Hi Lyn and Al and family (Mrs Al & Al?),
Enjoyed reading your post of a few days ago with details of your trip.
Glad you folk enjoyed the rest of your trip and it was great to meet you at
Arkaroola - amazing how that ExplorOz sticker on the window helps with meeting people! After the windy, dusty caravan
park there, Rob and I had a great
camp on the
creek below Grindell's Hut in the Gammon's - a great spot.
Rob (my bro-in-law) and I also had a fantastic trip for 8 weeks:
Brisbane to
Perth via
Currawinya N.P., Sturt N.P, the Strzlecki Track, Maree,
Coward Springs (a great
oasis for a night's
camp and shower - no mozzies bothered us thankfully!),
Painted Desert,
Coober Pedy, the
Anne Beadell Highway (you've got to learn to love 600kms of some of the worst corrugations this country has to offer!) , Kalgoorlie,
Wave Rock..then
Perth,
Fremantle and the Margaret R region (and plenty of vin rouge) with our wives who flew over from the east for a week in the west,... then
Perth to
Brisbane via Great Northern Highway,
Newman, Talawanna Track (and some more corrugations just in case we had forgotten what they felt like!), into Rudall R. N.P. and Desert Queen Baths - a real jewell,
Gary Hwy,
Gary Junction Road, the Alice, the old Ghan Track,
Oodnadatta Track, Gammons and
Arkaroola, Strzlecki track, Coongie Lakes, Innaminka, Cullymurra
Waterhole, Noccundra pub,
Thargomindah and finally back in
my home paddock at Samford near
Brisbane.
All up about 13000kms, 2300 litres and nearly $3900 of diesel (dearest $2.90 a litre at
Well 33 on CSR!). The GPS track looks great when I load it onto Google Earth or onto the 1:250000 Raster map via OziExplorer. The Aussie Swag camper trailer was fantastic as was the '01 Nissan Partol 4.2 TD (apart from doing 5th gear just before
Perth - I've learned an expensive lesson not to use 5th on rough roads). Fantastic scenery and isolation across some of the great deserts in Oz, and we now have a much greater appreciation for the tremendous job done by Len Beadell and his GRCP team in opening up so much of the western desert country in the '50's and '60's.
Now I'm a member of ExplorOz, I must find time to do my profile, find a crazy name to hide behind and a pic of the Nissan Patol with the Aussie Swag camper! Bring on the next trip - think I'll have to retire as work is getting in the way of having 4WD touring fun (maybe this outback touring is an incurable disease).
CYA,
Ray