During 2010 my major adventure took me from Rooty hill, NSW to Monkey Mia, Western Australia, a round trip of about 11500 kilometres. I towed a 20’ Newlands limited edition caravan with my Prado petrol driven 4 Litre truck. I was fortunate to be accompanied my my lady friend and my 7 year old border collie (Buddy).

Here’s Buddy:

My major adventure for 2012 is to tow the caravan to Alice Springs. So once again I think it would be wise to plan the journey. I have already read that the best (safest) time to travel would be between May and September. Before this period will likely be too cold, and after this period, too hot.

2011 is the time to start planning. I will use the Internet substantially, to make plans, determine where to stay, where ‘Buddy’ will be accepted, must-see sights, where water is required, where petrol is available etc. I will use Google Earth to get a preview of the terrain and “Whereis” for mapping and distances. I would expect to travel between 400 and 600 kilometres per day (depending on how I feel at the time).

The journey appears to be about 2770 kilometres in each direction and basically will cover Rooty Hill, Dubbo, Broken Hill, Port Augusta, Woomera, Coober Pedy (Maybe I’ll get lucky and find Opals!!), then up to Alice springs. Of course I will have to travel a further four hours (there and back) to visit Ayers Rock (Uluru).

It’s a pity petrol costs keep going higher as it just adds to the cost of seeing this wonderful land of ours. I remember when crossing the Nullarbor, I paid up to $1.74 per litre at several road houses!.

In wanting (or more accurately ‘needing’) to keep costs manageable I will ensure my stop overs at the various caravan parks don’t coincide with school holidays and check caravan park tariffs on the Internet prior to turning up. I’ll also stock up on some food supplies. I keep a 25 litre container of water in the caravan for drinking, should the need arise. 

One of the many nice things about the Prado is that it has a mini fridge in the centre console which can hold four 750 ml containers of water or soft drinks (The happy hour beer bottles reside in the bottom of the caravan fridge).


One thing I like doing is creating a spreadsheet for the journey. In it I maintain a calendar of each stopover, the distances travelled, estimated fuel usage and various costs. Last but by no means least I monitor the school holidays for each state I will be in. In the outback regions I also mark where I think I should definitely carry water.


Kudos goes to "Whereis" for their suburb mapping systems; "Google" for providing a mechanism for finding information and various other information providers who I will identify throughout this blog.


I will make comment on mobile reception thought the journey. My supplier is Optus, so signal strength will relate only to Optus. I will also "tether" my Iphone to my Mac Airbook, so Internet reception, unless provided by the carvan park, will also relate to Optus.


I have also made provision to record TV reception at each stop-over point

Well, it is essential that I know where I will be driving (the big picture) so that I can plan the route for such things as petrol, maybe water, provisions, ‘Buddy’ walks and of course, overnight or longer stopovers.

This is a map of the route I intend taking (but don’t hold me to it!).

On my previous trip across the Nullarbor part of the route had included Rooty Hill to Port Augusta. The trip to Alice Springs will be a repeat of this part of the route. Once at Port Augusta my direction will then change to the North as opposed to taking the Eyre highway to the West.

For those interested, the address of the Nullarbor adventure is:

http://strachanaunullarbor.blogspot.com/

I had thought of travelling along the East coast then, at some point, turning west towards Alice Springs, but there doesn’t seem to be a reasonable way of doing that unless I travel a significant distance further North. Anyway, it’s still an option at this point in time. 


The planned route is about 2773 kilometres each way, and I’m guessing the road surfaces will be pretty good. Use of Google Earth will soon tell me if my guess was right or just wishful thinking.

For the purposes of the blog, I will (as I have done in the past) post maps of the individual sections of the journey and hopefully add text, photographs and video as I visit each location to aid memories in my future years to come and to share with those that may be interested.

As for recording the journey, I had perviously used a Windows journal on a PC - very easy. This time I thought I would take my Mac Book Air so I opted for ‘Mac Journal’. I found it difficult to set up almost to the point of buying another journal, but I persevered. I still feel the program is a bit of a “plumbing exercise” but I paid for it so I had better get used to it.


Nope! I finally settled for the Google Blogger program - much easier to use and provides all the facilities I want - Cheerio Mac Journal

One thing I learnt from my last blog is not to number the entries!!!! Every now and again I needed to insert a place, to text or add something, which meant that I had to renumber all the following entries. This time I will simply refer to the entries as “First” and “Next” - A case of once bitten twice shy!

I have covered Orange, Dubbo, Cobar, Broken hill and Port Augusta in my ‘Nullarbor’ blog, however, for the sake of completeness I will cover them again - Hey, I might have missed something last time!

WORK IN PROGRESS

It’s early November 2011 and I have started to think about my Alice Springs journey next year. The internet has already advised that the best time to travel will be between the month of May to September, with particular regards to weather conditions at that time of year. Before May and it could be too cold. After September and it could be too hot. Well, it’s a starting point!

Judging by the information provided by the ‘Whereis’ internet mapping program, the journey looks like it will use sealed roads which is always a pleasure. Later on, I will use Google Earth to have a closer look at conditions along the route.

First of all there is the need to establish the route. This will then enable me to calculate distances between stop overs, determine if there is a need to carry water and provisions, petrol availability and to check that ‘Buddy’ will be welcome at the caravan parks.

As yet, I’m not sure whether to take my portable generator for ‘Free parking’ or even if I will do any Free parking.

My Prado has a second battery fitted to back up the caravan battery, and two petrol tanks capable of carrying 180 litres of petrol and a UHF communications system, whilst the caravan has two 9 litre gas bottles, carries 120 litres of water, a fridge and cooker that can work off gas, mains or battery, a toilet and shower, air-conditioning, TV, microwave, a bunch of CD’s and DVD’s etc (and there is nearly always the good old ABC radio) … I think I can survive on the side of the road for about 4 days without consuming the essential services that is a part of my rig. If you see me on the highway, don’t forget t give me a little wave :)

MY Rig:

Add to this, the huge plastic box I carry in the back of the Prado with all the tools one could reasonably expect to need (and some that really push the imagination!). Spare fuses, rope (The Prado has a winch) and of course, a first aid kit. 




Yes, I think I am pretty well catered for!.