NSW SA VIC. Flinders Ranges, 5500 Km over 12 days

[Corindi]

Day 1
Mrs, Son, Daughter and I left home (near Coffs Harbour) bright and early headed for Ebor Falls to meet up with my eldest son and his GF.
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We took a couple of photos of the falls while waiting to meet up and stopped off for a quick coffee before heading for Dubbo.

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A quick break at Coonabarabran

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Set up camp at City Caravan Park Dubbo

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[Corindi]

Day 2
Went to the Western Plains Zoo for the Day. Kids hired bikes and had a top day.

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Met up with Harb that afternoon and got a few tips about the trip.

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[Corindi]

Day 3
Headed to Parkes to check out the dish. I have always wanted to see it after seeing the movie. Left Parkes after lunch and headed to Cobar where Montana had
invited us to set up out front of his place. Montana cooked us a BBQ for dinner and it was great to catch up again and have a yarn. Thanks for the
hospitality Allan, Deb, Jess and the phantom phone ringer.

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[Corindi]

Day 4
After a bit of a late start we headed for Broken Hill. The country out that way is a real eye opener. Montana had mentioned goats, but we had no idea of just how many of them there are. The numbers must be in the millions as for hundreds of Km if you looked around you could see them. I don’t think we spotted a single kangaroo and only a hand full of emus.

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Once in Broken Hill we set up camp quickly and headed out to Silverton to have a look.

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[Corindi]

Day 5
The start of the day was similar to the previous day with countless goats along the road side. After a while the countryside turned green and it was good to see mountains in the distance knowing that we were getting closer to the Flinders.

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After picking up supplies at Hawker, (where I spotted this modded police car) we headed for Rawnsley Station and set up camp.

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[Corindi]

Day 6
We were up early and headed strait for the tracks. This drive was considered hard and required a level of experience and was only open to vehicles with low range. It cost $33 per vehicle and basically followed the boundary of a neighbouring sheep station. To my surprise the tracks were fairly challenging and low range was needed.

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[Corindi]

Later in the day we headed to see some aboriginal rock carvings at a place called the sacred canyon and then went to the ruins of an old town.

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[Corindi]

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[Corindi]

Day 7
We asked the station managers about how to get a view of the inside of Wilpena Pound and they said the only way was to climb the wall or book a flight, but at $115 per adult for a 20 minute flight the two sons and I decided to get up early and do the 5 hour walk/climb to Rawnsley Bluff. The climb was rated medium although we thought extreme would have been a better description once we got to the hard section.
I stopped every half hour or so on the way up and took photos of the climb ahead and back to our camp.

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This is the boys going up the hard section. The track is well marked by these yellow lines although they are a fair distance apart in places and we found ourselves walking in circles a few times looking for the next marker.

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These piles of rocks are everywhere on the way up. Must be something that rock climbers do ???

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[Corindi]

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[Corindi]

Later that day we headed to Blinman to have a beer in the highest pub is SA and hopefully watch the end of the Bathurst 1000. Sitting at the bar I started chatting to the only other person in the pub other than the bar man I learnt a bit about the area and its history.

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Took a walk with the Mrs and daughter around the old Blinman mine site, it's a fascinating place with good signage showing exactly what went on there years ago.

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[Corindi]

Day 8
We headed south via Adelaide and set up camp at Murray Bridge. It was raining, blowing a gale and freezing cold, so the others hired an air-conditioned cabin for the night.

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[Corindi]

Day 9
Left Murray Bridge around 9 and headed SE. Once we reached a town called Keith No.1 son was complaining about the distance and said he would rather head east to the snow than SE to the Ocean Rd. He grabbed a map of Vic and we headed separate directions. We arrived late in the arvo and set up at Peterborough. It was still blowing a gale, freezing cold and raining but we braved the elements to get a few shots of the London Bridge and this very steep boat ramp.

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[Corindi]

Day 10
The rain had paused long enough for us to get a few photos of the 12 apostles but it was still blowing a gale and cold, so we decided to head North and made it to the border at Albury. Mean while the eldest son had booked into accommodation in Thredbo and was having a great time.

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[Corindi]

Day 11
Heading along the Hume for a few hours we stopped and checked out this misplaced submarine and the dog on the tucker box. Rang No.1 son after lunch and much to our surprise he was only 5 minutes ahead of us on the Hume and we could just hear him on the UHF. He pulled over grabbed a take away coffee and came back down an on ramp behind us. None of this was planned, we just fluked it. We set up camp at Harbs place for the night where UDM had come over to say G'day also. It was a top night and a late one as we sat around Harbs shed checking out all of his toys and sharing stories of our trip.

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[Corindi]

Day 12 was a bit of a let down as we got back to reality along a road that we all know too well. The only vehicle problem we had the entire 5500 Km was my Andersons plug came undone about 400km's from home and was ground down to nothing. Overall it was a fantastic trip and gave us a rare chance to spend some quality time with the kids without all the interuptions that come up when we are at home.

[cruza driver]

Awesome trip report and pics Corindi looks like a top trip had by all. Good to hear the Patrol went well also.

[Corindi]

Thanks cruza. Yeah it took a while to put the 77 photos up, link them and do the write up. I put a fair bit of time into it as to show family, rather than emailing them all the photos. Both patrols went great although we both did plenty of preparation to them prior to the trip. Mine averaged 25.3 litres per 100k's, which isn't real fancy but it pulled up most of the hills on the speed limit without holding up any trafic.

[utedriver]

Great report and pics there Corindi, tHanks for taking the time to put it all together!! How did you find the patrol on the long haul sections Comfy?

Rich

[ROBSKI]

Thanks for the report mate, you and the family would have had a great time. I cant wait to get out and see more of our great country.

Robski

[Harb]

Good one Dave.....Awsome pictures......
Driving back into Sydney that night I was wishing I was going the other way I tell you :(

[Corindi]

Thanks utedriver and robski, glad you enjoyed it. The patrol was very comfy, the LTR shocks seem to soften up when working hard. The only thing that kept the speed down a little was the caravan bouncing around. Going to look for one with idependant suspension and shocks before the next big trip.

[KRUIZA]

Hi Dave. I see you're a Nissan man now :) I sold my Hilux too and was going a GQ but then this 80 came up so I went with it instead.
Great report and pics. I especially like these big km short-space-of-time trips as it shows that even though we can't always spare much time, good trips away are still possible. Cheers

[Corindi]

Good one Dave.....Awsome pictures......
Driving back into Sydney that night I was wishing I was going the other way I tell you :(
Thanks Harb. O'h well maybe next time.... to the cape in april or may?

[Corindi]

Hi Dave. I see you're a Nissan man now :) I sold my Hilux too and was going a GQ but then this 80 came up so I went with it instead.
Great report and pics. I especially like these big km short-space-of-time trips as it shows that even though we can't always spare much time, good trips away are still possible. Cheers


I was going to buy a 100, but this came up and it was a good price so it realy shows my lack of brand loyalty lol.

Thanks mate, yeah, I'm over driving for a few weeks.

[adame]

Great trip report, We've done all of the above areas brings back good memories !!! Thanks

[Corindi]

Thanks Adam

[Smartdigger]

Looks like it was an awesome trip Dave. I knew you would see the light and get a patrol :D

[Corindi]

G'day smartdigger dave. Yes, it was a great trip, cant wait to get out there again. Haven't heard from you in a long time. Yeah, the patrol was pretty much bought for this trip. Cheers, Dave

[syco90]

Great trip report Dave im hoping to go out that way next month for a few days

[Corindi]

G'day syco, how you been mate? Good on you for going out there, you will love it. It is a real eye opener thats for sure.