Trip planning, need your help/advice

So a mate and I are planning a round trip from brisbane through to uluru and back home. We've worked this trip to take 3 weeks and will include a few days of desert 4x4-ing. Ive included a link to a google map ive made of the trip, so im seeking some wise input on how to prepare for such a long trip and especially the 4x4 bit and what to take etc.

So far we've got a pretty good route worked out with an idea of what we need to take (extra fuel, food water, a few spares of a few things, all that kind of thing) Our trip aims to accomplish 3 things; visit Lake Eyre, Visit Uluru and touch base in every state/territory in Mainland Australia. I'm just wondering if there are people out there who can provide some insight into a trip of this length/nature. What to expect, what to avoid, places and sights to see along the way. recommended upgrades to the vehicle before the trip. Any and all information is most welcome, as we're kinda going into this blind. Our actual trip will differ from the google maps link below in 2 ways, we'll take a trip from Uluru out to the WA border and stick our toes over, and we'll also be 4x4 driving from Oodnadatta up to Finke via Dalhousie and Mt Dare.

Link to trip route on Google Maps:
http://maps.google.com.au/maps?f=d&...1358&sspn=21.502458,35.661621&ie=UTF8&t=h&z=6

Thanks!

I would recomend really thinking about how you will pack your camping gear so you can set up and pack up as fast as possible as you will be on the move most days. Then do a practice run on a long weekend a month or more before the big trip with everything you expect to take on your trip and set up and move camp three or so times with a drive in between to figure out what works well and what needs improving.

Cheers

Peter ST_R said:

I would recomend really thinking about how you will pack your camping gear so you can set up and pack up as fast as possible as you will be on the move most days.

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That is some of the best advice you'll get whether you're camping caravaning or hotelling. Chances are you'll constantly refine things but packing so you can get to the things you need as quickly and as easily as possible makes the effort at the end of a long day driving so much better.

I agree with the previous two posters.

The big issue will be where to stop for the night and how you'll sleep. These breaks will govern how much you can do during the next day, and how much you'll enjoy what you're doing.

If you're hauling a fold-out, zip-up, velcro/button/press-stud "I'm an expert in Origami" off-road camper that takes an hour to set up, you might soon get tired of it.

If you're sleeping in swags you'll find it's rather easy to set up, but make sure you take some good surface spray with you. On our first night on our trip to Uluru we stopped just out of Dunedoo NSW at about 10:30pm. I walked around outside the van and discovered a number of greyish-brown spiders about the size of your palm all walking towards the parked van, as if they knew dinner was served.

As for planning - I used a spreadsheet. I would enter in the major rest areas that I'd found in Camps Australia and I'd enter in the towns that I'd be passing through, for two reasons - first, as a guide so I could follow road signs towards that town, and second so that we could do some research beforehand to determine if there was something interesting in that town.

Having created the spreadsheet, you'll now be able to guesstimate where your fuel stops ought to be, and even how much fuel you're likely to use. It's also handy to know where water and toilets are likely to be available (Camps Australia has this info).

I can't emphasise the next few points enough.

TAKE PLENTY OF WATER. It's not so much for while you're driving, the airconditioning keeps the interior cool and when you stop at a servo or store you can buy more. It's for when you're nowhere near a store, or you've broken down, that you NEED water. Food be buggered, the thing that will kill you fastest is a lack of water. Simply don't skimp on this. 6 to 8 litres of water per person per day is vital.

TAKE LOTS OF PICTURES. Even while driving, have your passenger take shots. It will be well worth it later. Take a laptop computer with you and transfer the pics up as often as you have power available to you ($80 300W inverter from Jaycar in the back would help this, plugged in while you're driving = no problems).

DO A DUMMY RUN. Try to be realistic with it, without taking any risks. You could do it in your local area if you were able to. Any time you have to leave your setup to get something you forgot is another refinement you need to make.

DON'T TAKE LOTS OF CASH. A small amount is okay, but most places we stopped at took EFTPOS no worries at all. Less cash on you = less chance of being robbed and losing it all. Keep your EFTPOS card separate to your cash/wallet too, so if someone does the unthinkable, you still have access to funds.

TAKE A GOOD FIRST AID KIT. A couple of decent compression bandages, lots of antiseptic, good tweezers for popping splinters and make sure you have some of that hand sanitiser you can buy from most supermarkets in small bottles (we use the Dettol one in our car, because it's a good trusted brand).

Most of all, do whatever you can to enjoy it. A big trip like this isn't done very often, and if you take the time to enjoy yourself and get enough sleep to make sure that you CAN enjoy yourself, the trip will be a pleasant memory for many years to come.

+1 on the practice run or two or three. We have just changed from van based tripping to Nav & trailer tripping and each travel we are trying different arrangements to optimise stuff. That includes shelf fittings i the trailer, beefing trailer up, etc.

Remember you are going to have fun and enjoy yourself first, so be prepared to screw the planned itinerary to enjoy a good spot.

Lake Eyre will be surrounded by kilometres of mud. Go prepared and/or be prepared to come back another time.

All ths water is going to change a lot of road conditions.

I've got another vital piece of advice for this trip - it made the difference for us.

Before you go (and you MUST test that it works before you leave), have some means of checking weather information on the internet for the entire remainder of your journey.

To prove how important being able to do so is: after leaving Kings Canyon, we had intended to travel along the Ernest Giles Road to Stuart Highway then turn left towards Alice Springs. We would then continue north through Tennant Creek and turn onto the Barkly Highway, passing through Mt Isa, Winton, Longreach, Auguthella, Cunnamulla and down into NSW and the towns of Bourke, Nyngan and then east towards Newcastle.

That WAS the plan. We stopped on the Ernest Giles Road, determined that we didn't want the vehicles shaken to pieces, and returned to Yulara to see the rock some more. There, we checked the weather report - and discovered Longreach was flooded and would be for some time.

We then decided that we'd return south through Port Augusta - a move that saved us considerable time and fuel, because we would have been stuck at Longreach for over a week, and would have had to back-track the entire way, wasting hundreds of litres of diesel.

All because we could check the current road status on the 'net. Here's a couple of sites that help:

DMR - Traffic & Travel Information - Static

RTA Live Traffic NSW

+1 for easy set up tents, water and first aid kit.

permits - be aware some communities have alcohol restrictions, so if you're taking your own alcohol, stay within the travel limts etc. Also, some areas you were talking about west or Uluru and also round Finke may require travel permits from the local indigenous mobs. Check those too. While these seem a pain, its better to check these than possibly get fined. Nothing worse than blowing ur fun money on some stupid fine

Fuel - on my big trips I always take a diesel additive injector cleaner (you know the add 5mL to a tank type). Could be one of those thing you never really know how much it does help, but its cheaps so why not......

Sand - again for those spots round Uluru and Finke you'll be on the soft stuff a few times. A good shovel and something solid to use as a base for a jack if needing to replace a tyre would be handy. Both can be used when setting up camp - e.g shovel for coals in fire... Air down tyres and then pumping up again takes time, so allow enough to do so

Food - good food is great after long day driving round but crap if you burn / undercook everything, esp easy to do in the dark. Practice up if you'll be using camp ovens or gas stoves on ur trip. Its pretty amazing what you can cook with a $20 burner (with the lil aerisol butane cylinders) with a bit of practice. Bonus is practice while your off 4wd'ing somewhere else!! Also, I take a cooking kit that has the plates, cutlery, spices, bottle openers, can openers and other implements in it. Took me about 3-4 trips away to have everything I need sorted into the one box. So again practice will tell you what you need. There are some good "4 Ingredient" recipe books around with some sinmple receipies in them. Worth investing in one.

Water - don't put detergent in your windscreen washer bottle. Can't drink detergenty water if you run out of the other stuff

Sounds like an awesome trip!

kings canyon

I would highly recomend a visit to Kings Canyon after Uluru and then travel the back way through bogey hole to Hermansberg and to Alice Springs. With all the rain we have had up here it is absolutely breathtaking and includes an incredible camp on the banks of bogey hole on the Fink river. I can't recomend this track enough as you snake your way up the Finke river through huge red rock gorges and through heaps of water crossings. All doable without a snorkel(depending on rain at the time) In my opinion Kings Canyon and the finke river is way more remarkable than that over tourist populated hunk of rock in the sand(has to be ticked of the list but) The guys before have got the right idea with regard to gear, just make sure you enjoy the locations.
Cheers
Googs

some of the scenery in Finke
http://www.navara.asia/members/ljac...arious-picture335-trip-finke-nat-park-01.html

me mate got bogged in a creek on this trip til I realised "nah I definately locked the hubs" was a little off the truth......

Old.Tony said:

have some means of checking weather information on the internet for the entire remainder of your journey.

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Have a look at weatherzone
Weather forecast - Australia and world weather - live BoM radar

ljacko78 said:

Also, I take a cooking kit that has the plates, cutlery, spices, bottle openers, can openers and other implements in it. Took me about 3-4 trips away to have everything I need sorted into the one box. So again practice will tell you what you need. There are some good "4 Ingredient" recipe books around with some sinmple receipies in them. Worth investing in one.

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+1 on the gas/fuel cooker (& cook box idea idea), otherwise you will be spending rest/travelling time scrounging fire wood. These days we have a woody fire after evening meal if wood is easy to obtain.

This is the one pot recipe I cook.
Add oil/lard to pot, add spices/garlic/ginger/? then add meat and gently fry to seal it. Aim for lowest heat and gentlest cooking(difficult if windy).

Then add water/herbs and cook some more, then add veges and cook till done.

If you want soup first, use lots of water, drain some off and use to add soup powder/stock cubes/whatever.

If you want to thicken it, try adding red lentils about 5 minutes before done.

The variety is in the combinations. The longer and slower the cooking the better for the meat.

Cool, thanks guys, thats given me plenty of food for thought, How many km/day do you reckon you should be able to cover?

I did 3800km in 4 days and got to see Uluru, Olgas, Devils marbles, Kings Canyon, Simpsons Gap, Finke.....

we were way rushed and would have liked 1 full day at each (more at Finke)..... but it was better than not getting out at all. You got 3 weeks I think you said. depends how you space your visits. Might be ok to drive 800km in a day so long as you can stop for a few afterwards to enjoy the area. Also depends on your passengers.

It really varies. My wife and I would wake around 4:30-5:00am, we'd have coffee and breakfast and be on the road by 5:30 at the latest. We'd drive until we saw something that took our interest, stop, take photos, continue, refuel, have lunch, dinner and drive some more, stopping at 10:00-10:30 each night. Stopping any later was dangerous in some places, because the roos really start moving about at 10:30pm, before then they're still some distance from the road.

Travelling like that, we could cover 1,000km a day. More extensive stops and we'd only manage 700km a day. On our return trip, we were on a real mission, and drove from just south of Coober Pedy to a rest area east of Balranald, about 1,600km in a single day. We had tried two earlier rest areas - the first one smelt badly of human excrement and the second one (Abbotts Tank) was tiny and had no level area at all.

While we do enjoy these drive-and-see-what-you-can trips, we also enjoy the exploring side and will return to most of these places in time to come and explore them more fully. We didn't give Coober Pedy much of a chance, to be honest - it looked dusty and dry and inhospitable, so we didn't bother much with it, but we are determined to go back.

Excellant tips there from everyone. Even though i've done a lot of travelling, i have found reading many of the tips reinforce my own thought patterns, and have even learnt a couple more tips too.

Good stuff.

We went to Ayres Rock, Kings Canyon & the Ulgars in 2004. The rock is the greatest site when driving up to it from a distant and the closer u get, its just amazing, photos don't do it justice IMO and different colors at night are amazing and the climb is something u will never forget. Kings Canyon is magnificent, when going there u must do the rim walk, take plenty of water and good shoes. Around Alice go to the desert park, school of the air and Palm Valley, good 4x4.

Oodnadatta is a pooh hole, but u must say that u have been to the Pink Roadhouse, the road to Dalhousie is a bit ordinary but the trip is well worth it. The springs are a constant 38 degrees, you can't swim there in the middle of the day but at night it is fantastic and watch out for the little fishies that nibble at you when swimming.

If you have the time stop in at William Creek Hotel and Cadney Homestead.
Camerons corner is another great spot to put your feet up for a couple of nights.

If your taking a camper you will have it down pat in a few nights, out first couple it took us about 15-20 minutes but 5 nights later we were putting it up in about 5 minutes, one nighters it stayed hooked up to the nav for easy and quick take off the next morning.

As a mechanic i took everything bar the kitchen sink, spare alternator, shockers, bearings, electrical gear to sink a ship, you name it i had it, mates reckon i'm over cautious, i believe if u can fit it take it.

All this with 3 kids in tow.

Mate , whatever u do, where ever u go its a great experience and one u will never forget.
What u miss this time , u will catch up the next time


If you are going around June/July i would recommend booking at Alice as it gets very busy that time of year with school hols and nomads.

Have a great time and don't rush it.

Cheers,

Lance

excellent, i've had a bit of a rethink about our trek and i personally want to take it at a slower pace than what i'd set out earlier
here's a google map link to my revised trip, please let me know what you think, again this is to be done with in the 3 week time limit. I've only just emailed this off to teh other driver on the trip to get his opinion on the changes, so we still don't have a set route.
Brisbane QLD to Brisbane QLD - Google Maps

thanks guys!

That looks like a good trip! You are going so close to the corner of Qld/SA/NSW that you might as well take a diversion for the photo op!

nice trip. I'd consider going from Mt Isa to Sandover. Good dirt road. Not much between Camooweal to Tennant Creek to look at unless you want to travel along the old Barkly Highway (was built by OZ and US army in WWII as at the time there was no sealed road between Mt Isa and Darwin and would have been a prob if Japan invaded). But its flat and straight for a long long way. There's also a route down from Camoweal to Sandover if you're brave!