Welcome to the next installment in my Roadtrip Australia series!
This is a long one, so grab a coffee and settle in.
Our next planned roadtrip was to Uluru... over Christmas. Roadtripping over a holiday period, and also at the hottest time of year. We spent months planning where we would go and what we would do. And how we would cope in 45+ degree heat (have you seen my pale skin!). It was also our first trip with the new ute setup - I will write about our camping setup soon.
I am a planner by nature, and so I mapped out our route, and how long each section of the drive should take, along with points of interest at each point we would pass by.
If that is something you would be interested in seeing (the planning phase) leave a comment!
This was also the moment I learnt how to use Instagram. My colleague at work made me some laminated sheets based on my itinerary, and hashtagged everything so I knew what to say. Hilarious! I kinda had to go rogue on the tags when the roadtrip spiralled off the plan, but it was very cute.
What I am going to share here is the actual roadtrip we ended up doing... because we definitely didn't make it to Uluru on this trip!
But when things go wrong, all you can do is keep going! We still had a fabulous trip, just not the one we planned for.
Before I start, it is probably important to note that a few days before we were due to leave on this trip, Mack had to change the water pump on the ute. This is probably a HUGE warning sign for anyone going on a trip that maybe you shouldn't go in case other things aren't good either. But we did anyway haha. I will cover this more in the Ultimate Guide (coming soon), but if people like us, who know how big Australia is and how remote you can be, and are probably over prepared for everything and know what they are in for, can still get stranded in the desert, I cannot even begin to imagine how many unprepared people end up there too!
So here we go!
The trip: Sydney - Dubbo - Broken Hill - Peterborough - Port Pirie - Blanchetown - Renmark - Lake Boga - Albury/Holbrook - Kangaroo Valley - Sydney
Day one - late night driving
Starting a roadtrip after you finish your normal day job is a bit of a mission, but I would highly recommend it if you're heading off on a big journey, and the first 5 hours is destined to be a whole lot of not much! We got on the road around 6pm, and basically drove as far as we could before we got too tired. When we roadtrip, Mack drives, and I am co-pilot - it is essential that you make sure you have a co-pilot who will stay awake for these journeys.
On the way, we detoured to a lookout point in the Blue Mountains that we hadn't been to before - detours also super important on a roadtrip. You never know what you will find.
We then used Wikicamps to select a place to sleep for the night (Currayong Creek) - more on Wikicamps in another blog.
Day two - long drives in the desert
When we travel, getting up at 5am is pretty normal! Make the most of your days, especially if you're looking down the barrel of a 10+ hour driving day.
On this day, we also got woken up by an enormous beetle that had made its way into our bed haha!
We drove from Currayong Creek through Yarrobil National Park on the dirt roads pretty much all the way to Dubbo. Whilst we were in Dubbo, we went to Western Plains Zoo. Even if you are not a fan of the zoo experience... Western Plains is pretty cool!
As you drive along the highway away from Dubbo towards Cobar (I say 'highway'... I mean very long straight road with 1 lane each way), the landscape gets more dry, and the dirt gets more red. I love it! We stopped at Cobar for lunch (I think it was about 4 hours from Dubbo), and had a little explore through the heritage centre and the mines.
Cobar is the only large town, other than Broken Hill (which was 5 hours more), so we settled in for a big drive, aiming to do it in one big go.
the sign heading out of Cobar
Then we hit our first problem.
We pulled over at a rest stop to have a stretch, and as he always does, Mack checked over the car just in case. This particular time, our car was puking coolant - and not just a little bit. Now, I know absolutely nothing about cars, but I can tell you now that when you are in the desert on your own with no phone reception and your car develops a problem, you learn pretty damn quickly!
I am fortunate enough to have a boy who knows a whole lot about cars, and we also packed a whole lot of tools and parts just in case. But this was not good.
The car wasn't overheating heaps, and so we could still drive, so we did. The nearest town was Wilcannia - a town that back in Dubbo, a local man had told us that, no matter what, do not stop in Willcannia. Of course. So we powered through there with 200km to Broken Hill. But after driving slower, stopping continuously to let the car cool, and trying to keep the coolant under control, we didn't make it.
We were 70km out of Broken Hill, at a roadhouse in Litte Topar (thank you Wikicamps!) when we decided we might cook the engine and therefore should stop. Mack thought it was o-rings (this was the first time I really started learning about engines haha), so after we had a beer to relax a bit, Mack took the engine apart (with the help of some little helpers) and replaced the o-rings he thought it was and put the car back together. We took it for a test drive, and it was significantly worse. Oops.
At this point we actually didn't know what to do. At all. So we went to bed, and decided to deal with it in the morning!
I will say though. The landscape was gorgeous. And the stars were insane. And there are certainly much worse places to be stranded.
Day three - broken down in Broken Hill
The new day brought new adventure. Mack wanted to have another go at the o-rings, so we took the engine apart, again, and put it back together, again. And set off. We only had to make it 70km to a big town! We probably made it... 10km? Before we decided we actually needed help.
Now. Getting help with no phone reception. This will be covered soon in another blog, but the short version is that we had just purchased a satellite messenger thing right before we left in case this happened (think EPIRB for boats, but more of a one way messaging system). So we had the capability to send a message to Mack's parents to get them to send help.
Since it is a one way system, we could send one preset message to them, and only hope that they received it! But they did, and 50 minutes later a tow truck arrived.
I won't go into the specifics about our experience with the mechanic, because that isn't why you're here. They fixed it (or so we thought), and we spent the rest of the day exploring Broken Hill, specifically the Sculpture Walk. If you are ever in Broken Hill, definitely worth a visit.
Typically we will try and free camp where we can, but this time we paid about $12pp to stay at the Tourist Park - showers and power were worth it.
Random fun fact: Broken Hill is in a different time zone (30 minutes behind Sydney).
Day four - Christmas Eve
We woke at 0430 on this day to try and make up time from yesterday. We could still make it to Uluru in time!
We crossed the border into South Australia... and then the car started overheating again. We had only gone about 150km. So not great. Mack tried everything he knew - topping up coolant, looking to buy a new radiator cap (not easy in Outback Australia) and driving slower. Nothing worked.
We pushed it to Peterborough (3 hours from BH), but decided it was time to call it. We were not going to Uluru this time. Given that it was SO hot (pushing 45 degrees), and it was Christmas so everything was closed, and there was pretty much no phone reception, it just wasn't going to he safe.
Whilst the car cooled down, we explored Peterborough, which is a super old world town. With a really cool steam train museum. I don't know if we got so excited about this museum because it was a distraction from the car, or if it really was as cool as we thought it was. But definitely on my recommended list! Very very interesting.
Mack's parents set about helping us, by finding us a way home that would take us through the most amount of towns, with the smallest gaps between them. We then headed to Port Pirie, which was the nearest big town. We worked out we could drive 80km/h without the car over heating haha. Can you imagine on country roads where everyone else is driving 120! But we made it. And we settled in - because it was now the evening right before Christmas Day and pretty much everything would be closed for at least 3 days.
Day five - Christmas Day
Christmas Day was fairly relaxed. We sat and played board games, and tried to hide from the 48 degree sun, all day. It wasn't adventuring in Kings Canyon, but we made the most of it.
We did go for a walk around the town (big port town, nothing too exciting to report on); we also found a pretty nature walk.
On our walk, we discovered that the boxing day sales might save us - our Boxing Day plan was now a Repco visit!
Day six - South Australian Repco Tour
Our visit to the Port Pirie Repco didn't yield any success; our nearest radiator for our car was 200km away. So off we went! Driving 80 down country roads, hoping we make it without overheating haha! Picked up the radiator... and then had to travel to a third Repco for hoses.
Played monopoly at a rest stop on the side of the highway whilst the car cooled down, and then changed the radiator. Learnt how to burp a car (who knew that was a thing), and then started driving again. Wound up in Blanchetown for the night and paid for a cabin at the Tourist Park because the day had been SO long, and talked to the very lovely owner and his friend, to bounce ideas for the car off each other because it was still heating up. Had a lovely evening, decompressing from the adventures so far.
Day seven - holiday time
Feeling fresh from a good night's sleep (sometimes paying for a cabin is just worth it!), we set out on what was now our Murray River tour. First up was breakfast in Renmark, followed by walking along the river.
Points of interest: Lock 5, and then the sandbar. Drive up to the lookout - fabulous area, with heaps of olives and grapes.
Take a little detour here and head to the Woolshed Brewery. We got the tasting paddle - great beer. Definitely try their Hard Lemonade also!
From Remark, we aimed for Mildura, where we drove along the river, and took a stroll through the sculpture garden in front of the art gallery.
From there we drove through Swan Hill (with the big fish), and stayed in Lake Boga for the evening.
Fun fact: the 27th December marks the start of a lot of family vacations because Christmas is now over and they still have 5 weeks of holidays left. Book early!
Day eight - cutting the adventure short
After wandering around Lake Boga, we grabbed brekkie in Swan Hill, and then spent half the day wandering around the Pioneer Settlement.
It is a little pricey if you're on a budget, but if you have the time and the funds to check this out, definitely do. A really cool replica old town.
At some point throughout the day, we stumbled across an old steam train station, and we took some pics. Cannot for the life of me remember where this was though!
Driving along the Murray River should be a roadtrip in its own right. It isn't the desert trip we were prepared for, but it really was spectactular.
We finished this trip by heading home through VIC, stopping at Holbrook for the night. If you are ever passing through Holbrook, I would highly recommend the hotel/pub there for a beer and a schnitzel. We also found a really nice, quiet free camp there to stay the night, before heading home the next day.
We drove through Kangaroo Valley on the way home for lunch, but the car started to struggle at that point, so we didn't stay very long.
Wooaaah. OK.
There we go!
I did get a little side tracked on the tourism and focused on breaking down, but that was pretty much the trip we had haha.
There are lots of points I touched on that require a whole lot more information, so keep following this series to learn more!
Until then, I hope you enjoyed this read (if you made it this far).
Join me next week for the real Uluru adventure!
Hx
