Hence Jochen decided to fly to the often mentioned Flying Fishpoint (FFP) for a few days between 22. and 26th of December to celebrate Christmas with Ute, Helga and Tony and Dominic.
Around the 12th December I went online to see whether I can burn some more frequent flyer points. but those airlines had decidedly other ideas. No way Jose are you flying on your points at this time of the year. You pay big time for that sort of luxury.
Well I tried all three, Qantas, Jetstar and Virgin and the cheapest I could come up with was about $800 Dollar for the privilege. Trotzkoepfchen Jochen reacted accordingly and … unter absingen unflaetiger Lieder…. (which translates to …whilst singing rude songs) I left the electronic shopping mall for air tickets and decided I can do better, by car, with camping and the lot.
Trip 6
15th December to 20th December,
car trip from Green Point to Flying Fishpoint
26th December to 28th December
car trip return from Flying Fishpoint to Green Point
And so it came that on the 15th of December I got into my thoroughly prepared car and took a drive towards the north.
As I said, my assorted clients from around the world had shrouded themselves in silence since mid November, starting, what I interpreted, as a long, extended Christmas holiday period.
What’s a self employed person to do in such a situation? Go on holiday for a few days, of course.
That’s when I started on Monday the 15th December to make my way up the coast. For those who want to look it up on the map, I was heading towards Port Macquarie, then Byron Bay,
Brisbane, Bundaberg, Rockhampton, Makay, Townsville
and then Innisfail, Flying Fishpoint.
By and large I planned a “follow your nose” trip, meaning that I would stop over where I liked it. And that’s what I do/did. Had some plans to visit an old friend in Byron Bay only to find out 24 hours earlier, that he had sold his house there last week and moved to Brisbane. Ok, Brisbane was added to the list of stops and I had a very nice afternoon and evening with Ron.
On the weekend before leaving, a new client from the UK – referred to us by another client (I like that) - sent an e-mail asking for 2 quotes, which were dutifully sent before my departure. But sometimes, clients can have a very strange sense of humour, and it seems that they thought, they needed to entertain me a bit more during those long afternoons/nights on assorted camping grounds. And – I could hardly believe it - requested another 8 quotes in the last 3 days, placed two orders for early January, sent one questionnaire for me to work on before Christmas. Thus, those camping grounds turned into airy offices with a view of the ocean.
And thanks to an almost faultless mobile internet connection, the e-mails flew and still are flying, forth and back like there is no tomorrow.
Camping trips are a distant memory for me. I think it was the trip with my brother through Scandinavia, some 30 odd years ago,
that I pitched a tent the last time. Things have changed since.
The funny thing is that preparing for a 2 week camping trip through Australia seemed to take much more time and effort than preparing everything for a 6 weeks trip around the world. Anyway it’s great fun so far.
I even bought myself a Sat Nav system which comes very handy, in particular once you approach a city and need some guidance to either the camping ground, or other sights within the city. I selected Richard to give me all my directions. And Dick and I have become good friends. Sometimes he seems a bit annoyed when I don’t follow his directions (which he spots immediately) and tells me …turn around as soon as you can…. And I love the way he pronounces the final information. …. After 500 meters turn left and you have reached your destination….. Whilst all the other announcements are made in a fairly matter of fact manner, this last one is done to sound as if a just won a million in a lottery. Very funny.
My little green Merc, in its 11th year now, has been stripped of all but the driver’s seat to make space for various cooling boxes, other boxes, the camping bed, the lap top and what else a person needs for a camping trip.
The newly acquired inverter converts the juice which is coming out of the cigarette lighter into 240 volt usable for re-charging batteries, mobile phones, MP3 players and even the lap top. It’s the first time in 11 years that I actually use this cigarette lighter!!
Another joy of such a trip, or the preparation for it, is that you can give a shit about weight of luggage. Whilst when preparing for an overseas trip the kitchen scales have become an essential planning tool for packing the suitcase, weighing individual items and adding the grams all up, here you just throw things into the basket, Italian espresso machine, breakfast box, 12 bottles of wine, etc. Wonderfully careless. Which, however, also means, you end up with a whole box of things which you, as it turns out, will never use during the trip.
Anyway, I made it in one piece to Flying Fishpoint where I sit at 38 degrees and around 90% humidity, classic tropical and a very powerful argument to do bugger all! Hence I leave it at that.
Whilst I gave myself 6 days for the way up to FFP, I had a shorter trip in mind for the return trip. I decided to take the inland route on secondary highways. And whilst these are not as broad as the Bruce Highway, they have practically no traffic this time of the year and lead you through some nice hilly country and some very small and backwater towns. Those conditions make speeding – driving 120 where 110 is allowed – less accident prone. And thus allows to cover a reasonable distance in a days drive.
My first stop is in Makay and on the second day I get to Tambo, which is about 200 km north of the Queensland/New South Wales border. In Tambo I decide to book myself into a cabin rather than sleeping in the tent. I felt I needed a real bed to relax before embarking on another 800 or so km drive. And would you believe it, at about 21.30 an almighty storm breaks loose and it rains and hails the whole night until about 4 in the morning. Lucky boy in my bed!!
After a refreshing 9 hours sleep I hit the road once again, aiming for Bourke or even Dubbo. Once the roads have dried up by about 9.00, the drive becomes fast and there is, again, no traffic what so ever. Sometimes I can drive for about 50 km without encountering a car in either direction. Arrive in Dubbo at about 15.00 hours which prompts me to check the length of the rest of the way by putting Green Point into the sat nav as the next destination. 5 more hours appears doable and off we go. well it becomes a long day of 14 hours driving, covering 1300 km, but it got me home in one piece by about 22.00. I must admit that I cheated a bit with all this calculations, in that I did not change back my wristwatch from Queensland time, which is one hour behind NSW! But there is nothing wrong with a bit of self-delusion!!
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