|
Chapter 2.
The Route
Where
you arrive in Australia dictates where you start out on
your big trip. It also affects WHEN you start out. The
common factor, wherever you start, is which way you make
your circumnavigation - clockwise or anticlockwise.
There are two major aspects to consider:
The
wind may seem the least likely factor to take into
account when planning the trip. But you need only one
day's travel bucking into a stiff headwind to realise
what a significant factor it is. And your wallet will
feel the strain when you pull up to refuel. The
difference between a 30 kph headwind and a 30 kph
tailwind is 60 kph of wind. When you are bucking into 30
kph of wind, the driver going the other way is 60 kph
better off, windwise. Compared with calm conditions,
that 30 kph headwind could add 50% to your fuel bill.
We went around
Australia with the wind behind us for most of the way,
which means we went anticlockwise. Up the east coast,
round via Darwin, down to Perth, back across the
Nullarbor. We struck headwinds in the run from Cairns
back down to Townsville, and from Port Augusta down to
Adelaide. Two days of headwinds during the whole trip.
Day after day we rolled along with the trade |
|
|
|
|
winds behind us. On the Darwin
to Katherine leg the weather was calm, and from Geraldton
southwards we had a beam wind.
The Season.
Perhaps of greater significance is traveling in
the right season. The northern, tropical sector of your trip
should be completed within the period between the months from
June to October. On a round trip over five to six months,
three of those months will be spent in the tropics. So there
is a leeway of an extra two months where your schedule can be
shuffled ahead or brought back, yet still get you through the
tropics during the northern winter, which is the non-cyclone
season.
This
means that if you go anticlockwise, you should be heading
through Rockhampton (Tropic of Capricorn) anytime from early
June through to early August. We left Sydney on May 15 and
our schedule was as follows:
|
Rockhampton |
June
1st |
|
Cairns |
June
7th |
|
Mt. Isa |
June
24th |
|
Darwin |
June
29th |
|
Kakadu |
June
14th |
|
Kununurra |
July
23rd |
|
Broome |
July
31st |
|
Carnarvon |
Aug
14th |
|
Perth |
Aug
23rd |
|
Albany |
Sept
14tyh |
|
Adelaide |
Sept
27th |
|
Melbourne |
Oct
11th |
|
Sydney |
Oct 23rd |
Reference to this schedule shows that we were
in Perth in late August, Adelaide late September and in
Melbourne in October. With hindsight, we should have left
Sydney a month to six weeks later, to have enjoyed warmer
weather in the southern capitals. Personally, I found the
northwestern areas of Darwin, Kakadu and Kununurra too hot and
sticky in the afternoons, but the mornings and evenings were
delightful. |
|
|
|
|
