Update for March 2013

March Update,

3 Months and 6350 Miles since leaving home and the Commer is still going strong!.

During March we traveled north through central NSW, stopping at many beautiful and interesting places.

One place of interest was Dubbo, famous for its open range ZOO.  You can either hire a safari buggy or drive around the Zoo in you own vehicle.  As the entry ticket gave you two days admission we did both and it was fantastic you would swear you were on the Savannah and we got some great shots of the animals and the Commer on Safari.  

  Commer on Safari,

The crew enjoying the wildlife.

On an early morning walk on the edge of town i passed through an abandoned Drive in Theater.   These Theaters were extremely popular in the 60/70's and almost every city in Australia had at least one,  Today  unfortunately very few still operate.  Dubbo's West View  Drive in could park 550 cars and had snack bar and playground and must have been a wonderful place to spend a hot summers night with the family.

Closed for 30 years now and destined to become a shopping center, i was amazed by the condition of the facility.  The buildings were open and as left 30 years ago. Luckily very little vandalism had taken place and dust covered session schedules still sat on the snack bar counter.  The last screening was the Poseidon Adventure. This really was a fantastic place and i felt so sad to see it left unused and soon to be demolished.

 Abandoned Drive In, closed for 30 years,  Speakers still on posts.

 Session schedules still on counter.

Check out the menu board prices.

 Children's playground complete with mary go around 

Session Schedule

After leaving Dubbo we visited yet another Radio Telescope array near Narabri,  This facility had six huge dishes on a rail network and can detect signals from space of less than one/one hundredth of a millionth of a Watt---WOW!--.  That explains one reason why these facility's are in such remote areas as even a mobile phone can cause chaos with such sensitive equipment.  My interest in Radio Astronomy has been sparked by our visits to these facility's and perhaps i can see a home brew mobile receiver station strapped to the top of a Commer?? Maybe not,  But will give it some thought, Stay tuned..

2 of  6 Rail mounted Radio Telescopes near Narabri NSW.

Next we moved on to one of the most iconic-ally Australian places in the country, Lightning Ridge.

Lightning Ridge is a small town built amongst and to support hundreds of small privately owned Opal Mine claims.

Piles of dirt mask the landscape and one has to step carefully as mine shafts are scattered everywhere in a kind of confusing chaos as to who owns which claim.  Dusty miners can be seen working their claims or driving old trucks around town.  Its an extremely hard life but for those successful in their search the Australian Opal is a highly prized gem and even a small find can be highly rewarding. 

Of course we had to give it a go, so it was out with the pans and pics and of to do some fossicing. 

At the end of a days hard work in the hot sun we retreated to our camp with just a small vial of opal chips of almost no value at all, but a great souvenir all the same.

 Wheres the Opals Dad?

 Exploring Mines

An Opal field Pub.

All this hunting for Opals had put us in the mood to seek out more of Australia's valuable minerals so a few hundred miles later and we camped in a very picturesque spot on the banks of  a creek near Inverell and the hunt for Sapphires,  Ruby's and Diamonds was on.

Again two days later we departed with just a few tiny specs to add to our souvenir cabinet but what a beautiful place it was to spend a couple of days working the creek.

 No one around for miles, just us, and the hunt for those elusive gem stones.

  

Baxter's Mini Mining Co

Not quite the mother load,, but pretty just the same.

We are ending March on the Gold Coast visiting the theme parks and enjoying the vibrant atmosphere,
Amelia was so excited during our visit to Movie World and she even got to meet her heros Shaggy and Scooby Doo as well as Dora the explorer at Sea World .  We all enjoyed them so much that we went to both parks twice.  Amanda had a surprise morning install for me at a shooting academy where i even got to play with "and shoot " 44 Magnum hand guns,  All great noisy fun.

Amelia meeting her heros 

A major highlight of our time on the Gold Coast was finally meeting another Commer and his owners Kane and Dani who had been following this blog and had invited us to visit them once we arrived on the Gold Coast.  Humphrey "the Commer" had just finished being restored and he looks totally fantastic a testament to his owners hard work.  Humphrey had also toured Europe before finally being imported into Australia a great camper and it was awesome to meet him and his owners.

Humphrey a 68 Wanderer Conversion.

Don't they just make a lovely couple?

Have a safe and happy Easter everyone!!

DSLH 6350 Miles
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