just out of curiousity

Have Kids - Will travel!!

I travel because :

1. I can and will

2.Been on enough planes over seas to know that Oz is my home and I want to explore it.

3. What else are we going to do with our spare time!!

4. We might find somehwere to live - preferably the middleof nowhere!!

5. I would like it to be my job

Wayne you are so right - the price of fuel cannt stop us,nor the price of food or coke!! The history is just amazing - reading the stories of places like the Dig tree and the like...people - well i havent travelled enough to meet anyone that really sticks in my head - will oneday though i spose....

Hey Wayne - how'd you manage to get a job that involves travelling - make a girl jealous or what!!LOL!!

Laura

Laura B...

Taking the kids with you is definitely a great thing to do. You are there with them when they experience all this good stuff and see the wonder on their faces. My kids came everywhere with us until they got too older and we were'nt "cool" anymore. They're 26 and 30 now and are both in Edinburgh, travelling around the world. They are so glad that when someone over there asks them questions like.."have you been to Uluru, Great Barrier Reef, Kakadu" etc they can tell them all about those places.

A lot of my friends say they can't put up with the kids in the car for such long trips..but I say that this is where the family really bonds. The kids get to see mum and dad as fellow adventurers and everyone is a team.

On the cost of fuel well..everyone of us who loves to travel won't let that stop us, I agree. We just find ways to economise in other areas.

Wayne is one lucky person to combine job with travel...I'm envious too.

Good on you and happy travels

Wayne,

You're right about the history pre 236 years ago. That is another of the things that enhances our appreciation of our land and its people. It surely gives us an education that we don't get in our schools.

Laura and Vivien,

I am lucky to have a job that involves driving around Australia in a 4wd.

I am even more lucky that I have a family that allows me to be away for all the public holidays. New year, Easter, Anzac Day, Queens Birthday and Labour day are times that I am not at home. I will also be on tour for 20 weeks later this year.

I have missed Eliza's birthday a few time and Belinda, well she dose not want to count anymore but I am very rarely at home for her either. I have spent the last 5 years in the Kimberly on my birthday so it is just another day.

I will keep doing the job until either I stop like doing it or my family ask me to stop.

To get a job like this, Well I just made a phone call about 10years ago and got the job. That easy.

Wayne

Wayne,

You are lucky in a lot of ways but I understand that it comes at a cost and that for us to say how great it is doesn't take that in.

You must totally love the times that you do spend with your family and they the same with you.

So in a way we travel when we can and when it suits us. You love it but you have to go at times when you would like to be at home.

Thanks for your responses to my question...appreciate them very much

Good reply, Wayne..........just about the same for me.

I started road travelling in the early 60's whilst in the RAN, on my long weekends and during leave periods, [actually .... when I didn't have bags of dirty washing to take home for my Mum!] I'm now closer to 70 than I am to 60 !!!
In those days I was a Holden station wagon man, [1961 EJ with a white roof and a white steering wheel ...... we're talking real cooool, here?] no roof rack and a metal Malleys esky ......... and an ordinary bottle jack that came with the wagon.

We [mates and I .... normally just us two] travelled all over NSW/Vic/SA/Qld and had an absolute blast, camping out most nights under canvas and poles, with airbeds that were magnets for every sort of bindi and 2-cornered jack within 50 metres [yards in them days, though.] We lived on rabbits, yabbies, home-made beer [from Adelaide law-breakers] and baked beans .... in them days shooting baked beans was legal!!!!!!!!

We fuelled our wagons from hand-pumped gravity-fed fuel pumps [Ampol and Golden Fleece!] and consumed huge amounts of VB in shady outback pubs and told extraordinary lies to the locals about our Navy adventures.

Of course, when we got back to our ships, we told just as many extraordinary lies to our shipmates about our outback adventures ........... but matelots never did let the facts get in the way of a good story !!!

And we ended up seeing vast areas of Aus. with hardly any real problems with vehicles [worst was 2 flats within an hour of each other just out of Maree in SA ..... I mean, how bad is that? .... which didn't bother us on account we had 2 spares that trip !]

Now ...... with fancy vehicles [see below!] and Engels and generators and extra batteries and roofracks and mobile phones and 2-way radios and hi-lifts ..............
oh, and don't forget the rules, regulations and laws ........ it seems that the need is still in us to do the same stuff again, albeit with a greater degree of comfort but a lot more restrictions ?

And now with a trusty Troopy [well, mostly ?] the trips are much more adventurous, being more off-road and we [I'm married now] stay away for longer and furtherererer [sounds wrong] .......... it just that the repairs and replacements on the vehicles and gear need part of the National Debt to pay for them.

But ..... there is still the strong uplift that comes with 'getting ready for a trip' and a feeling of 'hunter/gatherer' emotion that engenders self-satisfaction somehow.
Some put up with the roads and travails and just want the destination ............ me, I love the travelling as much as getting there.
Even when the RRRRRR's end falls of the transmission and the Engels flattens the battery and the Beagle vomits down the window slot and SHMBO says
" and is this what you call fun ?????" .......... even then it still a good feeling.

You just have to remember the feeling you get when it is time to pack up ...me, I put off for as long as possible..... 'cause to get back means even more restrictions, rules, limitations,hassles, injustices that we must tolerate in order to fit in and be accepted ....... the camping bit allows us just a wee respite from all this ? And, when you are out there ......... in the wilderness, you are totally responsible for every consequence of every action you take .... there ain't no-one else to blame.

Looks like I got a bit over-enthusiastic there, anyway ... thats part of why I like what I do !!!!

Must be some truth in the sayings of the bush guru One-Hand Clapping:
Whatever thy Heart findeth to d o .......... DO IT WITH ALL THY MIGHT !!

Wow Pedro!!

What a great reply!!

Pedro,

I have to agree with Vivien, What a great reply.

Wayne

Loved your reply Pedro. Ease up on the poor beagle mate. He'd just want to get out and sniff around hahaha

Predro,
Restrictions all right!!!!

You got it dead right - what happened to the simplicity of life???!!! Everything use to be done so easily - none of this just in case bizo - all htough it does help!!

And the old trusty EJ's - now we need 4wd to do the same roads - says something about cars these days!!!LOL

Navy stories - they never end!! Worked with a guy who was in the Navy for 30 yrs - never heard the same story stwice and now father-in-law...army 25yrs and still never hear the same story twice!!!!

Laura B

Hello Shaker,

You were not far from where we are...and that is certainly great country in the Big Desert. We also have horses and sometimes go riding in the sand dunes around Lake Albacutya...pretty good driving around there too.

We are lucky in this great country to have such a diversity of places where we can go an enjoy ourselves.

It is typical, we have lived in Victoria all our lives, yet have never been anywhere near that area, other than driving past to Mildura, or on our way somewhere else.
We had a great time, & we were amazed just how desert like it is ..... in Victoria!!
We loved the Milmed Rock Track, & were pleased we managed to get through with the camper trailer with no problems.

Well if you get back this way there are lots of other places you'd enjoy. Have you been to Wyperfeld National, the Sunset Country and then right up to the Murray River and Lindsay Island?

They are all great places to visit and camp.

The Milmed Rock Track goes right across Wyperfield NP doesn't it?
There were quite a few other tracks in that area we would like to try, we did get to Chinaman's Well.

You are right that Milmed Rock is in the area encompassed by Wyperfeld on the maps but having grown up in this area it isn't what we think of as Wyperfeld NP. You access through Yaapeet and the main camping ground is around the area we called Wonga Hut. So, it's further north from where you were. There is a further entry point at Pine Plains which you enter via Patchewollock. When I was little you could go up to Wyperfeld and drive anywhere..lots of dry lake beds etc. Nowadays there is a track that takes you through the park. It's still worth a trip though. You can camp around the edges of Lake Albacutya as well...basic but there are toilets etc there. In the same area is a beautiful old stone church at Pella which has a pipe organ that is classified by the national trust. If you ask the lady at the closest farm house (you can't miss it) she has the key and you can go in to look. If you keep driving further north from Patchewollock to Walpeup and the highway..turn left and head to Underbool that takes you into the Sunset Country..first stop is the Pink Lakes which is a nice camp ground...There are lots of great tracks to take there and you can head west to Taplan Gate into SA and follow the track up to Lindsay Island on the Murray

There is another pretty area, not on the maps called Wathe Reserve and you get to that via Hopetoun.

Footloose,

As "bugs" go that is one of the best ones that can ever be passed on!! It's an inheritance that is more valuable than gold!! Good on ya!!

I am with you on the subject that you could go back to places that you've been and find new things to do and see there.

Best wishes

hey vivien
your not up near patchewallock are you
we used to shoot rabbits around there
just thinking about it and realised its about 30 yrs ago jeez time flies when your having fun
have to agree about fuel prices and travelling
my wife and i agreed when we bought the nissan and van that we just paid the going price for fuel as the areas we travel have to live as well and we try to spread our few dollars across as many places as we can
i normally carry 2 jerry cans of deisel for emergency use and most times put it in on the final leg home (my missus reckons its like a dummy for me)im just happy to know its there and we fill up where ever, only had 1 lot of really crook fuel in the last 5 years and next trip north i wont stop at 3ways for fuel

steve

Steve,

I live pretty close to Patchewollock and there are still plenty of rabbits up there!!

It's true that if you really love to travel you will do whatever it takes so you can keep on doing it.

We head off at the end of July and I am counting down the days.

Best wishes to you and maybe you might get back up to Patchewollock again some time..

Thanks Laura,

When we did our very first trip to the Northern Territory we stopped at Longreach Qld on the way...sat around the campfire in the Gunnadoo Caravan Park where they played Slim Dusty songs. We had a tape of Ted Egan singing about the drovers and the early settlers and as we headed northward that's what we felt like ...the early pioneers. The feeling never left me and still when I head off that's the way I feel.

You're right we live in a lucky country and we are so fortunate to have the freedom to travel and explore and enjoy it.

Seems like you and I are going to be on "the track" at the same time....hopefully our paths might cross one day.

All the best....

You're right Doug...we only get one chance at this life so we'd best fill it up with all the things that are worthwhile....

all the best to you