Perth to Cape York

Submitted: Saturday, Oct 22, 2011 at 10:00

ThreadID: 89690 Views:3955 Replies:4 FollowUps:10

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Mike & Amanda

Hi all,
We're leaving for Cape York on Saturday 31st March 2012, coming home to Perth around 18th July. We'll be travelling in our LC200 and Australian Offroad Campertrailer. The route may depend on the wet and how late and savage it is, however probably Perth to Alice via the Gunbarrell - we'll have another quick look around King's Canyon, Ormiston, Palm Valley etc before driving 'around' theOodnadatta track, Lake Eyre, up the Birdsville to Brissy for some trailer servicing and theme park fun for the kids. Straight up to Cape York - we'll tackle the easy bits of the Telegraph as we're keen on zero damage so we can get home...around the Gulf, Savannah Way, Kakadu, Darwin, Kununurra, Bungles, El Questro, Gibb River Road, Cape Leveque, Broome and then we'll probably head south via Telfer and Rudell National Park....not sure after that.
Thought we'd post this in case anyone is considering a similar thing. We usually travel on out own and it is difficult to find well equipped travelling partners with the same values and timing. We'd like to travel with another well equipped vehicle up towards Cape York if we can, but if not....love to hear from anyone who may be interested! Some details of who we are can be found on our web site - http://www.hseq.com.au/A_Holiday.html. We will plan this trip, but be totally flexible dependent on weather and how we feel. The kids will be 8 and 10, seasoned travellers and well behaved....
Mike and Amanda, Freo, WA.

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Reply By: Member - DickyBeach - Saturday, Oct 22, 2011 at 11:19

Saturday, Oct 22, 2011 at 11:19

Hi Mike,
I just tried to log into your website but got the following message:

Object not found!

The requested URL was not found on this server. The link on the referring page seems to be wrong or outdated. Please inform the author of that page about the error.

If you think this is a server error, please contact the webmaster.

Error 404

www.hseq.com.au
Sat Oct 22 00:18:09 2011
Apache/2.0.55 (Ubuntu) mod_ldap_userdir/1.1.11 PHP/4.4.2-1.1 mod_vhost_ldap/1.0.0

Cheers,
DickyBeach

Member
My Profile Send Message

AnswerID: 468320

Follow Up By: Mike & Amanda - Saturday, Oct 22, 2011 at 11:52

Saturday, Oct 22, 2011 at 11:52

Hi DickyBeach,

Thanks for alerting us to the wonky hyperlink.

I'm not sure what has happened there. I'll try the link again here:

http://www.hseq.com.au/A_Holiday.html

This should work (I hope) - if not follow the links in the signature block..

Thanks again...

FollowupID: 742557

Follow Up By: rainbowprof - Saturday, Oct 22, 2011 at 16:16

Saturday, Oct 22, 2011 at 16:16

hey, good series of photos and blog. Good trip!

FollowupID: 742577

Reply By: vk1dx - Saturday, Oct 22, 2011 at 12:32

Saturday, Oct 22, 2011 at 12:32

Great drive.

But you missed an ideal opportunity to cross the Simpson. Why?

Interesting FT 857. We run the old FT707 and an IC731 as well as UHF & VHF.

Phil

AnswerID: 468332

Follow Up By: Mike & Amanda - Saturday, Oct 22, 2011 at 12:48

Saturday, Oct 22, 2011 at 12:48

Hi Phil,
We'll poke around the edges of the Simpson when we're at Birsdville, however the main objective is Cape York. Four months may seem like a long time, however I'm sure it will fly and be over before we know it. We'll save the Simpson, Canning etc for purpose trips in the future. I'm wanting to spend more of my time in the tropics this trip. The rest of the places are really 'en-route' rather than destinations to explore, more to look at on the way.
The FT857 is a great radio, although I hardly use it any more. It has been replaced with a sat phone. We got sick of the aerial falling off with vibrations, so we only screw it on if we want to chat or find out what's happening or a bit of skip. It's also a good back up. The UHF is always on and we have three hand-helds to track children etc.

FollowupID: 742561

Follow Up By: vk1dx - Saturday, Oct 22, 2011 at 13:09

Saturday, Oct 22, 2011 at 13:09

Fair enough. I thought that was the idea. Four weeks. Thats cutting it close.

Re the OTL: From our trip you should be okay on all the crossings. It may be a little early so ask as you get closer. Gunshot can be difficult with trailers but there is a long detour around it. The northern section wil only trouble you if the creeks are deep. Again asg the locals.

Maybe only do the top half of the OTL this trip. Then you can tell the family that you have to go back and do Frenchmans, the rest of the OTL, the CREB and a long drive on the Starckie. Why not!!!

Phil

FollowupID: 742564

Follow Up By: Mike & Amanda - Saturday, Oct 22, 2011 at 14:56

Saturday, Oct 22, 2011 at 14:56

Hi Phil - thanks for the information. The trip is four months not weeks.
We'll do all of Cape York but will not do the ridiculous parts of the OTL and Creb. We have nothing to prove and have no wish to damage equipment, so will take the bypass where necessary. The main intent is to site back and enjoy the location with two well stocked fridges ;-)

We're OK on crossings with diff breathers, car bra and 3 inch lift.

Thanks again!

Mike

FollowupID: 742570

Follow Up By: vk1dx - Saturday, Oct 22, 2011 at 15:42

Saturday, Oct 22, 2011 at 15:42

We also gave Gunshot a miss for the same reasons.

Four months!! Where on earth did I get "weeks" from.

Extending the diff breathers up high was a good idea. What about a snorkle. We crossed Nolans when it was just lapping the top of the bonnet. With the fans tied up, snorkles and having diesels (three family 4.2TD's) were able to just cruise/bubble through. Some petrol utes and traybacks had to be pulled out first.

Catchya

Phil

FollowupID: 742573

Reply By: CSeaJay - Saturday, Oct 22, 2011 at 20:51

Saturday, Oct 22, 2011 at 20:51

Mike, Amanda

Each to their own but if you are doing all this trouble to go to Cape York, I would recommend ypou do more than just poking in and out of the easy bits of the OTL. I would suggest that you do the whole OTL. There are three crossings where you may do damage:
1) Palm Creek. However, if you take your time to investigate, pick your line carefully, you should be able to get down into the creek without any damage. It is steep , thats it. The other side will be difficult to get out with a trailer, due to being muddy and you may not have traction. But if you are willing to be gently snached up (towed rather than snatched) you can gently and with zero damage get up.
-) then you will see the magic going north, the crystal clear creeks, etc.
2) gunshot. Yes give this a miss, but simply take the bypass. it is only 12 km or so, generally fast road (60km/hr). Get in on the north side, head the 5 mins down to have a look and a laugh
-) from ther, with care you should go all the way to Nolans.
3)Nolans can be deep and lets face it some are just unlucky, and the consequenses can be such that you need to cut short your stay. FRully understand if you give this a miss. but at least go up to the creek crossings say just south of the log bridge.

I hope you enjoy the trip! Try not to sit on the boring bypass road all the time. Honestly, once I was there and I did more damage to my car on the bypass road! Shaking on the corrugations, flying rocks of other cars, both took their toll. On the OTL, by just getting out and inspecting the crossings, picking a line etc. you can crawl through with zero damage

CJ

AnswerID: 468363

Follow Up By: Mike & Amanda - Sunday, Oct 23, 2011 at 08:37

Sunday, Oct 23, 2011 at 08:37

Thanks for your advice CJ. We'll play it by ear depending on the weather. If we had a wet like last year we might spend our time visiting high ground ;-)
The vehicle is capable of decent water crossings - even though it is a petrol it has as snorkel. A water bra lives in the trailer with a trusty supply of CRC . We have a little more clearance from a lift.
But in the end as a risk engineer it will all come down to likelihood and consequence - we want to finish the rest of the trip...
Thanks again!

FollowupID: 742626

Follow Up By: BrownyGU - Sunday, Oct 23, 2011 at 23:22

Sunday, Oct 23, 2011 at 23:22

CJ, Mike and Amanda,

We have just recently returned from a Cape trip towing a Goldstream, I was pretty keen to do some of the Telle track, and headed in from Bramwell Junction (heading North) until we got to Palm Creek, there was no way i was going to attempt it with a trailer of our size, it's probably 150mm wider than the Patrol, and it would of copped a flogging trying to get through, worth a look and make up your own mind, as it's only a few k's in.

I hear what CJ is saying, in regards to picking your line and taking it easy etc, but in my opinion, there's no "picking" your lines as such, there is only one option to get through as far as I'm concerned, and mother nature and other 4wd's have decided that for you, I spoke to plenty of smaller type soft floor campers that got through though.

What ever way you go....... You'll love it.

Cheers....Browny

FollowupID: 742693

Follow Up By: Mike & Amanda - Monday, Oct 24, 2011 at 07:17

Monday, Oct 24, 2011 at 07:17

Thanks Browny - recent first hand news is worth its weight in gold! Glad to hear you had a great time. Your advice is appreciated and I agree with your sentiments - it is the condition on the day that will influence decisions - chicken track or not :-)
what was the Cape like this year after the big wet? Many of the 4WD and Camper Trailer mags are describing Kimberley roads closed until July with huge inundations of water.
Thanks again
Mike

FollowupID: 742699

Reply By: Member - Joe n Mel n kids (FNQ - Saturday, Oct 22, 2011 at 22:15

Saturday, Oct 22, 2011 at 22:15

Hey great web site, can i ask how do you make one, we would love to do the same as we have been doing it on facebook but of course it gets lost in time and we have a lot of freinds asking for the photos and "story"...
Cheers
Joe

AnswerID: 468367

Follow Up By: Mike & Amanda - Sunday, Oct 23, 2011 at 08:33

Sunday, Oct 23, 2011 at 08:33

Hi Joe and Mel,
We buy a web site domain from iinet, although I think a lot of ISPs will provide free web space. A number of software programs will help you produce web pages and many include the ability to template photo albums. I use Dreamweaver, however this is quite complex and there are easier and free programs available on the web.
Amanda is a scrapbooking person so produces those pages using a scrapbooking program - you could probably do the same in Word. She then converts them to JPEGs and we uploads them to the web site using the right hyperlinking. The uploading program is also free and called Filezilla.

FollowupID: 742625