Outback Experience
We left the Gallery and went to try do some climbing at Taipan Wall but the day after it poured down with rain and we had only planned on spedning 2 days there for the moment, so decided to drive up to the Blue Mountains early and see a few things on the way. We consulted the Lonley Planet and decided to expereince a bit of the Outback, so planned a route to Broken Hill, where Mad Max was filmed.
We had a realy faffers day, it was lunch time when we had a plan and were all packed, but we ended up playing hakki sack for the rest of the afternoon with a few other climbers that were waiting out the rain. Tee, who's from Squamish he's the guy that is cheering Didier Berthod on and filming from a tree while Didier is climbing Cobra, 8c+ trad in Dosage IV DVD. Awesome climbing. Anyway, Tee is coming up with us to the Blue Mountains, that makes 5. Me, Neal, Sean, Julie-Ann and Tee. Eventually, after getting hakki (See Neal's Glossary, coming soon) we hit the road for a 6 hour journey, at about 5pm, I told you it was a faffers day. We arrived at Broken Hill at about 2 in the morning and were welcomed by the Cops. Turns out that driving at night in the outback just isn't done, the Kangaroos are just are just everywhere, we did have our eyes peeled the whole time we were driving and did come across a few so I can understand their concern. We got away with it as long as we didn't do it again.
They did drill us with questions and eventually gave us a police escort to our campsite surrounded by a grave yard that we only discovered in the morning. Definatly a huge contrast to our campsites for the last few weeks. I kept on having to remind myself that I wasn't in SA, it looked so much like the Karoo or somewhere like that and Broken Hill itself looks like so many old mining towns around joburg, it was really scarey how familiar everything looked.
After a good cup of coffee to wake us up we went into the Tourist information office to plan our Outback Experience and get the Key to the Outback. We had to drive through these gates to get to a sculpture site and lookout area and needed a key for it. The gates were just like the gates you drive through when going to the 4X4 track across the road from the gliding club. The view from the top is impressive, it looks just like an african desert with the exact same windmills and dry dry shrub. We were supposed to return the key to the tourist information office to get my deposit back before going to the Marawinji national park, but as I was closing the last gate this guy pulled up in his 4X4 asking if you needed a key for the gate, I told him he could buy mine from me for the price of the deposit and that worked out really well for both of us. I don't know if you could get away with that so comfortably in SA :)
The road to the National Park was an adventure of its own, the road went from tarred to dirt and about 5km down the road back to tar for 2km and then dirt and then miles down the road at this intersection in the middle of nowhere the intersection is tarred and then the rest of the road is dirt, its cool. I only know of two dirt roads in Ireland and one of them is on the dunes in Conemarra. Found more of those post boxes out in the middle of nowhere, some of them aren't even at a gate or even an intersection, just totaly random places in the middle of nowhere. I'm beginning to wonder if the national flower of Australia is the oversized postbox.
I wish we were in Gerry's Yellow Bannana, my Dad's beetle, with my Dad driving (Don't tell Puddy). Our Trusty Steed, a 4 litre Ford Falcon station wagon, just didn't cut it. After coaxing the car to find a way around flooded sections of the road we came across a few bumpy sections and there was no way that the falcon would make it, so we decided to pitch our camp right there on the side of the road.
I went for a run further along the road from camp and its one of the coolest places that I've run. There is absolutly nothing out there. I ran for 30 mins and passed a cow ... twice. Oh yeah and one of those post boxes. One of the farmers stopped when passing to check if we were okay and he had the coolest attitude: "Do you want to borrow my spade?"
We made a campfire and chilled out eating soup that we had made with our left over veggies, I think we're getting used to this camping setup. I woke early and saw the sunset the next day, really impressive. That was a perfect touch to my Outback Experience.
We had a realy faffers day, it was lunch time when we had a plan and were all packed, but we ended up playing hakki sack for the rest of the afternoon with a few other climbers that were waiting out the rain. Tee, who's from Squamish he's the guy that is cheering Didier Berthod on and filming from a tree while Didier is climbing Cobra, 8c+ trad in Dosage IV DVD. Awesome climbing. Anyway, Tee is coming up with us to the Blue Mountains, that makes 5. Me, Neal, Sean, Julie-Ann and Tee. Eventually, after getting hakki (See Neal's Glossary, coming soon) we hit the road for a 6 hour journey, at about 5pm, I told you it was a faffers day. We arrived at Broken Hill at about 2 in the morning and were welcomed by the Cops. Turns out that driving at night in the outback just isn't done, the Kangaroos are just are just everywhere, we did have our eyes peeled the whole time we were driving and did come across a few so I can understand their concern. We got away with it as long as we didn't do it again.
They did drill us with questions and eventually gave us a police escort to our campsite surrounded by a grave yard that we only discovered in the morning. Definatly a huge contrast to our campsites for the last few weeks. I kept on having to remind myself that I wasn't in SA, it looked so much like the Karoo or somewhere like that and Broken Hill itself looks like so many old mining towns around joburg, it was really scarey how familiar everything looked.
After a good cup of coffee to wake us up we went into the Tourist information office to plan our Outback Experience and get the Key to the Outback. We had to drive through these gates to get to a sculpture site and lookout area and needed a key for it. The gates were just like the gates you drive through when going to the 4X4 track across the road from the gliding club. The view from the top is impressive, it looks just like an african desert with the exact same windmills and dry dry shrub. We were supposed to return the key to the tourist information office to get my deposit back before going to the Marawinji national park, but as I was closing the last gate this guy pulled up in his 4X4 asking if you needed a key for the gate, I told him he could buy mine from me for the price of the deposit and that worked out really well for both of us. I don't know if you could get away with that so comfortably in SA :)
The road to the National Park was an adventure of its own, the road went from tarred to dirt and about 5km down the road back to tar for 2km and then dirt and then miles down the road at this intersection in the middle of nowhere the intersection is tarred and then the rest of the road is dirt, its cool. I only know of two dirt roads in Ireland and one of them is on the dunes in Conemarra. Found more of those post boxes out in the middle of nowhere, some of them aren't even at a gate or even an intersection, just totaly random places in the middle of nowhere. I'm beginning to wonder if the national flower of Australia is the oversized postbox.
I wish we were in Gerry's Yellow Bannana, my Dad's beetle, with my Dad driving (Don't tell Puddy). Our Trusty Steed, a 4 litre Ford Falcon station wagon, just didn't cut it. After coaxing the car to find a way around flooded sections of the road we came across a few bumpy sections and there was no way that the falcon would make it, so we decided to pitch our camp right there on the side of the road.
I went for a run further along the road from camp and its one of the coolest places that I've run. There is absolutly nothing out there. I ran for 30 mins and passed a cow ... twice. Oh yeah and one of those post boxes. One of the farmers stopped when passing to check if we were okay and he had the coolest attitude: "Do you want to borrow my spade?"
We made a campfire and chilled out eating soup that we had made with our left over veggies, I think we're getting used to this camping setup. I woke early and saw the sunset the next day, really impressive. That was a perfect touch to my Outback Experience.
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