Around Australia in a Land Rover

[Iain_U1250]

Gove is a long way to go, and in our opinion, not something we would do twice. It was nice to say "We have been there" but it is not a place we would be going back to.

We had our 25th wedding anniversary on Tuesday, and renewed our wedding vows in the tiny little church on Denham, so now we are good for another 25 years or 1,000,000km whichever comes first

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.

 

[redneck44]

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?

I read an interesting article on tyre pressure a little while back, cant remember where though, the point was that running your tyres softer increases friction in the tyre and raises the temperature. You should run the tyres at a pressure where the temp doesn't increase more than about 5degrees, there are trade offs here though i.e soft ground would require softer tyres but you should also slow down therefore not increasing the tyre temps.
Here's a similar article
http://www.4wheelparts.com/tire-wheel-package-guide/tire-pressure-checker.aspx

Great thread BTW

 

[graynomad]

running your tyres softer increases friction in the tyre and raises the temperature.

True, even more so with tubed tyres.

soft ground would require softer tyres but you should also slow down therefore not increasing the tyre temps.

Which fortunately is usually how it works, you only air down when the going gets tough and therefore slow.

One exception might be corrugations, sometimes you air down a bit to soften the ride but you are still driving relatively fast. I've never had a problem but I can see that there could be.

EDIT: A rule of thumb used to be that if your tyre pressure rose up to 4psi from cold to warm that's OK. I see that article says 10% which is less for the average 4x4 tyre but close enough for the bush.

EDIT2: The 4psi rule is old, might refer to tubed tyres that would get a little hotter than tubeless.

 

[philco]

photos

I was showing the wife your photos, she was really impressed, as she is a budding photographer and did her first tafe course to learn how to use a DSLR a few months ago.
She is doing mostly studio work for her company, she is really impressed by the photos, and the way you find a point to focus on. I think the more i show her then i might be able to get her into the outback to do some photos, good excuse to go camping, you have really captured the outback. :camping:

 

[graynomad]

renewed our weeding vows

Man you take your gardening seriously

EDIT: Sorry philco, not like me to miss a compliment. Thanks, hopefully you can get her into the outback, I love it out there with 100s of miles and nobody around.

 

[corfuchris]

:26_7_2:

 

[Dan Grec]

Awesome trip and photos. I can't wait to get back to the home country one day.

Hi Samuel, the RTT is great, the only thing we did is we swapped the mattress for a self inflating one, way more comfortable and lighter, and it squashes down nicely.

What self-inflating mattress are you using?
Does it inflate pretty easily by itself?

Thanks,
-Dan

 

[Iain_U1250]

The self inflating mattress is a local home brand from BC stores, it squashed down quite easily, I just sit on top of the tent for a minute or tow, getting the ladder etc. When we open up the tent again, we just leave it to inflate, and do up the plugs when we are ready for bed.

 

[Iain_U1250]

Just a quick post to say that we have been to the very western most point of Australia, and have travelled halfway across the middle, I'm pretty far behind on trip posts, but hope to catch up once we get time to relax a bit - internet connection is few and far between, and when we did have some in Coober Pedy, we were in an underground hotel, so the WiFi did not work their either.

Just a few photos from the trip so far.

The "offical" westerly point of Australia.



A cave at in the cliff on Steep Point.



The real most westerly point of Australia



Fantastic scenery at Honeycomb gorge National Park



Place wreck 8km off the Anne Beadell. - great fun dune driving to get to it.



Neale Junction - Anne Beadell "Highway"



End of the Anne Beadell Track



Old spaceship in Coober Pedy



Taking a break on the Oodnadatta Track



I'll do a more detailed post on the trip once we get more stable internet connection, I'm doing this post in a parking lot at Copely, near the Gawler Rangers in South Australi.

Thanks for all the great comments, it has been a great rip and we still have two weeks to go, will end it at Byron Bay, the eastern most point of Australia.

 

[pangeo]

Hi Iain and Trish
Nice trip reports and good photography. We will drive from Brisbane to Perth next March and April so we liked some of the info.

cheers Andre
www.imaginature.nl

 

[Iain_U1250]

The saga continues at Denham, where we renewed our wedding vows and had a family holiday, so not part of this trip report, but here is a few photos anyway.





We had a great holiday, but having five other people around sure took a bit of getting used to. The wind and cold weather meant we did not get to use the boat as planned, after taking it 9000km across Australia, we have not used the outboard yet.



Then we repacked the car, stocked up on food and headed out to Steep Point, the western most part of Australia

 

[Iain_U1250]

Go West - but don't fall off the edge of Australia

The kids left us still packing the car, we had taken nearly everything out and completely repacked it for the next part of the trip - Steep Point, the most westerly part of the Australian mainland. It was windy in Denham and Shark Bay, so we expected it to be windy at Steep Point. We were not disappointed. The wind was howling through. We stopped at the Park Ranger's house, after a 140km drive, the first part really boring, and then you enter into the park, and the road becomes a narrow sandy track. The Park Rangers were really nice, we told them we had a roof top tent, and asked whether there were any camp sites out of the wind. They suggested we don't go to Steep Point camp site, but go to shelter bay, other people had packed up a day early so we could have a whole section to ourselves, it had a bit better shelter than Steep Point, but was likely to be very windy they said. We moved on determined to get to the end of Australia, and we made it. It was really windy as well.




We went for a walk along the cliff top, and came across a cave in the side of the cliff overlooking the sea. It was an ideal place for a photo shoot, and moving around, I could get the outline to look a bit like the map of Australia.

View attachment 190891

The cave face out to sea, and protected us from the wind. We spent about half and hour there, taking photos and looking at the sea. Occasionally we would get some sea spray into the cave, even though we must have been about 30m up. It was a great space, and we were going to watch the sun go down, but realised that we didn't have a torch, and the climb backup to the car was very tricky, with a lot of sharp rocks.

The night was really windy, the whole car rocking in the wind, we did nt get much sleep at all. In the morning, the wind had died down a bit, so we got the tent down quickly and decided to move further down the coast, to Cararang Station, so we packed up quickly. . It was also pretty cold, around 12 degrees and with the wind chill factor, really freezing. We both wore heavy jackets, jerseys and jeans for the first time since we left Brisbane almost two months ago. This is our camp-site, which would have been great if the wind was not so strong. Once the sun was up, and you found a shelter from the wind, it was actually quite pleasant, just shorts and shirt weather, but when you were in the wind, it was cold. The limited the photo shoots quite a bit.



Down on the beach was a bit sheltered, so we walked along the beach, collecting shells again. We have so many shells now, but these ones were really good, so we found the space in the car, hopefully they will survive the trip home.

I was looking at the map when were were deciding which place to stay the night, and noticed that the place where the sign was, is not the most westerly part of Australia, so we decided to make sure and head off to what the GPS shows as the most westerly part. And this is it - the most western point on mainland Australia.




The cliff is high, the wave pound into them and even though we must be 20-30m above the water, we could sometimes feel the spray. We of course did another photo shoot as Trish was out of the wind which was coming from the south, but then the wind picked up, and the sea got rougher, so we decided to move on, luckily we were gone when this wave hit the cliffs, as we could have been soaked and I would have been in big trouble.




It is a really weird landscape on top of the cliffs, with loads of rock pools. A lot of the pools have concentrated the salt. We grab some, and put it in a packet, fresh sea salt



Trish carried it to the car, which was pretty close to the cliffs luckily, it was a very rough track, full of sharp rocks and tight turns, but our trust steed made it easily.




Further down the coast, the cliffs are up to 200m high, next time we will try and see them, but we decided that we should head off down and find somewhere else to stay, preferably with less wind. There were a few high cliffs around here as well.




We headed back to the Ranger Station, telling them we were leaving early. They said to come back in March or April, that's when the wind stops. Maybe we will, but it will definitely be in the Unimog

 

[Iain_U1250]

Going East, on the way home now.
Getting to Steep point meant that now, we were basically on our way home. Trish was feeling pretty weird, very home sick and missed the kids, the cats and her bed ( probably in reverse order) We headed down back to civilisation, intending to stay at Cararang Station, we had contacted them and tried to book some dates, and got a reply saying, don't worry ,we always have campsites. We got to the station to find it deserted, "Back on Sunday" was a written on the gate, please pay at the box. Well it was Sunday, but maybe they were back the next Sunday. The sign said please camp only at the site you booked, but since we did not know if we had booked one, we decided to just drive around and see if anyone else was there. We went to three camp sites, and there were whole groups of people there, it was a long weekend, and the start of school holidays, We decide to bush camp instead, so we left Cararang Station, on the way down we saw a sign for Tamara Station - since it was close to the road, we decide to give it a try, and we were in luck they had a great camp site on the very end of the Station, down on the beach behind a hill which they said should protect. The sun was going down as we got to the camp. It was a bit windy, but we parked right next to a little tree, which helped shield us. We went to sleep just after sunset, the wind still made the tent flap a bit, but we were so tired that we slept through it. The next morning the wind had dropped a bit, and there was a great sunrise, except is was freezing, we both had our jeans and jackets on.




You can see how the roof top tent is pretty exposed - one of the main disadvantages.

Here is Trish making breakfast, in full Arctic gear



Once the sun came up, it warmed up pretty quickly, we set up our chairs on the beach, taking advantage of the sun to thaw out. We left pretty early, but only after doing a photo shoot on the beach, and another on the ruins of an abandoned outstation building. As long as Trish was out of the wind, she was warm enough, but she was really brave some time, and really cold as well. As long as you were in the sun and out of the wind, it was nice and warm. Then we headed off see the stromatalites at Hamlin Pools


These are the living fossils, responsible for making most of the oxygen on earth millions of years ago according to the signs. The reason they survive here, is because this stretch of Shark Bay is so salty, due to the high evaporation and lack of currents.




After some coffee and scones, it was off to Carnarvan to resupply and then on to the Kennedy Ranges National Park.

 

[graynomad]

On the Oz west coast it's only windy between early October and late September, the rest of the year it's ok.

 

[Iain_U1250]

Kennedy Range National Park
We left Carnarvan, a little after 12:30, after restocking all of our supplies. This was the last big town we were planning on visiting until Cooper Pedy - in nine or ten days time. We filled up with fuel and water, and headed east. We had a nice tail wind the whole way, and saw single digit fuel economy, which made a big change from the 40kph headwinds we had the previous days.

Kennedy Range National park was a pleasant surprise, we thought that being school holidays, and a long weekend it would be full, and we would be bush camping. We arrived just before sunset (again) and we met by the "camp hosts", They are a couple of grey nomad who live for two or three months at the park for free, in return they keep the place neat and tidy. These guys really took their duties seriously, as the camp ground was spotless, each site was raked and it even seems they picked up the leaves.




We talked to them about the various walks and things. They suggested we try Honeycomb Gorge, about a 5km walk in the morning, then Temple Gorge in the afternoon. Then, if we have time, walk up to the top of the escarpment. We took their advice, and set off early the next morning, and just as we got on the path, clouds rolled in from the west. It was so weird, on minute we were in nice bight sunshine, and the next minute, from behind the range came a cloud bank. Luckily it move on so quick as it came, and then we had real nice walking condition, it was warm, but every now and again the cloud would shade us for a bit.

The path was really well defined, and on the way back we discovered why. The camp hosts would walk the path each day, and pick up the rocks on the path itself, clearing it basically.



Honeycomb Gorge was spectacular. The rock was carved by rain and wind.



The detail in the rock was amazing.



We had passed a couple who were bird watchers, stopping at every tree and bush looking and listening for birds, and we met an old lady heading out of the gorge as we were going in. The ideal place for a photo shoot We got some of the best photos of the trip so far, it was a really great session.



I kept on running back up the track to make sure no one was coming, and we were lucky for almost an hour. We had finished our shoot, and were taking scenery photos when we heard the bird watchers coming up the gorge, point out every bird to each other on the way, it was pretty comical to listen to them.


We had noticed this strange scratching in the sand, then figured out that it was kangaroos digging for water. Clever little creatures, we dug a bit and there was water there, but we left that to the bird watcher to watch their birdies and kangaroos to come and get a drink.





We had seen some great rock formations all the way along, and the shard of rock, many of them hollow littered the place.





The rocks towered above us as we headed back to camp. The camp hosts said it was time to leave when you start seeing faces in the rock, and I could see a few in this one.



There were also large sections that had broken away from the cliff - hopefully this is a rare occurrence.




We had a rest, Trish falling asleep on the lounger whilst I edited some of the photos we did in the morning. Later on we did some washing and cleaning, passing the time in the shade until it started to cool down again. Then later in the afternoon, we headed off to Temple Gorge. It was pretty hot, and this track was nowhere near as well defined as the other one. You had to find the blue dots, which gave a hint at where to go, basically, up the gorge.

It was also great, totally different from the Gorges in the Kimberlies,




We did another photo shoot at the waterhole at the end of the gorge, but we had left it a bit late, and the sun was going down and we did not want to be climbing over the rocks in the dark.

We arrived back at the camp site and found out peaceful camp transformed into a noisy crowed place, four car/camper trailers had arrived, with loads of kids and crying babies. They parked close together, all around the communal fire pit, and basically took over the whole camp ground. Kids riding bicycles, shouting at each other, everything we hope to get away from by not staying in a caravan park. Then to make matter worse, another guy pulled up in his caravan, parked it opposite us,and without even unhitching his van, he started his generator and ran it until exactly 8:00pm - when the camp host asked him to turn it off.

We had planned to go up to Mount Augustus, where we had heard there was another quiet camp ground, but the whole lot of the new arrivals were also heading there. We decided to head off to the Laverton and start the Anne Beadell Highway a day earlier,