Summer Trip 2006
Submitted: Monday, May 22, 2006 at 01:55
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Member - Eric P (Int)
Hi, all,
I am coming to
Cairns on July 22 and will have then 24 days to travel around with the beloved Troopy.
I think either of driving to
Cape York, then back to
Normanton (shortcut Musgrave RdH/Dunbar HS), then Gulf Road and back (approx 6.000 k incl. sidetrips), or of driving a bigger loop including some desert tracks, i.e.
Cairns /
Normanton / Gulf road,
Daly Waters, Top Springs, Lajamanu, Tanami Mine, Tanami road till Stuart Highway, then Sandover or
plenty highway.
I already have some practice in outback driving (20.000 k of unsealed roads in Oz).
Who could give me a piece of advice (I know, I will drive a lot of k, but can you imagine you might travel to Europe (I come from France) and then visit only Switzerland or Belgium)??
Thanks in advance.
Eric
Reply By: Member - Dedalus (SA) - Monday, May 22, 2006 at 08:07
Monday, May 22, 2006 at 08:07
Summer trip??? Here is winter!
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Follow Up By: Member - Eric P (Int) - Tuesday, May 23, 2006 at 05:08
Tuesday, May 23, 2006 at 05:08
Sorry mate, I have to switch
Cheers
Eric
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Reply By: Member - Oldplodder (QLD) - Monday, May 22, 2006 at 08:19
Monday, May 22, 2006 at 08:19
Eric,
I think you are very optimisitc trying to do the big loop in 24 days.
Not sure where you have done your 20,000k in Oz before. If you could give us a clue we could give more of a comparison in travelling times.
1st,
Cape York, we had 3 weeks (21 days) out of
Cairns for CY and most were one night stops. Depending on road conditions, and this year it doesn't look to good, you will only average 60km/hr on the good roads, and maybe 20 to 30 on the poor roads.
2nd,
Cairns to
Daly Waters and back via Gulf- allow 3 weeks too, without CY.
PS - We often do 1000k of bitumen in one day (12 hours), and have done
Weipa to to the tip in one day via the old telegraph line (14 hours),also we have done in a Kombi, Munich to Hamburg in one day, or Monaco to Pizza in one day via the coast B road (at
Easter!), or Paris to northern Spain (Victoria) in one day via B roads (long day that one) to give you an idea of our travelling times. From memory we drove north through Switzerland in 6 hours. Now, if you want to take your time to see the sights, that is a different matter :-). We did double back for Switzerland, and we did 40,000k over 7 months in Europe.
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Follow Up By: Old Scalyback & denny - Monday, May 22, 2006 at 17:48
Monday, May 22, 2006 at 17:48
goodday oldy
eric and his wife are regular vistors both to oz and on here he comes to eo for advice on a regular basis before they come to look at more of our great land and he has a very
well set up unit for travelling in oz
steve
FollowupID:
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Follow Up By: Member - Oldplodder (QLD) - Monday, May 22, 2006 at 19:07
Monday, May 22, 2006 at 19:07
Thanks Steve,
Not trying to have a go at Eric, just trying to understand his experience.
There is such a range of 4wd experience around, finding common ground is sometimes hard.
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Follow Up By: Old Scalyback & denny - Monday, May 22, 2006 at 19:42
Monday, May 22, 2006 at 19:42
goodday o/p
if you type in eric p some of his trips and qs should come up he did a lot of ks last year and if i remember correctly a lot ot off road i will have to check his notes myself but i think he came in a line from
shark bay to uluru????????56 and my mind wanders start thinking about others trips and i want to get going myself but i have to wait till july bloody work keeps getting in the way
steve
FollowupID:
430009
Follow Up By: Member - Eric P (Int) - Tuesday, May 23, 2006 at 05:12
Tuesday, May 23, 2006 at 05:12
Hi,
Not that much experenced: GRR and sidetrips, Western deserts (Gunbarrel..), etc..
Thanks for the advice. When I build my roadbook, I allow (sorry for my miserable english) 60kph on gravel, 40 kph on regular tracks, and even less depending on the info I get about the trecks (see Exploroz trek notes)...
Cheers
Eric
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Reply By: Footloose - Monday, May 22, 2006 at 09:32
Monday, May 22, 2006 at 09:32
I travelled to Europe in winter for 5 weeks and only saw parts of the UK. That was quite enough :)))
Yes there are a lot of k's between
places here. But often it's the journey, not the destination that counts.
Take it easy, don't schedule yourself to death. As someone posted, the Cape will be very slow driving this year.
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Follow Up By: Member - Oldplodder (QLD) - Monday, May 22, 2006 at 10:49
Monday, May 22, 2006 at 10:49
Footloose,
Know what you mean.
Arrived in England in Feb, had a few weeks catching up with rellies.
Headed to Paris, after 2 weeks of rain, decided to head south until we got some sunshine. Drove through France and Spain and ended up in Cadiz in southern Spain after 2 1/2 days of driving. Was about to jump the ferry to Morocco! Rest of the trip was great as we followed the warm weather coming in as we headed north. Revisited a few
places.
The difference in France and those northern countries between summer and winter is amazing.
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Reply By: Old Scalyback & denny - Monday, May 22, 2006 at 17:51
Monday, May 22, 2006 at 17:51
goodday eri
how are you going
a question for you
do you bring your troopy each yaer or do you leave it here or do you hire a troopy and put all your gear into it
steve
just being nosy as you spend so much time here
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Follow Up By: Member - Eric P (Int) - Tuesday, May 23, 2006 at 05:19
Tuesday, May 23, 2006 at 05:19
Hi,
I use to hire a troopy from a small family run company in
Adelaide (if I would bring it from Europe, it would have the wheel on the wrong side ..) - including roof tent and basic equipment (tools, spares, compressor, saw, etc..). I bring my own laptop, GPS, UHF, Satphone etc.. i.e. all my luggage allowance is only Outback equipment, and I bring some basic clothes as cabin luggage (better dirty and unbogged than clean and bogged).
I am considering buying a small house in QLD (retirement). If I might do it, I would have my own troopy in Oz.
Cheers
Eric
FollowupID:
430103
Reply By: Member - Oldplodder (QLD) - Wednesday, May 24, 2006 at 17:50
Wednesday, May 24, 2006 at 17:50
Eric,
Checked with a couple of friends that have done CY in 2 weeks from/back to
Cairns.
They didn't do as many side tracks as we did.
for example, didn't go into lakefield national park, and didn't go into
Weipa.
Also, only had one or at the most 2 full days at the tip, so missed out on catching the ferry over to Thursday island.
Both did the side road to
iron range national park and chilli beach/
portland .
Trust that helps.
Both cases it was late in the season and creeks/ rivers were not up too much.
Wish you a good trip.
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