A New Beginning

 A lot has happened since the last post.

The Landcruiser has gone to a new home, pulling a caravan around Australia, The Desert Sky has also gone to a new home in Western Australia.

The Landcruiser has been replaced with a Suzuki Jimny.

We are buying a Motorhome, a Jayco RM 20.5, it should be ready for delivery by mid to late November. The purpose of the Jimny is to flat-tow it behind the motorhome so that we can have the versatility of a small off-road vehicle and the comfort of a fully equipped motorhome.

The Jimny will be my daily drive when we are not travelling, so the small engine with low fuel consumption will be useful. However, its off-road capability will be welcomed when touring so we can still see those off-the-beaten-track destinations and not have to take the RM20.5 down those narrow and twisty tracks. The RM20.5 is not good on dirt roads, in fact, many say don't go off the bitumen with it. Time will tell.

Trouble in Weipa

We pulled up in Weipa for lunch when a local (Dan) stopped and told me my caravan wheel was faulty. The actual wording he used was a lot more colourful but meant the same. The pic shows the crack in the chassis beam to which the suspension was welded. The other side of the van was also in trouble as only 3 of the 8 welds that held the suspension were still intact.
Dan recommended GG Contractors to fix it. After going through the RAA, GG Contractors brought a big truck, loaded the caravan and took it to their yard. They reckoned I  had about 100 metres to go before it all fell apart.
To cut a long story short, GG Contractors replaced the broken chassis member with a much stronger C section beam, web welded and full length welded the suspension back on, making the van significantly stronger than when it was new.
All done in 3 and a half days, and all paid for by RAA Insurance, including 3 days emergency accommodation.

The Tip of Cape York

The Tip of Cape York, far north Queensland. It has been an adventurous trip with some highlights and some lowlights. Travelling around 5000km so far, we have been on roads not travelled before, been to Hells Gate Roadhouse on the Savanah Way and up to the Tip. Some things shook off by the rough roads, CB Antenna snapped, screws worked loose, clamps on the awning fell off and one of the batteries in the caravan fell out. We got the battery and the cover back, re-wired it and everything worked. Going to get a new antenna from the same place Dave and Bec got theirs from as they lost an antenna too,
We did the 5 beaches 4 wheel drive track from Somerset Beach near the Tip. The Landcruiser did its stuff very well, low range 2nd gear, centre diff lock on and turn-assist enabled so the Landcruiser just went wherever I pointed it. The Micky Thompson tyres never slipped once even though there were steep ascents and descents with some deep, soft sand and rocks.
Heading back south tomorrow, looking forward to putting normal pressure in the tyres when we get off the dirt roads

Karumba

Got to Karumba last night, it is on the southeastern corner of the Gulf of Carpenteria in Queensland. One of my bucket list things to do is to travel the Savanah Way from Cairns to Broome and on this trip, we have covered a new section from a little way over the NT Border through Hells Gate to Karumba. The Hells Gate Road House was a great stop, roast lamb for dinner and a couple of drinks finished off a good day of travel. The road was not the best and we did spend some time cleaning bulldust from the van, it gets in everywhere. Today in Karumba we spent hours filling gaps with silicon, taping over vents and doing some minor repairs to the van. Screws worked loose, a clip on the battery box disappeared and a couple of wires under the van had to be cable-tied to keep them clear from flying rocks. Apart from those minor problems, all is going very well.

Northern Territory

We got the shed to the lock-up stage, a bit later than planned, but now we are on our way. The pic shows the dogs at the NT Border marker, I had to highlight them as seeing red dogs against a red background in the shade was a little difficult.  Staying in Alice Springs for a couple of days to restock etc and then we move on north to Tennant Creek and across the Barkley Highway to Mt Isa.
The internet service is not good so there may be a few days between posts.

Starting out for the 2018 Trip

Starting out for the next big trip, well staring again. We went to help friends build a shed before we set off, but the shed, weather and various other considerations caused some delays. We came home for a couple of days rest before starting out again. The van is at Port Broughton and we should be there for a few days subject to the weather before we head north to the warmer climate.
We have had a few smaller trips not recorded here. A trip to Geelong was a bit of a disaster when the wheel studs failed on the caravan. Fortunately, the RAA Insurance paid for the majority of the damage, and Gawler Caravans bent over backwards to get the van ready for this trip.

Back in The Valley

We had a lot of fun and successful competitors at Townsville trials. Several titles and several first passes at their level so just about everybody got something.
We left Townsville late on Sunday morning and got to the Torrens Creek Pub where we stayed in the free camp at the back of the pub. Just $5 to use the shower and toilet, but the added bonus was we got pub meals for dinner. I had a steak and a beer, Kathy had a chicken schnitzel and a wine. Two big dinners we did not have to prepare ourselves and we got change out of $50.
 I asked the Pub owners about the road condition to Aramac, it was marked as a dirt road on our map. He told us the first 30k was dirt with some corrugations and the rest was bitumen. We were planning to use the dirt road as it cut about 300km off the trip, but being mostly bitumen it saved us several hours too.
Tried the park at the back of the pub next night at Augathella and had another great meal in the pub with drinks for a bit over $50.
Night 3 was a free camp past Cobar so we had to cook our own meals that night.
We got early starts on the way back, mainly because Tiffany wanted to go out at about 5:30 am every morning. We were on the road by 7:30 am most mornings with 6:55 am being the earliest start.
Got home for the fourth night about 4:30 pm despite contending with multiple wide loads (7 metres at the wheels) and the inevitable road works.
The pictures show the lawn when we got home and how it looks after three mowings.