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New Releases Camping And Travel In Australia Books

admin — Sun, 06 Nov 2011 21:08:29 +0000

All these Camping and Travel In Australia Books have been released in 2011. Just what you need to help you plan your next exciting camping, road trip holiday.

Budget Camps and Stops Australia

Camping Around Tasmania

Cool Camping Australia: East Coast

Camping Around Northern Territory

1000 Great Places Travel with Kids in Australia

Back Roads Australia (DK Eyewitness Travel Back Roads)

Travel Australia

Explore Australia by Caravan and Motorhome

West Coast Australia Footprint Handbook (Footprint Handbooks)

Pet Accommodation on Australia’s East Coast

Explore Australia 2012

To the Top End: Our Trip Across Australia

Complete Caravan Chef

Holiday in South Australia

Holiday in Western Australia: Free and Low-cost Stops

Great Gift Ideas For Anyone Who Loves Camping and Travelling Australia

The Red Centre Experience the Outback Northern Territory

admin — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 01:03:49 +0000

My family has travelled to the Red Centre on several trips, every time is an awesome experience. All these places are unique and must see places – Alice Springs, McDonnell Ranges, Simpson Desert, Uluru. Palm Valley, Kings Canyon, Chambers Pillar and many more amazing places. Here are some photos of these spectacular destinations.

Alice Springs is surrounded by the MacDonnell Ranges, this photo shows us driving between the MacDonnell Ranges at the entrance to Alice Springs. There is plenty to do and discover like the aboriginal art, culture and history, Alice Springs Desert Park, Flying Doctors, School of The Air. Alice Springs is famous for the boat race on the Todd River and the annual Camel races.

Uluru – Ayers Rock and the Olgas are spectacular, driving towards Uluru is absolutely just mesmerising, the view from the top is incredible and so is the walk around the base.

The Olgas are quite different as it is a cluster of domes that you can walk amongst.

Kings Canyon is a massive chasm that is in Watarrka National Park. You can walk around the top edge and also through the valley that has permanent waterholes and lush vegetation. This very spectacular 270 metre deep chasm is worth visiting.

Palm Valley is in Finke Gorge National Park and accessible from the Mereenie Loop (4WD vehicles only) and about 2 hours drive from Alice Springs. This photo was take 5 minutes walk from the campground, you need to drive to the valley and then you can have a beautiful walk for several hours exploring Palm Valley.

Ormiston Gorge is about 135 kilometres west of Alice Springs on the Larapinta trail. Another spectacular place to visit, this photos shows where you walk in and then you can walk around the corner, sit on the rocks and be amazed.

Chambers Pillar is about 160 kilometres south of Alice Springs, this photo was taken from the campground, a very unusual sight. The pillar is about 50 metres high and originally was surrounded by soft stone which has been washed away over hundereds of years.

Everywhere in the Red Centre is spectacular with so much to see, you could easily spend a couple of months touring the Outback in Northern Territory.

Driving And Exploring Outback Queensland and New South Wales

admin — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 22:49:23 +0000

Driving the Outback is an exciting experience and adventure, outback Queensland and New South Wales has many wonderful and interesting places and attactions to visit.

This map shows Where the Barkly Highway crosses into Queensland to Mount Isa and then continue driving south through Charlieville to Dubbo.

This is the itinerary that we travelled when my family drove through OutBack Queensland and New South Wales on our ‘First Big Trip’. This was an amazing trip through this unique part of Australia.

Day 1 Barkly Homestead to Mount Isa.

We left from Barkly Homestead on the Stuart Highway and drive cross the Queensland border to Mount Isa. Which is very much a mining town. We stayed in a Caravan Park and went to the Mining Museum in the morning and then drove to Winton via Mckinlay.

Day 2– Mount Isa to Winton

We left Mount Isa and drove to Mckinlay, which is home to the ‘Walkabout Creek Hotel’ famous for the ‘Crocodile Dundee’ Movies. This one is a replica for tourists not the original shown in the movie. Still great to see, we had a beer there of course

We then drove to Winton. When we got closer we saw on the map that a gravel road looked shorter. Guess what! It wasn’t! So we arrived about 6 oclock. Most places were booked out, luckily the North Gregory Hotel had 2 rooms, so each family squeezed into each room using some of our own bedding. Turned out to be a great adventure, kids loved it. We had our tea there and the hosts were terrific. The water did smell like ‘rotten egg gas’ which was not good

The North Gregory Hotel is where Banjo Paterson first sung ‘Waltzing Matilda’ unfortunately the hotel has burnt down 4 times since then so it was not the original hotel. A museum has been built called the ‘Waltzing Matilda Centre’ dedicated to Banjo Paterson

Day 3 & 4 – Winton to Longreach

We left Winton QLD and headed for Longreach. We setup camp in a caravan park and did the usual shopping to stock up and looked around Longreach. Longreach is home of the famous ‘Stockmans Hall of Fame’ which we visited the next day.

The ‘Stockmans Hall of Fame’ really was worth the visit, full of Australia’s farming and outback history, being farmers ourselves it made it even more interesting. The displays have been creating in many ways to make them more interesting and interactive. The building itself is made of timber, stone and corrugated iron and is very unique and was opened in 1988.

Day 5 – Longreach to Blackall

We left Longreach and travelled to Blackall, set up camp . Blackall has an Aquatic Centre with a Olympic size pool with a spa, but the difference the water is from an artesian bore. So the water was very warm even in the big pool, the spa was beautiful, nearly too hot to get into. We did stay there for quite awhile and relaxed.

Day 6 & 7 – Blackall to Charlieville

We drove to Charlieville. The first night of our trip in Port Augusta on TV the Charlieville Camel Races were advertised to be on 21^st – 23^rd July, so we worked out itinerary so that we could be at Charlieville for the Camel Races.

The next day was an amazing day, first we walked to the Camel Races which was about 10 minutes away. About 6pm was a rodeo and after that was a Troy Cassar-Daley concert.

Camel races are great fun, they also had yabby races, shearing competitions, feral goat races and more. The camels were funny, one ran the wrong way, they wouldn’t go when supposed too and we found it’s best to always bet on the favourite, they seem to always win

Later we went to the Rodeo and the Troy Cassar Daley concert, both were excellent and we were exhausted

Day 8 – Charlieville to Bourke

Day 9 – Bourke To Dubbo

My Experience Of Visiting Coober Pedy

admin — Sun, 04 Apr 2010 03:43:46 +0000

This is my experience of visiting Coober Pedy when my family went on our ‘Our First Big Trip’ travelling Australia. This involved camping as much as we could, seeing and experiencing this amazing country. My family have been to Coober Pedy three times now, every time we are amazed how unique it is.

Coober Pedy Facts

Coober Pedy is an opal mining town located on the Stuart Highway between Alice Springs and port Augusta in the outback of South Australia.
Coober Pedy is renowned for its underground living, due to the harsh climate of the region and for being the largest producer of opals.
Coober Pedy can be found 850 kilometres north of Adelaide and 680 kilometres south of Alice Springs.
Coober Pedy has a population of approximately 4000 people, most live in underground dwellings.
There are approximately 400 aboriginals living in Coober Pedy. They originally named the town and the translated meaning is ‘white man’s burrow’.
There is many underground, caravan parks, motels and hotels for travelers to stay – an extremely unique experience.

In July 2000 my family and friends from Melbourne embarked on our ‘First Big Trip’ travelling from Victoria, up the Stuart Hwy to Darwin, Kakadu and returned to Victoria via Outback Queensland and New South Wales. We arrived home absolutely amazed at what we had experienced and can’t wait for the next trip.

This trip was for 6 weeks and we travelled about 10,000kms. Click Here for the Itinerary.

As we drove into Coober Pedy first thing you see is dirt and more dirt in the shape of mullock heaps, certainly not very inviting. But once you get into the town it has a very unique appeal.

We had planned to stay for 2 nights and not booked any accommodation, but had the plan to camp at Stuart Range Caravan Park. So we drove in and drove over to the camping area and realised there was no way a tent peg could be hit into ground as hard as a rock. New plan – stay in a motel room – much easier than camping anyway.

Looking around town the first thing I noticed that there was not a blade of grass, the only plants I saw were two pot plants outside a shop. Gardens just didn’t exist as there is limited water and the heat gets to extreme temperatures in summer. There is at least 10 or more Opal shops, we looked in most of them and they started to all look the same, but the owners were interesting they all had a story to tell or something special to show. There is some very impressive opals and with prices to match.

There is a full range of accommodation, several kms out of town camping can be done underground which sure would be unique, you can stay in underground homes, various motels, hotels even a 5 star underground hotel, the Desert Cave Hotel we had a look in the foyer, unfortunately that’s all we could do, would be a special place to stay.

There is a terrific lookout in the main street where I took the above photos, they show how barren Coober Pedy is. Even the football oval is dirt, the gold course has to be one of a kind, dirt for fairways and the ‘greens’ are definitely not green, they are dirt mixed with oil so they have a black appearance, a very unique experience for golfers

The main street has the usual things newsagent, supermarket, fuel, post office, takeaway food – we can recommend the pizza shop – tested several times!!

The underground homes are cool and so unusual, the entrance is a ground level with steps and walk in. The one we visited had the normal rooms also had a pool and billiard table. Most of the walls had the rough touch with a painted finish with a few panelled feature walls. All the furniture was just like we would have – like the photos show. When the temperatures outside get to 50 – 60 degrees the temp inside stays at a comfortable level.

There is quite a few tourist things to do, we went to ‘The Old Timers Mine’ which was very interesting it explained and showed the history of Opal mining. Others things to do are the Aboriginal Interpretive Centre, Umoona Opal Mine and Museum, Underground homes and other buildings, search for your own opals in the public noodling area or buy your own at an Opal Shop, Coober Pedy Pottery, The Big Winch Gift shop and lookout, the Breakaways are out of town, but well worth a look.

If you get the opportunity I highly recommend visiting this unique Aussie Town.

We stayed at Coober Pedy twice in 2003 on our ‘Kimberley’ trip these were overnight stays, this time we stayed at The Opal Inn. Our ‘Kimberley’ Trip was another great adventure….that’s another story!

For more information about Coober Pedy Click Here

Don’t Know How To Start Planning Your Holiday – Find Out More Here

Have you been to Coober Pedy, what did you like about it?

Driving And Exploring Outback Queensland and New South Wales Itinerary

admin — Sat, 03 Apr 2010 22:49:02 +0000