Andamooka to Farina track

That's correct Willie,

$25- is payable at the Post Office or Mobil Servo at Andamooka.

We travelled across there just after Easter and the track was quite okay. There were some soft patches, cos it had rained not all that long before; but nothing to worry about. There are some minor sand dunes to cross at the Andamooka end. Best to let your tyres down (we were down to about 22psi).

Be warned, the sign for the turn-off is a bit hard to see!!. After leaving Andamooka, going up past the BIG BUS etc, make sure you take the turn off to the left that says "AIRSTRIP". There is a sign there too that says "FARINA", 2 in fact. The proper one on the sign post was pointing direct towards the ground (and we didn't see it) and there is another one on the left on an old bit of corrogated sheeting (but we didn't see that one either). We went straight ahead (cos we didn't see the sign) and wasted about an hour or more farting around, trying to work out where we went wrong. (Annette was getting quite upset with me and the others, as she "knew" we'd missed a turn.

When we were going past the Mulgaria homestead, a bloke in one of the station's utes (a Nissan Patrol BTW....hahaha) stopped our lead vehicle for a chat and was much friendlier once we indicated we knew it was private property and that we had indeed paid our $25- per vehicle. Prior to that, he had been a bit surly...."Do you realise this is private property?" type of thing.

All good.........

Cheers

Roachie

Forgot to add.......

Make sure you drive up to the Lake Torrens lookout for a "look" (hahaha, what else?) and also take the short trip in to the edge of the lake itself; but don't drive on the salt .......

goodday roachie
would you get a normal caravan thru there or just the 4b with camping gear

steve

mate this mobile bigpond is sh hot i am sitting in the van at in laws place

No steve you would not get a van in there, in fact some of the creek crossings on that trip you wouldnt get an off road van through very easy, it is an stoney drive only suitable for 4wheel drives with clearance and off road trailers/campers.

Cheers Pesty

G'day Steve, Looks like Pesty's beaten me to it to answer your question. For once in his life, Pesty is correct!!!!! ;-))

thanks people
would like to do that trip 1 day so will have to be prepared to leave the van

steve

Thanks Doug, I actually DO have a Garmin GPS II, but I have three fifths of five eigths of an idea how to use it properly.

I keep saying that once "they" (whoever the hell "they" are), come up with a fool-proof nav system that doesn't require me to understand how to load raster maps and then get oziexploroer to "talk" to my computer in a language that both/all of us can understand.......THEN .... (and only then) will I be comfortable with this electronic mapping stuff.

I wanna be able to buy something that I plug in and it immediately comes up and tells me where I am, anywhere in Australia, without me having to fart about with all this software chit. hahahaha

Roachie
Your a lost cause , an old contancrious Crow Eater,......and I'm not tellin' I was born in Adelaide,.hell no I don't want you to know that.

Roachie
the Nuvi range will do just that turn it on and away you go

Okay, thanks Doug....I just Googled "NUVI" and found out what you're talking about. Looks to me like it's one of those bloody contraptions that talks you and tells you (in a yank voice) to "TURN LEFT IN ONE HUNDRED METERS" etc etc. Whilst I could live with that, I didn't see anywhere in the blurb on the various sites, as to whether or not it has all the remote-area maps included (eg: the track from Andamooka to Farina etc ). THAT is the sort of preloaded stuff I'd be insisting on.

My vision of the system I'd buy is one whereby I could be blindfolded, choppered out to the middle of nowhere with a GPS and dropped off (not from too high in the sky hopefully). Upon landing, I could remove my blindfold, turn the "gizmo" on and zoom in or out, so I could see exactly what part of the country (ie: at full zoom in one direction I would see a map of Australia with my position marked accordingly) I was in. Let's say it shows my position is in SW Qld. Then I could gradually zoom in to see in closer detail what towns are within cooey of me; what tracks I could head for etc etc. Right up to the point where I could see what dams might be only a few hundred meters away from me etc. Just like looking at a paper map, only better.

Roachie
I done a demo for ya
Site Link It will show you the zooms that you could get on the GPS the maps on the site have been chopped to make them smaller, the zoom on the GPS is constant where on the PC it's in sections.
the 2nd 10klm photo is when I switched to T4A software which must be purchased and installed into the GPS , you the turn of one and turn the other on , all very simple , even this old 64 y/o prick can use it

You could have dropped him off further away. ;)

Patrolman Pat

Nah bugger him, he forgot his water and he's over 256klm from Birdsville, plus I dropped him from a good hight and snapped his knees, ....crawl ya ba$ted''

Okay, I gotta admit.....that is the kind of set-up I'm looking for. Now all they gotta convince me of is that I can walk into the Garmin shop and say "I want what Doug's got"........ (and for them to give me the gizmo already to go.....no loading flamin' disks and other associated bulldust that'll only end in tears!!!!hahahaha)

Roachie .....you made it back , hows the knees,

Ok when you buy a Nuvi it is ready to go and will have most tracks on with in reason, if you want more you can do things, get T4A from here.... www.gpsoz.com.au/oztopo/ on this

OZtopo CD and preloaded 1GB SD card - A$209 inc GST and free delivery
Preloaded with all of Australia
Highly recommended when using OZtopo with nuvi (300,310, 660 etc),

Or carry a paper Map and loose it in a big F###EN Willy Willy