The return trip

There wasn't anything eventful on the return trip to Sydney. The scariest thing we did was a night drive from Coober Pedy to Broken Hill. All you see is black and whatever the lights manage to illuminate. I had a close call almost running over what appears to be a dingo.

I did manage to take a wonderful shot of the Breakaways. The previous shot was in the mid-morning sun. This one was right on sunset! It truly is amazing how the light changes a whole landscape.

The Breakaways at sunset

Compare the shot to the mid-morning take

Broken Hill

The vibe in Broken Hill was of excitement! After the sad state of Dubbo, this major town had character, life and a buzz about it that is difficult to describe. Like Cobar, they are proud of their mining heritage. There are statues about it everywhere around the town. The visitors center was built on top of a mining hill and overlooks the town. Very very cool!

We arrived just in time to check out the giant bench and checked out the sunset over the Broken Hill desert.

Feeling like a kid again on the giant bench

Sunset at Broken Hill's sculptures by the desert (the living desert reserve). I couldn't resist and ignored the exhibition to take this shot

Another sunset shot

On reflection, I wished we could have spent more time in the town.

Are we there yet (Broken Hill)?

Ask any Sydneysider, driving the city is a stop, start and honk affair. Past Dubbo, things change and we finally meet clean open roads. As far as the horizon the road stretches on and on. The landscape becomes drier and more road kill is evident. You next turn may be hundreds of kms away!

Looking back at the road just traveled. Dubbo and Sydney had become a distant memory as we press onwards to the center of Australia

One of the funniest thing was found was that the first truly outback shire was named 'Bogan Shire'. A bogan in a contemporary sense is a Australian slang used to describe people who have limited education and of lower social economical class. Often these individuals hold socially simple/unacceptable and discriminatory points of view. It is a derogatory term. I guess the easiest explanation is that it means the same as 'red neck' for the Americans.

Bogan shire and Nyngan are lovely places with a funny name.

 
Immaturity aside 'Bogan Shire' the shire has the Bogan river flowing through it and the main town is Nyngan. I don't know why the shire is named as such. If any fellow bloggers know why please share.

The road ahead is straight, our next turn is in 566 kms!

Nyngan is the start of the outback for New South Wales (NSW). We finally saw some arid like environment on the drive.

You can see the dryness in this photo.

The three stooges outback adventure

Over the next few entries I would like to share with you an amazing trip by three friends to the center of Australia. My friends are Gauchita and Sesilia who are also bloggers. All three of us have always wanted to explore our vast homeland, which people call Australia. We have heard and read about how amazing Uluru is and how it is a must do. Most people fly to Uluru, but that is only part of the experience. We wanted an adventure... We wanted a road trip!

So there we have it a Uruguayan, Vietnamese and Filipino travel party of Australians on an epic adventure to the outback.


The plan was break the trip into several distinct stages.

Stage 1 - Sydney to Dubbo
Stage 2 - Dubbo to Broken Hill
Stage 3 - Broken Hill to Coober Pedy
Stage 4 - Coober Pedy to Uluru

In total over 2500 kms would be required to get all of us to 'the rock'.

Map showing the planned waypoints for our adventure

Our rationale was to rotate the driving to avoid fatigue. Break the trip up to avoid night travel as in Australia a Kangaroo hit will disable your vehicle in an instant. The car of choice, was our Volkswagen Golf Wagen Turbo Diesel.

In preparation for this trip we took some precautions namely:

• Spare fuel (20 L of extra diesel) - in the outback the spacing of petrol stations can be problematic. Hence, extra fuel was carried just in case.
• Kangaroo whistle - as mentioned above, an accident with a kangaroo will disable your car. Our trip will be across lots and lots of 'Roo country'
• Tyre pump - in case we need to pump up a flat. This model bought can inflate a tyre in 10 mins and was compact enough to hide away
• Tyre puncture kit - was carried in case we needed to do a running repair
• Satellite phone - Australia's mobile coverage is impressive along the major roads, but there are hundreds of kms of road that are just black spots. A satellite phone is a must for any calls for help
• 20 L of water - this is very important when traveling to the outback
• Toilet paper and hand sanitizer lotion - need I say more
• Spare oil - was needed as VW diesels need a special grade of oil for the engine.

Roo whistle installed on the car prior to our trip