kph – not good for oncoming vehicles, but who cares if they get where they want an hour or so earlier than more considerate drivers.  I always slow down, stop sometimes, always hug the left, sometimes get right off the road, to avoid them, but we are still hit by flying rubble from time to time.

There were quite a few creek crossings, but nothing to worry about.  Approach and departure angles were often quite steep (with or without water at the bottom) but the water was never more than about 300mm deep.  We had been told by the guy who replaced the tyres on the car NOT to reduce the pressure on the Gibb, but we found the ride much too hard and a bit dangerous with so little rubber on the road, so we let some air out and driving (and safety) was MUCH improved after that.  Letting the pressure down did, however, identify a problem. One tyre was incredibly hot – and over the next few days, we found it was losing about 10-12 PSI each day with a slow leak.  (I had that repaired in Derby after we arrived – it took the repairman ages to find it.  It was a sliver of wood that had entered at an angle through the tread and just pierced the tyre enough to allow air to escape – but just a tiny amount.)

Our camp was near Rollies Jump-Up and we had many square miles of the Gibb entirely to ourselves for about 12 hours or so.  I found some interesting new birds and as night descended we lit a fire and had an extended Happy Hour (at least 150 minutes in that Hour) watching ‘not another bloody sunset’ and then a blaze of stars (no moon until around midnight). We shared a bottle of bubbles and toasted the Gibb River Road a few times before retreating to the caravan for dinner and a DVD.  We decided we couldn’t allow the isolation to impinge on our routine – and we could have run the generator if we had wanted to anyway.  It is incredibly liberating to be ‘out there’, miles from the nearest people, able to do anything you want, but still with all the comforts of home – except internet access.

We ticked off another 250 kilometres on Saturday and camped in another wonderful gravel pit near Adcock Gorge that night.  Unfortunately, a tub of yoghurt split and even in retrospect, it seems hard to imagine how so much of the inside of the fridge and every item in it could be coated with sticky goo, all of which emanated from such a small tub.  Heather spent ages washing EVERYTHING inside the fridge as well as the inside of the fridge itself.  As these little trials happen, we learn new ways to secure things to avoid repeating the same mistakes.  We have thick tape across the fridge and freezer, some of the drawers, holding the microwave in place and the bathroom door closed.  We use tie-downs to lock the cupboard doors together so none can open and spill their contents around the van, the bed becomes the table on which other breakables, including the TV and our PCs, are stored.  We pack insulation between numerous things in drawers and cupboards, we use stubby holders to stop bottles rattling against each other – and we decant the contents of many bottles into plastic containers wherever possible.  Most things are now well secured or protected, but we still lose occasional things – lids unscrew from most of the jars in the fridge, trim falls off the cupboards, the freezer door almost came off (the bolt in the hinge simply unscrewed and fell out) and numerous other concerns of greater or lesser importance – but we simply glue them back in place a bit better than they were before and hope we don’t need to do it again too soon.

Of course, things also fall off the car.  We almost lost the extended mirrors a few times on the Gibb – one of the bolts worked all the way out and fell off at one point, but I walked back a couple of hundred metres and actually found it – miracle of miracles!  We also heard an awful noise in a wheel at one stage and I was under the car looking for the cause when another car pulled up and the driver suggested we drive a metre or so in reverse.  We did so and the problem disappeared. The other guy had had similar problems and it was a small stone caught in the brakes – reversing threw it out again and off we headed, merrily on our way again.  On the other hand, at one river crossing, we pulled off to have a drink and two other rigs pulled up near us, unaware that they had any problems. I pointed out the broken electric brake wiring hanging on the road on one trailer and the shreds of a 12-pin electrical plug dragging under the other one.  On that occasion, we felt more fortunate than the other guys.

We reached the junction of the Gibb and Kalumburu roads and stopped for lunch in a rest area.  We got chatting with some other people who persuaded us that going to Kalumbaru might be a worthwhile side-trip (we had previously decided against it) so we gave it a go.  Unfortunately, after a few clicks, we decided that it was just too rough and with dire warnings about it getting even worse from rigs returning from the north, we turned back and resumed our journey west.  

The roads can be quite a challenge.  Corrugations can be up to about 10cm deep and at slow speeds, the front wheels can be going uphill while the back wheels are trying to run downhill in the opposite direction – and who knows what the tandems on the van might be doing? It is sometimes very hard to pick up a bit of speed in conditions like that.  But sometimes it was easy and I got up to almost 90kph at one point – although 80 was much more comfortable.  At those speeds, it is a matter of focussing on the road to find the best track of the 8 or 10 available across the road – and weaving back and forth to avoid the sharpest of the stones on your chosen track.  It was certainly a lot of fun and despite the intensity of my focus, I still saw some amazing country, particularly the King Leopold Ranges – stark ridges, great slabs of red and orange rocks, cascades of black and grey boulders, with typical savannah country between the ranges – open grassland with scattered white-trunked trees and no middle storey. I tried to describe this sort of country when we were up in the north-east of the NT, but it is country that I really like.  Some of the spear-grass is up to 5 metres tall, but a lot of the savannah country is simply metre tall grass as far as you can see – with the aforementioned uniformly scattered trees.  Lovely!

The road itself is like a rainbow, frequently changing from almost black through a variety of greys to white, a dozen shades of rich reds, oranges and yellows, even some pale pink – and occasional short (mainly very short!) stretches of blue-metal hardtop in some of the steepest and more dangerous areas.  It sometimes feels as if you are inside a kaleidoscope with all the changing colours on the road and the adjacent vegetation.

We drove more than a hundred kilometres with virtually no termite mounds, but they reappeared with a vengeance as we approached Derby, mainly thousands of the small conical ones, but with a good scattering of the great lumpy mounds – but no magnetic ones.

We endured another glorious sunset and another brilliant dark sky littered with crystal ice, but we refrained from lighting a fire in favour of the intensity of the night that magnified the beauty around us.  I give up trying to describe the wondrous impact of the silence, the remoteness, the awesome beauty, the freedom, the space, the colours and sounds, even the odours of the bush…… Even the cattle around the van during the night add a little to the redolence and resonance we woke to in the mornings.

Our third day on the Gibb was Sunday with no prospect of going to church even had we wanted to. We stopped at the Imintji Aboriginal Roadhouse for fuel and a road condition report.  We had thought we could go into one of the gorges, but everyone said the roads were so dreadful that we shied off them.  And Imintji exacerbated our concerns.  The road in to Silent Grove and Bell Gorge was supposedly in the worst possible condition and people were leaving their vans at the Roadhouse and even then having trouble getting in and out of the Gorge. We stopped at the turnoff to the Gorge and spoke to some people who were just coming out – and they said it was absolutely fine – plenty of caravans going in and out every day with only 3 short river crossings and no problems at all. Given this encouragement, we took the plunge and the road was certainly no worse, most of it better, than the Gibb River Road we had been on for almost the past 500 clicks.  The river crossings were fine – two 300mm deep on a firm rocky bottom and one 400mm deep, totally surrounded by boggy mud.  We just dropped the car into low ratio and ploughed through quite comfortably with no damage or leaks to either car or van.  Easy-peasy!

We went all the way in to Bell Gorge at the end of the road and did the 3km walk to and from the falls. It was dramatic chasm – quite stunning. Heaps of people swimming in the huge pools both above and below the falls – we just wished we had worn our bathers. Bell Creek is obviously a lot more than a creek in the Wet – it was a lot more than a creek when we were there! The hard part was climbing the track back to the car – pity we couldn’t have done the uphill bit first and maybe had a cooling swim before strolling back for lunch in the shade, but water doesn’t run uphill, even in Western Australia.

We had lunch back at the carpark and stopped in at Silent Grove for a cuppa before returning to the Gibb for a couple more hours to another off-road campsite.  It was interesting that the road after the Silent Grove turnoff was notably worse than the road in, and at least as bad as anything further east, so we concluded that the advice we received at Imintji was total bollocks.  We drove to the bitumen that was supposed to start just over 100km from Derby and about 3 or 4 kilometres along, we found a place we could get about 150 metres off the road to a small clearing near a fence so we set up there for the night. Over the fence was a waterhole that was frequented by a lot of birds.  I spent some time photographing a flock of red-tailed cockatoos that were in the trees squawking and squabbling, flying and settling, making a great display with their red and yellow tails flashing in the early evening light.  Then it was time to drink and one by one, they flew down to the water and drank, over 50 of them, but always leaving a few sentries in the trees in case of any reason to alarm them. Then almost on dark, they all flew off to parts unknown where they presumably again squabbled about who was going to roost of which branch of the tree. Along with the cockatoos, a variety of smaller avian visitors came in to drink – or sometimes just cause a bit of a ruckus.  It was another blazing sunset and we sat in the dark, enjoying a red or three and watching the stars.  Damn, life can be good when you really work at it.

Next morning, we were woken by a pied butcherbird – one of the most eerily melodic bird-calls I know – along with a raft of other birds and a gecko or two. Heather made crepes suzette for brekky (we really have eaten well this trip!) and then we hauled our little home down the bitumen (and a few stretches of pretty ordinary gravel) to Derby.  Just another place I never imagined I would see.

We arrived in time for lunch and after getting settled in, we cruised the town for an hour or two, exploring the port area and rolling back to camp just in time to start a very early Happy Hour.  (There seems to be a bit of a recurring theme here.  Enjoying our travels all day, Happy Hours, gourmet food and the occasional mild embrocation, early nights with entertainment of our choice – must get the dominos out again: we had so much fun playing them in Tassie – and more indulgence than we have enjoyed for many years.  And long may it be so.)

Tuesday was largely a lay-day, catching up on email and paying bills and all the other business things that get in the way of total indulgence.  A bit of blogging, some birding around the park, cooking, eating and all the other things that represent a lazy day around camp.  I had to get the tyre with the slow leak repaired and the guy who did that managed to take 2 hours over it.  He made a derogatory comment about our Victorian number-plates and I told him I was born a Waussie – and we became friends for life. He came from Boyanup, but knew Wagin and Perth pretty well so we chatted for ages while he avoided working on our tyre. His offsider worked pretty consistently, but the boss just wanted to yarn with me and it was quite fun.

Wednesday was also spent mainly in and around the van.  Again, there were lots of things we needed to do, including writing up more of our recent travels. We did a couple of loads of washing and went out during the afternoon to see the wharf area when the tide was at its nadir.  It was quite fascinating seeing thousands of fiddler crabs and really large mudskippers cavorting on the mud with a small flock of sacred kingfishers enjoying the opportunity too.  There were great schools of pop-eyed mullet swimming around, scads of them, all crowded together with just their eyes out of the water – very strange looking fish.  We visited the Visitors’ Centre (just made it before they closed the doors) and collected some information about the highlights of the Derby district and did some more shopping: a few odds and ends for the van and a pre-emptive strike at the supermarket and associated BWS.

And to compare the tides, we went down to the wharf this morning when the tide was at its zenith and there were no crabs, no mudskippers, no kingfishers, no reef egrets – and no mud.  They have tides up to 11 metres here and today’s was about 8.5 according to one of the fishermen there.  The sea was right up to the shore and into the trees – at least 150 metres further in than when we saw it yesterday.  The mudbanks out to sea were all submerged today and it was a very different scene from late yesterday.  I dropped Heather back at the van so she could start a mammoth cleaning job while I went to the sewerage farm to look at birds.  (In fairness, she said she was going to write more of her blog, but cleaned instead.)  On return from my expedition, I started cleaning the car – an equally mammoth job that knocked me out about a third of the way through.  (I am returning to the fray as soon as I post this!)

An interesting sidelight to my birding today was that I added one species to our trip list that I have expected to see almost every one of the nearly 13000 km we have travelled.  The grey teal is one of our most common duck species that we see everywhere – except anywhere along that particular 13000 km. They are relatively less common around here, but I saw 3 in the pond this morning – our first sighting since Tassie!

If anyone is interested, that brought our trip tally to 245 (336 for the calendar year so far) including 51 newies for us (74 for the year).  Our total species since we started recording in about 2007 is 664 seen in Australia (or 907 including our NZ and Russian trips.)  The 664 is significant because we were congratulated on reaching the 500 milestone when on Cocos Keeling Island two and a half years ago.

I will try to post some pics later today, but now, back to cleaning the car……