Mad that your odo is correct with 33s, must have a correction widget in it, mine is 8% low with 31s so will be like 15% low with 33s
Aussie BJ73 (1 Viewer)
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- #22
I think it's just luck. I don't know if you can on Toyotas but on Suzukis you can adjust the spring tension on the cluster, thus calibrate your speedo/odo. The clutsters are probably made by the same company.
Before the roadworthy test the thing I kept on putting off to the absolute end was my flares. I think the previous owner slid into a bank or something, both the drivers side flares were damaged with the rear being broken in half. I have 0 experience with fibreglass so this was a pretty daunting task.
The front actually had quite a bit of internal stress that was trying to twist the crack apart, it took a lot of force and cutting to get it to line back up.
The mounting hole was split in a pretty bad way too.
The bottom corner had a large chunk missing and also had a lot of internal stress.
I purchased a fiberglass repair kit from Supercheap Auto and set about making a mess.
The rear flare took quite some time to jig perfectly before I fibreglassed it. In the end I had a combination of hot glue, chop sticks and clamps to get it sitting right. I didn't take any photos of the work I did on it.
I made up a new bracket to hold the rear mudflap, the original was very damaged.
The flares took hours and hours of work to get right, though it'd be much faster next time. I used fibreglass reinforced bog (bondo) to get it all smooth. The paint was a total clusterfxxx. The Dulux cans I got came out with all sort of horrible grey splotches (bad batch?) and the other cans I got wrinkled on contact with the Dulux stuff underneath! The flares had been repainted before, very poorly and very thickly. Some of it was coming off. In the end I ran out of time, the paint is no where near my standards but I'll pull them off and fix them up again.
I'm very happy with the repair, you can't pick where they were broken. The paint lets it down but hey, it still looks better than what was on it before. Fibreglassing was actually quite easy, the part that took by far the longest was trying to get the paint decent.
I was up until 6am doing my flares and numerous other bits the day before my roadworthy test was booked. There was actually quite a decent storm for the 2 days before I had it booked in, I have no real shed so I got totally soaked! I drove the 80ish kms (each way) to the place and they said "hey sorry the guy who does the roadworthy tests isn't here today, you'll have to come back tomorrow". To be fair, he was at a funeral. So I went the next day and they wanted me to come again the day after because they were to busy! He inspected it that day and it passed with flying colours. Thank goodness for aerosol cans of degreaser!
He had this awesome cabinet of books with details on basically every car since the '50s. Some of you might be interested in this. I was specifically looking for a MWB with a higher payload to make convincing an engineer easier, but no such luck. Interesting numbers none the less.
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- #23
The speaker setup in the 'cruiser was a bit odd. The previous owner had put in an aftermarket head unit and wired it up to 2 speakers in a cupholder/speaker box thing he had made. This thing is a bit of a pain because it's very difficult to use the handbrake and you can't slide the passenger seat forward with it on. He hadn't wired the factory dash speakers into the new system.
Some time ago a chick at work gave me her old swift. I was pretty pleased to see it had some Alpine 4" speakers, the same size as landcruiser dash speakers.
Whilst I had my glove box out looking for somewhere to put my UHF (more on that later) I thought I would put one in. It took a fair bit of cutting a bending to fit. I had to space it back from the grille as the bling bit in the centre was hitting it.
I rewired the stereo (it had dodgy crimps ad some were just twisted and taped) and now the dash speakers and centre speakers are wired and honestly, the standard speaker sounded better so I swapped back to it, bugger.
I bought a Donaldson preceaner, it's the 3" top spin version. and are meant to remove up to 85% of dust before it hits your airfilter. These use a rotating thingymabob that ejects the dirt so you don't have to empty them like a traditional Donaldson. I live and mostly drive on dusty gravel roads. So I thought it could be a worthwhile investment, it was about $70 off eBay.
Fitted, being that it's winter here it's impossible to say how effective it is at keeping dust out of my filter. It's quite noisy, mostly induction noise. I guess the conventional snorkel head directs the noise forwards. It has a bit of a rattle to it under certain conditions. Ultimately I'd look at other options next time and try and find something quieter. On the plus side, it's probably going to sound good turbo'd.
As a reward to myself for getting the Landcruiser regoed I went to see if the Fishermans track to the mouth of Broke Inlet at Walpole is still open, luckily it was. It's normally cosed from May to December due to the track being flooded. It's a pretty decent length of track, probably 25-30kms from where you let your tyres down. All windy soft sand tracks, mostly in 3rd low.
There's a few old cattle drovers and fishermans huts along the way. Mottrams hut on the previous page, this very basic one and another in a pretty location on the edge of Broke inlet. There's many more campsites.
The inlet itself comes out to a small beach, very nice place on a nice day. They used to drive cattle down that cliff in the background. I work on a farm and I can't imagine getting cattle to do that!
I took a crapload of photos on this trip but my phone has been having trouble auto focusing, as you've probably noticed by my many slightly blurry pics (I normally take 5 or more pics of something and pick the best one). It's also always been rubbish in low light. After this I downloaded a camera app that largely fixed it, though it still tends to have trouble.
These people are lucky to have a very nice hut on the other side on the inlet, only accessible by boat.
The next day was much better weather and we went in the other direction and visited Beedelup Falls, not only a pretty waterfall but very pretty bush. We plan to visit again on a less busy day (it was a long weekend and we often have weekdays off) and walk some way down the river, it looks pretty spectacular.
Then we went down boatlanding road to the Donnely river, this was pretty average. There's heaps of paid campsites there but they're nothing special. We went on to Heartbreak trail which follows the Northen banks of the Warren river. This is a very pretty part of the country, especially in winter when the forest is looking good.
A few years ago I got my Jimny stuck in this river crossing. I walked it, planned out my line and then missed the line completely! Thankfully it's only hub deep, with some jiggling and rock stacking it came out easily.
My advice if you're a 4WDer looking to do hearbreak trail (which you certainly don't need a 4wd for, it's commodore friendly), get to the other side of the river. Heartbreak trail is very over managed/tourist money eater and the campsites are average, the other side is not managed at all and has several 10/10 old school campsites on the banks of the river. There's also actual 4wd tracks. Hopefully not to long and I'll be showing you guys all that.
Thanks,
Hayden
Some time ago a chick at work gave me her old swift. I was pretty pleased to see it had some Alpine 4" speakers, the same size as landcruiser dash speakers.
Whilst I had my glove box out looking for somewhere to put my UHF (more on that later) I thought I would put one in. It took a fair bit of cutting a bending to fit. I had to space it back from the grille as the bling bit in the centre was hitting it.
I rewired the stereo (it had dodgy crimps ad some were just twisted and taped) and now the dash speakers and centre speakers are wired and honestly, the standard speaker sounded better so I swapped back to it, bugger.
I bought a Donaldson preceaner, it's the 3" top spin version. and are meant to remove up to 85% of dust before it hits your airfilter. These use a rotating thingymabob that ejects the dirt so you don't have to empty them like a traditional Donaldson. I live and mostly drive on dusty gravel roads. So I thought it could be a worthwhile investment, it was about $70 off eBay.
Fitted, being that it's winter here it's impossible to say how effective it is at keeping dust out of my filter. It's quite noisy, mostly induction noise. I guess the conventional snorkel head directs the noise forwards. It has a bit of a rattle to it under certain conditions. Ultimately I'd look at other options next time and try and find something quieter. On the plus side, it's probably going to sound good turbo'd.
As a reward to myself for getting the Landcruiser regoed I went to see if the Fishermans track to the mouth of Broke Inlet at Walpole is still open, luckily it was. It's normally cosed from May to December due to the track being flooded. It's a pretty decent length of track, probably 25-30kms from where you let your tyres down. All windy soft sand tracks, mostly in 3rd low.
There's a few old cattle drovers and fishermans huts along the way. Mottrams hut on the previous page, this very basic one and another in a pretty location on the edge of Broke inlet. There's many more campsites.
The inlet itself comes out to a small beach, very nice place on a nice day. They used to drive cattle down that cliff in the background. I work on a farm and I can't imagine getting cattle to do that!
I took a crapload of photos on this trip but my phone has been having trouble auto focusing, as you've probably noticed by my many slightly blurry pics (I normally take 5 or more pics of something and pick the best one). It's also always been rubbish in low light. After this I downloaded a camera app that largely fixed it, though it still tends to have trouble.
These people are lucky to have a very nice hut on the other side on the inlet, only accessible by boat.
The next day was much better weather and we went in the other direction and visited Beedelup Falls, not only a pretty waterfall but very pretty bush. We plan to visit again on a less busy day (it was a long weekend and we often have weekdays off) and walk some way down the river, it looks pretty spectacular.
Then we went down boatlanding road to the Donnely river, this was pretty average. There's heaps of paid campsites there but they're nothing special. We went on to Heartbreak trail which follows the Northen banks of the Warren river. This is a very pretty part of the country, especially in winter when the forest is looking good.
A few years ago I got my Jimny stuck in this river crossing. I walked it, planned out my line and then missed the line completely! Thankfully it's only hub deep, with some jiggling and rock stacking it came out easily.
My advice if you're a 4WDer looking to do hearbreak trail (which you certainly don't need a 4wd for, it's commodore friendly), get to the other side of the river. Heartbreak trail is very over managed/tourist money eater and the campsites are average, the other side is not managed at all and has several 10/10 old school campsites on the banks of the river. There's also actual 4wd tracks. Hopefully not to long and I'll be showing you guys all that.
Thanks,
Hayden
Nice write up, thanks for the pics. J
- Thread starter
- #25
Just got back from a few weeks in the mid west. I was planning to go to the kimberlies but dad had a health scare (kidney failure) so I didn't want to be a million miles from anything and ultimately, I didn't really have that much faith in the car.
We had a month off but I spent just over a week fixing things on the car and we actually came back a few days early.
I know you guys probably just want to see pretty pictures of nice scenery but you're going to have to put up with some boring stuff first.
So as per previous posts my back diff was a bit buggered. I was lucky enough to pick up a second hand 3rd member for cheap from a wreckers that was closing down. They had a pretty novel way of storing diffs.
After fighting with it for a bit trying to get the bastard out I put a jack under the carrier to pop the seal between it and the housing. Worked perfectly.
Problem was the tailshaft bolt pattern was different. Thankfully both flanges were fine spline so I could swap them.
The the seal surface on the old one was quite scored but thankfully there were no leaks. I did have a new Terrain Tamer seal to put in but it was poorly made, having some notches in the seal surface so I didn't use it. There will probably be a multidrilled flange in its future.
Whilst I was there I did the rear wheel bearings. I also upgraded to Land Rover axles!
I fitted some Adventure Kings universal seat covers. They're very good quality, considering the price. These are a wetsuit material which to be honest isn't very nice. It's not breathable and is a bit sweaty on longer trips.
I also converted to a HDJ79 radiator. This required a fair bit of work. The shroud needed to be extended approx 120mm and the bottom radiator hose needed to go to the other side. The one I got is an alloy 52mm thick, twin core eBay special. I picked a 2 core as it will have more tube to fin contact area than the similar thickness 3 cores.
Extending the shroud was a bit tricky, it was on a compound curve. I used 2 panels cut out of a desktop computer as this was the easiest material I found to work with. I pop riveted them on as I had no welding gas. None of the shroud mounting holes lined up so there was a bit of work there too. I didn't get pictures of this. I also tapped a thread in the overflow barb so I could put a bolt in it to block it off.
For the bottom hose I cut the bottom hose after the last bend and used a length of 38mm stainless with a 90° bend welded on one end and a 38mm rubber 90° bend to connect that to the radiator. The radiator is actually meant for a 42mm bottom hose so the 38mm one is a little stretched.
The new radiator hangs below the chassis a bit and really needs a bashplate made to cover it. The standard plates don't fit.
Whilst doing this I noticed the sealing surface of my radiator cap had a notch in it so my cooling system wasn't holding pressure which explains a lot, maybe my head isn't cracked after all? It certainly explains some cooling issues! Seeing as I have a cap on my radiator I might move to the truck style thermostat housing which has no cap built in, then I can do away with the expensive housing. Yes, the radiator is very slightly lower than the top of the t-stat housing but I don't think it's even 5mm. If I tap a hole in the housing for a bleed screw and fill it pointing up hill then I can't see an issue.
Whilst I was there I put a new fan hub in. The one it had worked intermittently. I ordered it off eBay months ago and as it turned out, it wasn't quite the right one. I think it's for a BJ42. It bolted up to the motor but the bolt pattern for the fan was smaller. The hub itself is also mush smaller. The locating spigot was the same diameter so I filed the holes on the fan and put it on. It seems to work well, though I think it could "lock" more. The calipers show the original bolt spacing.
Result? WAY better cooling. It's leaps and bounds ahead of the old 66mm 4 core (Genuine Toyota, didn't look very old). The car still did get a little warm and required the heater to keep it below my self imposed 88°c limit but general sand driving, hills and hot weather really weren't anything to be scared of anymore. It's worth noting that this radiator has slightly less total core volume than the original, and it still works better!
I also finished my dual battery system. Some time ago I mounted a Pirahna rear battery tray and slotted in a Century marine battery the same as the starter but it too quite some time for me to sort the isolator. I did this the morning before we left so I didn't wire in the indicator led so I was a bit unsure if it was working properly. It all worked out in the end, here's the voltage sensitive relay I used.
Revolution 10-90000 - Complete Dual Battery Kit 12V
I also had to mount my fridge, more on that later. To power the fridge (and other things) I originally ordered a whole bunch of panel mount cigarette lighter/USB panels but they never turned up so I made do with what I had. This was a multi adapter that you plug into a cigarette lighter, I soldered some twin core 6mm wire to it and hooked it up to the second battery. It only drops 0.2v from the battery so I'm pretty happy. Again, I did this the morning before we left so it's a bit of a rush job. It uses an in line fuse from my old Narva spotlight loom. I did buy an auto reset fuse for it (so the fridge would start up again if a fuse blew and I didn't know) but it didn't fit in the holder.
This worked great, having over a volt more than the factory cigarette lighter. It charged phones and things much quicker. The dual battery system was great too, at one point I left it for 40 hours with just the fridge going and it only got down to 12.5v. The lowest was 11.8v but we used the 12v oven for around an hour that night.
We had a month off but I spent just over a week fixing things on the car and we actually came back a few days early.
I know you guys probably just want to see pretty pictures of nice scenery but you're going to have to put up with some boring stuff first.
So as per previous posts my back diff was a bit buggered. I was lucky enough to pick up a second hand 3rd member for cheap from a wreckers that was closing down. They had a pretty novel way of storing diffs.
After fighting with it for a bit trying to get the bastard out I put a jack under the carrier to pop the seal between it and the housing. Worked perfectly.
Problem was the tailshaft bolt pattern was different. Thankfully both flanges were fine spline so I could swap them.
The the seal surface on the old one was quite scored but thankfully there were no leaks. I did have a new Terrain Tamer seal to put in but it was poorly made, having some notches in the seal surface so I didn't use it. There will probably be a multidrilled flange in its future.
Whilst I was there I did the rear wheel bearings. I also upgraded to Land Rover axles!
I fitted some Adventure Kings universal seat covers. They're very good quality, considering the price. These are a wetsuit material which to be honest isn't very nice. It's not breathable and is a bit sweaty on longer trips.
I also converted to a HDJ79 radiator. This required a fair bit of work. The shroud needed to be extended approx 120mm and the bottom radiator hose needed to go to the other side. The one I got is an alloy 52mm thick, twin core eBay special. I picked a 2 core as it will have more tube to fin contact area than the similar thickness 3 cores.
Extending the shroud was a bit tricky, it was on a compound curve. I used 2 panels cut out of a desktop computer as this was the easiest material I found to work with. I pop riveted them on as I had no welding gas. None of the shroud mounting holes lined up so there was a bit of work there too. I didn't get pictures of this. I also tapped a thread in the overflow barb so I could put a bolt in it to block it off.
For the bottom hose I cut the bottom hose after the last bend and used a length of 38mm stainless with a 90° bend welded on one end and a 38mm rubber 90° bend to connect that to the radiator. The radiator is actually meant for a 42mm bottom hose so the 38mm one is a little stretched.
The new radiator hangs below the chassis a bit and really needs a bashplate made to cover it. The standard plates don't fit.
Whilst doing this I noticed the sealing surface of my radiator cap had a notch in it so my cooling system wasn't holding pressure which explains a lot, maybe my head isn't cracked after all? It certainly explains some cooling issues! Seeing as I have a cap on my radiator I might move to the truck style thermostat housing which has no cap built in, then I can do away with the expensive housing. Yes, the radiator is very slightly lower than the top of the t-stat housing but I don't think it's even 5mm. If I tap a hole in the housing for a bleed screw and fill it pointing up hill then I can't see an issue.
Whilst I was there I put a new fan hub in. The one it had worked intermittently. I ordered it off eBay months ago and as it turned out, it wasn't quite the right one. I think it's for a BJ42. It bolted up to the motor but the bolt pattern for the fan was smaller. The hub itself is also mush smaller. The locating spigot was the same diameter so I filed the holes on the fan and put it on. It seems to work well, though I think it could "lock" more. The calipers show the original bolt spacing.
Result? WAY better cooling. It's leaps and bounds ahead of the old 66mm 4 core (Genuine Toyota, didn't look very old). The car still did get a little warm and required the heater to keep it below my self imposed 88°c limit but general sand driving, hills and hot weather really weren't anything to be scared of anymore. It's worth noting that this radiator has slightly less total core volume than the original, and it still works better!
I also finished my dual battery system. Some time ago I mounted a Pirahna rear battery tray and slotted in a Century marine battery the same as the starter but it too quite some time for me to sort the isolator. I did this the morning before we left so I didn't wire in the indicator led so I was a bit unsure if it was working properly. It all worked out in the end, here's the voltage sensitive relay I used.
Revolution 10-90000 - Complete Dual Battery Kit 12V
I also had to mount my fridge, more on that later. To power the fridge (and other things) I originally ordered a whole bunch of panel mount cigarette lighter/USB panels but they never turned up so I made do with what I had. This was a multi adapter that you plug into a cigarette lighter, I soldered some twin core 6mm wire to it and hooked it up to the second battery. It only drops 0.2v from the battery so I'm pretty happy. Again, I did this the morning before we left so it's a bit of a rush job. It uses an in line fuse from my old Narva spotlight loom. I did buy an auto reset fuse for it (so the fridge would start up again if a fuse blew and I didn't know) but it didn't fit in the holder.
This worked great, having over a volt more than the factory cigarette lighter. It charged phones and things much quicker. The dual battery system was great too, at one point I left it for 40 hours with just the fridge going and it only got down to 12.5v. The lowest was 11.8v but we used the 12v oven for around an hour that night.
Got to back up a bit. Land Rover axles?? You are saying that the inner axles of the Landy are the same
as the 73? Curious.
as the 73? Curious.
- Thread starter
- #27
Haha no, it's a wooden broomstick. A poke at the weakness of Rover axles. Based on actual axle breaking figures (Ashcroft and Bobby Long) 30 spline Toyota axles are approximately 60% stronger than 10 spline rover ones but that's not the whole story, 10 splines fatigue and lose strength. A friend broke one driving up a curb to park on his parents lawn! The 24 spline Rover axles are generally actually weaker than the 10 splines due to worse material.
FWIW here's some axle diameters.
Rover 10 = 28.2mm
Rover 24 =31.5
Landcruiser/solid axle hilux = 33
FWIW here's some axle diameters.
Rover 10 = 28.2mm
Rover 24 =31.5
Landcruiser/solid axle hilux = 33
HaHa, you got me!! J
Save that one for April 1. LOL.
Save that one for April 1. LOL.
how tall is the new rad?
- Thread starter
- #30
The core is around 120mm taller than the original 3B one, which is the same size as 2H. 1Hz is somewhere inbetween the 2 of them.
The mounts for the radiator matched the 3B ones and I was impressed with the quality given the price. It was $250 delivered.
nice one mate, I also have a BJ73 however I am further north in Australind. Interested to see how you go with that turbo. I am looking to turbo as well on the cheap making my own manifold etc so interested to see how you go. ever since putting 35's on the need for turbo has gone up.
- Thread starter
- #32
My GFs family is in Bunbury so we get up that way pretty often. I'm slowly getting there with the turbo stuff, probably still some way off yet. I really should get to it before the weather fines up and we start hitting the sand all the time. I'm okay with the power as it is but it needs more on sand.
- Thread starter
- #33
So, the trip.
Basically, we were aiming to hit Karijini. Here's the rough plan of the trip, though as always it ended up being many more KMs than google says! Around 5600kms all up.
After spending WAY to long working on the car we finally left sunny Northcliffe....
My GFs mum lives in Bunbury so we stopped there, got some supplies and actually ended up staying the night. We were thinking we'd got north of Perth day 1!
The next day we left pretty early and got through Perth. We tooled around Yanchep and Two Rocks a bit, nice enough places. We found a spot to camp just south of Lancelin to camp, off the road near a pine plantation. This night was the coldest night in Perth for 5 years, and let me tell you, I bloody believe it! We just had $10 Kmart sleeping bags, air mattress and a very airy tent so we froze, we were up before the sun and left as soon as we could see. There was ice on the Landcruiser, not something you get often in Australia!
We rolled into Lancelin which is well known for it's large dune systems. It's one of the more popular 4wding destinations for people living in Perth (Western Australias capital). I didn't get any photos of the dunes but I got one of the beach, so here you go. I'll be back here fairly soon, it's still got that cool fishing village feel.
You drive past quite a number of dune systems on the coastal highway, a lot of them can be driven on.
We went to the pinnacles, this is an odd formation off 11ty bajillion tall rock things poking out of the sand. It would make an ideal sci fi movie set.
There was this group of backackers traveling in identical blue and silver Pajeros. We saw them several times over a couple of days.
Onwards to Cervantees, plenty to see around here lovely beaches and so on. It was actually starting to get warmer too.
Also spotted a soft top Bundera, I don't think I've ever seen one in person before.
Then another!
We camped in a caravan park at Port Dennison/Dongara. It's a lovely place there, except for this.
There's no bloody shipwrecks, just plaques!!!
This tree has issues...
We hit Geraldton, had a decent meal, drove around a bit. It's a nice place but I think the crime rate is high. Every shop has over the top security measures. This was the last cityish kind of place we were going to see for a very long time. We bought some better sleeping bags whilst we were here.
Officially in the northwest.
Gladstone lookout.
We continued north and camped out off the road to Shark Bay. MUCH quieter than the highway.
Eating up many more KMs again, onwards past Carnarvon and the Gascoyne river which is both very large and very dry (yes those are tyre tracks).
Whilst taking a photo here an identical BJ73 to mine went past, same colour, stickers, the lot! That one was very rough and rusty though, unfortunately I didn't get a photo. I've only seen one other that was the same on the internet, so that makes 3 I've seen in that colour/sticker combo.
We camped off a random dirt track south of Coral bay, we actually got a few KMs off the main highway and thought there was going to be no one to wake us up. Wrong! The birds at dawn had to be heard to be believed, you could mount those bastards on firetrucks!
Then finally into one of the actual planned destinations of the Trip, Coral Bay. I'd been here last year in a 4WD Hilux campervan and wanted to explore around a bit more.
The town itself is extremely comercialized, being essentially nothing but two enormous caravan parks and a shop with many whale watching/diving/quad bike tour type things. More in the interest of 4WDers there's sand tracks everywhere and it's a great place to spend a day or 2 exploring.
I've reached the picture limit and have to go to work, so to be continued. Thanks for reading.
Basically, we were aiming to hit Karijini. Here's the rough plan of the trip, though as always it ended up being many more KMs than google says! Around 5600kms all up.
After spending WAY to long working on the car we finally left sunny Northcliffe....
My GFs mum lives in Bunbury so we stopped there, got some supplies and actually ended up staying the night. We were thinking we'd got north of Perth day 1!
The next day we left pretty early and got through Perth. We tooled around Yanchep and Two Rocks a bit, nice enough places. We found a spot to camp just south of Lancelin to camp, off the road near a pine plantation. This night was the coldest night in Perth for 5 years, and let me tell you, I bloody believe it! We just had $10 Kmart sleeping bags, air mattress and a very airy tent so we froze, we were up before the sun and left as soon as we could see. There was ice on the Landcruiser, not something you get often in Australia!
We rolled into Lancelin which is well known for it's large dune systems. It's one of the more popular 4wding destinations for people living in Perth (Western Australias capital). I didn't get any photos of the dunes but I got one of the beach, so here you go. I'll be back here fairly soon, it's still got that cool fishing village feel.
You drive past quite a number of dune systems on the coastal highway, a lot of them can be driven on.
We went to the pinnacles, this is an odd formation off 11ty bajillion tall rock things poking out of the sand. It would make an ideal sci fi movie set.
There was this group of backackers traveling in identical blue and silver Pajeros. We saw them several times over a couple of days.
Onwards to Cervantees, plenty to see around here lovely beaches and so on. It was actually starting to get warmer too.
Also spotted a soft top Bundera, I don't think I've ever seen one in person before.
Then another!
We camped in a caravan park at Port Dennison/Dongara. It's a lovely place there, except for this.
There's no bloody shipwrecks, just plaques!!!
This tree has issues...
We hit Geraldton, had a decent meal, drove around a bit. It's a nice place but I think the crime rate is high. Every shop has over the top security measures. This was the last cityish kind of place we were going to see for a very long time. We bought some better sleeping bags whilst we were here.
Officially in the northwest.
Gladstone lookout.
We continued north and camped out off the road to Shark Bay. MUCH quieter than the highway.
Eating up many more KMs again, onwards past Carnarvon and the Gascoyne river which is both very large and very dry (yes those are tyre tracks).
Whilst taking a photo here an identical BJ73 to mine went past, same colour, stickers, the lot! That one was very rough and rusty though, unfortunately I didn't get a photo. I've only seen one other that was the same on the internet, so that makes 3 I've seen in that colour/sticker combo.
We camped off a random dirt track south of Coral bay, we actually got a few KMs off the main highway and thought there was going to be no one to wake us up. Wrong! The birds at dawn had to be heard to be believed, you could mount those bastards on firetrucks!
Then finally into one of the actual planned destinations of the Trip, Coral Bay. I'd been here last year in a 4WD Hilux campervan and wanted to explore around a bit more.
The town itself is extremely comercialized, being essentially nothing but two enormous caravan parks and a shop with many whale watching/diving/quad bike tour type things. More in the interest of 4WDers there's sand tracks everywhere and it's a great place to spend a day or 2 exploring.
I've reached the picture limit and have to go to work, so to be continued. Thanks for reading.
So what is the average temperature in the sun on these days? Darn beautiful, J
- Thread starter
- #35
For those pics, high teens to mid 20s (18-25°c is 65-77°f). This was the exact middle of winter for us. The weather was actually pretty cold and wet for most of the trip, especially the second half. But yes, we did get some really nice days in there, thanks.
- Thread starter
- #36
From Coral Bay we went on to Exmouth. We drove the whole way around the Cape and went to Yardie creek for the Sunset.
I'd been here last year during the day and it was super busy, this time we had the whole thing to ourselves and we saw a few Black Footed Rock Wallabies, a rare creature and amazingly agile.
I wanted to see if it's possible to cross Yardie Creek. In short, no. If nothing else it's deep salt water and there's no where to wash your car for probably 500kms.
We stayed at the Yardie Creek Homestead, I've stayed at all the caravan parks in/near Exmouth and I'd rate it as the best.
Something I wanted to do at Exmouth is explore the inland tracks. Everyone comes here for the beaches and snorkeling but the range is very impressive. We followed an old track into this little gorge, there were quite a few little caves and so on here.
The tracks are tracks in the most literal sense, this one cost me an exhaust mount!
We spent a few days bumming around the beaches and snorkeling over the Ningaloo reef. The sea life is extremely impressive, it genuinely seems that everything with bright colours that lives in the ocean lives here. Unfortunately I didn't get any decent photos of this.
I also spotted this Arkarna bodied troopy dressed up as an American school bus.
On the way out we drove though shothole canyon, this was seriously impressive and I'd recommend it to anyone with a higher clearance vehicle.
On wards into the red dirt country. Halfway to Parabadoo we camped off the edge of a farmers tracks. Probably the best nights sleep of the whole trip!
Parabadoo... s***hole town, lovely backdrop. It's a mining town and it's obvious no one ever intended to stay here very long.
Onwards to Tom Price which whilst also being a mining town is actually a fairly nice place. Found another MWB too.
We went and drove Mount Nameless, which is one of the highest points in Western Australia. At 1120m (3675ft), you can see why Aussie diesels don't have altitude compensators!
Just as a reference, Western Australia is around 1/3rd the size of the U.S.A.
Onwards to the main goal of the trip, Karijini Nation Park. First we visited Hamersly gorge.
The "Spa Pool" that the little waterfall drops into.
The banded rock formations are incredible.
Kellie had to go for a swim.
I'd been here last year during the day and it was super busy, this time we had the whole thing to ourselves and we saw a few Black Footed Rock Wallabies, a rare creature and amazingly agile.
I wanted to see if it's possible to cross Yardie Creek. In short, no. If nothing else it's deep salt water and there's no where to wash your car for probably 500kms.
We stayed at the Yardie Creek Homestead, I've stayed at all the caravan parks in/near Exmouth and I'd rate it as the best.
Something I wanted to do at Exmouth is explore the inland tracks. Everyone comes here for the beaches and snorkeling but the range is very impressive. We followed an old track into this little gorge, there were quite a few little caves and so on here.
The tracks are tracks in the most literal sense, this one cost me an exhaust mount!
We spent a few days bumming around the beaches and snorkeling over the Ningaloo reef. The sea life is extremely impressive, it genuinely seems that everything with bright colours that lives in the ocean lives here. Unfortunately I didn't get any decent photos of this.
I also spotted this Arkarna bodied troopy dressed up as an American school bus.
On the way out we drove though shothole canyon, this was seriously impressive and I'd recommend it to anyone with a higher clearance vehicle.
On wards into the red dirt country. Halfway to Parabadoo we camped off the edge of a farmers tracks. Probably the best nights sleep of the whole trip!
Parabadoo... s***hole town, lovely backdrop. It's a mining town and it's obvious no one ever intended to stay here very long.
Onwards to Tom Price which whilst also being a mining town is actually a fairly nice place. Found another MWB too.
We went and drove Mount Nameless, which is one of the highest points in Western Australia. At 1120m (3675ft), you can see why Aussie diesels don't have altitude compensators!
Just as a reference, Western Australia is around 1/3rd the size of the U.S.A.
Onwards to the main goal of the trip, Karijini Nation Park. First we visited Hamersly gorge.
The "Spa Pool" that the little waterfall drops into.
The banded rock formations are incredible.
Kellie had to go for a swim.
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- #37
Many people miss out on Hamersly gorge because it's a bit out of the way an it's a long gravel road to get there. Personally it's my favourite thing in the whole of Karijini.
We found an nice campsite not far from Hamersly.
On the way out of Hamersly I spotted a 4WD track and I decided to follow it. It took us a few KMs up from the main gorge area that everyone visits. We decided to park the 'Cruiser there and walk down the gorge. Frankly, this is one of the best things I've done in my life. I didn't get many pictures at all.
It looked as if no one had ever walked there. There were no foot prints, rubbish or graffiti. We weren't sure if you could even walk all the way down the gorge. Talk about the spirit of adventure.
We spotted this little waterfall, it was tucked away behind some bushes. I doubt many people know it exists.
At one point we had to climb up a tree, then jump from that tree to another to get across a river!
Took us quite a while but we finally got close to the main touristy bit of Hamersly.
Kellie had a swim in the spa pool.
Stunning place.
I had to get a photo of this Festiva, it didn't have a straight panel on it and the front end was held together with tape and occy straps. Proves you can travel in anything, they'd come from Albany thousands of kms away. Most of my friends seem to believe you can't leave home with out 37s, lockers and 25psi of boost which IMO is all pretty irrelevant for the terrain we have in W.A. I'm a big believer that the best place to put your money is into maintenance and diesel.
Onwards to oxer junction. Photos just don't show the scale of this place.
These gorges are around 100m deep. I threw a few rocks to the bottom (there are no walkers underneath) but I didn't hear them hit.
We stayed at the "eco park" which is by far the s***test caravan park type thing in all history. $40 per night for a camp site, 2 solar showers between 80 people, no money is reinvested into maintenance and everything is done as cheaply as possible.
I bet you don't think this creek is very impressive?
Well if you turn 180° it's certainly worth looking at!
See the little black dot in the lowest big shelf to the left of the waterfall? That's some crazy bastard climbing down it, as many did.
Yet another mind blowing gorge. For an idea of the scale, check out the size of the trees on top!
We headed back towards Tom Price to get fuel. Out on the other side of Tom Price I found some tracks.
We found an nice campsite not far from Hamersly.
On the way out of Hamersly I spotted a 4WD track and I decided to follow it. It took us a few KMs up from the main gorge area that everyone visits. We decided to park the 'Cruiser there and walk down the gorge. Frankly, this is one of the best things I've done in my life. I didn't get many pictures at all.
It looked as if no one had ever walked there. There were no foot prints, rubbish or graffiti. We weren't sure if you could even walk all the way down the gorge. Talk about the spirit of adventure.
We spotted this little waterfall, it was tucked away behind some bushes. I doubt many people know it exists.
At one point we had to climb up a tree, then jump from that tree to another to get across a river!
Took us quite a while but we finally got close to the main touristy bit of Hamersly.
Kellie had a swim in the spa pool.
Stunning place.
I had to get a photo of this Festiva, it didn't have a straight panel on it and the front end was held together with tape and occy straps. Proves you can travel in anything, they'd come from Albany thousands of kms away. Most of my friends seem to believe you can't leave home with out 37s, lockers and 25psi of boost which IMO is all pretty irrelevant for the terrain we have in W.A. I'm a big believer that the best place to put your money is into maintenance and diesel.
Onwards to oxer junction. Photos just don't show the scale of this place.
These gorges are around 100m deep. I threw a few rocks to the bottom (there are no walkers underneath) but I didn't hear them hit.
We stayed at the "eco park" which is by far the s***test caravan park type thing in all history. $40 per night for a camp site, 2 solar showers between 80 people, no money is reinvested into maintenance and everything is done as cheaply as possible.
I bet you don't think this creek is very impressive?
Well if you turn 180° it's certainly worth looking at!
See the little black dot in the lowest big shelf to the left of the waterfall? That's some crazy bastard climbing down it, as many did.
Yet another mind blowing gorge. For an idea of the scale, check out the size of the trees on top!
We headed back towards Tom Price to get fuel. Out on the other side of Tom Price I found some tracks.
- Thread starter
- #38
We camped here, Tiger Eye pool. Unfortunately I think this place will soon be bulldozed, there were many fresh core samples taken near here and a big minesite nearby. We had a great time skimming rocks and exploring around.
Back onwards through Karijini again, Circular pool.
It's a real rugged beauty out here.
I bet you're sick of gorge pictures by now hey?
We didn't do a lot of the walks in Karijini, mostly because Kellie was pretty over it all and wanted to get home. It's an odd setup, there's virtually nothing in between the 50 meter walk to lookouts that you could see in a wheelchair and 6 hour hikes that may or may not require abseiling equipment. We will certainly be back to do them.
Anyways onwards through Newman and heading back south again to Meekathara. It's sparse, flat, red rock country out that way. To give you an idea of the area, there's between 200 and 500kms between all the towns out here.
Charles Kingsford Smiths mail truck. There's a track/road between Meekathara and Carnarvon about 750kms long, it goes past Mount Augustus which is a giant rock about twice the size of Uluru (Ayres rock) which I'd like to drive one day.
I found this old station car at an abandoned town site (nothing left but some concrete). Note sizeable mine in the background.
Last year I camped at paynes find and had the worst nights sleep ever and hated it. One of my goals for the trip was to find something nice about paynes find (which is basically just a truck stop but was apparently once a small town). It turns out they have a little museum type thing over the hill with some lovely old junk.
Onwards South West and we were lucky to see many wild flowers.
Including the remarkable Wreath Lechenaultia, apparently very rare.
Onwards south and we spent a few days in Perth before heading home. I spotted this neat MWB in Bunbury.
Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed it!
Back onwards through Karijini again, Circular pool.
It's a real rugged beauty out here.
I bet you're sick of gorge pictures by now hey?
We didn't do a lot of the walks in Karijini, mostly because Kellie was pretty over it all and wanted to get home. It's an odd setup, there's virtually nothing in between the 50 meter walk to lookouts that you could see in a wheelchair and 6 hour hikes that may or may not require abseiling equipment. We will certainly be back to do them.
Anyways onwards through Newman and heading back south again to Meekathara. It's sparse, flat, red rock country out that way. To give you an idea of the area, there's between 200 and 500kms between all the towns out here.
Charles Kingsford Smiths mail truck. There's a track/road between Meekathara and Carnarvon about 750kms long, it goes past Mount Augustus which is a giant rock about twice the size of Uluru (Ayres rock) which I'd like to drive one day.
I found this old station car at an abandoned town site (nothing left but some concrete). Note sizeable mine in the background.
Last year I camped at paynes find and had the worst nights sleep ever and hated it. One of my goals for the trip was to find something nice about paynes find (which is basically just a truck stop but was apparently once a small town). It turns out they have a little museum type thing over the hill with some lovely old junk.
Onwards South West and we were lucky to see many wild flowers.
Including the remarkable Wreath Lechenaultia, apparently very rare.
Onwards south and we spent a few days in Perth before heading home. I spotted this neat MWB in Bunbury.
Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed it!
Awesome, thanks for posting. One never really gets to see anything from Western Australia, it is always the east. Sure would be nice to be able to get a month vacation.
Unfortunately ,most Americans do the Sydney-Uluru-Gold Coast triangle because that is what the holiday packages mainly offer and don't go much further. Another nice place is Tasmania.
Best holidays in Australia are self drive I think.
I would love to head up your way. My friends have done it and they say it was great
