There and back again . . .

[tracemul7]

Hey All,

Just a note to say that we did our trip around The Great Ocean Road and back again :)
We did the following:
Day1: Adelaide to Mount Gambier (via The Coorong)
Day 2: Mount Gambier to Warrnambool (via Portland and Port Fairy)
Day 3: Warrnambool to Apollo Bay (via Bay of Islands, The Grotto, 12 apostles etc and Port Campbell)
Day 4: Apollo Bay to Beaufort (via lake Colac and Skipton)
Day 5: Beaufort to Horsham (via Arrarat, Halls Gap and Grampians)
Day 6: Driving the Patrol around almost every 4x4 track in the Grampians)
Day 7: Horsham to Adelaide

The whole trip was stunning - we had an amazing time!
I'm into photography, so took tons of pics, but the best ones are here, if anyone is interested:
traceyhorricks.smugmug.com/Holidays/Great-Ocean-Road-Trip

The patrol ran really well - with 3 adults and a weeks worth of camping stuff, we were still getting about 500km on 55 litres.
Day 6 was New Years Eve, and glad we spent the time off-road, because the main roads in the Grampians were actually melting in the sun! The temp sensor in the patrol was good on the offroad track, but shot up when we got back on the tarmac roads!! We went over gravel, sand and dirt, through water, over rocks and totally loved it! The patrol seemed to be in her element! She just went and went - no issues at all :D

Every campsite was awesome - the highlight being Beaufort Lakes Campsite. Stunning location, on the side of a beautiful lake. The people were so friendly, and the location was just perfect.

Lucky we put some shade cloth on the front of the Patrol, cable tied to the bullbar, covering the radiator - there were soooo many locusts!!!! The worst was in Arrarat, where they just covered the roads. When we stopped at Halls Gap, there were clumps of them just falling off the car!! Insane!!

Horsham was a little windy on new years eve - gusts upto 75km/h, but the tent was fine :)

Coming home was a little disappointing - after such an fantastic trip!

In Summary (roughly):
2000km,
200 litres of diesel,
1200 photos taken,
30 videos taken,
5 camp sites (total $225 for 3 adults for 6 nights),
$300 in food/drinks taken with us, plus about $150 between us on lunches and a nice meal out.

[Bob]

Great Pics and your Trol is very neat. Glad you had a great time

[Maxhead]

Sounds like an unreal trip, good on ya and glad you enjoyed it.
The trol looks a bit clean tho :) ...lol

[tracemul7]

Great Pics and your Trol is very neat. Glad you had a great time

Yeah - she is very spoilt and cleaned regularly. But she doesnt look bad, considering we just ticked over the 390,000 during the trip :)

[tracemul7]

Sounds like an unreal trip, good on ya and glad you enjoyed it.
The trol looks a bit clean tho :) ...lol

Yeah - it was awesome :) She did get dusty towards the end! 250km round the tracks in the grampians tends to kick up a bit of dust :P
Need to find some more places to go to make her dirty :D
But then i'll take her home and clean her lol

[Dhuck]

Some nice pics. Looks like a beautiful trek

[Woof]

Thanks for sharing your trip with us Trace, love the photos.

[MudRunnerTD]

Good on you trace and welcome back, Glad to hear the trip went well.

[wildgu6]

Glad you had a great time buddy. on my way to check out your pics now.
Great write up too buddy, very informative. Well done.
Planning a trip to the grampians in about 6 months, would be great if you could suggest some good tracks to conquer.

Cheers Pete

[NissanGQ4.2]

thanks 4 the write up Tracey, will check out the link 2 the pics when i'm back from my holidays :) Sounds like an awesome trip :)

[tracemul7]

Glad you had a great time buddy. on my way to check out your pics now.
Great write up too buddy, very informative. Well done.
Planning a trip to the grampians in about 6 months, would be great if you could suggest some good tracks to conquer.

Cheers Pete

Hi Pete,

I'll scan in the map of all the tracks for you (might be in two halves as it's huge and I dont think our scanner will fit the whole lot in one go). These maps are $6 each at all the tourist info places - and i'd highly recommend it :)

I'll draw on the tracks that we took - however there werent any really taxing ones. A few with water across the road, some bumpy bits - but nothing that needed low range. We did put her in 4High - so i still classify it as off-road.
This is her going through a puddle:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rv4k7byjDRA

At one point there was a tree blocking the road, so we had to turn around and head a different way.

There were alot of closures due to the recent rain, and I would suggest if you are going in winter then you may be affected by this too. Checkout the road report here:
http://www.parkweb.vic.gov.au/resources/mresources/Gramp_road_report_31122010.pdf

The trip was fantastically awesome! I loved it, and would recommend it to anyone!

[Finly Owner]

Top photos real calendar shots there. Should try marketing some.

Tim

[tracemul7]

Top photos real calendar shots there. Should try marketing some.

Tim

Thanks :) I might try and get them uploaded to some websites and see if people are interested in them.

[Sir Roofy]

great pics,we live in the best country inthe world from the high country to the coast

roofy

[Bigrig]

Top pics mate - I particularly like the 42 Below bottle holder ... nice investment!!!! lol ..

Thanks for the trip details and pics - takes a lot of effort to do so and it is appreciated!!!

[wildgu6]

Hi Pete,

I'll scan in the map of all the tracks for you (might be in two halves as it's huge and I dont think our scanner will fit the whole lot in one go). These maps are $6 each at all the tourist info places - and i'd highly recommend it :)

I'll draw on the tracks that we took - however there werent any really taxing ones. A few with water across the road, some bumpy bits - but nothing that needed low range. We did put her in 4High - so i still classify it as off-road.
This is her going through a puddle:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rv4k7byjDRA

At one point there was a tree blocking the road, so we had to turn around and head a different way.

There were alot of closures due to the recent rain, and I would suggest if you are going in winter then you may be affected by this too. Checkout the road report here:
http://www.parkweb.vic.gov.au/resources/mresources/Gramp_road_report_31122010.pdf

The trip was fantastically awesome! I loved it, and would recommend it to anyone!

Hey Trace, got together with mate on weekend to sort out dates for Gramp' trip.
Looks like it's moved forward a few months, now looking at late march or april.
Any assistance on tracks would be awsome. PM me if you can help.

Cheers Pete

[tracemul7]

Top pics mate - I particularly like the 42 Below bottle holder ... nice investment!!!! lol ..

Thanks for the trip details and pics - takes a lot of effort to do so and it is appreciated!!!

Haha - I liked the bottle holder so much that I bought the white one too when i got home :) Unfortunately it too contained a bottle of Vodka - so I now have 6 bottles in the cupboard :)
God i love Dan Murphys!!! :D

[NissanGQ4.2]

great photo's Tracey, out of curiosity have u actually made any money hosting your photo's on smugmugs website?

[tracemul7]

great photo's Tracey, out of curiosity have u actually made any money hosting your photo's on smugmugs website?
Nah - I only put the pics on there for showing friends and family. Most go on Facebook now, as almost all friends and family are on there, but I like to put my fave stuff on smugmug (mainly my cats lol).
I am in the process of joining some sites where i can submit pics as 'stock photos' - will see if that makes me any money.

But TBH, it's a hobby, and I'm not fussed about making money. I enjoy 'capturing the moment' . . . . . thats sounds so stupid lol, but I just enjoy creating a picture that will be treasured forever.

[NissanGQ4.2]

But TBH, it's a hobby, and I'm not fussed about making money. I enjoy 'capturing the moment' . . . . . thats sounds so stupid lol, but I just enjoy creating a picture that will be treasured forever.

Thanks Tracey, yeh have often thought about joining various sites and submitting stock photo's, but i'm the sa1me, I like 2 'capturing the moment' so no it doesn't sound stupid at all. I have a digital slr and a video cam, and use the slr 99.9% of the time, Video is just not the same!

[tracemul7]

Thanks Tracey, yeh have often thought about joining various sites and submitting stock photo's, but i'm the sa1me, I like 2 'capturing the moment' so no it doesn't sound stupid at all. I have a digital slr and a video cam, and use the slr 99.9% of the time, Video is just not the same!

Yeah - ditto. Only had my SLR since Sept, but taken about 10,000 pics on it - plus does HD video, so not much need for a video cam now :)
Love my SLR - but just so costly! I want more lenses etc, so it's certainly not a cheap hobby!

[NissanGQ4.2]

Love my SLR - but just so costly! I want more lenses etc, so it's certainly not a cheap hobby!

That's one of the reason i bought the SLR, wanted the ability to interchange lenses, but yeh...most lenses cost more than a twin lens SLR kit these days :(

[whitestickle]

some great pic there looks like alot of fun

[Curious75]

hey guys how are you all? Tracey great pics. I never get bored driving the Great Ocean Road, you always see something different. I just drove Melbourne to Perth via Esperance and Albany. Its truly good fun. I did it in my Commodore which was fine but there were so many tracks that were 4WD only. I'm looking into buying a patrol but I know very little about there mechanics. I know they have a great engine but i'm wondering how many kilometres you get before the transmission and other bits start going south

[YNOT]

If you want driveline strength and reliabillity you won't find much better than a GQ or GU Nissan Patrol. The drivelines can easily handle massive horsepower and still take an absolute punishing. To give you some idea, in last years Outback Challenge Competition Patrols filled every spot in the top ten.

GU Patrols have the same size front diff as the earlier GQ's (known as the H233b), but with stronger CV joints. Unless you plan to fit 35" (or Bigger) tyres, run diff locks and reduction gears, the GQ CV's should not give you any trouble.
GQ and most GU have H233b rear diff. Manual 3.0TD, TB45 and TB48 were mostly fitted with the larger H260b diff. Most people will never find the strength limits of the smaller H233b diff.

There were 2 different manual gearboxes fitted to GQ/GU Patrols. RB30(GQ) and RD28 (GQ & GU) were fitted with a smaller alloy case gearbox, while the bigger engines were fitted with a bigger cast iron case gearbox. The big gearbox can handle massive power and torque.

Auto transmissions are also strong. Some Outback Challenge competitors are starting to switch to (well modified) autos now.

Transfer cases were the same regardless of what engine and gearbox was fitted and again are well up to handling anything you can throw at them.

Tony

[gxr]

Absolutely stunning pics, thanks for sharing.