Short Lap

[Johnny Roadkill]

Hi all,

been AFK for a while - not easy to get time at the computer while I'm the primary carer for our 1-year old for the next 10 months ! However, my wife and I did arrange things so we had a few weeks off together and went away for a 6 week "short lap" of Australia to see as much as we could.

Briefly, leaving Adelaide we went north to Uluru, Kata Tjuta and Kings Canyon, on to Alice Springs, Tennant Creek and right at Threeways, then east to Townsville, south to Airlie Beach to take a tour of the outer Great Barrier Reef, further south to Sawtell to see some houses my grandfather built in the 1950's, then inland ( west ) to get home. Car ( sadly not a Patrol ), camper trailer and 1-year old handled the 9500km trip brilliantly.

We did do the Finke River 4x4 Track while we were in the centre, which was a blast. There's big signs at each end saying:
- minimum 2 cars ( oops ! ),
- minimum 2 spare tires ( does one for the car and one for the camper count ? ),
- experienced 4wders only ( hmmm...can't claim that one either... ),
- don't tow a trailer ( ah, um...oops ! ).

Anyway, we decided to have a look and turn back if it started getting too hairy - as it turned out the river wasn't flowing so the crossings were easy enough except for the main one which is big flat rocks with whatever smaller rocks have been shoved into the gaps since the last big wet. I was surprised how well the car handled it all ( a basically standard 2005 Mitsubishi Challenger with a 1" lift ) and the trailer followed faithfully, bouncing from one wheel to the other over the rough bits ).

A few shots from the trip below - won't bore everyone with a full travel-log !

ok, so it's just a small wheel lift - but we enjoyed it !



Just after the midpoint ( Boggy Hole - which is a nice permanent lagoon inhabited by flotillas of pelicans and where we met the only other vehicle on the track ) we climbed out of the river bed with plenty of right boot to keep momentum on the soft sand and then the track suddenly opens up and splits 3 ways - we both picked the left track and promptly got hopelessly bogged. Soft river sand in the afternoon sun, smallish tires ( with as low a pressure as we dared ) and a trailer left us sunk up to the diffs - 4 hours of digging and getting a metre or 2 further until nightfall ! So we flipped the camper open and spent the night next to a billabong on the Finke River, not a bad place to get stuck if you're going to do it. Next morning the sand was cooler and firmer and we got out on the first dig ( phew ! ). As it turned out the town we were aiming for the previous day wouldn't have been a great place to stop anyway - problems with disadvantaged folk and 2 metre high barbed wire fences around the caravan park !



Sunset at an old WW2 staging area we spent a night in just north of Barrow Creek - big concrete slabs left behind from a time when an invasion from the north seemed on the cards were a great place to set up a camper !



I'll try to keep in the loop on this forum when I can !
cheers,
D

[Esteban]

Excellent!

What a nice adventure and recount. Love the picture with the portable crib and your baby.

[RiverPatrol]

What an awesome family trip! Thanks for sharing.

[faux40]

That's awesome! That tent is super cool!

Two things --
1) My lovely wife has family in Adelaide (JB Wines in the Barossa Valley)
and
2) I'd be interested in tracking you on a map if you were so inclined to post GPS coordinates...

Have fun!

[Johnny Roadkill]

Hi faux40,

1) Hey that's pretty cool - the Barossa is a really nice area...there are 2 wine districts around Adelaide and we're in the other ( southern ) one near McLaren Vale. I'll be sure to look up JB Wines next time we head out that way ! Of course, I should fess up - I am anything but a wine buff, we just love the area...

2) It's been a year now since we got back, but here's the best info I have on the trip - the red pins on the map are from this holiday, starting in Adelaide and going in a clockwise direction. Some of the campsites have GPS coordinates already, the others shouldn't be too hard to find with Google Maps if anyone cares to...I had to edit some of the language for this upstanding forum



Night 1, Thursday, August 31,
Peterborough Caravan Park,
powered site 14, fine gravel, all facilities available, good value at $25/night, caught up with Harry and his mate Hans.
Edit: Harry is an old mate of my wife's, sadly no longer with us on this mortal coil - a great guy who lived a very interesting life after arriving in Australia as an 18yo from Austria...RIP bloke !

Night 2, Friday, September 1,
Lakesight Camp 1 (Wiki Camps),
10 minutes North of Glendambo,
sandy shores of dry lake, lots of sites, bit windy but nice spot even when lake is dry.

Night 3, Saturday, September 2,
Erica's Camp (Wiki Camps),
10 minutes South of Marla,
roadside camp in red sand and fine gravel, bit windy, near highway and train line but not a bad overnighter, lots of sites.

Night 4, Sunday, September 3,
Curtin Springs Cattle Station,
powered site 2, coarse gravel, $40/night plus pay $3 extra for a shower and $10 to refill water tank, free bbq, smelly toilets, had locals fighting in car park, unpowered sites free and much better option, or better yet drive on to Yulara which looked nice if a bit pricey.

Night 5, Monday, September 4,
Curtin Springs Cattle Station,
same but no fight tonight.

Night 6, Tuesday, September 5,
Kings Canyon Resort,
powered site 43, fine gravel, all facilities available, great place even at $50/night, nice setting with views of East Giles Ranges, couple of dingos in park but no trouble, just keep food and rubbish secure.

Night 7, Wednesday, September 6,
Ralph's Roadside Rest Stop (Wiki Camps),
24° 35' 6.74696'' S,
132° 24' 37.56071'' E,
red sand, low trees and spinifex, only a couple of sites off the track, nice spot for an overnighter.

Night 8, Thursday, September 7,
just North of Boggy Hole,
24° 8' 14.1882'' S,
132° 50' 34.98317'' E
white riverbank sand along the Finke River 4x4 Track, beautiful location but not camped here by choice, spent 4 hours going 100m in soft sand and ran out of light so pitched camp on the track. Awesome track though, perfect to test our skills, our resolve, our car and our camper.

Night 9, Friday, September 8,
Swagmans Rest, Alice Springs,
friendly obliging staff upgraded our room, we showered and did washing, not bad but $115/night and it's a bit of a barbed wire compound like most places here.

Night 10, Saturday, September 9,
Redbank Woodland Bush Campground,
23° 35' 19.21121'' S,
132° 30' 46.09444'' E,
site 13, great bush camping at $10/night, red dirt and rocks, each site has picnic table, gas burners and bbq, firepit with cooking plate, long drop toilets nearby, few bees looking for water but gone after sundown.

Night 11, Sunday, September 10,
Howards Point Lookout,
23° 48' 16.92256'' S,
133° 10' 33.99568'' E,
elevated roadside stop with several sites, free, 24hr limit, red dirt and rocks, bins, firepits with cookplates, non-potable tank water and picnic tables, nice sunset views and camping, lots of dunny paper on fringes and some poop, ground too hard to dig and lazy ****ers won't walk 20m into the scrub to take a dump.

Night 12, Monday, September 11,
Ross River Homestead,
unpowered site, best paid site so far and only $27/night, grassy sites among gum trees with red cliffs as a backdrop, free bbq, water, flushing dunnies and showers, great people, historic homestead with restaurant and bar area made from old Ghan line bridge, pool, laundry, washup area, natural feel, fuel available, so good we'll stay another day.

Night 13, Tuesday, September 12,
Ross River Homestead,
same again but dinner at homestead, barramundi and dessert for $18/person at communal table with other guests and staff.

Night 14, Wednesday, September 13,
Barrow Creek WW2 Staging Area (Wiki Camps),
21° 18' 30.65198'' S,
134° 3' 30.50356'' E,
great overnighter, free camping among the ti-trees with large concrete pads from the old staging area to set up on and an ancient dry riverbed as a backdrop, lots of sites, a few hundred metres off the Stuart Highway, a bit windy but best free campsite so far.

Night 15, Thursday, September 14,
Barkly Roadhouse,
too windy to free camp in the open so $150 for a cabin, kitchen and bathroom but no utensils or crockery, lucky we did because Ethan is a bit off colour, will try to push on to Mt Isa if he's ok tomorrow.

Night 16, Friday, September 15,
WW2 Historical Site Roadside Stop (Wiki Camps),
20° 22' 24.2377'' S,
139° 15' 54.36504'' E,
free camping at roadside about 50km West of Mt Isa, plenty of sites, long drop toilets, fine gravel base and trees for shade, not bad for an overnighter.

Night 17, Saturday, September 16,
Sunset Top Tourist Park, Mt Isa,
unpowered site next to creek with afternoon shade, dirt with a little grass here and there, $26/night, all facilities including pool, pretty good park.

Night 18, Sunday, September 17,
Julia Creek Caravan Park,
unpowered site, flat dirt and fine gravel, good camp kitchen and brand new amenities block, $20/night, nice town.

Night 19, Monday, September 18,
Exchange Hotel, Torrens Creek,
powered site, flat dirt, basic and next to highway and train line, $25/night, trucks and trains noisy and some ****stick ran his truck generator most of the night - not recommended.

Night 20, Tuesday, September 19,
Coral Coast Caravan Park, Townsville,
unpowered site 71, nice flat site on fine gravel with all facilities nearby, RAAF flybys until 10pm, good camp kitchen, $25/night, good base for hanging out in Townsville.

Night 21, Wednesday, September 20,
Coral Coast Caravan Park, Townsville,
same again.

Night 22, Thursday, September 21,
Coral Coast Caravan Park, Townsville,
same again.

Night 23, Friday, September 22,
Coral Coast Caravan Park, Townsville,
same again.

Night 24, Saturday, September 23,
Queens Beach Tourist Village, Bowen,
powered site, large grassy site with concrete slab, all amenities, great park close to beach, well lit, very well laid out.

Night 25, Sunday, September 24,
Queens Beach Tourist Village, Bowen,
same again.

Night 26, Monday, September 25,
Island Gateway Tourist Park, Airlie Beach,
unpowered site, dirt site, good shade and amenities, bird feeding at 4pm, $35/night, close to beach and main street, not bad but amongst the backpacker crowd.

Night 27, Tuesday, September 26,
Island Gateway Tourist Park, Airlie Beach,
same again but backpackers now crammed in like a ******* music festival opening and closing car doors 50 times each while they take an hour to set up a 2 person tent...****puppets.

Night 28, Wednesday, September 27,
Fardooley's Bush Camp (Wiki Camps),
unpowered site, 20 grassy sites on a hilltop with basic amenities, hosts are awesome and put on a happy hour and nibbles every night, $12.50/night, great except for the ******* backpacker ********* rocking in late and making the only noise on site oblivious to everyone else...butt****les.

Night 29, Thursday, September 28,
Apple Tree Creek Rest Area (Wiki Camps),
free camp next to a park off the highway, dolomite base, toilets nearby, plenty of trucks going past but otherwise not bad.

Night 30, Friday, September 29,
Maroochy River Park, Maroochydore,
powered site 24, grassy site with mesh pad to set up on, good amenities and pool, nice place but $50/night is standard in Maroochydore.

Night 31, Saturday, September 30,
Danie & Kascha's place, Mullumbimby,
grassy site next to their studio with access to toilet, really nice spot overlooking paddocks with hills as a backdrop. Thanks heaps ! Caravan park wanted $72 for an unpowered site...***clowns.

Night 32, Sunday, October 1,
Sawtell Beach Holiday Park,
unpowered site, beautiful grassy area with plenty of room but no level areas, good amenities with new kitchen area on other side of park, can hear ocean and next to native bush lot, $40/night, very nice but expecting rain.
Edit: went and saw the 2 houses in Sawtell my father tracked down which are definitely ones his father built in the 1950s after they arrived from England...one is a bit run down but the other is obviously loved and gives me a feeling I can't really describe, quite a singular thing to see something significant and enduring your grandfather who you barely knew built with his own hands as a young man...

Night 33, Monday, October 2,
Sawtell Beach Holiday Park,
same again but raining.

Night 34, Tuesday, October 3,
White Lanterns Motel, Armidale,
motel room for a change, camper is a bit wet so will get further inland and dry it out, nice room, all the basics, $104/night.

Night 35, Wednesday, October 4,
Hickeys Falls Rest Area (Wiki Camps),
31° 25' 49.86847'' S,
149° 4' 1.89692'' E,
free camping at dry waterfall rest area, no toilets or water, only bins, flat bitumen site, pretty much full with caravans, some noise from the highway but not too bad, plenty of wildlife around including a 1m black snake.

Night 36, Thursday, October 5,
Bogan Weir, Peak Hill (Wiki Camps),
32° 43' 23.88788'' S,
148° 7' 40.49756'' E,
free camping, dry grassy sites beside the weir, heaps of room, trees for shade, quiet spot a few km out of town, recommended by Grant and Bianca who we met at Fardooley's Camp - thanks guys, not bad at all...Edit: apart from the name...

Night 37, Friday, October 7,
Sarah and Gus's place, Parkes,
a night in an actual house, great place, great company and a firepit bbq to boot, nice elevated rural block just out of Parkes with a kick **** shed.

Night 38, Saturday, October 8,
Hay Caravan Park,
cabin, pretty basic but ok for $75/night, all amenities on site and a pool, looking like rain tonight and tomorrow morning so made the call to stay indoors.

Cheers,
D

[faux40]

Wow! What a fantastic trip! Thanks for the Play-by-Play!

John