Camping across Aus - 11,500Kms in 4.5 weeks
Sep 21st 2006, 10:25 am
#1
Forum Regular
Thread Starter
Joined: Mar 2006
Location: Sunny Brighton (the UK one)
Posts: 152
Camping across Aus - 11,500Kms in 4.5 weeks
<<Warning ! Don’t attempt reading this post if you’re feeling a little sleepy! >>
Whoosh…Well after many months of no posts (and those back then being of a slightly…err…agitated view of Aus), I thought I would now update you all on a little trip we took before leaving Gods Own Country for good. Well maybe for good…don’t really know. I won’t blah on about my own personal opinions and issues in my 12 months there as I know from experience with previous posts that such comments don’t always go down too well, and I’m sure you lovely people waiting to leave don’t want to hear any of that nonsense. Perhaps a sister post with the gory details shall be placed in the ‘Moving Back to the UK’ section instead…
In March of this year we decided to move back to the UK after not having a great time in Aus. In fact we had developed an unhealthy loathing of many things Australian, though we knew this was a very blinkered view of the country, partly to do with where we stayed (Gympie, QLD) and partly to do with our choice of careers (renovating my OH’s old Queenslander, which took 10 months rather than 3 and gave us severe cases of cabin fever). Anyway ! We had come all this way to start a new life, had a crap time, and had still not seen anything of the real country yet, so before our departure we started to plan a 5 week trip to take us into the red center and up the middle of Australia.
I already owned a trusty 4x4 ute which had served us proud with renovations and on camping trips, so it made sense to use this as our traveling vehicle. We were going to try and camp most of the way, and indeed, we were going to try and free camp most of the way too. This concept is somewhat alien to us Brits – we are more used to camping in the form of turning up at some rainy farmers field, paying your fee and pitching up for the night – the only worry being how big the queue will be for the shower block the next morning and if there be enough hot water for everyone. My research told me that free camping was indeed quite common practice and quite acceptable in Aus, and the whole idea of camping out on our own in the middle of the bush sounded very exciting indeed ! Mind you, I hadn’t seen the film Wolf Creek (link) at that point which might have made me change my mind.
Preperations began and we started to amass a considerable collection of camping equipment. The more we looked into the idea of the trip, the more it seemed we needed to take. The following is by no means a complete list of what we took, but it might give people some ideas if you are planning something similar :
As if all this wasn’t enough, than came the gadgets : (non geeks, look away now)
You may laugh at the last item as some of our friends did. Indeed, we laughed too when we used it all of twice. For some reason, I thought we might be getting a little bored in the evenings and need to watch TV. Even if we had of found a transmitter within 200K’s of us, I forgot just how much there is to do of an evening when camping out. Setting up camp (with the first stubbie of the evening), unloading the ute (stubbie), sitting down admiring the scenery (with stubbies), deciding what to cook for dinner (over a stubbie), collecting firewood (holding a stubbie), etc etc. You get the idea. We were so wrapped with the whole experience that any sort of TV watching was quite out of the question. We even barely listened to any music on the many, many hours of driving preferring instead to soak up the K’s in silence with the windows down enjoying the sights and smells of the outback.
Our trip started off in Gympie and we headed off towards the centre. Since we covered so many K’s and visited a lot of places, I’ll try to summarise our stops and highlights to avoid waffle.
The Bunya Mountains Absolutely stunning views of the landscape. Our first free camping spot and magnificent scenery compared to the camp sites hidden in the forest !
Charleville Charming town (paying site)
Coopers Creek Lovely free spot, well used by campers by a picturesque wier
Birdsville Home of the famous races, and a bit of a funny town. Around here the flies started their onslaught.
Simpson Desert Took a drive out into the desert for a night. Totally, totally serene evening watching sunset over the desert. Major problems getting over Big Red (the first giant dune of the desert) and even more trying to get back the next day. ‘Rescued’ by a group of 4wdrivers who laughed at us, let our tyres down much further to 10psi, after which we shot over the dune in style.
Mungerannie …at the Mungerannie Hotel – the entire village in one building – petrol, post office, hotel, pub. With a fantastic natural outdoor hot tub fed from bore hole.
Lake Eyre Staggeringly vast, white, flat, dry. Oh, and the lowest altitude in Aus at 17m below sea level.
Mound Springs Bubbly geysers. Not the East London sort.
Coober Pedy Famous, worlds largest opal producing region. Underground hotels. Even underground campsites ! Interesting but overpriced (like the water you have to buy by the litre). Sadly also the biggest population of Aboriginal drunks we found.
Alice Springs Really beautiful city with a small town feel. No high rise. An abundance of cultures along with quality ‘foreign’ food. Hooray ! Bizarrely find a Firkin pub which just happens to be showing the first England game of the World cup. Hangover earned with some Germans. Visit the Finke Desert Race which is a 4wd race down the Finke Gorge.
Standleys Chasm Big impressive chasm well worth climbing.
Macdoneld Ranges ‘4 mile’ 4wd only camp spot in the National Park
Ormston Gorge & Pound Great hiking in the range. Diesel hits an all time high of $1.95 around here.
Gosse Bluff Giant comet crater formed 140 million years ago. Totally flat inside.
Kings Canyon Absolutely stunning formation.
Uluru Disappointed with Yulara which is the one and only designated camp site in the area. Looks like a package tour site for campers and caravanners with 5 meter square plots! No fires and no soul. Retrace the road out from the National Park and find a used 4wd track that after 3K’s leads to the most amazing free camping spot of the whole trip. Sitting on a ledge, we have uninterrupted views of Uluru, The Olgas and the National Park. On visiting, Uluru is just as breathtaking as expected. Avoid hollering kids and chavvy parents by choosing not to climb this sacred site (which is where most of them seem to be jumping and rolling around). Camp out in the open for two nights which is freezing (June!) but totally worth the view upon wakening. See no sign of Aboriginal peoples who own the land. Wonder if we will ever meet some real, sober people of this land.
Elsa National Park Wild horses and boars disturb us in the tent.
Katherine Lovely town but shooting through
On the way to Kakadu, we take a 2Km sandy track off the Stuart Highway chasing a good free camping spot, and get the ute well and truly stuck in a sandy bog in the middle of nowhere. Whilst picking rocks to try and feed under the wheels I nearly pick up a 3 foot brown snake. Wish now I had bought a high lift jack ! UHF CB yields no contact with potential help. Find a guy fishing who agrees to call someone when he returns to town. A very unhappy policeman turns up the next day with dog that proceeds to piss over all our belongings. We don’t argue. He eventually gets us out of the bog (with a high lift jack) and after profuse apologies, leaves with a smile and some free beer (Crownies too!).
Kakadu NP Absolutely stunning NP with abundance of waterfalls, proper bush camping sites and more flora and fauna than you can shake a stick at. Green tree frogs especially lovely.
Cooplin Gorge Locked 4wd only track with limited permission from the rangers for access. We manage to get a key and a permit and drive to the site through several deepish water bodies. Ute doesn’t fail us (we have no snorkel). Hike up the gorge for the day which is really stunning. Multiple water basins (each with their own waterfalls) with clear cold waters allow some careful swimming.
Ubir Impressive aboriginal rock art.
Mardougal Fantastic camping with individual bush sites in the forest. Dingos visit us in the night and steal 30m of aluminium foil, a bag of dried pasta and half a garlic bread. Of Italian origin perhaps ?
This was sort of the end of our trip. We were supposed to meet friends on Fraser Island for a grand finale last few days, so had to bomb it back covering over 3000Kms in just 4 days. 8 hour driving days were not a lot of fun, especially when we got all the way back to the coast to find that the weather was appauling – almost hurricane level - and visiting the sandy isle was most definitely off - so we headed off ‘home’ to the Sunshine Coast with heads full of amazing memories, cameras full of stunning photos and a ute full of fine red dust.
All in all we had a truly memorable time on this trip. Covering over 11,500Kms in four and a half weeks was a real hard slog, but it gave us the chance to see a little bit of some of the amazing things Aus has to offer. It certainly helped us to appreciate the country a whole lot more and get somewhat of a better understanding of the history of this part of the world. If you get the chance to do any sort of driving drip is Aus, I would heartily recommend it – as they say down under – “You’ll Love it!!”
cheers
LostPom
Whoosh…Well after many months of no posts (and those back then being of a slightly…err…agitated view of Aus), I thought I would now update you all on a little trip we took before leaving Gods Own Country for good. Well maybe for good…don’t really know. I won’t blah on about my own personal opinions and issues in my 12 months there as I know from experience with previous posts that such comments don’t always go down too well, and I’m sure you lovely people waiting to leave don’t want to hear any of that nonsense. Perhaps a sister post with the gory details shall be placed in the ‘Moving Back to the UK’ section instead…
In March of this year we decided to move back to the UK after not having a great time in Aus. In fact we had developed an unhealthy loathing of many things Australian, though we knew this was a very blinkered view of the country, partly to do with where we stayed (Gympie, QLD) and partly to do with our choice of careers (renovating my OH’s old Queenslander, which took 10 months rather than 3 and gave us severe cases of cabin fever). Anyway ! We had come all this way to start a new life, had a crap time, and had still not seen anything of the real country yet, so before our departure we started to plan a 5 week trip to take us into the red center and up the middle of Australia.
I already owned a trusty 4x4 ute which had served us proud with renovations and on camping trips, so it made sense to use this as our traveling vehicle. We were going to try and camp most of the way, and indeed, we were going to try and free camp most of the way too. This concept is somewhat alien to us Brits – we are more used to camping in the form of turning up at some rainy farmers field, paying your fee and pitching up for the night – the only worry being how big the queue will be for the shower block the next morning and if there be enough hot water for everyone. My research told me that free camping was indeed quite common practice and quite acceptable in Aus, and the whole idea of camping out on our own in the middle of the bush sounded very exciting indeed ! Mind you, I hadn’t seen the film Wolf Creek (link) at that point which might have made me change my mind.
Preperations began and we started to amass a considerable collection of camping equipment. The more we looked into the idea of the trip, the more it seemed we needed to take. The following is by no means a complete list of what we took, but it might give people some ideas if you are planning something similar :
As if all this wasn’t enough, than came the gadgets : (non geeks, look away now)
You may laugh at the last item as some of our friends did. Indeed, we laughed too when we used it all of twice. For some reason, I thought we might be getting a little bored in the evenings and need to watch TV. Even if we had of found a transmitter within 200K’s of us, I forgot just how much there is to do of an evening when camping out. Setting up camp (with the first stubbie of the evening), unloading the ute (stubbie), sitting down admiring the scenery (with stubbies), deciding what to cook for dinner (over a stubbie), collecting firewood (holding a stubbie), etc etc. You get the idea. We were so wrapped with the whole experience that any sort of TV watching was quite out of the question. We even barely listened to any music on the many, many hours of driving preferring instead to soak up the K’s in silence with the windows down enjoying the sights and smells of the outback.
Our trip started off in Gympie and we headed off towards the centre. Since we covered so many K’s and visited a lot of places, I’ll try to summarise our stops and highlights to avoid waffle.
The Bunya Mountains Absolutely stunning views of the landscape. Our first free camping spot and magnificent scenery compared to the camp sites hidden in the forest !
Charleville Charming town (paying site)
Coopers Creek Lovely free spot, well used by campers by a picturesque wier
Birdsville Home of the famous races, and a bit of a funny town. Around here the flies started their onslaught.
Simpson Desert Took a drive out into the desert for a night. Totally, totally serene evening watching sunset over the desert. Major problems getting over Big Red (the first giant dune of the desert) and even more trying to get back the next day. ‘Rescued’ by a group of 4wdrivers who laughed at us, let our tyres down much further to 10psi, after which we shot over the dune in style.
Mungerannie …at the Mungerannie Hotel – the entire village in one building – petrol, post office, hotel, pub. With a fantastic natural outdoor hot tub fed from bore hole.
Lake Eyre Staggeringly vast, white, flat, dry. Oh, and the lowest altitude in Aus at 17m below sea level.
Mound Springs Bubbly geysers. Not the East London sort.
Coober Pedy Famous, worlds largest opal producing region. Underground hotels. Even underground campsites ! Interesting but overpriced (like the water you have to buy by the litre). Sadly also the biggest population of Aboriginal drunks we found.
Alice Springs Really beautiful city with a small town feel. No high rise. An abundance of cultures along with quality ‘foreign’ food. Hooray ! Bizarrely find a Firkin pub which just happens to be showing the first England game of the World cup. Hangover earned with some Germans. Visit the Finke Desert Race which is a 4wd race down the Finke Gorge.
Standleys Chasm Big impressive chasm well worth climbing.
Macdoneld Ranges ‘4 mile’ 4wd only camp spot in the National Park
Ormston Gorge & Pound Great hiking in the range. Diesel hits an all time high of $1.95 around here.
Gosse Bluff Giant comet crater formed 140 million years ago. Totally flat inside.
Kings Canyon Absolutely stunning formation.
Uluru Disappointed with Yulara which is the one and only designated camp site in the area. Looks like a package tour site for campers and caravanners with 5 meter square plots! No fires and no soul. Retrace the road out from the National Park and find a used 4wd track that after 3K’s leads to the most amazing free camping spot of the whole trip. Sitting on a ledge, we have uninterrupted views of Uluru, The Olgas and the National Park. On visiting, Uluru is just as breathtaking as expected. Avoid hollering kids and chavvy parents by choosing not to climb this sacred site (which is where most of them seem to be jumping and rolling around). Camp out in the open for two nights which is freezing (June!) but totally worth the view upon wakening. See no sign of Aboriginal peoples who own the land. Wonder if we will ever meet some real, sober people of this land.
Elsa National Park Wild horses and boars disturb us in the tent.
Katherine Lovely town but shooting through
On the way to Kakadu, we take a 2Km sandy track off the Stuart Highway chasing a good free camping spot, and get the ute well and truly stuck in a sandy bog in the middle of nowhere. Whilst picking rocks to try and feed under the wheels I nearly pick up a 3 foot brown snake. Wish now I had bought a high lift jack ! UHF CB yields no contact with potential help. Find a guy fishing who agrees to call someone when he returns to town. A very unhappy policeman turns up the next day with dog that proceeds to piss over all our belongings. We don’t argue. He eventually gets us out of the bog (with a high lift jack) and after profuse apologies, leaves with a smile and some free beer (Crownies too!).
Kakadu NP Absolutely stunning NP with abundance of waterfalls, proper bush camping sites and more flora and fauna than you can shake a stick at. Green tree frogs especially lovely.
Cooplin Gorge Locked 4wd only track with limited permission from the rangers for access. We manage to get a key and a permit and drive to the site through several deepish water bodies. Ute doesn’t fail us (we have no snorkel). Hike up the gorge for the day which is really stunning. Multiple water basins (each with their own waterfalls) with clear cold waters allow some careful swimming.
Ubir Impressive aboriginal rock art.
Mardougal Fantastic camping with individual bush sites in the forest. Dingos visit us in the night and steal 30m of aluminium foil, a bag of dried pasta and half a garlic bread. Of Italian origin perhaps ?
This was sort of the end of our trip. We were supposed to meet friends on Fraser Island for a grand finale last few days, so had to bomb it back covering over 3000Kms in just 4 days. 8 hour driving days were not a lot of fun, especially when we got all the way back to the coast to find that the weather was appauling – almost hurricane level - and visiting the sandy isle was most definitely off - so we headed off ‘home’ to the Sunshine Coast with heads full of amazing memories, cameras full of stunning photos and a ute full of fine red dust.
All in all we had a truly memorable time on this trip. Covering over 11,500Kms in four and a half weeks was a real hard slog, but it gave us the chance to see a little bit of some of the amazing things Aus has to offer. It certainly helped us to appreciate the country a whole lot more and get somewhat of a better understanding of the history of this part of the world. If you get the chance to do any sort of driving drip is Aus, I would heartily recommend it – as they say down under – “You’ll Love it!!”
cheers
LostPom
Sep 21st 2006, 10:31 am
#2
Lost in BE Cyberspace
Joined: Nov 2005
Location: at the bottom of a wine glass
Posts: 28,176
Re: Camping across Aus - 11,500Kms in 4.5 weeks
The trip sounds amazing, how lucky are you to be able to do something like that!!.
All the best with whatever it is you decide to do with your lives
All the best with whatever it is you decide to do with your lives
Sep 21st 2006, 10:32 am
#3
Forum Regular
Thread Starter
Joined: Mar 2006
Location: Sunny Brighton (the UK one)
Posts: 152
Re: Camping across Aus - 11,500Kms in 4.5 weeks
.
Sep 21st 2006, 10:39 am
#4
Forum Regular
Thread Starter
Joined: Mar 2006
Location: Sunny Brighton (the UK one)
Posts: 152
Re: Camping across Aus - 11,500Kms in 4.5 weeks
.
Sep 21st 2006, 10:40 am
#5
BE Enthusiast
Joined: Sep 2005
Posts: 567
Re: Camping across Aus - 11,500Kms in 4.5 weeks
Excellent Lostpom
When in Oz for the foirst time in 1990 we travelled all the way around in a VW camper, and up the middle, a great feat at 22, wouldnt have done anything else and free camped all the way, some good stories with the aboriginals as well.
Well done mate, thers loads to Oz that even the Ozzies dont see
Mick
When in Oz for the foirst time in 1990 we travelled all the way around in a VW camper, and up the middle, a great feat at 22, wouldnt have done anything else and free camped all the way, some good stories with the aboriginals as well.
Well done mate, thers loads to Oz that even the Ozzies dont see
Mick
Sep 21st 2006, 10:46 am
#6
Forum Regular
Thread Starter
Joined: Mar 2006
Location: Sunny Brighton (the UK one)
Posts: 152
Re: Camping across Aus - 11,500Kms in 4.5 weeks
.
Sep 21st 2006, 10:48 am
#7
Forum Regular
Thread Starter
Joined: Mar 2006
Location: Sunny Brighton (the UK one)
Posts: 152
Re: Camping across Aus - 11,500Kms in 4.5 weeks
Phew, thats enough writing and photos for now !
Too true ! My OH is Aussie and had seen nothing of her own country in 20 odd years. Its so bloody big, thats the problem !!
Originally Posted by mickagnew
Well done mate, thers loads to Oz that even the Ozzies dont see
Mick
Mick
Sep 21st 2006, 10:52 am
#8
BE Enthusiast
Joined: Sep 2005
Posts: 567
Re: Camping across Aus - 11,500Kms in 4.5 weeks
Great pics, that scrap yard wasnt 600ks south of Darwin was it, broke down there and a guy charged us 10 bucks for a petrol pump for the vw. 10 bucks but he didnt want the old one to recondition, next to the oldest outback pub with no windows in it?
Mick
Mick
Sep 21st 2006, 10:56 am
#9
Now a Citizen!
Joined: Feb 2006
Location: Burleigh Waters, QLD
Posts: 191
Re: Camping across Aus - 11,500Kms in 4.5 weeks
What a great post! Very inspiring. I'm sure there will be loads of people heading for the bush now 
Sep 21st 2006, 10:56 am
#10
Forum Regular
Thread Starter
Joined: Mar 2006
Location: Sunny Brighton (the UK one)
Posts: 152
Re: Camping across Aus - 11,500Kms in 4.5 weeks
Originally Posted by WendyC
The trip sounds amazing, how lucky are you to be able to do something like that!!.
All the best with whatever it is you decide to do with your lives
All the best with whatever it is you decide to do with your lives
I guess the grass in always greener, though it has to be said - its literally greener in my garden in the UK than our burnt brown yard in Aus !! Its amazing what a lack of sunshine can do !!
Sep 21st 2006, 11:06 am
#11
Home and Happy
Joined: Dec 2002
Location: Keep true friends and puppets close, trust no-one else...
Posts: 93,809
Re: Camping across Aus - 11,500Kms in 4.5 weeks
Originally Posted by lostpom
Hi Wendy and thanks. Life is much happier now we are back in the UK. Funnily enough, in the same way that we missed and appreciated life back in the UK when we moved to Aus, now we are back here, we much more appreciate the great things that we experienced whilst living in Aus.
I guess the grass in always greener, though it has to be said - its literally greener in my garden in the UK than our burnt brown yard in Aus !! Its amazing what a lack of sunshine can do !!
I guess the grass in always greener, though it has to be said - its literally greener in my garden in the UK than our burnt brown yard in Aus !! Its amazing what a lack of sunshine can do !!
Mind you, I'm also envious of the fact you've moved back to brighton, so I guess I'm just weird
Sep 21st 2006, 11:09 am
#12
Lost in BE Cyberspace
Joined: Nov 2005
Location: at the bottom of a wine glass
Posts: 28,176
Re: Camping across Aus - 11,500Kms in 4.5 weeks
Originally Posted by lostpom
Hi Wendy and thanks. Life is much happier now we are back in the UK. Funnily enough, in the same way that we missed and appreciated life back in the UK when we moved to Aus, now we are back here, we much more appreciate the great things that we experienced whilst living in Aus.
I guess the grass in always greener, though it has to be said - its literally greener in my garden in the UK than our burnt brown yard in Aus !! Its amazing what a lack of sunshine can do !!
I guess the grass in always greener, though it has to be said - its literally greener in my garden in the UK than our burnt brown yard in Aus !! Its amazing what a lack of sunshine can do !!
Yes, I can see whaat you mean. It's the old saying isn't it "you don't know what you have til it's gone"
Life has taught me to make the most of every day, no matter where you are or what you do. It can end in an instant, so just enjoy what you can when you can get it
Sep 21st 2006, 11:10 am
#13
Suncream, I need suncream
Joined: Jan 2006
Location: Sydney
Posts: 1,316
Re: Camping across Aus - 11,500Kms in 4.5 weeks
Really great post mate. Sounds and looks like an amazing trip - a trip of a lifetime. Really itching to do something similar, perhaps not on the same scale though 
Thanks for taking the time to post
Graham
Thanks for taking the time to post
Graham
Sep 21st 2006, 11:27 am
#14
BE Forum Addict
Joined: Nov 2003
Location: Noosa Heads
Posts: 3,507
Re: Camping across Aus - 11,500Kms in 4.5 weeks
Originally Posted by northerner
Really great post mate. Sounds and looks like an amazing trip - a trip of a lifetime. Really itching to do something similar, perhaps not on the same scale though
Thanks for taking the time to post
Graham
Thanks for taking the time to post
Graham
Sep 21st 2006, 11:58 am
#15
cheeky tart
Joined: May 2005
Location: Melbourne
Posts: 2,239
Re: Camping across Aus - 11,500Kms in 4.5 weeks
Fantastic post and stunning photos