Test Run for The Australia Trip

Posted on February 26, 2020March 10, 2020 by Timothy Hausler

A brief introduction; After many years of working hard together, we found ourselves in receivership of long service leave. Originally we had planned to travel internationally. However, our work provides us with plenty of that opportunity and the AUD is weak. Instead, we figured we’d head around Australia. I guess Australia isn’t cheap to travel either, but some of that cost depends on how to travel.

So – driving around seemed like a sensible idea given we’re residents. Camping for 6 months seemed like a stretch, we’ve done that for a month but 6 would be tough (for us), hotelling/motelling is an option but that’s great for keeping close to towns and cities but leaves little room to explore beyond that. Thus really for us pulling something better than a tent was the plan.

Our younger selves after a month of camping, we were still smiling but I think after 6 months we might not be smiling

We decided against a big caravan almost immediately without much thought, I guess we just figured that we don’t have lots of people to sleep, and we want to access rugged areas. There are exceptions to that rule but we also don’t have the hundreds of thousands of dollars required to buy something that fits both purposes. We also would need to buy something which could pull it… Yes, that brings us to our car. We have an old land cruiser BJ42, now I (Tim) had thought we could think about changing this over for something more comfortable, but Lena was of the mind that as I’d spent so much of my spare time toying around with the stupid thing that we would get some use out of it for a change… and fair enough!

Turns out I was lying, we don’t have just one but two – well it’s a long story as the one on the right was my brothers…

But it’s a Landcruiser? Right, yes they’re those huge cars pulling semi-trailer length caravans along the road, wrong. The small 40 series diesel land cruisers are/ were basically the worlds most powerless cars. The original 3B motor generates a huge 25bhp at the rear wheels (this is less than a reasonable 250cc motorbike makes). However, we did have a leg up on the 3B which has trouble pulling you in the driver’s seat, we found after much searching a 13BT turbo. A little tuning later the car was yielded a whopping 78bhp at the rear wheels. This means we were in the market for a lightweight camper van or trailer that we might be able to tow up gentle hills.

When I was younger my parents toured Australia in a Jayco Lark, I have many fond memories of that caravan. We looked into it and while excellent there was an overwhelming concern that while great on the road, off-road was hard on it resulting in breakage. Do I know for sure? Would it have been a better buy than what we have, who knows? This left us in the world of camper trailers. Our first discovery is that while you get plenty less in a camper trailer it would seem that you don’t pay any less… We thought something in the 10-20k mark would be easy to find. But that’s just not the case, most camper trailers exceed that. Another surprise was that off-road camper trailers are heavy. As that had completely stuffed up our budget, we figured that, bugger it lets just get something that’s good. In the end, we settled on an Ultimate Xplor, and yes, you’re right, it’s more than 20k, more like three times that.

We would put this choice largely down to a few things:

Something that had everything we wanted and was comfortable and we were confident that we wouldn’t need to test run it multiple times before we departed
Internal Kitchen
Very light, 850kg
Looks good and has a double bed and hot water if you want it

We were going to skip on a test run, but given the weather was nice we thought we’d head up to our family property on the darling downs to see whether the Landcruiser could really pull the van up a steep hill (the Toowoomba range) and that there were no unexpected surprises.

It turns out that some of the things which we ordered like ‘hot water’ in the
Ultimate while seeming gimmicky make for a totally different experience. That being that you don’t have to go to bed in your own personal dirt covering, or psyche yourself up for a cold shower under a bucket to return to human.

So, did we gain anything from the test run and did we miss anything?

Some spares for the land cruiser.. well that is a never-ending requirement; fan belts, heater hoses, radiator hoses, tin snips to name a few – maybe later I’ll add a full list of tools and spares for anyone foolish enough to take something like this on a trip… and no doubt it’ll never be what’s required
Surprisingly simple cooking utensils like spatulas and cooking spoons. Normally this would be part of the bbq stuff when camping but we missed it
Ground matt for the entrance, either that or have dirty feet
Small broom and some spare rags

Otherwise, all that was left before the trip could commence was some minor car modifications (resonator to cut down on the drone at 100kph, UHF radio and interior console, radiator overflow capture bottle) and packing.

Arizona – Arrival

Posted on August 20, 2019August 25, 2019 by Lena

Panama and Australia, rendezvous? I guess if you were world apart and you decided you should meet somewhere then Phoenix, Arizona would be the answer? Given we are new age thinkers then this is where we decided our journey to the land of heat, desert, cacti and, of course, the Grand Canyon should and would start.

From Australia (for Lena) meant sitting for 14 hours of oversea flying followed by 1 hour of desert which was lovely but the best part was spending 7 hours in the luscious Phoenix Airport. The only real loss here was missing the ice-cream time on QF15. We’ve all wondered why and how you can chill a Weiss bar to -45DegC so that it shatters in your mouth and sticks to the side of your face while eating but at the same time we love this delicious treat while recovering from a hangover at 2am, but alas Qantas has already run out. Shame.

Passport control and customs were easy as well. There is a lot of walking to get from my arrival terminal to my departure terminal. After some sitting around (about three hours in total – thanks to the American Airlines for the delay) I was on my 45-minute journey to Phoenix. I happened to be sitting just above the baggage loading dock and it is one of those things that you better not see. I guess when you have to load hundreds of bags onto the plane being gentle or careful is not your priority. I do feel for the person with a golden suitcase that somehow got unzipped and unloaded some of the luggage as it was coming out of the plane. I think baggage carers collected most of it back, good luck goldie.

Then there was me getting from Terminal 4 to Terminal 2. The airport seems quite nice, nice artwork along the way with descriptions as well. Monorail train takes you from Terminal 4 to Terminal 3, then you walk to Terminal 2 along a walkway, which is when you feel the warm welcome from Arizona – 42 degrees and the wind is almost like putting a blow dryer to your face.

From Panama Tim was waiting for the helicopter from site, but Panama had had other plans and turned out a lovely rainy day with 0 visibility so driving to Panama in the most wrecked minivan that could be found was the best option. This meant arriving in Panama City at 11pm and then readying ones self for the trip via Houston to Phoenix the next day.

The two parted lovebirds could only try their livid best by taking photos of pizza’s they could order in different airports until their long awaited reunion in Phoenix.

The Houston Airport Pizza and Phoenix Airport Pizza

Once through Phoenix and together at last, the best part of the trip over and worst to come, Lena and Tim made their way to the holy Avis car rental department.

One thing which is surprising about America is the sense of cattle herding that you feel when shuffling through the necessary services. The attendants in the airports and the drivers of the shuttles are in a routine and the people traversing their services are mere animals to be reported from one line to another or scolded when they seem confused. We don’t know why it feels this way in America particularly and not in other places, maybe a smile that doesn’t need a tip wouldn’t go astray?

Picking up the car was hardly a joy as the attendant at Avis had decided that we were criminals as our bank momentarily declined our transaction. Tim had decided that if America was too good for our money, and if a an Avis attendant didn’t like the fact that our last names weren’t the same that we were minutes away from booking return flights and never spending time in this country again, whether great or not there are plenty of places in the world to gift your money to. What was most irritating about the entire process was the perception that if you don’t have a credit card then booking accommodation or rentals is impossible. Given that once our bank realised where we were everything progressed easily but we were given the first degree by a car rental attendant and lectured about the need to have a credit card is a good indication that the world is in a poor state if you can’t buy things with money and can only purchase items with debt. However looking at the way banks and interest are operating now it is a curiosity as to why you would save money since it’ll cost you to leave it in a bank.

El Mustang,

Anyway thank god that rubbish with Avis ended and we could finally pickup the Ford Mustang GT, which although the headlight switch is elusive is an absolutely wonderful car. Traveling at night from Phoenix to Sedona was easy and the highways in the state are well signed and easy to navigate.

Western Australian Wildflowers

Posted on October 24, 2016October 24, 2016 by Timothy Hausler

West Australian wildflowers are not something that we’d heard of before, okay apparently Lena knew about them but I didn’t. I guess this is another strong indication of our, probably my, naivety, but what, they have flowers in WA? Yes, everywhere has flowers, but it’s not something that I’ve considered Australia to have many of, especially not the dusty west. So watching the news and talking to friends here we discovered that we were quite wrong. Western Australia has a beautiful spring season where outback is drenched with cool winter rain and when it begins to warm up the flora erupts in a truly Australian style flower season. When we say truly Australian style flower season we’re referring to small but delicate flowers and orchids hidden in hardened outback scrub. Somewhat un-easterly there are also hundreds of kilometres of what would normally be dusty undergrowth converted into lush white low-lying clouds.

We had planned to go with my parents but due to an altercation with an inconsiderate river bank which resulted in more ankle adjust-ability than mum was interested in, the long-planned caravanning trip around Western Australia during the wildflower season did not come to pass. This was quite a disappointment for my parents, but on the upside good for my work. It also meant that a leisurely trip with our parents was changed into a long haul journey with friends over a weekend. But, beggars can’t be choosers (except for well beggars….).

So our trip made its beginning on a surprisingly clear afternoon from Perth, cold yes but clear. This year is apparently the coldest on record for the last 20 something years in Perth which has been put on just for us apparently. It would’ve been much more preferable that the weather was nice and cold when we were in Japan earlier in the year for skiing, maybe since this is bad luck we’ve got a bucket load of good luck coming, it has to average out surely… This trip was also another one of Lena’s major driving practise runs, in fact, she’d, I guess you could say, nominated herself as designated driver for the weekend. This would come in handy when we were trying to keep up drinks with sheep shearers in Morawa, which is impossible.

So driving out we headed straight for the Jurian Bay tourist park which is about 300km north of Perth and on the shore. We didn’t have high expectations for the caravan park beyond it just being a momentary stop in our movements toward our main flowery objective. As it turned out the holiday villas at Jurian Bay tourist park are actually quite good while a little pricey. Unfortunately the evening and the morning presented some pretty cold conditions so relaxing on the small deck or having beer on the beach was out of the question.

Our rough path of flower finding is below:

Lesueur National Park – the park was full of very small and ornate Australian wildflowers as well as a number of native outback orchids. The park has a ~10km loop which brings you to the Lesueur mountain walking track and a roughly 2km loop which takes you through the area of WA scrub wild flowers. This was a good chance for our little possie to walk around and take some photos. The variety of ornate small delicate flowers is spectacular, also many people seem to be intrigued by the flowers as well, and there seems to be general competition for people whether including other or not of finding as many types of flowers and orchids as they can. After walking the loop we headed for Coalseam national park, but named so because of the coal seam which runs through the side of the riverbank. This is also a stop off on what’s known as the everlastings trail which for us, while some of the everlastings were still about, was probably a little late.

Coalseam national park has a couple of areas to stop and do some short walks to a viewing point as well as down into the Irwin river. The eroded river banks are quite pretty and picturing this with the yellow undergrowth of the everlastings would be very pleasant. We ventured down into the Irwin river to have a look at what might be alive, or maybe it was just general curiosity. However we were lucky to spot two mulga parrots which were looking for some clean water to muddy up, or was it for them to get clean. Then walking back from the river to the car to my absolute delight we spotted a blue splendid fairy wren. This was highlight for me as I’d been keen to see one of these pretty blue wrens for a long time and they’d been rather elusive. Not only this but it had decided to do a little posing in a wattle which was in full bloom. We had however almost exhausted our time just getting from Jurian bay to Lesueur and then to Coalseam in a single day. Certainly if you wanted to climb Lesueur mountain then I don’t think attempting this in a single day would be wise. For us however this meant driving on the back roads to Morawa for a night with Mike, the British pub attendants and Ben who seemed to have quite the capacity to make flavoured vodka which went down well late at night.

Waking up the next day to the sound of a fire alarm in one of the Morawa pub rooms at the back of the pub was not entirely welcome, but served as a reason to get moving. The next job was to get some coffee which, according to the local newsagent was best at the service station. This was rather remarkable given that I would never pick the town service station to be good for anything but petrol. However the owner was very passionate about his coffee and it was quite surreal being prompted for whether I’d like a flat white or a latte in a small service station next to automotive supplies. True to their word the coffee was quite good and kept the male contingent awake while Lena navigated her way to the next flower destination.

Driving from Morowa to Perenjori is a pretty short stint compared to driving between Jurian Bay and Coalseam so this went swiftly and gave us a little bit of time to dry out. The community centre at Perenjori was excellent and the lady that directed us to the wreath flowers was full of enthusiasm and information. I can hardly believe that someone could be so enthusiastic after describing the same sets of instructions, fauna and flora descriptions to visitors all morning. Certainly if you’re looking for where to find flowers or wildlife I’d drop in an have a talk to them, also it’s basically the only place open in town on a Sunday so you’ll probably have few other choices if you’d like to have a chat to someone..

For us the wreath flowers were only a few minutes out from Perenjori (see the map above). They were also in the middle of a complete dusty dry what looked like dry mud car park. What on earth would’ve driving such strange flowers to make a choice to set roots into an inhospitable location like that is beyond our collective understandings. The soft delicate bush and it’s ring of pink flowers look like they were recently tossed (albeit carefully) from a flower truck.

After the wreath flowers we headed for the camel soak which was recommended by the lady at Perenjori as well as to monger’s lookout over the lakes. Both locations had much more of the same flowery undergrowth, in particular for us camel soak was a picturesk with a large exposed granite mound and surrounding areas of lush scrub and cool wetland providing lots more hidden spots for orchids, lizards and a pair of mulga parrots.

From there we drove to Bunden rock for a quick stop. Interestingly the brochure we had mentioned that you can stand on the rock and view the developed countryside along with the original native bush land. The contrast was evident and this proved another nice stop off. This largely rolled up our day and we returned to Perth.

Araluen Botanic Park

Posted on September 24, 2016October 22, 2016 by Lena

So, we haven’t updated this blog in a while. Shame on us. Obviously some people have the capacity to fit everything in life as well as everything in a blog. One day we might graduate to this point after cloning ourselves and doing some sort of Red Dwarf style mind meld. Speaking of Red Dwarf, it is outrageously expensive on iTunes, why we ask why….

Anyhow. So Araluen, in-fact, Perth Australia generally, lets pause for a paragraph; We’re no longer in Africa or Japan and have been based in Perth for quite a few months. Perth is, much to our surprise being an Australian easterner, not a dust bowl full of rock breakers and hermits wandering in from the desert, but a beautiful cosmopolitan city full of lovely parks, bike ways and even more surprisingly to us at least, a vibrant nightlife full of hidden pubs and music venues. Surprised? I guess if you’re not from Australia this probably doesn’t mean much, but Perth is a very long way from the east, from Brisbane (our old home) it is a mere 360 million centimetres. At regular ant speed this would take roughly 2.3 ant running years to cross. You can tell that we’ve been watching documentaries recently. At some point in the future we’ll, given some time, add some general articles about Perth and what it’s like for an Australian easterner.

For the moment however we’ll stick to the original story, Araluen Botanical Park. Araluen, as known by the westies, is a small government operated ‘botanical’ park south east from Perth by about 25km (5.8 ant days) is apparently difficult to get to by train or bus, but by car it’s only a short trip of about 40 minutes or less in good traffic. The drive can be made quite lovely by getting off the highway and taking as many back options as possible as at the same time that the tulips are out the peach, apple and plum trees are in flower in the orchards close-by. To do this if you’re coming from the city, take a left off the Tonkin high way around Gosnells and take a more direct rout down to via Roleystone, here is a rough map. One of it’s many claims to fame is it’s very impressive display of tulips during the springtime. They’re cheating a little bit obviously purchasing the bulbs and planting them prior to the spring when it’s cool enough in the winter. However that’s the case for just about everywhere in Australia for tulips unless you’re in Tasmania, which must be a pretty amazing place. However if you turn a blind eye to the cheating, which is fine by us as Lena loves tulips, the place is really quite spectacular.

The park itself is not terribly large and would only occupy about half a day if you were slowly walking through the grounds, but given that it’s a relatively short drive from the city it’s worth a look. There is also a nice stream running through the park so if you’re like the many others who don’t mind a bit of timelapse photography of streams then you’ll be in luck. For us the display of tulips was the main game and they did not disappoint. There is also mention of bird life out in the park, but aside from a few common birds flying about we didn’t see much. I would guess that this is largely because of the number of people who were there and as such if there were fewer people you might get some nice shots amongst the flowers.

We would certainly recommend a visit when the tulips are out and about, it was lovely!