World Toilet Day was November 19, and I forgot.

Bummer!

Forgetting the biggest event on the loo lover’s calendar is a dunny detective’s disaster! A toilet tragic’s tragedy!! A convenience chaser’s catastrophe!!!

BUT …

… then I think about the 4.2 billion people without safely managed sanitation facilities and the 673 million people worldwide who practice open defecation. The 2 billion people whose drinking water is contaminated with faeces, the 432,000 diarrhoeal deaths per year, and the children in conflict zones 20 times more likely to die from sanitation-related illness than violence.

That makes my dunny disaster look like a s**t-storm in a teacup.

World Toilet Day

Check out the World Toilet Day official fact sheet HERE for some even more scary facts that’ll make you realise how lucky we are in Australia.

So while you’re admiring 10 All-Australian amenities, with the 10 amazing All-Australian adventure hot spots that go with them, spare a thought for those for whom doing their ‘business’ is SO not a pleasure. Then keep reading for ideas about how YOU can help!

1 Timber Creek, Northern Territory

Afloat on a small (and relatively unstable) structure surrounded by crocodiles on Australia’s wildest river is enough to make you want to – well, YOU know! Luckily, this croc-proof (we hope!) purpose-built pontoon has ALL the amenities to survive a Victoria River Crocodile Cruise – drinks and snacks while enjoying a Northern Territory sunset AND crazy-cool crocodile cruise conveniences if nature’s call gets a little bit too much.

That’s a relief in more ways than one!  Read more about cruising with crocodiles HERE!

2 Bruny Island, Tasmania

Bruny Island isn’t just the last stop off the Tassie coast before Antarctica! Dress up in some (REALLY unfashionable) heavy weather gear for a wet and wild ride over heaving seas, through keyhole rocks, past rugged islands adorned with seals and right under the second highest sea cliffs in the southern hemisphere before reaching the Great Southern Ocean!

En route to the cruise departure point, don’t miss this loo on the Neck (are you wondering why it’s called that?) far below Truganini’s Lookout!  Discover Beauty and the Beasts on Bruny Island Cruises HERE to see why it’s one of my favourite Australian adventure hot spots!

3 Mt Kosciuszko, New South Wales

Climbing Australia’s highest mountain is embarrassingly easy – you heard it here first!  It’s only 2228 metres (7310 feet) above sea-level, making it lower than the height above which lots of people live! BUT … ‘mountaineers’ like me who climb it can bag their first (and in my case only) ‘Seven Summits’ peak.

Although I don’t know from personal experience, I bet it’s the ONLY Seven Summits peak with a view over the highest Public Toilet in the land!!  But I’ll let the REAL mountaineers prove me wrong!  Go HERE for more about how I climbed Mount Kosciuszko!

4 Head of Bight, South Australia

Head of Bight – highest point of the distinctive bite-shaped coastal curve along the southern Australian coastline – isn’t easy to get to. But you’ll drive right past it on the 4100+ km (2500+ mile) road trip across the Nullarbor Plain between Sydney and Perth! At the 2300 km mark, just over half-way from Sydney, take a pit stop to watch whales cavorting with their calves under the longest line of sea cliffs in the world!

And visit the Head of Bight loo that overlooks it all!  Check out my story about seeing the Whales at Head of Bight HERE!

5 Point Quobba, Western Australia

Killer king waves, shipwreck stories, blowholes and extreme water sports make Point Quobba one of the wildest stretches of rugged, rocky coastline in Oz (above and top) – and one of the most picturesque!

If action adventure with a massive dose of danger isn’t quite your thing, just find a vantage point (away from the edge!) and you’ll probably see a whale.  When you’re not being distracted by the thrill-seekers getting a drenching at the blowholes, that is!

Alternatively, just take in all the action from the vantage point of this classic Aussie dunny overlooking the famous blow hole.  I promise that you won’t miss anything while you’re doing your business – because the door doesn’t close!

The famous Quobba Blowhole at Quobba Point is just one of the many superb Australian Coastal and Beach Holiday Destinations you can read about HERE!

6 Mt Hotham, Victoria

Whether it’s summer or winter, the view over this part of the Australian Alps is white.  Visible in summer, the white-bleached tree trunks killed by bushfires outline the many-layered mountain ranges surrounding Mount Hotham. In winter, they’re covered in snow.

It’s likely to be significantly cooler than the plains below at any time of year, so when you get there, admire the white view from the ski lift transit lounge loo AND appreciate the civilised conveniences plumber who installed just one tap – HOT!

Read all about the Mount Hotham loo (and surrounds!) HERE!

7 Richmond, Queensland

If you’re a keen prehistoric fossil-fossicker, the chances of striking it lucky on the Outback Queensland Dinosaur trail are better than average.  Especially at Richmond, where the soft Toolebuc formation on what was once an inland sea under 30-40 metres of water has given up world famous fossil relics like the Richmond Pliosaur, Minmi and Kronosaurus.

Even the dunny gets in on the act – but while you can make your ‘deposit’ at the future coprolite drop zone (aka the loo), chances are good you won’t be around when it’s unearthed as a fossil!

Discover more about Queensland’s famous Richmond fossil fields HERE!

8 Warraweena, South Australia

For a taste of what’s on offer in one of the top Australian adventure hot spots, the ancient wonderland us South Aussies call the Flinders Ranges, head out to the privately owned Warraweena Conservation Park.  In the less well known northern Flinders Ranges you’ll find rugged 4WD tracks, mountain climbing, wildlife, stunning scenery, historic sites and eco-tourism all in one handy location.

You’ll also find the only combination scenic public toilet/visitor information centre I’ve ever seen at the historic Sliding Rock Mine site!

But that’s not all!  Go HERE for a LOT more things to do throughout the amazing Flinders Ranges.

9 Lord Howe Island, New South Wales

This tiny sub-tropical paradise 600 km (370 miles) off the east coast of Australia has so many world exclusives it’s hard to know where to start. First up, there’s Balls Pyramid – highest volcanic rock stack in the world. Then there’s only golf course on earth on World Heritage turf and world’s southernmost tropical reef. Even the wildlife gets in on the act with the endemic Lord Howe Island Woodhen and Phasmid, a large stick-insect.

And then there’s this awesome view – clearly visible from what has to be one of the most scenic loos downunder! Australian adventure hot spots don’t get much better than this!  A Lord Howe Island Holiday can be awesome – read about mine HERE!

10 Tunnel Creek, Western Australia

Although the Gibb River Road has claimed countless tyres, axles, windscreens and suspensions over its 660 km (410 miles) length full of tyre-shredding rocks, perilous creek crossings, red dust and bone-jarring corrugations.  But it’s still a popular Aussie road trip, most likely because of the stunning Kimberley natural attractions scattered along its length!  Take a short detour to Tunnel Creek and go underground for a different perspective of the Kimberley Region.

And while you’re there, detour into the even more welcome attraction you’ll find under the rocky cliffs.  There’s more about the amazing Kimberley region HERE!

We’re very lucky down here to have so many Australian adventure hot spots with amazing attractions and awesome amenities in some of our most remote and adventure-filled locations.

So while it’s easier for us (read: me!) to forget World Toilet Day even though it’s been an official UN day since 2013, we can contribute to the impact it’s having around the world on any day!

How to get involved:

World Toilet Day is about working together to eliminate the life-threatening hazards caused by poor sanitation in places where the ‘adventures’ many people face in doing their business are a lot less welcome.

If you’re not sure how you can help, here’s a few ideas:

• Who Gives a Crap:  Buy your toilet paper (and/or tissues and kitchen paper) from this innovative company, and 50% of profits are donated to building toilets for those in need (the other 50% mostly goes to growing the company).  Get in quick and you could order the wicked Gift Edition Loo Paper to make Xmas REALLY fun!
• Toilet Twinning:  Your £60 donation (about $AUD114 on 20/11/19) funds a community loo project, and you’ll get a pic and the coordinates of your toilet ‘twin’ to hang in your own amenities! Can’t afford that?  Check out the website for other fundraising products and ideas.
• Sanitation First:  Send a Shitty Gift (their words, not mine) for any occasion – check out the graphic range of gift cards – and you’ll be helping this organisation tackle poverty one toilet at a time (again, their words, not mine)!!
• TEAR Australia:  Sanitation is just one of several initiatives this organisation has to reduce poverty.  Check out their collection of Really Useful Gifts!
• World Toilet Day official website: more information and ideas, don’t forget to mark the date on your calendar for next year.

Got more ideas?  Put them in the comments below!

The post TOP 10 All-Australian Adventure Hot Spots for World Toilet Day! appeared first on Australia by Red Nomad OZ.

On a fine and sunny non-race-day Saturday morning, the Lismore Turf Club’s sensational sub-tropical setting is generally race-horse-and-people-free.

And the Lismore Turf Club Loo is generally unused and unappreciated with an uninteresting view!

But last Saturday morning the sunny serenity of the Lismore Turf Club Loo was disturbed by a sight never before seen anywhere in the WORLD. On that day, the view from the loo – beamed all around Australia – will be forever remembered (at least by ONE person) as Red Nomad OZ’s first appearance on National TV!

If you were lucky/unlucky enough to view it (strike out that which is not applicable), you’ll no doubt agree it’s quite probably the last!!

So why was a Weekend Sunrise TV program guest lurking outside a loo at the Lismore Turf Club, over 700 km from Channel 7’s heartland in Sydney?

That’s what I was asking myself as the Rainbow Region’s morning fog melted into a clear sunny day and cameramen Peter and Ben wired me up for sound, fixed the light (dang, those glasses were tricky!) and calmed those last minute nerves.

My awesome publicist, Jenny had rung a couple of days earlier. Yes, she knew I was on the road. Yes, she knew the publication date (1 July!) of my book “Aussie Loos with Views!” was still a way off. Yes, she knew I’d be nervous.

But this was WEEKEND SUNRISE!  And they could do a live cross from anywhere with a race course!!

A race course?  Go figure!!

In my defence, a live cross isn’t an ideal situation despite the calming cameramen, pacifying producer (thank you, Kate!), or welcoming Weekend hosts!

To the onlooker (ie Pilchard) I was just a dazed redhead, standing in the middle of an empty Turf Club surrounded by lighting equipment and cameras, an earpiece taped to my neck channelling my imaginary friends and randomly speaking!

Camera and lighting equipment aside, perhaps not that different to my normal state?!

The absence of visual cues made it all a bit unreal (I’m on National TV? Yeah … whatever!) so I didn’t feel nervous at all.

On the other hand, the producer and crew have probably already rewritten the old showbiz adage, vowing never again to work with children, animals OR redheads who’ve written toilet books and never been on TV before!

Being the Aussie Scenic Public Toilets poster girl is a double-edged sword – I got to write a book about my special subject AND have it published (thank you ExploreAustralia!).BUT I DID get the chance to make a fool of myself on National TV!

Even if I discovered a new scenic loo while I was doing it!

Will the fun ever stop?

The Lismore Turf Club Loo isn’t Australia’s most scenic, and it doesn’t have the most spectacular setting or staggering view.

But it’s the most memorable!  For me, at least!!

Take a look at what the dunny saw that day on the Dunnies Downunder Video Clip from Weekend Sunrise!

Read MORE:

• Lismore and the NSW Rainbow Region
• My Book: “Aussie Loos with Views!”
• My Australian Scenic Public Toilets Blog Series

The post World Exclusive at the Lismore Turf Club Loo! OZ Scenic Public Toilet #39 appeared first on Australia by Red Nomad OZ.

If you like your landscapes complete with killer views, superb natural attractions, unusual wildlife and a touch of history, Truganini Lookout overlooking ‘the Neck’ on Tasmania’s Bruny Island ticks all the boxes.

Pretty good, huh?!

But this already FINE outlook is elevated from pretty good to perfect by its scenic public toilet. That’s it, right down there near the car park and the beginning of the OH-so-many steps to the viewing platform.

Perfect, right?!

Our day on Bruny Island just off the Tasmanian east coast south-east of Hobart hadn’t started so well. How could the Mirambeenavehicle ferry be merrily motoring across the D’Entrecasteaux Channel from Kettering to Bruny Island WITHOUT US? We’d got up early. We’d made good time on the drive south to the ferry departure point. We’d joined the queue. And when the car in front of us went up the ramp, we thought there’d be room for our smallish hire car too.

BUT THERE WASN’T!!

At least the 1.5 hour wait for the next service gave me a welcome opportunity to practice my water reflection photography skills. And my marina photography skills. And my ‘is-that-tiny-speck-on-the-horizon-the-ferry-coming-back-yet-please-goddess’ shots.

That ‘practice’ time was welcome to ME, anyway. I’ll leave you to judge by these snaps whether those 90 LONG minutes of my life I’ll never see again were 90 minutes well spent. Or not!

At least we were first in line for the next ferry service. And the day started to look a bit brighter – literally – as the morning fog and cloud rolled away and we disembarked at the Roberts Point ferry terminus AND BAKERY!! YESSSSSS!!!

But the day was to become even brighter.

Nearly half-way down Bruny Island’s 100km length is the (I can’t believe they called it that!) Neck – a (yes, you guessed right) narrow neck of land joining North and South Bruny Island and separating the D’Entrecasteaux channel from Adventure Bay.

It’s also a penguin and shearwater rookery – an apparently rare combo. And the area is significant to the Tasmanian Aboriginal people so the lookout is dedicated to the memory of Truganini, one of the last tribal Aborigines in Tasmania.

Of course we HAD to stop and check it out.

Just as well we did or we would have missed one of the most scenic Australian Public Toilets I’ve had the pleasure of doing my business in.

And I would have missed the chance to include it in my first book!

‘Aussie Loos with Views!’ is what’s kept me from this blog for so long.

That, and the ‘long service leave’ I’d earned from four years of blogging!

It’s hard to imagine that after a dramatic dunny like this that the day could get even better. IT DID! But that’s a story for another day!! Stay tuned!!!

Want MORE?

• Truganini Lookout and The Neck
• Bruny Island
• Tasmania

The post Australia’s Scenic Public Toilet #38 – The Neck, Bruny Island appeared first on Australia by Red Nomad OZ.

I’ve got Pilchard to thank for some of our more obscure travel destinations.

If not for him, I wouldn’t be out birding.

And if not for birding, I wouldn’t have been in this marvellously scenic spot near Werribee on the outskirts of Melbourne’s west!

As I photographed the sunlight glinting across the waters of Port Philip Bay to Portarlington, and the panoramic vista stretching way past Avalon airport over the plain to the You Yangs, I wondered why no one else was around.

Doesn’t EVERY visitor to Melbourne want to visit the sewage ponds??

Weirdly, it’s unlikely you’ll find the Western Treatment Plant facility on any ‘Top 10 Melbourne Attractions’ lists, despite its environmentally friendly waste treatment credentials. And while its 11,000+ hectares of filtration ponds and lakes give good photo opportunity, they’re not used to define Melbourne in the same way as, say, the Yarra. Or the Queen Vic Markets. Or even the Boathouses of nearby Campbells Cove***!

I guess the opportunity to be where 52% of Melbourne’s sewage is being processed just isn’t that enticing.

Unless you’re a twitcher*.

If so, you’ll know EXACTLY what a nice sewage pond is doing in a place like this, and call it ‘Werribee’ – the ‘in’ name for birders worldwide. Because among the levees and lakes that make up the extraordinary patchwork of poo-ponds that is the Western Treatment Plant, the 284 species of birds recorded at Werribee from all over the world draw serious twitchers like flies to … well, you know.

But … you don’t just ‘drop in’ to Werribee. Jumping through bureaucratic hoops to get a permit just for the privilege of visiting a massive set of poo-ponds may be incomprehensible to non-twitchers, but as Pilchard’s best chance to spot a few lifers**, he happily signed up, giving assurances we’d behave responsibly.

Yes, there IS a sewage pond etiquette protocol!

Dang! I guess that meant the spontaneous sewage swim I’d been looking forward to was out of the question …

If you’re looking for a comprehensive photographic catalogue of the birds we saw, then don’t buy a lottery ticket because today is not your lucky day. The ‘responsible behaviour’ expected from THIS passenger became an exhausting round of navigating through the complex maze of poo-ponds; opening and closing the locked gates that kept the riff-raff out (because EVERYONE wants to break into a sewage treatment plant, right?) and in my spare time, ‘helping’ spot the rarities Pilchard was convinced lay lurking behind every shrub eagerly awaiting his identification.

Who says birding isn’t an extreme sport?

Telling twitchers and non-twitchers apart is easy! Just apply this simple test when a twitcher tells you he didn’t spot an unusual bird seen by almost everyone else in the same spot: If you’re a twitcher, you’ll openly commiserate while secretly gloating because you’ve either trumped the other twitcher (ie the bird’s already on your list); or the other twitcher HASN’T trumped you!

If you’re NOT a twitcher, you won’t care.

In a perhaps unsurprising demonstration of the ‘camaraderie’ for which the birding world is sometimes known, an older couple (ie older than US), their necks hung about with several thousand dollars of optical equipment waved to us from across a pond. We drove around to muscle in pick their brains be sociable only to find they hadn’t been waving, they’d been waving us ON! We’d cramped their style by daring to slow down directly above a bird lurking in the grass below the levee bank!

Chastened, we slunk away before they could take us out with their giant lenses …

For a place surrounding one with 360° of sewage (albeit filtered and treated), there’s one surprising – and ironic – omission at Werribee.

Perhaps a Public Toilet in a sewage treatment plant is redundant?

So I didn’t think I’d be issued with a ‘responsible behaviour’ infringement notice just for doing a squat amongst the sewage ponds … I mean, how could you tell??

I’ll leave you to decide whether being surrounded by sewage counts as a public toilet; OR if Werribee is the BEST scenic spot NOT to have a loo!!

If this post leaves you suffering from Australian Scenic Public Toilet deprivation, the best antidote is to  see a LOT of them all in one place, right? RIGHT??

SO … put yourself out of your misery and check out the other loos I’ve featured right here on Australia by Red Nomad OZ HERE! And if that doesn’t do it for you, then check out my book – Aussie Loos with Views!

* Twitcher = Birdwatcher. Who knew?!

** Lifer = Bird never before seen by you.

***  Tourism Victoria: I guess you’ll be BEGGING to use my Werribee photos to help promote Melbourne now, right??

Want MORE?

• Western Treatment Plant, Werribee, Victoria
• Melbourne’s West
• My BOOK:  Aussie Loos With Views!

The post The Aussie Scenic Public Loo that WASN’T! appeared first on Australia by Red Nomad OZ.

Some get to Rawson Pass en route to Mount Kosciuszko for the record.  Others do it for the challenge.  And still others do it just because it’s there.

100 metres or so below the Mt Kosciuszko summit, the Rawson Pass Public Amenities block does a roaring trade. Back in the good old days, being a mountaineer was as easy as taking a short trip in the car.  Back then, ‘climbers’ attempting the summit had to take their chances with the dunny of the great outdoors.

We’d toiled along the undulating 6 km (~3.5 miles) track, gamely fighting off persistent altitude sickness, or was it lack of fitness? We’d been suffering it since alighting from the Kosciuszko Express chairlift, a speedy 600 metre rise in altitude from ski village Thredbo.

Cash-strapped governments regularly threaten to cause irreparable damage to the delicate alpine environment by re-opening the Kosciuszko National Park to pastoral leases.  But apparently the threat posed by the waste from the 100,000 annual mountain climbers has been enough to warrant the purpose built trail ending at the pass.

I guess the toilet cleaner’s job description didn’t involve mountaineering? At least the bunker would double as a shelter in an unexpected snowstorm emergency!

Back at the bunker we took pleasure in doing business as HIGH as possible in an OZ public amenities block.  From there, we looked out from Australia’s HIGHest (and arguably MOST scenic) loo to OZ’s HIGHest peak not so far above. And tried not to think of the 6.5 km walk back to the Kosciuszko Express station!

• Climbing Mt Kosciuszko
• The other HIGH loo that made me a LIAR!
• Kosciuszko National Park
• MORE Mt Kosciuszko Photos on Flickr

The post Rawson Pass: Scenic Public Loo #37 appeared first on Australia by Red Nomad OZ.

Australia Telescope Compact Array

At the Australia Telescope Compact Array, the future of Southern Hemispheric radio astronomy was in my hands, at least for the next 30 minutes or so.

Staggering advances in technology channel radio signals from deep, DEEP space through the 6-Dish Australia Telescope Compact Array.  The dishes work together to simulate a much larger antenna. However, the advances were apparently not quite advanced enough to drown out the rather weak signal emitted by my mobile phone.

The thought of death by Optus* was strangely appealing. Because that’s apparently what would happen to whatever radio signal data was filtering its lonely way across the aeons of light years separating earth from the nebulae and galaxies behind the sheltering sky above if I left my phone on.  I made an uncharacteristic decision to play nice.

So I switched the mobile off. Danged thing wasn’t receiving a signal anyway.

More importantly, I didn’t know if anyone was watching.  Or recording my actions and movements.  ~400 astronomers use the Compact Array and other Australian radio telescopes each year.  And any of them could have been lurking over in the unmistakeably government-issue buildings behind me.

The sinking sun silhouetted five of the massive parabolic dishes, each 22 metres (~72 feet) in diameter and weighing 270 tonnes, against the clear evening sky. I was lucky.  They could have easily been in a different configuration along the 3 km (1.86 miles) of track that separates them from the 6th dish, fixed in position at its western end.

I lined them up for a full-frontal Compact Array shot. Sweet.

Yes, size DOES matter!

The Loo at the end of the Universe

I got a massive thrill from nailing a rare** 5-dishes-in-a-Compact-Array-at-the-end-of-the-universe shot.  But it ALMOST distracted me from the unobtrusive white structure between the Car Park and the Visitor Centre.

When this blog was taking its first uncertain steps towards the fame and fortune that still eludes it, I naively dubbed Scenic Public Toilet #4 ‘The Little Public Toilet at the End of the Universe’.

But … I was wrong.

How can a remote Outback spot compete with an obscure New South Wales location in the Namoi Valley’s agricultural belt near Narrabri? Even if it does resemble a moonscape!

I put aside all thoughts of black holes, and other unsavoury astronomic phenomena.  I couldn’t help appreciating the weird juxtaposition of the symbols of humanity’s lowly response to nature’s call; and the ultimate pinnacle of humanity’s search for meaning in the universe.

The afternoon light was fading and the stars beginning to appear, so we left the Compact Array Visitor Centre for nearby Narrabri.

And I turned my mobile back on.

* An Australian mobile phone network carrier
** Well, do YOU have one??

Want MORE?

• More about the Compact Array
• Narrabri, New South Wales
• Australian Scenic Public Toilet #4
• Other Australian Scenic Public Toilets

The post Australia Telescope Compact Array – Loo #36 appeared first on Australia by Red Nomad OZ.

‘Now we’ll see some REAL scenery!’ Doug announced, herding us away from the spectacular outlook from Coulthard’s Lookout towards our convoy of two vehicles.  The Arkaroola Ridgetop tour was well underway.

But I was sceptical.

The ragged mountain ranges (yes, I’m channelling Aussie poet Dorothea Mackellar*) glistened and glowed in a glorious 360° panorama in the perfection of a clear Outback day.

Could it really get any better? I thought Doug was joking.

He wasn’t.

Our guide, commentator and driver was Arkaroola’s most wanted man.  That’s if the caption under the photo of his younger self in the dining room spoke the truth, anyway. Doug was rocking the Arkaroola Ridgetop Tour – the Wilderness Sanctuary’s ultimate 4WD adventure, and elevated it from excellent to extraordinary.

Building the Road

Luckily, mining company Exoil followed up on the wartime uranium exploration in this area, and ‘developed’ this ‘road’ in the late 1960s.  Otherwise, it’s unlikely we’d have been jolting our way deep into the otherwise trackless wilderness through this more remote, wild and sensationally beautiful South Australian landscape.

Carving this rugged road from the edge of civilisation into the ragged mountain range wilderness was logical to further investigate the uranium mining option.

Luckily for us, once the uranium exploration was done it was logical to someone else to turn this rugged road into a tourist drive!  Despite the $AUD40,000 it costs to restore the track after each of the 1-5 washouts it gets each year.

The Arkaroola Ridgetop Tour

$AUD120 gets you a berth on the purpose-built 4WD bus.

Yes, tourists actually pay for the privilege of 4 hours of jolting in an open tray-top.  The track has near-vertical climbs and plunges across sheer rock seams interspersed with creek beds full of boulders.  It’s got wheel ruts the size of irrigation drains and ridge-tops so exposed the strong gusts of wind could suck the unwary into oblivion.

That means the tour isn’t necessarily the best choice for acrophobics, back-seat drivers or vertigo-sufferers!  And if wide-open spaces give you the heebie-jeebies?  Maybe you’re better off on an air-conditioned bus …

Tour? Or Gym??

As our vehicle shuddered over a particularly large rock, the seatbelt round my waist was the only thing preventing an ungraceful slide into the tailgate – or beyond.  My experimental photography technique – developed especially for this tour – was working surprisingly well, all things considered.

But I wouldn’t have taken a several-kilometre morning walk if I’d known just sitting in the back of the truck would give me a full body workout!

As an added bonus, we were the odd ones out in our two-vehicle convoy.  A 10-camper group made up the rest of the tour.  They must have vowed never to be separated by more than 100 metres at any given time, which made each stop an fascinating anthropological experiment.

I didn’t need the childish thrill I got from wandering into random strangers’ group photos.  But I took it anyway!

Travelling through the stunning scenery, varied land forms, unusual rock formations and unique vegetation in these wild mountains provides enough thrills for a lifetime. But following the track past the imposing Mt Painter, and Mt Gee – composed of quartz crystals – was gasp-inducing on several levels. These aren’t even particularly high mountains, even by Australian standards.

The road-builders clearly couldn’t be bothered building a road in lazy curves when perpendicular obviously got them there faster.

Sillers Lookout

After an ascent so steep I was starting to think we couldn’t possibly return this way without dropping off the face of the earth, we reached the final climb to the ultimate pinnacle of the tour – Sillers Lookout. Named, as I should have guessed, for then-chairman of Exoil.

Luckily, Doug could turn the vehicle on a dime because the ‘space’ on top of the lookout left no margin for error. High atop a rocky knoll, we overlooked the rugged grandeur of the Freeling Heights.  They drop suddenly and completely away to a “vision splendid of sunlit plains extended” (AB Paterson said it first and best**) WAY out across Yudnamutana Gorge to the vast salty expanse of Lake Frome. I leaned against the (thank god someone built one) fence feeling a little weak at the knees. Strangely not from the hair-raising ride, but from the vista of such awesome and utter FAAAAABULOUSNESS.  I was struck by the uncharacteristic feeling of being lost for words.

Superlatives, anyway.

‘Does the drive ever make you nervous?’ I inanely asked the driver of the 2^nd vehicle as we enjoyed an Aussie lamington for afternoon tea.  He’d had 20 years experience of regularly making this drive twice a day.

He looked at me with a strange mixture of confusion and pity that clearly indicated nervousness wasn’t part of his psyche.

‘Sometimes it’s difficult when it’s wet,’ he conceded.

Wet? People drove on this road when it was WET?

Insane.

But, after establishing there was no alternative route back, I realised being scared witless was pointless.

Blasé was WAY better.

Heading back

After a while, negotiating steep slopes, deep ruts, sheer rock surfaces and a road surface so uneven it seemed more like a paddock just became commonplace. Ho hum, another minute, another sheer wash-away. Or descent down a rock wall. Or major wheel-wrenching boulder pile …

So, the Arkaroola Ridgetop tour return trip became uneventful, unless you count the strong gust of wind that lifted Pilchard’s hat giving us both a nasty Green Island flashback. Oops, it was happening again. But this time, the chin strap caught and held. Now all he had to worry about was whether saving the hat was worth being garrotted by the strap …

After calling in at Mt Gee to view a selection of minerals and an unscheduled stop to admire Yellow-footed Rock Wallaby, we arrived back at Arkaroola Village exhausted AND exhilarated by our extreme 4WD adventure.

South Australia is often overlooked as an Aussie tourist destination in favour of better known natural attractions like … well, YOU know.

But for the ultimate, jaw-dropping, unforgettable, super-sublime Aussie adventure? Trust me – and take the Arkaroola Ridgetop Tour***!

* Dorothea Mackellar’s great Aussie love-poem My Country

** Andrew ‘Banjo’ Paterson’s classic Aussie lament Clancy of the Overflow

*** Yes, I’m still struggling with appropriate superlatives. No, they’re not paying me. More’s the pity. But if they did, I’d trade it in for another go at the tour. Yes, it really IS that good!

Read AND See MORE:

• See it LIVE on YouTube —> Final ascent to Sillers Lookout
• Arkaroola Ridge-top Tour
• More about Arkaroola Wilderness Sanctuary
• Arkaroola Dreaming – my Flickr photographic fantasy

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Blowering Dam

The chances of the overly excitable, imaginative and paranoid of finding their Blowering Dam Wall public amenities experience a little stressful are better than average.

World Water Speed Record

Not to the neurotic, anyway!!

• Blowering Dam and Snowy Mountains Scheme
• Tumut, New South Wales
• World Water Speed Record
• The other Australian Scenic Public Toilets

The post The Blowering Dam Dunny – Scenic Loo #35 appeared first on Australia by Red Nomad OZ.

Looking down over the steep limestone cliff into the multicoloured waters of the Southern Yorke Peninsula’s Wool Bay can be a parallel universe moment as the flat and unremarkable pastoral country – often dry and arid – gives way to the vividly coloured and splendid panorama of the bay.

High on the cliff the now disused limestone kiln, the only one left of several which once gave this tiny town its purpose, towers above the jetty that gave Wool Bay its current name.

The jetty was originally built for limestone transportation but it’s apparently wide enough to roll a bale of wool down so became known as the Wool Bay Jetty. Of course whether anyone ever indulged in the (tragically) lost art of jetty-wool-bale-rolling is unknown – AND irrelevant – because the fact of being able to was enough to change the town’s name from Pickering to Wool Bay.

Just as well it wasn’t re-named ‘Limestone Bay’.

Despite the fanfare and great expectations of the opening ceremony on 11 August 1910, the variable wind conditions meant that although Miller’s Lime Kiln Co became the main supplier of lime for the Adelaide building industry, the three clifftop kilns were not successful.

So what’s a nice temporary toilet doing in a setting like this?

A couple of years ago, a heavy storm dumped so much rain in the area that the fragile limestone cliff above the previous ‘permanent’ public amenities collapsed and took out the loo.

BUT … every cloud has a silver lining!

The magnificent coastal views from the new amenities for the many visitors who use the jetty for fishing, diving to spot leafy seadragons and other recreational pursuits are far more extensive than from the old site!

The panorama from the top of the old limestone kiln is enhanced by the distinctive ‘building site blocks’ that add a focal point to the car park and wharf!!

And the temporary toilet’s convenient location virtually on the jetty ensures far less ‘down time’ when nature calls!!!

What’s NOT to love?!?!

SO … who needs a lasting loo when these fine fly-by-night fixtures are already a semi-permanent part of the Wool Bay jetty landscape?

The legacy of Wool Bay’s limestone landslide might just turn out to be permanent after all!!

Watch this space …

The post The Landslide Legacy – Australia’s Scenic Public Toilet # 34, Wool Bay appeared first on Australia by Red Nomad OZ.

The road wound ever upwards through rocky peaks and alpine meadows studded with non-operational chairlifts.  The temperature dropped, then dropped some more. Fresh from the 39°C of an Adelaide autumn heatwave, we’d plunged (right along with the temperature!) into a parallel universe.  We’d gone all alpine near Charlotte Pass in the Mt Kosciuszko National Park in the heart of Australia’s High Country.

What’s in the Alps?

At the 1835 metre (6020 ft) mark, the road stopped. From here, tracks led in several directions. Down the road to ski resort village Charlotte Pass, at 1760 metres (5774 ft) Australia’s highest permanent settlement. Along the ridge to the Main Range lookout. Up to the chairlift and lookout point across the Snowy River to the – yes, Aussie imagination runs wild – Snowy Mountains. And a track to Mt Kosciuszko, Australia’s highest point.

Named for Charlotte Adams, the first non-indigenous woman to scale the mountain, Charlotte Pass was a crossover point for the last 9 km (~5 miles) for what used to be the drive – yes, the DRIVE – to the top of Mt Kosciuszko’s 2228 metre (7310 feet) peak. Now it’s the starting point for one of several walking trails to the summit – from here, an 18 km (~11 mile) round trip.

Of course before you go, you need to GO, right?

The Convenient Conveniences

So here on Charlotte Pass at the trailhead to the Mt Kosciuszko summit is a conveniently placed public amenities building – at 1835 metres and just below the tree line, ALMOST Australia’s highest Public Toilet!  But unless you catch the Kosciuszko Express chairlift from Thredbo, or climb Mt Kosciuszko from the chairlift summit, it COULD be as high a loo as you’ll get in OZ! That’s TOP #1!

Completely snowbound in winter, Charlotte Pass also trumps the rest of the country with Australia’s lowest recorded temperature, -23°C (-9.4°F) on 28 June, 1994. I’ll pause for a minute for the Northern Hemisphereans to stop laughing … but that’s TOP #2!

From the Main Range lookout, the highest of the high Snowy Mountain range forms a magnificent backdrop to this isolated amenities block.

With Mt Kosciuszko and Mt Townsend (Australia’s 2^nd highest peak), and a whole bunch of other really high mountains (by Australian standards) visible to the right of the Charlotte Pass conveniences from the Main Range Lookout, that makes TOP #3!!

So if my planned assault on Mt Kosciuszko later this week is foiled by lousy weather or terminal muscle meltdown, at least I’ll have had the pleasure of doing my business in ALMOST the TOP little toilet in OZ!

UPDATE:  I DID manage to get to the top of Mt Kosciuszko after writing this post AND got to visit Australia’s highest public amenities block!  Read about that adventure HERE!

Want MORE?

• Australia’s Highest Permanent Settlement
• Australia’s Highest Mountain
• MORE Australian Scenic Public Toilets!

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