The Magazine for Australian Travellers

October 2005

GREAT PLACES TO GO

Cutta Cutta Caves

The Northern Territory town of Katherine has a secret treasure deep underground.

Great walking on Fraser Island

Melanie Ball heads away from Fraser’s coast to focus on the middle of the world’s largest sand island.

Campsite reports

Our campsite reporters find the best places to camp, this month in Queensland, New South Wales and South Australia.

CARAVANS & MOTORHOMES

Waltzing with Matilda

New owner, new factory and new model motorhomes.

GOOD GEAR & GADGETS

Walkabout

Go on the greatest bushwalk, live the Snowy River legend and travel with a greener outlook – find out how in Walkabout this month.

How to photograph Australia

A new book by Steve Parish can help us to make our holiday pictures much better.

CAMPERS’ TALES

Cruising Australia

Aussies are planning for a life of leisure in their retirement – and, apparently, we’re very good at it.

The good life at McLaren Vale

This area in South Australia is truly gorgeous.

Hit the Spot

A seafood feast awaits at Airlie Beach.

The hazards of helping out

Adrian Ryan has some tales of woe to tell – he’s helping out a friend.

Dismal Swamp

This place in Tasmania is anything but dismal.

Outback wings and
stockmen’s things

Jim Foster takes us for a tour around two Australian icons.

Campfire cooking

Derek “The Camp Oven Cook” Bullock doesn’t need a campfire to make a camp oven feast.

JUST FOR READERS

My Favorite Place

The tantilising glitter of garnets has won for a reader a pair of great daypacks from Snowgum.

GETAWAY VEHICLE

Facelifted Forester

Subaru’s popular soft-roader Forester has increased its appeal.

CATCH A FEED

Snapping happy

This month, Paul B. Kidd offers some tips on getting better fishy photos.

REGULAR FEATURES

Readers’ Letters

Advice on locating a doctor wherever you travel is discussed this issue.

Aussie Cross Quiz

in Australia’s great

outdoors

The heat is on

Master the art of using heat beads

and your camp oven will soon

be working overtime

Since my article “How’s this for Camp Oven Tucker!” appeared in the July issue of On The Road I have been inundated with requests for more information on using alternatives to campfire coals for cooking in a camp oven. Rather than continually reply through an email I thought I would write another article and explain how easy it can be to use heat beads as a source of fuel. The best way I thought of doing this would be to capture it all in a few photographs.

First off you need something to place your heat beads in when cooking. The best thing I ever found, and the simplest, is an old electric frying pan. They are easy to look after and take up little room when packing. You can usually pick these up for a few dollars at a garage sale. The one I have is a large, old round Sunbeam. Both my 12-inch Bedourie and my cast iron camp ovens fit in it perfectly.

The easiest heat beads to use are the self-igniting ones. They may cost a little more but are much easier to use.

If using the Bedourie, I first place a trivet in the frying pan as this helps to circulate the heat. Because the cast iron oven has legs there is no need to do this.

The number of heat beads to use is something you might like to play with. Generally, nine under the oven and 14 to 17 on top will give a heat of about 180 to 200 degrees and that is a pretty good heat for baking. You can see the numbers clearly in the photographs. A good idea is to light about 30 and then experiment with different numbers top and bottom.

A good little investment I made that only cost a few dollars was a small oven thermometer. The photograph hereabouts shows it sitting in my cast iron oven with a temperature of about 180 degrees.