Burton's Perth to Cape York Day 0 30 March 2012 Gone Tomorrow!

The day of departure is finally here! We leave home tomorrow morning for 4 months!

We have all experienced conflicting feelings of adrenaline fuelled excitement and trepidation! No work or proper school for 4 whole months and will our gear make it? I’m sure it will, after all we’ve done all the hard yards, but still can’t stop the niggling “will the trailer hub crack again?”, “are we overloaded”, floods, rains, water crossings and corrugations…oh my God!


Even Lulu the Lemur from Madagascar has been unusually quiet, not said a word in days! (;-). Although Kate is convinced Lulu sneaked out of the lounge room and enjoyed one of my Heinekens! She said Lulu was looking a little fatter and distinctly hungover…


Last minute jobs have almost been completed – the bloody IP security Cameras are finally up and running and visible from the Ipad – quite scary really, covertly spying on the family going about their household jobs, not knowing voyeur Dad is watching! Will activate the alarm and email functions tomorrow morning, so at least we will receive an email and a photo telling us someone is robbing our house! Then we can watch it live for entertainment! Jerry cans full, gas bottles full, spare sparkplug for the Honda genny. Eotrackme turned on, Skype added to the laptop, telephoned the shire of Meekatharra to check if the Goldfields Highway is open.

Telephoned Wiluna to check on the Gunbarrel…I mean Murphy’s law says we must do this. Our first night is planned to be at a bush camp near Wubin. The only significant rain received in WA this week was a whole 77 mm in one hit at Ninghan Station – you guessed it – it is located right next to our proposed bush camp! The tyre dogs have been shifted back to the trailer and the rear wheels of the Cruiser. I always figure that we will pick up fairly quickly if the front tyres are going flat! The lawns ( should really be singular ‘lawn’, or maybe ‘blades of grass’ – it is so small) are mowed, the pond cleaned….Murphy visited again, our submersible pond pump exploded two nights ago, spewing oil into our organic pond (organic meaning we don’t clean it often…). Oh well it was 11 years old, and another $300.00 or tank and a half of petrol should make too much difference :-( Hope the little native fish and very noisy motorbike frogs survive! We’ll probably bring back a few cane toads anyway….


Amanda has finished the mammoth task of buying and stashing two weeks worth of food in the trailer. We have removed the full annex from under the bed freeing much more space. We don’t think we’ll need the main panels this trip as we are mostly 1-3 day stayers. We’ve left the quarter panels (overnight extensions) and end walls leaving more space for electronics, spare shockies and bearings and most importantly some bottles of wine surrounded by tasty heinekens..


The kids last day at school – big day of goodbyes to little friends. Kate is doing the female tears, exchanging emails, networking blah blah, Jack (10) – ‘see yah mate’ and probably won’t look back – email who? Chromosomes are definitely put together with a pattern aren’t they?


The cabin of the Cruiser is packed. Ipad on the dash with Hema, VMS and TomTom. The Hema Australia maps in the very large spiral bound book stashed down the side of the seat. Camps are take care of by the Find a Park app, and electronic copies of the Priceless free campsites books for WA and NT. Cameras charged, Canon 5D, Canon PowerShot D10 and Sony Digital Video all in the centre console together with sat phone, telstra country and UHF handhelds. We added some more tie down points to the rear Black Widow arrangement and our tables and other boxes are well and truly secured with the Rhino tie down straps. One drawer is full of recovery gear with the ARB compressor mounted (plumbed) inside, shackles, snatch blocks etc. Snatch strap and water bra down the sides with a Bushranger exhaust air jack. Between the kids is a plastic container secured with a seatbelt that will hold snacks, fruit, nuts etc. Amanda has stashed bathers and towels in the back as well as rain coats and windstoppers, for quick and easy access. We also have a small daypack for each, mine holding the rest of the camera gear. Under the side panels hide lots of spare, hoses, belts, radiator fluid, oil, fuses etc. The other drawer will hold the first aid kit and drugs. The local Doctor has been kind to provide just in case stuff like antibiotics, painkillers, local anaesthetic etc.



The Rhino Roof racks holds two space cases, one with two bags of jarrah in it for those times of eek, no firewood! The other is predominantly empty to use as a spare, although the girls have been sneakily filling it with books and toys…the two sets of MaxTrax will sit beside them and the four low profile Boab 20l jerry cans at the back.

I’d be terrified to go near a weighbridge….

Well, that’s probably us. We’ll see you down the track and will post as often as possible with connection. Keep the comments coming and we’ll keep you informed of conditions, places and tracks. Good luck to us and may the weather Gods' smile!



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