Looking for an EASY 4x4 holiday

I have done a 2 day course, it covered basic beach driving on the Saturday and then bush driving on Sunday.

yes it is only basic, but not knowing anything at all about 4x4's I did learn quite a lot.
I am looking at joining a club, but I would prefer a club that actually has days that are designed to teach newcomers and not just come and join.

Most require you attend x amount of trips and meetings, so it trying to fit in with those dates that is the hard part.

With a little, hesitation I would say that any club associated with the Australian National Four Wheel Drive Council, Four Wheel Drive Australia would suit your needs.Australian National 4WD Club

Our own club, the Southern Tablelands 4WD Club (ST4WDC), has a basic training course of three days, spread over two weekends, covering 4WD driving in general and topics such as safety, first aid, communications, how a 4WD really works, winching, basic 4WD maintenance, and the all important recovery and self relaiance. Sand driving and water crossing as well as advanced and extreme courses are also available. In our club the you must attend and pass the basic course to join any club sponsored drive above category 1.

By all means join a club. Both my wife and I have backgrounds as an unrestricted Army driver including a Recovery Mechanic and my wife wenton and won many Rallys including the Redex stuff. It wasn't a waste of time and a good introduction to aspects we had never even considered.\\Phil

May I add that I was thinking that you wanted to really "go remote", but after reading further down I see that you just wanted quiet places and not so "out in the desert" on you own stuff.

But please still consider the training before going remote on your own. Too many have fallen by the wayside by just buying up, hookling up and heading off into the wild.

Phil

We are not going into remote areas, that won't happen until we have joined a club and have gained a lot more experience. It also won't happen on our own, I would like to join one of those tag along trips some time though, it may be a good way to meet people.

philldeb
Must say that my first thought was the same as Rob's - they should do driver training, especially as they are going alone.

And BTW:
* I think you'll find that they are looking for camp sites, not sights.

* Rob suggested driver training, not traning.

* the name you used - Dintkhead - that's just plain rude and unwarranted. Me thinks you might be one of those yourself.

* your reply did not enlighten the OP one iota.

My apologies to the OP however being from the east coast I can't really help you much with first hand experience - have you had a look at the Treks section on this site. There may be a trip in there that suits your needs.

ps, it would be perfect in May/June with cool days, campfires allowed.

Just perfect.

Thanks very much, I will have a read.

I how long did it take you and what are the camping spots like?

We only had 5 days. You could take twice that and add in a few more places to explore. There's a lot out there.

The campsites were very good. Well laid out and some had facilities (Beringbooding Rock had a flush toilet supplied from that big tank). There were other campsites that were just clearings in the bush (Talgomine Rock). Billyburning Rock was sort of in between those two.

The tracks are good. The history is great. The granite rock outcrops are an explorer's delight.

Thanks a lot, it sure looks like it would be a good trip. If it took you 5 days then we will have plenty of time.

I wouldn't mind seeing if there is a round about way to get to Kalgoorlie through that area, even if it meant heading a little further north and then swing east, we have 2 weeks and can always just follow the highway back to Perth.

There is. If there's a way you can give me your email address, I'll give you details.

I can't send PM's, because I'm not a paying member.

Never mind, I just signed up, I will send you a PM

Got the PM.

I'll put together some suggestions.

Cheers

Looks like a nice drive for a novice. Sorry but that's the impressions that I got from the original post. Not a bad idea.

Phil

Thats exactly what we are, novices :) and the info provided by Go Bush is what we are after for now.

This is a great route - Gone Bush knows what he's talking about. Enjoy yourself.

Thanks for the suggestion, I have ordered some books, Camps 7, 4wd Days in the Goldfields and a couple of others, as well as the Hema DVD. I just need to get some good paper maps as well.

You are welcome and keep in mind to keep it simple to start. A good map book will suffice to start and after you have worked out what areas you wish to explor further ... then get topo maps for that particular area.
It does take time to sort yourself out, too much - too soon, will lessen the enjoyment and add unneccessary cost. Every time we head bush, we learn more, research more and look forward to returning to an area!!

If we can assist further, please contact us through the Compact 4WD Club link, we are not members of Explor OZ though we do appreciate David & Michelle's promotion of 4WD Clubs.

We look forward to seeing you out on a track ......sometime soon.

Cheers,
Wayne & Sally.

We intend to take things easy, the Dmax is our only vehicle and as such we can't afford to have it off the road.
We are not into anything really rough or extreme and I will not do anything I have to think twice about.

Once we find a club that suits us, then we can try something a little more adventurous in the company of other more experienced drivers.

For now, I think the trip info provided by Go Bush will suit us quite nicely.

If anyone has any tips etc, I'm all ears :)

Agreed another great suggestion here by Wayne & Sally.

As a new member check out the trek notes on our site - you can down load the GPS routes free and we have an eastern goldfields loop that is such a wonderful journey.

Thanks Michelle,

That maybe the one to do on the way back from Kalgoorlie, folow that back to Coolgardie and then back to Perth.

Thanks very much Alan,

I have to figure out how to use the user tracks feature, when I click on the above, open user trek, it just displays a map with all of your treks overlayed. I can't seem to see that particular trek.

Am I doing something wrong?

Hi evaredy,

There was a problem with the system, so you were not doing anything wrong.
Try again it should be Ok.

Alan

That's better.

Now I can have a good look at them, thanks.