If you’ve ever decided against touring the Aussie Outback because you don’t have a 4WD, today is your lucky day.

You CAN visit the Australian Outback in a standard, non-4WD car! Just follow these simple rules:

• Choose destinations that don’t require an especially equipped vehicle – there are more than you think!
• Know your vehicle’s limitations – consider fuel economy, range, clearance, tyres, weight rating, space – in relation to where you want to go.
• Outsource the driving (eg take a tour, hitch a ride) when conditions don’t suit.
• Check all road, weather and travelling conditions in advance – rain, road works, flooding etc can all cause road closures.
• Take the advice you receive – be prepared to change your plans if conditions are not suitable for your vehicle.  Having a Plan B always helps!
• Get road assistance (eg NRMA, RAA, RACQ etc), but be aware of any exclusions – sometimes road assistance to remote areas isn’t available.

Pilchard and I have travelled to all the RedzAustralia TOP 10 Accessible Outback HOT Spots below in either a Subaru** Touring Wagon, a Subaru Forester or a Subaru Outback. Sometimes we’ve even had a NON-off-road camper trailer in tow. We’re not foolhardy risk-takers – we just follow those rules.

But if we can have these 10 Accessible Outback Experiences without extreme 4 wheel driving, then so can you!

1 Whale Watching

Head of Bight, South Australia

Stand atop the Bunda Cliffs – longest unbroken line of sea cliffs in the world – and watch the whales cavorting below! Yes, you’re in the Outback – and this section of the all-bitumen Eyre Highway separating Ceduna from Norseman, ~1200 km west, is Outback all the way.

Crossing the Nullarbor Plain en route from Sydney and Perth, around ~ 4000 km, is one of Australia’s great road trips. Full of life changing experiences – think driving Australia’s longest straight stretch of road; golfing on the world’s longest golf course; and unravelling the mystery of the Nullarbor Nymph (take links below for details) – it’s a TOP Outback experience in itself, even without the whales.

Where: Head of Bight Whale Watching centre is just off the Eyre Highway, ~220 km east of Eucla on the WA/SA border

When: Whale season is from June to October

Stay: Nullarbor Roadhouse, 26 km from Head of Bight Whale Watching area

MORE about Head of Bight and the Nullarbor Plain

2 Opal Fossicking

White Cliffs, New South Wales

The tiny opal mining town of White Cliffs is the only place in the world where unusual pineapple opals occur naturally. Despite spending a couple of afternoons on the mullock heaps, the only ‘colour’ (opal-speak for actual opal) we found was pretty, but worthless. Maybe you’ll have better luck? We certainly did when we gave the diggings away and ‘found’ some opal in the White Cliffs township, along with the world’s only above-ground mineshaft tour, a self-guided historic walk and unusual architecture shaped by harsh weather conditions and limited building materials.

If you’re car’s up to it, take the rugged, unsealed Wanaaring road for 33 km to the Paroo-Darling National Park and Peery Lake, at over 30 km long the largest overflow lake along the river.

Where: White Cliffs is 96 km north-west of Wilcannia, which is 195 km east of Broken Hill on fully sealed roads

MORE about White Cliffs

3 Mail Run

Quilpie, Queensland

It’d be difficult to drive yourself north over ~400 km of mostly dirt station tracks through magnificent outback scenery – it passes through 10 pastoral properties. But hitch a ride with the local postie to deliver the mail, catch up with some of the locals and see what’s outside the Quilpie city limits!

When you’re done with the Mail Run, climb nearby Baldy Top lookout (top photo) for a great view over this remote Boulder Opal mining town on the edge of nowhere. Explore west by driving 100 km to Eromanga, reportedly the furthest town from the ocean in Australia; fossick for opal at the caravan park’s ‘Deuces Wild’ lease; or drive 75 km south to Toompine for an Outback Pub experience.

Where: Quilpie is 211 km west of Charleville on the Cooper Developmental Road; and ~950 km west of Brisbane on the Warrego Highway, all sealed

MORE about Quilpie and Eromanga

4 The Gibb River Road

via Derby, Kimberley, Western Australia

There’s NO WAY that driving the 660 km of rugged, stony, tyre-shredding Gibb River Road (also known as the ‘Boys Own Adventure’ route) from Kununurra to Derby qualifies as an ‘Accessible Outback’ experience.

But the ‘Gibb River Road LITE’ version does!

Outsource the driving and hit the notorious road on a 4WD bus (it’s a school bus in its spare time) from North-west Kimberley town Derby for a 360 km round trip on the Gibb River Road to Windjana Gorge and Tunnel Creek, then back again.

So sit back, enjoy morning tea and lunch en route to the main attractions, and save your car and/or rig for the bitumen.

Where: Windjana Gorge/Tunnel Creek Day Tour leaves from Derby, 220 km north-east of Broome, Western Australia

Road Conditions: Appalling! That’s why you’re letting someone else do the driving, remember??!!

MORE about the Gibb River Road and the Kimberley

5 Hiking

Ormiston Gorge, Northern Territory

The amazingly varied and superb Outback scenery makes the 7 km Ormiston Gorge and Pound walk one of the best short-ish hikes in Australia (IMHO). But it helps that it’s superbly placed amidst the ancient rocky landscape of the West MacDonnell Ranges, traversed by the Finke River, oldest waterway in the world.

Ormiston Gorge is the smart alternative if you want to dodge the crowds at Uluru AND experience Outback magic with classic scenery, wildlife and a variety of walks. It’s SO good, a two-night stay turned into six nights!

Where: Ormiston Gorge is in the West MacDonnell Ranges, 128 km west of Alice Springs on a fully sealed road.

MORE about Ormiston Gorge

6 Camel Races

Bedourie, Queensland

Don’t expect to see horses at the Bedourie races – it’s camels all the way in the lead up to nearby Boulia’s camel race weekend. Join Bedourie locals for a TOP day out with racing, wood-chopping, good Aussie tucker, entertainment and an evening dance – to be held in 2016 on 9 July.

Home of the iconic Bedourie Oven, the town sits almost half-way between two other Western Queensland racing icons – Boulia, and the centre of Australia’s racing universe – Birdsville, with it’s world famous race meet held in September. Once the races are over, explore the area or just relax in the town’s Hot Artesian Pools!

Or stick around for the Boulia Camel Races – longest track in Australia; then move on to Winton for more races the following weekend.

Where: Bedourie is a 216 km drive – mostly sealed with about 14 km of dirt – south of Boulia; or 164 km north of Birdsville – mostly dirt.

When: Bedourie Camel Races 2018 Dates TBA, but usually the weekend before the Boulia Camel Races; Boulia Camel Race Weekend on Friday 20^th – Sunday 22^nd July 2017 AND Winton Camel Races Dates TBA, but usually the weekend after the Boulia Camel Races.

MORE about Bedourie Camel Races

7 Unnatural Attractions

Kalgoorlie, Western Australia

Standing on the edge of a massive man-made crater stretching for nearly 4 km and waiting for a blast that’ll knock the sides out even further is like nothing else you’ll see in the Outback. A bold scheme (somewhat like its founder Alan Bond) the Super Pit combines leases and resources to more efficiently mine the Golden Mile – one of the richest seams of gold in the world.

A town able to survive because of an ambitious engineering feat piping water from the outskirts of Perth, nearly 600 km to the west, Kalgoorlie is a gold-mining town 24-7.

There’s nothing quite like the Outback’s natural attractions – but there’s something strangely compelling about this very unnatural one!

Where: 600 km east of Perth

MORE about Kalgoorlie-Boulder and the Super Pit

8 RED!

Windorah, Queensland

A number of localities vie for the honour of being the REDdest place in Australia. But for the reddest accessible outback HOT spot, there’s no contest.

Even with my old FILM camera, the red sand dunes west of Queensland Outback town Windorah are so startlingly vivid they almost hurt the eyes. Windorah has the added inducement of being closest town to Australian icon Cooper’s Creek – only place in the world where two rivers meet to form a creek. Then a little further west there’s the weirdly signposted ‘Point of Interest’, and a little further beyond that, The Little Loo at the end of the Universe – my most popular Scenic Public Toilet ever!

That’s all very nice. But it’s those RED sand dunes that get me every time!

Where: Windorah is 239 km north-west of Quilpie (see #3 above), along the Diamantina Developmental Road

MORE about Windorah and Cooper’s Creek

9 Wildlife Watching

Marlgu Billabong, Kimberley, Western Australia

As the crocodiles zig-zagged through the otherwise tranquil waters of Marlgu Billabong, centrepiece of the Parry Lagoons Nature reserve, the 65 species of birds we saw over two visits seemed unperturbed. Maybe the crocs were after bigger prey? That’s why we stayed firmly behind the barriers of the viewing platform over this magnificent inland billabong and breeding ground that attracts thousands of birds.

And bird-watchers!!

Only a few kilometres from East Kimberley Town Wyndham, the lagoon is a dramatically beautiful dry-season oasis against the stark colours and boab-tree-studded landscape that surrounds it.

Where: Marlgu Billabong is ~15 km on a dirt road from Wyndham.  Wyndham is ~100 km north-west of Kununurra on a fully sealed road.

MORE about Marlgu Billabong

10 Ridge Top Tour

Arkaroola Wilderness Sanctuary, South Australia

Experience extreme Outback Adventure on a bone-shaking 4 hour return trip through the (almost) trackless adventureland of Arkaroola Wilderness Sanctuary to Sillers Lookout. Even though you won’t be driving yourself on this tour, it’s full of heart-stopping action on steep tracks with vertigo-inducing drop-offs and staggering scenery from several vantage points that show off northern South Australia to supreme advantage.

Australia’s premier eco-tourism destination (IMHO), Arkaroola is set amidst a fantastic landscape with an extraordinary array of rocks and minerals, superb natural attractions, amazing self-drive exploratory tours (mostly 4WD only), rugged hikes and an observatory for star-gazing.

The Ridge-top tour is conducted by Arkaroola Wilderness Sanctuary and for my money, it’s the ultimate Aussie Outback experience of all time. And I’m happy for any other tour operators to prove me wrong!

Where: Arkaroola Wilderness Sanctuary is 125 km north-east from Copley on an all-weather dirt road. Copley is ~600 km north of Adelaide on a fully sealed road – and if the weather prevents you from getting out to Arkaroola, Copley makes a fine alternative destination

MORE about Arkaroola Wilderness Sanctuary and Copley

WARNING:

This post is an introduction to guide you to some of the more accessible Outback Experiences.

ANY trip to the Outback, no matter how easy it appears, MUST be carefully planned.  Please visit websites like Travel Outback Australia, Outback Australia Travel Guide or Outback Travel Australia for advice and to ensure you are well-prepared, and carry extra water and supplies at all times.

Why?  Because you’ll be faced with:

• Long distances
• Extreme temperatures
• Minimal facilities
• Limited services, including mobile phone access
• Harsh conditions

* IMHO = In My Humble Opinion

** Please note: These models of Subaru generally have slightly higher clearance than a standard car, and can be switched to 4WD mode if required.

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The post Red’s TOP 10 Accessible Outback Experiences appeared first on Australia by Red Nomad OZ.

So what creative uses are there for a whacking great hole in the ground?

A hole 3.8 km long, 1.5 km wide and 600 metres deep that can make a 680 tonne shovel look like a kitchen utensil?? Or a 166 tonne truck like a Matchbox toy???

A hole so large it’s colloquially known as the Super Pit Kalgoorlie?

That’s the question the Kalgoorlie Consolidated Gold Mine (KCGM) needs to answer in approximately 8 years time when the Golden Mile Dolorite Seam runs dry. Post-mining regulatory obligations are quite specific about mining infrastructure, pit sides and site rehabilitation.

And it’d be pretty hard to just bulldoze it over and hope for the best …

In the meantime, the twin towns of Kalgoorlie-Boulder never sleep.

And not just because of the perfectly natural attractions of the Questa Casa, Australia’s oldest working brothel, either.

The thrum, clatter and vibration of fortunes being made is a continual counterpoint to all other activity 24/7, 365 days per year.

Because here in Kalgoorlie-Boulder, perched right on the edge of the massive KCGM Super Pit, the gold rush that started when Paddy Hannan first discovered gold in 1893 never stopped.

And the Golden Mile on which it sits is the richest square mile of gold-bearing earth on the planet.

Although none of the extensive mining activity that’s continued unabated ever since would have been possible without the vision of Irish engineer Charles Yelverton O’Connor who defied critics to plan and construct the world’s (then) longest freshwater pipeline over the 530 km (330 miles) from Mundaring Weir near Perth to Mt Charlotte Reservoir at the Goldfields.

Eight years in the making, The Goldfields Water Supply Scheme still supplies water to the goldfields. It’s also still the world’s longest steel pipeline and in 2009 was recognised as international historic civil engineering landmark, along with the Sydney Harbour Bridge and Snowy Mountains Scheme.

Mining giant KCGM has a lot for which to thank O’Connor, who tragically took his own life during a public campaign of press vilification, including accusations of corruption and incompetence before the scheme was completed and his genius realised.

In the bad old days, a clutch of smaller companies and individual holdings jockeyed for position and battled for survival along the Golden Mile. Then – depending on ones point of view – visionary entrepreneur OR environmental vandal Alan Bond started buying up the leases with a view to merging into one big company – and one giant pit. Economies of scale, and increasing size of operation mean greater profits all round.

But just how worthwhile is this consolidated venture? According to signage at the Super Pit Kalgoorlie lookout, 1600 tonnes of material is processed each hour – containing gold valued at around $AUD70,000. All up, around 800,000 ounces of gold per annum are taken from the Super Pit and neighbouring mine, Mt Charlotte.

SO worth it, that maybe I’ll become a ‘Void Engineer’ after all …

I’ll never understand why this wasn’t presented as a valid career path in High School careers class – its appeal as a passport occupation conversation starting point is FAR greater than ‘nurse’ or ‘teacher’. I guess those same folks who many years later failed to predict the Global Financial Crisis were cutting their teeth by not being able to predict a future mining boom at that point …

From the vantage point of the lookout, it’s hard to believe the trucks crawling like ants way WAAAAAY down in the depths of the Pit are HUGE machines worth $AUD4 Million.

Or that the shovels loading each truck with the 4 scoops of high grade ore it takes to fill it weigh 680 tonnes, hold 55 tonnes (and 36 m³) and cost $AUD10+ Million!

Or that each load of this high-grade ore averages gold worth over $10,000.

But on this clear and sunny Outback winter day in August 2012, we only care about the Pyrotechnic Demolition Explosion Choreographer! Although such people are far more likely lumbered with dull, meaningless titles like Blast Engineer …

As speculation ran hot over the day’s exact blast location in the public viewing area overlooking the Super Pit Kalgoorlie, I could have run a book if I’d had even a little of Bond’s entrepreneurial spirit.

The Visitor Information Centre in Kalgoorlie’s main street is advised of Super Pit blast times, and visitors are welcome to take the rocky road to the caged-in viewing area. It’s a fine view even without the blasting, no matter what the closet pyromaniacs tell you.

Over an hour after the advised blasting time, the countdown started and cameras poised, ready to capture the moment.

It took us awhile to realise the dust and smoke at the top of the Pit was actually the explosion, with Pilchard and several small children devastated the whole cliff face didn’t fall away.

But, we’d seen a real, live Super Pit explosion!

Returning to our campsite seemed a bit anti climactic after that. Strangely, I was finding it quite easy to resist the excitement of purchasing a signed Black Caviar poster from our campground neighbour. Given that Black Caviar is a horse – albeit the greatest racehorse in living memory – I was having trouble imagining how the poster was signed!

But I digress.

So to balance the unnatural with the natural, we took a walk in nearby Karlkurla Bushland Park. Although spectacular, however, landscape like this hasn’t been seen along the Golden Mile for over 100 years.

It’s difficult to imagine Kalgoorlie-Boulder without the iconic Super Pit continuing to keep gold mining front and centre. Invoking St Barbara – patron saint of mining, in case you were wondering – just won’t cut it once the gold stream runs dry.

While it’s tempting to suggest that the Super Pit be fully restored to the original landscape, to completely erase all signs of ‘unnatural’ mining activity would be to erase Kalgoorlie-Boulder’s heritage.

If that happened, the Pipeline and all other traces of human habitation – also ‘unnatural’ – should be erased as well to be consistent. Which would be a unnecessary and unrealistic.

So what’s an environmentally conscious, community-minded Super-mining company to do with their enormous hole in the ground?

My suggestions:

• World’s highest Below-Ground-Level Bungee-Jump. Or Sky Dive
• World’s first Outback International-Standard Ice-Skating Rink
• World’s largest Below-Ground Cemetery and Crematorium
• World’s first underground Arboretum and Botanic Gardens

Yeah, OK. I’m not as creative as I sound.

SO … what would YOU do with the largest defunct open pit mine in Australia?

Want MORE?

• KCGM Super Pit
• Kalgoorlie-Boulder, Western Australia
• Western Australia’s Goldfields

The post Unnatural Attractions: The Super Pit, Kalgoorlie-Boulder, Western Australia appeared first on Australia by Red Nomad OZ.

WARNING: My REDAlert #4 guest has photos that’ll make you turn GREEN! Don’t believe me? Well … read on and see if I’m right!!

Pindan Country, Gantheaume Point, Kimberleys, Western Australia

Diane’s mates at Gantheaume Point, Kimberleys, Western Australia

RED Rocks at Gantheaume Point, Kimberleys, Western Australia

Super Pit, Kalgoorlie, Western Australia

Lookout, Coolgardie, Western Australia

Salt Pan with water at Lake LeFroy, Western Australia

RED Road, Western Australia

Lake Eyre from the Air! South Australia

Lake Eyre surrounding countryside, South Australia

Cowarie Station, South Australia

Brisbane Sunset

• Jim in RED Alert #1;
• Annabel in RED Alert #2; and
• Riet in RED Alert #3!

The post RED Alert #4 – Adventure Before Dementia goes WEST! appeared first on Australia by Red Nomad OZ.