Sep 272011
In Perth, we rented a campervan, which is a van that has been modified with a sink, stovetop, small refrigerator, and seating that converts to a bed in the back. It costs us $75 AUD a day for this thing. We initially booked a less expenses campervan at $60 AUD a day, but it was so run down that we “upgraded” to something that didn’t look like hell inside.The company from which we rented is Britz. They are maybe the largest RV rental company in Australia, and own a couple other RV rental operations like Maui and Back Packer. The Perth office has a nice enough manager, but her underlings are not too hot on customer service. I think I would shop elsewhere in the future.
The several hundred kilometers from Perth north to Broome is a great deal of unremarkable, generally flat, scrub-brush-covered desert.
The highway is almost exclusively two lanes, mostly without any shoulder.
Dead kangaroos, killed by vehicles, litter the roadside. An occasional dead cow is added to the mix.
Most of the other traffic consists of recreational vehicles and commercial long-haul trucks, and most of the latter are what Australians refer to as “road trains” – massive things of up to four trailers towed behind a single tractor.
The few towns of any substance are mostly company towns, the population clothed in the work uniforms of mining and service companies that pull minerals from the desert and ship them from commercial ports.
Between the towns are occasional roadhouse…
[And gee, this is where the crappy Australian internet access in Broome apparently cut off everything else I wrote. Go figure. So, let’s see…What might I have said?]
…gas stations that serve bad food and poor accommodations, along with camper sites for rent.
We have ventured off the main road and investigated coastal towns – places like Kalbarri, Karratha, and Dampier – and they have all been disappointments. Like I said, towns are mostly mining and associated service operations.
Gag-me costs continue to be a theme. We paid the equivalent of US $8 a gallon for gasoline at one place, and anything below US $7 a gallon is a good deal.
Lack of anything approaching modern communications is also a constant theme. If you can find internet access, it comes at a significant cost (US $6 and up an hour).
For campsites, we have used both paid sites (between $30 and $50 a night) and the free overnight sites that are located every hundred kilometers or so on the side of the highway. The free sites are actually nicer, for the most part. But that ain’t really saying much.
An American could replicate this part of our trip by driving through the southwestern desert areas, sleeping in his car on the side of the road, and burning a $20 bill every hour or so just for kicks.
We are still searching for some goodness in Australia, and continuing into the Northern Territory in hopes of finding it.