Vic - Sa - Nt - Qld - Nsw - Vic!

[bounceferret]

Hi all

Thought I would create a post on the trip me and a few mates are about to take in a couple of weeks (boxing day) with the trusty old NH accompanied by a 100 series LC

The plan is to head from Melbourne to adelaide via the great ocean road, to see the sights ofcourse. From adelaide it's a quick drive over to Port Augusta, then up the Stuart all the way to Alice Springs. We've got a 2 day stop over in Alice before heading back down the Stuart highway to Kulgera at the NT and SA border. At Kulgera we're heading east along the track to the small aboriginal community of Finke.
From Finke we're down the track to Mt Dare to fill the tanks, stock up on supplies / beer and visit Dalhousie Springs (though it's probably going to be too hot for a swim)

After Dalhousie Springs we're joining up with the Oodnadatta Track to drive down to marree ( visiting Lake Eyre on the way ) then it's the birdsville track up to Birdsville (if we're bold enough we might just tip-toe out to have a quick bash at big red... only 30kms away after all

After doing the birdsville thing it's a trek across QLD to Rockhampton to meet up with long lost friends. After a day or 2 in rocky we'll be on the way to Bundaberg for a distillary tour. From there on it's down to Gold Coast to put our feet up and sit on a beach for a week.. after that we'll think about slowly driving back down to melb via the coast!

It's around 6500km's in total and I'm pretty sure I'm not going to want to drive for 2 months when we get back.

We're pretty prepared for the trip, so it should be a good experience.

well thought I would share, I'll post some pics of the trip when we return if anyone interested.

[Wal]

Filling the tanks at Mt Dare might prove to be a very expensive way of doing it. If you're carrying jerries I'd get my fuel well before that! I paid $1.92 per litre for diesel in July last year, heaven knows what it costs now!

You'll probably find that the hot springs at Dalhousie are cooler than the outside air temperature at 38 degrees. The road from Finke to Mt Dare is one of the worst bits of corrugation I've travelled in a long while so tie everything down well for that part of the journey and make sure your sustpension is up to it! I killed the suspension on a mates hilux last year (ripped off some bump stops) though we had just crossed the Simpson so that might have had a hand in it.

On the drive from Kulgera to Finke you might want to visit the geographical centre of Australia which is a 25 km detour (there and back) off the main road. When in Birdsville make sure you see both the working museum and the visit the bakery which is about a km out of town. The meals at the pub are great!

Anyway, sounds like fun so enjoy

[bounceferret]

Hi Wal

I will probably only be carrying one 20L jerry can as well as the long range tank. That should get us from Kulgera to Oodnadatta, if not Mt dare fuel it is .
Lambert Centre is definatly on the cards, as you said it's only 25km off track.

The paj's suspension was recently fully replaced so i'm hoping we're not going to have any nice surprises as far a the corrugations go.
Thanks for your input too mate, I've only been to this area once before and that was when I was a kid so any advice is good advice
regards
Steve

[mrbitchi]

Just be warned it will be BLOODY HOT out there at that time of year. Make sure you have plenty of water and your cooling system and air-con are in top notch condition.
Also be prepared for floods to slow you down. A cyclone up in north QLD can send heaps of water down towards Lake Eyre and make the area impassable for weeks.
Instead of running back down the highway to Kulgera (boring run) head down the Maryvale Road (follows the old Ghan route) and go into Chambers pillar. Then continue on from Maryvale to Finke.
On the Birdsville there's a neat camping spot about 40K's out of Marree called Clayton's Bore, right on the track so you can't miss it.

IMO it's not a good time to be travelling in the centre, but all going well you'll have a great time.

[bounceferret]

This trip is actually different from the original one we planned, lets just say this route is much "easier" on the car.
The car has a new cooling system installed (radiator, pipes, thermostat, water pump) and the air con just re-gassed from the old R12

We have prepared our selves the same as if we were going to tackle the simpson crossing.