Famous

We appeared in an article about the Drive4Life tour in the July edition of Overlander Magazine.

For those not in Australia, ask me for a scanned version of the article. The ozzies can find the magazine at their local Newsagent.

Drive4Life

From Sunday 19th April 2009 till Friday 24th April 2009 we participated in the Drive4Life fundraiser tour. The objective of Drive4Life is to raise funds for Northcott disability services, a leader in the support and service provision for children and young adults with disabilities and their families. They do so by conducting "tag-along" four wheel drive tours. Participants in the tour make a tax-deductable donation of AU$ 1.000, every cent of which goes directly to the charity. Sponsors pay for the additional funds needed to organise the trip itself.

Albury

With the car fully checked and packed up we left on Friday afternoon and set course for Albury, NSW where we spent the night. Albury has an interesting link with The Netherlands, which was why we chose this town as a stop.

In 1934 the MacRobertson Trophy Air Race took place, from London to Melbourne. The Dutch KLM aircraft De Uiver took part in this air race. Nearing the end of the race the Uiver, hopelessly lost after becoming caught in a thunderstorm, ended up over Albury, New South Wales. The townsfolk responded magnificently, they helped the lost plane by signalled "Albury" by turning the town lights on and off. They lined their cars on the local racecourse to light up a runway for the plane. The plane landed, and next morning was pulled out of the mud by locals to fly on and win the handicap section of the race.

At Albury Airport there is a Memorial, however the DC2 replica is no longer there and the memorial is in state of disrepair.

Gundagai with the first truss bridge built in Australia	The Uiver Memorial
The Uiver replica, parked at a remote part of the airport instead of near the Memorial.	Albury by night

After the stopover in Albury we set course for Harrietville, the starting point of our tour. We checked into the local motel and gathered with all the participants to be assigned to our groups and meet the group leaders. The car and equipment were checked and we put the drive4life stickers on the doors of the car.

After that it was time for a beer at the Snowline Hotel to have a chat with the others in our group.

Day 1

An early start to gather for the group photo. It took a bit of manoeuvring to get all the cars and participants positioned for a good photo. After that we could really start the tour.

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Group photo

We arrived at the Horseyard flat campground around to put up the tent and gather wood for the campfire, as soon as the sun set, it became quite cold and it proved to be an even colder night.

 

Day 2

Cold! There was ice everywhere when we woke up, on the car, on the tent and on the grass. Is this Australia? Overnight we reached -6°C, lucky we bought warm sleeping bags.

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Yes a very cold morning	Coffee break, we Europeans don't drink instant coffee.

 

Day 3

Day 3 took us from the Wonnangatta campground to Talbotville. A very nice day.

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Group 3, our group	Wonnangatta Cemetery
	Carwash

 

Day 4

Day 4 we are staying at Talbotville, so no need to pack up the tent. We visited the old goldmine area and had a meal at the Dargo Hotel, a very small town in the High Country.

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Good hope Gold mine
Dusty conditions

 

Day 5

Day 5 took us from Talbotville back to Harrietville through some land that was affected by the bushfires about 2 months ago. It was a very eerie landscape, all the trees looked like burnt matches. After the return in Harrietville it was time for a shower. That night the locals prepared a BBQ for us. There was a presentation by the organisers, the cheque was handed over to Northcott and there was a party with a band. The next morning we drove all the way back to Sydney in one go.

We had a fantastic time and a great bunch of people in our group!

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Back in Harrietville	Cheers!

Mum and Dad visiting

From the 12th of March till 1st of April, Hans' Mum and Dad visited us again. Besides catching up and doing some local sightseeing, we also took a few trips to enjoy other parts of Australia. 

First dinner at Kingsleys

Harbour view from Balmain

 

Berry and Kangaroo Valley

The first weekend we took a daytrip to the south, along the Princess Highway to Historic Berry, then inland to the picturesque Kangaroo Valley. On the way back we passed Fitzroy Falls where we took a short stroll in the bush.

Lookout near Wollongong
Historic Berry
Fudge in Kangaroo Valley	The Hampden Bridge over the Kangaroo River, built in 1895.
Fitzroy Falls
	More fudge, Self Service this time.

 

The Red Centre

The next weekend we flew to Alice Springs where we had a look at the town and visited the reptile park. At sunset it was time to feed the Wallabies again.

Alice Springs

Dad and a Bearded Dragon	Thorny Devil
Hans and a snake	Flynets are a must in the summer in the desert.
Rock Wallaby and a little Joey.

Roadtrip

The roadtrip took us from Alice Springs, via Standley Chasm, to Yulara (Ayers Rock Resort) where we checked into the Lost Camel Hotel.  Day temperatures were averaging around 38°C, at nighttime it didn’t get much colder than 25°C. We did serveral sunrise and sunset views of Uluru and Kata Tjuta and some walks at the base of Uluru.

	Standley Chasm
Uluru 441km to go	Road Train

Uluru

Kata Tjuta (the Olgas)

Sunrise over Kata Tjuta	Wild Dingo
Walpa Gorge

Ayers Rock Resort

Relaxing by the pool

Aussie BBQ

 

The Hunter Valley, Newcastle and Stockton

The third and last weekend took us to the Hunter Valley, where we did some wine tasting (and buying). We stayed overnight in Newcastle and headed onto the Stockton beach for some beach driving and relaxing. After that it was time to drive back to Sydney.

at Robyn Drayton winery
Stockton beach