gary junction rd

Did you take the van that's in your picture on the Gary Junction Rd? Just curious. Thanks. Megan

No as we were doing Gary Hwy; Connie Sue and Ann Beadell as well. Know of people who did pull a camper through, but they spent some time trimming branches/trees to widen the track to get through the Gary Hwy. However if we had been going to Port Hedland we would have taken the van. Cheers.
Tony and Nerida

Allan

I Like Lens quote.

I suppose the winch is only as good as the attachment.

Maybe he doesn't need one.

Cheers

Can't be sure that Len never needed a winch, but I do know that he did not have one during his Road Construction Party years.
The quote was from his retirement re-visit.

Ron, I'm sure Len would have known about "wheel-burying" and a lot more to boot. However he never had a winch on his Landcover during the construction years, although I do know of at least one occassion when he could have put a winch to good use.

The quote came from a trip he did as a passenger during his retirement, not in his own vehicle.

But an even more pertinent point is that, as you probably know, Len was a great raconteur and there were possibly no uprooted trees on that trip although possibly a winch on the vehicle inspiring just a good story.

Ron/Allan,

Only either had 2 work Landcruisers fitted with winches........seemed to be using them all the bloody time because I didn't bother to check for alternative "avenues". But they did have their uses.

Used to carry a bundle of pickets, if the going was wet, and found that about 3 of them would assist one to winch out of a moderate bogging.

As for the "bury the tyre thingy", never tried it, and not likely too, unless on a sandhill somewhere. Though the hole, once dug, might make a suitable grave, if one suffered a coronary from all that digging. :-)

Watched a video of Mick O's, burying the tyre.......lot of work, and better shared with a mate or two........

Bob

Bob - Yeah, we got taught the "bury the tyre" trick in the Green Machine, but the Sgts and Corporals always seemed to manage to find the soft ground, when it came to digging the slot! LOL

Never had much use for winches - as an earthmoving contractor, we always seemed to have convenient items such as loaders and dozers at hand when we got bogged! [;-)

Just had to teach the operators, you didn't push DIRECTLY on the body of the vehicle for de-bogging!
Ended up with a few damaged vehicles before we got that through to them!

Cheers, Ron.

Hyperlinks to Peter's photos. Note that they include deviations from the road.

Peter and Margaret Slideshow 1
Peter and Margaret slideshow 2

David, I have a series of photos of the road, but I am not permitted to give the link on forum. You can contact me privately.

If you go to Carawine Gorge, be aware that the flat area of stones are not as firm as they look :O. I recently told our story on a Facebook off-road caravanning group, but again I am not permitted to give the link here.

WA permits took us at least six weeks.

As Motherhen stated there is a short window for travel but I've never had anyone ask if I have a permit, let alone how long I've been on the roads.

Get a permit because the trip you do without one is the time they start asking.

Actually, Gary Junction Road is one of my favourite drives I've ever done. Big lonely road and great scenery.
We only passed 10 cars in five days from Alice to 80 Mile Beach, including the Kidson Track and none in the last two days.

Steve.

If you don't hit the road on the dates specified on the permit I wouldn't get to worried, do long as you weren't weeks or months out of the specified dates.
Its more a case of, I did the right thing and got a permit, if I was delayed a bit of bad luck, my intent was to do the right thing, you can't do much more than that is my thinking.

The road is now about 6 lanes wide and capable of an easy 100 kph if your so inclined.
The locals do the run from Kunawarritji to Alice in about 12 hours these days.

That's "so long" not "do long" :(

The lack of traffic means it does not get corrugated like the Tanami and Great Central Roads. A few corrugated kilometres close to the communities only.

Hardly six lanes wide if you look at my photos John, but easy driving, and I would recommend it any day over the Great Central for those towing a caravan.

We saw about two cars a day, and met a few others over our weekend at Jupiter Well. One day the car of the morning approaching flagged up down for a chat. He introduced himself by first name as place as we stopped. My husband said I know who you are; I'm XYZ. He had known the man for about twelve years while working in the same division, and he had visited us at home twice. No traffic while our side by side vehicles blocked the road as we shared a cup of tea of news. If anyone had come, I'm sure they would have joined us having a cuppa.

Shhhhh - if we tell everyone it will get like the Great Central in traffic and road conditions.

Not sure when you last travelled the road MH but when I did it in August 2014 the graders were going flat out to widen and improve the road.
Several spots like the area through Jupiter Well are much narrower.
Compared to what it was like when I first did it in 2004 its certainly one of the widest outback roads I have seen, heading the way of the GCR.

That sure is a lot of work John :O. It will soon get over use :(

We went in 2009 and some areas show in my photos as single vehicle width and others quite wide. At the time, once into the Northern Territory, the road was generally wider and better.