After packing up the new Toyota Prado and leaving Sydney at 1:30 am on Sat 17 Aug with a stack of camera gear and only a rough idea of where I was going (apart from visiting my son, James, and his girlfriend in Torquay) I finally arrived home at 8:30 pm on Sun 25 Aug. During the 9 days I was away I drove 3,731 Kms, took more than 1,600 photos and saw parts of Australia that blew me away. I relaxed, read a book called “Born to Run” by Christopher McDougall (if you’re a runner then this is a must read) and listened to a lot of music that I hadn’t heard for years or even decades, artists such as The Choirboys, Canned Heat, Chicago, Jose Feliciano, Janis Joplin, Al Stewart, Dave Brubeck, Dave’s True Story…the list goes on.
All-in-all I had a fantastic time but if I had to list any negatives there’d be two of them…first of all is that it took me this long to visit the Western parts of both Victoria and NSW (I’ve been to the US more than 40 times but had never been to Broken Hill) and secondly, the 8 hour drive from Broken Hill to Dubbo on the way home…it’s a bloody long way.
The whole trip was a visual treat with the standouts being, The Great Ocean Road, The Grampians, the road from Wentworth to Broken Hill via Pooncarie and Menindee, and Broken Hill and surrounds such as Silverton.
Over the next week I’ll write blog for each day and sort through the 1,600 plus pics and post my favourites.
Oh, and one other thing. Here’s a list of the camera gear I took along for the trip:
- Nikon D800
- Nikon D700
- Nikon lenses:
- 14-24mm f/2.8
- 24-70mm f/2.8
- 70-200mm f/2.8
- 300mm f/2.8 VRII (this is an outstanding lens and I’ll be sure to highlight the pics taken with it)
- 60mm f/2.8 AF-S Micro
- Fuji x100 (used more than any other camera for the 9 days)
- Leica M9 and several lenses
- I’d originally arranged to have the sensor cleaned at “The Camera Clinic” in Collingwood, Melbourne on Mon 19 Aug before I started the major part of the road trip. However, when they inspected it they said there was actually a fault with the sensor and Leica agreed to fix it for free (parts and labour)…the bad news was that it was going to take 4-6 weeks so it wouldn’t be coming for the rest of the road trip.
- It’s amazing that Leica have authorised this repair to be at no cost to me when you consider that I purchased the M9 back in Sept 2009 so it is well out of warranty. Now that’s what I call customer service and “The Camera Clinic” in Melbourne are a fully authorised Leica repair centre and have been fantastic.
