Charters Towers

After a few electrical hassles with Thommo & Flan Man's Kimberlys, the decision was made to head towards Ballina to get things sorted out at the factory !

We had a good days travel after a wet pack-up at Atherton. Mostly light rain during the night, but a bit of a downpour around 5.30am meant that those of us camping packed up fairly wet. Dave spent the night inside with family for his Dad's 80th birthday at Milla Milla and Jill & Peter spent the night with friends in Atherton so they escaped with dry lodgings for the night.

There were plenty of roadworks on the way down today. We probably spent close to an hour all up sitting at roadwork traffic lights, but the finished bits are awesome. It will be a super-highway when it's all finished.

Jaynie & I scored a shattered rear driver side window courtesy of a road train (funnily enough on a fabulous two lane piece of road) which we haven't been able to find a replacement for yet.  Nikki & friend from Charters Towers Autoglass were brilliant - scouring the countryside for a replacement for us and eventually taping our shattered one up to (hopefully) get us further south before it gives way. Good, old fashioned country service is alive and well folks !! Between us all, the convoy scored plenty of chipped windscreens today - out with the U-Fix-It kits again !

Most of us washed our trucks and campers when we hit town tonight, just to avoid getting covered in sticky red mud every time we moved. In some ways it's a shame to not get them back into town in all their Cape grime and glory, but this-morning's combination of dust and rain (= M U D) was the final straw ! Clean cars to Canberra !!!

David is in high spirits tonight after the drubbing dished out by QLD in Origin 2 but the same can't be said for Thommo & Ian (who barracked for NSW but curiously - Ian wore a maroon jumper).

I rescued a miniscule gecko from Casa del Camprite tonight - no idea how long it had been there - but came across the tiny little fella when we set up camp tonight. After an extended play session on my wrist and arm, he (or she) was finally relocated to the shower block here. Hope it isn't too cold for the plucky little bugger.

Tomorrow we head south towards Emerald and the ever cooling temperatures !

15 June - Atherton

A few of us are wearing long pants and long sleeved shirts tonight for the first time in weeks !

Things have got positively chilly (by comparison) as we head south. Last night at Musgrave was the first time for a couple of weeks that I'd actually been under the sheet to sleep !

We have had a pretty quiet couple of days driving, with a large part of today back on the tar. It's amazing how quickly some of the dirt roads have deteriorated - we have noticed a big difference on the same road since we were heading north only a few short weeks ago.

We're not coming across much other traffic heading south, but there are HEAPS of vehicles heading the other way. We even came across a swimming pool being towed behind a "Wide Load" escort near Lakeland, along with quite a few road trains.

The campsites are getting fuller, and the tourist season really seems to be getting into full swing.

We're continuing southish tomorrow - but won't make a final decision as to where and what route until the morning. CHOICES - ain't they grand !!!

Heading South !

Greetings from Chilli Beach in the Iron Range National Park !

We're on our way south now and should be at Musgrave for an overnighter tomorrow night.
We've had a couple of good days driving, including some big adventures (thanks from all to David and his double diff-locks) on the Old Telegraph Track ! Some of the exits from creek crossings are heaps easier heading north, but they're a lot more fun going the other way - especially with a camper trailer !
Most of us had a superb seafood lunch at the Portlands Road Cafe today, and otherwise spent the (lay) day checking out the local area, walking the beach, doing some close up nature photography, reading books and flying kites. A good time to chill-out and recharge for the next few days travel ahead.
The vehicles and trailers are still (mostly) intact - no serious dramas and all is on schedule to be home in a couple of weeks.
Some more photos are online at Picasaweb!
See ya soon !!!

Punsand Bay

Apologies for the photo at the tip - I'm sure that there's a better one, but I'm sitting by the side of the road in Bamaga typing this and just wanted to put up a quick photo of the gang at the top of the country.
We've been up here for a few days now at the Punsand Bay Camping Resort, but don't get reception out there so no updates.
As you can see, we did the obligatory photos at the tip on our second day here and since then have done some excellent 4 wheel driving, been to Horn and Thursday Islands, swam, fished (nice Barra by Thommo) and generally relaxed and enjoyed ourselves.
Julie, Thommo, Jayne and Ian are out in the oceaqn somewhere on a fishing charter - the rest of us are relaxing at the campground.
More when we start the journey back to chilly Canberra !

We made it !!!

2010-06-01

2010-05-29

We're nearly there !

Hi all
coming to you tonight from sunny (and HOT) Weipa ! We've been here for a couple of days indulging in some serious R & R - lounging around, reading books (have I mentioned the Millennium trilogy by Stieg Larsson yet), exploring the local area, swimming (but only in the pool at the camping ground to avoid the Crocs) and basically chilling out.
I haven't done a "proper" update yet and this is only a quick summary. Where to start ? ? ?  Our last post was from Mt Isa - nearly a week ago now. We've had to change our travel plans a couple of times during the last week because of either road closures or dodgy information about road closures.
We were originally heading up to Kingfisher Camp via Adels Grove, but Thommo got a call from an adjoining station to Kingfisher to say that that the road was closed. No probs - change the plan - stay an extra night at Mt Isa and spend another night at Adels, which was a welcome break from our tight schedule.
Thommo & Julie did an absolutely brilliant roast dinner for the whole crew at Adels. Jaynie made the gravy & David & I got into trouble for launching Dastardly Wabbit into space for some interesting night photography experiments.
Next morning, Adels to Burketown.  This is where we encountered our first Anderson plug problem - something had totally ripped out the plug and its associated wiring, which resulted in some creative thinking from Ian to get things going again in the absence of a 60 amp maxi-blade fuse.
Semi-sorted at Gregory Downs and we continued on to Normanton & Karumba.
Our original plan was to head from Karumba to Dunbar Station and then north, but with uncertainty about the roads and a day up our sleeves, we headed east across the base of the Cape to David's relo's place in the Atherton Tablelands.David's parents, Bob & Lorraine,  met up with us for a fabulous BBQ and a night in totally different climactic conditions from over in the west. The pics will show what I mean !!!
 Our journey up the Cape finally started from the east rather than the west.
Apologies because this has been something of a rushed update tonight - there's a lot more to show and tell - including Leichardt Falls and last night's dinner at the Weipa Bowling Club.
We leave in the morning to head north to the tip.
I finally sorted out Picassa web albums and have started to upload some pics.
Next update hopefully soon - . . . . stay with us ;-))
Some more pics that I'm progressively uploading, are at http://picasaweb.google.com/mickhines

Day 10 - Mount Isa

We're here ! 85 year old Mt Isa - site of the largest silver, lead, zinc and copper mine in the southern hemisphere.  It's our second night now - and we all spent the day doing our own thing and being happy tourists.

Attractions that we visited today included the Underground Hospital, Hard Times Mine for an underground mine tour, the Outback at Isa centre, Riversleigh Fossil Laboratory (hi Dr John), City Lookout and a number of Mt Isa grog-shops !

David spent a productive morning at the dentist having a busted filling replaced (hard to get same day service in the city) while Peter & Jill got a new windscreen and sorted out the problem with their compressor.

We all kept bumping into each other all over town - not surprising because Mt Isa isn't really all that big. It's funny - the town has well and truly grown up around the mine. The first thing you see as you drive over the last hill and into town is the huge smokestack, and then the town unfolds beneath it.

I took a whole bunch of photos today (and over the last few days), and as soon as I figure out the web-albums thing in Picassa, I'll upload plenty and update it here.

We're actually going to take a bit of a different tack with updates - I'll type them up on the road while Jayne is driving and as soon as we get into a good reception spot, upload them to the web.

Everyone on the trip says g'day to everyone who's checking us out on here.

We leave tomorrow morning for Adele's Grove.

Till next time - stay safe !!!

A late update !

We're nearly a week in to the trip now - sitting by the banks of a waterhole just outside of Winton in central Queensland.

We,ve travelled a lot of countryside in the last few days, and have been pleasantly surprised at the coverage of Telstra's Next G network - which is what we're using to update this. Unfortunately, we've been camping in National Parks and bush camping in areas that it doesn't reach.

We're staying in Winton tomorrow night and then in Mount Isa for following two nights, so will have time to do a proper update with more detail including maps of our route and a whole lot of pictures (probably to a Picasa web album).

Sunrise this morning

Tonight's sunset

Day 1 - Canberra to Nyngan

Finally the B I G day happened !

We've gone - left on the trip - departed Canberra.

I'm writing this sitting on the banks of the Bogan River at Nyngan at our first night campsite.

We got off to a great start this morning - everyone was on time, with Dave's wife Carol and their kids Bec & Josh coming along to wave us off in style. We left Ben Hall at 0800 and met up with Ian & Jeanette at the Yass service centre about half an hour later.

We thought we'd lost I & J for a minute - they were parked up having a chat with another 4WD convoy that was heading north-west (with their Kimberly Campers & tinnies) to the Kimberleys. Fortunately they stuck with Plan A and took their possie in our convoy.

The drive today was uneventful - we made good speed on the blacktop, stopping off at Cowra for a quick cuppa for smoko and had lunch at Dubbo. Thommo & Julie guided us into the Riverside Van Park at Nyngan right on schedule at 4o'clock.

I think we were all a bit surprised at how green things were between Canberra and Cowra. Plenty of full dams and green fields everywhere. It changed right on schedule once we left Cowra though and things are looking pretty dry out here at Nyngan.

Once we set up camp on the riverbank, time for happy hour, a bit of trip housekeeping and Thommo awarded Dave the inaugural "Dummy"award - for a made up reason that must remain secret. We'll see who Dave awards it to tomorrow

We've all had dinner now and are chatting and relaxing around the campfire. A great end to the first day.

T minus 4 (days) and counting

Sadly the Tiger-Moth flight had to get put off due to the crappy weather at Camden. It was a good thing we called them before we left because it was a glorious autumn day in Canberra. It looked perfect for a late afternoon flight, however Camden was plagued with strong winds and fairly constant rain - which is not so good for an open cockpit biplane. The flight will be something to look forward to when we get back from the trip.

Staying home gave us the opportunity to do a few more things at a leisurely pace for the trip though . . . our home made rear window protector is fitted, the truck is now packed & ready to go (except for a couple of things to go on the roof rack), laptop and camera batteries are all charged, the external connection to the hi-gain antenna for the wireless broadband modem is sorted and we even managed to get a couple of bags of fresh Somali coffee from Scott & Wade at Kaldi. Our final packing on Friday should now be a breeze !

We're both busy getting things squared away at work and have had some later than usual finishing times, still with a fair bit to do before escaping work on Thursday.

Thommo told us last weekend that everyone is pretty well done with their preparations and everyone is really keen to head out of town - roll on Saturday  ;-))

Packing & Preparation

Jaynie & I spent a large part of the Anzac weekend doing preparation and packing for our Trip to the Tip !

We had the camper set up in the driveway to figure out where everything was going to go - and what we really didn't need to take along on the trip.

Our food for the first 12 days (when we have a resupply stop) is all ready to go. Everything that needs it is cryovac'd - and the meat is freezing down to minus 25, ready to go into the trusty Evakool fridge/freezer. Our clothes are all packed, the spares and recovery gear is all sorted and now all we really need to do is sort out the "little"things (although don't tell Jayne I've classified fishing gear as a little thing !!!)

We're off to Camden Airport on Saturday afternoon for me to use my Christmas present - a 1/2 hour aerobatic flight in a Tiger Moth - then back to Canberra to get some more stuff ready.

After this weekend, we have only ONE weekend to get everything totally sorted because we're leaving for the Cape at 08:00 the following Saturday !!  It's getting V E R Y close now . . .

Trip to the Tip

Three weeks from today, we're heading off on a B I G 4WD adventure to the tip of Cape York !

Thommo & Julie are leading a group from the Canberra based Southern Tablelands 4 Wheel Drive Club through NSW, the northwest corner of SA & then QLD to the northern tip of the country.

Mick & Jayne, Mary & Thea, Peter & Jill, Ian & Jeanette and David & friend will be 41 days on the track, covering almost 10,000 kilometres.

Jayne & I are going to try and maintain a "running trip report" as we go. We hope to post to this blog frequently while we're on the road - tales of our travels with plenty of photos and the occasional video - but that will depend on how extensive the Telstra Next G network coverage is.

Our planned route will take us through some absolutely amazing Australian country - made even more so by the drought-breaking rains that have recently brought the outback well and truly alive.

Some of the places we will visit or travel through are Nyngan, Mutawinji National Park, Cameron's Corner, Innaminka, Birdsville, Bedourie, Mt Isa, Lawn Hill, Kingfisher Camp, Karumba, Coen, Weipa, Elliott Falls, Bramwell Junction, Punsand Bay, Horn Island, Chilli Beach, Laura, Mareeba, Hughenden, Miles, Stanthorpe, Corrindi Beach, Myall Lakes and then back home to wintery Canberra towards the end of June.

We'll mostly be bush camping, but will also do the occasional stay at roadhouses and caravan parks.

Jaynie & I will be living in our Camprite TL8s 4-2 offroad camper trailer. Our convoy will also have 3 Kimberly Kampers and a Johnno's camper trailer. Its (mostly) a Toyota trip - 80 and 100 series Landcruisers, 90 and 120 series Prados and a Lexus!

We hope you can join us and share in our big adventure. We're all doing final preparations at the moment - our trucks have all been inspected and serviced, trial pack-ups have been done, redone and done again and recovery gear and spares parts are all sorted and divvied up.

We'll post some more info about preparation and stuff we've done getting ready for the trip. Otherwise - Stay tuned . . . only 21 days before we go !!!