Our Trek across Australia

Greetings from Perth!! (You can read our blog about Perth trivia if you want!)

After 20 days on the road, we finally had crossed Australia!! It was a beautiful trip. Our highest petrol was only $1.68 /litre or $4.50/gallon!

Our fotos are available at: http://wanderingacrossaustralia.shutterfly.com/

BRISBANE TO SYDNEY
We finally left Brisbane 3 days later than planned, and arrived in Perth only 7 days later than planned! Taking the back roads gave us a view of some of God’s awesome artwork. We enjoyed places like the Natural Bridge in Qld, and the Three Sisters at Katoomba in the Blue Mountains. This was like a smaller version of the Grand Canyon.

After a stop at WEC in Sydney and a visit with friends, we headed for Canberra, the capital of Australia, to visit the Parliament houses and a couple of museums.

SNOWY MOUNTAINS AND KELLY COUNTRY
It rained for our drive through the Snowy Mountains, so we enjoyed Mt Kosiuszko from a distance rather than climb it! This is the highest mountain in Australia at 7,310 ft. Just for reference, Mt. Hood is about 11,250 ft. We did take a tour of the Snowy River Power Scheme, one of the largest and most complex in the world.

Then back roads took us to Kelly country in Beechworth and Glenrowan. Ned Kelly is somewhat like the Jesse James of USA. How sad that someone with such creative abilities used them for the wrong things and died so young.

MELBOURNE & TIME CHANGE
Our next stop was Melbourne where we visited some good friends from Venezuela. We also made plans to meet a friend from Brisbane for church on Sunday at 10:30am. Our hotel left a paper saying “Tonight (Saturday) is the last night of daylight saving time. Be sure to set your clocks back.” So we did, and rejoiced at having an extra hour’s sleep! We arrived at church the next morning, a few minutes late, and it was like the service was ending. Then our friend explained that while everyone else went off daylight time, Melbourne, because of the Gran Prix, did not! We were not the only ones confused!

While talking with some people over lunch, we discovered we knew both the parents and grandparents of one of the guys. We had not seen them in over 25 years, so we were delighted to find that the Grandmother lived just 30 minutes away, on the route we were taking. It was good to catch up over a cup of tea.

ARARAT GOUL – J WARD
In Ararat, the only town in Australia settled by Chinese, we decided to do a tour of the J Ward, what had been a prison for the criminally insane. (No, we didn't plan to stay!) Since we were the only ones, our tour guide spoke quite personally. We found out he is also a believer, and uses this job as ministry! As he does the tour, he shares stories of the ex-inmates, including the testimony of Tom Varney. Tom's story parallel's that of Ned Kelly, but his decision to follow Jesus changed the outcome of his life. Thank God for this guide who lets God use him in this unexpected way.

After Ararat, we again left the main road, and wound our way up and down through the Grampians, another mountain range. Again, it was refreshing just to see God’s handiwork.

FINALLY HEADING WEST
We finally arrived in Port Augusta, where we turned west towards our destination, Perth! We would now be traveling on the famous Eyre Highway for the next 1,400 Km, or 900 miles. It was fun to arrive in Kimba, where a 10 meter wide welcome sign told us we were half-way across Australia! Taking a foto was a bit of challenge as we tried to fight off the flies!

Our next stop was Ceduna, on the edge of the Southern Ocean. We arrived at sunset, and none of the hundred pictures we took could capture the incredible beauty of that ocean at that moment.

THE NULLARBOR!
Ceduna, meaning “resting place,” also marked the beginning of the actual Nullarbor Plain drive. We had heard and read so much about the Nullarbor, but nothing can prepare you for it. It is AWESOME! It is this immense expansion of space that goes on forever on all sides, totally silent. You can stand in the middle of the road with no worries, because there is hardly ever another vehicle. Hard to imagine considering this is the ONLY road that connects Perth to the nearest city, Adelaide.

There had been a rare rainfall recently, and all the little shrubs were various shades of green. It was beautiful!

This is also the largest limestone slab in the world, up to 1,000 feet thick and covering an area of 150,000 square miles.

We arrived at the Nullarbor Road House in time for sunset and woke up early enough for sunrise, neither of which can be described or captured on fotos.

Let me just mention that a Road House is not a town, rather a building that has gas station, snack bar, restaurant, motel, camping ground, showers, museum , and maybe a telephone! There about 100-150 miles apart as well.

We dropped in at the head of the Great Australian Bight, the most inland part of the Southern Ocean. Since it wasn’t the right season, there weren’t any whales, so we enjoyed the beautiful scenery without being tourists!

THE EDGE OF A CONTINENT
Then came the Bunda Cliffs, totally natural with the exception of a few signs warning people to be careful. You can walk to the edge of the cliff and look straight down to the ocean, 70 meters below, about 250 ft! There is no way to describe the impact of literally standing on the edge of a continent with nothing stopping you from stepping off!

So on and on we drove, the road occasionally curving to the right or left, but also going up and down, not flat like we assumed. We crossed the border into Western Australia, had a 15 minute time change, and continued our journey along the foot of the Hampton Tablelands. We enjoyed another sunset at the top of the Madura Pass lookout, and saw our first live kangaroos!

Next was Cocklebiddy, with a population of 8 people, 1 dog and 1,234,567 kangaroos! We passed the Caiguna Blowhole and entered Australia’s longest straight stretch of road, 146.6 km, about 90 miles.

That took us to Balladonia, where we saw the debris of the space lab that crashed there in 1979. Here a 45 minute time change put us back on sync with the world!

Norseman, our next stop, marked the end of the Nullarbor drive, and there we were given a certificate to prove we had made it!

THE BEST SURPRISE OF ALL!
Norseman also marked the beginning of perhaps the most interesting experience of all. On Sunday we drove around asking if there was a Christian church in town. Great was our surprise when we were warmly welcomed by a little mixed group of believers and their aboriginal pastor! Afterwards we were introduced to another aboriginal pastor, who invited us to visit his little mission community to show us around.

As he drove us around the property, we learned how to capture an Echidna, grow a water tree, and heard the story of how the wild turkey father will sacrifice himself to save his eggs from enemies. We ended up out in the bush, on top of a hill with an immense view of the valley and lakes below. There this pastor shared his vision with us of making that place into a prayer retreat for all believers of all cultures.

Later we were given a personal performance by a young Christian family. This family travels around the country speaking and using traditional music, dance and art to share the gospel as well as teach appreciation for the culture. We even learned a few secrets about the didgeridoo!

Find out more about them at: www.ngadjudancers.com.au

What an awesome opportunity to be able to pray over and bless these people. With them begging us to come back, we started on our last day of our trek.

COOLGARDIE
We took a quick stop as we swung though Coolgardie and a look though the Mining museum. Here we learned that former a USA President, Herbert Hoover, had once been the supervisor of the mines in this little town!

PERTH AND BEYOND!
Finally, on Monday, April 6, at 7:30 pm we arrived at daughter’s house, just in time for dinner… delightful end to another step in our journey of a lifetime!