My wife suggested that while we're in the area we might want to visit Mt Augustus, seeing as how it's the largest monolith (larger than Uluru). We were bloody impressed by Uluru, I can't imagine what this one will do.
The trick will be staying there for a couple of days, so that a proper exploration can be made. I've also added Exmouth and Meekatharra.
I still need to explore the route and these places more fully to make sure that we can carry enough fuel and restock food and ensure that we are aware of fruit fly exclusion zones etc.
The
modified map (which has no overnight stops marked for the trip beyond Denham WA) shows that the circular trip from East Maitland meeting point is about 11,500km.
I rang Nissan, they said that we should book our car in at the dealer nearest the 10,000km mark so that it gets a service - that's going to be Adelaide/Port Augusta.
If we're still in convoy that means a fair amount of business - and an overnight stop - in the City of Churches. I'll get their number and we can book that in on the return leg.
Fuel cost: with 11,500km to cover and estimating an average of 18LPHK (to be safe), we should consume 2,070 litres of diesel for this trip - about $3,000 if fuel stays around $1.50 per litre mark. I'm going to put aside $4,000 for fuel.
Food: this trip looks like taking a full 3 weeks of driving. Add two days at Denham, another 2 days at Mt Augustus & a day in Adelaide for servicing vehicles and we're looking like close to a full month on the road. There's no way we can carry food for that long, so there will have to be shopping trips which will further slow things down, but thankfully each day's journey isn't hugely long, leaving some room for doing this and still making the destination goal each day. If we budget $20 per person per day for food (that's all meals and drinks) that's $600 per person, I think I'll allow $1,000 for that just in case.
Water: as I said before, I'll be swapping out the two 59L tanks we currently have and installing a pair of 82L tanks. I am now thinking that in order to keep as much fresh drinkable water with us as possible, I'll fill both of these tanks at home and bring a 25L jerry can for water that we can use for showering and washing dishes. This guarantees good quality water for at least most of the trip - 164L should last us a while, anyway. I've very, very fussy with water and if I don't like the taste of it, I won't put it in my coffee (or my water tanks). Worst case, of course, we can always buy bottled spring water.
I'm thinking it might be beneficial to have two separate threads for these trips - one for the road team and one for the desert team. Whether we converge for the trip back through to Mt Augustus or not doesn't matter - the two primary trips require considerably different planning and equipment.
It'll be an adventure and a half and one we'd remember for the rest of our days. Primary cost of the trip is $5,000 plus a service before and during plus any repairs that may be needed. If you said $10,000 for the journey you'd have enough to buy some decent souvenirs as well.
