Remote trips - Places to go

How about folk posting up some info (?description, directions, map, camp spots, links, videos, photos etc ?) about the remote trips you have undertaken or want to?

I’m ‘collecting’ this sort of info for our future travels, & a thought that perhaps a thread like this could become a resource to others too.

Just this morning I was looking at & dreaming about the Munja Track, the Karunjie/King River Track & the Carson River Track in the Kimberley.


First hand accounts particularly welcome. Could even get competitive to see who has been the most remote! ;)

They say that some relics from Leichhardt are still out there to be found.
My friend Ron Moon has done a few expeditions to very remote outback locations.
Never heard him mention any roads thoughs ,,,,it was all cross country with
GPS co-ords from old journals, and finding blazed trees along the way.
Must be still some lost part of our history waitng to be found,


@ Cuppa my mate Phils great grand father is Alfred Canning,
Ive also emailed Ron to confirm a few spots yet to be found

Ive received a reply from Ron there is a book called "where is Dr leichhardt" by Darrell Lewis.
An engraved butt plate from a rifle was found mid 1800s
http://www.nma.gov.au/collections/hi...ardt-nameplate
They are yet to find the good Doctor, a good starting point is the bottom
end of Sturt Creek and around Lake Gregory

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Originally Posted by Cuppa

How about folk posting up some info (?description, directions, map, camp spots, links, videos, photos etc ?) about the remote trips you have undertaken or want to?

I’m ‘collecting’ this sort of info for our future travels, & a thought that perhaps a thread like this could become a resource to others too.

Just this morning I was looking at & dreaming about the Munja Track, the Karunjie/King River Track & the Carson River Track in the Kimberley.


First hand accounts particularly welcome. Could even get competitive to see who has been the most remote! ;)

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Hi Cuppa
Preparing for trip to Kimberleys via Cunnamulla, Innamincka, Birdsville, Birdsville Track, Oodnadatta Track, Alice, Gunbarrel, then to Carnarvon and then do tourist thing up the coast to Gibb River Rd. Leaving late April and be back home in October for annual trip to Fraser. Will start a new thread when I leave.

Cant tell you, its secret business.

Don't want the place to end up like George Street, or Bourke Street for you southern chappies.

Looking forward to reading it Wiz, (& seeing the pics of course). I'm envious.

Coincidentally with a bit of a lull in the shed building project I've been pawing through the maps over the past couple of days & talking with my wife about where our first big trip might be.
We are now thinking in terms of leaving in April 2017 with no fixed return date (Unless we have everything sorted in time for a Tassie trip before then).

We were thinking up the Oodnadatta, continuing on to Alice via the Old Andado track, the Phillipson Stock route & the Old South Road, taking in Chambers Pillar & Rainbow Valley.

West from Alice via Hermansberg, Palm Valley & Boggy Hole. Maybe spend a bit more time camping & exploring around the lesser visited parts of the West Macs, before pushing westward along the Gary Junction Road until it intersects the Canning Stock Route.

We want to travel the CSR, but feel that whilst the Tvan will manage it ok, we'd prefer to do it easier with just the Patrol, which would mean leaving the Tvan somewhere with a trip of 2000kms+ to return to pick it up. So for our first trip & to get some desert miles under our belts we thought we'd basically continue west & leave the Canning for a specific trip later, leaving the Tvan at home.

Once reaching the Canning we could cross it & continue on Wapet Rd & Telfer track to Marble Bar via Punmu, but have heard read that the Talawana Track which runs along the southern side of Karlamiliyi NP (Rudall River) which has long held a reputation for being a little used, overgrown, washed out, heavily corrugated track which no one in their right mind would choose to drive on was graded last year & is being maintained because of a mine south of Parngurr somewhere. Pargurr community are now offering a fuel service to folks travelling the Canning as an alternative to the Capricorn fuel dump at Georgia bore.

So turn left at the CSR & travel south from Well 33 to Well 22, turning west onto the Talawana track at Georgia Bore. 83kms to Parngurr & a bit further into the NP. West from there to Newman via Jigalong.

From Newman south on bitumen for a bit & then west across country via Burringurrah (Mt Augustus) & the Kennedy Ranges NP to Carnarvon on the West Coast, followed by some coastal relaxing & fishing in the Francois Peron NP & Ningaloo Station for a few weeks, before heading North east via Panawonica & Milstream Chichester NP to Karijini for our second visit. Maybe Carawine Gorge too, folks tell me its a nice place to relax for a while.

After that North to the Kimberley where we hope we might find a house sit for the Wet, ready to explore the north kimberley & across the Gibb as soon as it opens early in the Dry.

All still open to change/refinement, but it's been quite good fun pinning something down. It's a bloody big country eh?

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Originally Posted by macca

Cant tell you, its secret business.

Don't want the place to end up like George Street, or Bourke Street for you southern chappies.

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I already know..... I'm a mind reader don't ya know. :)

Ps. What's the Canning like between Well 33 (Kunawiritji) & Well 22 (Georgia Bore). Reckon we'd go alright with the Tvan in tow?

CuppaI, I followed 2 Tvans down the Canning in 2008, they did it mostly easily, only needed snatching in a couple of places. Lower tyre pressures migh have gotten them over. I reckon a sand anchor would see you through OK.

We are going up through Birdsville to the Gulf, Arneham Land, various NT national parks Ayres Rock and home via the Oodnadatta track and the Flinders for 4 months from late April. Doing it with the 4WD Club, can't wait :)

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Originally Posted by TimE

CuppaI, I followed 2 Tvans down the Canning in 2008, they did it mostly easily, only needed snatching in a couple of places. Lower tyre pressures migh have gotten them over. I reckon a sand anchor would see you through OK.

We are going up through Birdsville to the Gulf, Arneham Land, various NT national parks Ayres Rock and home via the Oodnadatta track and the Flinders for 4 months from late April. Doing it with the 4WD Club, can't wait :)

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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.

The very reason the GQ is getting a hubs up rebuild is for trips such as these.
Alas I am still a year or two off actually going. Colour me green. sob sob.

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Originally Posted by Cuppa

I already know..... I'm a mind reader don't ya know. :)

Ps. What's the Canning like between Well 33 (Kunawiritji) & Well 22 (Georgia Bore). Reckon we'd go alright with the Tvan in tow?

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I'll pour over the map later and let you know. From memory there are a few larger dunes all in a straight line for 20 odd klm. Think it might be south of 22.

Low pressures could be ok with your set up. An run down and back to 17 / Durba Springs would be a nice trip. They are outstanding places to visit. Allow 2-3 nights at Durba, you will love the place.

I know you'll probable never do any tracks in the high country,[you dont need to]
But really recommend a 4x4 course. If you join a club they'll have heaps of ppl
that do remote travel.

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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.

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Cuppa

Mostly remote while away, so don't expect to be on the www for most, if any, of the trip. The Mrs generally keeps a journal of our travels, but she will only be doing the first 10 weeks (she has got to get back to work early July), I'm pretty hopeless at keeping journals/logs, but I do take 1000s of pics. With the dates on the pics matched to the itinerary (always take pics of location signs if available) I can usually match the pics to a location.

With it being a Club trip there will be a report, with pics etc, so I'll have various bits and pieces of info to post up when I get back.

Here is current route, will vary depending on current permit issues being resolved for parts of Arnhem Land.

http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a44...psxirocubc.png

The straight run is south of #44.
Copy of maps we used, either side of Kunnawaritji the corrogations are horrendous worst I have ever been on and they just keep going!
The rest is slow going, picking lines, pressures etc normal driving out there.
The CSR is not a difficult track at all, its just a long drive that you need to carry so much. Being prepared and taking your time is all thats required.
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Originally Posted by threedogs

But really recommend a 4x4 course.

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Did that last year TD.

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Originally Posted by Cuppa

Did that last year TD.

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Get out there and practise ,did missus Tea do the course as well??
No good if you twist an ankle miles from no where