Our first trip was enjoying very cool conditions through Victoria and outback NSW; with some great frosts in the mornings, and virtually no-one else around the camp sites. With good reason, we can see why most migrate north in winter.
Despite the cold (warm by some overseas countries), we had a brilliant time working out how everything works with the van and tow tug.
Caravan parks in towns were the norm in rural Victoria where we stocked up with all sorts of containers, anti skid mats, and all manner of items to add our own personal touches.
The free camps also were brilliant, so often with being the only van in miles, however multitudes of kangaroos.
The following photo is a crisp morning out from Sofala, with great frost and -4C.
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| A frosty morning at Sofala. NSW |
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| Frost sculptures on our roof rack |
Some of the great parts of Australia so far:
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| Bethungra Dam free camp near Cootamundra. NSW |
Our van is the white dot have in the middle of the trees on the left side of the above photo.
We shared this brilliant setting with one other van.
Our view out the window was serene. The gas heater worked a treat once the sun went down.
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| The view before dusk at Bethungra Dam freedom camp |
Since returning home, we have continued to prepare for the big lap.
This has entailed:
- Modifying storage systems in the van.
- Checking weights to ensure we are compliant.
- Studying Don's parents notes from their trip around Australia 25 years prior to our planned trip.
There is so much more to organise however we are getting there with great anticipation.
Our main aim is to have a very flexible program, with virtually only a start date, and a return date, with all other dates worked out along the way.
More to follow.
Happy travels to all.
Don.
Hope you checked out the Bethungra Spiral whilst you were staying at Bethungra Lake. Bethungra Spiral is a rail spiral, built on the Main South line. The original line was graded at 1 in 40 for Sydney bound trains, which imposed a severe limitation on train loads so when the line was duplicated in the 1940s, an 8.9 kilometre spiral deviation was built altering the ruling gradient of the uphill line to 1 in 66.
ReplyDeleteYou might also be interested to know that NSW has not one but two rail spirals. The Cougal Spiral is a heritage-listed single track railway through Richmond Gap between Kyogle and the Queensland border.
Thanks Roger.
ReplyDeleteWe did check out the spiral after noticing the train track doing the large loop on the car GPS screen as we drove about 5km into the campsite; uphill on a dirt road. We checked it out more fully the next day. We also recently saw a TV show highlighting this track.
We were lucky enough to see a similar track in the Canadian Rockies, and managed to time it to see the one train in two different locations doing a major loop in and out of tunnels.