From 20 November 2022 to 9 March 2023 - 4003 Km
Another frustrating event...
... Approximately 150 kilometers South of Cairns, after stopping for my lunch, as I get back on the main road, my clutch brakes down again !
Steve kindly tows my Land Roamer off the main road and back into the small "rest area" where I had had my lunch...
He then takes me to Tully to see a garage where I could have my vehicle taken for repairs. A tow truck is organised for the next morning...
Fortunately, Bob, the owner of the garage, makes space under a shed to unload my Roamer.
This is the beginning of the rainy season, it will rain often...
I remove the gearbox, which NOW shows OBVIOUS damage (and which will need to be changed, I will need to send another unit from Europe...). At long last I realize that it's the "play" in the gearbox mainshaft which has been the cause of so many disc plates being sheared to pieces...
With my Roamer stuck near Cairns, my sensible recourse is to take a bus back to Cairns, fly from Cairns to Sydney as my ticket to Switzerland (for Xmas and New-Year) had been booked from Sydney.
This is what I will do and I am lucky to have friends living near Sydney. We visited the Blue Mountains, Newcastle and I got a first glimpse of Sydney - Thank you Gervais and Climène.
I return to Sydney, visit for a couple of days,
and go the Sydney OPERA !
and go the Sydney OPERA !
Don Giovanni ,Vienna (1788) title: Il dissoluto punito, ossia il Don Giovanni, literally The Rake Punished, or Don Giovanni) is an opera in two acts with music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to an Italian libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte.
Its subject is a centuries-old Spanish legend about a libertine as told by playwright Tirso de Molina in his 1630 play El burlador de Sevilla y convidado de piedra. It is a dramma giocoso blending comedy, melodrama and supernatural elements (although the composer entered it into his catalogue simply as opera buffa). It was premiered by the Prague Italian opera at the National Theater (of Bohemia), now called the Estates Theatre, on 29 October 1787.
Don Giovanni is regarded as one of the greatest operas of all time.
I then fly to back to Cairns (stay overnite at my favorite hostel) before taking a bus to Tully to find my Roamer and the new gearbox sent by DHL from Switzerland...
I fit a new clutch and the new gearbox and cross my fingers that my misery is over...
At long last I can start driving South toward Melbourne...
My first main tourist attraction will be Fraser Island.
Fraser Island, officially K'gari, is a World Heritage-listed island along the south-eastern coast in the Wide Bay–Burnett region, Queensland, Australia. The island is approximately 250 km north of the state capital, Brisbane. Lying off the coast of Hervey Bay and just south of the last of the Great Barrier Reef's coral cays, Fraser is the world's largest sand island and stretches for 123 kilometres.
The island is part of the traditional lands of the Butchulla people, who called it K'gari. White settlers began arriving from around 1847, who named it after Eliza Fraser who after being shipwrecked lived with Aboriginal people on the island for six weeks in 1836.
Visit Fraser Island to be dwarfed by ancient rainforests growing out of only sand and to explore the freshwater lakes and spectacular sand formations on one of the most incredible islands on earth.
Fraser Island has the absolute best that one island can offer - cool towering rainforests to walk through; more than 100 freshwater lakes to swim in including the iconic Lake McKenzie, huge sand blows to climb, and an amazing 120 kilometre beach highway, complete with the shipwreck of the Maheno and cliffs of stunning coloured sands.
Not wanting to take a chance that my Land Roamer would have another clutch breakdown on the island (which would have meant a VERY expensive recovery!), I rented a small Toyota Land Cruiser which was perfect for this trip.
Those few days on the island were
the "highlight" of this part of the trip!
Brisbane is a very charming city!
Brisbane is the capital and most populous city of Queensland, and the third-most populous city in Australia and Oceania with a population of approximately 2.6 million. The area of the city is also referred to as 'Meanjin', the Turrbal name referring to land on which parts of the city are built. Aboriginal groups claiming traditional ownership of the area include the Yugara, Jagera, Turrbal and Quandamooka peoples.
The Moreton Bay penal settlement was founded in 1824 at Redcliffe as a place for secondary offenders from the Sydney colony, and soon moved to North Quay in 1825 on the banks of the Brisbane River, so named for Sir Thomas Brisbane.
German Lutherans established the first free settlement of Zion Hill at Nundah in 1838, and in 1859 Brisbane was chosen as Queensland's capital when the state separated from New South Wales. By the late 19th century, the city had grown into a major port and centre of immigration. During World War II, the Allied command in the South West Pacific was based in the city, along with the headquarters for General Douglas MacArthur of the United States Army.
A diverse city with over 32% of its metropolitan population being foreign-born, Brisbane is frequently ranked highly in lists of the most liveable cities.
Byron Bay is a beachside town located in the far-northeastern corner of the state of New South Wales, Australia on Bundjalung Country. It is located 772 kilometres north of Sydney.
Cape Byron, a headland adjacent to the town,
is the most easterly point of mainland Australia!
After 9 months on Australian roads, I am back in Melbourne !
Back to Melbourne, objective achieved!
...9 months and 24'045 km later.
My visa will run out in a few days, it's time to ship the Land Roamer to South America on a Flat-Rack and for me to take a plane to cross the South Pacific Ocean...
=> If you want to see more DIFFERENT pictures of this region, click here
=> If you are ready to cross the South Pacific Ocean, click here