Month: July 2018

CB Radios, Overheard5 Comments

Everybody’s talkin’ at me

Itching for Hitching

Tiny cotton bushes line the Kidman Way with healthy balls of cotton on them. We buy meat at Milnes Butchery in Hillston, NSW and the butcher is so proud of his caramelised onion sausages that he opens the bag wide for Elle to smell them. Back on the road it’s hard work being a navigator as our next camp isn’t easy to find. To make things worse there is a lot of chatter on the CB radio. There are warnings to give our mates behind of ‘roos and emus and carcasses on the road. Woody keeps asking where the turnoff … Continue reading Everybody’s talkin’ at me

Why Caravanning7 Comments

The Kyneton Pie Relay

Itching for Hitching

May 2018 By the time we arrive in Kyneton,Vic the temperature has dropped to a chilly 11 degrees. The town is busy with puffer jacketed families out celebrating Mother’s Day. We buy a coffee and a particularly good curry pie from Grist Bakery while we wait for our mates to catch up. The pie is so good that we buy one for Elaine and keep it warm on the dashboard using the windscreen demister, as they drive through town Woody stands on Piper Street and passes the pie through the window to Elaine with a perfect relay pass. That would … Continue reading The Kyneton Pie Relay

Point of Interest, SA7 Comments

Martindale Hall

Itching for Hitching

In the Clare Valley of South Australia not far the small village of Mintaro, think appealing stone buildings, autumnal vineyards of gnarly vines, long lunches and complex rieslings, is this handsome Georgian style mansion. It was built in 1879 by a sheep farmer. A 21 year old sheep farmer, Edmund Bowman. For the movie buffs Martindale Hall featured in the movie ‘Picnic at Hanging Rock’ in 1976. Continue reading Martindale Hall

Great Drives7 Comments

Highway One

Itching for Hitching

Call it what you will. Princes, Pacific, Bruce, Eyre, Bass, Stuart, Great Northern, Savannah Way, but Highway One which encompasses many state highways is 14,500 kms long. It is the longest national highway in the world and known to most as ‘The Big Lap’. In comparison the Trans Siberian Highway is 11,000kms long. From deserts to snow capped mountains, from dry savannah to lush rainforests, from bustling cities to remote outback roadhouses, from multi lane highway to dirt road this is a road that has everything including a lot of roadkill. Source Wikipedia Image By Evad37Original author of GIS data:© … Continue reading Highway One

Why Caravanning7 Comments

Where the heck are we?

Itching for Hitching

Every night I wake up to go to the loo and I wonder where the hell we are. In fact I refuse to go back to bed until I actually work out where we are. Between that and the neck exercises sitting on the loo is quite busy. The next thing I know it’s morning and I go through the whole thing again. Cunnamulla? No. Quilpie? No. Burra? No wrong trip. Oh shit I know it’s Cairns…isn’t it? Continue reading Where the heck are we?

Why Caravanning3 Comments

Wearing your travels is like collecting stamps

Itching for Hitching

We ask our caravan park neighbour in a South Australian park where he got his beaut ladder from, “In Officeworks, Nowra (NSW)” he says. Which gets me to thinking, my shirt is from Balranald, my jumper from Tamworth, my Jeans from Melbourne, my hat from Yeppoon. That’s hardly Paris, Rome or New York now is it? But wait…didn’t I buy this necklace in Florence?…phew. Continue reading Wearing your travels is like collecting stamps

Places, WA6 Comments

A long history but the town came last

Itching for Hitching

Autumn 2015 When we arrived in Exmouth we wondered why the town looked so modern but it was only established in the 1960’s with the arrival of US naval operations yet its history goes back much further. The Vlamingh Head lighthouse was built in 1912. It was named after Dutch explorer Willem de Vlamingh who along with so many Dutch navigators visited this coast back in 1697.  There were military bases in the area in World War Two. Qantas later used Learmonth Air Base as a fuel stop on its Ceylon route to London in 1945. In 1953 oil was … Continue reading A long history but the town came last