Chesters Big Lap The WA Boom is No Bull S##T

[chester Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close chester]

Re: Chesters Big Lap Stage 5 and 6 budgeting and sheduling

Thanks bev just the info i am after

[ntp Addicted PP Member Find all posts View Profile Close ntp]

Re: Chesters Big Lap Stage 5 and 6 budgeting and sheduling

I second that Bevone says. We loved the GRBR and especially our two night stop-over at Bells Gorge. If you get early and get a private campsite, its fantastic as you have your own site along the waterway.

Cape Leveque is also a stand-out. 3-5 nights there would be tops just to relax and enjoy the pristine white beaches all to yourselves. If you have the money and want to splurge, rent a Safari Tent while there (just for the indulgence). We've done this before and loved it, although camping at any of the other options are just as good.

I disagree with the comments about Broome. Our family always enjoys spending 7-10 days in/around Broome. Sure its becoming busier and busier each tourist season, but it still has a lot to offer and is pretty laid back. If you've not been to Broome before, make sure you allow the time to get to look around. There's actually heaps to see and do. A swim each morning, tourist things during the day, sunset walks along the beach or just a drink watching the sun go down. Its fantastic.

Between Alice Springs and Darwin there isn't too much. You could stopover at the Devil's Marbles, Daly Waters pub or even Wycliff Well (to look for UFOs). Further north you should stop at Mataranka to take a swim in the thermal pools. Always a favourite of ours. Katherine has a few interesting spots too, so don't miss this either.

You can either do the loop through Kakadu via Pine Creek on the way into Darwin, or perhaps on the return leg from Darwin. Best to do this one way or the other, just so that you don't repeat your journey. Plus, the drive from Pine Creek to Jabiru is the prettiest. Especially if you stop over at some of the swimming spots along the way. If you PM me, I will tell you about one that's not too well published.

If you need any other advice about the Top End part of the tour, don't hesitate to PM me.

All the best - looks like a fantastic trip you've got planned. 8)

[johnv Member Find all posts View Profile Close johnv]

Re: Chesters Big Lap Stage 5 and 6 budgeting and sheduling

Chester,

We did a an almost similar trip to yours last year. Most of it is in a "Trip Report" Our trip was over eight weeks due to work constraints. Yours is a little different in timing, but our itinerary may be of some help. We pretty well stuck to it as we had some pre booked accommodation to have a break from the camper trailer.

Below is a map of our route.


We did the complete Oodadatta Track, not to Cobber Pedy. Missed Kakadu as wanted to spend more time in the Kimberleys. Did not go to Mitchell Falls. Need to save something for next time.




An questions let me know.

johnv

[chester Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close chester]

Re: Chesters Big Lap Stage 5 and 6 budgeting and sheduling

Well we are almost on the road sort of we have moved out of the house and are now living in the camper. We have managed to put nearly everything in an allotted storage area so now just spending the next 2 weeks tweaking things and seeing if there is anything we do or do not need.

Oh and we also survived the big blow that came through Melbourne last night camper held up well the only issue was a tree branch that kept scraping the roof and waking us up every ten minutes, i am a bit tired today as I could hear the neighbour fighting with a tarp so I got up at 1am to offer him a hand to find the guy in tears as a whole wall of his annex had ripped off. He vowed the next day he was going to get one of those retractable awnings that we have, as he watched me wind it up in about 20 seconds before bed

Probably the only learning I have that even though it is not available is that when you are going to work every morning a site with your own ensuite would be nice, now I just have to fight with my land lord to get the bond from our unit back and we are pretty much set. I will post up some photos of the setup later tonight

[fishfinder Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close fishfinder]

Re: Chesters Big Lap on the road (well sort of)

Chester,
have been following this thread from your first post and I give you credit for being well organised.I see you plan to be in Geraldton around harvest season and will try to find work, a suggestion is to get on to CBH bulk grain handlers and they are allways screaming for people during harvest and they have yards all around Geraldton region as well as the central wheat belt and the great Southern Region .

[chester Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close chester]

Re: Chesters Big Lap on the road (well sort of)

Chester,
have been following this thread from your first post and I give you credit for being well organised.I see you plan to be in Geraldton around harvest season and will try to find work, a suggestion is to get on to CBH bulk grain handlers and they are allways screaming for people during harvest and they have yards all around Geraldton region as well as the central wheat belt and the great Southern Region .

Thnaks mate we have already applied on line and i have also given them a general application if they need any safety work done as well

[chester Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close chester]

Re: Chesters Big Lap Caravan Park Living

Well 3 days to go then i am finished work.Gen finished on friday so we celebrated by hitting china town Kareoke till 4am the next day so it is a bit of recovery weekend We have now been living in the caravan park for 2 weeks a couple of cold nights but nothing to emotional. The only thing i can reccomend if you are in one of these places for a while and working get an ensuite site (there are none here) makes it so much easier than having to think of everthing you need in the morning, cursing as you get to the shower and forgot your socks. And having a towel that is never bloddy dry.

Couple of picks below

Truckasaurus with all the bike and spare wheel racks bolted on.


Home made storage courtesy of Deeptank (top job mate) the waeco takes up a lot of the room but i refuse to compromise on beer storage


The secret compartments i had him install


The Palace (inside looks like a bomb hit it) cause we keep reorganising it to make it all fit better


The best cure for a 4am Kareoke session ( man there were some seriously butchered songs on saturday night)



Next stop Claire valley for some cycling and to fill the secret compartments :lol:

[ntp Addicted PP Member Find all posts View Profile Close ntp]

Re: Chesters Big Lap Caravan Park Living and pics in general

Looks the life Chester... enjoy the fruits of Clare :wink:

[chester Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close chester]

Re: Chesters Big Lap The Trip So Far photos included

Well sos far so good we are currently sitting a Coober Pedy and are about to do some serious off roading tomorrow out to william creek to have a look at the lake. Have had good fun sor far, the fuel economy has not been great about 18l per 100 but i suppose that is to be expected when loaded to the gunnels.

Had a mine tour today i would not do that job for anything if it was not for the hard hat i would be in hospital with multiple concussions from hitting my head on the damm roof all of the time

So far we have done Swan Hill, Clare Valley, Wilpena Pound, Woomera and now Coober Pedy we are going to leave here and head up the track to the painted desert than onto Uluru for a couple of days of sitting around and just chilling.

Leaving Swan Hill

The serenity of the Clare


Our other vehicles the even have low range note the wine storage devises :lol:


The so called easy rail trail i would hate to see the hard one as it was about 15k of solid climbing

Into the pound


A couple of Wilpena pound with the Prado and its big brother



Wilpena pound coldness (man it was freezing)



A cheeky local that stole the banana cake


A couple of other locals i managed to convince the kids to try Dobbos trick of laying down and kicking in the air. I thought the emus may just meander over.No they charged and we could not stop laughing as 4 kids did the bolt and would not go back near them for 2 days


My new mode of transport apparently faster than the prado but no good at landings

My attempt at being artistic

Always drink responsibily and if you cant do that pick a great location and let someone else drive home


More updates soon

[LiveFreeAndRoam Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close LiveFreeAndRoam]

Re: Chesters Big Lap The Trip So Far photos included

Hey Chester and Gen,

Congrats on your departure. Lovin' the write up and looking forward to more.

Though it's killin' me. Here I sit in my kitchen on a cold wintery day... work, work, work ahead.

Safe travels guys.

LFaR.

[winniliss Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close winniliss]

Re: Chesters Big Lap Stage 4 Shakedown Trips

Unfortunatly i would need a chainsaw that runs on diesel for that idea to work

That is funny...

[Dobbo Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close Dobbo]

Re: Chesters Big Lap The Trip So Far photos included

A couple of other locals i managed to convince the kids to try Dobbos trick of laying down and kicking in the air. I thought the emus may just meander over.No they charged and we could not stop laughing as 4 kids did the bolt and would not go back near them for 2 days

Hahahaaha, those stupid ole emu's can't help themselves :lol:
I'm envious of you both mate, and I don't care how cold it is at Wilpena, it's still better than sitting at my bloody desk and looking out at an overcast (for a change :? ) Sydney.
Safe travels and looking forward to more updates.
Cheers,
Dobbo.

[chester Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close chester]

Re: Chesters Big Lap The Trip So Far photos included

Thanks to all for the posts a big day today drove all the way from Cober Pedy to Lake Eyre and back 8 hrs solid. Liked to look of the lake and the water looked great. Only one scare on the way back when some dumb dog not sure if wild or not ran in front of us at 90kph. We were pretty doehy after lunch at William Creek but Gen was phsyced and ready to fight anyone after that run in. Pity the closest person within 100km was me lets just say the spray i got was colourful and had many metaphors about my driving and dogs in general.

Post some photos after i change my pants

[HGMonaro Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close HGMonaro]

Re: Chesters Big Lap The Trip So Far photos included

hehe! I'm looking out the window at a glorious Melb winter day (cear sky, sun shinnng, coolish) and very envious!!!

looking forward to more pics and prose!

[chester Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close chester]

Re: Chesters Big Lap Made it to the middle

Hello and Welcome to the next fun filled installment of Gen & Trent On Tour!



This next leg of our journey took us out to Lake Eyre (one day round trip from Coober Pedy) where not only did we actually see water - there are seagulls as well! Yes seagulls nowhere near the sea in the middle of Australia – and if we were eating fish n chips they would have fought us for em! Then to keep our adrenaline in check on the return to Coober a wild dog decided it wanted to test our ABS at 90kms on a dirt road! Oh yes what fun that was – brown pants time!

My wife can walk on water


Feels cold


Gen wanted to bring this with us i mentioned something about GVM and haulsed her back in the car


From Coober Pedy we set off to base ourselves at Cadney Homestead so that we could 4WD into The Painted Desert, the staff at Cadney hadn’t heard if the road was closed, the sign at then entrance to the Painted Desert Road indicated that it was open…however about 30kms in, we came to a bog that stretched say 200m and since we were on our own and seeing we left the shovel on the van – we decided we would not continue on said path. Luck we had decided not too, as some crazy yahoo Victorians came ripping through the bog and said not to continue cause the road was impassable 10kms from the final destination! Lucky for us as well we were late getting away as we were helping a Damsel in distress – Ivy Jean Whitten 73 – on the road travelling alone in her camper van, left her husband only 3 years ago to travel Oz cause he was content to sit in the RSL and drink – she had unfortunately locked her keys in her van, so I called the RACV to attend so we fed n made Ivy Jean coffee till help arrived! So moral of the storey is if it wasn’t for Ivy Jean we may have tried in vain to reach the Painted Desert for no reason, as it turned out!

The bog that beat us


On our way back promo shot




From Cadney we drove to Uluru where we firstly got stuck behind 2 road trains carrying a tipper bucket each belonging to some big arse dump trucks! Theses were on their way to Mt Isa for the mines! What a hairy under-take that was when we were instructed to do so – thank God for UHF! Theses tipper buckets were that big they took up both lanes of the Stuart Highway!
Then to add to the excitement, while we were happily idling behind theses tippers, 5 vehicles belonging to Grey Nomads on Speed, overtook us to line up behind the tippers until we were all instructed to pass and they zoomed off into to the distance! As we turned off the Stuart Highway heading on Lassiter Highway to Uluru we had caught up with these crazy cats only to discover they were a bunch of crazy old men n some wives heading across the Great Central Road (middle of WA) 2 Prados, 1 Cruiser and 2 Subaru’s! Yes crazy cats indeed! They were a mixed bunch of a botanist, astronomer, doctor, urologist and other academics from Tamworth would you believe. We nic-named them ‘UHF 12 - The Discovery Channel’ because they were talking no-stop, something’s informative and others……but as soon as they mentioned they’d share their port we decided they might not be too bad after all!
Damn 150 series drivers





We made it to Uluru for the sunset – spectacular as ever! The following day we did a walk into The Olgas and hung around to watch the sunset show – Trent, Gary n Shazza (the gnomes) bonded over beers waiting for the sun to set. Our 3rd day we watched the Uluru sunrise and then proceeded to cycle around Uluru which was fun and tiring! That night we bonded with our neighbours Linda & Kristy where we discovered we were both heading to Kings Creek Station to stay instead of Kings Canyon Resort.





So then onto Kings Creek Station – it was nice, rather quiet which we loved cause back in Coober Pedy we’d had screaming small people which destroyed our calm! Day 1 we did the Kings Canyon floor walk which was so green and lush compared to last year. Trent saw a notice advising rainfall for last year was 160mm and this year 380mm YTD! So what an amazing difference we saw and how blessed we were to have been able to see his area in both drought and abundance!




Now the word of the day the entire time we travelled around Uluru, Kings Canyon to Alice Springs was CAMELS! Oh My God have we seen some camels – not a one last year but this year holey moley!


From Kings Canyon we have come to Alice to shop, stock up and see the West & East MacDonnell Ranges. Today we visited the West MacDonnell Ranges in particular Ormiston Gorge and wow the water! We crossed 2 flowing creeks out to Ormiston but unfortunately we missed the Todd River flowing by 2 days! There are still puddles in the Todd and the moral of the outback storey is – while it’s perfectly dry in one section it can be boggy in the next!

Dont believe every sign you see


On the way out to the west McDonalds


Ormiston looking full


Absolutely loving every minute of it! Central Australia Rocks!

Next stop wycliff well and Mataranka

Only casualty to date is that i bought a second shovel to mount to the roof rack as i kept forgetting the other one attached to the van when we went 4wd ing and i have this annoying rattle in the back it is ot metal and i have checked all important bits it is like a have a stone or rock wedged in one of the rear guarsd but i cannot find it. The rattle only occurs at low speeds so my solution thus far is to drive really fast.

On a sad not leaving ularu we came across a 90 series and caravan flipped on its side mum and the kids sitting on the road shocked and dad trying to pick up pieces of his van. No one injured but just goes to show you need to keep your wits about you. They we 150k from thier holiday destination.