The Big Lap, 2013

[Crocodilian Lurker Find all posts View Profile Close Crocodilian]

Just arrived back in Melbourne . . . 35,000 Kms from when we left. Mostly followed the National Highway, but with some memorable detours.

A big thanks to all the terrific people we met along the way, and a special thanks to ########## who I found through this forum. He talked this noob through some Prado basics, way beyond the call of duty.

Most of the stuff we did is familiar to members here, but I'll stick some posts on this thread that struck me as particularly memorable or unusual, and maybe useful to others.

[Crocodilian Lurker Find all posts View Profile Close Crocodilian]

Ngukurr to Wuyagiba and exploring North of Roper River

This was the most remote driving we did. They do "tag along" tours on the aboriginal community around Ngukur . . . we picked up a traditional owner/guide there, who took us out to some amazing country on the Gulf, an outstation called Wuyagiba. Its difficult driving when the weather is good, impassible when it rains. There are two ways to get to Ngukur, either a very heavily corrugated track that turns North out of Borroloola and goes up to Roper Bar, or driving East from Mataranka (which is still rough, but the Boroloola road was shaking us to pieces).

For folks looking for "off the beaten track" driving, well, we were taken down roads that were apparent to him, but which I couldn't see at all . . . a faint trace through brush on the edge of a mudflat. The main route from Ngukur to Wuyagiba shows up on Hema, but there are lots of other tracks known to the locals which don't show on any map so far as I can see. Beautiful long beaches, and it would have been nice to swim . . . but we were informed that wasn't a great idea, owing to the crocodiles

Its a dry community, and I would have loved a beer to go with the giant mud crabs and barra we collected and caught, but the rules are pretty strict up there, so no beer. You need a permit and a guide, these are otherwise closed areas for outsiders.

They're just getting started with tourists from outside, we didn't see any other travelers there. We were a bit late -- August-- and it was already very hot (39 or so); but that seems to have been unseasonable.

[Crocodilian Lurker Find all posts View Profile Close Crocodilian]

Yeagarup Dunes -- how much fun can one Prado have>

I gotta say, this was a blast. Yeagarup is in the far Southwest, just out of Pemberton. The dunes are huge, and fairly steep in places. With tires let down, we never felt much danger of getting bogged, though it got a bit sloppy at times, and the steep ascent had us wondering "are we really going to get up this hill" at times.

A definite "must visit"-- you come out of the forests and into dense dunes. For Aussies who might come to my neck of the woods, the Pacific Northwest of the US, its quite similar in some ways to the dunes on the Oregon coast, around Bandon, where thick forests give way to dunes. One of our favorite places we visited, and a place where a 4WD takes you onto fantastic beaches.

One of those great places where fun driving matches a fantastic place.

We had compressor so were able to reflate in place, but you're not all that far from Pemberton, you could drive back slowly to a service station if you didn't have one (or wait for someone else with a compressor to pass by)

[Crocodilian Lurker Find all posts View Profile Close Crocodilian]

Equipment: Stuff that worked, and some stuff that didn't

Having driven our vehicle (2004 GXL) 35,000 kms I now have a few slightly better informed opinions about the kit.

Tires: Procomp Xtreme M/T. Heavy as lead, which I didn't like. What I did like was their performance. No flats, still have good tread on them today. On the road, you certainly didn't need all that extra weight, and when they were new they were pretty annoying with stones, spent a lot of time flicking pebbles out of the tread. But in mud they were just fantastic, especially the thick viscous mud in the swampy areas . . . it was the goopiest gelatinous goo, and I was sure we'd bog, but even fairly well worn, the tires never faltered. Did I mention "no flats" . . . that's despite scrambling over sharp and rocky bits that I was pretty sure were likely to cut them up. Rating: would buy them again in a heartbeat for off road stuff, but there are more practical choices if most of your driving is less challenging. Not a commuter tire, and no fun to change flat when the tire weighs as much as this.

Stuff I wish I'd had: Ground anchor. We were traveling alone, and out in a swampy mess near Esperance struggling with the mud . . . it suddenly occurred to me that we hadn't seen any other vehicles in a long time, and that a winch ain't much use if all there are are shrubs. Burying the spare in a swamp would have been really unpleasant, if we'd bogged . . . doable, but a ground anchor would have been better

Stuff I was glad I had: Satphone. Expensive. Only needed to use it once, when the corrugations shook loose bits of suspension northwest of Borroloola . . . but the difference between sitting by the side of a remote track under a hot sun in 40 degree heat with help on the way, vs sitting and hoping that someone might come along . . . well that was worth it.

Awning: Ray at ARB (Melbourne) told me "you're gonna want one of those in the NT". Me, I'd never had one, and it seemed kinda beside the point . . . until we broke down in the NT, and the awning was the only shade to be had.

Refrigerator: I thought this was a waste at first -- girlfriend insisted. Meant we had good fresh food and cold beer even in the remotest places, and cold water on the hottest days. Its really heavy, but we were glad to have it.

Roof bag from MSA: Expensive, hard to use, and ultimately fell apart. These guys must get commissions from fastener manufactures, there are more cliplocks on this than you can count, getting it on is like wrestling an octopus. Very heavy duty rubberized canvas-- I'd have thought it could take any abuse, but the Australian sun, together with the fact that I think I jammed too much into it, lead to a surprisingly early demise. Next time, I'd just go with tarps.

Hema Maps software: We relied on it, and it was good, but hardly perfect. A bunch of roads that it showed weren't there, or were just wrong -- got chased through a farm by the owner who wanted to know why were there, turned out that all of a sudden 4wds were showing up on their property (this is near Blackdown Tablelands-- Hema shows a road just under the ridge outside the part to the West . . . it doesn't match what's actually there, and if you follow what's there, you're on private property). Complaints aside, I'd definitely buy again and recommend.

Car electronics-- a cell phone antenna would have been useful, expanding coverage would have made a lot of difference. UHF, by contrast, we didn't use much. Was useful on roads with road trains . . . but we were solo most of the way . . .

[Mark from Brisbane Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Mark from Brisbane]

Sounds like fun, makes you realise what a bloody big country this really is....hope you enjoyed some Aussie hospitality along the way!!

[Crocodilian Lurker Find all posts View Profile Close Crocodilian]

Sounds like fun, makes you realise what a bloody big country this really is....hope you enjoyed some Aussie hospitality along the way!!

People were incredibly nice and helpful . . . The only negative thing I can from the whole trip say is that the truck drivers on the Bruce highway are menace to life and limb. I didn't mind the road trains out west -- we usually could see them coming a long way away, and just got out of their way. But on the Bruce, the long stretches north of Rockhampton, and especially McKay. .. Trucks pulling up on the rear bumper and giving a snort to let you know .. . The Bruce was our least favorite road. Lotta candidates for favorite . . . The Bloomfield track comes to mind as awesome, and a great crowd at the Lions Den; but Australia has so many great roads, and even though we drove a lot-- well, we barely scratched the surface.

Everywhere , folks were generous and really kind. Really great spirit out there, credit to the four wheel crowd. Saw a lot of folks helping out sharing their stuff, helping out the bogged and broken down, really good info from the people we met about places to go, things to do

[rob_macca67 Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close rob_macca67]

Interesting..... We bought the Black MSA 1800mm long Rooftop Bag for our 2012 Desert Trip and it went great.... then went on our 2013 Central Aus Trip and had both front Velcro Straps that hold the base of the bag to your rack rip off, leaving a bit of a hole around the stitching..... not happy at the time either....with it less than 18mths old.
When we got home, I got on the phone to them and they said bring it down for them to look at, which I did..... They ended up sending it over to WA for repairs and then sent it back to us, free of charge...... So that was good service. Will be interesting to see how it goes this year with our Cape York Trip.....

Having driven our vehicle (2004 GXL) 35,000 kms I now have a few slightly better informed opinions about the kit.

Roof bag from MSA: Expensive, hard to use, and ultimately fell apart. These guys must get commissions from fastener manufactures, there are more cliplocks on this than you can count, getting it on is like wrestling an octopus. Very heavy duty rubberized canvas-- I'd have thought it could take any abuse, but the Australian sun, together with the fact that I think I jammed too much into it, lead to a surprisingly early demise. Next time, I'd just go with tarps.

[Crocodilian Lurker Find all posts View Profile Close Crocodilian]

Interesting..... We bought the Black MSA 1800mm long Rooftop Bag for our 2012 Desert Trip and it went great.... then went on our 2013 Central Aus Trip and had both front Velcro Straps that hold the base of the bag to your rack rip off, leaving a bit of a hole around the stitching..... not happy at the time either....with it less than 18mths old.
When we got home, I got on the phone to them and they said bring it down for them to look at, which I did..... They ended up sending it over to WA for repairs and then sent it back to us, free of charge...... So that was good service. Will be interesting to see how it goes this year with our Cape York Trip.....

I want to caution that it may well have been my stuffing it too tight. The top raincover seemed bulletproof, but ripped on the seams . . . I don't want to bad mouth a manufacturer for what may have been my bad packing.

Also I think the rooftop environment is pretty tough on anything. Wind, bouncing, and lots and lots of hard UV. I looked at how other folks had it arranged, and it seemed to me that a hard box plus a smaller bag reserved for soft stuff (sleeping bags, clothes) might have worked better than the way we had did it. Aussie outback travel is tough on everything -- we found ourselves tightening bolts on the car, and retightening jar lids in our stores after bouncing over corrugations. . .

[Crocodilian Lurker Find all posts View Profile Close Crocodilian]

Fitzgerald River National Park . . . for the mud lovers

This was out of Bremer Bay, and was our boggiest drive . . . the tracks through the park run through swamp land, and while its very close to flat, it was mile after mile of mud. Now it was all good fun, until we noticed that we hadn't seen another car in hours . . . getting bogged would have been a pain, but fortunately the Procomps kept us moving, occasionally in a straight line.

A really great park, wildflowers and all kinds of banksias, a lot of critters and species packed into this bit of land. Highly recommended for fun driving, for the beauty of Bremer Bay . . . but this was the place that I'd have preferred to have had a ground anchor. Getting bogged in the mud, when there's nothing but more mud around you . . . well that would have reduced the fun considerably.
The road in from the highway as far as Quaalup Homestead was fine, the mud started there, thick goopy viscous stuff. If you look at a map, you'll see why-- even though it all looks flat, some areas are just slightly lower, and with rivers flowing, they become swampy goo.

Bremer Bay has one of the most beautiful beaches I've ever seen (australia has an embarassment of beautiful beaches-- so many good ones that its kind hard to pick, but Bremer Bay was up there, though I think I'd put Cape Legrand out of Esperance a little higher).

[fridayman Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close fridayman]

Aussie outback travel is tough on everything -- we found ourselves tightening bolts on the car, and retightening jar lids in our stores after bouncing over corrugations. . .

You can read about corrugations, but until you're on your 4th or 5th day in a row you won't really appreciate how bad they are. Up on the Savannah Way I would see my bullbar vibrating so much I was convinced that a mount had broken, but everything was still fastened. It took me hours to relax my butt cheeks every night. That taught me never to bother with cheap suspension again.

[Crocodilian Lurker Find all posts View Profile Close Crocodilian]

You can read about corrugations, but until you're on your 4th or 5th day in a row you won't really appreciate how bad they are. Up on the Savannah Way I would see my bullbar vibrating so much I was convinced that a mount had broken, but everything was still fastened. It took me hours to relax my butt cheeks every night. That taught me never to bother with cheap suspension again.

I was never clear just what settings would make corrugations easier to handle. We've got a fairly stiff Ironman suspension, with a lift. While it was great for clearance, the higher cg was not so great when bouncing over a rough track-- the car had a disturbing tendency to yaw. I dropped the tire pressure on some of the most brutal tracks, which seemed to improve it a bit.

Our bullbar shook like you said-- well offset from the lights, but I was still concerned that it would break them.

We did the Savannah Way too-- I'd thought the roughest bits were beyond the Hell's Gate into Borolloola, but then it got worse on the bit between Boroloola and Roper Bar. That's one brutal road.

Everything in the car needed to be tightened-- the vibration even loosened the lids on all our food-- bit of a mess with the jam.

I was frankly pretty amazed that the vehicle held up to it--- pretty good advertisement for a Prado, come to think of it. If I wanted to destroy a badly made car, the Savannah Way in eastern NT would be how I'd do it. Afterwards, not a squeak, not a rattle. Pretty darn good, when you think about just how rough it is.

[Mark from Brisbane Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Mark from Brisbane]

I was never clear just what settings would make corrugations easier to handle. We've got a fairly stiff Ironman suspension, with a lift. While it was great for clearance, the higher cg was not so great when bouncing over a rough track-- the car had a disturbing tendency to yaw. I dropped the tire pressure on some of the most brutal tracks, which seemed to improve it a bit.

.

You want brutal, try the Canning Stock Route in WA, I thought I'd seen it all (corrugation wise) until I did that, holy Toledo it just goes on and on and on for days and was so bad our group stopped about every 30-45 mins to let the Shockies cool down. I have never run into so many broken down trucks and every one had the same issue.....blown shock absorbers!!

The Tanami used to be rough (last time I went through before this WA trip it was) but a delight compared to the CSR,

Probably not the hardest track to do in Australia BUT wins hands down for corrugations (in my opinion) and only because they just go for days and days and day!!

[Crocodilian Lurker Find all posts View Profile Close Crocodilian]

@Mark . . . hope to do CSR one day, but I read through posts here and elsewhere and figured "not on your own, and not for an Oz rookie"

question: did you alter pressures or do anything else for the corrugations? Did it make any difference? I tried dropping pressure, but wasn't too aggressive (went down to 12 PSI on sand dunes, but only to 20 on corrugations); couldn't see much difference. The only thing I noticed was that the car drove them better when it was heavier . . .