Specifically about...: 2016

Tuesday, 13 September 2016

Specifically About Road Tripping Australia: 5 Don'ts

South Australian Sunset

Protea - Aussie Native

Australia is huge. Most international guests really don’t understand the size of Australia. You know Sydney and Melbourne and maybe Perth. You’ve probably heard of Adelaide from that one song. And you’ve seen a picture of Uluru. Bucket list item: road trip through Australia! Great decision! Australia is huge. Road tripping in Australia is a must, and something you will remember for your whole life. In general, though, people don’t understand the outback, or the vast expanses between civilization. Outback Australia is unforgettable. It’s beautiful. It’s quiet. It’s raw. It’s magical. It’s a living thing in and of itself. You will see colours you’ve literally never seen before. You will feel heat like no other heat. You will probably eat a fly or two without meaning to in the course of things. But you need to arrive with a plan. You need to come prepared. Here are five tips I’ve come up with to help you get started with planning your trip.

Kangaroo at dusk

1) Don’t drive at night. While this may seem ridiculous, and you may think you are losing time on your overall trip, this is really important. There is a lot of nocturnal wildlife on the road, which makes it heaps dangerous. Kangaroos, emus, wombats, koalas, and in WA camels are just some of the larger animals that often cross the road at night. Smaller animals include; rabbits, foxes, cane toads, and mice. If you did hit a larger animal, chances are it will be injured but not die straight away, and your car will be totaled, leaving you stranded in the middle of nowhere, in the middle of the night. Not a great place to be if you’ve seen Wolf Creek or… well pretty much any Aussie film. It can also get really cold at night, even if it’s hot during the day.

Roadside stall with locally grown fruit and veg... but no fuel

2) Don’t forget to check the water, oil, and petrol (gas) situations before you leave, as well as during your trip. Again, this might sound obvious, but this can be devastating if you did run out. Did I mention that Australia is a huge place? You can drive for sometimes hundreds of kilometres between towns, and even then, there might not be a petrol station to fill up at. All I can say about this is, do your research, and plan your petrol stops in advance. Don’t count on the next town having amenities. Some towns don’t even have a shop (store).

Typical country road in rural Victoria

3) Don’t hitchhike. Please. Besides being illegal: Ivan Milat. Google that! And anyway, you probably don’t want to get dropped off in the middle of nowhere with no cars coming by for hours or even days. Plus, Ivan Milat and backpacker murders. Have you googled that yet?

Red earth Blue sky

4) Don’t drive on the right. In Australia, we drive on the left hand side of the road. Bear this in mind when driving around roundabouts, on one way freeways, and also when crossing the road on foot.

Inclement weather - near Melbourne

5) Don’t forget to pack snacks but more so, plenty of water. You don’t have to buy bottled water in most places of Australia because the tap water is generally safe to drink, unless indicated otherwise. I recommend keeping a few litres on hand in your car. You never know when you or your car might be thirsty. Maybe this is just the country kid in me, but I just think you can’t risk being stuck somewhere without water. Particularly on a road trip. Alternatively, you might come across someone who’s run out of water and be able to help them out. But this is not about them, so, safety first!

Black Saturday Bush Fires 2009

It’s also worth checking the weather forecast before you leave. Australia is known for its harsh weather conditions. One day it could be nice and sunny, but the next week could be forecast for an extreme heat wave. Likewise, flash floods are common in some areas, and bush fires are rife in summer. It’s worth knowing what you are up against and keeping up with emergency warnings could save your life, or at the very least, save you missing your flight home.

Crossing the Vic boarder into SA.

I hope you enjoy your road trip in Australia! You'll love it! If you have any other tips or ideas that have worked for you, please leave a comment. Thanks for reading!

Bonus info: road signs can be hilarious, and if you stop for a wee in the bushes, watch out for snakes and insects!

I grew up with this sign!

Wednesday, 22 June 2016

our visit to the garden

Yesterday was one of those days that I just could not be bothered doing anything. I was bored. That’s right, I said it! I had cabin fever. It’s been raining for about a week or so but who really knows. I think IMAD was bored, too. She was a bit clingy and wingy. Anyway, all I know was that it felt like I’d been doing ‘mum’ things for ages and I needed to shake things up.

So, I asked her if she wanted to go on the train! Yup! Of course she says, “ ‘rain, ‘rain”!

So we bundled up with jackets and headed out.

She loved the train ride into the city. She loved watching the rain on the window and waving at all the people. She had a little snack on some dates. Thankfully we got on an express so it only took 40 minutes to get into the main train station. I thought we’d probably go to the museum or library because it was raining, but when we got into the city the rain had stopped. It was still cold and damp in the air but we needed to be outside.

We headed toward the bank of the Torrens River. I used to love going down there on my lunch break when I worked in the city. It was fun taking my daughter there. She had no idea why it was special to me, but she loved seeing the Moorhens and Black swans. I couldn’t work out if the swans were just checking us out, or if they were angry we didn’t bring bread or some lentil sprouts!

We walked along the river, passed the fountain that blew river water all over us, and even stumbled on a ‘love-lock’ bridge. I’d never known it was there before but people must have been locking their love there for many years.

We made our way down to the botanical gardens and ended up in a café for coffee and baby cino and to eat our sandwiches! There was sooo many birds in the café! I thought it was a bit off putting but IMAD loved watching them. I mean, I can cope with the odd spoggy flying in for a crumb… but this was different. There were ducks, moorhens, pigeons, top-knot pigeons, pee-wees. It was pretty full on. We kept shoeing them away with the umbrella, which IMAD thought was hilarious!

Then we went for a bit more of a walk around. We talked about the flowers and trees and it was so relaxing getting out in the fresh air, somewhere out of the ordinary for us.

She’s been there before, but I don’t think she remembered. I think she might remember this though… Then I snapped out of my rambling, because it was raining pretty heavily! I tried to put the rain cover on the pram, but it was pretty close to IMAD’s face and I think she felt claustrophobic and a bit frightened. So she ended up holding my brolly and I …

…well I had to make do with my scarf over my head and the drowned rat look!

We ran out of the park and across the road to the veranda of a pub. I ended up buying IMAD her own umbrella so I could have mine back. We have a few grown up size brollies, and now she has a kid’s size one…. Which she’s barely put down since.

She wanted to leave it up on the train, so too bad if anyone was superstitious about that!

When we got back to the car, she screamed bloody murder all the way home because she wanted her “brellaaaahh, brellaaa, breeelllllaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhh”

It goes to show how much fun you can have on short notice with very little planning.

*And I just want to add that I walked 6kms!

Monday, 4 January 2016

Finding the Beach (photography)

Today I went on a mission to find some photos!

I started up the top of Willunga Hill and made my way down to Sellicks Beach. It was such a clear day. A perfect day for experimenting with different lenses and for driving around.