Day At Longreach

After pancake breakfast went to Qantas museum. Got to sit in the piolrt seat of a 747-200-B - Cool. Then went to see a well trained flock of sheep get rounded up by sheep dogs at the Stockmans Hall Of Fame. Finshed by getting some awesome sunset photos and typical country town chinese.

Road Fauna

Although uneventful from a safety point of view we did see some fauna. Surprisingly few kangaroos (alive - numerous ex-alive ones after loosing a confrontation with a road train), quite a number of emus, 1 tortise, 3 eagles next to the road and 1 echidna. Not to mention some very large road trains includin a double B-double.

Longreach

Arrived in Longreach after an uneventful trip - apart from a stopp about 25kms out to take heaps of photos of a magnificent sunset.

Charleville

12:30pm Lunch and inspection of rain making cannons from 1902

Leaving bourke 7.43am

Hilston 1.50pm.

Bourke

On site at Bourke. Great trip up. Easy run. Road conditions excellent. Used 220ltrs of fuel. Paid 133cpl.

Swan Hill

Got away at 5:02am done 320ks. Little One is catching up with Bri. Looking for a bakery for a light brekkie snack.

5:02am rolling out.

A Special Mention

I have been reminded by she who shall remain nameless that although much of the actual trip planning has fallen to me, none of the plans would have any hope of being realised without the support and hard work of my wife of 22.5ish years. Mrs Gazza has done all the booking of campsites and side adventures, packing and preparing food etc.. Often an unrecognised and under appreciated role - so here I pay tribute to a wonderful person without whom we'd still be thinking about it.

Thanks Hon!

Nearly Ready

Respooled the winch today and decided to change the trailer wiring from 7pin round to 12 pin flat. The Kaymar Bar has a slot for a flat plug so I thought I'd use it - The 12 pins will also let me consolidate the Anderson Plug into the larger Aux pins. I've left the Anderson plug on for now - will tackle that after the trip.

Also put water in the trailer and filled 2 jerry cans of water too - We'll use that for drinking - nothing like Melbourne water for drinking.

Trip Planning - Maps

Thought I'd post a bit on how I do the trip planning.

I use a few online tools like.
Google Earth
Google Maps
Whereis
BP has a good site for planning fuel stops. (Handy 'cause I have a BP fuel card)

I also use a spreadsheet I created in Google Docs - With this I calculate travel times and fuel usage (using kph and l/100k estimates based on known driving conditions and experience using the truck)

Then I plan the trip in more detail using OziExplorer setting up routes etc.. This can loaded on the Car PC and/or Windows Mobile Smart phones.

As an aside - Google Earth is great for creating maps in OziExplorer because GE has gps co-ordinates in the application.

Here is the Google map of the trip:

View Cape York Trip in a larger map

Tyres and Rims

Spent the day organising new rims for the Camper Trailer to match the Cruiser. Toyota have now brought out a Steel Rims to match the 200 series so I picked up 3 rims had the spare tyres fitted to them and put them on the Camper. Now I have 8 tyres and rims that are all interchangeable - also effectively giving me 2 spares for either the cruiser or camper.

Put the camper behind the Cruiser and adjusted the spotties for the extra weight weight in the tail which lifts the front end slightly. I actually measured the drop when I put the camper on and it was only 30mm so the 200kg constant load springs on the Cruiser are doing their job.

I've also fitted a Kaymar rear carrier and bar which allowed me to replace the Longranger 70ltr Aux fuel tank with a 155ltr unit. Now I'm carrying a fuel capacity of 245lts probably 225ltrs usable. That should give me a range fully loaded of 1400km (assuming 16ltrs /100k which is what I expect with a load on traveling at the speed limit)

Trip Planning - Update

A closer look at dates and timing etc. and we have firmed up some plans.

The trip up to Cairns is now as follows:
Leave early Day 1 - for Bourke. (1040k)
Day 2 - Bourke to Longreach (969k)
Day 3 - Day in Longreach (Stockmans Hall of fame and QANTAS Museum)
Day 4 - Longreach to Cairns. (919k)
--Break in Cairns.
Cape Trip.
Day 1 - Cairns to Cooktown (Via Cape Tribulation) (200k)
Day 2 - Cooktown to Lakefield NP (Possible camping at Hann River Crossing) (200k)
Day 3 - Lakefield NP to Moreton TS (380k)
Day 4 - Moreton TS to Punsand Bay (Taking easy route for most part incl Jardine River Ferry) (270k)
Day 5 - Trip to the tip. (Stay at Punsand Bay)
Day 6 - Back to Moreton TS (270k)
Day 7 - Moreton TS to Chili Beach - (Iron Range NP) Probably a slow trip (120k)
Day 8 - Chili Beach to Archer River RH (150k)
Day 9 - Archer River RH to Port Douglas (240k)
--Break in Port Douglas / Cairns. (8 Nights)
Trip Home
Day 1 - Leave midday for Hughenden (587k)
Day 2 - Hughenden to Mt Isa (521k) - Mine tour (That afternoon or possibly next morning)
Day 3 - Mt Isa to Longreach (647k) - Depending on time might revisit QANTAS museum to see bits missed last time.
Day 4 - Longreach to Charleville (515k) Visit Telescope.
Day 5 - Chareville to Peak Hill (839k)
Day 6 - Charleville to Home (784k) - Stop at Parkes Radio Telescope.

Total Ks 9058.

Planning Links

Punsand Bay

Moreton Telegraph Station

Meluna Station