The Old Andado Track

The Old Andado Track is an interesting and alternative route from Alice Springs to Oodnadatta through the fringes of the Simpson Desert. It then joins the Oodnadatta Track which leads on to the Flinders Ranges and Adelaide. The red desert scenery is stunning and there are plenty of things to do and see along the way.

The section of the track from Alice Springs south to Oodnadatta is a lonely 4wd track in reasonable condition and in the dry it could be done in a sturdy 2wd vehicle. Note however that only a small amount of rain can turn the track into sticky quagmire and we got stuck overnight after only a brief thunderstorm.

The Old Andado Track from Alice Springs to the Oodnadatta Track

The track takes in the Santa Teresa Mission, Old Andado Station, the Mac Clark Acacia Peuce Conservation Reserve, Mount Dare Station and Dalhousie Springs before heading down the Oodnadatta track to Maree and Port Augusta.

Interesting side trips can also be made to the Painted Desert west of Oodnadatta, Old Peake Telegraph Station, and Halligan Bay on Lake Eyre.

Santa Theresa Mission

Santa Theresa is an Aboriginal community and Catholic Mission about 85 km south east of Alice Springs. There are some grand looking buildings there but a permit is needed to enter. A descriptive document on the community can be found here and you can now take a tour from Alice Springs and meet the local inhabitants. See The Inside Trip site here.

Allambi Station

Allambi Station is a 2700 sq km cattle station on the north western edge of the Simpson Desert, between the Ltyentye Apurte (Santa Theresa) and Pmere Nyente Aboriginal lands. The track passes though the station property and between the impressive Train Hills

Train Hills on Allambi Station

The remoteness of the area can be judged from the garage near the Allambi homestead.

Most people just keep a car or 2 in their garage...

Sand Dune Country

From Allambi Station, the track runs straight south east for about 80 km between deep red sand dunes, many of which are covered in wild flowers.

A solitary tree and a dead camel make a surreal setting

We may have been alone but there were plenty of friendly flies for company

Mac Clark Acacia Peuce Reserve

This is a small reserve at the end of the sand dunes, about 8 km off the track, and is well worth a visit. The Acacia Peuce (which is Latin for pine-like) is a very hardy, prickly tree whose timber is tough and rot resistant. It was almost chopped down to extinction for fence posts and fire wood during early settlement.

The wood is also known as waddy wood after the wooden implements and weapons made by aborigines from the tree's timber.

Mac Clark ran Old Andado Station during the 40's to the 70's and started the reserve to protect the few remaining trees. There are over 1000 of these now rare trees in this 3000 hectare reserve, many of them several hundred years old, but they can only be found here and a couple of other places, on the Birdsville Track and near Boulia.

The rare Acacia Peuce (Waddy Tree) growing in the Mac Clark Conservation Reserve

They are very tough prickly trees for a tough environment

The spring loaded bars on the cattle gate at the entrance to the reserve allow cattle out, but not in. It works for people too.

Thunderstorm

As we left the Mac Clark Reserve we heard the ominous rumblings of thunder and saw a storm approaching directly towards us. Our preferred option was to try to outrun the storm by turning south at the road junction but it seemed to follow us.

As we raced back towards the junction, we couldn't help recalling the sign we had just seen in the reserve which read: "In a thunderstorm, you don't want to be the tallest thing around". Guess what?

An approaching thunderstorm on the Old Andado Track, near the Mac Clark Reserve

We got to the junction just in time and made for the relative safety of some nearby sand dunes, which were about the same height as the Oka. There we waited like scared mice, as the lightning crackled around us, until the unpredictable storm had moved away.

However, while we were fortunate to be safe, the brief storm had turned the surface of the track into a gooey mess. The tyres picked up a 1 cm layer of sticky mud from the top of the track and bound it around the tyres turning them into slippery doughnuts. No amount of 4WD torque or skillful driving could prevent the Oka from sliding all over the track so, as it was mid afternoon anyway, we stopped for the night to allow the track to dry out.

By next morning the track was dry again and it was safe to proceed.

It doesn't look much, but the tyres are covered by slippery doughnuts of mud. We stopped to let them dry out before it got too thick.

Old Andado Homestead

Andado Station was a 11,000 sq km cattle station which covered a large area of beautiful red sand dune country. In 1987 Molly Clark, the wife of the owner who had tragically died in a light aircraft crash, re-negotiated a lease of 45 sq km around the homestead and renamed the area Old Andado. At the centre of the station is the Old Andado Homestead, 35 km south of the Mac Clark Reserve which Molly set up as a authentic pioneer museum and tourist location. See here for a fact sheet.

Although the homestead is no longer the nerve centre of the station, it is quite often occupied by caretakers, which makes it an excellent stopover for passing travellers. It was a delight to meet them, have a look around the facilities and enjoy a cup of tea on the verandah, even if we did have to strain the flies out of the milk.

The Homestead Car Park

The original Homestead and verandah, a great place for a cup of tea

The vegie patch thriving on the red desert sand

Thatched implement sheds in the station grounds

Old Andado Station has a web site here which is well worth a visit. It provides some interesting background on life on the station and how the property is being maintained.

Molly Clark, the current owner of Old Andado Station, was caretaker there for many years until she had to move out in 2006 due to ill health. Now working bees have been started to give volunteers the oportunity to help maintain this wonderful outback property. See the Old Andado website for details. The next "Molly's Bash" is in May 2010.

Dalhousie Springs

Dalhousie Springs near Mount Dare are one of many artesian springs in central Australia. What makes Dalhousie special is that the water emerges at 38-40ºC all year round and a swim in the large lake formed by the springs provides a welcome relief to the dry desert conditions surrounding them. Be warned however, that swimming in water at this temperature can be very tiring, so make use of the rubber tubes supplied and don't swim far from the steps.

Surprisingly several species of fish thrive in the lake, obviously well adapted to living in hot water.

A wintery swim in 38º water

Dalhousie Homestead ruins

Painted Desert

About 85 km south-west from Oodnadatta (not the Oodnadatta Track west to Marla) is a track which leads across the Painted Desert on Arckaringa Station. There are various walks and look out points in an area of outstanding beauty, plus a good camping area near Arckaringa homestead.

The hills of the Painted Desert

Continuing west on the track would lead to the Stuart Highway at Cadney Park but we retuned to Oodnadatta and turned south down the Oodnadatta Track. On the return leg, a lot of shining mica deposits can be seen on the hillsides, glistening in the afternoon sun. Hookey Waterhole near Oodnadatta makes a good lunch or camp site.

And on the subject of Oodnadatta, have a giggle at the Oodna-bloody-datta poem here and then look at the rest of the interesting stuff on the Pink Roadhouse website.

Haligan Bay, Lake Eyre

One of the few places to access Lake Eyre is the Public Access Track about 6 km south of William Creek which leads out 60 km to Halligan Bay on Lake Eyre, and a more desolate spot it's hard to imagine.

"With bitter feelings of disappointment I turned from the dreary and cheerless scene around me" wrote Edward John Eyre in 1840. Not much has changed in 170 years, except we don't have to walk to the dreary and cheerless scene anymore.

A "dreary and cheerless" Halligan Bay pano

Actually the drive is quite interesting in an outbacky sort of way and ends up on the "shore" of the lake where there are plenty of beach front properties to choose from. Also check your altitude on your GPS. It should read about -15 m.

The track has road signs?

ABC Bay, Lake Eyre

Beach Frontage, Lake Eyre

The only signs of life, except for the flies...

On the beach at Halligan Bay

Happiness is a fly hat, at Halligan Bay anyway

There is a car park and camping area at the end of the track and a small emergency water tank but please don't use it unless desperate, it is there for emergencies only. And this is why: on the way to and from the lake you will pass the memorial to Caroline Grossmueller who died of thirst on this track in December 1998 when her vehicle became bogged and she tried to walk for help.

She got 30 km before succumbing to the heat. Take heed of the environment, not just here but in all remote locations, and carry an EPIRB or other reliable means of long distance communication.

According to the Pink Roadhouse (see here), her death has led to most rental 4wds now being fitted with EPIRBs, which is a good thing. Hopefully, overseas tourists renting 4wds are also being given some rudimentary training on how to survive in the outback. It can be a very harsh place.

Old Peake Overland Telegraph Station

Because it's out of sight about 15 km off the track, and hidden behind a range of hills (the Denison Range), the Old Peake Telegraph Station is seldom visited, which is a shame because it's one of the most interesting side trips along the Oodnadatta track.

The track to Old Peake starts about 80 km south of Oodnadatta and about 30 km south of the Algebuckina Bridge. It leads 15 km east, around the back of the hills to the ruins of the telegraph station. These are laid out on a hillside overlooking a very pleasant green valley, with a creek flowing at the bottom.

The layout of the Old Peake Telegraph Station site

Some of the well preserved station buildings

The Old Peake Telegraph Station was built in 1870-71 as part of the overland telegraph from Adelaide to Darwin. It commenced operations in 1872 and was closed in 1891 when the facilities were relocated to Oodnadatta. There was also a copper mine attached to the site, the ruins of which are still visible.

The technology was progressively improved with voice communications introduced between 1925 and 1942, then the wires were replaced by radio links in the 1970's, but surprisingly, the last elements of the original Overland Telegraph were not finally replaced until 1981, more than a century after it began operations. I'd like to see the 3G network last half that long.

The track up from the creek

The Old Peake Telegraph Station is well worth a day's deviation off the Oodnadatta track and there are plenty of bush camping sites around the creek.

To be completed... one day.

Adelaide to Brisbane 2009

Our Trip to Brisbane

In 2009 we had a lot of dramas, but none of them stopped us going up to Brisbane (actually Ipswich) in November for Janet’s cousin’s twin daughters 40th birthday bash (I wish they were more closely related, it would save keystrokes). We left on 7 November and were away for about 4 weeks, getting back just in time to not miss all the Christmas silly season stuff.

We went via the Barrier Highway through Broken Hill, Wilcannia, Nyngan, Cobar, Coonabarabran, Narrabri, Bingara, Glen Innes, Tenterfield and Warwick to Ipswich.

We had a really good time in Brissie, staying with Janet’s cousin. The bash was a fancy dress party and I went as a Maharajah and Janet as a Maharini. If you don’t want to see someone in a turban pole-dancing around a Hills Hoist, look away now.

Janet and David in their Maharajah costumes.

David a bit later on needing the support of a clothes hoist, and yes that is a snake up his sleeve.

Who called the police? Oh, it’s OK, he was the host in disguise.

Before we left, our hosts shot off to Tassie for a few days leaving us in charge of their house, liquor supplies, BMW etc. Living in their house, driving their car and raiding their fridge felt like identity fraud.

When we eventually dragged ourselves away, we had been gone 4 weeks and did 4500 km, which is a very long way for a birthday party. We would have been away longer but it was very hot and humid and you just can’t do sight-seeing when it’s over 40º.

Part of the worlds largest Solar System Display, near the Warrumbungles National Park, around 100 km across, centred on the Siding Springs Observatory.

As it was, we did do some 4WDriving in a rain forest in the Border Ranges National Park, where Janet collected a leech on her foot, a tick on her leg and saw a snake close up, too close in her opinion. We also visited our friends Tim and Brenda in Byron Bay on the way back, and returned across the Barrier Highway through some stunning desert scenery between Broken Hill and Cobar.

A roadside stop in southern Queensland, (which is not between Broken Hill and Cobar).

On the way to and from Brisbane (which is more than a week’s drive each way), we stayed at a delightful free campsite alongside the Gwydir River in the town of Bingara, in northern NSW. The town’s forward thinking council are actively attracting motor homers to come and stay in the town for free, in the expectation (accurate as it happens) that they will patronise local businesses and keep the town alive and thriving. We fully support that kind of RV Friendly symbiotic environment.

The Gwydir River campsite in Bingara.

HF Antenna

On our trip we managed to check out our new antenna for the HF radio in our Oka. It’s a 9 m high fibreglass telescopic whip antenna to enhance our communications abilities when we are remote from civilisation, which we seem to be most of the time.

9 m might seem a tad large compared with your average car radio aerial, but when it comes to HF radio transmissions, size definitely does matter. We do, however, have to maintain a keen watch out for thunderstorms as it could be attractive to lightning. In a thunderstorm, you don’t want to be the tallest thing around.

For the technically minded, 9 m happens to be a 1/4 wavelength on our primary communications frequency of 8.022 MHz which is the optimum length for effective transmission. It can give us a communications range of up to 3,000 km, far enough to seek assistance from any part of Australia.

Our 9 m HF antenna raised in a bush camp at dawn somewhere in outback NSW.

(Actually I know exactly where it was, and so I should with all the technology at our fingertips. It’s location is S31’ 33.72”, E146’ 55.19”, which is 25 km west of Nyngan, in bushland about 1 km south of the Barrier Highway, across the railway line and left at the next bush).

One of the other nice places we stopped at on the way back was Peterborough in the mid-north of South Australia. They have an excellent railway museum there with a round house, engines etc, but unfortunately no working locos at the moment.

It’s ironic that the main Trans-Australia railway passes through the town but you can’t actually go there by train. I’ve asked them to fix that.

What any small boy would want to do.

SuperRod 9 Metre Whip Antenna for HF

We use the VKS737 HF radio network to keep in contact with the world while we are camped in remote locations.

We normally used a fairly short (2m) tapped whip antenna, which is quite convenient and works reasonably in most places, but we recently installed an alternative 9m fibreglass whip antenna. It take a little longer to erect but at a 1/4 wavelength, it's the optimum length for using Channel 2 on 8022 KHz and provides the best possible communications on this frequency.

Using this antenna we invariable receive a 5 by 5 report (the highest) from VKS bases when requesting a radio check. I've also determined that it can be used as quite an acceptable shortwave antenna for receiving ABC and BBC broadcasts (amongst many others) over a broad range of frequencies from 6 to 10 MHz, although with some loss of efficiency either side of 8 MHz.

The 9m SuperRod in operation on our Oka, somewhere in outback NSW

The antenna is based on a 9m, 9 section, telescopic fibreglass fishing pole, but with a wire inserted up the middle. They are called SuperRod Antennas and I got mine from The Electric Bug in Adelaide without any mounting hardware, but a cheaper alternative could be to make one using a fishing pole from angling shops. (See here where you can buy 9m bare poles for around $40 plus freight, and fit the wire yourself, see here for some assembly ideas. For use on 8022 KHz, none of the loading coils are necessary). If you are really keen you can import a much tougher pole from Spiderbeam in Germany. They are not that expensive at Euro 66 (AUD 100) plus freight for a 12m pole.

The wire doesn't have to run up inside the antenna, it will work just as well if the wire is wrapped around the pole, or if it is just attached to the tip and the pole used as means of getting it vertically into the air. It just looks neater inside. The pole doesn't even have to be 9m long either, only the wire has to be that long.

Whilst the antenna works well, there are a few of challenges to its installation and operation:

• Mounting: It needs a sturdy mounting point on the bull bar or similar because, although it's not heavy, as it moves around in the breeze it places a considerable strain on its mount. It should not be used on a moving vehicle while raised. In this mode the antenna is acting as one half of a vertical dipole with the vehicle and ground beneath it providing the other half.

• Antenna Wire: When collapsed, the 9m of wire needs to be coiled or wound up to keep it straight and tidy. A kinked wire won't run up or down the antenna smoothly.

• Erecting: (Important: first read the Power Line warning at point 7 below. Note this sobering story from the ABC). The sections must be extended tightly and "screwed" into each other as the antenna is being erected, or they can slide down inside each other, either during operation as the wind blows or as you are lowering the antenna, trapping the wire and loosing their telescopic sequence.

• Lowering: The wire must be pulled gently and continuously out of the bottom of the antenna as each section is separated, or it will get trapped and kinked in the bottom section which is frustrating to unravel and the wire can break.

• Connecting: The antenna needs connections made to the radio lead. It doesn't just plug on.

• Frequencies: It primarily intended for Channel 2 (8022 KHz) and needs some mods to work on Channel 1 (5455 KHz) or RFDS frequencies.

• Power Lines and Lightning: It's so tall it's a power-line and/or lightning risk.

I have experienced all of the above problems and modified the antenna and mounting arrangements to minimise them.

1) Mounting the Antenna

To mount the antenna, I fitted a length of 50mm PVC pipe (which holds the lower section of the antenna), to an aluminium frame which then slides into a holder, made from aluminium rope track, mounted on the bullbar using 50mm U-bolts. I could have mounted it higher where it might work better but I couldn't then raise it, since the top would be beyond my reach. The PVC pipe has a cap on the bottom to hold the antenna but with a hole in it for the wire to slide through. The whole assembly can be removed, with the wire wound up on an attached reel, for storage inside the Oka.

The mounting using aluminium rope track on the bullbar.

The SuperRod stored safely in the Oka.

2) Keeping the Wire Tidy

After lowering the antenna and extracting the wire, you are left with a 9m tangle of wire on the ground (actually only 8m since 1m is always inside the antenna).

To tidy this up I fitted a cheap hand fishing reel to an aluminium plate with a simple handle to wind up the wire as it is being pulled out, which is a lot easier with 2 people. A notch/slot in the reel holds the connector in place as the wire is wound up.

The SuperRod mounted on the bullbar, with a hand fishing reel for winding up the wire.

The SuperRod lowered and the wire neatly wound up on the hand reel.

You could also wind it around any other kind of former, such as those designed to tidy up extension cables, but it is essential that the wire is not bent too sharply or kinked in the process, or erection and lowering of the antenna will be made more difficult.

3) Telescoping Sections

The smaller sections can drop down inside the larger ones and get jammed, also trapping the wire inside.

This will require a complete disassembly of the antenna to disentangle. A simple solution is to fit a nylon string to the tip of the smallest section and to tie a ping-pong ball or similar sized plastic object (I use the top off a deodorant can) about 50cm from the tip. Then, none of the smaller sections can disappear very far inside the larger ones, and you can pull them out using the nylon string.

A bead to hold the nylon string in place.

4) Preventing the Wire from Breaking or Pulling Out

The wire jammed and broke (actually it pulled out of the top section) while I was experimenting with erecting the antenna. 9m of antenna is a bit of a handful to hold and I must have pulled too hard on the wire, and you certainly don't want this to happen in a remote location.

So I disassembled all 9 sections to get at the top section. The red insulated wire as supplied is joined to a fairly thin solid copper wire part way up the thinnest section, since the red wire is too thick to go through the centre hole in the fibreglass. The solid wire is pushed through the tip of the section and presumably glued or crimped in place, but not very securely. This is what failed so I discarded the thin copper wire.

To improve this aspect I drilled a 1mm hole down the tip of the section, just deeper than the crimping band, and securely soldered a 50cm piece of thicker copper wire to the red insulated wire. Then I inserted it through the top section until it protruded from the tip. I soldered a round terminal to the wire sticking out of the end, to prevent it ever slipping inside the rod again. Bending a 6mm loop in the wire would work as well and either method will also provide a means of attaching a nylon string to the top section. A small bead was used to secure the string to the terminal so it all still nests together neatly. A bigger object was then attached to the string as mentioned above, to prevent any of the sections from sliding too far in.

A terminal soldered to a thicker copper centre wire after drilling a 1mm hole in the tip.

In retrospect, I found disassembly of the antenna and replacing the wire to be a very useful exercise because I now know how to replace the wire if it ever breaks again while travelling.

5) Connection the Antenna to the Radio

A PL259 socket (or whatever connector you need to match the one on your antenna lead) needs to be mounted near the bottom of the antenna for connecting the coax cable from the radio. You might need to extend the radio antenna lead if it no longer reaches the new bullbar mount. The centre connection of the socket can be fitted with a short wire with a male bullet connector crimped on, to connect to female bullet connector on the antenna wire. The ground (outer) section of the connector needs to be connected to the chassis of the vehicle using a ground cable which is as short as possible. The bull bar frame might be OK as long as that itself is well grounded to the vehicle chassis. Fit a ground cable from the socket to the vehicle chassis just in case.

You can tell how effective the grounding is buy turning on the radio, with the antenna erected and connected, and listening to the level of background noise received. It will change in volume as the grounding is improved or made worse. Maximum noise volume (ie best match with the radio) indicates the improved grounding. This doesn't take the place of proper antenna tuning and matching tests but unlike tapped whip antenna bases, the SuperRod has no matching components, only a centre wire, so some experimenting is necessary.

With a tapped whip antenna mounted as well as the SuperRod, I was able to switch the radio lead from one to the other and confirmed that the SuperRod certainly had better reception (higher signal strength) on 8022 KHz than the tapped whip. As to be expected, it also received background noise better as well.

[Note: This improvement in performance over the tapped whip antenna was confirmed during a recent 3 month trek up to the tip of Cape York. Invariably, when using the SuperRod, the base operator commented on the excellent signal strength. However, I didn't use the SuperRod antenna every day because it takes time to erect or it was too windy. It was used when signal conditions were otherwise poor, or when more time was available before a sked finished to erect it.]

In high noise environments, such as at home in a more dense housing area I’ve found the antenna works well with much less electrical noise pick up when still connected but mounted horizontally from the bullbar and supported on something non-conductive, eg a dry tree branch but I usually rest it on a wheelie bin. It will sag a bit and is more directional this way but it certainly increases the signal to noise ratio. In this mode the antenna is now acting as one half of a horizontal dipole but with the vehicle simulating the other half.

6) Using the SuperRod on Channel 1 (5455 KHz) or other VKS frequencies

The 9m SuperRod can also be used directly on VKS737 Channel 1 on 5455 KHz, with some loss of performance since it's not matched to the transmission frequency. It really should be 13.75m long to be a 1/4 wavelength at that frequency.

Channel 1 performance can be improved by fitting a loading coil so it looks to the radio as if it were a 13.75m antenna, but they cost around $40-50 commercially, but one could be wound much more economically. I found that a simpler solution was to attach about 4.5m of additional wire between the radio antenna lead centre wire and the SuperRod wire connection and to droop this loosely over a nearby bush/tree branch. It will work better there than just lying on the ground, but keep people away from the wire when transmitting to avoid radiation burns. This is not as good as a tuned loading coil but is adequate as a fallback.

The wire I use is the type sold in hardware stores for use with low voltage garden lighting systems. I has a 10 amp current carrying capacity and nice thick insulation since it's intended for outdoor applications, so it's ideal for laying on the ground or throwing up trees. It's usually twin conductor but is easily split into single conductors.

A better but more tricky alternative is to connect the extra wire to the top of the antenna, using the solder terminal fitted at the tip, and to extend that wire out sideways and/or upwards as far as possible, using a piece of nylon string attached to the end and fixed to a tree/bush etc. It will now be the correct length and nice and high, although the antenna will bend a fair bit and its radiation pattern won't be optimum.

Note that similar bent antennae, called Near Vertical Incidence Skywave (NVIS) systems, are available from Codan, Barrett etc, as in the sketch on page 2 of the Codan brochure here. This system optimises the skywave signal path for short range communications (inside the normal skip distance) by directing some of the transmitted energy upwards at an angle, rather than horizontally, which reflects off the ionosphere to closer destinations.

The Royal Flying Doctor Service (RFDS) uses frequencies in the 5 MHz range (5145, 5110, 5300, 5360, 5410 KHz depending on location of their bases) which are similar enough to the VKS737 Channel 1 frequency of 5455 KHz that the SuperRod with the additional 4.5m of wire should be capable of using them effectively. Some tuning of the exact length could be done as required using the formula (300/Frq MHz)/4. For Frq=5.3 MHz (5300 KHz), for example, an additional wire length of 4.8m would required.

See the RFDS frequency and VKS737 SelCall usage on this VKS737 document.

Note that Selcall access to the RFDS via an HF Radio (with VKS737 Selcall capabilities) is now the preferred and most reliable method of contacting the RFDS. Their radio frequencies may not be continuously monitored.

The SuperRod could readily be used on frequencies higher than 8mHz (ie a shorter antenna for 10, 12, or 15 mHz) by cutting the wire inside to the appropriate length and only raising the antenna sufficiently to elevate that length of wire. Of course, to use it for several frequencies would mean having small connectors part way along the wire sufficiently small to fit inside the telescopic section (or abandon the inside wire in favour of a spiral wound external wire).

Approximate wire lengths would be:
Channel 3       11612 kHz                 6.45m
Channel 4       14977 kHz                 5m
Channel 7       10180 kHz          7.36m

7) Power-Line and Lightning Warning

Be very aware of overhead power lines, see this recent sobering story.

Before raising a SuperRod, first look upwards to ensure there are no power-lines within range (which maybe only 6 m above ground level and well within the reach of a 9 m antenna), especially in populated areas such as caravan parks, national park camping areas, roadside rest areas or boat ramps. It's too easy to just raise the antenna, section by section from bullbar level, without first checking upwards. You could get a very nasty (and fatal) surprise, and in any case, your radio won't work very well in the proximity (~100m) of power lines due to the noise induced from the power transmission. Transmitting probably won't be affected but reception certainly will.

A tall antenna such as the 9m SuperRod will also be very attractive to lightning, so be very careful about using it when there are thunderstorms about. In particular, don't rely on lightning protection devices and don't leave it up at night if there is the slightest chance of strong winds or thunderstorms springing up unannounced.

Remember, in a thunderstorm you don't want to be the tallest thing around.

References:

The WANSARC radio club has a useful review of the SuperRod on page 5 of this issue.

2009, An Unexpected Year

To all our friends around the world.

Well, the year itself wasn't unexpected but much of what happened was.

The first part of the year actually went pretty much according to plan, maybe too smoothly. There was the usual Australia Day BBQ followed by a hot summer, then a phase of repairing and upgrading the Oka in preparation for another outback trek, this time across Western Australia. Read on because it didn't happen that way.

Janet's 60th Birthday

By popular demand, Janet's birthday had been deferred for several months, since we'd only just returned from a 14,000 km trek, and we eventually held a commemoration in conjunction with an Australia Day BBQ on, well, Australia Day.

A collage of Janet's life in pictures

Interestingly, in a snap poll of the 20 or so people present, only one had actually been born in Australia. Quite what that meant in the context of our Australia Day celebrations we didn't pursue, due to too many non-functioning brain cells. But it was also Chinese New Year's day so, in true Aussie style, anything is worth celebrating if it has, as its basis, the legal consumption of alcohol.

The Victorian Bushfires

Severe bush fires in Victoria took up most peoples attention in February with 173 people killed and thousands of homes and lives destroyed.

How could anyone combat this? (ABC Photo)

The answer is no one could. It was an unstoppable ball of fire, a pyroclastic cloud consuming everything in its path and killing by radiant heat alone until nature took a hand, and the picture below shows the sad result for so many people.

(ABC Photo)

The heat was tremendous with many towns recording 48º temperatures. In Adelaide it officially reached 46º, or 115ºF on the old scale, and railway lines buckled in the heat.

(ABC Photo)

On the streets and at the beach it exceeded 50º.

(ABC Photos)

There were a few lighter moments though, this sculpture of a melted ice cream truck says it all about our long hot summer.

(ABC Photo)

The Lower Lakes

We went and had a look at the lower lakes region after many years of severe drought and water shortages. It's more than 7 years since the River Murray actually reached the sea and Lake Alexandrina has become a sandy basin fit only for land yachting.

The Jetty at Lake Alexandrina

After the summer we were planning to "do" the Connie Sue and Gunbarrel Highways in outback WA (around 2,000 km of rough outback tracks for those who are not familiar with them), and out to the west coast for some sea breezes. But it didn't quite happen that way.

We had a quintille of problems which kept us at home until late in the year.

Scary Health Moment

First I had a health scare when the doctor found a small lump on my prostate following my normal annual check-up. That required a biopsy, which confirmed a small amount of cancer, followed by a full day of x-rays, MRI's and bone scans to determine its extent. Fortunately it is under control for the time being, not life threatening and hasn't spread, and even if it does grow, there are surgical solutions to control it. The worst they found was a gall stone which shone out like a super-nova on the x-rays, but nothing to worry about. But all this took a couple of anxious months to resolve.

Toothache in the Differential

Then I found a broken tooth on the front differential gear of our Oka, (the opposite of a gall stone), which meant a complete strip down and rebuilding of the front axle. That's now finished and we are back on the road but it kept us busy for a few more weeks. All good experience and I've written it up on our blog here.

The damaged gear.

Bella's Operations

Then, just as we finished with that, our dog Bella had to have a large cancerous lump removed from her leg and it all took around 3 months for the wound and skin grafts (not to mention my credit card) to heal, before we could lumber Mark and Mollie with looking after her while we were away.

Poor Bella, looking just a bit sorry for herself after her skin graft operation.

So we were stuck at home through the cold and wet winter (by Adelaide standards), all packed up and ready to go but couldn't leave. Very frustrating, but at least the vegie garden was blooming. We had a world record crop of broad beans (pity no one likes them except me), caulies, broccoli and beetroot and we managed to raise seeds from squash, pumpkins, sweetcorn, silver beet and tomatoes which are now all flourishing in the summer heat. Strawberries we grow too, but only for the birds and millipedes to eat.

Then while all that was happening there were more dramas:

A Sad Funeral

One of my long term friends and colleagues, Nigel, a jogger and non-smoker, succumbed to lung cancer and his funeral was both an enlightening but a very sober affair. Around 300 people turned out which was an indicator of his popularity.

The Car's Gearbox

Then the car's automatic gearbox, which kept jumping out of gear and generally messing around at inconvenient moments, needed an overhaul. Luckily it only cost us a small fortune when I was expecting it to be a large one.

Thigh Pains

Janet had been experiencing some thigh/hip pains but an ultrasound determined that they were caused by someone or other's syndrome and she needed some injections to regrease the joints, which have only been partially successful.

The Water Tank Leak

Then in October, the solar hot water tank on the roof burst sending lots of hot water into the roof. Most of it went down the tiles and into the gutter but sufficient got though the tiles to cause the hall ceiling to sag in several places.

Strangely, the smoke alarm in the hall went off at 2.30am (just when your brain is not awake at all) and it was raining. Janet felt some splashes on her leg so we assumed a bit of rain had got in but I don't understand how that set off the alarm. So we put a bucket under the drip, took the batteries out of the smoke alarm, stopped worrying about the technicalities involved and went back to bed.

In the morning it was still dripping, the bucket was full, but the sun was shining and there was no sign of rain. It was then, being slow learners, that we realised that the tank on the roof was leaking and it got progressively worse as the day wore on.

We had the tank replaced the next day (it was 20 years old so a "bit of a leak" was not unexpected), but getting the hall ceiling done was more problematic. The hot water caused the Gyproc panels to sag and potentially collapse so I had to prop them up pending finding someone to fix them.

The sagging ceiling panels in the hall.

Fortunately Mark's friend Heath is in the wall board/plastering business and he gave us a quote and the insurance covered the cost of the ceiling repair but not the tank.

HF Antenna

I did manage to install another antenna for our HF radio in our Oka. It's a 9 m high fibreglass telescopic whip antenna to enhance our communications abilities when we are remote from civilisation, which we seem to be most of the time.

9 m might seem a tad large compared with your average car radio aerial, but when it comes to HF radio transmissions, size definitely does matter. We do, however, have to maintain a keen watch out for thunderstorms as it could be attractive to lightning. In a thunderstorm, you don't want to be the tallest thing around.

For the technically minded, 9 m happens to be a 1/4 wavelength on our primary communications frequency of 8.022 MHz which is the optimum length for effective transmission. It can give us a communications range of up to 3,000 km, far enough to seek assistance from any part of Australia.

Our 9 m HF antenna raised in a bush camp at dawn somewhere in outback NSW.

(Actually I know exactly where it was, and so I should with all the technology at our fingertips. It's location is S31' 33.72", E146' 55.19", which is 25 km west of Nyngan, in bushland about 1 km south of the Barrier Highway, across the railway line and left at the next bush).

Our Trip to Brisbane

But despite all these dramas, none of them stopped us going up to Brisbane in November for Janet's cousin's twin daughters 40th birthday bash (I wish they were more closely related, it would save keystrokes). We left on 7 November and were away for about 4 weeks, getting back just in time to not miss all the Christmas silly season stuff.

We had a really good time in Brissie, staying with Janet's cousin. The bash was a fancy dress party and I went as a Maharajah and Janet as a Maharini. If you don't want to see someone in a turban pole-dancing around a Hills Hoist, look away now.

Janet and David in their Maharajah costumes.

David a bit later on needing the support of a clothes hoist, and yes that is a snake up his sleeve.

Who called the police? Oh, it's OK, he was the host in disguise.

Before we left, our hosts shot off to Tassie for a few days leaving us in charge of their house, liquor supplies, BMW etc. Living in their house, driving their car and raiding their fridge felt like identity fraud.

When we eventually dragged ourselves away, we had been gone 4 weeks and did 4500 km, which is a very long way for a birthday party. We would have been away longer but it was very hot and humid and you just can't do sight-seeing when it's over 40º.

Part of the worlds largest Solar System Display, near the Warrumbungles National Park, around 100 km across, centred on the Siding Springs Observatory.

As it was, we did do some 4WDriving in a rain forest in the Border Ranges National Park, where Janet collected a leech on her foot, a tick on her leg and saw a snake close up, too close in her opinion. We also visited our friends Tim and Brenda in Byron Bay on the way back, and returned across the Barrier Highway through some stunning desert scenery between Broken Hill and Cobar.

A roadside stop in southern Queensland, (which is not between Broken Hill and Cobar).

On the way to and from Brisbane (which is more than a week's drive each way), we stayed at a delightful free campsite alongside the Gwydir River in the town of Bingara, in northern NSW. The town's forward thinking council are actively attracting motorhomers to come and stay in the town for free, in the expectation (accurate as it happens) that they will patronise local businesses and keep the town alive and thriving. We fully support that kind of RV Friendly symbiotic environment.

The Gwydir River campsite in Bingara.

One of the other nice places we stopped at was Peterborough in the mid-north of South Australia. They have an excellent railway museum there with a round house, engines etc, but unfortunately no working locos at the moment. It's ironic that the main Trans-Australia railway passes through the town but you can't actually go there by train. I've asked them to fix that.

What any small boy would want to do.

In Summary

Surprisingly, apart from all our dramas, all is well here. Global warming has deserted us for the time being after a record hot November and it's quite cool and gently raining. Not enough to water the garden but enough to rust the tools I left out last night.

We've had an interesting if somewhat unexpected year and hopefully we can cope as well with whatever fate hands us next year.

We remain forever grateful that our problems, however frustrating they may be, are trivial compared with the really serious issues that some our friends are having to deal with.

We hope you have a really good Christmas break and good fortune in 2010.

David and Janet