Hi All
Just joined this great site as I've been reading it over a couple of day's now and have found it to be a fountain of information and the first hand knowledge and experience an invaluable resource.
We have just in the last week decided to plan a trip from
home here in
Cairns up to kulumbaru and then over to
Derby and from there taking a round about sort of way back
home again which is undecided as yet.
So far the plan is
Cairns >Townsville >Tennant > Dunmarra over to
the Tanami track and then north to the VRD
Timber creek area before heading up to Kulumbaru for a spot of fishing camping etc and then on to
Derby and from there?.
I am wanting any and all tips or advice , things to see or experience, routes or alternative ones, equipment list's *, camping/
fishing spot's, prices, any or anything you might suggest.
At this stage there are me and Jo my partner, and our two ruggy's 7 & 3 yr old girls and her brother a mechanic in two vehicles planning to leave in mid June for a two month round trip. We will be purchasing a 4.2 diesel patrol wagon for the trip with a TD42 engine and the brother inlaw will be in a 4.2 trayback model. Possibly another two vehicles yet to be confirmed
Jo and myself did the GRR in an old 88 L series Subaru wagon back in 2000 and have wanted to be back in that country ever since but, I guess things are a hell of a lot different on such a trip with
young kids and the trip will need a lot more planning/preparation this time round. We all grew up in northern N.T &, QLD and have a lot of rural/bush experience but I know from experience that a bit of planning and a lot of preparation can count when it matters.
Thing's like Jack O having a set of wheel studs on board for many many years before actually needing them or being able to entertain a four year old for five hr's on a corrugated dirt road when the taco tells you that you are going twice as fast as you actually are ( if you can solve that one I want to invest now).
This is the sort of advice we are after, The sorts of problems you either do or do not expect, what I mean is you expect kids to try and take each others eyes out with texta's after a while in the back but you do not expect all five wheel bolts to shear...I think.
So please anything, suggestions , things to see,
recipes, entertainment, out of the way camping spots, spares, tips, tricks, contacts, personal experience..... OH and while I'm at it , opinions please on swags/tent V camper trailer? SHMBO swears we need to have a camper trailer for the kids. I who does all the cooking and has to set up the
camp ( and catches the most fish and mudcrabs) thinks that they are an added cost and a hassle to set up and tear down while on the move and that the kids will not care about the Yowies,
Rainbow serpents, scorpions/spiders/centipedes/insert any other thing that could crawl into a camper trailer tent anyway and that the room could be used for other things, opinions please.
Sorry for the long first post but as Big Kev would say " I'm excited". We are pretty
well set on a route till Dunmurra , I was considering the Wiso track from Tennant but it is apparently all fubar now and permits are not being issued does anyone know of similar alternatives?
Thanks for reading any advice you might have.
Jeff