Australia's longest shortcut

[love_the_life]

Loving it - and the pics are fantastic. What a great trip.

 

[kermatu]

Brilliant trip. Great reminder of what wonderful touring opportunities we have close to hand.

 

[JohnM]

Last night we had a bush camp about 80 km E of Warburton. The delaminating truck tyre and a blown trailer tyre delayed us so we couldn't make Warburton before dark.

I was glad and, in retrospect, I think just about everyone else was too. Some camp oven cooking - including a sensational apple crumble for desert . Dingoes roaming around and glorious stars now that the full moon has waned.





Lovely dawn over the camp.



Morning tea in the middle of nowhere.



A little rain threatened this afternoon approaching our overnight stop at Laverton and produced a nice cloud and truncated rainbow as we motored along.



Sealed road all the way from now. KGI for two nights tomorrow and then home .

BUT on 1 Sept this year's 7-week DONE5 starts .

 

[RB]

Len Beadell survey blazed tree, wild camels, Giles Met.

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When we did our trip from Adelaide to Darwin we listened to a talk that Len Beadell had given-very entertaining speaker. There are a few things listed here that may interest you Our products - Len Beadell Books and Tapes

Really enjoying your trip report

 

[craven morehead]

Chill-out day in CNS today before hitting the track in the morning.

Here's the 4WD transport.

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There's a flexible link between the truck cab and the main cabin so pax can talk to the driver and offsider. A front-facing CCTV camera feeds to the screen - QF A380 tail-cam style.

Seating is very comfortable with good legroom.

Any op-ups in the bus ?

 

[JohnM]

Spending part of this morning in the old mining town of Gwalia just outside Leonora. It's set up as an historical precinct. The big claim to fame is the old Sons of Gwalia mine that was managed and underwent major development under Herbert Hoover in the very late 1890's.

Hoover House has been restored as a B&B. The adjacent modern mine is now open-cut.

 

[JohnM]

More Gwalia.

 

[JohnM]

Any op-ups in the bus ?

They have a good seat rotation policy to prevent 'nesting' .

 

[RooFlyer]

Spending part of this morning in the old mining town of Gwalia just outside Leonora. It's set up as an historical precinct. The big claim to fame is the old Sons of Gwalia mine that was managed and underwent major development under Herbert Hoover in the very late 1890's.

Hoover House has been restored as a B&B. The adjacent modern mine is now open-cut.

Now you are coming to 'my' part of Australia . Never worked at Gwalia, but certainly quenched my thirst there a few times. As for Kal - oh my. Spent 3 years working on an u/g mine NW of Kal (no FIFO in those days.)

Although the pics of The Centre reminded me so much of a school trip I did there, also under canvas. There's a lot that hasn't changed (the Rock, for instance )!

 

[JohnM]

Visit to the KGI RFDS base this morning.

Both their PC-12s were in the hangar.





Looking out of the hangar over part of the GA area toward the mine dumps behind the Superpit.

 

[JohnM]

Looking along Hannan St in KGI and a view of the Superpit.

 

[JohnM]

Travelling through the wheatbelt today. Great Eastern Highway runs next to the Goldfields water pipeline and the trans-Australia railway line.





Back in PER.

 

[love_the_life]

Thanks for the TR. It was great. It looks like a great trip.

 

[QF WP]

Some great shots and commentary on both places I haven't been and had the pleasure to visit - thanks JohnM. Enjoy your DONE5 if I don't see you before...

 

[wooley]

Travelling through the wheatbelt today. Great Eastern Highway runs next to the Goldfields water pipeline and the trans-Australia railway line.

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Good looking wheat crop

 

[drron]

Thanks for the TR of the road less travelled.I live vicariously through these TRs.No way am I getting mrsdrron on a bus tour!

 

[JohnM]

Good looking wheat crop

I knew you'd bite Wooley .

 

[JohnM]

Thanks for the TR of the road less travelled.I live vicariously through these TRs.No way am I getting mrsdrron on a bus tour!

Let alone a 4WD version, I dare say!

 

[JohnM]

I just tried to map the route out on Google Maps but there were too many points for it to handle to get the detail. A PITA.

The total distance travelled over the two weeks was 5393 kms.

The roughest sections of road were on the Mereenie Loop from Hermannsburg to Kings Canyon (not strictly on the Outback Way/Australia's Longest Shortcut: Outback Way - Australia's Longest Shortcut - Home) and from Kata Tjuta to the WA border, but generally roads weren't excessively bad (but I have travelled a lot on dirt roads and am accustomed to them). The air suspension on the gutsy fully automatic MAN 4WD truck handled it well, even towing the heavy trailer.

I thoroughly enjoyed the trip and I'll be lining up for more of this type of thing in the future.

 

[JohnM]

Thanks for the TR of the road less travelled.I live vicariously through these TRs.No way am I getting mrsdrron on a bus tour!

There was at least one guy on the trip whose wife did not want to go - so he went alone . The same happened when I went to Antarctica. Personally, I like a high degree of variation in my travel. Admittedly, that's more easily achieved - and one of the advantages - of being divorced :mrgreen:.

Interestingly, there were seven married couples and 14 singles with equal numbers of males and females. Age range was about 56 to 81 (that guy turned 81 on the trip) and the usual assortment of widows, widowers, divorcees and maybe perennial singles. Everyone was outwardly healthy and reasonably fit, despite a few carrying excess weight. Nobody used any walking aids, for example.

Only about a quarter did the 6.5 km Kings Canyon rim walk - mainly because of the (excessive in my view) warnings about the steep initial climb which is about 400 m. But there are ample opportunities to rest and the path is solid, even cemented. It was a mere Sunday stroll compared with a hike in Patagonia. Quite a few of the pax were a bit disappointed to be told that it was not as tough as they were led to believe. In retrospect, I think a lot more should have tried it to see how they went; it would have been easy to pull out if they couldn't handle the initial few hundred metres which was not a lot different than walking up a steep flight of stairs.

I commonly think that the grading of walks and cautions about them in such places are overly conservative but I guess it reflects the neurotic times in which we live.