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.

The FAAAAAABULOUS colours of OZ make the life of a downunder blogging, photographing, writing traveller with a penchant for bakeries REALLY easy …

Getting a good pic from right in front of a spectacularly AWESOME panorama, a weird and wacky BIG Thing or a KILLER sunset is what’s called, in the technical photographic terminology used by us amateurs, a SURE THING.

It’s SO easy, in fact, that worrying about my eventual exposure as a photographic fraud just makes me break out in capitals all over!

So when the wonderful Linda of Journey Jottings tagged me to enter this year’s Capture the Colour competition sponsored by TravelSupermarket, my heart sank momentarily. Because not only am I a loud & proud photographic AMATEUR, the impact of my photos very much relies on the stories I tell about them.

Just FIVE photos? In Red, Blue, Yellow, Green and White?? That STAND ALONE???

Yeah … I can do that! Kind of!! Let me show you my FIVE colours of OZ as captured in FIVE very different Australian towns!!! Towns I haven’t before shown you!!

BUT … because I struggle with brevity AND I’ve got a snowball’s chance in hell of winning anyway, I’ve backed up each town with another photo to help show its true colours!

RED … Marree, South Australia

These days, thanks to roads now mostly sealed in recent times, this little outpost on the edge of the remote South Australian Outback is less than a day’s drive – 685 km – from Adelaide.

But that wasn’t always the case. Once the rail head for the Ghan railway, then an important link on the now defunct rail route to Alice Springs, but only accessible over a LOT of gravel, like in this photo, Marree was once considered WAY beyond the Back of Beyond!

And that’s also the name of a documentary about Tom Kruse, legendary Outback mailman who for nearly 30 years battled extreme temperatures, dust storms, sand dunes, floods and breakdowns to deliver mail in this RED 1936 Leyland Badger mail truck along the 519 km of the notorious track from Birdsville to Marree.

The truck now rests at the old rail yards across from the Marree Hotel – which ironically offers scenic plane and helicopter flights!  And why not? You wouldn’t want to miss Lake Eyre and Marree Man now, would you?!

MORE about Tom Kruse and Marree

BLUE … Brunswick Heads, New South Wales

An ecstatically happy combination of beaches, river, cafés, historic buildings, markets, shops, restaurants and other good stuff, Brunswick Heads is often (unaccountably) bypassed in favour of its bigger and WAY more brash neighbour Byron Bay, just down the coast from the Queensland/New South Wales Border.

And did I mention the bakery?

A vibrant community set amidst some of the most beautiful scenery in the Northern Rivers region of New South Wales, whether you’re a surfie, fisherperson, yuppie, grey nomad, tourist, trendy, backpacker, retiree or hippy there’s always something interesting to do at Brunswick Heads! And I’m not just talking about the bakery … although that’s SO fine, it’s worthy of visiting in its own right!!

Surrounded by the sea (see 1st photo above), the Brunswick river, and the hinterland behind, it’s hard to imagine Brunswick Heads featuring any colour but BLUE!

Sigh … I’m going to stop writing about it RIGHT NOW, so I can save it ALL for myself …

MORE about Brunswick Heads

A thirsty traveller on the Windorah Sand Dunes (see below) … Outback Queensland

YELLOW … Windorah, Queensland

Actually, small town Windorah, a great base from which to explore the Barcoo shire, is better known for its RED! SO red they hurt the eyes (see above), the incredibly photogenic local sand dunes just west of the township within cooee of the well known Coopers Creek are a tourist attraction in their own right.

BUT despite that – or maybe because of it – I couldn’t help noticing this YELLOW Backhoe (? can anyone enlighten me??) just off the highway in a Windorah backyard.

Actually, the matching toy backhoe right next to it is really what caught my eye …

And while yellow is an aberration in this Outback Queensland town dominated by the strong reds, greens and blues that typify the region in a good year, it’s a story in the making!

I wonder what the toy-owner will become when she or he grows up?!

MORE about Windorah and Coopers Creek

GREEN … Shepparton, Victoria

Nothing says ‘Shepparton’ or ‘Goulburn Valley Food Bowl’ better than an individually decorated life-size fibreglass cow – part of the MOOOOVING Art project – right??

Well, this one DOES have a GREEN agricultural bent …

For several generations of Aussies raised on Goulburn Valley products, the large regional town of Shepparton is worth a visit. And not just for the factory outlets such as Campbells and SPC Ardmona either!

Check out its natural attractions, wineries and walking trails, restaurants and – yes – bakeries, including the award winning slices of Tatura! But for my money, a morning walk around Lake Victoria is hard to beat – and it’s also GREEN!

MORE about Shepparton

WHITE … Carnarvon, Western Australia

Carnarvon will always be remembered as the town where Pilchard & I first spotted Laughing Dove (Streptopelia senegalensis) – an interloper native to Sub-Saharan Africa, but on the official Australian Bird List nonetheless. We take our ‘Lifers’ where we find them …

And … celebrate with copious quantities of chocolate coated frozen banana and mango – just two of the fabulous treats on offer from this Western Australian food growing region on the banks of the Gascoyne, 900 km north of Perth. Just check out the plantation produce stalls and the Gascoyne Growers Market if you don’t believe me …

Then check out the Heritage Precinct with One Mile Jetty and the Tramway (check out that WHITE fence!) to really get a feel for this beautiful town! And, like me, plan a return trip to finish off the bits you missed …

MORE about Carnarvon

They’re MY true colours!  But there’s PLENTY more colour in Australia’s colourful country towns!  Check out my other TOP Aussie Towns HERE!  Or better still – visit some and see what I mean for yourself!!

The post Capture the Colours of OZ Country Towns! appeared first on Australia by Red Nomad OZ.

Studded with campfires in the late evening dusk, the creek banks were alive with the sounds of trucks thundering across the bridge, beer cans popping and that combination of braggadocio, loud laughter and hi-jinks peculiar to any random group of three Aussie males on a boy’s own adventure.

Yes, Cooper’s Creek earned its Aussie-rite-of-passage status in the June 2009 week Pilchard and I camped on its banks!

You couldn’t swing a fishing line and sinker without hitting a major league 4WD, loaded to the gunwales with tinnie*, camping gear and several loaded eskies**. Most contained a group of three – ALWAYS three! – males, albeit in random combinations. Father + two sons. Father + son + son’s best mate. Three best mates. Two brothers + one best mate. Two best mates + one son. Why? WHY??

One of life’s great mysteries … but I DO know you couldn’t take a pee ANYWHERE in the bush without hitting a beer can!! And their presence put a serious dampener on any plans I had to use the solar shower – at least without a shelter from the beer goggles!!!

The only place in Australia – actually, the world – where two rivers, the Thomson (above) and Barcoo (below) meet to form a creek, Cooper’s Creek is a unique Australian icon. With massive river redgums (find the human in the photo below!) lining the banks, scores of water birds, surrounding floodplain and remoteness, it epitomises the outback like nothing else – a truly Australian river  system.

Viewed from the air, Cooper’s Creek, and the surrounding ‘Channel Country’ is a network of often dry channels flowing from Queensland’s southwest corner into South Australia before reaching Lake Eyre, lowest point in Australia, and depending on weather conditions, its largest salt pan – or largest inland sea! And as shown during recent Australian floods, riverbanks are neither here nor there to a breaking drought.

As Cooper’s Creek virgins, our first thrilling sighting on a detour between Thargomindah and Quilpie came complete with a 4WD/tinnie/esky/3 mates combo. But the Cooper’s Creek magic came a couple of weeks later, camped on its banks near Windorah. Where else could a modest $10.50 investment in a box of African Nightcrawlers yield 5 different types of fish?! And we weren’t even really serious fisherfolk …

While map naming conventions have changed the name to ‘Cooper Creek’ – that’s just plain wrong! When he discovered it in a dry year, misguided explorer Charles Sturt named it ‘Cooper’s’ after Charles Cooper (then SA Chief Justice) and ‘Creek’ because he didn’t think anything that small was actually a river!

Later, Australian novelist Alan Moorehead’s work about the Burke and Wills expedition made Cooper’s Creek (spelled just like that!) part of the OZ psyche. So why call the creek something other than a) what it was first called, and b) what it’s known as?? After some years with the ‘correct’ name – Cooper Creek – Windorah locals changed the signpost back, a decision with which I concur. Although – and this will come as a surprise, no doubt – the locals may well find what I think to be irrelevant …

SO have a bet each way and call it ‘the Cooper’!! But miss this iconic Aussie landmark, and miss what makes Australia unique!!

*Tinnie = Australian coloquialism for a metal boat (ie ‘tin can’ derivative)

** Esky = portable cold storage unit used as an outdoor fridge (most commonly to keep drinks cold)

The post Aussie Icons #2 – Cooper’s Creek appeared first on Australia by Red Nomad OZ.

Somewhere west of Windorah (Outback Queensland) en route to the little Public Toilet at the End of the Universe where the track heads south to Birdsville, a tantalising tale unfolds.

The first hint of something weird afoot is a sign – ‘A Point of Interest – 5 km’.  What a tease!!  As it didn’t actually state what you’d see at the end of 5 km, I spent the next 3 km having a rant about how the wording was probably longer than the featured attraction.

3 km later came another sign – ‘A Point of Interest – 2 km’.  Now I was really intrigued, and lets face it – there wasn’t much else to look at.

2 km later, and we came across this! The white arrow below the sign does indeed point to a hole in the hill.  Who would have thought there’d be such excitement in such a bleak landscape?  And when you consider the road leads to the above-mentioned public toilet, well … you can imagine the thrill!

I wonder how many others have the exact same photo?!?!

Incidentally, the road also passes ‘South Galway’ station.  I found it difficult to imagine a landscape looking less like South Galway – with the possible exception of Antarctica – but it was apparently so named to remind the settlers of their roots.

Now I just KNOW this’ll make you want to visit this fascinating area!!

Stay warm!!

The post Only in OZ #2 – A Point of Interest, Outback Queensland appeared first on Australia by Red Nomad OZ.