Just Keep on travelling: 4 Wheel Driving

Showing posts with label 4 Wheel Driving. Show all posts

Monday, May 27, 2013

Our passengers arrive 25th May 2013

We are heading from Melbourne to Townsville leaving Melbourne on the 25^th May and need to be in Townsville by the 8^th June – this is just fourteen days. We have always wanted to travel one of the real outback routes but last year as we travelled we had the caravan and this wasn’t possible and we didn’t want to leave the caravan behind and then have to do the return trip. After a few enquiries about whether it was possible to travel from Melbourne to Townsville, via the Simpson Desert in the time we have, we decided this was an option for us. We have some 4000 kilometres to travel and will travel in the Patrol and have our Black Wolf tent for accommodation.

We have travelled many thousands of kilometres with the occasional visitor passengers. This time Peter extended an invitation to his young 13 year old nephew, Connor from Frankston in Victoria and our two grandsons, Jake aged 9 and Timothy aged 8, who live in Ohinewai in New Zealand to accompany us. Surprisingly the boys accepted the invitation and their parents supported it.

So on Saturday Jake and Tim had their first big adventure on their own – travelling unaccompanied from Auckland to Melbourne. We made sure we were at the airport in plenty of time to meet them and were very relieved to see them walk through the arrivals area. Well done boys – the staff member said that they were very well behaved and polite on the flight.

We were staying in Kensington and later in the evening Sandra, Richard and Jordan brought Connor over. Now all our passengers have arrived – and all their gear! It is surprising how much room three extra passengers and their gear take. We normally have the back seat area for the tent etc but not this time – it will be a challenge to get it all on and in the Patrol. Two weeks, 4000 kilometres, long days in the car, home sickness and new adventures are all ahead of us.

Wednesday, May 22, 2013

Our plans for travelling north

After two very comfortable periods of house sitting in Melbourne (with a few days with family and friends as well) it is nearly time for us to leave the cold of Melbourne and travel north.

Our plans are to leave Melbourne on the 26 May and initially go to Mildura, then into South Australia and make our way to the Oodnadatta Track. We will pass through Parachilna, Blinman, William Creek, Oodnadatta and then on to Mt Dare and Dalhousie to enjoy the warm springs. From here we will really feel we are in the outback by travelling west to east across the Simpson Desert to Birdsville.

From Birdsville we will visit the outback towns of Bedourie and Boulia (shame the camel races are not on when we pass through) and then to Winton to again see the dinosaur museum. Continuing north to Hughenden, passing through Charters Towers we will eventually arrive in Townsville in Far North Queensland.

We normally travel with just the two of us but this time we have some passengers. We have invited Connor who is our 13 year old nephew who lives in Frankston in Victoria. One boy was not enough for us, after all he may get lonely, so our two grandsons, Jake and Timothy from Huntly in New Zealand will also travel with us. Jake and Tim who are only nine and eight respectively, will have their first unaccompanied flight to Melbourne on Saturday and then together we will commence the 4000 kilometre journey north.

In about three weeks Connor will fly back to Melbourne from Townsville and Jake and Tim will fly to Auckland from Cairns. We have many adventures ahead of us all before then. There is a lot of dusty and sandy roads to travel, the cold then the warmth, 1000 sand dunes to cross as we travel the desert, tents to be erected and taken down, dishes to be done (!) and bound to be the favourite - the Aussie flies and hopefully we don't encounter up close too many other Australian wildlife. As and when the internet is available we will update the blog to share the story. Watch this space!

Thursday, June 21, 2012

Stuck on the road to Cape Leveque

We continued our journey back to Broome - there was no evidence that the
grader had been through a few days before and we bounced our way along the
corrugations. There was a bit of other traffic on the road - a few outback
caravans heading to possibly Middle Lagoon (as no caravans are allowed at
Kooljaman Resort), camper trailers and four wheel drive vehicles. Most
people are cautious on these roads, and drop their speed but inexperience is
always a problem.

We came around a bend in the road and saw a car and camper trailer stuck on
the side of the road. We pulled up to offer what assistance we could. The
lady was sitting in the car and her husband was busy digging and the body
language said it all! Apparently he had pulled over to lower his tyre
pressures (shame he hadn't thought about that earlier) and pulled into the
soft dust on the side of the road and couldn't move. He was busy digging
himself into holes and was very keen to get his yellow tracks which he had
borrowed in place. Without help he wasn't going to get moving so we thought
a tug was the best possibility. However another traveller soon stopped who
had a winch and with that he was able to be pulled out of the soft and back
on to the road. Hopefully he learned a lesson not to pull over into the
soft edges!

Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Finke Gorge National Park to Alice Springs

Cycad Gorge, Finke National Park

We stayed at the National Park camping area and on Thursday morning, 22^nd September, we drove the further four kms to Palm Valley. The track continues on from the camping area with clear signs that high clearance 4wd was necessary – we had thought that was the case coming into the park but clearly the road was going to be no better.

The cycad trees

We soon learned – there are rock shelves alternating with gravel and then deep sand. The GPS showed us driving up the river bed. We passed two vehicles that had gone as far as they could and the occupants had parked up the vehicles and walked the balance of the way. It wasn’t hilly just tricky and required a driver with a level of experience.

Cycad trees in Finke National Park

Sand track into Finke National Park

The first gorge we came to was the Cycad gorge. These palms originate from Africa and are shorter than the Red Cabbage Palms found in Palm Valley. The Red Cabbage Palms found in Palm Valley are the only palms growing in natural surroundings in Central Australia. We continued on to Palm Valley and had the choice of two walks – we chose to take the Arankaia Loop which took about an hour. We had been caught the day before by a walk advertised as an hour that took more than two and again the temperature was in the mid thirties. We walked with a young family from Sydney who we have met at another camping area. Katherine and Andrew were travelling with their two children, Zoe and Kerryn. It was interesting to know that they had travelled Cape York with friends who were our neighbours for three days in Weipa – Craig and Ann and their children. There are a lot of people travelling Australia but it is amazing how you meet up with some again along the way. Again we have been surprised by the number of family groups travelling for quite lengthy periods of time.

Zoe and Kerryn took great pleasure in watching out for the orange signs so that we stayed on the correct walk and didn’t follow the blue signs for the two hour walk. The walk initially took us along the riverbank then up the side of the gorge and back along the rim and down to the information centre. The view of the palms was great and it was so unusual to see these trees in this setting. It was one of the most enjoyable walks we have done.

The GPS shows we are driving up the river

Time to walk again

The National Parks are well set up for visitors and on Thursday evening the local ranger came and built a campfire and provided information to the visitors on the park in general covering information on the palms, the wildlife, the management of the park etc. The Northern Territory Government have recently entered into an agreement with the traditional owners that Finke Gorge National Park, along with others, will come under joint management in the very near future. It is hoped that access and facilities in the parks will not deteriorate in the future. There was a lot of discussion concerning the current burning off and the smoke being generated. The rangers do conduct managed burn offs but the current fires are possibly the result of burning by the local people who choose to follow traditional methods. Currently the atmosphere is very smoky which is a shame as it is causing heath issues for some. Finke Gorge National Park currently has one relieving female ranger.

Info about the red cabbage palms

Peter looking at the palms

Friday morning we packed up again and made our way back up the riverbed to the main road into Hermannsburg. With a name like Hermannsburg it sounded as though we were going into a small town. We were soon to find out that this was yet another small Aboriginal settlement with just one general store. We were unable to take any photos of the town as there were signs saying “no photography” and the residential area was closed to anyone but locals. We can only say that this was because they would be embarrassed to have the world know how they live. The houses were very run down and nearly every house had at least one or more car wrecks. Hermannsburg was one of the early Central Australian towns where the Lutheran Mission established in the 1870’s. There is a historic precinct open to the public. Like all Aboriginal settlements there was also mobile and internet coverage which was good for us after four days of no coverage.

Time to walk

We continued on the loop road back towards Alice Springs however we noted that there was a 4wd track into Owen Springs Reserve. This was formerly a cattle station and the road links from the West MacDonnell Ranges loop road through to Stuart Highway. Although the route took us out of our way we decided we will take it and we might set up camp on the riverbed. The track was very similar to the Finke Gorge track. We stopped off at the ruins of the original Owen Springs homestead and also the bronco branding yards. A homestead was originally built in the 1870’s and the original wooden structure was replaced by a rock building early in 1900. There are now only the ruins of that building left.

Amazing rocks Finke National Park

As we passed the Lawrence Gorge we noted a young couple setting up camp – they obviously wanted peace and solitude! We continued on along the sandy riverbank and met up with two female rangers who were on fire watch. The fires were burning on the top of the gorge and they were concerned that they would come down into the park and be out of control. They warned us not to camp in the area due to possible evacuation. With that warning, we continued on through to the Stuart Highway and returned to Alice Springs and collected the caravan from the service provider. We are staying at the Stuart Caravan Park and it is good to be back in the comfort of the van, have power and water on tap – the washing machine has hardly stopped!