Karajini and Ruddall River National Parks WA

The Missus and myself just completed a trip up to Karrijini and Ruddall River NP's in WA.
I'll get the trip report up over the next few days.

With the Patrol packed and ready for its first adventure, we decided to head off in the early afternoon and at least get a few hours up the road. We were on our way to Karrajini National Park for a few days then out to Ruddall River NP and attempt to get to Hanging Rock WA.

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In a typical scene on the Great Northern Highway, we were soon greeted with a couple of oversize trucks to slow our progress. We took the opportunity and pulled over and cut up some firewood from a dead roadside tree. We would be pulling over for the night at Jibberding Rocks, just North of Wubin. I should have remembered that anywhere with Rock in it’s name, is usually a difficult spot to get tent pegs in the ground. The hammer drill soon sorted that problem out and the tent was set.

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We had an early rise and were on our way North once again, nothing too exciting to report. Our second night was spent a couple of hours south of Newman at the Gascoyne river (Middle Branch) There were quite a few camped along the river bank, but we found a spot well off the highway and away from the traffic.

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We arrived at Karrajini National Park around noon on our 3rd day and made our way over to Dales Gorge campground, camp sites are $10 per night per adult + NP vehicle entry fee ($12) if you don’t have an annual parks pass.

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The camp spots don’t offer a lot of privacy, particularly as a recent fire has burnt most of the shrubbery out and it’s all pretty flat and open. No drama though as most of the time is spent exploring gorges anyway. We camped across from these 3 termite mounds and looked forward to the next days adventure.

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We set off early to explore Dales Gorge with the first stop being Fortescue falls, very picturesque, but the water was too cold for me!

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After this we decided to hike along the gorge floor up to Circular pool, when I rounded a corner and nearly stood on this King Brown (Mulga) Snake! Scared the absolute crap out of me, clad in my shorts and thongs which wasn’t exactly hiking fare, I beat a hasty retreat while trying to blurt out the word snake! I’m not sure who was the most shocked, me, the snake, or the missus who got shoved out of the way in my hasty retreat! (I have a bit of a snake phobia)
The snake disappeared behind a rock that was right where we needed to go, so we watched and waited. He slowly stuck his head around the corner and looked at us and then decided we were no threat and he headed across the track and out of our way.

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I shudder at the thought of the outcome of being bitten by one of these so far from help. Once my heart returned to normal we carried on to circular pool:
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Then back past Fortescue falls for a look at Fern Pool:
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The round trip in Dales Gorge takes a couple of hours, allow longer if you’re going swimming, by far the easiest entry is the Fortescue falls end, as it has steps built most of the way, and then it’s an easy walk to Circular pool and back.

The next day we headed over to the other side of the park and started with a wander along Kalamina Gorge. Nothing too spectacular here, but worth a walk. This day I decided to take the sat phone and a snake bite bandage with me, and I wore my shoes, hahahaha.

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Then it was over to Weano Gorge for another beautiful hike, before heading back to camp and a few well deserved beers and bourbons. This would be our 3rd and final night in Karrajini, before heading off in the general direction of Running waters which was around 400k away. Weano Gorge has a spot called the handrail pool, spectacular little area. We had to swim through a section to get to it and unfortunately I went arse over head and dropped the phone/camera, so no pics in this section . We did manage to dry the phone out though using some bags of desiccant from some wraps we had in the fridge.

A word of advice if doing Weano and/or Hancock Gorge, it is advisable to take a dry bag as there are a couple of sections where you’ll be swimming to get through the gorge, the best footwear would be the reef hopper style of shoes, as some sections it is easier to walk in the water, and trust me it is as slippery as bat shit in sections.
The below pics are from Hancock Gorge which we did on the way out of the park. This is classed as a grade 5 hike, so some level of fitness and dexterity is required. It’s really not too bad, but there is a lot of rock scrambling and one little tricky section called the spider walk. I am not fit by any means and still found it relatively easy. This was the best gorge of all and should be on the must do list for anyone visiting the park.

We had to swim this section on the way to kermits pool at the end of Hancock Gorge.

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The below pic shows what is called the spider walk, some fitter than us types like to clamber through here using their arms and legs outstretched on the gorge walls. We just walked through the shallow water,which was far easier.

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Kermits Pool at the end is a spectacular little spot for a swim, it was a bit crowded for us though, as two large tour groups arrived about 5 minutes after we did. Bren got a quick swim in before the hoardes arrived.

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Heading out of Karrajini, we had decided to go and have a look at Hamersley Gorge which is about 100km drive as we also wanted to head past the old Abandoned asbestos mining town of Wittenoom. Despite now being classified as a ghost town, there are still three people living at Wittenoom, I think the government may be battling to remove them.

Hamersley gorge has some spectacular rock formations, and you can see how the rock used to be molten as it flows in waves.

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The whole Wittenoom area is really quite beautiful and it’s a pity it had to be abandoned due to the dangers of asbestos inhalation. Most buildings are still standing and we could here a generator running from one, so we didn’t hang around in town for long, just a brief look and a drive out the old mine road.

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We didn’t feel comfortable staying near Wittenoom, so we headed back off in the general direction of Newman. We found a lookout/roadside pullover with heaps of room for camping about 15km’s East of Auski Roadhouse. This would do us for the night as it was nearly dark already.

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Stay Tuned for more updates.













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Far out Steve mate, awesome write up, awesome pics, thank you heaps, it's made my night :-)! Stay safe mate, keep on trucking you two ;-)

Thanks for sharing Steve,

Fantastic country! Really looking forward to returning there. That last pic is the Albert Tognolini rest area I believe. Great free camp with stunning views. Karijini was very special for us. In all the planning we did in the years leading up to our 'Big trip' many times folk would tell us that Karijini was a 'don't miss' place, but we decided that we should plan a surprise, so always avoided reading or listening to anything about Karijini, just knew we would go there. It blew us away when we finally got there!

Really looking forward to hearing how you went at Rudall River as it's somewhere we are intending to visit. I've read varying accounts - some suggesting it's full on hard core 4wd'ing for experienced folk only & others saying it's quite manageable provided you have a high clearance vehicle.

Glad you like it so far! I am knackered now, so will get some more up tomorrow hopefully.

Yep some stunning country out there, Karajini was really only a side trip for me, as I really wanted to get to Hanging Rock. I only found a few tidbits of information as not many have made the trek out there. The Main North/South Ruddal River Rd from Telfer is a doddle, some soft sand patches, but you'll pull the T-van through there no problem. The 18km track out to Desert queen baths is also pretty easy, just a few closed in spots. The only other real attractions are the 3 pools, (No 11 Pool, Watrara Pool and some other pool I can't rememberthe name of) These are all easily doable and in my opinion they are all far better camps than DQB. These pools are only about 20km away on the Western side of the main track. The track to Hanging Rock, when you can find a track is pretty easy, just shit to push through.

It's really better done as a side trip to the CSR, exit at Georgia Bore, refuel at Parngurr, which is about 80km from Georgia Bore on the Talawana track and head to Ruddall river NP for a few days, then back to the CSR. Other wise it's a long way from anywhere for just a few days.

I've edited just a short section of a Video of the track to Hanging Rock. https://youtu.be/3mvb2F0x_Ao

Ripper Video Steve, reckon you two should go rest now tonight mates :-)
"Good job Lovey"
"Yeah, had to get that f##ker out the way for us"
"You're a Trooper Lovey"
Absolute team effort, pisser Steve :-) !!

Had a couple of nights at some coastal spots a few years back, Kalbari and Cape Peron, always wanted to se Karajini looking forward to having a good explore there.
Thanks for the info, look forward to your next installment.

Really enjoyed the video & your comments about the main tracks are encouraging. (Spinifex vehicle fire risk is something that gives me the heebie jeebies!). I had been thinking of taking the Tvan along the Gary Junction Rd, hanging a left at the CSR & following it down to Georgia Bore & turning right onto the Talawana to Parngurr. Then having a look around Rudall River NP before continuing on to the Great Northern hwy & then going across to the coast via Mt Augustus & the Kennedy Ranges NP. Not sure how it would be towing the Tvan down that section of the CSR (200kms?). An alternative would be taking the Gary Hwy down to the eastern end of the Talawana, but not sure if this would be any easier though.

It'll probably be this time next year before we get out that way though. Am hopeful we might be able to make some connection with folk at Parngurr before we go. I think the Martu people have been organising a walk through country for 'outsiders' annually for the past couple of years as part of their efforts to protect their lands from the uranium miners.

It's just great to hear of your experience in country I dream about. MrsTea even says she'll get out to move scrub like Brenda did!

I don't really think any of it will worry the T-van, we saw quite a few T-vans on the CSR last year, one had a leaking shock, but that's easily fixed if you carry a spare. We'll probably go the T-van path ourselves in the not too distant future.
The couple running the Parngurr store and community, were out at Kunawaritjii on the CSR for a few years, I can't remember their names sorry, but we chatted for a while. Pretty laid back couple and a wealth of knowledge. The missus and I love the solitude of the desert country, although we were surprised to find a few other vehicles out at Desert Queen Baths. We weren't expecting to see anyone out there this early in the season. The missus is great and just gets in and gets it done, or at least trys to help and offers support when my blood begins to boil ;) The spinifex is a very real issue if you are offtrack or early in the season, we checked it every time we stopped. The guy at Parngurr said there had already been a vehicle lost to a spinifex fire on the CSR this year.

awesome report Steve,i have been there also and loved it..we never planned it but want to go and visit a mate in kalgoolie while we were up north..loved the 3 days we spent there aslo...here's a pic of miss 5 at the time climbing out circular pool end

I'll be up that way later this year all going to plan its been too long since my last visit.

Did you get chased out of Wittenoom but the one of the remaining residents? When I last called through there there was still people living there, very eerie place. Drove through the town towards the gorges and then turned around and went back to our camp site in Karijini.

i should add it took along time to get back to the car the other end,she and here younger sibvling was a bit upset not to find the car at the top when they got to it

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Originally Posted by gubigfish

I'll be up that way later this year all going to plan its been too long since my last visit.

Did you get chased out of Wittenoom but the one of the remaining residents? When I last called through there there was still people living there, very eerie place. Drove through the town towards the gorges and then turned around and went back to our camp site in Karijini.

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Didn't get chased out, but didn't like the vibe of the place either. We were going to camp near the old mine, but I said to the missus, the people still in town know we will be down here alone, so I'm keen to head out of here, in case they like our possessions more than we do!

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Originally Posted by stevemc181

Didn't get chased out, but didn't like the vibe of the place either. We were going to camp near the old mine, but I said to the missus, the people still in town know we will be down here alone, so I'm keen to head out of here, in case they like our possessions more than we do!

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yep i have been to a few spots that are to wolf creek even for me...honest

What a great write up and photos.
Definitely on my to do list now.

photo taken of how tuff me kids are.same walk towards circular pool

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Originally Posted by Avo

yep i have been to a few spots that are to wolf creek even for me...honest

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Hahaha, exactly the term I used to the Missus, I also said John Jarret probably lives here!

The second part of this trip report begins with an early departure from the Albert Tognolini (Thanks Cuppa) rest Area where we had camped. This is an awesome little spot for an overnighter, despite the evidence of a few poo tickets around. For christs sake, dig a hole or take a bag for disposal later! We use a Jimmy’s thunderbox with enviro bags, if the grounds too hard to dig, we simply keep the bag in a bucket or the rear bin bag till later in the day when we pass a spot that’s easier to dig and dispose of it.
The old knee’s are too knackered now for the squatting in the bush, I’m in danger of falling backwards into my own crap! 😉 Not to mention, spinifex is damn spikey stuff to squat in!

The view from our camp:

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We headed into Newman and restocked on a few supplies before heading off to our intended destinations for the night. This is a place called Running Waters which is off of the Skull Springs road. Basically, hang a right at Nullagine and head up the road for 100k or so. We camped here in July Last year and it was bloody spectacular, but what a difference this year was with a lot more rain. We crossed a few creek crossings on Skull Springs Rd.

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Eventually if you keep your eyes peeled, you will see a kangaroo sculpture on a hill, the track entry to Running Waters is opposite this.

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I don’t have many pics of in here, but will upload a short video of how wet it was in here. We crossed the springs, which is first gear low range over all the tree roots and river rocks. This is a hard enough drive when you can see the rocks. We couldn’t see anything as it was all still flooded and vastly different to how we remembered it only 9 months ago. We gave up trying to get to the last spot we had camped at and turned around and camped at the only available spot we could find. It wasn’t ideal, but we were out of options.

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We made the most of it and heated up some creek water on the fire for a well needed shower. We generally collect our wood well before any popular camping spots. This trip I thought I’d just take my small 10” Ryobi Cordless chainsaw, it worked a treat and easily handled our forewood load on one 4 a/h battery. The 12 volt charger charges the batteries just as quickly as the home charger, so that’s a plus!

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After dark, trying to cook dinner in here was near on impossible, I’ve never seen so many damn bugs so beer and bourbon and an early night it was.

The next morning we headed off to Ruddall River via the Telfer Mine Road, this is all good road, but frequent road trains can be expected.

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There are plenty of signs telling you the mine does not offer employment or have diesel etc, they really don’t like travellers I think!

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Telfer Gold Mine is a massive operation, but when heading to Ruddall river from this way, you will hang a right near the mine security gates and head onto the main North/South Ruddall River road. There are signs every 5km, asking you to call up your position and direction of travel on Channel 39. I assume as there is quite a bit of exploration going on out here, it is a reasonable safety option. We did the right thing and made the call every 5km’s but heard nothing back, so we were surprised to come across two vehicles stopped for lunch along the way and also a bogged landcruiser towing a trailer. The guy in the landcruiser was struggling along with 30psi in the tyres, but in usual fashion was reluctant to drop them to 16psi when I recommended it. So I left them to it and carried on.

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I didn’t take any pics of the tracks into here or desert queen baths, but will upload a video when I get a chance that covers it all pretty well.

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There is no walking tracking into DQB, but it’s only a brief rock hop into the gorge to get to the first and best waterhole. We had a swim here, bloody freezing but good to get the grime off once again.

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The next water hole is a little more difficult to get to, shoes are recommended! It wasn’t one I’d swim in though.
There is some rock art up near the small caves on the left side of the waterhole as you walk in.
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We initially thought we would spend a couple of days here, but one was enough to do what we wanted so we packed up and headed off for our next destination.

More to come:

‘LV’ - Light Vehicle??
The colours of the country are just stunning in that part of the world!

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Originally Posted by Cuppa

‘LV’ - Light Vehicle??
The colours of the country are just stunning in that part of the world!

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Yep, you'll hear LV a lot on Channel 40 over here, particularly through the highway roadworks and oversize vehicle convoys of which there are many on the great northern hwy. HV and LV are pretty common terms for them to use for trucks and cars respectively.

I've noticed a lot of the Missus photos are a bit washed out taken on her Samsung Note phone when compared to my iPhone, so maybe I damaged it when I dropped it in the water? We really need to invest in a better camera, but we generally just point and shoot. I love the red of the Pilbara and also the Desert Country, the sun in the morning and afternoon can have some stunning effects.

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Originally Posted by Cuppa

Really enjoyed the video & your comments about the main tracks are encouraging. (Spinifex vehicle fire risk is something that gives me the heebie jeebies!). I had been thinking of taking the Tvan along the Gary Junction Rd, hanging a left at the CSR & following it down to Georgia Bore & turning right onto the Talawana to Parngurr. Then having a look around Rudall River NP before continuing on to the Great Northern hwy & then going across to the coast via Mt Augustus & the Kennedy Ranges NP. Not sure how it would be towing the Tvan down that section of the CSR (200kms?). An alternative would be taking the Gary Hwy down to the eastern end of the Talawana, but not sure if this would be any easier though.

It'll probably be this time next year before we get out that way though. Am hopeful we might be able to make some connection with folk at Parngurr before we go. I think the Martu people have been organising a walk through country for 'outsiders' annually for the past couple of years as part of their efforts to protect their lands from the uranium miners.

It's just great to hear of your experience in country I dream about. MrsTea even says she'll get out to move scrub like Brenda did!

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G`Day Cuppa and Mrs Tea.
I dragged a camper trailer the length of the CSR a few years back only getting stuck once, ran tyres at 15psi, I don`t think you would have any trouble with your set up. I spent nearly 5 months, on my own dragging an 1800Kg off road van all over WA last year, and on some of the tracks you mention. The trick (well not a trick) just commonsense, is to take it slowly and don`t be a hero. I also dragged the van up the Balladonia track with out any issues.
Can`t wait for your trip I bet.

Went to Karijini a couple of years ago. Paid the entrance fee and when we drove the 12 km? to the camp it had a sign out front "CAMP FULL". You would think the dicks could have put the sign out on the highway or at least at the pay booth!

Was not happy.

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Originally Posted by BillsGU

Went to Karijini a couple of years ago. Paid the entrance fee and when we drove the 12 km? to the camp it had a sign out front "CAMP FULL". You would think the dicks could have put the sign out on the highway or at least at the pay booth!

Was not happy.

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Bill old mate, if the park is full there is an overflow park near the cultural centre, this allows for a night. I knew of the problem and was in the Que at 8.30 in the morning, was back about 5, so abit late getting there, but had a great site and stayed aweek as there is so much to see and do.

Dales camp ground was pretty empty, maybe 7 or 8 others in the Euro Loop we were in. I try and avoid these places in the peak period if I can.

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Originally Posted by stevemc181

Dales camp ground was pretty empty, maybe 7 or 8 others in the Euro Loop we were in. I try and avoid these places in the peak period if I can.

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It looked quite different when it wasn’t burned out! We prefer ‘uncrowded’. Having a place to ourselves is better still. Discovering wonderful places is just not the same when there are coachloads of tourists milling about noisily.

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Originally Posted by pearcey

G`Day Cuppa and Mrs Tea.
I dragged a camper trailer the length of the CSR a few years back only getting stuck once, ran tyres at 15psi, I don`t think you would have any trouble with your set up. I spent nearly 5 months, on my own dragging an 1800Kg off road van all over WA last year, and on some of the tracks you mention. The trick (well not a trick) just commonsense, is to take it slowly and don`t be a hero. I also dragged the van up the Balladonia track with out any issues.
Can`t wait for your trip I bet.

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Thanks Pearcey, I already do slow quite well, but plan to do it even better in the future! :)

Another short video I've posted on youtube. This covers the track from near Telfer down to Desert Queen Baths. https://youtu.be/yVO8v3_Szl0

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Originally Posted by stevemc181

Another short video I've posted on youtube. This covers the track from near Telfer down to Desert Queen Baths. https://youtu.be/yVO8v3_Szl0

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Ta again. Interesting, nothing there to worry me driving-wise. All the pics I've seen before have focussed on the rocky outcrops & seeing you drive in, it surprised me that it wasn't all rocky/hilly.

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Originally Posted by BillsGU

Went to Karijini a couple of years ago. Paid the entrance fee and when we drove the 12 km? to the camp it had a sign out front "CAMP FULL". You would think the dicks could have put the sign out on the highway or at least at the pay booth!

Was not happy.

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There is also the eco camp ground at the western end of the National Park however this is more expensive than the CALM/DEC/DPAW/what ever its called now

We packed up camp, with one last look at the view from Jimmy's Thunderbox. Gotta love a loo with a view :)

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The objective today was to get to Hanging Rock, we approached this with some trepidation as this is on a seldom used track right through the Mulga and Spinifex country.

Our first stop was at this Pool, simply called No.11 Pool. It's a great little spot about 8km or so West of the main track. This would have made a better camp site than DQB in my opinion. We filled up a 10 litre water container for some shower water later and carried on.

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After another few km's we came to another awesome pool, even better than the last one. Both would be very worthy camping spots. Don't ask me to pronounce the name of this one, but it's called Tjingkulatjatjarra Pool.

The next few shots are screen grabs from the Gopro, please excuse the quality.

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There was a plaque embedded into a tree with a little bit of history inscribed: The inscription relates the story of some prospectors following in their old relations footsteps who had prospected the area in 1937/38 and 39 using camels.

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We headed off to another waterhole along the way, called Watrara pool, but there were a few campers at this one who weren't the most sociable bunch. I'm not sure what the story was, but they were all traveling together but camped well apart, maybe they had a grumpy old mans fight or something? Anyway they weren't keen on talking to us so we left the grumpy old farts to it. Looked like a bloody nice place apart from the people.

From here we had some difficulty in finding the track West, so we back tracked a little and I noticed a small rock cairn trackside. This marked the track we were looking for, so off we went. It was probably around the 2:00pm mark by this time and the track was a pretty hard slog in sections. Heaps of Spinifex and Mulga and we lost the track numerous times. I was a bit concerned at the fact that we hadn't put some sort of radiator blind on, given the height of the spinifex. But we were committed now, so we pushed on.

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After a couple of hours of pushing through shit, we came to a reasonable sized clearing near Curran Curran Rockhole. We at last had a chance to get out and survey the spinifex situation under the Patrol, the crap was everywhere and trust me, you don't want to bury your head in the sand and ignore this stuff. (We were told later of at least one vehicle destroyed this year not far away on the CSR due to a spinifex fire underneath it) I helped my partner Bren, clear the underneath and I then had a look at the radiator. It wasn't pretty, so I cleared what I could and made up a bonnet blind out of some shade cloth we carry for ground sheets. I closed it in under the bonnet and zippy tied it to the recovery points and whatever else I could find below. (Man I love zippy ties)

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After taking a while to clear the spinifex, we decided it was getting on and we had no hope in hell of reaching Hanging Rock today as it was still around 40km of this crap to traverse through and it had taken us over 2 hours to do around 20km's. I was also concerned at our fuel use as we were chewing through it much faster than anticipated. We were thinking of surrendering and turning around the next morning in defeat. :(

I was doing a bit of filming and noticed what I thought was a Dingo just disappearing behind the spinifex. No problems I thought, so we set up camp and got ourselves fed and watered and had an early night. At about 12:30am we heard growling and barking about 10-15 metres away from our tent, now I've never heard a dingo react like this so can only assume it was a wild dog/cross dingo. This thing meant business and my first thought was to listen to see if it was in a pack, luckily it was alone.

I yelled out at it in a pretty aggressive voice, but this only succeeded in making this thing worse! Shit! I thought, we had no weapons, the missus was with me and we were in a thin tent. I've never felt threatened in all my times camping all over Oz until this moment. This thing sounded like it was going to have a go at us through the tent. I ended up clicking the Patrols remote control and flashing the indicators, this was enough to scare it off for now. The bloody thing came back twice in the night at around 2:30am and 4:30am, and it was extremely aggressive every time. Needless to say we didn't leave the tent that night for a leak and it was one of the only times I wish I had a gun with us for protection. It rattled both of our nerves and we hardly slept that night!

So up and outta there once the sun rose, we saw no further signs of the dog, but I am sure it was watching us. We had decided to push on and achieve our objective of Hanging Rock, we were well prepared and we had a Plan B regarding fuel, where we would divert to Parngurr community and top up the tanks the next day.
We had much of the same country to plough through and the odd dry river crossing to cross. It was probably slightly better than the previous days driving, but we still had to search back and forth for the track at times.

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Finally at around 11:00am, Hanging Rock came into view.

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Well, what can I say, it was a long drive to see a rock! but I was totally satisfied we had made it. Not many people come out to this place and the modern day list who have seen it first hand wouldn't be too long. I'll finish off the trip report in the next installment as I need to get some work done now.

I'll wrap up the last section of this trip report which covers from Hanging Rock out to Parngurr then back home.

We had a good look around Hanging Rock and a nice cold beer while enjoying the view. We had intended on staying the night originally but as it was still pretty early, so we thought we would push on.

Our intended route was to head West and eventually make our way out to the Talawana track without needing to back track the way we came in. I really don't like following my own tracks back out of anywhere, admittedly its not bad on a defined track, but if going cross country I prefer to make a new track.
The reason for this is due to the amount of sticks and shrubbery that we have pushed over, and if going back the same way it is all now at perfect radiator or tyre piercing angles.

Anyway on with the story: The next stop was intended to be Tchukardine Pool, but unfortunately we lost the track at another dry river crossing. I only have a few gopro screen grabs from this section.

We followed the track into this riverbed, but we couldn't locate the exit: The wheel tracks you see in the pics are our own as we hunted around for awhile looking for the track.

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We found a spot to exit on the other side and pushed back and forth through some scrub, but we eventually had to admit defeat as we just didn't have enough fuel to keep looking. Reluctantly we turned around and headed back towards Hanging Rock.

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Continuing on our way we ended up driving up the dry river bed we had crossed that morning, this saved quite a bit of time and was a beautiful drive compared to pushing through scrub and spinifex. Unfortunately no video of driving the river bed as the flash card was full and I didn't realise the camera had switched off. We struggled a bit in the sand with the pressures we were running, but it was only about 5km or so.

We had missed this old sign the previous day, but made sure we found it on the way out: We certainly felt lost out here!

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We took a different route on the way back and bypassed all the pools in favour of a more direct line back to the main track. Fuel was the main concern here, as we were gobbling it up pretty quickly in the slow stuff and using around 21lph.

Finally we saw some camels and in the usual fashion they jogged along the track in front of us for awhile.

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We came across a huge clearing about 4 or 5 km's from the main track, and as it was about 3:30 we decided to camp for the night and go through the spinifex clearing routine once again. We didn't take any pics here unfortunately.

The next morning it was a pretty straight forward run back to the main track, where we removed the spinifex blind and headed off towards Parngurr community for fuel. We stopped at the Southern Hand pump, but do not rely on water from here as the pump is missing and out of action.

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We arrived at the intersection of the Talawana track and the road out to Parngurr community: straight ahead would take us to Georgia Bore on the CSR, but alas we had to get home and back to work.

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If you come into Parngurr from the Talawana track for fuel, just head straight down the main road, the fuel and shop is on the right. It took us quite awhile here to get fuel, but that's just the way it is in some of these remote places. $3.20 a litre for diesel, so we took on 90 litres which was more than enough to get us back to the Capricorn Roadhouse near Newman.

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The fuel is hidden away behind the white doors, note this pic is after I did a U-turn and we are heading back the way we came..

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All fueled up and we hit the road and were making a beeline for the Capricorn Roadhouse. We came across a rolled Prado which we only stopped at briefly as we had another vehicle in the distance behind us and I didn't want to be eating his dust.

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I love the desert oak country! This was the first stand of them we has seen for awhile.
The Talawana track was a good 80-100kph run for the most part, with the odd washout here and there.

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Well that's about it for the trip report, we camped just south of the Cappy in a big open area well off the road. Had our last camp fire of the trip and did an 1100km day to get home on Friday Evening. It's always good to get home at least a couple of days before heading back to work.

The Patrol has been well and truly christened and performed well where it counted. She averaged about 16.3lph for trip (4500km's), which wasn't as bad as I thought,considering the roof was loaded and she's running 33's. The Paj averaged 15.99lph on her epic cross country trip.
The Patrol has since had an ECU remap and I haven't done the figures yet, but it looks like it is using substantially less fuel than it was.

Anyway, hope you enjoyed the read.

Cheers,
Steve

Excellent trip report Steve, makes a great read. I notice you log fuel consumption in LPH. Is this a function output from a standard nissan trip computer or do you use an aux flowmeter setup? I am looking at the Scintex Dual Digital flowmeter setup for my GQ and keen to hear from what others are doing. I don't have the same electronic level of sophistication as the late model GU. Phil

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Originally Posted by PeeBee

Excellent trip report Steve, makes a great read. I notice you log fuel consumption in LPH. Is this a function output from a standard nissan trip computer or do you use an aux flowmeter setup? I am looking at the Scintex Dual Digital flowmeter setup for my GQ and keen to hear from what others are doing. I don't have the same electronic level of sophistication as the late model GU. Phil

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Glad you liked the report, I thought I better get it finished while the memory was fresh!
Electronic sophistication isn't what I'd use to describe my GU Patrol. I do use a scan gauge, but its really only used to clear any fault codes and monitoring water temp. The fuel calcs are from actual litres in vs kilometres travelled. My Odometer is also out by about 7.3%, so I use GPS traveled km's when calculating the fuel. It's not entirely accurate as the fill levels may vary slightly when using different fuel bowsers, but its close enough for trip planning.

Ok thanks. I am setting mine up for remote area travel and want to know what range i have before I start heading off into the unknown, and then what fuel rate I am chewing thru it at. The Scintex gear is fairly dear, circa $1200 for dual flowmeters to measure supply and return, then the remote panel. Exactly what I want but doing the research to see if I can get a simple and accurate system for less $.

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Originally Posted by PeeBee

Ok thanks. I am setting mine up for remote area travel and want to know what range i have before I start heading off into the unknown, and then what fuel rate I am chewing thru it at. The Scintex gear is fairly dear, circa $1200 for dual flowmeters to measure supply and return, then the remote panel. Exactly what I want but doing the research to see if I can get a simple and accurate system for less $.

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I usually allow around around 20lph for desert type trips with a lot of slow going, the Patrol has been a thirsty beast since I bought it new in January and she used a bit more than I expected in the slow stuff at around 21lph. I had 165 litres including two Jerrys when I left my last fuel stop, this should have been enough to do what I wanted and get me to Jigalong Community to refuel, which was on the route home. But after a couple of days of pushing through slow stuff, we re-evaluated and decided Parngurr would be a safer option, even though we had to head in the opposite direction to get there. It was around 100km less in distance to get to Parngurr for fuel, but we knew we would get there with spare fuel onboard. There was about 15 litres left in the tank when we got to Parngurr, so if we had gone to Jigalong it would have been nearly bone dry.

I am not sure I'd spend $1200 on fuel metering, just add in a substantial margin to your calcs for worst case scenario and you'll be ok. I'd throw the $1200 into a larger aux fuel tank if you don't already have one. I'll eventually add the larger LRA Aux tank, and maybe the replacement main tank for a total of 215 litres. I like to have fuel in reserve in case of detours, which can be common in the wet seasons.

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Originally Posted by stevemc181

I usually allow around around 20lph for desert type trips with a lot of slow going, the Patrol has been a thirsty beast since I bought it new in January and she used a bit more than I expected in the slow stuff at around 21lph. I had 165 litres including two Jerrys when I left my last fuel stop, this should have been enough to do what I wanted and get me to Jigalong Community to refuel, which was on the route home. But after a couple of days of pushing through slow stuff, we re-evaluated and decided Parngurr would be a safer option, even though we had to head in the opposite direction to get there. It was around 100km less in distance to get to Parngurr for fuel, but we knew we would get there with spare fuel onboard. There was about 15 litres left in the tank when we got to Parngurr, so if we had gone to Jigalong it would have been nearly bone dry.

I am not sure I'd spend $1200 on fuel metering, just add in a substantial margin to your calcs for worst case scenario and you'll be ok. I'd throw the $1200 into a larger aux fuel tank if you don't already have one. I'll eventually add the larger LRA Aux tank, and maybe the replacement main tank for a total of 215 litres. I like to have fuel in reserve in case of detours, which can be common in the wet seasons.

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Steve, thanks for the reply. I have the 147L rear and 70L belly tank already. I am running the Chev Optimiser 6.5L V8 and its brand new so unsure on consumption as engine still very tight. i have found some cheaper units on ebay, circa $500 - $700. Also some really cheap units out of China for less that $50, but whilst the accuracy is acceptable, not all that keen on the plastic body and plastic threads for sealing. I have thrown out a few enquiries to the aviation suppliers who have more robust metal bodied units and these are in the $700 mark for supply and return sender that do the maths internally. Will see what comes back.

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Originally Posted by PeeBee

Steve, thanks for the reply. I have the 147L rear and 70L belly tank already. I am running the Chev Optimiser 6.5L V8 and its brand new so unsure on consumption as engine still very tight.

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Half your luck, I think mine will end up with a V8 conversion in future years, I'm hoping someone starts doing the Nissan Titan Cummins 5.0 litre V8 to Patrol conversion :bananarock: