Hey guys,
This is my first post on IH8MUD, ive been a member here for a little while and reading through old posts for quite a while before joining...
I just wonted to share with you this little trip report i wrote on a local Australian 4x4 forum, given well we had such a great time and i absolutely love driving anywhere in my old 1978 FJ45.
I have found this forum to be the greatest place on the web to find answers to any questions ive had to date, ive followed the instructions here to start servicing / going over the whole car... ive rebuilt the odometer which had not run for some 10-15years following instructions here, so im very indebtted to all you fellow 40 series owners that make this place the place it really is!
I hope i can share and add great things here and hope you enjoy my photos.
Ive had the car now for a little over 6 months, in that time it has been my daily driver (tho i dont drive to work) and ive done some 15,000km mostly heading bush as often as we possibly can (have gone on about 10+ trips so far in the car generally 1000km give or take each time.)
Im the 3rd owner of the car, its previous owner having bought it second hand from a toyota dealer when the car was 4 years old (i have all receipts, manuals tools etc...) The PO of the car kept it always garaged and well hardly ever used it.
IE. the tyres on the car, i found out a week proir to this trip were 15years old - tho they still had plenty of tread left i wasnt going to risk heading into the Australian Outback on rubber that old and HARD so new tyres were purchase prior to this trip.
Now for our first serious trip in the old girl!
....................................
Michelle and I returned from our 2009 Strzelecki Adventure and it was quite the adventure.
We spent 11days in total travelling across the countryside, covering some 3900km in the old girl.
The trip started on Thursday 28th May, at approx 6pm once Michelle had finished work… we were headed for Mildura where id booked a cabin at the Desert City Caravan Park and made arrangements for a key to be left out for us given the expected arrival time of 2am give or take.
At about 2.10am we pulled in tired but extremely happy to be finally away and really looking forward to a Can or two before bed! Unfortunately, the ‘key’ was not left out as arranged and despite continued relentless efforts both phoning the Caravan Park and ringing the Night Call bell for 30minutes our spirits were broken!
I was very upset to say the least… It was extremely cold and I was to stubborn to pitch the tent on our first night given id paid for this bloody cabin etc. etc. etc.
After unsuccessfully trying to sleep in the Cabin of the truck (yeh…. Freaking dreaming I know, but it was worth a shot lol) we decided to hit the road again and continue on for Broken Hill. It was now 3am.
Out of Mildura, the countryside really starts to open up, the vast spaces just absorb any additional light the spotlights provide and my paranoia of hitting a Roo on the ‘first night’ of our trip kept me from driving above 85km/h so the going was quite slow!
(For the record, I do do a lot of night driving – long distance driving, hence we pushed on… or should I say, I pushed on while Michelle slept with 2 pillows on her side of the car!)
As the sun rose we were less the an hour from Broken Hill and I was starting to feel tired and considered pitching the tent on the side of the road lol…
We arrived in town around 8-8.30am and all was relatively quiet. We pulled into the local newsagency to ask of the local caravan parks and were given directions for 2. Even after having driven (and you do DRIVE an FJ45… as opposed to just steering J ) for 14hours straight, and having been awake for a full 24hours being one not to settle for second best I wonted to check out both caravan parks… one at each end of town!
Much to our surprise the first caravan park was CHOCKERS! I couldn’t believe it, there was what appeared to be a giant sea of caravans and motor homes. On to the second and it was the exact same situation… I seriously couldn’t believe what my eyes were seeing, having been on the road for so long and come so far I was almost distressed to see this many people around!
Again there were caravans, campers, Winnabegos and even a couple of bloody huge 5th wheel type rigs behind some freaking real trucks!
So it was time for bed…. The park manager was so kind enough to let us into the cabin there and then at 8.30-9am so we could shower and then get some sleep!
Awaking around 12noon I stepped outside and into a ghost town lol… there was nothing around but the ‘Vans etc… all the cars had disappeared. Being quite disappointed with the town of Broken Hill (just wasn’t what id expected) we hit the road for Silverton to we could see the Mad Max car J
Honestly I have no idea where all these ‘grey nomads’ go during the day because we didn’t see anyone on the road to Silverton and once in town (lol is it really a town!) there were a total of about 8 vehicles present.
We had lunch in the pub then waiting for an opportunity to snap a few photos beside ‘the’ car then it was back to the road taking in the sights.
By late arvo the caravan park started coming back to life as one by one the nomads J retuned to the ‘Vans and chatted with each others neighbours. We had a lovely bbq and a few drinks and chatted away with anyone willing.
Saturday we were off again, up well before the sun and heading North! The road out of town is a beautiful drive but eventually the tarmac runs out and its mostly a dirt road to Tibooburra. With the sun rise came the animals and there were a LOT of kangaroos about. I guess it was inevitable… again I just seem to be paranoid about hitting something lately. (With 10-15years on the road camping etc. regularly I hit my first animal (Roo) earlier this year)
Anyways in the blink of an eye a good sized Skippy bounced out of nowhere and slammed into my door with an extremely loud BANG!!! We pulled up and I got out to check the damage, of which I couldn’t actually find any (at the time L) then we went back to check out the roo. He was farked… I wont go into details but imagine using your head to head butt a car travelling at 80km/h. Sadly he still needed finishing off. On a positive note he ricocheted a good 5-10m off the car to the very edge of the road and didn’t require moving.
We arrived in Tibooburra spot on 12noon and let me say that it is my kind of town! I absolutely loved the town / vibe of the place. We had a couple of drinks and a wonderful meal at the pub. Id say we were almost there for 2 hours – sitting out the front of the pub, I really didn’t wont to go anywhere but we had to push on.
Our plan was to maybe camp somewhere along Bore Track on the Bollards Lagoon property if the owner allowed. The road out of Tibooburra quickly deteriorated and the going was quite tough and SLOW. We actually passed a couple of 4x4s with large caravans in tow which i found surprising. We arrived at Cameron’s Corner just before 4.30pm, sadly we had to keep making ground so we stopped only long enough to snap a couple of photos at the marker before continuing on.
Arriving at the Bollard Lagoon property we pulled up and went over to the house to speak with the owners re: camping off the Bore Track somewhere for the night but the owner wasn’t home and the people that we spoke to were a bit iffy (fair enough) in saying yes – basically saying they thought he allowed it so we decided to hold off camping within the property which ment continuing on for another 70+ km!
With the sun setting the clouds were seriously threatening rain. We pulled off the road on some high ground and in the falling light quickly setup camp and started cooking.
As the sun set, we could see 2 very obvious glowing spots in the distance from the Gas and oil works no doubt… As night fell the constant noise could be heard from the Gas and oil plants. So much so that I was quite annoyed at the time – thinking ive come all this way to get away from the city lights and noise and its bloody followed me! Sometime around 12midnight the rain started, very lite but continuous. It had set in that’s for sure…
We awoke to more rain, and it was obvious we wouldn’t be going anywhere for at least one day. Michelle was happy, she bought about a dozen books to read for the trip… I had my trusty old game boy but it was tough being stuck in the tent for so long. The rain finally eased around lunchtime although the sky threatened more rain all day and into the night. Just my luck I thought… all this bloody way and I still haven’t been rewarded with a sky full of stars and total silence!
Having spent the entire day by the side of the road Michelle had really warmed to the spot despite being ‘stuck’ there in the middle of nowhere with no one else about except for the constant relentless drone of machinery on the horizon.
Monday morning the sun finally rose and the sky looked promising. I went for a little walk down along the road for a while and the ground was once again firm! Still, I was quite worried about travelling on the roads after rain with stories of massive fines etc… playing in the back of my mind we eventually packed up the tent and started back on our way towards Innamincka.
About 20-30km down the track we came across another ‘camp’ like ours! I was a wonderful site to see and we stopped for 15-20minutes to chat with the lovely couple we would eventually run into quite a few more times in the coming days.
Neither of us knew how much further there was to go before the track became a really good proper ‘road’ of sorts as our intentions were to get off the ‘Bore track’ and take the quickest route to Innamincka given the recent rain.
We continued on another 10km from their camp and ran into a couple of Gas and oil workers on the road and we stopped and ask of the track conditions ahead etc… (again still somewhat worried about exactly when it was ‘right’ to be on the roads after rain) and they said we were about 5 minutes away from the ‘main’ road towards Innamincka from which it was about 50odd km of pristine gravel roads to travel on!
Pulling into Innamincka was a fantastic feeling, it’s a wonderful little place and it was nice to see a few fellow travellers (but not to many!) after being stopped up on the side of the track with the rain for 2 nights. I wasn’t really sure what to make of some of the cars there tho… Obviously quite a few people continue on when the tracks are WET. I was very relieved at least, knowing we’d done the right thing stopping and the relatively clean underbelly of our car certainly showed that here in town.
We had another fantastic pub feed at Innamincka, and a couple of cans! Followed by a nice hot shower, fuel, camping pass etc. etc. etc. then we were off again… heading out to Coongie Lakes.
Let me get straight to the point… The road out to Coongie Lakes was Farked! By far the worst track we’d been on this trip, and we had 2.5hours to go. There was evidence of people having travelled in / out in the wed with the middle of the road completely carved up in places and plenty of standing water still about. Where to camp wasn’t entirely obvious once you enter the area, driving around it became obvious that it was simply a matter of pull up where ever you are happy with the views and camp!
Fortunately we were able to find a great secluded spot and couldn’t hear or see and evidence of another human nearby! Michelle would add at this point, sadly evidence of Dingos etc… was all to obvious J
We managed to cook and sit back over a couple of drinks without being carried away by the mozzies then as always the sand makes for a great sleeping surface and a good nights sleep was had by both of us.
At this point we were starting to question our travel plans, and it was obvious that we wouldn’t do the area justice if we intended to travel home / spend a few nights through the Flinders Ranges as originally planned. So we decided we would spend a few more nights around Innamincka.
Tuesday morning, much to my dissatisfaction we headed off after only one night at the Coongie Lakes and drove back into Innamincka… A little slower this time round and with a little less air in the tyres but still – the track sucked!
Back to the shower block, we ran into a fellow 4x4 forum member who recognised our car and we had a little chat etc… After another nice hot shower we sat down for another feed (and drink!) at the Innamincka Pub before setting off to find a camp site for the night.
The plan was to spend on night on “Wills” side of Innamincka and one night on “Burkes” side. We drove in and investigated all of the camp sites along the river only to back track to Ski Beach were we again ran into Paul and his friends camped in a great little spot beside the creek. After another quick chat we setup camp with his group and had a few drinks down by the creek with fishing rods in hand!
After a rather big night on the bottle, I finally had a solid nights sleep where by the sun actually rose before I did.
Wednesday, finally greeted us with a cloudless blue sky! After a quick breakfast we said out goodbyes to Paul and his group and we hit the road again. After topping up the fuel and some food supplies we headed out to the Dig Tree which honestly was a bit of a let down. We spent all of about 1 minute MAXIMUM there before heading back to the Burke and Wills Bridge for lunch. It was a beautiful little shaded area beside the bridge and we got the BBQ and chairs out for a decent break and feed. It was still ‘cool’ none the less travelling out into QLD but I was very disappointed to see that they charge a fee to ‘access’ the dig tree after constantly opening the wallet around Innamincka, paying to enter the Innamincka reserve then again for each night camped there I was all paid up and happy until we got to the dig tree!
From there we travelled back towards Innamincka with the intention of camping either at Burkes Memorial or the Cullyamurra Waterhole, pulling into Burkes first we were rewarded with the whole place to ourselves! We didn’t even check out Cullyamurra after finding the best spot alone the creek at Burkes so we unloaded the car and setup camp… at about 3.30-4pm (the earliest we’d setup the tent so far on this trip!)
I tried my hand at fishing again – without luck! And I donated a brand freaking new $22.99 lure to the creek that flew straight off the line when on my second cast into the creek (I really need to have someone show me how to tie a proper knot before we go fishing again!) So that was the end of my fishing in the Cooper!
Oh before I forget, upon arriving at this camp site… I carefully drove over what appeared to be an old fire place only to find it was still EXTREAMLY hot and going under the top layer of ash… To say I wasn’t impressed is putting it lightly, I mean it was no more then 5m from the waters edge, would have been so hard to fill up a bucket of water and put it out properly… I chucked on a thick bit of wood and it was going in minutes! Lazy stupid pricks is all I can say.
Sadly, at Burkes memorial one was again greeted with the constant sound of machinery all night from I assume something to do with the Gas and Oil works in the whole area… (Don’t get me wrong, it isn’t loud but its constant and if your looking for peace and silence… you don’t get the silence!)
This is my first post on IH8MUD, ive been a member here for a little while and reading through old posts for quite a while before joining...
I just wonted to share with you this little trip report i wrote on a local Australian 4x4 forum, given well we had such a great time and i absolutely love driving anywhere in my old 1978 FJ45.
I have found this forum to be the greatest place on the web to find answers to any questions ive had to date, ive followed the instructions here to start servicing / going over the whole car... ive rebuilt the odometer which had not run for some 10-15years following instructions here, so im very indebtted to all you fellow 40 series owners that make this place the place it really is!
I hope i can share and add great things here and hope you enjoy my photos.
Ive had the car now for a little over 6 months, in that time it has been my daily driver (tho i dont drive to work) and ive done some 15,000km mostly heading bush as often as we possibly can (have gone on about 10+ trips so far in the car generally 1000km give or take each time.)
Im the 3rd owner of the car, its previous owner having bought it second hand from a toyota dealer when the car was 4 years old (i have all receipts, manuals tools etc...) The PO of the car kept it always garaged and well hardly ever used it.
IE. the tyres on the car, i found out a week proir to this trip were 15years old - tho they still had plenty of tread left i wasnt going to risk heading into the Australian Outback on rubber that old and HARD so new tyres were purchase prior to this trip.
Now for our first serious trip in the old girl!
....................................
Michelle and I returned from our 2009 Strzelecki Adventure and it was quite the adventure.
We spent 11days in total travelling across the countryside, covering some 3900km in the old girl.
The trip started on Thursday 28th May, at approx 6pm once Michelle had finished work… we were headed for Mildura where id booked a cabin at the Desert City Caravan Park and made arrangements for a key to be left out for us given the expected arrival time of 2am give or take.
At about 2.10am we pulled in tired but extremely happy to be finally away and really looking forward to a Can or two before bed! Unfortunately, the ‘key’ was not left out as arranged and despite continued relentless efforts both phoning the Caravan Park and ringing the Night Call bell for 30minutes our spirits were broken!
I was very upset to say the least… It was extremely cold and I was to stubborn to pitch the tent on our first night given id paid for this bloody cabin etc. etc. etc.
After unsuccessfully trying to sleep in the Cabin of the truck (yeh…. Freaking dreaming I know, but it was worth a shot lol) we decided to hit the road again and continue on for Broken Hill. It was now 3am.
Out of Mildura, the countryside really starts to open up, the vast spaces just absorb any additional light the spotlights provide and my paranoia of hitting a Roo on the ‘first night’ of our trip kept me from driving above 85km/h so the going was quite slow!
(For the record, I do do a lot of night driving – long distance driving, hence we pushed on… or should I say, I pushed on while Michelle slept with 2 pillows on her side of the car!)
As the sun rose we were less the an hour from Broken Hill and I was starting to feel tired and considered pitching the tent on the side of the road lol…
We arrived in town around 8-8.30am and all was relatively quiet. We pulled into the local newsagency to ask of the local caravan parks and were given directions for 2. Even after having driven (and you do DRIVE an FJ45… as opposed to just steering J ) for 14hours straight, and having been awake for a full 24hours being one not to settle for second best I wonted to check out both caravan parks… one at each end of town!
Much to our surprise the first caravan park was CHOCKERS! I couldn’t believe it, there was what appeared to be a giant sea of caravans and motor homes. On to the second and it was the exact same situation… I seriously couldn’t believe what my eyes were seeing, having been on the road for so long and come so far I was almost distressed to see this many people around!
Again there were caravans, campers, Winnabegos and even a couple of bloody huge 5th wheel type rigs behind some freaking real trucks!
So it was time for bed…. The park manager was so kind enough to let us into the cabin there and then at 8.30-9am so we could shower and then get some sleep!
Awaking around 12noon I stepped outside and into a ghost town lol… there was nothing around but the ‘Vans etc… all the cars had disappeared. Being quite disappointed with the town of Broken Hill (just wasn’t what id expected) we hit the road for Silverton to we could see the Mad Max car J
Honestly I have no idea where all these ‘grey nomads’ go during the day because we didn’t see anyone on the road to Silverton and once in town (lol is it really a town!) there were a total of about 8 vehicles present.
We had lunch in the pub then waiting for an opportunity to snap a few photos beside ‘the’ car then it was back to the road taking in the sights.
By late arvo the caravan park started coming back to life as one by one the nomads J retuned to the ‘Vans and chatted with each others neighbours. We had a lovely bbq and a few drinks and chatted away with anyone willing.
Saturday we were off again, up well before the sun and heading North! The road out of town is a beautiful drive but eventually the tarmac runs out and its mostly a dirt road to Tibooburra. With the sun rise came the animals and there were a LOT of kangaroos about. I guess it was inevitable… again I just seem to be paranoid about hitting something lately. (With 10-15years on the road camping etc. regularly I hit my first animal (Roo) earlier this year)
Anyways in the blink of an eye a good sized Skippy bounced out of nowhere and slammed into my door with an extremely loud BANG!!! We pulled up and I got out to check the damage, of which I couldn’t actually find any (at the time L) then we went back to check out the roo. He was farked… I wont go into details but imagine using your head to head butt a car travelling at 80km/h. Sadly he still needed finishing off. On a positive note he ricocheted a good 5-10m off the car to the very edge of the road and didn’t require moving.
We arrived in Tibooburra spot on 12noon and let me say that it is my kind of town! I absolutely loved the town / vibe of the place. We had a couple of drinks and a wonderful meal at the pub. Id say we were almost there for 2 hours – sitting out the front of the pub, I really didn’t wont to go anywhere but we had to push on.
Our plan was to maybe camp somewhere along Bore Track on the Bollards Lagoon property if the owner allowed. The road out of Tibooburra quickly deteriorated and the going was quite tough and SLOW. We actually passed a couple of 4x4s with large caravans in tow which i found surprising. We arrived at Cameron’s Corner just before 4.30pm, sadly we had to keep making ground so we stopped only long enough to snap a couple of photos at the marker before continuing on.
Arriving at the Bollard Lagoon property we pulled up and went over to the house to speak with the owners re: camping off the Bore Track somewhere for the night but the owner wasn’t home and the people that we spoke to were a bit iffy (fair enough) in saying yes – basically saying they thought he allowed it so we decided to hold off camping within the property which ment continuing on for another 70+ km!
With the sun setting the clouds were seriously threatening rain. We pulled off the road on some high ground and in the falling light quickly setup camp and started cooking.
As the sun set, we could see 2 very obvious glowing spots in the distance from the Gas and oil works no doubt… As night fell the constant noise could be heard from the Gas and oil plants. So much so that I was quite annoyed at the time – thinking ive come all this way to get away from the city lights and noise and its bloody followed me! Sometime around 12midnight the rain started, very lite but continuous. It had set in that’s for sure…
We awoke to more rain, and it was obvious we wouldn’t be going anywhere for at least one day. Michelle was happy, she bought about a dozen books to read for the trip… I had my trusty old game boy but it was tough being stuck in the tent for so long. The rain finally eased around lunchtime although the sky threatened more rain all day and into the night. Just my luck I thought… all this bloody way and I still haven’t been rewarded with a sky full of stars and total silence!
Having spent the entire day by the side of the road Michelle had really warmed to the spot despite being ‘stuck’ there in the middle of nowhere with no one else about except for the constant relentless drone of machinery on the horizon.
Monday morning the sun finally rose and the sky looked promising. I went for a little walk down along the road for a while and the ground was once again firm! Still, I was quite worried about travelling on the roads after rain with stories of massive fines etc… playing in the back of my mind we eventually packed up the tent and started back on our way towards Innamincka.
About 20-30km down the track we came across another ‘camp’ like ours! I was a wonderful site to see and we stopped for 15-20minutes to chat with the lovely couple we would eventually run into quite a few more times in the coming days.
Neither of us knew how much further there was to go before the track became a really good proper ‘road’ of sorts as our intentions were to get off the ‘Bore track’ and take the quickest route to Innamincka given the recent rain.
We continued on another 10km from their camp and ran into a couple of Gas and oil workers on the road and we stopped and ask of the track conditions ahead etc… (again still somewhat worried about exactly when it was ‘right’ to be on the roads after rain) and they said we were about 5 minutes away from the ‘main’ road towards Innamincka from which it was about 50odd km of pristine gravel roads to travel on!
Pulling into Innamincka was a fantastic feeling, it’s a wonderful little place and it was nice to see a few fellow travellers (but not to many!) after being stopped up on the side of the track with the rain for 2 nights. I wasn’t really sure what to make of some of the cars there tho… Obviously quite a few people continue on when the tracks are WET. I was very relieved at least, knowing we’d done the right thing stopping and the relatively clean underbelly of our car certainly showed that here in town.
We had another fantastic pub feed at Innamincka, and a couple of cans! Followed by a nice hot shower, fuel, camping pass etc. etc. etc. then we were off again… heading out to Coongie Lakes.
Let me get straight to the point… The road out to Coongie Lakes was Farked! By far the worst track we’d been on this trip, and we had 2.5hours to go. There was evidence of people having travelled in / out in the wed with the middle of the road completely carved up in places and plenty of standing water still about. Where to camp wasn’t entirely obvious once you enter the area, driving around it became obvious that it was simply a matter of pull up where ever you are happy with the views and camp!
Fortunately we were able to find a great secluded spot and couldn’t hear or see and evidence of another human nearby! Michelle would add at this point, sadly evidence of Dingos etc… was all to obvious J
We managed to cook and sit back over a couple of drinks without being carried away by the mozzies then as always the sand makes for a great sleeping surface and a good nights sleep was had by both of us.
At this point we were starting to question our travel plans, and it was obvious that we wouldn’t do the area justice if we intended to travel home / spend a few nights through the Flinders Ranges as originally planned. So we decided we would spend a few more nights around Innamincka.
Tuesday morning, much to my dissatisfaction we headed off after only one night at the Coongie Lakes and drove back into Innamincka… A little slower this time round and with a little less air in the tyres but still – the track sucked!
Back to the shower block, we ran into a fellow 4x4 forum member who recognised our car and we had a little chat etc… After another nice hot shower we sat down for another feed (and drink!) at the Innamincka Pub before setting off to find a camp site for the night.
The plan was to spend on night on “Wills” side of Innamincka and one night on “Burkes” side. We drove in and investigated all of the camp sites along the river only to back track to Ski Beach were we again ran into Paul and his friends camped in a great little spot beside the creek. After another quick chat we setup camp with his group and had a few drinks down by the creek with fishing rods in hand!
After a rather big night on the bottle, I finally had a solid nights sleep where by the sun actually rose before I did.
Wednesday, finally greeted us with a cloudless blue sky! After a quick breakfast we said out goodbyes to Paul and his group and we hit the road again. After topping up the fuel and some food supplies we headed out to the Dig Tree which honestly was a bit of a let down. We spent all of about 1 minute MAXIMUM there before heading back to the Burke and Wills Bridge for lunch. It was a beautiful little shaded area beside the bridge and we got the BBQ and chairs out for a decent break and feed. It was still ‘cool’ none the less travelling out into QLD but I was very disappointed to see that they charge a fee to ‘access’ the dig tree after constantly opening the wallet around Innamincka, paying to enter the Innamincka reserve then again for each night camped there I was all paid up and happy until we got to the dig tree!
From there we travelled back towards Innamincka with the intention of camping either at Burkes Memorial or the Cullyamurra Waterhole, pulling into Burkes first we were rewarded with the whole place to ourselves! We didn’t even check out Cullyamurra after finding the best spot alone the creek at Burkes so we unloaded the car and setup camp… at about 3.30-4pm (the earliest we’d setup the tent so far on this trip!)
I tried my hand at fishing again – without luck! And I donated a brand freaking new $22.99 lure to the creek that flew straight off the line when on my second cast into the creek (I really need to have someone show me how to tie a proper knot before we go fishing again!) So that was the end of my fishing in the Cooper!
Oh before I forget, upon arriving at this camp site… I carefully drove over what appeared to be an old fire place only to find it was still EXTREAMLY hot and going under the top layer of ash… To say I wasn’t impressed is putting it lightly, I mean it was no more then 5m from the waters edge, would have been so hard to fill up a bucket of water and put it out properly… I chucked on a thick bit of wood and it was going in minutes! Lazy stupid pricks is all I can say.
Sadly, at Burkes memorial one was again greeted with the constant sound of machinery all night from I assume something to do with the Gas and Oil works in the whole area… (Don’t get me wrong, it isn’t loud but its constant and if your looking for peace and silence… you don’t get the silence!)
Specially with something from a Holden Commodore haha.
