Outback QLD - SA - VIC - NSW - 8500km

2jz929

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Jul 18, 2009
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CQ AUS
Well I know its in a Patrol, but did a big trip over Christmas. Absolutely awesome to travel in. Done a few trips in it now, including Fraser Is and Cape York. It now has a few more mods - its now got a 3" lift, roof rack and roof top tent, a FMIC and about to get a big turbo upgrade.

Anyway, as the for trip, this is just a skim over of where we went and what we did but the gist of it we went from Central QLD through Outback QLD and NSW and through Broken Hill down into Adelaide, then around the bottom doing Robe to Beachport, Great Ocean Rd, Wilsons Prom, VIC high country, Blue mountain, Stockton beach then home.

This is cut and paste from another thread:

Took this thing on a 4 week trip over the school holidays. Only traveled 8500km but saw a hole lot of things. Here's a quick run through.

Left Middlemount (Central QLD) and drove to Adelaide in 2 days, covering 2250km. All the roads out to Barcaldine were shut so went the Dawson developmental rd from Springsure to Tambo (270km of dirt) which still had water over the road in a lot of places.

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Then instead of going the long way from Bourke to Cobar to Wilcania we drove roughly 350km of dirt following the Darling River, going through some once popular small towns such as Louth and Tilpa.

Crossing the Darling
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Once in Adelaide we did some tourist stuff such as the Barossa valley, Glenelg, Victor Harbour, National Car Museum, Hahndolf etc, and saw the twenty20 big bash vs melbourne.

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View from Granite Is.
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We then left Adelaide and drove to Robe, where we went from Robe to Beachport along the beach and sand dunes rather then the highway.

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Sunsets over the water when you are used to the east coast is a novelty.
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Living the life with beer, bacon and eggs for breakfast
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Then went to Mt Gambier where we checked out the blue lake the and sink hole.
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Camped somewhere over the Vic/SA border
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I think this is the Cape Nelson lighthouse
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Some pictures from the great ocean road. We had perfect weather which helped the pictures turn out well.
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Bay of Martyrs
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Londons Bridge
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The Arch
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Some gorge i cant remember the name of.
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12 apostles
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Me and the mrs in some rainforest walked which was very boring.
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Bells beach
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Camped
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Then caught the Queenscliff ferry across to bypass Melbourne and went to Phillip Is.
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Then off for a nights stay at Wilsons Prom National Park
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Then into the Vic High Country. From memory we went from Licola, up Howarts Rd, down Zeka Spur track, along Woonongatta Rd to the station, out through Herne Spur track, along Cynthia Range track, down Eaglesvales, Up Billy Goats Bluff track, then to Dargo. From there went to Omeo, then back down the coast to Lakes Entrance, then straight back up to the Snowy River. Went out to see Mckillops Bridge also.
Lots of great camping in the High Country, and fantastic long clear creek crossings. Unfortunately none of which were photographed.

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We then did the 13km round walking trip to the summit of Koscioszko
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I hadnt seen snow before.
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From there went to Canberra (taken from in front of the war memorial.
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Then to Bathurst for my lap of the track and have a look at the museum
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From here to the Blue Mountains
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Then to Stockton beach for a couple of nights before making our way back home.
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This is a very brief report of the trip. We didn't take photos of everywhere we went and to write everywhere would be a huge task. But that is pretty much the gist of it. Problems on the trip were a hole in the exhaust (which is now has a nice new one with a straight through muffler instead of the crappy tri-flow), and i wore the brakes out in the high country.
 
Great trip report & pics 2jz929 :raz:

Looks & sounds like you had an awesome time, with great weather to match aswell :biggrin:

Regards
Mr Turbo
 
A most excellent report, and photos!!!:cool:

Looks like y'all had a fantastic time. Congrats on seeing your first snow.:ebiggrin: Patrol is looking great too.
 
Yep, I just got a serious case of "trip envy"!

And I'm starting to regret our decision not to return to the high country for the snow season - it's a high country thing that you'll only understand once you've spent some time up there - it's always calling!

Cheers

Bennie
 
Yes, nicely done & thanks for sharing!
 
Yessum

Serious trip envy over this way, too. Thanks for posting all that - much appreciated. What an awesome run. Nice rig you've got there, too. Very well sorted. Do you think a Forester could have got most places you went?
 
An auto forester would have been able to do everything except a couple of deep water crossings in the high country, but you would want a lift and sump guard for billy goats bluff. Unfortunately a manual wouldnt have had a hope on some of the steeper inclines as i spent a fair bit of time in low first. All the sand driving would be no dramas, the foresters eat that up.

The main thing that makes the forester less suited to long range solo touring is the lack of space (things like second battery, fridge, draws, fuel range) and lack of self recovery such ad winches if you get into trouble.

Having said that though, you go where you know you can and all is sweet.
 
Oh and thanks for the comments, looking forward to being on the road again when we do the cape and simpson this year.

Hardest part is coming back to reality :(
 
Some gorge i cant remember the name of.
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I think that's Loch Ard Gorge. I'd be jealous enough that you had good weather along the GOR when I had nothing but gray skies for 6 days but your whole trip takes the cake.
 
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