G'day folks. Well I am just a couple of days from heading back across the Nullarbor again on what must be now about my 40th crossing since I first took on that 1,000 MILES of dirt track in the winter of 1964, aged 21, in my then new 1964 VW beetle.
Sadly it's been 18 years since I last drove across but that anomoly is about to be finally rectified, when I head off in my recently purchased 2011 Hilux dual cab/canopy ute, complete with the usual couple of cameras, esky, sleeping bag and camping gear.
My intention is to take my time after I leave Ceduna and wherever possible, I want to get off the new road and back on to the old Eyre Highway (that I knew so well). Apparently with care, a lot of the old road is still quite drivable between Nundroo and the SA/WA border. I'll be taking many photos and videos along the way, including arial photos. I'll also be going out along the transline access road from Kalgoorlie for 120 klm's, as far as the location where Karonie once 'stood' (seven fettlers houses, a gangers trolly shed and a railways employee dog box alongside the main line),.....and the quarry where I worked for 3 months in 1964.
Even though all evidence of Karonies' very existence is now long gone, I still want to go back there, stand in a familiar spot under a tree that I know is still there and just let my minds eye do the rest.
I'll spend about three days in Kal before heading down to Coolgardie and on into Perth for about a week or so visiting friends. Then it's south to the timber country and Albany for a few more days before pointing myself slowly toward home again through Ravensthorpe, Esperance, up to Norseman and back onto the Eyre Highway Headed East.
i figure on somewhere near 4 weeks in total but that time frame could quite easily push out closer to 5 weeks if I suddenly decide to change direction somewhere along the way.
All in all though, this is a long overdue trip that I am certainly looking forward to and unfortunately because of a pretty bad left ear noise problem, I can't take anyone along with me and riding in the passenger seat, talking. (Long and complicated story).
I'll post photos and videos along the way.
Cheers Lance S
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Yep, I bought myself a Phantom 3 drone several months ago, primarily with this trip in mind. I'm a bit of a photo nut so this will give me that bit more scope in the photos that I'll now be able to get.......once I get to know how to 'drive' it correctly.
I've had several practice runs already but because of the various drone flying restrictions around the place, this trip will be my first opportunity to see what it will really do with height and distance. Footage from out and high over the Australian Bight, the Eucla telegraph station ruins, the old Madura Pass, anywhere that I can film both the old and new Eyre Highways in the same frame(s), as well as countless other places that I have only ever been able to get ground level photos before.
I should have been away on this trip a couple of months ago and been home again by now but oh well,...as long as I get back in time for the start of the lawn bowls season in October......that'll do me.
Cheers
Lance.
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Hello Lance what a fabulous trip your going to have, I am looking forward to seeing the pictures you post. I love the Goldfields it will be forever in my heart. You say you will be in Kal for 3 days, I would be happy to have you call in and say hello, and happy to cook you a nice meal if you want. Take care and enjoy your time out there. Regards Kisha.
The old road was great!! No real outback experience in the new bitumen road. No kopi holes to navigate, no Ivy Tanks with the dunnies with no doors facing the road,( thats if they were standing upright!!). Stopped in the motel one night..was too wet or cold to pitch the tent... 2 old army camp stretcher beds and matress that came of the ark and we were given two army issues grey blankets no sheets or pillows. It was an experience. Aborigines stopping travellers for fuel, water, food, wanting a push etc. The telegraph line was graded more often than the highway and we used to do a lot of kms along it. The road turned into a river when it rained as it had been graded so often over the years that it was below ground level.
Its a fairly boring road these days, compared to the old days.
G'day suffi. OMG it's as if you were reading an excerpt straight out of my own as yet unwritten 'memories' of a couple of my trips across that old road. You're so right of course, the new road is nothing compared to the old road and all the various conditions and experiences that it managed to throw at everyone who crossed it, particularly the effect on the SA side of the border after a heavy rain, causing the road to become a virtual 'river'. I had that happen to me in October of 1966. I had come up from Kojonup to Merredin, in my VW, turned right on to the Great Eastern Highway and headed toward Coolgardie. There had already been heavy rain developing out in the waters from Perth and ended up being only a couple of hours behind me by the time I got to Coolgardie. My having to turn right at Coolgardie didn't really help much because where the rain had been behind me up to Coolgardie, it of course kept going straight ahead after I'd turned right and now, instead of the rain being behind ME,.... I was NOW behind ..IT ! It wasn't until I'd reached Eucla late at night around 10:00 pm, just in time to fill up with petrol before they closed up for the night,....that the full extent of the previous full days rain showed itself about 30 or 40 minutes later on the SA side of the border. Bearing in mind of course that the VW beetle back in 66 was still sporting a pretty ordinary 6 volt electrical system with only ordinary globes in the headlights, headlights that really didn't do a great deal in lighting up ones life for the road ahead........ particularly when that dim bit of shiny stuff on the road that just suddenly loomed ahead, turned out to be more like a RIVER instead of a normal but wet dirt road ahead of me. The preceeding couple of days rain had apparently been heavy enough to build up against the recently graded side banks of the road and because of these side banks the rain water had nowhere to run off to. Consequently it was now a 'river' of somewhat randomly unknown depth. That 'Eyre River' stayed water filled for at least the next four or so hours as I travelled through it at a gentle but watchful 15 to 20 mph. Even in a VW with 15" wheels, I didn't want to suddenly drop into a hidden pothole or hit something that I couldn't see.
Breaking down or breaking something, out there at some ungodly early hour of a dark wet night,....in that 'river' would not have been a very smart idea so playing it safe abd slow seemed the far better option.
That really was one of my more memorable trips across the old Eyre Highway and I wouldn't have missed it for quids.
-- Edited by LanceS on Thursday 24th of August 2017 05:06:33 PM
-- Edited by LanceS on Thursday 24th of August 2017 05:07:45 PM
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Hi Kisha. Thank you for that wonderful offer,..and I really do appreciate it, but I would hate to feel like I was imposing on you, even though I must confess that after my taking at least a couple or so days, taking my photographic time crossing the Nullarbor, the thought of a nice cooked meal does sound very inviting,....as long as you permit me to buy the ingredients.
Do you live in Kalgoorlie,?..if so you may know of the area around Karonie, about 120 klm's out from Kal along the Trans Railway Line. I worked out there in 64 and have never been back since. The rock quarry ( where we were crushing for the rock ballast used along the line itself) is still there of course as is the spur railway line out to where we used to fill the railway trucks up ever four or so weeks.
Ive been telling myself for a couple of decades now that even though virtually most of Karonie is gone now, that I must one day go back for another 'look' at where things used to be,.....and to take lots of photos and videos while I'm there,...........Now is finally that time.
While Karonie is my main reason for doing this trip, I have decided to extend it on in to Perth, have a look around Perth again for about a week before heading south to Albany and the nearby timber country for a couple or three more days. I certainly intend giving my cameras a good workout along the way.
From there I will slowly start heading back toward Esperance, Norseman and on to the Eyre Highway again.
Cheers,
Lance.
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The old road was great!! No real outback experience in the new bitumen road. No kopi holes to navigate, no Ivy Tanks with the dunnies with no doors facing the road,( thats if they were standing upright!!). Stopped in the motel one night..was too wet or cold to pitch the tent... 2 old army camp stretcher beds and matress that came of the ark and we were given two army issues grey blankets no sheets or pillows. It was an experience. Aborigines stopping travellers for fuel, water, food, wanting a push etc. The telegraph line was graded more often than the highway and we used to do a lot of kms along it. The road turned into a river when it rained as it had been graded so often over the years that it was below ground level. Its a fairly boring road these days, compared to the old days.
My memories of Ivy Tanks are a bit skimpy these days but a few bits and pieces do still stick in the head. For the life of me, while I do remember Ivy Tanks being there in January 1968, I can't bring to mind any positive memory of Ivy Tanks in 1970/71.
I remember vividly, their very basic excuse for 'motel accomodation' alongside the dining room, which certainly was NOT inviting enough to ever prompt the wish to stay there a second night.
My most prominent memory of Ivy Tanks however was during my first trips across in 1964 and the proliferation of 'Andy Capp' cartoon strips that adorned seemingly every bit of available wall space. I assumed at the time that there might have been a subjective reason for the Andy Capp coverage, like to maybe take peoples minds off of the food.?.. but I'm sure I remember the food that I got as being okay so it can't have been that.
Like all those stops along the old road, it's sad that our so called 'progress' pushed all of them to one side and most of them out of existance,...to where only our aging nostalgic memories can try and hang on to them.
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Hey LanceS, it sure is a shame that so many things change and fade into memory. I cannot believe the changes in the amount of people you find out bush. When I was a kid out with my dad we would not see anyone for weeks at a time. Now I have to remember to look right and left before I cross that old dirt track just incase some monster 4x4 covered in spotlights and ariels runs over me in their quest for adventure. Now days vehicles/vans and boats make the treck into the bush comfortable and somewhat easier. I must admit the rig I have now is quite comfortable for life fulltime on the road even if I cannot figure out what all the whiz bang thingy's do? One thing I do know though, I'm gunna be out there too and not let all the young one have all the fun. Cheers stretch.
We did the "river crossing" around 1974. Left Esperance and it was raining. Got to Eucla and the police were just in the process of closing the road. They let 4 cars thru and we were car 4. The whole road from Eucla to near Nundroo was under water with occasional little bumps that were dry. We were in a 69 auto Fairlane (with 2 little kids) towing a trailer with our camping gear. We had to report in at every roadhouse and the police at Ceduna. 1st car made it to Nullabor Station,2nd car was parked off the road on a dry spot and no-one to be seen. Think he hitched back to either Nullabor or Eucla with a car heading west. We reported it to the next roadhouse. The third car was an old Valiant that made it thru and was parked at Nundroo with the front wheels looking a tad worse for the wear. . must have been sheer will power that get him that far. It was a wonder it would even steer the front end was so damaged. We had water all thru the trailer so everything was soaked and muddy. It took us 12 hours to get from Eucla to Nundroo . It was a trip we will never forget!!
Yet another coincidence relating to MY OWN 'Eyre River' experience and this must surely be a measure of the lay of the land between Eucla and Nundroo. It was ALSO very close to Nundroo that I started to reach 'drier' and slightly higher parts of the road too. (By drier, I don't mean 'dry' in the sense of a perfectly dry road but dry as in coming away from the 'river' condition of the road that I had just come through from Eucla. The other thing with that trip was that I had a portable 3" reel to reel tape recorder, that I had borrowed from my uncle to take over to Perth with me and I actually did about a half hour 'talking' into the mic as I was driving back toward the Nundroo end of this watery stretch of road, just as dawn was breaking, a sort of running comentary including all the real sound effects of the thunder and lightning that was accompanying that familiar VW engine sound, splashing through sections of water and then across the higher bits of the road itself. I even jokingly also made an audible last will and testament,....just in case one of the flashes of lightning might have struck my arial.. and blew the car up or something. Lol..Okay that bit was all tongue in cheek back then but.......?
I have no idea what ever happened to that tape except that I know that I still had it up until about 20 years ago and it was never thrown away but I've had two divorces and four house moves over those 20 years so lord only knows where it is now,.......but it WOULD be good to find it again.
Cheers
-- Edited by LanceS on Saturday 26th of August 2017 08:41:36 AM
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Hi Lance, I am often in Kalgoorlie and have a house there a stones throw from the railway station. I will be there again in 2 weeks. At the moment I'm at my house 20 mins south of Perth, and I also spend alot of time at the house in Esperance, where my father converted a huge shed behind a house we rent out in Esperance into great living quarters, kitchen, laundry, dining, bathroom and 2 bedrooms. I love the coastline of Esperance. From Esperance I often go to the farm in Salmon Gums and stay there a while. I keep busy clocking up the K's lol.
I am familiar with the area you speak of and the Spur, my dad would fill the wagons with all the logs there, = woodline,it was such hard work for the men in those days. I was a young girl then and remember it all so well. Its a beautiful country.
I have bought myself a Canon 700D camera, and am absolutely hopeless with it, you seem to know what your doing with a camera, so perhaps you can give me some pointers. It doesn't look like we will be having that meal together, as you say it will depend on me permitting you to provide the ingredients, thank you for the kind suggestion but when I offer dinner or a meal to someone I don't expect them to provide the ingredients, I am from the old school :) I enjoy cooking very much for anyone I invite. Lance, you seem like a nice person and for your offer I thank you.
I'm off now to light my lovely Mexican cheminea and then place ribs on the bbq, I love sticky yankee ribs lol, takes me back to my time in the US. I look forward to seeing your posts and pictures, your trip sounds very interesting...Always with a smile Kisha.
-- Edited by Kisha on Saturday 26th of August 2017 05:52:00 PM
Hi Kisha. I thank you for the reply and I certainly do agree with old school type thinking because I'm sure that I went to a branch of the very same old school.. Seriously though, if I am being invited to dinner I certainly could not come empty handed, the gentleman in me would never allow that. -:)
In regards your camera, I do envy your choice in the 700D. I have heard nothing but good things about them and truth be known, if I hadn't chosen to go Nikon with my DSLR decision some 9 years ago, I may very well have chosen to go Canon, but now having invested in my second Nikon, a D5100 to add to my D40, together with five Nikon lenses so far, I've pretty well forced myself now to stay with Nikon, particularly as I already have my eye on a better and newer model, which will take the same lenses.
As for my knowledge on these cameras, I must confess to being very much in the lower end of the knowledge base when it comes to digital. I used to be somewhat more at home with the older film type cameras but no-one uses those anymore. I'm more than happy though to share the minimal camera knowledge that I do have.
I've had a couple of delays in getting away from here but now see myself getting on the road hopefully by this coming Tuesday, spending a few days between leaving here and then leaving Ceduna, probably by Saturday and arriving in Kalgoorlie by around the early/middle part of the week. I still have a tentative booking for staying two nights at a cabin park setup in Kal,..I just have to give them a bit of notice once I know which day I expect to arrive there. $66 a night for a single cabin seems a pretty good deal, which I can use as a base while I do all my couple of days running around Kalgoorlie and Karonie.
Of course I need to now hope for no more delays in my leaving next Tuesday.
Cheers
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Lance. You are more than welcome to come and camp at our place up near Seabird when you get to Perth. We are 70kms north of Perth. Have a spare van if the weather isnt up to swag/tent camping.
Lance. You are more than welcome to come and camp at our place up near Seabird when you get to Perth. We are 70kms north of Perth. Have a spare van if the weather isnt up to swag/tent camping.
Thank you so much for the offer Sufil but because I didn't get away like I wanted to a few weeks ago, my time frame is getting a little bit cramped. I always had to be back in Adelaide by the end of September and I still have roughly a 4 week time frame itinerary of the places I need to see and photograph, including about 7 (ish) days in Perth, visiting family and friends and staying with a cousin in Armadale if I need to.
It was always my intention to keep on the move, going south from Perth and only using the night time stops to prepare for what might eventuate on the following day. By my now leaving later (this week) however I have gouged a bit into what would have been time to go outside my planned itinerary and still get back to Adelaide in time.
I do appreciate the offer though,...thanks again.
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If you have time to meet up for a coffee while you are in Perth we will come down and catch up with you. I am sure we can can bring a few others along too.
Sorry I haven't gotten on here until now to tell you where I am. I'm actually in Kalgoorlie now, ...I got here two days ago, been running around like a blue arsed fly since then and am finally going out to Karonie tomorrow (Tuesday).
I would have gone out there yesterday but according to the local coppers the rain a couple of days before had messed that 'road' up a bit so in the interests of playing safe, I've added an extra day on to my stay in Kal and doing Karonie tomorrow.
I had no phone signal coming across so couldn't post anything but I'll make up for that as soon as I get a decent internet signal, unlike what I'm getting here where I'm staying in a (caravan park cabin).
It's only by a fluke that I'm even getting a wifi signal right now.
Anyway I'll get many photos up as soon as I can.
Cheers
Lance.
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