Need to visit the Aussie Outback

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Welby

Welby

Joined
Feb 13, 2007
Threads
2
Messages
169
Location
Blenheim New Zealand
Hope you guys can help - My Brother and I intend to do the Bathurst V8 supercar thing in October, and hopefully see HRT clean up like they did when Peter Brock was at the wheel ( Yes I am that Old). After that we want to hire a new Camping Troopy and get out to the outback. Have looked at getting to Alice Spring, but its a bloody long way from Bathurst. Looked at a drive to Broken Hill thats about 1000k less that Alice. Would love to have a a go at the Simpson or similar, but certainly not on our own and the rental company's are not to keen on the idea either.
Can anyone suggest somewhere where we can go thats a bit remote, typically outback, hopefully we can lock in the front hubs, where we can experience some of the red bull dust and look up at the stars in away they were meant to be seen.

Appreciate any advice- better still grab your cruiser and come with us.

Cheers
 
I's search for Australian 4x4 clubs with on line forums. I know I've run across a few over the years.
 
I spent a loooong time in Woomera in South Australia. Several hours away is Coober Pedy where you can do some opal mining and the beach is a few hours in the other direction.

Spud's Roadhouse in Pimba, near Woomera, the gateway to the outback is a days drive from Adelaide.
 
Here's another option - fight from Sydney to Cairns. Troopy camper hire in Cairns. Cairns to Cape York and back. Lots of dust, lots of stars. Lots of camping spots and things to see. A quintessential Australian experience. Roads are relatively good so long as you don't try the Old Telegraph Line in a hired troopy. It's also at the end of the dry season.
 
craigwanderer said:
Here's another option - fight from Sydney to Cairns. Troopy camper hire in Cairns. Cairns to Cape York and back. Lots of dust, lots of stars. Lots of camping spots and things to see. A quintessential Australian experience. Roads are relatively good so long as you don't try the Old Telegraph Line in a hired troopy. It's also at the end of the dry season.
Click to expand...

Had not considered that thought it might be a bit tough on our own. Have read a fair bit about trips there and it looks to me its not a trip you really want to do alone. The rental company's have limitations on the roads you can use, and I think Cape York was one of them Telegraph Road certainly was. What would the temperatures be in October, early spring here, would be the same there. I guess the far north never gets cold, but I imagine it would get pretty warm even in October.

However its one to think about for next time. Is it a trip we could do on our own.?? Especially in a rental, it would not have winch or similar recovery gear, so I would be pretty sure they will have road tyres as well. Have done a fair bit of 4 Wheelin here, but the truck is well set up, and if it get to bad I have a mate with me with a second truck. Amazing how much further you can get if you have a second truck as a back up.

How long would it take??, and would extra fuel be required??, or can you purchase fuel on the way, I am sure have read that some trips the guys get fuel dropped of at certain points.

Any information gratefully received.

Thanks
 
Welby said:
Had not considered that thought it might be a bit tough on our own. Have read a fair bit about trips there and it looks to me its not a trip you really want to do alone. The rental company's have limitations on the roads you can use, and I think Cape York was one of them Telegraph Road certainly was. What would the temperatures be in October, early spring here, would be the same there. I guess the far north never gets cold, but I imagine it would get pretty warm even in October.

However its one to think about for next time. Is it a trip we could do on our own.?? Especially in a rental, it would not have winch or similar recovery gear, so I would be pretty sure they will have road tyres as well. Have done a fair bit of 4 Wheelin here, but the truck is well set up, and if it get to bad I have a mate with me with a second truck. Amazing how much further you can get if you have a second truck as a back up.

How long would it take??, and would extra fuel be required??, or can you purchase fuel on the way, I am sure have read that some trips the guys get fuel dropped of at certain points.

Any information gratefully received.

Thanks
Click to expand...

I used to work up there. Not sure on the rental car situation, but people take em to Weipa which is a left turn about three quarters the way up. October will be fine. Nice and hot, but not stupid hot. SHOULDN'T be any rain - the wet season kicks in about a month later, but it's usually pretty dry until mid November. The thing about the Cape, if you take the Peninsula Development Road, is that it's improved a hell of a lot over the past five or so years. You still get corrugations and dust holes, but you'll find sections of bitumen road in the darndest places up there. I've seen hired sedans and 2WD utes and vans at the Archer River Roadhouse. Lots of blokes who work on the mines at Weipa travel down to Cairns and back in their 2wd utes. To do it easy, I'd recommend Cairns to Mareeba, then Mareeba to Lakeland, then Lakeland to Laura, then Laura to Musgrave, then Musgrave to Coen, Coen to Moreton Tel Stn then up to the Jardine ferry, across to Bamaga where you can park up for a few days, visit the Tip, boat ride to Thursday Island, etc. Plenty of places to see on the way such as Iron Range Nat Park and Weipa.

here's a map:

map-cape-york.gif


Fuel (diesel and gasoline, not LPG) availability is good along this route. Expensive, but available without needing jerrycans. You can get fuel in Cairns, Mareeba, Mt Molloy, Lakeland, Laura, Musgrave, Coen, the Archer, Lockhart River, Bramwell, the Jardine River Ferry (South Side), Weipa, Bamaga. If you're paranoid or navigationally-challenged then a can of fuel onboard is probably a good idea. Propane cooking gas refills are available at most of these places as well, but not swap and go.

Going in a single vehicle is not an issue. It's a pretty well-used road, so if you get into trouble there WILL be folks who'll come along who can assist. It's NOT Wolf Creek up there - locals are some of the nicest and down to earth folks you'll meet, both white and blackfellas and most of the passers-through are reasonably responsible and will help out if you need assistance. BTDT. 3G phone service is available at several spots in the area, so that's all good. I think these hire 4WDs have UHF CB as well. If you hire a sat phone for emergencies you'll get a strong signal up there 24/7. You can invest in or hire an EPIRB if you're worried, but IMHO that's overkill. Basic recovery gear should be included with the hire vehicle, but in all likelihood you wouldn't use it. The main problems you'd find are tyres getting punctures, maybe springs breaking, possibly wheel bearings, etc.

Doing the Cape this way you miss out on some awesome country like the Bloomfield Track, Lakefield National Park and Captain Billy's, but your shiny hired troopy shouldn't haven't any problems. You could always contact Oz Tours in Cairns and roar up there in someone else's vehicle with someone else driving. It's a magic part of the world and well worth seeing.

So, how long would it take? Without stopping, it would probably take around 20 hours driving from Cairns to Bamaga. Take a week to do the round trip - that's around 5 hours drive per day.
 
Cape York

Sounds awesome and thanks for all the information, the vehicle we are going to Hire is a troopy fitted out for camping, so LPG gas etc for cooking should not be an issue for a week or so assuming they are 9kg bottles, but even a smaller 1 you would need to be using it a lot to go through it in a week. I use 2 x 3kg bottles for my trips here for my gas stove, and have been out for a week and never had to change bottles so most of the stoves are pretty economical, I agree with you re the communications a SAT phone would be the best bet, and most likely would never get used, but Murphys law would kick in and if you did not have one you can bet you would get into a situation where you would need it!! The hire company's supply a basic recovery kit which would be enough to get us out of trouble. Will need to check on the some of the routes you suggested with them to see if the vehicle is allowed on the roads. The comment they made when I en-quired was that as long as the road is on the map they do not have too many issues. The likes of the Simpson can be done, as long as you get their permission. We have pretty much planned the trip in October, so we can do this one next year. Would earlier in the year be a bit better, say August would be cooler??
Navigation will not be a problem, I have a Garmin GPS and we would have some detailed maps as well, so I am pretty sure we would be OK in that respect. There a heap of information around as well about Cape York about the routes etc, But its really good to get information from someone who has been there and done that.
Wish I could bring my truck with me !!

If we decided to camp in tents or swags, obviously for us Kiwis the wildlife becomes a bit of a worry, what precautions do you take along those lines, I guess not leaving stuff lying on the ground, and checking them before you climb in , and footwear as well. Sleeping out in the open here is a problem with sandflys ( Midges?? ) and mossies, so tents with netting keeps those out, and you can sleep out in the open but lots of repellent and netting keeps the blood suckers away. No harm done if they do apart from some itchy spots, so its just uncomfortable, but scorpions and snakes can do a bit more damage.
What could we expect on our NSW trip or Cape York.
I have had a few trips to Oz a few years a go, the longest was 8 months in Brisbane, but the kids had health complications so we decided NZ would be better for them. Have had a couple to Melbourne and a couple back to Brisbane when no 1 son was rowing - we had a regatta on Lake Ivanhoe I think it was.

Any way appreciate the details and the advise, and will map your locations onto Google maps and see what it looks like.

Thanks
 
G'day Welby, Earlier in the season means the roads are better. A lot of the roads on the Cape get trashed by floods during the Wet, and they spend a couple of months as soon as the water recedes fixing them up. July is a good time to go - fewer dust holes and corrugations because of newly repaired roads. Up north July weather is usually perfect - goldilocks weather.

Wildlife-wise, a tent or swag should be good to go. I personally use a jungle hammock up there when travelling solo - unless they are sleeping double-decker with a good looking missus or hitch-hiker, most people only use a swag because they don't know any better. Some places on the Cape have a dingo problem - at one particular place in the Lakefield National Park there's an old grizzled one that has a thing for shoes and boots. As for crocs, take all precautions. Camp no closer than 50m from a waterway (ANYWHERE on the Cape is croc country with a few exceptions). Camp uphill from the water if you can. Don't draw water from the same place twice - they will jump at you on the third go if you set a pattern. No kids or dogs near the water at any time unless it's somewhere that's USUALLY safe to swim like Fruit Bat Falls or Twin Falls. Run a google search for the QLD government's "Croc Wise" info. Unless it's an emerald green python, consider any snakes to be deadly. A Brown Tree Snake will make you sick, and a Taipan will kill you. All snakes up there are more active at night and will home in on you at night if it's a cool night looking for warmth. They are particularly active on dirt roads and in rocky country at night, soaking up residual heat. They also like leaf litter on the edge of roads so they can sneak out from cover and warm up, but sneak back again if something might think it'd make a good meal. Case in point - I was camped at the Archer (in a hammock) one evening and a Norwegian backpacker was shining a torch around near a cement culvert near the road and calling out to her friends. Curious, I went to see what was up. She told me there was a baby python in the culvert, she kneeled down and tried to take a macro photo of it with the flash but it ran away, I looked in and it wasn't a baby python, it was a very pretty but agitated Northern Death Adder. Snake ID fail.

In the rest of the country, take the Cape York snake precautions as a given. Check your shoes in the morning before putting them on. Spiders and scorpions have a thing for shoes. Better still, hang them up or keep them inside the vehicle, the tent or the swag. Sleeping under the stars is OK in the southern climes. I have found down here that a smouldering campfire keeps most of the snakes away. Whether or not you need a net depends on where you're camping. Better to have one and not need it... The only decent mozzie rep you can get here is Bushman brand - highly recommended for all areas of Australia, including jungle.

Make sure you take lots of pics during your October trip and post em.

Cheers.
 
Oiutback Trip

Thanks for all the tips, will keep them in mind - had not even thought about Crocs - they are nasty critters all right. But they have the right to share the same spaces as us, we just need to make sure we stay out of their way. If I never see a Croc in the wild I will be happy.

The hammock sounds like really good idea, I could see myself in one of them, and with the netting to keep the bugs out should be really good.

Snakes on our NSW tour as you say are a given, as are the spiders so keeping the shoes either on your feet or off the ground sounds like the way to go. I am not into sandals or thongs, feet are pretty vulnerable, and you never quite know what you might end up doing if you are out 4WDing. I like wandering around a bit as well, and a reasonable pair of walking boots are pretty much a minimum for me.

Is our October tour a fair representation of Australian rural land scape?? We wanted to be able to get a bit of a look at a reasonable cross section, and looking at Goggle maps it appears we have some green type farmland, some scrub and trees, some pretty dry areas with low scrub etc, and pretty much desert looking stuff with very low scrub or almost nothing at all.
I have heard "beyond Bourke is the outback" so we tried to get out there, which we have done. We have a few big days but most are reasonable so should have time to look around and have a beer or 2 with the locals.

Appreciate all the info - might have to drop a slab of 4X on your doorstep mate!!

cheers
 
G'day Welby, Snakes won't be too much of an issue in southern climes in October unless it is unseasonably warm, in which case they may wake up early and start scratching around for a meal - or somewhere warm. As a rule of thumb, make a lot of noise and they will usually go out of their way avoid you - except for Eastern Brown snakes and sometimes Tiger Snakes, which sometimes like to prove they are the baddest critter in their territory - i.e. they may chase you, so keep your eyes open and give them a wide berth.

Hammocks are awesome unless you're expecting female company. I use a Hennessy Hammock (Ultralight Backpacker A-Sym). I usually sling it between the roll bar on the 40 and a tree or another vehicle.

You won't have any issues with crocs in October if you're doing the Back'oBourke thang - too far south. Any water in that location will be blissfully free of things which can eat you. As for the landscape, any sort of direct route from Sydney will give you a ride over the Great Dividing Range which is nice country. If you take the Bells Line of Road west you'll be in some very awesome scenery for the first day or so after you get out of Lego Land, especially if you decide to dawdle through the Blue Mountains area. You have the bottom half of the Wollemi National Park (google the Lost City). You have good access to the Newnes ghost town, then Lithgow which has a couple of touristy type attractions such as the ZigZag railway and the Small Arms Museum if you're into things like that. I've never been to Bourke, so I can't really give you any further pointers on your route, but I'd suggest plotting it in Google Maps and then run a search on the different towns, national parks, etc to see what's where.

This site: Forum @ ExplorOz is a good resource as well.

Cheers - Thanks for the offer of the beer, but I don't usually drink, besides that stuff is only called XXXX because Queenslanders don't know how to spell "p!ss".
 
Outback tour

OK will pass on the slab - I was amazed at the big deal the beer drinkers in Brisbane made of 4X I thought it was terrible - almost a light beer, and any beer in a aluminium can is nasty any way. I must admit I do not drink a great deal of beer, I have a glass of red now and then supposed to be good for the ticker and mine needs all the help it can get.

Sorry about the route I thought I had posted it before here it is below

653 Gardners Rd, Mascot NSW 2020 Sydney to 653 Gardners Rd, Mascot NSW 2020 Sydney - Google Maps


Will be interested to see what you think - was impressed that I could plot it all on Google maps. Have had a look at the Explore Oz site, and got a lot of information about the towns we are going, only Wilcannia, is the only place with no information. Again good tips about the snakes, will certainly be keeping our eyes open - that would put a bit of dampener on the holiday if we tangled with one of those mean critters. The V8 Diesels make a bit of noise when they are cold so that should scare any snakes, not to bad when they are warm. I think the newer models have a modified injector which has quietened them down a bit, so we might have to bang a couple of pots together, - the other campers may not be to impressed with a couple of Kiwis banging pots together though!! I still have a book of "Australian Dangerous Creatures" from when we we in Brisbane in 88 when the Expo was on - might refresh my memory about some of the nasty's and what they look like. I suspect we are going to find so much to look at we will struggle to fit it all in, but just seeing the open country and the landscape will be awesome enough. Have found here I really enjoy our wide open spaces, the high country here is just awesome. Not to much into the bush, as you cannot see much, but it is nice to camp in amongst some big native trees - usually provides good shelter from the wind if nothing else.
 
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