Originally Posted by
Cuppa
Tim, if you will have internet on your trip, a thread reporting on your progress as you go would be great. Sounds like a top trip. I'm especially interested in the Arnhemland sction. If not a report on your return, (with plenty of pics of course). Whilst the rest of us will enjoy it, it also gives you a great record to look back on. You think you'll remember it all, but it's amazing how much gets forgotten. Keeping the blog of my 'Big trip' was a chore at times, but it's so good to have it now.
I know folk do take Tvans up & down the Canning, & maybe we will another time. I think it's all about weight, & because we are set up for indefinate solo travel we are not light. My thinking was to shed as much weight (comfort) as possible, using the Tvan to store it in. It's probably wise to get a good idea of how the vehicle & Tvan go in all conditions, which the trip I'm thinking about will do. If I am confident that I can manage the Canning with the van enjoyably then we'll do it, possibly even on the return leg from the Kimberley. The thought of having to reverse down dunes with a van attached is not what I think of as enjoyable, would be different if travelling with someone who could snatch us if needed. Yes we could carry a sand anchor, but that sounds like hard work. I'm fairly confident that with low tyre pressures & solo the patrol would just potter over the dunes at low revs without trouble. I've read several accounts of folk with trailers of different sorts who managed, but with far greater stress on both vehicle & it's occupants. I know suspension wise the Tvan is as good as it gets, but as yet I'm unsure of the type of dune crossing style I'd need to adopt with the van in tow. My preference is to use engine torque & low speed, rather than momentum based approaches. One account I read a bloke reported that there were two types of travellers on the Canning. The relaxed folk who when you met them talked of what they had seen & enjoyed, & those who's primary interest was 'how steep is it going to be'?. The latter were invariably trailer towers.