Around Australia in a Land Rover

[Iain_U1250]

The rest of the Gibb River Road

We left Mornington around 10:30am, and did not get very far before another puncture, same tyre as the last two - it must be cursed.



This time the tyre went down quickly again - so I thought that the patch had come off. We are getting quite good at changing that tyre. Ten minute later we were back on the road.


We stopped at Imiinji Road house, and to "Over the Range" tyre repairs. He used a pair ot "tyre pliers" to get the tyre off the wheel, made it look easy - something worth getting I think as the R&R beadbreaker struggled to get the tyres off when I was practising. Turns out it was another puncture nothing wrong with the patch. The tyre repair took about half and hour, but we stayed chatting to the owner for while. All the gorges were now closed - there is a very large fire and they won't be opening again until 16/09 said the notice.

We headed off to Windjana gorge to stay the night - the camp ground was pretty crowded, but we found a nice spot and set-up camp.

We decide to visit the gorge, just as the sun was going down, as the walk is pretty short, and we were hoping for a quick getaway the next morning.


It is a pretty big place, and there are crocodiles !




There are loads of fresh water crocodiles, right close to the bank as well. Not a place to go swimming.




We had a torch, and were the last people in the gorge - just fine for a quick photo shoot of the day




We walked the trail back carefully as the sun set - watching for crocodiles. We unpacked the minimum, , and got ready for a quick departure the next morning.



We ot up before sunrise and were on the road quickly. We stopped off at Tunnel Creek, we had expected a little tunnel with a small creek, but were pleasantly surprised, the creek is quite big, and flows for about 500m under the mountain range. We were the only ones there, except for a couple parked up in the car, still asleep.

We grabbed a torch and camera and headed off. First thing we saw about a quarter of the way along was a very large crocodile in the water.



That freaked Trish out, and she stayed really close. We came to a break in the roof - perfect for a photo shoot. . It took a lot of persuasion and convincing for Trish to cross the little bit of water.




The gap in the tunnel roof created a magical backdrop, and we got some great photos - really nice having the place all to yourself for half and hour.




WE had just finished, when we saw the otrch lights of other people coming up the tunnel. A whole tour group had arrived. We heard that there was some Aboriginal art on the far side of the tunnel, so we set off again, by this time another couple had caught up with us.



We were just heading out when I spotted some orange eyes in the darkness - two crocodiles on the sand, about 5m in front of us - , now what! As I tried to get a photo - they both ran pretty quickly into the water. So we carried on, joking about who was the smallest and the slowest but did not see any more crocs..

We found the Aboriginal art - it was pretty high up on the rock. Then we headed back into the tunnel. hard to believe a whole river comes through there, it must be pretty spectacular during the wet season..


The other side of the tunnel was just as spectacular in the early morning light.




We left Tunnel Creek and headed south, off the Gibb River Road and onwards to Broome.

 

[Iain_U1250]

I am finally caught up with trip report so far - we have been sitting at a camp ground called "Bully's Camp" and we have a good internet reception, and almost the whole camp to ourselves. There are five other guests ( two couple, and an old man) Jeff who runs the show is a rough character, but seems a decent bloke. The camp ground is rough, but we prefer it by miles to a caravan park. We have the best spot, under shady trees and away from everyone else. Trish is lying on the lounger asleep, with just a fine almost transparent net shirt on.as I am writing this.

We got to Broome around 3:00pm on Friday and went shopping. First we had to find some tyres, as we don't like our chances with the rear ones on the Anne Beadell highway. not with three repairs on it. We didn't expect much luck finding a 255/85R16 here, but the tyre shops were not very helpful at all. We will try phoning up Carnarvan and getting some sent their so we can fit them next week. on our way to Denham, if they don't make it there in time, we at least have another week in Denham to wait for them.

Then we looked ofr a WiFi hotspot device, so that Trish can use the internet at the same time as me - she is pretty far behind in her blogs, says I don't let her use the internet, I think it's because she types so slowly. Then we stocked up on milk, a few essentials.

The Land Rover needs a service - 90,000km. I have all the parts, oil, filters etc. All they need to do is check it over and do the work because of the warranty. We booked the car in for next week Tuesday, then headed out to the camp grounds north of Broome that we heard was great form other travellers.

Seems like everyone else had heard about them as well - there were people everywhere. We finally camped up in a spot between two other people. The guys on one side had the floodlights up, the footy on the radio, and bratty kids running around fighting with each other. Still they were their first.and since we had internet connection ( pretty sporadic and slow) we did some blog updates and checked emails.

We got up before sunrise, and I didn't even try t be quiet, just made breakfast and then we packed up. The campsite was not even worth getting the camera out for. It seems there is some festival in Broome for the week, and accommodation is scarce and expensive, as well as that it was Friday, and the people in Broome seem to head up their after work to camp and fish. We headed out around 7:00am, up the road to Cape Leveque

We stopped at the Scared Heart Church in Beagle bay, where the local parishioners decorated the church with mother-of-pearl. It is being restored at the moment, but it was really special.



We headed up to Kooljaman on the very tip of Cape Leveque - it was very nice, but way too commercial for our tastes. Another El Questro - the camp ground was a typical caravan park, with sites right next to each other. Why when they have acres and acres of bush, do they have to squash everyone into one small area. We though about taking a beach shelter, but they had none available, despite their website having spot which we could have booked online. We had coffee and cake, and used the time to check the other options. One with sound just right for us was Bully's camp. We headed back down the road, and found the turn-off, one of those o "if you don't know about it you will miss it turn-off. We drove on a very sand track, hoping it was right and a few km in, came up behind a Land Cruiser, bogged to the axles in sand. The only way to pull him out was to get past him on the softer sand on the side. Low range, first gear, and the we went around him no problem, much to his surprise. We got out the snatch strap, and he tied it to his bull bar, I had visions of a bull bar coming through the back window, but I looked and saw it was welded to the chassis - the front of his car would come off before the bullnbar did.



We snatched him out no problem, so that is three Toyotas, on Mazda and two Nissan to the Land Rover.


We arrived at Bully's Camp, and we were the only one here for a while, then another two couples arrived They have a boat, and are here to fish, so we doubt we will see that much of them.

We had the whole beach to ourselves in the afternoon, it is great being out here, just the two of us. We took off our clothes when we got on the beach, and didn't bother getting dressed until we were almost back at the camp. There are some great rock formations, with some really special rocks that look like raspberry swirl ice cream - we are going to take a sample home with us for our fish tank. At high tide, the only way to reach the next cove is to clamber over more rocks.



We also did another photo shoot on the beach of course



Trish decide it was time to introduce our travelling companions:



Ernie the Emu, from Undara, QLD - joined us on Cape York Trip
Collin the Camel, from Boulia, QLD - he joined us on our Diamantina Lake Trip
Craig the crocodile, from Lake Argyle, WA - who joined us on this trip.
Their job is to sit in the back and generally annoying Trish by falling on her on bumpy roads. She has taken to tying them to the cargo barrier so they stop attacking her.



We spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing on the beach, and taking more photos. Then we watched the sun go down.




If you like privacy and not to fussed about amenities, the Bully's Camp is the right place - you just have to be able to find it.

 

[mandingo]

Looks awesome so far! Thanks for posting.

 

[McZippie]

Enjoying your trip report.... Thanks for sharing!

 

[jackkent]

I enjoyed reading your trip. I love all the places that you visited specially the waterfalls and the sunset in Gibb River campsite. I am happy to know that your wife, Trish is recovering now. It seems that she was not diagnosed with breast cancer since she is very active. Enjoy yourselves guys.

 

[Iain_U1250]

She has had five reconstruction operations over the last 18 months, but has made a great recovery. The past month or so has seen a great improvement, physically, but more importantly, mentally. She is getting back to her old self now, enjoying life and really living, not just going from one doctors appointment to another. I can recommend a trip like this to anyone, it has really worked for us.

 

[Corvy07]

That is one awesome trip and adventure. One day I will also have mine like this. Inspired!

 

[Iain_U1250]

We did one last photo shoot at Cape Leveque, before packing up and heading south. I think Trish looks amazing in white, especially in the late afternoon sun.



The rocks around the area were just fantastic, the whole area is full of them, so we took a few home for our fish tank



We had one more drama before leaving the camp site, around 2:00am, a car arrived towing a boat. They had just left their camp site due to a bushfire and were desperate for a place to stay. They set-up camp right in front of us, took them about an hour before everything went quiet again and we we able to get some sleep. We left at 6:30am the next morning, and had to pack up quickly as we had to make Broome by 10:00am to get the Land Rover serviced.

We make it in time, even found 5 minutes to wash some of the dirt off the car. We were surprise that the garage did not have any place for us to wait, so we took our camp chairs out and sat in the shade on the forecourt. I had to explain a lot of things about the service, we had all the parts, and the oils and just wanted the "Oil Change Service". I was pretty worried when I had to show him where the bonnet catch was, and explain that the oil filter was this little paper element not the large fuel filter. SInce he did not have the right bleeding tools and the service did not need an air or fuel filter, I decided to do that myself, as both can be tricky if you don't know what you are doing. On and a half hours later, the car was ready. I think most of the time was him trying to read up about what he has to check, Still, the log book was singed, the oil changed and everything was good.

We spent the rest of the day doing washing and buying a nice peal for Trish, then watched the sun go down on Cable Beach

The next day we packed up (after giving the Land Rover a much needed wash) We headed down to Cable Beach again, ( to the "Clothing Optional" section) and spent the morning relaxing.

Just as we were about to get our clothes on, I saw a Unimog coming down the beach. I grabbed the camera and took some quick photos. I imaging what the people in the Unimog would be thinking at this naked couple taking photos and waving as they drove past. No wonder they didn't stop.




Our last photo before we got in the car and headed south.




Finding a place to stay for the night proved difficult, we stopped at on camping site near the road, and found a place away from everyone else, but before we could unpack, the huge motor home parked right next to us, and he had a massive air conditioner and generator on the back. I did not fancy listening to that the whole evening so, we drove off, looking for a place to camp. However, they don't like bush campers once you head south of Broome, and the road is fenced with locked gates everywhere. We eventually found a disused track without a gate, and headed about a kilometre up, there was nowhere to pull off, so we just camped on the road.




We left at sunrise the next morning, heading to 80 Mile Beach. We drove onto the beach, and headed a way up from all the other people at the camp ground. Trish spent the morning collecting shells, she has quite a stash now. She found some good shells, and was pretty excited about this one.


The beach was very wide, but the tide came in really fast. You could actually watch it moving towards you, so we headed out long before we got stuck.



Our next stop was Port Hedland. I worked on the wharf in the photo below in the mid 1990's. 9 months in Port hedland, whilst Trish and the kids stayed in Melbourne. It was a very rough town on those days, and a very difficult project. I left Melbourne in September, got home for a week at Christmas, then again home for a week at Easter. It was a tough time for both of us.





We stopped at a park next to where I stayed - the park did not exist when I was there last, it was just a vacant lot with a swamp at the end. The Sandflies were pretty bad. Now its a great little park. T wrote all her postcards to South Africa whist we waited for on of the big ships to come in.
We could see the ship entering the channel from a long way off, so decided to wait until it passed. They come in at quite a speed, with three tugs attached. THe are pretty big ships, they have pumped out all the ballast to get read for loading.




Next stop was Point Sampson, where we lived for a few months in 1997 when I was working on the Cape Lambert Wharf extension.



WE went to see our house we rented - right on the beach front. It had not changed much in the 16 years, but Point Sampson did, it used to be a sleepy village, now it is very touristy. We made a 50km detour to go to Point Sampson to have fish and chips from Moby's - it used to be a real good fish and chip shop, fresh fish from the fishing village at Cossack every day,. There were photos of all sorts of people who came to have fish and chips. When we got there, it had turned into a tavern, the fish and chip shop was closed ( opening at 5:30) and had a special on pizza's. There is a big project on at Cape Lambert again, the caravan park has been taken over by contractors. There were four large trucks in the parking lot, truck drivers drinking in the park so we went for a walk on the beach.,



We walked on the rocks around the headland, and did a quick photo shoot for the book, we were out of sight of the park, but close to the road, and in full view of the houses, but since everyone was at work, and Trish has decided she does not care if someone sees any more, she stripped off and we took some great photos.

As someone started down the path to the beach, Trish calmly got dressed again. It is great to see her so comfortable with herself again.




We left Point Sampson, and head back up the North Coast Highway to the Millstream - Chichester National Park, heading for a camp ground on the northern side of the park. However when we got there, that camp ground was closed, and th sign said to head for Millstream camp ground 56km away. The road went through some great countryside, which were were hoping to do in the daylight, but the moon rose early, and we found some magical spots to tsake a few photos. We will have to go back there during the day.



We met a young man at one of the day use areas, he was travelling by himself, and had the same problem, he also thought the camp ground was open, but he decided to camp at one of the lookout, he only had a swag and a ute, so was pretty low profile compare to our rooftop tent. We got to one campground, after a 15km drive only to find it was completely full, We turned around and headed to the next camp site - only about 2km on the map, only to find the road was closed - if crosses the river, and no doubt someone got stuck to often so they close it. Now the camp ground was about 20km away now by road,and it was 7:30pm before we got there.

 

[Iain_U1250]

When we got there, there was only one other car, so we set up camp as far away from them as possible, and after a quick snack, went to bed.

We woke up at sunrise, but stayed in bed until it got warm enough to get up.



It got warm pretty quick, as there was no shade whatsoever. We made some coffee with our Nespresso machine, which has been a great thing to bring along. It draws a fair amount of current, and I think the wiring supplied with the inverted was a bit thin, as we get a 1V drop when the Nespresso is drawing full power of around 1300W, but the battery system seems to have handled it OK. We need to run the engine if we are doing more than four coffees. We can't run the Nespresso and the milk frother at the the same time, as it draws too much current.



The two guys left early, so we had the whole place to ourselves. It was nice and warm by then, and we had not showered for two night,s so we parked next to the barbecue area, made up a pot of lamb stew using the hotplates there. It cooked the whole day in our Ecopot. We then heated up some water and had a nice hot shower out in the open.




We left Millstream only around 10:00am, after all the showering and cooking was done. We filled up at Panawonica, the whole town is run by Rio Tinto, even the servo had people wearing Rio shirts. Diesel was cheaper there than at Port Hedland.

The road from Pananwonika to the highway was pretty decent, and we found what Trish was looking for the whole trip - the Sturt Desert Pea. I had to do an quick stop and reverse so she could take photos of this little plant almost on the road.




On the turn off to Panaonika, they had a large excavatro bucket - ideal for another photo shoot, . The intersection was pretty busy, so Trish had a sarong to cover up when the cars passed, we got caught out by one truck through, judging by the enthusiastic blast of air horns as he passed, we had not heard him coming, mistaking him for another truck driving away. Trish said it was a fun shoot, very exciting hiding form all the cars and trucks.




We headed south again, looking for a place to spent the night. The road was completely fenced and all the gates locked. So we headed up a dirt road, there were no fences on the road, so we found a drainage ditch that headed off the road by 20m of so, just past a pretty steep dune, we drove another 30m through the bush. There was no grass or anything, the had loads of goats on the property, and tey had eaten everything. We don't like camping on private property, but had no choice that night. We don't leave anything behind except tyre tracks and footprints, so we don't feel too guilty. In the middle of the night Trish woke up as she heard voices, we were worried it was the farmer looking for us, but it turned out to be the CB radio, I had left it on.



We had the roof top tent down before the sun came up, and were on the road shortly afterwards, heading south againt to Carnarvon, to stock up and hopefully replace the rear tyres before we continue the rest of our trip.

We had ordered the tyres at the Beaurepairs in Port Hedland, they were getting sent to Carnarvon but they were not sure how long ti would take. So we planned on going back to Carnarvon before we headed out early next month. I decide to call in to say hello, just to confirm we really wanted the tyres, and to our surprise, they already had them and could fit them in an hour or so. We could not get any BF Goodrich KM2 - no stock on the west coast in our 255/85R16 size with is pretty rare, so we had to go with Maxis 762 "Bighorns" The have a good rating in the reviews, second to the BFGs in most tests. We had to wait a bit for the tyres, so drove around Carnarvon for an hour, bought a new blanket as it was getting pretty cold at night this far south. The three punctures in the left rear tyre were all right next to each other., I don't think it would have lasted the rest of the trip.



The other rear was was also pretty cut up.



We hung around the workshop as there ws no where else to wait, Trish causing a distraction as usual.



With new rear tyres fitted, we are ready for the next part of the adventure, so we set off south again. We came across a look out - a great place for our daily photo shoot



Two other cars arrived as we were just about to start, so with strategic placing of the Land Rover between us and them, we did a quick guerilla photo shoot that we have gotten quite good at, then we hit the road again. We headed off to Denham, to join up with out kids for Trish's birthday and our 25th wedding anniversary where we will renew our wedding vows.

 

[mike morrison]

The centre of your tyres look pretty eaten up - are you not running your tyres too hard?

 

[Iain_U1250]

I've been running around 30-35psi in the rear on dirt, considering we have almost two tons on the rear axle, I'm a bit afraid to go much higher. I have a tire pressure sensor in each, and the rear rises by around 10 psi when hot, and run at 60 degrees Celsius. If I drop them much lower, then they get even hotter - 65 degrees plus, On the tarmac, I run 50psi cold ( tyre placard says 60 psi loaded, 48 unloaded in the rear), which gets to 60 psi hot but temps are stable around 58-60 degrees.
Not sure how hot I can run tyres, but above 60 degrees seem high ( air temp are ofen above 40 degrees though.

Open to suggestions though

 

[charlieaarons]

Iain, my rear tires on the U500 will run up to 45C above ambient, based on the pressure rise:
delta T =( (delta P)/(am P + 1 bar)) x (am T absolute).
am P = 95psi delta P is up to 19 psi
so delta T can be 50 C with a 25 C morning temp, or 75 C total.
I use as a rule of thumb for my 95 psi heavily loaded rear tires (8000kg) 1 psi temp rise = 5 F temp rise.

Actually, using the formula, if your am P is 35psi then a 10 psi rise is a 20% temp rise. Assuming am T of 25C, that's a nearly 60C temp RISE - more than my tires by 8.5C or 15F.

I find on dirt roads and offroad when I drop the pressure the decrease in speed more than makes up for it and my temps don't get as high as tarmac.

Charlie

 

[graynomad]

You didn't throw those tyres I hope, they were rough but had plenty of meat on them.

 

[Iain_U1250]

Hi Rob, I left them at the tyre shop as I don;t have space to carry them back home, one had two large patches and a plug, within 200mm of each other and I was a bit afraid of it getting destroyed beyond repair next time. The other I would have used as a spare if I had the space.

Thanks for the advice everyone, I'll drop pressures a bit more, and see what happens to the tyre temps on the next leg of the trip, anyone know how hot you can run tyres safely?

 

[philco]

Great thread.

Interesting trip, especially liked the part of gove, we were up there in 09. The wife is not too keen on anymore trips so far from Gold Coast, took us 4 days solid driving to get to gove and we did most of the track in the dark.
Good to see another AULRO member here. Glad your wife is doing so well.