A Drizzly Day 11

          Quite a bit has happened since I wrote last. Noteworthy things like going to see the snow at Falls Creek (no skiing this time, but it looks like a lot of fun), drinking heavily with Geoff and the Mt Beauty locals (I'll replace the scotch next time I'm up there, I promise), then heading off from the comfort of Geoff's house to make it to the muster in Gympie, Queensland within three days or so.
          The first night away from Beauty we slept just off the road in the Snowy Mountains. We set the awning up on Blue (it took a while to convince him that he didn't look fat), made a fire, cracked a bottle of warm white and sat out under the stars watching Black Books on my tablet. We were thinking of doing the same the next night, but after a few more hours of driving we started craving a warm shower.
          As it was getting dark we were on the outskirts of the Blue Mountains. Almost every seasoned traveller that we've bumped into has said not to drive after dusk because that's when all of the animals think it's a good idea to run in front of your car, so when a sign for the Wombayan Caves Caravan Park came up we decided to stop. Jess was hoping for a clan of Wombat-Druids running the place but no such luck.
          We then were aiming to make it to the Queensland border by the next night. All of my loo, food and coffee breaks made that impossible though so we crashed in a town called Coonabarabran. Our little butane cookers came in handy as we sat on our motel room floor making a curry and watching trash TV. We needed the energy too because the next day we were determined to make it to Brisbane seven hundred kilometers away.
          I don't know what it is about travel, but for sitting on your arse all day it can really take it out of you. A full day of driving later we were pulling into Brissy- stressed, exhausted and hungry, but there none the less. Jess, the super-woman still managed to cook up dinner with her aunty Ruth as I helped by making sure the tv hadn't broken and that no-one had tampered with the couch.
          That was last night. Right now I'm lying down with Blue at the muster writing this. After we set up our camp I finally have a bit of time for some writing. Jess is drinking beer with her family (immediate and extended) and soon we'll be watching a whole bunch of live music and drinking bottles of... whatever's around and not stopping for the next few days. If I make it out the other side I'll write again. Have a goodun

I'm definitely going for a ski next time we're at the snow!

I was imagining that our fire was a dragon's egg.

This was every walkway at the muster.

 

Boy And Bear being amazing.

 

Our fellow camp members (the camp was called Diss'll Doo) at John Williamson. 

Attempting to dry my feet by the fire before going to sleep.

A Seedy Day 5.

Okay, to  pick up where I left off we made it to Mt Beauty in time for dinner with our friend Geoff and his little dog Billi and ate enough dhal to choke a cow. That was all well and good but what happened in the afternoon of day three is what I really wanted to write about. The incident started with Geoff suggesting a hike through a spot the locals call Mermaids, and Jess and I love a good wander so we headed off. This spot is well known around here as a swimming hole and fishing spot in the warmer months, but when it gets cold, and it gets really bloody cold as the water source for the river there is mostly  melting snow from the top of the surrounding ranges.

We were all rock hopping up the river in the late morning (excluding Blue who was off playing with the cows) to see how far we could get up the hikers trails. The paths that were beaten out by decades of hairy mountaineers (much like Geoff) had been over grown with blackberry bushes by this point, and anyone who has seen these bushes know that they're a spiky, clingy pain in the arse so they're best to be avoided. After a good half an hour of wandering up the river we found a point that we couldn't get past without getting wet so we decided to turn back, only to find that we couldn't see the rocks that we used to get there in the first place. What was happening was either the afternoon sun was melting the snow in the peaks, or the hydro-electric dam was releasing water from their catchment because they knew heavy rain was on the way, but whatever the hell the cause was, we were watching the river rise really quickly.

With very fast rising and fast moving water taking away more and more of our options we decided to take off our shoes and stick the shallow water to make it back to a clearing, but we had to be really quick because if the water depth reached about thirty centimeters it can take you off your feet and you'd be going for your last swim down the rapids. The water was too murky to see where the rocks were and because it was so cold our skin began to burn. Have you ever had freezing cold feet and then stubbed your toe? Well that was the next 5 minutes. When we finally made it to a dry spot on the side we were still a good few minutes from being home free. We had to decide to either get back in the water, which by this point was looking really risky, or tackle the blackberry bushes along the side of the embankment. Jess and I had jeans solid jackets on so it wasn't too bad for us, but Geoff was wearing shorts. He took point through the bushes and we all started tentatively making our way through. When we were finally clear his legs looked like they'd been attacked with a hedge trimmer.

As hairy as this could have gotten I'm glad we went through it- it's just another story to bore my future grandchildren with, except by then it will have evolved to have a hundred meter waterfall, acres of poison thorns and the Loch Ness Monster.

Since then we've been on a few more hikes (although not nearly as death defying), had quite a few more beers and some really good shit-talking sessions. We've got a bit more adventuring to fit in before Sunday when we head to the Gympie Muster country music festival in Queensland, but for now I'm off now to sit in a big recliner with an over-sized television and relax, I think we've earned it.

Geoff's friend Sarah's pooch. It has dread-locks!

Day Three

I've been meaning to update my blog over the last 48 hours but I've either been drifting in and out of mobile broadband reception or have been too busy driving like a man with a purpose to stop and take the time to write anything. I've finally caught a minute, sitting in our friend Geoff's computer room in Mt Beauty in my flannel pyjamas and dressing gown listening to a mixture of lounge jazz and Geoff's ramblings coming from the lounge room.

Before I start telling you what I've been doing since I last checked in I want to share a thought. During my hours of  arse-numbing driving I've been wondering how to write about Blue. I was fixated on the pathetic fallacy writing technique where you give life to a lifeless object, like when the dish ran away with the spoon, or John Howard's memoirs, and though that this might be the best way to bring the car into my writings. Blue then said that I was thinking into it too much so we just went on playing I Spy (he later said that if I ever refer to him as 'the car' again he'll have someone install ejector seats).

It's been great since I last checked in. Blue loved Mt Gambier (I think it had something to do with the big blue puddle in the middle of it), and the drive to our next stop was beautiful, even if every possible place to stop down the Great Ocean Road is occupied by bus loads of camera-happy tourists.

After a sleep in the most random, isolated little caravan park in the middle of the Great Otway National Park for day two, I took off again at the crack of nine to get to Jess's arriving airport in Avalon by mid afternoon. I blame it on the one hundred and twenty eight straight Nine Inch Nails songs, but I made it to the neighboring city Geelong with a few hours to spare. Knowing that it was only twenty minutes to Avalon I needed to make a pit stop otherwise I would get bored and probably fall asleep somewhere, possibly while driving.

What does someone do when trying to kill a few hours in a town that they've never been to? Why, go to the local maritime museum of course. After paying my four dollars entry fee you'd think that I would be able to roam around and look at all of the displays and half broken mannequins, but you'd be wrong. I had to stand there as the caretaker went into the history of sea travel and the wonders of today's aviation for the next twenty minutes with this monotone voice that put my ninth grade history teacher to shame. I looked around, took some photos and left hoping the whole time that because I was the only person in the museum he wouldn't get bored and give me a personalised tour. Twenty minutes later I was asleep in the Avalon Airport's car park. An hour or so after that I was grinning like an idiot as Jess was walking through the terminal. After the hello's and how-are-yous we drove, and that's almost an understatement. We had four hundred kilometers to cover from the airport to Mt Beauty by dinner otherwise we might miss out on Geoff's dhal, and if we were going to miss out on that we may as well have not left Adelaide in the first place.

Sorry to leave you on a tasty cliffhanger (all puns intended) but the rest is for tomorrow. It's now four thirty five and I'm three beers in, wanting to go back and play some more Rummikub. I'll say goodnight on behalf of Blue, Jess and myself and check in again as soon as I can.

Playing hide and seek in the Pinola pine forest.

Apparently Blue likes lighthouses. Who would have thought.

These guys wouldn't shut up.

Such a hard life.

Big Blue's first blue post

This is a blog about the adventures of a big blue van and the people who will be driving it around Australia... well it's most probably going to be mostly about the drivers... actually as I'm the one writing this it's probably going to be mostly about me, but Jess and Big Blue will definitely be contributing characters.

Now that we've established all that, my name is Tim (nice to meet you) and I'm currently on my first full day away from home. Yesterday was about saying bye to family and friends, buying last minute gadgets and ordering the mayhem that was in the back of Blue. I drove from Adelaide until my feet fell asleep and was determined to make it to Mt Gambier but stopped just shy in Pinola for the night. I asked a bottle shop owner where a good place to stop for the night was. He said to head up the road past the caravan park, turn right when you hit the ramp and stop by the lake. What he didn't tell me is that the lake is a swamp at the moment, and it's right next to a cemetery. Basically I stopped to sleep in any deep-southern American horror movie ever made.

I survived the night, even though I'm sure some frogs were planning something gruesome for snoring through their love songs, and am now in Mt Gambier. I would have given my kingdom for a café but had to settle on the cheap, screaming child filled alternative and lets be realistic, it's probably not going to be the last time in this trip. I want to tackle as much of the great ocean road today as I can, so I best drink up and ship out. I'll check in again soon.

Tim

Fixing up Blue for the trip.

 

Working on the curtains.

Blue with his bags packed and ready for the trip!