Road Trip

donn · 2011-08-21T13:48:43+00:00

Well it's finally underway, left Newie Saturday 13th, first stop to see George at Classic to get an electronic ignition setup, its never too late to add the bits you have been going to add for the last ? months then on the road through Bathurst, a bit late in the evening to do the obligatory circuit, then on to first camp other side of Bathurst on the road to Orange (bloody freezing). Day two saw me on the road by 8am heading towards Orange, Wellington where I learned first lesson for the trip, have a run through town to check fuel prices, could save paying the highest price in town, on through Cobar to camp two. Day 3 around 9 on towardHs Willcania, stoped in for drink and muffin at the Emdale road house, can't believe the straight stretches out here, then on towards Broken Hill and camp 3 just 6km short of Broken Hill. On into Broken Hill to look around for a coupla days and camp 4 in a caravan park. Day 5 saw me take a run out to Silverton where they filmed Mad Max and are going to film Mad Max 2 if the weather ever plays ball, seems it's not brown enough at this time, there's a few old beetles there used as a bit of a display outside a few of the tourist places, then back on the road late about 7pm for a night run towards Adelaide camped at the thriving metropolis of downtown Yunta after driving through rain and crossing the SA border. On the road around 8.30am towards Adelaide through more rain with really strong winds thrown into the mix, stoped for a while at Burra but too bloody cold and windy so pushed on to Adelaide to see the fella about some nice bright bulbs so the wench has now got nice bright eyes, still raining so motored on through the night to camp 6 in a picnic shelter at Rhynie. Day 7 saw me and wench on the road around 7am heading to Willmington to meet a mate I haven't seen for a while then on towards Port Augusta, rain had ceased so the trip was now a much more pleasant affair , continued on after a short break, a random breath test, a lady cop going on about how cute the wench is and how much she'd love to own one and some stupid sheiler with road rage blowing the horn because I wasn't going fast enough for her heading towards Kimba where I had a short stop then on towards Ceduna. A bit before Minnipa the wench started running a bit rough and I started to worry, if she'd just get me to Ceduna I could check the problem out but things got worse and I started to worry buy then put the brain into gear, felt a bit like a fuel supply problem but with plenty of fuel in the tank it had to be carbie or fuel filter, check the filter and it's so full of shit I could top dress the lawn with it, removed the filter cartridge but couldn't blow it clean so reasembled the filter without the cartridge and headed for Ceduna where I am camping till Monday so I can get a new filter. So there ya are, day 9, about 2900km up so far and stuck in one of the nicest places you would want to be, tomorrow or Tuesday should see me off across th Nullarbor, the little wench is runing like a train, so well I may have to find a nicer name for her, getting pretty close to 10lt/100km running mile after mile at 3000rpm close enough to 90kph while towing a trailer loaded with tools, camping stuff, tucker and cloths. Hope I havn't jinxed her with this long winded report or bored you all but I'm just stoked at the way things are going and my face I'd aching from smiling so much

donn Wolfsburg Elder

3,515 posts · joined Nov 2005 · 24 Oct 2011, 11:00 am

#868402

Well as you may remember from the last installment I was about to backtrack to a winery, well I did just that only go find that they weren't open and no info to advise when ( or if ) they will be open again, not happy. Since then I've covered a few k's? Down to Bunbuey, a pretty standard sort of sea side town, Busselton, much the same, Augusta....Pemberton and onwards ever onwards, found a great spot for a camp at Shannon National Park, well set up with spots for tents ( that's me ) camper vans caravans and even a couple of cabins, hot showers ( that's for me for sure ) had a couple of nights there and did a couple of walks then packed up to head for Walpole. I did the mandatory tree top walk there, a must in my opinion but make sure you include the guided ( free ) walk down on ground level, that fills in a few of the blanks, also climbed the " centenery tree " now thats realy spmething, 65 m heigh to a platfo at the top, bloody amazing Headed off to Denmark and Albany, stayed a couple of nights in the backpackers there and did the tourist thing at the whale centre, top show there, met a couple at the back packers doing the circuit on a couple of BMW motor bikes, done 17000 k's so far and won't be home in Brisbane till Christmas, only one bike had paniers! now that's roughing it. Headed off to Ravensthorp then a side trip to Hopetoun for a couple of nights then back to the main drag and to Esperance and in to Cape Le Grand National Park, a brilliant place again with solar
hot showers, camp kitchen with gas cooking stove and hot plate and gas hot water over the kitchen sink, the Nat parks over here really know how to do it! Now I'm back in Esperance fueling up and then heading north towards Norseman, not real sure how long I'll take to get there depends on if I decide to stop anywhere to see / do things on the way. A revisit to the Nullarbor is getting very close. Gotta gc, the wench is getting impatient.

I dream of a day when a chicken can cross a road without being asked for it's motive!

annosL Officially Full-On Dubber

378 posts · joined Dec 2008 · 24 Oct 2011, 10:50 pm

#868494

Sounds like you have seen lots, 26 k's south of Norseman is Bromus Dam, left hand side, old government dam from nineteenth century, good place to camp and freshen up, dam water is good, nice bush camp.

donn Wolfsburg Elder

3,515 posts · joined Nov 2005 · 27 Oct 2011, 2:58 pm

#868942

Yep, did that, now in Port Augusta and the wench is going wild, she can see home and a nice warm garage. Did Norsman to the border in one day and one more sloooow day to Ceduna. Saw a real shmicko bug heading towards WA either white or light grey with a sticker of some sort centre top of the windscreen, heard from a couple of blokes traveling in minis that it was in top nick and the fella was from Melburg going to WA for work.

I dream of a day when a chicken can cross a road without being asked for it's motive!

donn Wolfsburg Elder

3,515 posts · joined Nov 2005 · 31 Oct 2011, 9:10 pm

#869727

Be it ever so humble etc............ finaly arrived home 3am Sunday morning, the wench just went ape shit and wouldn't stop once I told her we were definatly heading for home this time, hit the starter 7am Saturday and stopping for refuel of car and self only we rocked in early Sunday, shower and a real bed for the first time in something like 78 days and around 14000 k's (the bed that is, I have had a few showers in that time 🙄). The wench performed brilliantly with just a few blocked fuel filters (realy shoulda cleaned out that jerry can) and a broken tappet adjuster, though even that didn't stop her she just made a lot of rattly tappet noise till I got it fixed in Fremantle, the VDO speedo is playing up a bit, speedo itself still working but the oddo and trip meter parts have developed a strange habit of not ticking over for a while, sometimes a few k's other times a few hundred, kinda strange, and the engine may have developed a slight oil leak from behind the pully, I'll know for sure when I clean it up and run it for a while again, what a top little battler the wench turned out to be and except for actual oil replacement it wouldn't have used more than a couple of cups for top up (Castrol GTX, sorry for those who don't like the stuff). Home sweet home. Now to check out the list of jobs waiting to be done around the castle and wash and shine the wench so she feels respectable again. 🤪👍😵‍💫

I dream of a day when a chicken can cross a road without being asked for it's motive!

beetleboyjeff Custom Title Time!

1,790 posts · joined Feb 2009 · 31 Oct 2011, 10:23 pm

#869743

Welcome home Donn.

donn wrote:wash and shine the wench so she feels respectable again. 🤪👍😵‍💫

And don't worry, after that trip, the wench has earned HEAPS of respect.

From your ole' mate Jeff