Frenchies Trip Report 2005

Hi, all,

Davoe seemed to be quite angry at me as I asked a new question for our next trip in Oz, because I had not posted any report about our last Oz trip.

I must confess, I don't like writing that much, but I post hereafter the fist part of our report. Of course, we could not see that much and had to drive a lot of k. Nevertheless, it was a fantastic trip.

Part 2 is coming next week end.

Cheers

Eric

Trip report Oz 2005 – Cathy & Eric
Part 1 (Day 1 to 16 from 30)

Day 1 : Paris to Singapore (13 hours flight). Left the office at 06.30 p.m., drove back home (50k), took the bags and drove to the airport to catch the plane at 23.15 The bleep ing seats are bloody narrow. Probably the most exhausting part of the trip !! Had a shower in Changi whilst waiting for the connection.. Next time, Cathy will have a business class seat for free (award miles – I haven’t got enough for two seats and will stay at the back of the plane).

Day 2: Singapore Darwin (only 5 hrs) arrived at 4.15 a.m. and fell in a bed in the Airport Hotel. (quite good) at around 5.00 after having queued up at the immigration, allowing a nice police dog sniffing our bags and legs looking for forbidden items.

Day 3: Stand up at 8.30 a.m; while Kathy carries on sleeping.

Fetched the troopy at the car hire company in Berrimah. Nice people. Checked the contents (spares, tools, winch, satphone, radio, etc.. – I had brought my own laptop with Oziexplorer, GPS, tyrepliers, additional plugs, adapters, first aid kit etc.., which made more than the half of my luggage allowance – but I prefer being in the bush with a dirty shirt and recovery gear than with clean shirts which are not very helpful). Was a bit anxious because the troopy had already run 297.000 k (it proved to be a fantastic car).

Then woke up Cathy who is in a bad mood because she slept too little these days. Bought two more tubes. Then searched for a supermarket to buy water (120 l.), food, etc..

Left then to Katherine. I was bloody tired. Maybe I sould have slept some more hours. Needed to be accustomed again to drive on the wrong side of the road with the bloody pin on the wrong side as well. Reached Katherine at 6.00 p.m., found a cabin in a Caravan Park, ate some junk food, had a chat with the neighbours and fell into our beds..

Day 4: Kartherine to Kununnura.

Left Katherine at 7.00 a.m. This part was quite boring. I wanted only to drive as near as possible to the Gibb River Road, which had to be one of the highlights of the trip. Found a campsite. Chatted with neighbours, amongst which an Irish backpacker who was quite tipsy as he celebrated his 25th birthday. Found out the reason why the radio did not work was a not working plug in the car. Fixed it so that everything was OK. Lots of flies. Cathy found out she would definitely prefer not to sleep in the roof tent, so that I had to revise my budget.

Day 5: Leaving Kununnura at 07.00, eagerly waiting for the bitumen to end. At first, bumped against the protection of a fuel pump I had not seen and demolished one of the rear lights. Hit the GRR at 08.00. Fantastic weather and fantastic scenery.. Had some pics of the roadsigns (next fuel 364 k). Deflated the tires approx. 20% as David from 4wdadventures had told me, engaged 4WD, locked the hubs, and switched on the lights ‘as Rob from Cairns Offroad Training had told me to do.

Road was quite bumpy. Crossed the mighty Pentecost River, take some pics.

Encountered a nice guy from Perth coming from the other end, who had lost the fittings of a front shock absorber. He had no tools (he probably would not have known how to use them), but a free phone number from his car rental company (he had no phone as well). Lent him my satphone and made a provisional repair with iron wire while he spoke with the free phone number who told him they could not do anything. After I was finished, I advised the guy to drive slowly to the next cattle station in order to fix his car.

Nice lunch at Elenbrae station. I enjoyed the meat pie and the beer, but Cathy did not enjoy the toilets, so that we decided not to stay there. Stopped again at Mt Barnett Roadhouse. Cathy wanted to have a swim (I don’t – I prefer beer or red than water). Stopped swimming after a young lad had shown her a freshie resting on the next rock.

Decided to overnight at Mt Elisabeth station, who proved to have a cabin free, had a nice dinner with two Aussie Couples from Melb. Mt Elisabeth is a very very nice place.

Day 6: Left Mt Elisabeth at 08.00, travelled slowly until Mt Hart Wilderness Lodge. Paid visits to some nice gorges on the way. Mt Hart is a pleasant place, but it has nothing to do with a cattle station. Lots of wealthy tourists. Amongst whom an interesting University Professor from New Zealand and his girl friend from Melb (both around 70!!.) No special problems with the road.

Day 7: Mt Hart to Derby. Last day on the GRR. Visited pigeons creek and a wonderful Gorge with hundreds of freshies and cacatoes, as well as the old police station. Had a drink near the turnoff to Fitzroy Crossing at at a guy’s with a caravan who seems to live there. It is amazing while travelling in the Outback how you find quite normal things who are in fact extraordinary.

Stopped to help a guy with a Ute who was approx. 100m aside the road (the guy, not the Ute). We had already noticed that he had lost his left rear wheel, but he was in fact looking for the brake drum, which had gone as well. He found it at last and could fix his car.

Slept in Derby in a Motel which was nothing fantastic, had some nice seafood in the harbour restaurant. Food was excellent, but I must say it it somehow strange to us Europeans to have excellent food served in paper plates.

Met the owner of Mt Elisabeth who was on his way to Broome to fix the spectacles of one of his employees (1.000 k !!).

Day 8 Cathy wanted to have some jogging and fell on her knee (it would not happen to me, I do not jog, my only sport is golf when it is neither too cold (I did not play today – we had minus 7° Celsius in the morning) nor too hot.).

Visited prison tree before we left.

I wanted to take the backroad to Cape Leveque, which starts approx. in the middle of the road from Derby to Broome, but some people I had met in Derby had told me to disregard from it, because the road would be very difficult, so I took the regular road from Broome (I heard after from the people at Cape Leveque that this road was quite easy. I begin now to be able to translate when someone who is not a 4WD Driver tells me something is difficult).

On the main road, we encountered some cyclists in the middle of nowhere. After 4 weeks travelling, we would not be astonished any more… we have even seen better.

The road to Cape Leveque is quite pleasant, with a lot of red sand. We stopped for lunch at Beagle Bay and visited the Church, together with regular tourists who had come in an ISUZU 4WD bus with Aussie driver.

In Cape Leveque, we hired for the first night a safari tent, with a wonderful sea view including sunrise and sunset on the Indian Ocean. Had a walk on the beach before sunset. Wonderful scenery.

Day 9 For this day, we had booked a full day boat trip run from aboriginals

Drove first on the beach (pressure down to 15 PSI), encountered quite interesting characters including to retired couples from Brisbie who had a six months trip around Oz. Maybe I can do the same when I have no longer to earn this bloody money.

Had a nice day fishing, swimming, sightseeing.

Day 10: After a very good night in a regular tent, we left again to Broome.

Nothing special on the road, only an Aboriginal in a Falcon stopped in the middle. Asked him whether everything was OK. He told us yes, so we left.

Arrived in Broome for lunch, booked a Camel Ride on Cable Beach, found out the place is very very busy and could not even find a camping place.

Bought two Aussie hats, visited the Center and had the Camel Ride, which is quite pleasant. But in my opinion, Cable Beach reminds me a lot of Long Beach, California, or of such civilised fashionable places. And I do like Broome, but I find it somehow not fair that people (apart from disabled or elderly) can reach it so easily such remote places. Do they really deserve it ??

Finally, found a campsite with a spot available and had o good sleep in the rooftent.

Day 11:The next highlight of our trip had to be Coral Bay / Ningaloo reef, so we had nothing better to do than to drive the highway. Nothing very special, apart from eagles eating at bodies of dead kangaroos. Stop at sandfire roadhouse, bought two souvenir magnets which are now on the fridge of our kitchen – I was very disapointed as we came back home as I realized that the inside of my European Patrol has no magnetic place where I can put it).

Had another stop in Port Hedland to buy a new sleeping bag for Cathy, who found these provided from the car rental co definitely too thin, had a look at the mining railway museum and then hit the road again to Karratha, where we overnight in a Mercure Inn.

Day 12 Last leg of the Broome / Coral Bay travel. Nothing more than the day before.

We had booked a room in an hotel (I think the only one in Coral Bay), where we intended to stay for four days.. Nice place, nice people. We definitely like Australia, so that I even think of settling there for my retirement (still five years to work!!).

Coral Bay is definitely a lovely place, very quiet, with fantastic views. The people there remind me of my young years (the sixties), when we all wanted to be hippies and travel to Katmandu. They are only forty years older (unfortunately, the same applies to me).

Day 13 Coral Bay.

The reason why we wanted to stay in Coral Bay is diving (not for me, for Cathy – I already told I don’t like water). So, on the next day, Cathy embarked on a diving boat with all her gear and I took the troopy in order to discover the surroundings.

At first, I drove south on the dunes to have a look around. After approx. 2k, I got bogged in the sand. Nobody in sight, so I had only to help myself. Deflated the tyres something more. Did not work. So I had nothing better to do than to dig one of my spare wheels and winch, which proved successful.

Only after I drove back to Coral Bay, I realized I had been something stupid: maybe I would have been unbogged without winch if I had engaged low range. Nobody’s perfect.

Had a nice drive up to Ningaloo station, visiting the beaches, encountering kangaroos and wonderful flowers.

Day 14 Another diving day for Cathy (maybe she adds her comments after I am finished with this report). Another day visiting the south side for me. Emus this time, in addition to Kangaroos.

Wonderful sunset with a bottle of red.

Day 15 Cathy did not feel fit enough for a third day diving, so that we spent a lazy day in Coral Bay.

In the afternoon, we had the idea to have a look at the reef from above. So we chartered a small plane and had a very beautiful tour. We could see the reef very precisely from above, including humpback whales and mantas.

Day 16 Our last day in Coral Bay.

For Cathy, snorkelling with the Mantas (her comment:….).

For me, Yardie Creek run (I always keep the best for the end), which was a very nice trip, with Emus, Kangaroos, goats, sheep, etc..

I crossed Yardie Creek without problem after I had deflated the tyres because of the sandy banks. Yardie Creek Crossing was actually closed, but I had been told from a shop owner in Coral Bay was only that a lot of people get bogged there, because they do not know about the basics, and I thought it could not be that I had travelled 20.000k for stopping at this place.

Apart from this, the closing proved to make sense after I saw four young guys from the big cities bogged with an hired Cruiser without even a shovel .

Here I have to thank all my Aussie and European friends who gave me a lot of useful advice about bush driving.

STILL TO COME (PART 2)

Day 17Coral Bay to Mt Augustus
Day 18 Mt Augustus to Meekathara
Day 19 Meekathara to Laverton
Day 20Laverton to Warburton
Day 21Warburton to Gilles
Day 22 Gilles to Ayers Rock
Day 23 Ayers Rock to Alice
Day 24 Alice
Day 25 Alice to Daly Waters
Day 26Daly Waters to Mary River Rdh (Kakadu NP)
Day 27Mary River Rdh to Yellow water
Day 28 Yellow water Jabiru
Day 29Jabiru …..
Day 30 …. Darwin
Day 31Darwin Singapore Paris

10.400 k without a flat or a breakdown – ½ liter oil and an an air filter.