G'day and Welcome to our Top End Touring web site.
We’re off to the cape and across to Kakadu and Darwin, then down through the centre, across the bottom of Lake Eyre up to the Corner store, down to Broken Hill and back across to Sydney and thought we'd share our adventure with you all.
As some of you would know we've been planning this one for 2 years as we wanted the kids to be in the right years at school (and needed to save some cash). Its been quite a journey so far, but with our lead time its all been relaxing and comfortable.
As some of you would know we've been planning this one for 2 years as we wanted the kids to be in the right years at school (and needed to save some cash). Its been quite a journey so far, but with our lead time its all been relaxing and comfortable.
We have an itinerary that's got a high level plan and a detailed one, all contacts (phone, radio, etc), a checklist of what food and spares to set off with, a budget, a map and a whole heap more.
The Patrol and Customline camper are almost ready to go as we move into the last few weeks of planning activities.
The Crew
There's 5 of us on the trip, as you probably guessed from the picture, Steve, Sandy, Rachel, Carly & Jason. All of us are keen as mustard to get underway and I think its only just now setting in that we'll be away for so long.
The preparations so far .....
Many hours and many weekends away (with many beers) have gone into the trip preparations, I like to be prepared (must be the boy scout coming out in me) and organised so about 2 years ago we started talking about the trip and planning it. Out came the maps and the magazines and the computer skills as we researched the route and things to see & do.
Schooling
A visit to the principal is not always a good thing, but in our case it was great. The best words you could hear from a principal, "don't worry about their schooling, there will be so much to see and do and they'll learn heaps more being away that what they will at school". So I guess 4 months away from school isn't such a bad thing after all.
There were of cause the mandatory forms to fill in and application to have the time away from school.
The Truck
I can't think of any better reason to throw some bits at the old girl (the truck that is). Some springs and shocks, air bags for the back, home made draws, a cargo barrier, belts, hoses, brake rotors and pads, a clutch, a couple of radios (UHF & HF) and lots of TLC all went into her before the departure.
The Camper & Bits
Having used the camper for weekends, Easter & Christmas over the past few years it was pretty well sorted, but there's always something to do, something to tidy up or small changes to make life on the road a little easier.
Our Customline is pretty well equipped with batteries and an inverter for power, LED lighting, 2 gas bottles & Jerry cans, water tank, tail gate kitchen, slide out storage boxes, on board battery charger & 240V wiring for when we have power and cabling & anderson plug for charging everything on the run. We've also got a toilet, shower and ensuite (sounds like luxury!!). So what else could be done ......
The track width didn't quite match that of the truck, the wheels weren't interchangable with the truck, the tool box on the front was quite empty and I had to polish the hub caps (thanks Dad).
Along came a set of wheels from a favourite online auction house, out came the axle for some changes and into the toolbox went a Waeco. A new set of bearings and seals also went in when she went back together.
The Wife (from a Husbands perspective)
I'll come back to this when she's not looking ........ :o)
The Kids
Hmm... more on this later (you know how it is with 2 teenage girls in the house gota choose my words carefully!)
so that was from my dad's point of view :) and this is mine...(im the eldest of the 3 kids) "the kids" well i gotta say, we're pretty good, we help out when we can (mum and dad might say different but it's true!!) and love camping. we started camping 5 years ago and can't wait to get going on this trip - Rachel
The Bills
You gota love the internet and online transactions. Automated payments are just fantastic too. I reckon we might be in range about every 2 weeks to check up on things, so we'll be just fine.
The Itinerary
I didn't want to be driving the whole time we're away so I set myself some goals. The first was to try and keep each day to about 160Km's between camp sites, the other was to stay off the beaten track as much as possible. These two in combination have driven the planning effort thus far.
Mind you, it's pretty well impossible to only travel 100 miles some days when you need to get somewhere in the outback, so some days will be a bit bigger than others.
Anyway, here's the high level plan:
| The High Level Trip Plan | ||
| Place from | Place to | Distance (Kms) |
| Sydney | The tip of Cape York | 3800 |
| Cape York | Darwin | 4000 |
| Darwin | Alice Springs | 2000 |
| Alice Springs | Coober Pedy | 700 |
| Coober Pedy | Cameron's Corner | 900 |
| Cameron's Corner | Broken Hill | 500 |
| Broken Hill | Forbes | 810 |
| Forbes | Home | 410 |
| Side trips throughout the trip | 3000 | |
| TOTAL KM's | 16120 | |
Believe me! it's pretty full on, i've never seen someone so organised!! dad has every minute of every day planned but i think thats great and it's certainly great knowing what where doing next - Rachel :)
stay tuned more coming soon ..........