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Post by Chips on Jul 11, 2008 17:04:47 GMT 9.5
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Post by thelion on Jul 11, 2008 17:38:34 GMT 9.5
chips dont forget that I also drove from Melbourne to Adelaide as well. Has been an eventfull day today as well had to Register the car in the Northern Territory as the Victorian registration was to run out on Sunday night. That entailed some minor repairs (Lefthand rear vision mirror) and a good clean to get rid of the bugs from the trip before they dried. Also had to get a LPG gas system check and a full Roadworthy at the Government run pits. Have new number plates ans well as the paperwork. Will tell about the trip later as I am exhausted still and mt grand daughter will be here in a few minutes.
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Post by Chips on Jul 11, 2008 20:08:32 GMT 9.5
Melbourne to Adelaide was practice and anyone would be glad to get away from there. Take your time my friend but the members want to hear about your trip.
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Post by thelion on Jul 12, 2008 1:10:10 GMT 9.5
I will start slowly we were woken at 3 am by Chips had some coffee and left around 4ish went north up the Main Sth Rd ont the clever little freeway that changes direction. It was a little foggy and very cold. Just the other side of Semaphore Park we filled up with fuel and continued on, the traffic was light. Had a good run up to Port Augusta and had Breakfast filled the car up with gas and continued at a good pace with nothing slowing us down. We filled up again at Pimba near Woomera grabbing a bite to eat as well and continuing on to Coober Peedy. We arrived there and filled up with Gas (LPG) also getting some food and drinks and pressing onward. Of course on the side of the road there were plenty of dead animals and crows everywhere. As we went further North however there were an increasing number of Wedge Tailed Eagles some of which were huge. We came across one fellow who had hit one and it made a terrible mess of his car with the windscreen being smashed and the roofline of his van dented as well. Made me think and watch these Magestic birds in a more warily manner. As we travelled we came across more grey nomads (they are retired people who are driving around the country usuallly in a camper van (Winnebago) or towing a caravan, these people while wonderful are effectively mobile shicanes for those people who are seriously travelling and truck drivers driving road trains, but fortunately the roads are generally good, flat and they are easy to pass. Whilst travelling we passed some absolutely breath taking sights with huge Salt lakes which at the moment actually have water in them.
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Post by thelion on Jul 12, 2008 1:26:07 GMT 9.5
We continued North and crossed the NT border with the sun setting shortly after we left Kulgera. The original plan was to actually stop near Coober Peedy but the travel was so easy that I continued on then I said to Stephen that we would camp at the Finke River which is the Oldest River in the World. As we arrived there there was literally hundreds of people with several buses full of school children camping as well as several dozen camper vans and Caravans there as well. I decided to press on to Alice to my back-up sleeping arangement on top of Anzac Hill. We had dinner and went of to Anzac hill That to was crowded so I decided that we would press on and camp on the tropic of Capricorn which has a Large Parking area as well. It seemed that the Kangaroos North of Alice were getting thicker and it got to the stage where there were literally dozens of them. Just before The Tropic of Capricorn I had to stop because there were that many of them just literally standing in the Middle of the Highway. Thes Kangaroos by the way were Big Red Kangaroos the biggest Kangaroo species some of which are up to 6 foot tall. Hitting them causes great damage to a car usually taking out the Radiator as well as huge dents and sometimes even the Windscreen landing inside the car injuring the occupants.
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Post by thelion on Jul 12, 2008 1:37:37 GMT 9.5
We arrived at the Tropic of Capricorn and it to had alot of people camped there but this time I decided that it was time to stop notwithstanding that I was tired the Kangaroos were becoming seriously dangerous.
While there were quite a few people there we actually found a car parking place of note:
Right on the actual Tropic of Capricorn.
Stephen slept on the Backseat in the subtropics and I slept in the Passenger seat with it layed back. I had my head in the subtropics with my heart right on the line and my legs in the tropics. It however was very cold with Alice Springs having a low temperature about 2 degrees C. or about 35 degrees F. We did however have plenty of wark Blankets etc with Stephen only complaining of Cold Feet. The kangaroos were so thick that in the middle of the night I had to get up for a toilet break and when I got out of the car I heard the thump thump of several Kangaroos hopping away and it was very dark as the moon had already set. The thumps however were VERY close. We woke up just before sunup and left when the Sun rose and it was possible to see.
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Post by thelion on Jul 12, 2008 1:44:33 GMT 9.5
We picked up some Bacon and Egg sandwhiches in Aileron and I decided that I wouldnt fill up with gas as the next town was in easy reach a bit of a mistake because the next town and the town after didnt have Gas facilities at all. We travelled on to Tennant Creek having travelled from Alice Springs to Tennant Creek on one tank of Gas a distance of 520 Km well at least according to the odometer. (I still had a full tank of Petrol so it was not a real problem just one of economics).
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Post by Willow on Jul 24, 2008 20:35:46 GMT 9.5
sounds like a great trip - I'd love to drive to Darwin with lots of stops on the way!
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Post by thelion on Jul 24, 2008 23:08:52 GMT 9.5
The vast distances between towns are the Problem. There are some wonderful sights on the road but sometimes they are hours apart. Sizeable towns in some places are more than 500 kilometres apart and what looks like a town on the map is just a petrol station and thats all.
That is not to say that the experience is not worth it because it is. If I was doing the trip as a tourist with a mobile home or similar actually wanting to visit all the attractions etc It would be a several week trip.
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Post by clifftimmons on Jul 24, 2008 23:11:27 GMT 9.5
Oh! I love driving. That would be a blast. "If I could keep the vehicle on the left side of the road." <grin>
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Post by thelion on Jul 24, 2008 23:31:08 GMT 9.5
In years gone past I have driven on this road a t speeds in excess of 120 MPH for literally hours on end. In those days I drove with one eye on the Road and the other on the temperature and fuel gauges. This trip had brief spells up to 100 MPH but the majority was in the 80 MPH range and in SA about 70mph
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Post by Epi on Jul 25, 2008 5:01:03 GMT 9.5
Oh! I love driving. That would be a blast. "If I could keep the vehicle on the left side of the road." <grin> When you drive up North it doesn't matter which side of the road you drive on.
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Post by Willow on Jul 25, 2008 9:19:57 GMT 9.5
The vast distances between towns are the Problem. There are some wonderful sights on the road but sometimes they are hours apart. Sizeable towns in some places are more than 500 kilometres apart and what looks like a town on the map is just a petrol station and thats all. That is not to say that the experience is not worth it because it is. If I was doing the trip as a tourist with a mobile home or similar actually wanting to visit all the attractions etc It would be a several week trip. Sounds like heaven!
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