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Cape Palmerston Holiday Park

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 • 2015-04-08 • thijs • Australia road trip 

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A stop at Wowan Caravan Park

Another open pit mine

Kinka Beach

Open Pit Mining

Cracow Heritage Center

But leave a donation in the donations box…

Woodgate Beach

Catching up some more

So, Tuesday the 31^st of March, 2015. First time I've stayed at one camping more than one night. Just a bit of walking in Tin Can Bay and some catching up on here. Probably tomorrow the trip goes on up north quite a bit. I'll need to look into where the trip goes to from here later today.

But first, catching up. All the way up.

Sjors picked me up at the drop–off point for the Jucy camper van and took me to his place in Fortitude Valley, Brisbane. He has a great pad on the sixth floor of an apartment building, close to where it all happens in Brisvegas. Not that I partook of that aspect of Brisbane, though. I mostly just did my laundry and took in a little of the beautiful city and river.

Sjors and his girlfriend, Elizabeth, took me to see her apartment that she is selling and that they had been giving a new coat of paint and generally readying for sale. After that we headed over to Kangaroo Point to walk a little along the river there. A lovely walk–way complete with the ubiquitous public BBQ place. Quite a lot of joggers that use the steps up and down the cliff–side as a training exercise.

Just when we were farthest from where Sjors had parked the car we felt the first few big drops of rain. Soon it was pelting down pretty hard and we were soaked. Not that I really cared. Getting soaked over here is a lot better than getting soaked in cold Dutchland.

The next day was Monday, so both Sjors and Elizabeth had to go to work, which they did very early in the morning. Nothing like my lazy–ass starting times back home… I, of course took the opportunity to sleep in.

The previous day Sjors had explained a bit about what I could do in Brisbane, so I followed his advice and took a walk along the newly rebuilt river walk–way all the way to the Powerhouse, where I had some lunch. From there I took the City Cat up–river, using Sjors' public transport card.

I can recommend doing that, because you get a nice view of the city from the river. I took the City Cat all the way to the end–point at the University and stayed on for the trip back. I got out about half–way back and walked through Queen's street to Fortitude Valley, taking in the main shopping area of Brisbane.

That evening we tried to watch a documentary on Heath Ledger through on–demand TV, but for some reason half–way through it started to act up, so we were unable to watch it all.

The next day, Tuesday, the trashhh started at Mt. Warning National Park, to the south of Brisbane. I had managed, with the help of Sue, the organiser of the trashhh, to arrange a lift with Liz, who worked about nine minutes walk from Sjors' apartment in Fortitude Valley. Which was great, but even then nine minutes walk in the sun with a heavy back–pack and a heavy ruck–sack was a bit much. I really need to learn to pack less. Although, a lot of the weight was due to the laptop I'm now typing this on, which is an old model and so pretty heavy. Also, I needed a pair of running shoes which adds to the weight. Luckily most of the time here I have transportation where I can stash everything and not have to carry it all.

The trashhh was great, as usual. Different than in Europe. For starters, there were a lot less people than usual. I think there were around 35 people this year, compared to an average of 60 or 70 most times in Europe. Partly understandable, of course, but a shame none–the–less. Keith and Audrey managed to come, so what excuse did a lot of others have?

No, I understand why it was hard for some to come. Too bad Erik had to cancel at the last moment. I was looking forward to seeing him again, as he had consistently been on the 'coming' list. As it was, the only younger–generationers that were there, were me and Sam and Kirstin. Bad show.

Also different was the number of Ozies present, which was also expected of course. Quite a few I didn't know, or just from one or two earlier trashhhes. It was a great event regardless. Glad I made the trip over. Not just for the trashhh, of course, but it had been the trigger for me to plan a trip Down Under. Still very happy I did.

After the trashhh I picked up my 'new' camper from the Spaceships depot in Brisbane. It's the exact same make and model as the previous one Sam and I drove up from Melbourne, but it was quite a bit cheaper from this rental company. And the setup is a lot better than the Jucy camper, too.

For one, there's a proper refrigerator in it which runs off an extra battery hooked up to the car electrical system. A lot better than the coolbox that was in the Jucy van. There are two gas stoves, although I've only used one at a time, it's nice to have a back‐up, especially as I'm going to be on the road for quite a long time. Also nice is that the front seats don't have to be moved to setup the bed. The storage space for the kitchen is underneath the bed instead of in the back, which makes that possible.

There's also some negative points. Adjusting the mirrors with the controls from inside doesn't work, but the mirrors were almost completely correct for me to start with, so I don't mind that. The front–left speaker is dead, but I'll also survive that. At first I thought the right–hand side window was not working either, until I figured out the 'window–lock' was on.

So, after I picked up my 'Moon Dust' camper van I drove off up north. I made an early stop, and spent the night at a camping in Beachmere.

The next day I went on a shopping spree, buying some stuff to make my stay in the camper a little better. Top of the list were a couple of storage boxes to put my clothes in. Living out of a back–pack gets tedious, as I seem to always need that thing that is all the way at the bottom. Now I have a large box for my shirts, a smaller one for my shorts, an even smaller one for my underwear and the smallest for my socks. Everything within reasonably easy reach in the back of the van.

I had passed a sign for Steve Irwin's Australia Zoo, so I decided to go there the next day. I spent most of the day walking around and watching the various 'shows'. The first was the main show in the 'Crocoseum' at 12. A number of birds fly around the arena and of course the main attraction of the show are the crocs. Well, two. One small juvenile croc and a proper big one. Robert, Steve's son, was part of the show, too.

Other shows I picked up were the Tigers and the Birds of Prey. Both low–key, but interesting and well done. All in all a nice day at the zoo.

After the Zoo I drove on to Maleny, where I stayed the night on the showgrounds. An excellent and cheap alternative to a camping, complete with warm showers and toilets. Only missing thing was a kitchen sink to do the dishes, so I made do with the regular sink. First time I had electricity (I finally bought an extension cord) so I spent a while writing the previous entry outside in the camping chair with the laptop on my lap. I actually ended up changing into my jeans and putting on a fleece due to the significantly lower temperature.

While I was cooking (pasta with shrimp, broccoli and green pesto) I was alerted by a ruckus in the tree. Looking up I saw what I think was a possum. Later a rat passed before my van and ran up in to the bushes, too. Welcome to the outdoors.

The next day I drove back to the coast and ended up in Tin Can Bay, a nice little town across from Fraser Island. Where I'm now sitting in the camp kitchen typing this, looking out on the rainy camp grounds. It just started to rain a bit, but it's picking up, so I'm not sure when I'll be able to get back to my van reasonably dry…

Although, what I actually want is to get to the front office first, so I can get on the Wi–Fi and post this…

Tin Can Bay camping

Maleny showgrounds

Catching up

Today is the 29^th of March, 2015. I might be exactly at the half–way point of my extended holiday here Down Under, but I'm too lazy to calculate it.

Right now I'm sitting in a reasonably comfy folding chair with a citronella candle to my left, a table in front of me with the left–overs from tonight's dinner and the extension cord with the charging plugs plugged in, as well as a cheap‐ass, but working, solar camping lamp. Also a bottle of red wine that was one of the things we got at the 2015 trashhh. However, it was stashed in my camper van that sat in the full sun the whole day while I traipsed around the Australia Zoo. When I picked it up to move it out of the way earlier it felt decidedly warm, so I wonder if it will still be drinkable once I get around to opening it.

I'll try to keep it short, but to catch up to where I'm at today is going to take some doing. So expect a long one and enjoy the ride…

So, we picked up the camper van (the first one, I'm in a different one now) in Melbourne and headed off. Everyone (mostly the Lonely Planet) says you need to drive down the Great Ocean Road, so instead of heading the right way, which would be about due north–east, we headed the opposite way.

It was not a mistake, but I would certainly like to do it again and take my time. The road is indeed a joy to drive down, with lovely ocean views and nice twisty corners. Only, next time let me borrow the Ferrari or Jag, okay? Then it would really be awesome.

We got to see our first real Australian wild–life besides birds. On a pit stop for lunch we walked a bit and came upon a couple of people, some of whom were taking pictures and others who were being mobbed by a flock of parrots. After taking some pictures ourselves and Sam allowing some of them to perch on her shoulder and hands (I'll just duck, thank–you–very–much), we asked where we should walk to, to see the rumoured koala's. At which point someone pointed up a tree, and said "Ta–da!" (well, not really, but I could see they were thinking it).

And there they were, a couple of koala's. One was ducked away and obviously sleeping, and the other was in a second tree, also not very considerate of picture–taking people. The sleepy–head woke up and moved a bit after a while, though, so I did get to take some reasonable pictures.

A bit further down the Great Ocean Road we stopped at the Twelve Apostles. There aren't twelve of them at all, but it sounds better than "seven and a half apostles", right?

After driving down the Great Ocean Road for a day, the next day we turned around and headed back in the direction we came from. Sydney, here we came.

Not much to tell about the drive up Hume Highway, except that Australia — in the small part I've seen of it up to now, already — has a lot of diversity. It was a bit unexpected, because I've heard people say that it can be very boring. Might be, but the part we drove through up to Sydney and beyond certainly wasn't boring.

On one of our last days before getting to Brisbane (the last?) we camped on a basic camp–site, close to the beach, in the middle of nowhere. To get there, we had to drive along a long stretch of unsealed road and — just before entering the site — through a creek (don't tell the rental company…), which looked quite deep. Luckily another car was waiting on the other side to drive out, so I let him through first and he didn't drown, so I chanced it myself.

We got through okay and then were a bit confused about where the camping site actually was. Finally we saw that we had to go a little further. There were a few other campers there, but mostly it was an empty field and two toilets. Basically a toilet seat set above a hole in the ground with a small enclosure around it.

Mosquito's. And more mosquito's. And even more mosquito's. But also kangaroos. Two, a joey and his mum, I think. The next morning there were four.

We ended our road–trip at the home of Peter and Yvonne, friends of Sam's parents that now live in Gold Coast. They offered me a real bed and great food, so I spent the night at their beautiful home.

The next day I returned the camper van in Brisbane by myself, Sam continuing on with her parents and just arrived sister. I dropped the camper off (all good, so no extra costs) and got picked up by Sjors, where I was staying a couple of nights before moving on to the trashhh.

Not caught up, but out of writing space…

To be continued…

To buy, or not to buy

Since arriving in Melbourne I have been spending quite a bit of time in McDonald's. Not because I like their food (on very rare occasions do I eat a McDonald's meal), but because they were the most convenient place for free internet access. Well, free together with a small purchase. So I have been enjoying quite a few McDonald's Chocolate Sundaes and Cappuccinos… And to be honest, they make a reasonable cappuccino, so it wasn't all bad.

My main reason for hanging out where I could get internet was so I could check out gumtree. I had started out planning this trip thinking I would buy a camper and then sell it at the end of my stay. Reading up on what would be required I thought better of it and decided to just rent. Also, the idea of not being able to sell it at the end weighed heavily.

But somewhere on the way I came upon another site that basically said, "you're crazy if you rent". So I reconsidered. And studied some more. And found a workable solution. That solution is to only look at Western Australia registered campers. The information online is sometimes contradictory, but about WA rego they all agree: easy, cheap, doable.

So, by the time I got to Melbourne, I was back to thinking I'd buy. Ergo, my many visits to the McD.

Before the weekend I had sent out a number of mails and texts (using my pre–paid, local mobile number) and had managed to make a viewing appointment for a camper van that looked promising.

So, the viewing appointment was Monday, 1 pm. Turned out Candy from gumtree was Candice and her boyfriend, two nice and friendly young people that were selling the van because they were being kicked out of the parking garage where they had stashed it. They were open and forthright about the van, showing me the engine, the papers, how to setup the sleeping area. It was looking good.

And, of course, I asked for a test–drive. No problem, was expected. So out we went. I let the guy drive out of the garage (they had let out a little air to be able to fit through and even then, at the exit we scraped the roof with the back of the van a little) and to a little less busy part of Melbourne before taking over.

This was the first time since the previous summer that I drove in a RHD vehicle on the left side (last time was a short visit to England for the trashhh in 2014 where I drove to the location in a rental car) and Melbourne has some weird crossings for right turns, so I was a bit nervous driving. And because the wheels were a bit flat, turning was pretty heavy, especially going slow.

But all in all, it felt okay. It's an old vehicle with a lot of kilometres already on it, and that was apparent in the way it drove, but nothing stood out that was telling me this was a lemon. So, after asking if I could think about it a little, I went my own way to meet up with Sam. He said he had another viewer directly after me, so he asked me to come back with an answer quickly.

While Sam and I were enjoying a cappuccino and a cheese cake I was thinking if I should do it. It took me a while, but after asking through SMS if we could do the sale on Wednesday (I had a little cash flow problem with one bank not letting me get money from the ATM and the other limiting the amount per day) and if he could sweeten the price a little (yes, he could drop $200), I was just on the verge of texting him "yes" when I got a text from him saying sorry, the next viewer had bought it.

Crap.

He texted me he thought I might be relieved by that news, because I had been nervous. Well, yes, I'd been nervous, but that was from the traffic and the left–hand driving right off the bat in an old not–mine vehicle that was heavy on the steering…

But, oh well. Nothing to do about it. I immediately fell back to my old plan, renting, because by now it was too late to setup other potential camper van sellers. We had to get to Brisbane by Sunday, so we had to leave Tuesday or maybe Wednesday at the latest to have a stress–free journey.

I called Jucy campers, and luckily they had enough campers in Melbourne for us to pick one up the next day.

And so…

Going somewhere

Last post: 2011. Way to keep up the blog, man…

You'll have to have patience to see and read about the rest of the 2011 summer trip in Albania. Maybe forever. Depends if I can remember enough to write it up in a way that will be interesting. And on me keeping up this blog thing from now on.

So, to just completely start off with new stuff, here's another plan.

In short: a long flight from Amsterdam, The Netherlands, to Melbourne, Australia, via Dubai, United Arab Emirates. A weekend of racing, watching the Formula One 2015 opening race in Melbourne. Then to Brisbane, for the 2015 trashhh, which will be somewhere around those parts. And then probably a rental camper or a second–hand camper for a road trip up the coast, heading to Cairns.

I'm still pretty flexible. The only fixed things are the flights there and back, the F1 race and the trashhh weekend (which will not be in the weekend, but mid–week). The rest will sort out itself, I reckon. ;)

If you have ideas or suggestions, feel free to drop me a line…

Garching bei München to camping Aquileia

The plan for the second day was to push through to Italy, near Trieste, which is near the border with Slovenia, so I would be nicely poised to drive into Croatia the next day. That meant crossing the Alps.

I've been to the Alps many times before, but always in winter, and always for skiing trips. I can't remember ever being there in summertime. Maybe once or twice in the foothills during family camping trips in France.

What I do know is that one of my favourite parts of those ski trips is the drive up and down the mountain. There's something challenging about driving in the mountains that you don't get on roads through flatter country. The corners, the switchbacks, the grade, the wall of mountain on one side, the sheer drop (or dense forest) on the other.

So, no way was I going to drive through the Alps by highway. No, I wanted to take the scenic route. And that's what I did.

And—bonus!—no need to pay the highway tax for Austria, as I would be avoiding the highway while driving through. Not that this was an objective in choosing the scenic route, and it didn't really work out like that in the end, as you'll see later on...

Anyway, the next day started out worse, as the weather had turned nicely wet and overcast. Combined with the numerous road works going on on the German highways, the view out of my windscreen was often like this the first couple of miles:

But it soon got better, as I left the German highway behind and headed off into the mountains on the lesser roads. The first part of these roads were still pretty large roads, somewhat like the N-roads in France. Maximum speed 100 km/h, so I made pretty good time.

And then I got to the part I had been looking forward to.

If you look a bit closer at that google map at the top of this post, you'll notice the track goes through a green part in the middle of Austria. If you zoom in, you'll be able to read that that green area is called Nationalpark Hohe Tauern. And the road that lies beneath that track through the Nationalpark Hohe Tauern is called the Großglockner Hochalpenstraße. And the Großglockner Hochalpenstraße just happens to be a toll road. Which costs €29.00 to pass. So there went my 8-odd euro savings for the Austrian highway tax...

I actually very briefly played with the idea to head back and find another road over the Alps that wasn't a toll road. Very briefly. And I'm very happy I didn't do that, after my experience going the other way on my trip back. But that's a story for another post.

So, I bit the bullet, paid my toll, and went on my way. And glad I did, because it was one of the nicest drives I've had. Even despite, or maybe because of, the weather. Which wasn't very good. As you can see:

So even though the weather conditions weren't that good, I had a very good time on the Großglockner Hochalpenstraße. And it was totally worth the €29.00, for the views, and the driving itself. I would totally recommend taking this route on your next trip crossing the Alps.

After the Großglockner Hochalpenstraße, the roads gradually got larger again after crossing into Italy, and finally I rejoined the highway a bit south of Udinese, in Italy.

I had bought a special camping guide for Italy, Croatia and the surrounding countries, but in the end I never once used it on this trip. The road maps I had with me had little markers on them pointing to camping sites, and I always managed to find them by driving to the general area and then following the signs next to the road. A lesson for next time, maybe.

The first night sleeping in my tent was on a nice little camping near Aquileia, Italy. I arrived there when it was still light and dry, but soon it started to rain softly. I decided to quickly put up my tent while it was still reasonably dry, and very glad I did. Soon it started to rain harder, and after a while it came pouring down. I took shelter in my car for a bit, and soon it slowed down again. I had eaten something after I left the highway, so I didn't need to cook, luckily.

After buying some internet time at the front desk and whatsapp'ing with some of my family I went to bed. And discovered my tent was leaking. Crap.

Luckily I was on my own, so I could position my sleeping bag diagonally and avoid the couple of drips that were seeping through. Maybe not a bad idea to check the tent for leaks before heading out next time. And maybe it wasn't such a good idea to rely on a tent that was more than ten years old already. Another lesson for next time, I guess...

Amsterdam to Garching bei München

So I've been back from my road trip to Albania for two weeks already. It's probably about time I wrote something about that, isn't it? So here goes.

I left for Garching, near München, on Friday, the 22^nd of July. Apart from quite a bit of baustellen on the Deutsche Autobahn, it was a relatively uneventful day of driving.

I had a reservation at the Etap hotel in Garching, which is just a notch above the really bare-bones Formula 1 hotels. In these Etap hotels you actually get a toilet and shower in the room.

After the first day of driving my odometer should have said something like 815 km, but I only remembered to set it to zero somewhere past Utrecht, so it was a bit less than that.

Which also means that the total distance driven during this two week road trip is a bit more than the 5500 km the odometer registered (nearly to the kilometer, by the way, I think it was 5498 or something close to that).

This is the first in a series of posts about my road trip, and there's a lot more to come. Including, but not limited to: lots of rain, great driving along mountain roads, a chance encounter on the Croatian highway, a collision on a Croatian road, understeer on Korčula, beautiful Croatian coastal roads, waterfalls and lakes near Plitvička, thunderstorms with hail, dirt roads flanked by landmines, and a great TraSHHH weekend in Tirana.

The Plan

This year the annual trashhh reunion is being held in Albania. The trashhh organisers insist that it's a wonderful country to spend some time in. So I decided, what the hell, I've been to nearly every trashhh weekend since the very start, so I should be there in Albania, too.

So the plan is to drive down there from Amsterdam. That's about 2.200 kilometres. And Google Maps tels me I can do it in about a day.

View Larger Map

But that's not the plan. The plan is to load up my car with (mostly) old camping gear and see if I still remember how to set up a tent. I have exactly a week (Friday to Friday) to get to my destination, so that should be more than enough to take it fairly easy.

I was thinking of aiming for south Germany for the first day of driving, probably somewhere south of Augsburg. Then the next day push through to the vicinity of Trieste, Italy.

From Trieste to Albania is more than 14 hours driving according to Google Maps, but part of that is probably because it's sending me on a detour with a ferry. Google hasn't gotten round to mapping Bosnia and Herzegovina for some reason, apparently, as it's unable to route through there. Which is the reason, I assume, it sends me on a detour with a ferry to stay in Croatia, instead of through Bosnia and Herzegovina. So I'm guessing the real time to get from Trieste to Albania is a bit less than 14 hours. Still, not something to do in 1 day, so say we split that distance in two and do about 7 hours both days.

That comes down to 4 days of driving, with three days of about 7 hours driving and one of about 5. But I have 7 days to get there. So I'll probably drive the two days to get to Trieste back to back and then spread out the rest of the trip over the remaining 5 days. I just need to find the places I want to camp at between Trieste and Albania. Any suggestions?

I haven't implemented comments on this site (and probably won't), so feel free to send any suggestions, tips, warnings, to my twitter account: @thijso. I will really appreciate anything you send to me. And if you know me, and therefore know my e-mail, feel free to send it there!

Road trip to Albania

Plans for this summer: road trip to Albania!