Kimberley Trip Posts

Adelaide to Pimba (nearly)

16/05/2015

The time to head off had finally come. We were a convoy of three ‘rigs’ consisting of a Nissan Patrol driven by my Dad – the Old Man – and my sister, Sam, his passenger. Dad was set up with a swag and tent but he was towing my 4.8 centre console tinnie mounted on a trailer I built myself. The second rig was also a Nissan Patrol with Nige and Tania towing a Cub camper trailer. And of course, there was Kris and I in the FJ Cruiser towing the van.

We left Adelaide on May 16 and the plan was to head to Pimba as there was a free camp 10 minutes out of town.

That was the plan…

The first planned stop was to be Port Augusta. We aimed to do some checks on the rigs and start working out things like fuel consumption. However, we only made it as far as Wild Horse Plains, which is only an hour or so out of Adelaide.

What happened? Well, we were going along feeling comfortable and a little excited when there was a sudden, loud vibration followed by a sickening thud. From past experience, I knew we had a flat tyre but the thud sent a wave of concern shooting through my stomach to the back of my throat! I steered the rig to the edge of the road and we got out to find we had lost the passenger side wheel from the caravan! Even worse, all the wheel nuts had sheered off and the alloy wheel had totally disintegrated, destroying the tyre in the process.

The other guys stopped and came over to check that we were ok. Tania noticed that there was a noticeable ‘skid mark’ leading to where the van finally stopped. A little while later Nige turned up with the broken-off mudflap. At that point Tania (whose nickname is Limpet but that story isn’t told till we get to Ellenbray) decided to call Kris ‘Mud Flaps’ and me ‘Skidmark’. I’m sure I’ll be forever explaining that the skidmark nickname has nothing to do with my jocks! Anyway, we called the RAA to get us back on the road but in the back of my mind I was thinking we would need to be towed back to Adelaide That would cost us a couple of days of our trip.

Great start!!

As it turned out, we were lucky to be attended by a mechanic from Port Wakefield. He had new wheel studs on board. We dropped the hub off, knocked out the old studs and knocked the new studs in. The mechanic had us back on the road within 2 hours! We were both grateful and very happy to be off again.

After our mishap, it was clear that we were not going to make Pimba. The Old Man travels with a mate who is a bit of a Bushy and his tactic is to drive till 4 and then start looking for a camp. So, this is what what we did. 4 o’clock came and we were about 130 kilometres from Pimba so we started looking for a camp. The Old Man radioed to the crew that he’d spotted a likely spot on the western side of the road about 3 kilometres up from the Kootaberra turn-off (GPS Coordinates: -31.991, 137.413). The crew pulled to the side of the road while the Old Man went to investigate. A few minutes later he gave us the OK and we followed his tracks in. Now this spot was in the middle of nowhere with no track in. The country was flat, hard and with patches of gibber but looked pretty good for an over night stay.

The camp turned out to be pretty good. It was a bit chilly that night but there was plenty of firewood. We were far enough back from the main road so that truck drive-by noise was muted and there was plenty of room. We had a roaring fire although the Old Man plonked his chair on an ants nest in his haste to get the prime spot. A few beverages to celebrate the trip’s beginning and a laugh at the day’s event nicely rounded off an eventful day.

Kootaberra to Just North of Coober Pedy

17/05/2015

The plan for this leg was quite simple – travel up the road for about 400 Km and find a camp using the Old Man’s tactic but also make a tourist stop at Coober Pedy.

Kris and I had a van and an over night stop is really quick for us. All we had to do was pick a flat spot and park . We grabbed our seats and a beverage and sat watching the entertainment associated with the other two mobs while they set-up (this earned us the name of ‘Glampers’!). The Cub took about 10 minutes and the tent/swag set up took about 15 minutes. So within half an hour we all were parked around the camp fire enjoying a beverage.

The first unknown we would need to contend with was how long a pack-up would take and this would dictate what time we would get up. First estimates were about an hour…

Well, you would think an hour to pack-up after an overnight stop should be plenty of time but you don’t realise that during the course of the night you pull bits and pieces out, cook a meal and so forth. In the morning we were keen for a cooked breakfast – egg, bacon and tomatoes – so, with dishes and our bits and pieces, we took nearly 2 hours to get back on the road again! We were deliberately not rushing but we all recognised that 2 hours to get away was way too long. We would improve on this at the next camp.

So off we merrily went and eventually arrived at Coober Pedy. We stopped and had a beverage at the under ground hotel and took some ‘touristy’ pics.

We didn’t spend too much time in Coober Pedy. We had a little wander around the town prior to stopping for one drink. We were keen to get on the road as we had lost a bit of time with the breakdown at White Horse Plains and our lengthy pack up times.

We had parked in the main street of Coober Pedy and when we got back to the cars we found that the Old Man had left his rear door wide open! Nothing was touched, which was a pleasant surprise given there were plenty of people wandering around.

We started heading north again. We chose to apply the same tactic for finding a camp and as 4 o’clock rolled around we started looking for a likely spot. We were again successful and found a camp similar to the previous night’s camp but it was slightly better.

Coober Pedy to Uluru

18/05/2015

The plan for this leg was simple:  make it to Uluru and stay a couple of nights.

The crew go back on the road at 8:30am however, it still took 2 hours to get going. A quick pack-up continued to evade us…

The morning drive was uneventfully, which was a welcome change. We stopped for fuel and a break at Kulgera Roadhouse next to a reasonably well known pub that claims to be the ‘first and last pub in the NT’. The area has a few touristy things to give travellers something to look at while stopping for a break. It certainly had a country feel about the place with a chook scratching around ‘The Old Bastards Shed’.

We left Kulgera and eventually arrived at the Ayers Rock Resort Camp ground. The sites are quite small and the place was bustling with activity. At the rear of where we camped there was a small hill that the park manager said makes for a great sunrise view of the ‘rock’. Kris and I took the opportunity to have a lay-in – we’re not early risers – but some of the others checked out the view. The guys said it was worth while and we took their word for it!! Kris and I did go the next morning but we were a little late to get the actual sunrise and it was a little overcast from overnight rain but the view good all the same.

The first day we spent exploring the ‘rock’. We walked the whole base at a leisurely pace soaking up the atmosphere.

There are lots of information points and interesting things to see if you take your time. I was surprised to find that there were water holes at various points and we noticed one had resident frogs. I nearly stepped on a snake while cross one of the foot bridges. Kris had time to take a snap while I stood still and let the creature pass. The snake had and almost iridescent blue/green body and orange/brown head and tail. We later identified it as a Yellow Faced Whip snake. While it’s bite is toxic it is not as dangerous as some of our snakes. We apparently have something like the top 21 of 25 of the world’s most poisonous snakes! So I just steer clear of all snakes.

The rock has some fascinating features when you get up close. There are so many things that you do not expect. This includes the rock itself, the flora and fauna and just the country in general. We also saw our first rock art for the trip here.

Uluru is one of those iconic Australian locations that all Aussies should visit at least once. Our stay was short and we contemplating leaving via King Canyon but there are only so many thing you can do with limited time. I’m sure we’ll visit Uluru again.

Uluru to Yuendumu

20/05/2015

The plan for this leg was to travel a little farther than the normal 400-500 Kms and find a camp somewhere along the Tanami track. This was to include a short stop in Alice to grab some supplies and to see if I could source a spare wheel for the van.

This leg was quite eventful and when sharing our experiences about our Kimberly trip, the journey along the Tanami is often spoken about.

We left Uluru at 9:00 to head for Alice Springs. We had a ‘splash and dash’ fuel stop at Erldunda and arrived in Alice at about 2:30. I rang around to try and find a spare wheel and tyre, which I did find. We also caught up with Kris’s cousin, Stewart, who just happened to work across the road from the tyre place. Small world, eh.

The crew split up and went to various places to grab supplies. The Old Man had to buy a new battery and it is probably worth mentioning that in our experience, lead-acid batteries, even if they are marine or deep cycle, do not last when used to run accessories like lights or 12 volt fridges. For us, AGM (absorbed glass mat) batteries have lasted far longer and been much more reliable. My car has a dual battery setup and the second battery is AGM fitted under the bonnet, close to the motor. AGM batteries do not purportedly cope well with heat. After more then three years I’ve had no issues with mine.

We left the Alice and headed toward the Tanami Track. Our first planned stop was Tilmouth for a fuel top-up. I did some thorough research for this leg because I’d seen comments on travel forums saying that fuel was scarce. To put this into perspective, the Tanami Track is a 1000 kilometres of rough, corrugated sand and clay passing through harsh desert country. Under these conditions, fuel consumption will be much higher so ensuring you can get fuel is important. My research, however, had one short fall! My Internet web searches found lots of comments about getting fuel at Rabbit Flat so, I factored Rabbit Flat in as one of the fuel stops. Then I stumbled on another post saying the roadhouse had been shut down! From this I learned the importance of using a date limit on my searches and I now ensure I return pages that are no more than 12 months old.

You can always resort to the tried and tested method of give the fuel places a ring. This will also help to determine whether the fuel stop carries the right type of fuel – we needed both petrol and diesel. Be aware though, some remote places work only limited hours or even limited days so you may need to try ringing them a couple of times before you get through.

The decision to take the Tanami Track was based on the Old Man’s experience. He had driven the Tanami the previous year and found it to be in good condition. The alternative was to travel via Katherine, which was about 1000 kilomtres longer. The first leg to Tilmouth was pretty good for a remote, desert track. It had a single sealed lane and we only occasionally had to move to one side to allow room for a passing vehicle.

We filled up with fuel at Tilmouth and then I was talked into having an Iced Coffee made by the lady who served us. It wasn’t half bad and didn’t regret the decision. We asked the lady about the road conditions ahead and she reported that there are some rough bits but generally not too bad compared to ‘normal’ conditions. The report came with a caveat, however. The lady said that there have been times when travellers were told that the track wasn’t too bad but not long after leaving these same travellers had turned around and headed back to Tilmouth. They’d stop at the road house quite upset about how bad the track was. The lady said it all depend on your experience of outback corrugated roads. What you’re told is subjective and relative to your experience, which is an important point to consider when you are seeking ‘intel’ about the roads ahead.

We’ve done a bit of travelling on outback roads and our cars, van and camper were all of an off-road spec. The boat trailer was the unproven piece of kit and I would be the first person to admit that I hadn’t finished building it before we left. Anyway, it had independent coil-spring suspension with shock absorbers so it should be right.

We let some air out of the tyres before leaving Tilmouth and started heading for the Granites. The road was pretty rough and we all got a fair shaking. This was a real concern for me because the leg was going to be about 1000 kilometres and the boat trailer wasn’t proven. We stopped every couple of hours to check out the gear and each time we stopped we had to fix something. The shock absorbers on the towed vehicles were all pretty warm but the tires were reasonably cool. This meant that we hadn’t dropped to the tire pressure too far.

It is worth noting that on the homeward journey the Patrol towing the Cub took the Tanami Track home and destroyed a fairly new off-road tyre, probably because of the tire pressure was too low. This can sometime be caused by a slow leak but it’s always worth taking regular breaks to check when driving rough roads.

We pulled into Yuendumu for fuel. Yuendumu is one of the larger remote communities in the Northern Territory but has less than a 1000 residents. It had the basics for what we needed. Yuendumu for us was a little bit special. Kris started her working career as a Registered Nurse and treated some Yuendumu  people with some serious conditions some 20 years prior. When we pulled up at the fuel station I started to organise the fuel but Kris began a conversation with an old fella who was sitting off to one side. From a distance, he looked a little reserved, as you would expect, but as Kris and the old fella talked more he became more animated and smiled a fair bit. Kris later told me that the kids she treated and their mother still lived in the community. Kris caught up on where their live were at and what had happened with them in the last 20 years. For us, and Kris particularly, it was a really nice experience to hear how people are going after she had had such a significant, positive impact on their lives.

We left Yuendumu and pulled back onto the Tanami Track. After travelling for some time, a call comes over the UHF radio.

“Col you receiving?”

“Roger” I replied.

“We’ve pulled over ahead of you. We’ve lost one of the mud guards from the boat trailer.”

“Bugger!” I thought.

Anyway, I pulled over to look at the damage. Nige had pulled up and recollected seeing something large and black lying besides the road. We took the decision to unhook the van and drive back to see if we could find it. Some 30 Km back down the track, Kris and I found the mud guard. Well, the bits of it!

I pulled over and started walking over to broken guard when another vehicle started heading up the road. I wasn’t sure if they would run it over so I waved them down. The vehicle was a Troupe Carrier with a family travelling back to their community. They checked to see if we were ok and we had a bit of a chat. Again, this was a nice experience and we learned a little about the local county. After a while, we said goodbye to the family, grabbed the bits of the mud guard and headed back to where the others were parked. When we got back I started to repair the guard so we could keep going. I created a Frankenstein mud guard stitched together with cable ties. Anyway, it was good enough to get going again.

At one of our random stops we checked the inside of the van and found some food rolling around on the floor. This was really weird because the food was from inside the fridge and fridge was still closed. We figured that the fridge door had come open at some stage, some of the food escaped and the next bend slammed the fridge door shout again. It shows that regular checks, particularly on rough tracks are worth while.

It was that time of day again an we started looking for a camp. We spotted a track on the north side (I didn’t record the location, though) and drove in to find that others had camped in this spot before. The area was a bit of a mess including some abandoned vehicles but we found a reasonably clear spot and set up camp. We didn’t have too much trouble finding fire wood and, in the end, the place wasn’t too bad for a camp.

We lit the fire and sorted out tea. We were all pretty tired after quite a big day.

Yuendumu to Billiluna (Nyarna)

22/05/2015

The plan for this leg was to make it to Stretch Lagoon. This was a camp that Nige found during his trip research and the location is approximately 19°40’34.5″S 127°35’05.2″E. Stretch Lagoon is near Billiluna and was about 40 Kms off the Tanami track and at the end of the Canning Stock route.

We got away at 8:45 and we were beginning to improve on our pack up times. I think at this point we were a bit more relaxed about time frames and were more concerned about the hammering our gear was copping from the track. At times, the corrugations were 3-4 inches high so we decided to stop more often to check the gear. At one point, the shocks on the van were quite hot so we stopped for a good half hour and considered dropping the tyre pressure a little more however, the tyres were feeling quite warm too and we chose to leave them.

The road conditions took some concentration while driving, which made driving quite tiring. We found that with the van that about 80 Km/h was right. This was different for the other rigs as they were carrying less weight however, the constantly changing conditions caused quite large variations in our speed from around 70 – 90 Km/h. Finding the right speed is a bit of an art. We were trying to skip across the top of the corrugations but they were quite variable in height and distance apart and meant I had to constantly adjust my speed.

Again, at our regular stops we were fixing things. Some draws in the van opened, my winch bracket fatigued and snapped so I had to ocky strap that down and one of the Patrols had the screws vibrate out of a rear light lens. A good old fashioned bit of bush wire fixed that! One interesting find was that the portable toilet had a fair bit of water in the lower section. We guessed this was due bouncing up and down with some force and the flusher was being depressed.

Travelling on this type of road certainly required some different packing tactics. We tried to pack thing so they were tight against each other and wouldn’t move but the gear was still copping a pounding. A couple of things I used that absorbed a bit of the shock was polystyrene sheet from discarded packaging. I used XPS polystyrene, which is the extrude type not EPS, which is expanded and made of little bubbles. XPS is much more durable and weighs very little. The other packing thing we used was old pillows, which worked well for things that must be laid down flat.

We reached the Western Australian border at about 1:15 (AWST). This was a little dis-orienting as the change was one and a half hours from what our clocks said.

We eventually got to the Billiluna turn-off and after a quick radio check to see if everyone had enough fuel to get to the lagoon and back to Billiluna we headed past the town and down the track. The lagoon was a picturesque spot and an oasis in the desert. There was plenty of life around the lagoon’s fringe and I was pleased to see a pair of Brolgas on the far side of the lagoon. We had a camp fire at the water’s edge and soaked up the almost spiritual milieu.

There was a sign up at the Lagoon to tell the Aboriginal story of the Lagoon, and it was beautiful to read.  They suggest that you can go into the town of Billiluna nearby and ask for the Aboriginal Elders to do a ceremony to bless you to swim in the Lagoon.  I really wish we had time to do this, as I would love to experience it.  It suggested that if you don’t want to do the ceremony and just want to swim, to please get out of the Lagoon should the weather become wild, as it may be the spirits upset with you swimming there.