travel time

Me again Liz......It depends on when the once a year grader has been through. You could probably do that journey in 5 hours depending on the road surface and bulldust patches. There are also 7 Rivers and Creeks to cross and depending on which time of year you are travelling and the amount of traffic on the road these things all slow you down.

Thanks Willem. Must just be you and me tonight I reckon!

Thanks Cocka sounds like amust have for my library. Funny how those new replies can appear while I'm typing another. I obviously need to move faster!

"5 hours, eh?
would that be a 5 stubby trip or a 10 stubby trip ?"
response by Rick of SA.

I now believe I know why the press is pushing the line that 4WD's are dangerous and roll over easier than cars!

Liz - We've done some testing and had various technical discussions with the programmers of the MDS system which provides the map data interface to Travel Mate. We were initially looking to purchase the facility to draw the maps for our treks - the problem is, the data is INCORRECT, or MISSING for most dirt roads. So, if you simply enter 2 town names, the route given is not always the shortest distance (ie. which may be the most obvious and practical in real terms along an easy dirt track) but due to the data restrictions show you results for a round about drive all over the world to get there, hence the discrepancies you see in timing and distance.

Just a tip for when you use Travel Mate - never rely on the quick distance calculator as you don't know what route the system is basing the calculations on. Always use the 3rd option box down that will draw the route and give the driving directions for clarification. I've used the system extensively and marvelled at how it is better to break up a trip into specific shorter sections to force the system to calculate the route you want, otherwise you get some very strange results.

Don't get me wrong, its a wonderful system, but beware of the data pitfalls.

Hi there Liz,just been through my log sheet from our trip up there last July. We left Kingfisher camp at 0830 arrived at Hellsgate at 1010,left there 1050 arrived at Borooloola at 1520 and we stoped talked, had lunch etc.The road was not too bad, the last 50k was pretty corrigated, on our retutn it was graded and we took us 5 hours, I had started to look around, next time I will take 5 days as it is great country and a lot to see. Hope you have a good trip.
Bruce