robbos red centre adventure

[robbos40]

Hi guys have just finished planning our red centre trip for September –October should be another epic trip with the family and jayco camper
Some of the places on the trip will be flinders rangers, coward springs lake eyre , Oodnadatta, Dalhousie springs, mount dare, lamberts centre, chambers pillar, old ghan to alice, west mac Donald rangers, ayres rock and the olgas, back to alice plenty hwy to boulia , Birdsville, day trip without the camper to poeppel corner, then off to Haddon corner, Innamincka, Cameron’s corner, white cliffs, stop at inlaws station at cobar for some for a few days than back home to Melbourne
We have allowed a month get around
If anyone has travelled these roads especially the plenty hwy give us a heads up on what the tracks were like when you travelled them
Or if there is any other things we should look at or look out for while we are up that way let us know
Will be in a well prepped d40 long range tank, lifted, twin diff locks, 2x spares, winch ect ect have sat phone and epirb

Cheers Chris

 

[bullwinkle]

G'day Chris. Sounds like a great trip - I'm planning something similar for this time next year. Heading to the Flinders Ranges next Saturday for a week. Thinking about heading up to Marree and sneak out to see the bottom of Lake Eyre. Just swagging it with my 15 year old son in the Nav - really looking forward to it.

 

[robbos40]

good luck on the trip, just read your up the guts thread you will have to tell us all about the flinders rangers when you get back.
cheers chris

 

[d22dave]

Look forward to hearing about it and seeing photo,s in a few months when you get back, Going by the cold weather around here at the moment i wish i was heading north for the winter

 

[nao]

i did a very similar trip two years ago and has to be one of my favourites..
try and do skytrek while your in the ranges, also a great drive from blinman to parachilna via the back road, easy drive but great scenery and the prairie hotel at parachilna is a must, coward springs is a great base for lake eyre and coopers creek, coober pedy worth a look if you have a couple of days, stanley chasm is a good trip for 1/2 day near alice. personally, i was disappointed with lake eyre, big mud flat with a few seagulls unless you fly over it..

car sounds pretty well set up for it, most of the driving is pretty easy, lots of corrugations along the oodnadata...will give the jayco a good shake up so take it easy, my father in law wrecked his jayco eagle doing the strez..everything came loose and was never quite the same...

few picks below, old than railway line, rabbit proof fence, olgas, stanley chasm and view from the great china wall near the ranges...

have a blast!

 

[RLI]

Hi guys have just finished planning our red centre trip for September –October should be another epic trip with the family and jayco camper
Some of the places on the trip will be flinders rangers, coward springs lake eyre , Oodnadatta, Dalhousie springs, mount dare, lamberts centre, chambers pillar, old ghan to alice, west mac Donald rangers, ayres rock and the olgas, back to alice plenty hwy to boulia , Birdsville, day trip without the camper to poeppel corner, then off to Haddon corner, Innamincka, Cameron’s corner, white cliffs, stop at inlaws station at cobar for some for a few days than back home to Melbourne
We have allowed a month get around
If anyone has travelled these roads especially the plenty hwy give us a heads up on what the tracks were like when you travelled them
Or if there is any other things we should look at or look out for while we are up that way let us know
Will be in a well prepped d40 long range tank, lifted, twin diff locks, 2x spares, winch ect ect have sat phone and epirb

Cheers Chris

Good onya Chris,

I cannot wait for your de-brief.

PS, Post up some photos of your Jayco and your truck!

Regards,

RLI

 

[mitch92]

Would definitely be an awesome trip!

 

[BJ Navara]

Drive the Merrinie loop road from kings canyon to Alice. Need a permit but can buy it at kings canyon. We saw lots of camels and brumby on that loop, great country.

I heard that skytrek in the Flinders was closed?

 

[nao]

BJ, part of the old skytrek was on leased land, lease wasn't renewed so that part of the track has closed in March '12 but owners have built a new track.

 

[terryc]

Okay, I keep pointing out Navara.asia to the Nav owners on their list, so I'll point out their list here, since you own a CT.

Campertrailers.org <http://campertrailers.org/> has a yahoo group/email list where you will find some good recent(?) information on this area and routes. You need to sign up, (but you can turn the emails off) and then you can search the archives. There was also a recent thread on fuel prices, which I think covered some of that area. There should also be threads on Jaycos, etc on rough tracks.

 

[robbos40]

hey guys thanks for the pointers

nao- the pic for standley chasm is awesome, took the jayco to cape york last year and expected it to never be the same but to our surprise the only damage was from rocks, i have made a stone guard for this trip and always run the camper and truck tyres at 25 on the rough roads to stop some of the damage from corrugations

bj - we are going from alice to palm valley via the namatjira rd head west along the mereenie loop to kings canyon and down to ayres rock

RLI - few pics of the camper
looking back at these pics makes me want to go back

 

[robbos40]

so we got back yesterday after 4 week trip all went as planed the camper held up better than the ute
the whole trip was a highlight it is hard to pick out a favourite as each place was special in its own way major highlights were willow springs sky trek, lake eyre north, dalhouseie springs, mt dare pub, lamberts certre, chambers pillar, palm valley, ayres rock, west mac rangers, and there is so many more
didn't end up getting to birdsville and corner country but ended up in winton and checked out lark quarry and the age of dinosaurs museum before heading to cobar for 4 days hunting

 

[robbos40]

few more

 

[robbos40]

and some more

 

[robbos40]

more

 

[rexxie]

So the Jayco held up ok Robbo? I did the same trip last year in a roof top tent and am now seriously looking at getting a Jayco as I want to do the same trip again next year but this time take my kids in a camper, but I want to make sure the Jayco is up to it. Awesome pics too!

 

[RLI]

i did a very similar trip two years ago and has to be one of my favourites..
try and do skytrek while your in the ranges, also a great drive from blinman to parachilna via the back road, easy drive but great scenery and the prairie hotel at parachilna is a must, coward springs is a great base for lake eyre and coopers creek, coober pedy worth a look if you have a couple of days, stanley chasm is a good trip for 1/2 day near alice. personally, i was disappointed with lake eyre, big mud flat with a few seagulls unless you fly over it..

car sounds pretty well set up for it, most of the driving is pretty easy, lots of corrugations along the oodnadata...will give the jayco a good shake up so take it easy, my father in law wrecked his jayco eagle doing the strez..everything came loose and was never quite the same...

few picks below, old than railway line, rabbit proof fence, olgas, stanley chasm and view from the great china wall near the ranges...

have a blast!

G'day Noa,

Great pics!

Regards,

RLI

 

[user 12270]

Looks awesome, would love to do that trip sometime

 

[4 naving]

great pictures mate, thanks for sharing... did you have any dramas with the nav on the rough roads?...

 

[robbos40]

So the Jayco held up ok Robbo? I did the same trip last year in a roof top tent and am now seriously looking at getting a Jayco as I want to do the same trip again next year but this time take my kids in a camper, but I want to make sure the Jayco is up to it. Awesome pics too!

hey rexxie the jayco survived but not sure if i would recommend it i mean its doable but keep tyre pressures down and drive to the conditions and expect stone damage and a shit load of dust. we minimised dust by taping up all the vents and the front and back of the roof the only major damage the van suffered was a shock absorber bolt came off