Merredin Town Tour
By graham | October 12, 2009
The Western Australian country town of Merredin looks fairly average at first glance, the sort of place most travellers might stop for food and fuel before moving on. But it’s far from average, and boasts a town tour that is surprisinqly worthwhile.
I stumbled on this little gem while driving around the wheatbelt, a large agricultural region inland from the west coast. Previously I’d only used Merredin, 285km east of Perth, as a brief refreshment stop. Being the largest town for hundreds of kilometres makes it very suitable for that. This time, however, I stayed overnight to explore some of the natural attractions in the area. That’s when I found out about the Snapshot Tour, a town tour run by “Discover the Wheatbelt” late afternoon every day for most of the year.
Normally I avoid organised tours, but as it cost only $15 and would only take up 90 minutes, there wasn’t too much to lose. Curiosity got the better of me.
It didn’t take long to see why this was going to be a good tour. The guy running it, Martin Morris, is a long time Merredin resident who not only knows the place inside out, but is passionate about it. Being a tour guide isn’t just a job - he already has a day job. He leads tours because he enjoys showing off his town, and this enthusiasm makes the tour very engaging. On the surface, a country town’s airstrip and wheat bins may not sound like the subjects of gripping tales, but the stories behind them, as told by Martin, are worth hearing.
The tour uses a comfortable small coach, and takes in points of interest in and around the town. Merredin’s history is talked about, as you might expect, but it’s the focus on the town’s present that left the greatest impression on me. In particular, the way water is harvested and recycled in an arid climate. Examples of waste-water recycling were pointed out, which would otherwise be easy to not notice. The gathering of rainwater from granite outcrops, and the present fight against salinity, are other cases of Merredin’s people adapting to their challenges.
In contrast to most inland Australian towns, which are slowly shrinking, Merredin is actually growing. The tour helps explain what is different about Merredin, and why the growth is not surprising. Martin’s other role as a town councillor allows him to give insights into many of the town’s innovations, and provides a source of many interesting stories about the town and its people.
I felt that the relatively small investment of time and money in doing this tour was well rewarded. Never again will I think of Merredin as just a toilet stop!
Links:
Discover The Wheatbelt
Topics: Activities, Western Australia | Add Your Comment »
Easy Kiwi Walking On The Rakiura Track
By graham | September 20, 2009
Imagine deserted beaches, quiet inlets and bays, lush primordial forests, roaring creeks, and gentle hills. If being immersed in this environment for a not-too-hard three day hike sounds appealing, then you might like the Rakiura Track on New Zealand’s Stewart Island. I certainly did.
I visited during the winter off-season, as part of a visit to the charming Stewart Island, which is off the bottom of the south island near Invercargill. What attracted me to the Rakiura Track was its “easy” grading and the length of 36km, which can be done comfortably in three days. As a person of questionable fitness I thought this would be a much kinder introduction to hiking in New Zealand than the more demanding tracks on the mainland.
The Rakiura Track is a circular route, beginning and ending at the island’s only settlement at Halfmoon Bay, so no transport is needed. My hike began as soon as I had registered at the DOC office and paid the hut fees. The first and last sections follow sealed roads, but they are extremely quiet - I don’t remember seeing any traffic on my walk.
I decided to walk anticlockwise, which meant the first day’s walk was north along the coast on mostly excellent surfaces. There was a little beach walking, some panoramic coastal views, and plenty of deliciously lush rimu and kamahi forest to relax in. Also a swing bridge which threatened my fear of heights, even though I new it was well built and perfectly safe.
The second day was mostly forested hills, and provided the bulk of the track’s uphill walking. By New Zealand standards the hills are small, but for the unfit they are still tiring enough! The extensive view from the track’s high point, over Paterson Inlet and the wilderness beyond, compensated for the perspiration.
Day three provided more exquisite forest, skirting deserted silent inlets and gentle hills before re-entering town from the west.
Both nights of the walk were spent in very well equipped huts - sheer luxury if you’re used to walking in Australia where huts are comparatively rare. I never quite managed to get the stoves lit, but thanks to the wonders of thermal underwear the huts felt cosy enough without heating.
Overall it was an excellent experience, my only grumble (and it’s only a little one) being the striking difference in track quality between the east section and the rest. The deterioration from paved gravel, stones and boardwalk on day one to bare mud and tree roots on day two gave the impression the track was still under construction. It seemed odd that a track rated top standard could vary so much, but this was overshadowed by the pure charm of the environment.
As for the track’s official grading as “easy” … it may be easy compared to other NZ tracks, but the effort required is not to be sneezed at when you’re carrying a backpack. If you’re fit and hike regularly it may well seem easy. On the other hand, sedentary workers who hike once per year can find it tiring … but not too much to enjoy it.
I walked this three day hike in winter and had it almost to myself; the quietness and solitude enhanced my enjoyment of what is mostly wilderness with little evidence of human interferance. I also enjoyed mostly dry weather which contradicted the island’s reputation for being wet all the time - this reputation is undeserved, though it’s still wise to take wet weather gear. It may not rain all the time, but it still rains frequently.
The Rakiura Track shows what much of New Zealand was like before 90% of its forests were destroyed. If you want to do a multi-day hike in New Zealand, but prefer something less demanding than the better known tracks, and away from the crowds, then the Rakiura Track is worth considering.
Links:
Rakiura Track information (NZ Dept of Conservation)
Topics: New Zealand (south), Walks | Add Your Comment »
Internet Access In Country WA
By graham | September 10, 2009
Finding internet access is easy enough in cities and popular tourist spots, but what if you need to check your e-mail in less-visited country areas, where tourist facilities may be scarce? In Western Australia, telecentres are a useful solution.
The WA state government provides telecentres so that rural folk can have access to educational computer facilities and high speed internet like their city cousins do. They are often the access points for government services like Centrelink or TAFE, and also offer services like printing, photocopying, fax and videoconferencing.
Although originally intended for residents, travellers are welcome to use them too. The benefit for travellers is that a large number of widely scattered small towns - many of which don’t have mobile phone coverage - have somewhere that internet can be accessed for prices comparable to city internet cafes. Some, particularly in towns more popular with tourists, also allow copying of digital photos to CD.
The telecentre at Mukinbudin
Opening hours vary widely, because the telecentres are often incorporated into a visitors centre, library, school, or some other government agency whice may have its own restricted hours. For example, late opening, early closing and lunchtime closures may be encountered, and some may not open every day - the smaller and more isolated the town, the less likely long hours will be. If your need for internet is important and your time in a town is limited, it could pay to ring ahead and check availability.
Details of WA’s telecenters are available from www.telecentres.wa.gov.au. At the time of writing, a location map and a list of addresses and phone numbers could be downloaded - a useful addition to the travel kit of anyone touring the back roads of Western Australia.
Topics: Odds and Ends | Add Your Comment »
Guesthouse In A Monastery At New Norcia, WA
By graham | August 31, 2009
New Norcia in Western Australia is definitely not off the beaten track, but it offers some accommodation which is truly out of the ordinary. It is Australia’s only monastic town, and the accommodation is a guesthouse run by the monastery following a fifth century tradition. I recently stayed in this unique place.
New Norcia began in 1846 when a monastery was built 132km north of Perth, and a small town grew up around it. In the tradition of St Benedict (born in Norcia, Italy), the monks offered hospitality to passing travellers, as they still do to this day in the guesthouse attached to the monastery. The numbers of monks may have reduced, and their schools closed, but the monastery still owns and operates the town, a situation unique in Australia.
Guests stay in either single or twin rooms, some with ensuites and others sharing a bathroom. Standards could be summed up as basic but comfortable - everything you really need is there, including a guest lounge room, dining room, and kitchen. Meals are provided, and the showers are consistently hot. In keeping with the surroundings, quietness is requested at night, and there is no TV.
You can attend prayers with the monks and eat with them if you want to, providing you are male, but you don’t have to. I ate with them in their refectory to experience how monks at New Norcia do dinner - without speaking, other than someone reading from the bible. The food was very good, but as a slow eater I found it a little rushed. You can eat in a more normal way in the guesthouse dining room if you prefer, as most guests do.
Whether you stay there or not, the twice-daily walking tours are an excellent way of exploring this one-of-a-kind town. Of its 64 buildings, 30 are classified by the national trust for their heritage value, giving it probably more historical ambience than anywhere else in Western Australia.
Even if you’re like me and prefer the roads less travelled, staying in the monastery guesthouse is a good reason to visit the much-visited town of New Norcia.
Links:
New Norcia website
The monastery guesthouse
Topics: Accommodation, Western Australia | 3 Comments »
About Maps, And Update Frequency
By graham | August 12, 2009
This is just a quick explanatory note about a couple of aspects of this website.
Maps
I like to include basic maps showing the locations of places I write about on this website. Not for navigation - anyone touring the area can get free detailed maps from visitors’ centres - but to provide context and indicate the general area.
So far I’ve used Google maps. With the ability to zoom in, scroll around and switch to aerial photos, it seemed the ideal solution for a website.
Unfortunately, creating Google maps has become painfully slow and troublesome. Components either don’t load, don’t work, or else they take an extremely long time, or numerous attempts. The time I’ve wasted following Google’s troubleshooting tips has been fruitless, therefore I’ve given up on Google maps. I simply don’t have the time to waste on their fault-ridden product - the time would be better spent writing content.
I’m looking at alternatives that don’t take all day, and actually work. In the meantime, I apologise for any lack of maps.
Update Frequency
I began this website with the aim of adding to it twice per week if possible, but was happy with an average of once per week. Things have dropped off a lot recently!
The reason - I’ve been juggling a demanding combination of work and study which has consumed nearly all my free time. It won’t always be that way, but there may often be periods when busyness precludes regular writing. Also there will be times when I’m travelling and therefore offline.
My desire to build this website into a large and useful resource remains, however it is a long term goal (ie many years). In the short term, don’t be surprised if my writing is sometimes irregular.
Topics: Odds and Ends | Add Your Comment »
The Coldest Town In New Zealand
By graham | June 20, 2009
Curiosity is a great motivator, and when applied to travel it can provide the reason for some interesting journeys. My desire to find out why it gets so cold in Ophir took me on one such journey to a starkly beautiful and somewhat chilly place.
Ophir, in the south of New Zealand, is a tiny town which holds the record for the country’s lowest temperature. On July 3rd, 1995, a low of -21.6°C broke the previous record, which was also held by Ophir. I was travelling in New Zealand during that memorable winter, and my curiosity was aroused - of all the cold places in New Zealand, why did Ophir break the records? I had to find out.
At first it seemed straightforward. Ophir’s inland location in Central Otago gives it a drier climate with clearer skies than elsewhere in New Zealand. Add a valley location and sparse vegetation to a modest bit of altitude (298m) and you have the ingredients for extreme cooling on calm winter nights. But while great cold could be accounted for, it didn’t explain why Ophir gets colder than other towns in the area which share a similar climate.
I had a perfect excuse to indulge in a style of travel that could be described as “investigative exploring”. On my most recent return to New Zealand, I headed to Ophir, and on a morning when a brass monkey might have lost a ball or two, I scraped the ice off the car and set out to satisfy my curiosity.
A good look at the topography revealed what I think sets Ophir apart - not only is it situated in the mother of all frost hollows, but a little down from the town stands a group of hills which cross the valley and must surely obstruct descending cold air. The river has cut a channel through, but for cold air the hills could act as a crude dam, with Ophir at the very bottom of a what becomes a huge cold air reservoir.
I also learned that morning fog or low cloud in the area sometimes blocks the sun and minimises warming after a frosty night. If repeated over several mornings, the cooling is intensified.
Having satisfied my curiosity about Ophir’s microclimate, I drove around and enjoyed the beauty of sunrise on a crisp frosty morning. I then satisfied my appetite with a magnificent cooked breakfast at the pub in nearby Omakau, and reflected a little. Investigating climatic extremes is obviously not to everyone’s taste, but I’d found that the quest to satisfy my personal curiosity had led to a journey more rewarding than merely going where the guidebooks suggest.
Looking towards Dunstan Mountains from Raggedy Range, with Ophir down on the valley floor
Topics: New Zealand (south), Towns | Add Your Comment »
Free Glow-Worms In Tasmania
By graham | June 7, 2009
Glow-worms can be viewed on a number of paid tours, such as Waitomo Caves and Te Anau in New Zealand, and Marakoopa Cave in northern Tasmania. Less well known is the fact that anyone can see these luminous insects - without having to pay or enter a cave - near one of Tasmania’s most popular attractions.
The location is Russell Falls, 75km west of Hobart - possibly the most beautiful waterfall in the state, and one which nearly everyone who visits Tasmania sees at some point.
The catch: the falls are normally visited in daylight, whereas the glow-worms are only visible when it’s dark. This generally limits the glow worms’ visitors to those with their own transport who linger after dusk, or those staying in the area’s limited accommodation. If you have a van or are otherwise equipped for camping, the Land of the Giants Campground is a very pleasant spot by the river within walking distance of the falls.
Seeing the glow worms is easy. Once it is dark, simply grab a torch and follow the flat and easy walking path towards Russell Falls, about ten minutes from the car park. A small glow worm grotto - some damp rock overhangs and fallen trees - is in the rainforest on the left side of the track shortly before the falls. A sign indicates the area, and tells you where to look.
After your eyes have adjusted to the dark, the luminous larvae of the mosquito-like insects become more visible, and can resemble a field of stars in the night sky.
The glow worms at Russell Falls are not as impressive, nor nearly as extensive, as the displays you pay to see in caves elsewhere. But if you’re in that part of Tasmania it is a free and easy glimpse into their world, and the local wildlife makes a dusk walk in the Russell Falls area a pleasant thing anyway.
Links:
Parks & Wildlife Service - Mt Field National Park
Wikipedia article on Arachnocampa (the genus of glow-worms found down under)
Topics: Alternatives, Tasmania | Add Your Comment »
Good Budget Accommodation In Augusta, WA
By graham | May 28, 2009
One of my favourite places to stay in Western Australia in recent years has been the Baywatch Manor in Augusta. Frequently voted the best YHA hostel in Australia, it is much more than you might expect from backpacker accommodation … and has a wonderful bakery nearby.
I began staying there soon after the purpose built two-level building was opened in 1995. What first appealed to me was the location - centrally sited in a quiet part of the small town’s main street, with views over Flinders Bay (hence the Baywatch name). Just as appealing was the presence, only two minutes walk from the hostel, of the Augusta Bakery Cafe - my favourite eating place in southwest WA.
Next to impress me was the standard of the the place. Clean and comfortable are over-used words in accommodation literature, but they really do apply here. Spacious, tastefully decorated and well equipped are also accurate descriptions.
Sleeping quarters include shared dormitory rooms, twin, double and family rooms, plus the en-suite rooms which have the best views. Most rooms make use of the pleasant shared bathrooms. Downstairs are the communal dining area, kitchen, and lounge/TV room - nicer and more roomy than what most hostels provide.
The kitchen is particularly well equipped for those who like to keep costs down by self catering - something usually not possible in more expensive accommodation. Although with the bakery so close at hand, I confess I haven’t used Baywatch’s kitchen as much as I should have!
The original owners, Neville and Jane, provided the friendliness and good management that made good accommodation truly great. I haven’t been to Augusta as much since new owners took over, but the standards at Baywatch Manor appear to be just as high. My only complaint - and it’s only a small one - is that the mattresses are of the dense foam rubber variety rather than proper spring mattresses. You can’t have everything in budget accommodation.
Like most coastal spots, Augusta is very busy in the summer holiday period. At other times, it is a much quieter alternative to Margaret River and other tourist towns further north, largely because it is further from Perth. For anyone looking to explore the region from a comfortable but economical base - with views and a great bakery nearby - I can recommend Baywatch Manor at Augusta.
Links:
YHA Australia - the Baywatch Manor page, with online bookings and availability checking
Baywatch Manor Resort - more information and photos
Topics: Accommodation, Western Australia | Add Your Comment »