Rachael Turner Blog

Melbourne to Perth – Day 5

rachaelturner — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 10:02:24 +0000

We had spent the previous night in the town of Norseman. The town was named after a horse who initially discovered gold there back in 1894. When I say the horse discovered gold, he didn’t jump up and down neighing “I’m rich. I’m rich!” Horses do not seem too interested in gold and the trappings of wealth! Rather, the horse got a piece of gold bearing quartz in his hoof, and his owner, I imagine claimed it as his find. After this discovery the town developed and at one time became the second-richest gold-field in WA, extracting over 100 tonnes of gold. Today, it is still a mining town. In fact, the Norseman Gold Mine, is Australia’s longest continuously running gold mine and is classed as having a desert climate. I’ve been to a fair few Goldfield towns in Australia and this one was by different than the others. It was much smaller, and more low-key. Other gold-field towns I have been to have built grand public buildings, I guess as a symbol of the wealth afforded by the gold. Unless you knew its history, you would never guess this of Norseman. A water line and bitumen roads were only added in 1935 though so, by this time, building such elaborate status symbols were no longer the norm.

We woke up early, as usual, and left at around 7am. We only had a short drive ahead of us to Kalgoorlie (188 km) given that we had driven further than planned the previous day. The drive was all pretty similar, single carriageway with bush either side, although not dense. Every now and again we’d pass a side road that would lead to some mine or other but apart from that it was quite unremarkable.

Dont let the grey sky fool you, it was hot!

Today was New Year’s Eve and we had booked to stay at a Resort & Spa Hotel complete with all the luxuries you might expect and that, after days on the road, I could not wait for. As we approached we turned into a residential street and we thought our Sat Nav was playing up. How could this be right? An international hotel groups resort, in the middle of a residential street, surrounded by turn of the century dwellings? Anyway, it was! Slap, bang in the middle! I imagine the residents were happy when planning was approved! I have to say, once in, it was lovely and it was well set out. The best thing was that brekky didn’t finish until 10am so we made it in time!

I would love to tell you that my cultural inquisitivity had lured me away from the hotel to explore Kalgoorlie. I would love to tell you how I visited the Super Pit, the word’s largest open cut gold mine measuring an astonishing 3.6 kilometres (2.2 mi) long, 1.6 kilometres (1.0 mi) wide and 512 metres (1,680 ft) deep, but I didn’t. The kids had spent days sat in the car, and they had been excellent but that last thing we wanted to do was make them travel any further than they had to. I briefly popped into the City to do a spot of shopping while I left the kids swimming in the pool with Mr T (my husband, not the dude who was scared of flying in the A-Team). That would be irresponsible, I don’t know the guy. Anyway, where was I? Oh yeah, the City. It very much reminded me of Ballarat, another gold mining City in Victoria, Australia but I was only there for 20 minutes or so, so forgive me if I am way off the mark. I did however read plenty of tourism brochures by the pool! So I can tell you though that the super pit I mentioned before operates 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and the mine blasts at 1:00 pm every day, unless winds would carry dust over the town. The mine is expected to be abandoned in about 5 years as they think it will no longer be productive. They plan to leave it and allow the ground water to seep in and fill it which they think will take about 50 years to fill! The other interesting thing I read was that the area has so many large gold mines that is often referred to as the Golden Mile, which is considered by some to be the richest square mile of earth on the planet. I knew I should have made room in the car for a metal detector. Darn it.

After spending the day by the pool we ate at the hotel’s restaurant for dinner which was entertaining. A massive storm hit just as we arrived soaking the diners who were sat in the al-fresco part of the restaurant. Tables and chairs were thrown into the air, and waiters who had to try to secure items and close the huge siding doors were left looking like drowned rats! Parts of the city lost their electricity, fortunately, ours was okay. A local couple told me that it was not at all normal for such a strong storm to his so suddenly. I explained that Melbourne had experienced a 10 year drought prior to us moving there and now their dams are teaming with water. Maybe if they want to fill that pit up faster than 50 years, they could ask us to move there for a short while

The meal was delicious and the wine flowed. To say we were in outback Australia, it was turning out to be a pretty good New Year’s Eve. We went back to our apartment to watch the fireworks from all around Australia and told the kids we would wake them just before midnight. Well, that was the plan. A mixture of the afore-mentioned wine and all the travelling we’d done in the last week caught up with us and then next thing we knew Marcus was stood next to our bed, hands on hips, chastising us for not waking him up. Happy New Years to you too son. Thank goodness for re-runs on the news is all I can say.

Melbourne to Perth – Day 4

rachaelturner — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 11:24:14 +0000

Day 4 was the biggy. We had planned to drive from Ceduna to Balladonia across the Nullarbor. Wiki says:

‘The Nullarbor Plain is part of the area of flat, almost treeless, arid or semi-arid country of southern Australia, located on the Great Australian Bight coast with the Great Victoria Desert to its north. It is the world’s largest single piece of limestone, and occupies an area of about 200,000 square kilometres (77,000 sq mi).^[1] At its widest point, it stretches about 1,100 kilometres (684 mi) from east to west between South Australia (SA) and Western Australia (WA).

Crossing the Nullarbor’, for many Australians, is a quintessential experience of the ‘Australian Outback‘. Stickers bought from roadhouses on the highway show ‘I have crossed the Nullarbor’, and can be seen on vehicles of varying quality or capacity for long distance travel. The process of ‘beating the crowds’ on overbooked air services at the time of special sporting events can also see significant numbers of vehicles on the road.

Crossings in the 1950s and earlier were significant, as most of the road back then was unmade dirt track. Round-Australia car trials (The Redex Trials) used the Nullarbor crossing for good photo shoots of cars negotiating poor track.’

Fortunately, these days, the road is no longer just made of dirt but still, the sheer distance when you set off, is quite daunting. Knowing there is no petrol station, no mobile signal, just you, your car and its contents made me thankful the car had 4 new tyres and a full service a week before we left Melbourne.

To give you an idea of how remote it is, every so often the road turns into a runway for flying doctor planes. I am not joking, look I have proof…

You are literally driving on the runway! Who the doctors could be treating, I have no idea, there are no houses and certainly no phones!

We set off early, probably a little too early but the time difference hadn’t changed from Adelaide and so it was still dawn at 6am. You should really avoid dawn, dusk and night-time driving given that you are much more likely to have kangaroos and the likes playing chicken with you. We were ready however, and had loaded the car. Given the enormous drive we had ahead of us we tentatively set off, taking it slow and steady.

Oh, there you go, another silo-town before we enter the wilderness!

One thing I forgot to mention in the other blogs about this journey are the South Australian signs on the side of roads. They are hilarious! Only in Australia could you get away with them.

They have a few of these long the roads, one refers to driving like a circular door handle (knob, in case you are a little slow). Here’s the link to another. Fortunately the kids were too engrossed in their little iPad heaven to pay attention and ask any questions!

After about 150km we hit Nundroo. The road after here runs through the Yalata Aboriginal land. You do not need a permit to travel along the main road but if you’re venturing off it, you’ll need to obtain one. This stretch of the road lasted another 150km or so when we found ourselves behind this car, which was in convoy with two other equally antique looking cars.

At this point, we were only a few minutes from the Nullarbor Roadhouse, the entrance to the Nullarbor. What were they thinking of?!

Matt was hoping we wouldn’t get stuck behind too many of these, and fortunately, we didn’t.

We filled up with petrol at the roadhouse and I had a chat with the guy there. I was asked what sort of wildlife they get there. He said they get dingoes, brown snakes oh and king brown snakes to name a few. Noice! Want to see what a roadhouse looks like? Look no further. Not exactly up to Hilton standards but when needs must…

As we set of we were reminded of other wildlife we may ‘bump’ into. In case you are looking at this road sign and thinking ‘Camels? CAMELS? In Australia?!’ There are more feral camels in Australia (1 million) than anywhere else in the world.

By now we had seen the terrain change and although there were bushes there really were no trees to speak of. The first thing would say is, yes it is remote, but you don’t feel anywhere near as isolated as you might expect. For some reason I felt more vulnerable in the drive from Port Augusta to Ceduna than here. I think maybe because it isn’t far away from the ocean it doesn’t feel quite as intense as other places where you are surrounded by deep bushland.

We stopped off (yes, an unscheduled stop, a first for us) to admire the view. It was truly breathtaking. Totally unspoilt, and truly spectacular. A kind man took this rare shot of all 4 of us together. I think maybe the kids are getting a little large for picking up!

Before we knew it, we were at Border Village. Good bye South Australia, hello Western Australia! We did a little ‘YAY’ to mark our arrival in WA. Well, Matt and I did and the kids stared blankly at us shaking their heads in disapproval. Border Village is home to a ‘Big Thing‘ known as Rooey II and a sign post to pretty much everywhere!

A while later we also went through a quarantine station and then were met by huge tablelands, the Nullabor Plains.

It was beautiful…and hot!

When you are in the middle of the longest drive you are ever going to do, what you don’t need is 42 degrees heat. Thank goodness for air-con. I have no idea how those guys in the morris minors got on. Unless somebody ‘pimped their ride’ I doubt they had air conditioning.

We also drove along the longest straight road in Australia. As you can see, there wasn’t so much of a kink in the road for 146.6 km (90 miles)! You could argue that it is the longest in the world. Highway 46 in North Dakota, USA, claims to be the longest straight road in the world, but that actually bends a little here and there around trees and rocks an the like, so, although it is apparently 123 miles long, I don’t think it can claim to be the longest. Of course, I may be a little biased.

You see the guy there? The one stopping to take the picture? I wasn’t afforded that luxury. Mine had to be a through the windscreen (aka bug cemetery) shot.

I can’t remember where we stopped again for petrol as all the towns, despite being 150 kms apart seemed to merge into one, but I do know that the next place we would stop would be Balladonia, our intended destination for the day, some 1000 kilometers from Ceduna. So, guess what we did? We did what would any rational person do on a 42 degrees day after already driving for ONE THOUSAND kilometers? They would, of course, fill up with petrol for the third time and decide to carry on for another 250 kms to Norseman.

In fairness, we had entered at least two different time zones that I knew of and so, throughout the day we had gained 2 and a half hours. How weird is that. Pretty normal for air travel, but in a car?! Gaining two and a half hours in the space of about 10 hours…that is just plain weird! So what better way to spend those hours than by knocking some more kilometers off the journey. A couple of hours later we arrived in Norseman having travelled over 1200 kilometers. Quite an achievement, even if I say so myself. It took me all my will power to not buy a t-shirt with plastic writing on the front saying ‘I crossed the Nullarbor and survived’. Even now l would be tempted if I happened to see one

I have bored you enough for one day so will tell you a little more about Norseman some other time. Until then, safe travels!

Melbourne to Perth – Day 3

rachaelturner — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 13:13:03 +0000

Day 3 was our chillax day. After spending over 16 hours in the car in the previous two days we figured we’d have a rest and summon up the energy/enthusiasm for the BIG drive the following day. The place we were staying was Ceduna. I am lead to believe you pronounce it ‘Sejuna’. It claims to be the oyster capital of Australia and holds an annual Oysterfest. More importantly to us, it is the last well inhabited place before the Nullarbor so was the perfect place for a little R & R. The fact that it has a beautiful foreshore may have also swayed our choice to stay there.

It was a good call stopping here for a day however, we did wonder what was going with the place. We were there in the middle of summer, 28 degrees, between Christmas and New Year and there was no-one else on the beach. Literally, no one else! Most peculiar, not that we minded having it to ourselves you understand. Tomorrow, we would take on the Nullarbor, so we bought extra food and bottles of water, just in case….

Melburne to Perth – Day Two

rachaelturner — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 14:11:18 +0000

We woke at the crack of dawn, actually just before dawn, as that half an hour time difference between Melbourne and Adelaide played tricks on us. Really, half an hour? What is all that about? Either don’t bother or make it an hour! Seriously, I find it hard enough trying to work out time differences around the world what with daylight savings and all, without adding a half hour into the mix!

Anyway, for whatever reason, we ended up on the road at 6:15am again. This time I made sure I had my camera bag beside me. The drive today would go from Adelaide to Ceduna, about 800 kms. Within no time of leaving Adelaide the terrain was very different.

There were wheat fields after more wheat fields, followed by, yes you guessed it, more wheat fields all the way to Port Augusta, where we stopped off for some brekky and a petrol fill up before carrying onward to Ceduna. We also came across our first Road Trains. These trucks can be pulling three and sometimes four carriages (or whatever their proper name is) behind them. Fortunately there were plenty of passing places.

We were still surrounded by wheat fields and we came to the (probably incorrect) conclusion that South Australia is basically a huge grain farm.

Seriously, you drive for hours and see nothing but wheat farms.

As I sat reading the map (there really wasn’t much other entertainment), I noticed a place name that piqued my interest. What was the name? I hear you ask….Iron Knob. Seriously, Iron Knob. Now I realised most of you wont be half as immature as me, but c’mon, cut me some sack, that’s funny.

For a good half hour, I bored Matt with various ways of fitting it into general conversation. Finally we arrived at Iron Knob and, much to my disappointment, it turned out to be a mine. The mine of a knob of iron. Darn those literal names. It could have been so much more amusing.

We also noticed that we could see every ‘town’ marked on the map way in advance as on the horizon you could see enormous grain silos. Look again at the road train photograph above and you will see these huge silos dominating the skyline. Most were owned by the same company, and in an effort to entertain ourselves, we made them the evil corporation who controlled the food supply in Australia. One of the said towns, Kimba, had, wait for it, a ‘BIG THING“. This time I had my camera ready. Given Matt’s ‘No Down Time’ policy, we were not permitted to stop so I had to shoot from the moving vehicle. Kimba’s big thing was…a big galah!

For those of you in the UK, the ‘flaming galah’ isn’t just something Alf Stewart made up for effect on Home & Away. As you can see they are beautiful pink cockatoos. Incidentally Kimba is apparently half way across Australia. Surely this means we must have made a fair amount of progress!

By this time the earth was red, full on Aussie red. How you imagine Australia would look in the desert. Small shrubs around yet still lots and lots of wheat farms.

We ploughed ahead (no pun intended), kids all the while still silent and entertained by their iPads. For us however, conversation was hitting a bit of a drought. Eight hours the day before, 5 hours today; I can talk with the best of them, but really, it had all been said. Matt realised some people would wave at us as they passed and he’d read that this is what you do over the Nullarbor whenever you pass another car. He’d just not expected it yet. So right there, he started The Ministry of Funny Waves. We had in depth discussions about technique and what each wave meant. There was a scale. Raising one finger means, okay I will wave at you, but I don’t really want to. Right through to the full hand wave. This is the person who is quite obviously too eager to please. Ahhh the fun we had discussing waves. After trying out a few options, Matt decided on the raising two fingers from your steering wheel wave. Friendly, but not overly friendly. We are British after all. Can’t be too familiar. Look, don’t judge. If you ever do this drive, you will know you find anything to break the monotony of the road. The long, seemingly endless road.

Finally, after about 8 hours, the road brought us to Ceduna, where we would stay for two nights. We had again managed to only stop the once for food and petrol and again the kids had been little stars.

Two driving days down, three to go…..

Melbourne to Perth – Day One

rachaelturner — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 13:14:51 +0000

There is something you should know about my husband. He is competitive. We have to do things faster than everyone else. We once managed to cover all four of Disney’s ‘kingdoms’ in 2 days. Normal people spend 2 weeks there. They don’t however spend it with my husband. Still, I don’t think that example demonstrates just quite what he is like. Okay, another story. Years ago, we went to Universal Studios in California with two friends. Matt got hold of a map on entry. That was a mistake. Give a map to Matt and it’s his cue to plan the visit. He then scans the map, prioritises attractions and rides and then we follow. More than that, we have to do it FASTER than anyone else has EVER done it in the history of theme park visiting. I am used to it so just go with the flow our friends weren’t.

“What? You mean it is not normal for adults to run between rides?”

“Hurry up will you, if we don’t get to this show we will have to wait until the next one in 2 hours and that coincides with another show and, well, that means that whole day is shifted back 2 hours. Seriously, step on it.”

“No, I’m sorry, there just isn’t time for a toilet break. It doesn’t fit in the schedule.”

“No, you will have to wait until lunch for a drink….no dead time.”

This was the holiday we named Matt ‘Competitive Dad’. He wasn’t even a father at the time. Now, I must admit he has mellowed over the years, kids don’t fit into schedules, but he was never going to be the guy who took his time with a leisurely drive from Melbourne to Perth. Oh no, unscheduled stops would not be tolerated

We set off from Melbourne on 27th December at 6:15 am (15 minutes late so I am told). I soon realised that my camera bag was in the boot, darn that food that was by my feet. Surely documenting the trip was more important that eating?

The first part of the journey was terrain we had already seen when visiting Ballarat and, if I am being honest, the rest of the road to Adelaide all looked pretty much the same. It was fairly green and every so often we drove through a small town which, much to Matt’s annoyance, meant the speed limit reduced. Did they not know we needed to get to our first stop, Adelaide, as soon as possible? One town we drove through/past was, Stawell, home of the Big Koala. For those of you who are unfamiliar with Australia, some towns around the country have what are known as Big Things that are a like a visitor attraction. Anyway, Stawell has a giant koala. I didn’t get a chance to photograph it for you, as my camera was in the boot and there was no way we’d be able to stop the car for such a trivial reason. Don’t worry there will be more ‘Big Things’ to report on, and you may even be lucky enough to have a photograph of some. I know, you don’t need to tell me, you can’t wait.

Some time after Stawell, we stopped off (about 3 hours into the journey) and refueled, did a quick trip to the toilet, and were back on the road again within 5 minutes. The next time we stopped we were at the hotel in Adelaide! Seriously, I am not joking. A 900 km journey, with two kids, with only a 5 minute stop for petrol. Maybe children can fit into the ‘Competitive Dad’ schedule after all. iPads, it would seem, are the perfect tool for keeping children entertained on a long trip. Prior to setting off we had uploaded them with films, games, scrap books, reading books and anything we could possibly imagine might be of interest. It worked like a dream. I promise, we had to actually tap their knees to disturb them to make sure they were okay.

No “Are we nearly there yet?” every 5 minutes.

No moaning about being bored.

No prodding, name calling and generally annoying each other each.

No “He’s put his foot on my side of the car.”

No, “She keeps looking out of my window.”

No anything.

Matt and I may have been guilty of some of the above but the kids were fantastic. We have truly had much harder 5 minute car trips to the local shops.

As we approached Adelaide from the East I was surprised by how hilly and green it was, only 20 kilometers from the CBD. We were very close to the city before it was built up which I really hadn’t expected.

We checked into the hotel and then went out to Adelaide’s streets which were packed with people trying to get a post-Christmas sale bargain. We gave the kids a well deserved treat.

The main shopping street was full of surprises….

This arcade wouldn’t have been out of place in Melbourne.

After a walk around and a meal, we headed back to the hotel for an early night. We had another big drive ahead of us tomorrow.

Prepare for a Road Trip

rachaelturner — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 09:45:43 +0000

Given that Matt and I are possibly certifiable we thought it would be a good idea to drive across Australia, in the height of summer, with the kids. As you do. Whenever we told people about our chosen method of travel to Perth there was always a variation of the same response. Most tried to hide it. Hide their horror! Some were better at hiding it than others. There was always this mix of firstly half smiling, to see if I was having a laugh and winding them up. After concentrating on my expression and realising I meant it, their eye brows would frown and they would do this quick intake of breath, and puff out with words. The words varied from “Are you insane”, to “You’re brave, good luck.” Some would try to make me feel better by adding, “I’m sure that will be interesting” with an attempt at a smile.

The truth is, I wasn’t bothered about the journey itself. I convinced myself everything would be okay, I mean, it’s only 5 days, what the worse that can happen?! Some might call this reckless, I just say positive! I was however concerned about the monotony of the journey for the kids. We decided that there was only one thing for it. We needed the ultimate tool for lazy parenting, iPads… plus headphones… the angry birds theme music can become every so slightly annoying after 5 straight hours. Fortunately, our trip started on 27th December, perfect timing for Xmas pressies.

The fact that our trip coincided with Xmas also posed a problem…what to do with the mountain of pressies. The removalists had already sent our container ahead of us to Perth. We didn’t want a roof rack or trailer as we wanted to stay as light as possible. I’m not ashamed to admit that I did contemplate leaving the kids. Calm down, I’m only joking but, really, we would have had so much more room with the back seats empty Instead, we met friends on Boxing day and ~~dumped~~ gifted them a load of stuff. With that and, the magic that is, vacuum sealed bags, we were all set.

On 27th December at 6:15am we commenced the first part of our 3500 km journey.

First stop, Adelaide.

To be continued…..

Family Shoot in St Kilda : Part 2

rachaelturner — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 13:08:28 +0000

Back in December I did Part 1 to this blog and so this is ever so slightly overdue. We did the shoot at a couple of locations by the beach in St Kilda, Melbourne and despite a very rainy forecast, we were graced with great weather. In true Melburnian style the clouds enveloped the sky just as we finished for the morning. Thank you Mother Nature.

Mrs J, I am so pleased that no only did you choose me to photograph your gorgeous children but that you also chose such a great location. Your girls are such lovely young women doting on their little brother. Heart warming to see. Wishing you all every success in 2012 with your different paths. R x

We’re alive!

rachaelturner — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 01:12:29 +0000

I have been such a slacker lately, and just realised I hadn’t even checked in to say we had actually arrived in Perth safe and sound. I don’t have time to do the journey justice today, so will save that for another time, but just wanted to say we made it across this amazing country in one piece and here’s an image I took of the stunning Australian Bight from the Nullarbor.

Until we meet again….

rachaelturner — Mon, 26 Dec 2011 02:47:03 +0000

Two and a half years ago we arrived in Australia as wet behind the ears immigrants. We knew nothing and had to hit the ground running. Different currency, road signs, shops, and a strange thing called Manchester. It turns out Manchester does not refer to a large Northern English City but actually bedding. Who knew? Very quickly my husband found out that the way we English pronounce ‘router’ is quite inappropriate. Asking a lady for a router in a shop raises eyebrows.

Tomorrow we are setting off on our journey to Perth, WA where we are moving to. We are driving there with the kids. Yes, you are right. We have a screw loose. Who in their right minds drives to Perth from Melbourne with a 5-year-old and a 7-year-old? In our defence, we figured it would be a rare chance to drive one-way so we decided to go for it. We’re viewing it more as an adventure and I hope to be able to report on our journey when (if) we arrive in Perth.

When we decided to move to Perth one thing we hadn’t banked on was missing friends here in Melbourne. You take it for granted that it will be easy, given that we left everything and everybody we knew, family included, when we left the UK. The truth is, we have made some fabulous friends who we will miss dearly and, you know what, I have a feeling we will miss Melbourne also. Melbourne, we leave you with two children who now consider themselves Australian, fantastic memories and wonderful friends. It has been a pleasure. Until we meet again….adios!

‘Twas the night before Christmas

rachaelturner — Sat, 24 Dec 2011 09:43:50 +0000

‘Twas the night before Christmas

and in our temporary house

we put reindeer food on the roof terrace

let’s hope it doesn’t just attract a mouse

This Reindeer food is so cute. It came from one of Marcus’ classmates with a little poem:

Sprinkle on the lawn at night

The moon will make it sparkle bright

As Santa’s reindeer fly and roam

This will guide them to your home

I hope you all have a peaceful Christmas with loved ones and that most of you found your way on to nice list. The main man checks the list twice you know.

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!