The journey continues

The New Project

2011-09-28T02:29:00.000-07:00

I have started a new project : a three wheeled motor tricycle I call a "Shreik".

You can find it here

How To Do Your Head In ...

2011-04-03T21:41:00.000-07:00

Well it's been a while but I was talking to someone just yesterday when I came to an important realisation. Motorhoming as a full-time permanent lifestyle is not for me. Anyone who has followed this blog for any period of time will realise the importance of that little statement. I still enjoy travelling in my motorhome, I just can't slow down enough to sit under a tree for 3 days and think that's the best I can do with my life. It just feels a bit too like waiting for it all to end; well there are still to many things to do for that to be comfortable. Which in fact leads to the part which is doing my head in . . . I have been fortunate enough to have been able to travel to a number of different countries over the years but never to "UK/Europe". When I was young it seemed like everyone went on a pilgrimage to Europe, but being a contrary B***** I decided to go everywhere else, and thoroughly enjoyed it, however the idea of going there now, for a number of irrelevant, for the purposes of this discussion, reasons, is quite appealing. I have no work commitments, I have approx. 1/2 million frequent flyer points and can afford to spend a reasonable amount. "So what's the problem?" I hear you ask?? :) It's a fairly well understood phenomenon in psychology that people get confused by too many choices. Think about that . . . I can go anytime, for (say) three months to anywhere I like . . . too many choices! It's too long to spend on one trip after another, you need some down time every now and then. My current (not very clear) thinking is, because of my interest in photography, to base myself somewhere in the UK (easier because of the language), probably in Scotland and make one or more "trips" to "the continent" on organised tours. I am discovering rather rapidly that all of the things I would like to do that I can organise for myself require advance bookings of up to a year or more. Try getting into a Charlie Waite photography workshop in 2011 !! In fact it seems a general trend that booking up to 6-12 months or more in advance is the only way things become possible and affordable, discounts can be over 50% when booked in advance even for things like train fares! AND travelling as a single person is only about 10% less than travelling as a couple because of the "single supplement" which is charged. Another stupid thing I have discovered is that "self-guided walking and cycling tours" ie the kind where they give you a map and a bike and point you in the general direction (they actually move your luggage to the next nights accomodation as well but how hard is that?) are MORE expensive than being driven around in a air-conditioned bus! I guess that's a premium for not having to sit next to some drivelling idiot who wants to sleep all day and party all night, well that's what I remember of my last bus tour. So that's it ... too many options that have to be booked too far in advance and no really great "must do's" ... that'll do your head in!
PS You may notice the photo in the title has changed ... That's because the motorhome has now become less significant and my photography more so, and the new photo is my first competition winner :)
There are more here .

Not Much to Report . . .

2010-10-25T04:13:00.000-07:00

Since returning I have parked the truck and done very little to it.
There is much to contemplate but I am not inclined to wax philosophical at the moment.
Maybe when I have had a little more time to consider everything . . .

I am thinking of a little trip around the South West of WA in the next couple of weeks so there are a few small items to fix.

The squeaking bed mechanism was caused by one of the chains slipping a tooth on a sprocket causing the bed to not be horizontal and thus rub on the guides. Relatively easy to fix.

The pesky drawer catches really need something purpose made so a few hours on the milling machine fixed that and produced these.

Being made of acetal they are very strong and will not break. The pin which fits into the block is supported by the close fit so hopefully it will not break off. The slotted holes allow the catch to be positioned so it all works properly and then the two front screws will lock it all in place. So a half hour was spent fittting these new catches .

I also remembered that the last time I checked the sacrificial anode in the hot water system it was corroding faster than I had imagined it would so I obtained a replacement.

When I checked however it hasn't seemed to deteriorate significantly more than when I checked last time so maybe the country water supplies are less corrosive than the main Perth water supply???

There are plenty more little improvements I could do but I'm not going to make any major changes until my head has settled down.

In the mean time, bike rides, photography and catching up with friends and family come higher on the list.

Updates will be slow for a while . . .

Great Central Road Days 23-26

2010-10-06T16:27:00.000-07:00

Day 23

A nice bitumen drive to Broome. I haven't been here since 1968 and I am quite intrigued to see all the changes that have been wrought to make this one of the top holiday spots in the North West since that time. I plan to maybe stay here for a couple of days and catch up with myself.

The first stop in town of course is the Tourist Centre for a list of all the caravan parks. I need to sit down and digest this for a while as everything is over $35/night!

The place is not that big so I decide to have a look around and see if any of them actually justify this sort of pricing. It's very strange to me. This is now a more popular place with more people and better access on the coast etc. etc. but to tell the truth Katherine "feels" nicer and is a damn sight cheaper for everything. I am glad I am carrying enough fuel that I don't have to fill up here. I feel an overwhelming sense of "Club Expensive" about this place. It's where the beautiful people come to show how much money they can spend doing the same stuff they can do everywhere else a lot cheaper, but of course it's easier to be seen doing it here.

After working my way through a couple, which look remarkably similar to most of the other caravan parks I have seen, except the last one I look at has the speedway next door, you are not allowed to run generators at all and asking the price before you book in is taken as the ultimate sign of a poor upbringing!

I decide to go and park on the famous beach for a while and cool off while I sort this out in my head. You can get to about 300metres away in the carpark if you feel like negotiating the 50 or so "traffic calming devices" on the way. Now there is the ultimate oxymoron in my opinion, install a device which causes frothing apoplexy in the average driver and call it a "calming device"! Never the less the phone and internet are available so I go for a walk and make a few calls and do a bit of internet update and it occurs to me that the real reason for staying IN any of these towns is for precisely that and I have just done most of what I wanted to do. I have no desire to ride a camel along the beach at sunset . . . I would be sure to get an ugly one with a bad temper and there is way too much deja vu going on there. To me it doesn't compare with the week I spent on the last horse based muster on Minilya Station over 40 years before. And my doctor says it is not a good idea to sit in the sun for long periods of time and some of the things that are thought suitable for attire in a bikini these days are completely beyond my comprehension. I can't understand why I can't get Herman Melville out of my head.

No, sorry. Doesn't look like I am going to be able to sort it out here.
I think it's time to head home for a while.
I know the inland route is a couple of hundred kilometres shorter but for some crazy reason I choose the coast road, maybe it will be cooler at least.
So now it's just a long drag with little to see along the way.
The towns have changed some since my last visits but on the whole are still recognisable.
A stop in Carnarvon, where I worked in 1967-68 and explored much of this region from at that time, where there a couple of friends in town for a while and then back on the road.
The overnight stops at the new style shire "rest points" are some of the nicest so far. The weather is cool enough for the first time, apart from Yulara, that you don't need air conditioning to prevent heat prostration but it's still "boring as batshit" down this coast.

Again the few obligatory "nice" sunsets and finally back where I started.

A lot to think about for a while now with regard to how well the truck "works" and the lifestyle it represents.
I am sure this trip was not representative or really even indicative of what to expect for true long term cruising but it sure tested a few concepts both physically and mentally.

Great Central Road Day 22

2010-10-06T07:24:00.001-07:00

Despite being up early and another lap around the park I can't find any better photo's and I'm not going to wait here 'til May. I'll have to come back.
I have spoken to a couple of people at El Questro who have come up the Gibb River Road and tell me it has been graded from the South as far as Mitchel Falls but I have decided to have a look at The Bungle Bungle

and save GRR to another time. Back the way I came to the main highway. I can’t think of any reason to go into Wyndham so it’s turn right at the highway and drag all the way down to Purnululu National Park. You have to go 30km across Mabel Downs Station to get to the park entrance and the another 30km to the park proper.

There are restrictions on the type of caravans you can take in, no dual axles and vehicles must be 4wd. The logic appears to be the trailing axle scrubs and breaks up the track. What complete and utter trash! Not that I mean it doesn’t happen but the road is so bad it could only improve it to break it up a bit. Turn it all into sand NOW. These corrugations make the ones in Kakadu pale into insignificance. I think, OK, I will go slow and just take an hour or two even to go the 30km I can do that. No I can’t! My speedo doesn’t register that slow but the GPS tells me I am making3-5km/hr average. My brain must have been bruised by all the shaking because it takes me a whole hour to decide there aren’t enough hours in the day to make it there so I turn around and spend another hour crawling all the way out. The video here looks quite easy! I would like to leave the truck out on the highway and take the motorbike but there is nowhere even remotely safe to leave it. The local wisdom is it takes less than 24hrs to trash and burn a vehicle by the wayside. It is very frustrating as a normal 4wd with soft suspension can go over it at about 50kph, and quite a number do as they pass me both ways, but it seems the truck suspension is just too hard and for reasons explained once before I don’t want to let the tyres down anymore. I’m really ticked off but I have broken enough already so once back on the highway I head off toward Derby. Halls Creek is a straight drive through and just short of Fitzroy Crossing there is a nice sunset

and then a pleasant overnight spot with about 10 vehicles at Mary Creek.
That’s enough for one day.

Great Central Road Day 21

2010-10-06T06:21:00.000-07:00

Day 21

I pressed the wrong button on the GPS sometime today and lost the track but it goes between the two overnight stops for Day 20 and Day 21 . . . the yellow bit and part of the grey bit.

This is the park at the end of the main street in Kununurra.

I can’t believe Kununurra has the second most expensive fuel I have come across $1.70/l!!

But I really don’t have a choice so $350 later I head off to El Questro.

I’m told that the area around there is as good as anything down the Gibb River Road but that’s a big call. Never the less it’s about 60km off the main Gibb River Road and 50% is bitumen so I’ll take it quietly and see how we go.

Some great views in this part of the country but hard to photograph at 11am with pretty bright skies.

It’s not a bad place but of course they get you in subtle ways. The $20 park pass so you can wander around plus the $20 camping fee (unpowered).

It’s only just after lunch by the time I get there as the road is pretty easy so I get the bike down and have a blast to all the 4wd lookouts and tracks. For some reason despite the light I quite like these couple of images.

In fact by tea time I manage to cover everything but the gorge walks which I am told are really best done in May. That’s a good reason to go back!

A quick blast out about 20km to the boating jetty produced this just before it was time to return for the evening.

On the way back I finally worked out what was wrong with what I was seeing in El Questro. I remember when it first started to be promoted and there was always a photo of a building overlooking a gorge but I could not find it in the main part of the park. But if you go down a "Private Road" you can see it's the main homestead for the station. ie the owner's house. Great for advertising but not for public access.

Fair enough . . . the rest of the park is pretty good anyway.

Great Central Road Day 20

2010-09-30T04:16:00.001-07:00

I had this strange suspicion it wasn't going to work.
I got up at dawn and rode the bike around to all the spots I could get.
The sun came up way too quickly and with no clouds around there isn't much in the way of favourable light.

And by the time the gates were open it was all over. . .

So back to the campground to work on my professional camper skills.
I decided to fix the roof vent as although I had power for the air conditioner last night I wasn't sure about tonight and definitely not the next couple. Also a few squeaks and rattles needed attending and I may as well wash bedclothes etc. as it is cheap to wash here and everything dries instantly with the lack of humidity. Surprisingly little humidity compared with the NT parks even though right on top of the dam! Then of course there was lunch, read a book, have a nap, read some more, put the motorbike back on the truck, fill the water tank, empty the toilet tank and before you know it it's 3pm and time to move to the next camp in Kununurra itself. I keep running into a bloke "John" (and his apparently nameless wife); with whom I was discussing this business of moving and camping etc. . In his enquiries of others "in the trade" it appears that the average move per day is between 80 and 150km. I think that means I can't go anywhere else for another two months!! I knew I was doing something wrong.

The bloke at the quarantine station crossing into WA said the Hidden Valley caravan park was the cheapest so I went straight there. $29 per night down from $35 but because I "bitched and complained" they would make it $25 so I decided on "no power but generators allowed"for $12. The only problem is they have very restricted generator hours until 7pm. Normally it's 9am to 9pm everywhere else. I guess I still haven't got it quite sussed yet, but I'm working on it . . .

Great Central Road Day 19

2010-09-30T03:21:00.000-07:00

Day 19

Well no breeze but plenty of lightning and at some time 20mins of what sounds like heavy rain. You know that stuff that comes down in drops the size of golf balls but no wind at all. Still it does cool things down a little and I have worked out how to make the roof fan draw in outside air through the windows at each end of the bed so it does get a little cooler. But the vent opening handle has broken so I am going to have to fix that tomorrow or the fan/venting system is not going to work properly.

Packed up at dawn but it’s pretty uninteresting light wise so try to creep the truck out of camp without waking everybody. I think the reason people are relaxed about travelling is they sleep a lot and every time they do anything it’s a great accomplishment.

There is not really a lot to see until the Victoria River area, part of Gregory National Park which is in several chunks along this road. It’s quite a large area but I’m pretty sure it’s for those serious off-road people and their tricked out 4WD so I am not inclined to get too far off road in this part of the world.

The Victoria River is quite large and meets and/or crosses the highway at a number of places for the next 100km or so. It is of course very seasonal but like all these northern rivers when they flow they flood. I’m standing here on the old bridge, which replaced the “crossing”, and looking at the new bridge which now does away with the annual week or two wait during the rainy season while the water flooded over the bridge.

There is still quite a lot of water around and they run cruises up and down the river, billed as the last of the true “wild water” tours. I’m pretty sure it’s not actually during the wild season that they run the tours however.

A little further on I stopped for lunch at this bridge to nowhere. There are locked gates on the other end and the sign says “Defense Department” , never heard of it!!

River is still pretty big at that point.

After chatting with a bloke I had met before in Katherine and Kakadu who was sitting in a roadside stop i.e. parking bay, at least with trees and BBq’s and even toilets if you’re game, for the second day and night in a row while waiting for mail to catch up in Kununurra I decided to go on a bit further. The guy at the quarantine station at the WA border recommended a few stops down the road and a caravan park in Kununurra but the turn of to the Ord River Dam appeared and I decided to turn that way instead. It’s quite a spectacular area in many ways. The caravan park offers $20 powered sites with all the facilities and is actually quite nice and I do like to be able to run the air con all night in this weather so here I am. It’s only 4pm (we are back on WA time I realise) so I take the bike off and go for a ride around the dam area while I still have time. It’s absolutely beautiful but they kick you out at 5pm and won’t let you back in until 7am tomorrow.

But I’ll be waiting at the gate . . .

(This is my favourite photo so far.)

Great Central Road Day 18

2010-09-30T03:15:00.000-07:00

Day 18

100% Humidity is not my idea of fun.

I have had two cold showers while packing up this morning.

I drive down to the end of the bitumen just to have a look at the “Safari Camp”, a strange place which is a mixture of permanent tent on raised floors and other odd scattered tents around the place and a couple of converted containers for an office and a shop. It really does somehow remind me of those big safari camps you see in movies. Hatari or something??

Here I have to decide whether to complete the loop back into Darwin via 50km of gravel or turn around and go out the way I came in via Batchelor. I can’t see the point in looping back to Darwin and I quite like the road through the park so it’s back the way I came. Only a quick look at the attractions which are on the main road none of the 20-30 km side tracks this time and before you know it I am back out on the main highway. This time I am filling in the bit I missed by going through Kakadu and get to see Adelaide River on the way. Railway Museum or War Memorial ?? Should have gone to the War Memorial. Nuff said!

This way is much shorter to Katherine, where I have to go to turn off to Kununurra. I really need to do a load of washing but I cannot find a laundomat that is not in a caravan park, and I refuse to pay $25 so I can pay $8 to do a load of washing. It will have to wait, I still have clean clothes and the old ones can go in a sealed bin for a day or two.

Today I am determined to stop before it gets too late but 3-30pm is just too early and all the rest stops are grotty. About 4-30 I spot one with toilets and tanks and shelters and BBQ’s etc and just one little Toyota van parked up the far end. I pull into the near end about 60metres or so from the van because I intend using the generator to keep the air conditioning going for a while tonight. I decide to go and say “Hello”, as there appears to be somebody sitting in a deck chair in the shade near the van, and to explain why I pulled up so far away, and I think it is less scary for other people when you say hello in day light rather than just wandering around at various times. It’s a lady about 50+ something who has spent the last 5 months getting from somewhere in Qld to here and thinks it will take several more months to get to Perth. She is giving herself a year to see how she likes it . . . well that’s the story. Must have nerves of steel I think to just be out in the boonies by herself. I know that’s a bit sexist but I do think it’s different for guys.

So we’re both settled in at opposite ends of the park for about ¾ of an hour and someone else with a motorhome arrives and pulls up about 10metres away from this lady right alongside her and proceeds to set up camp. What is wrong with these people?? Eventually over the next hour or so there are another 6 vans and cars etc. and then for some reason the dickheads with the motorhome decide to move it another 10 metres away. At least now it’s not right in her face.

I start the generator up about 6pm and go for a walk. It’s funny but the sound of the air conditioner is louder away from the truck than the generator. I deliberately have the generator side away from the camp and that seems to be working. For some reason however it all then goes haywire. The charging system keeps tripping over the air conditioning or vice versa and keeps overloading the generator so it shuts down. It takes the next two hours of reprogramming re-routing cables etc. to make sure what is working and what is not. It appears the air conditioning start up is confusing the charging system so I reprogram the charger to less than it’s rated capacity then start up the air conditioner and then gradually increase the charge load to what it should be. It’s been running now for an hour so it’s time to turn it all off and open up the windows and let the heat in . . .

I hope there is a breeze out there tonight.

Great Central Road Day 17

2010-09-30T01:43:00.000-07:00

Morning spent cleaning camper (inside) and a bit of reorganization. Every time I got that "I must go somewhere" feeling I made myself do something else.

Finally left about 11 am. which must be something of a record for me.

The drive through Litchfield is much more convoluted horizontally and vertically!

A slope marked 400 metres at 10% - selected 2^nd gear as being overly cautious. Only just made it and fading, 500 metres would have seen a hill start in 1^stgear!

The first item on the agenda was the famous “magnetic” termite mounds.

There is a quite large area, which you can see here, of about 30 hectares where all the mounds are this slab like shape arranged E-W to minimize sunlight exposure. Absolutely fascinating! What’s more fascinating is how they trained them do it. Well they must have! It’s the only place I have seen them for 1000 kilometres through here. In fact if you just turn around from looking at them you will see

This fellow and his many companions blatantly exposing all aspects of themselves to sun and tourist alike.

Never the less the Buley Rockhole was calling

And so were what seemed to be about 100 other tourists having fun in them.

I was told by everyone that the waterfalls were much better in Litchfield Park.
Silly me . . . I thought they meant to "look at them".
Still they were pretty spectacular to look at as well.
Next on the list was Florence Falls.

I was ready this time . . . .

and at Tolmer Falls as well . . .

The most interesting thing around these falls was the loop trail right around and over the top which took a couple of hours. The trick is the lookout is half way but everyone seems to turn around and go back, I'm not sure why!! On the way you pass through an area of quite "jungley" looking trees and vines etc. which are infested with bats.
What a racket they make!

I have some video footage but at the moment my mouse is playing up and it's too hard to edit and get on-line. This bit is just a nice little area about 80% of the way round.

I was hoping to get some pretty good bird photos here

but all I did get was some nice swamp photos

but I wasn't about to photograph white cockatoos screeching "Idiot"

Last on the list was Wiley falls which were quite interesting. You couldn't actually get to them as they went into a canyon which was pretty inaccessible but they looked pretty spectacular (for a small volume of water as it's just about to get wet).

In fact there was incessant thunder and lightning and some rain down on the lowlands but it didn't move out way thankfully.

By this time it was 4pm so following my new rules I stayed in one of the bush camping areas in the park. They actually have hot showers, toilets and free gas barbeques after paying the $7 camp fee so they are actually quite good.

Great Central Road Day 16

2010-09-26T16:51:00.001-07:00

Day 16 - Good Part
Up bright and early and down to the "touristy" part of the park

No. I didn't get a ticket. The safety rails round the edge of the boat weren't high enough for my liking.

Mind you there was plenty of other croc. food available.

So I went walking in the wetlands instead . . . much safer.

Then on to the next attraction.

OK That's not too bad. I've walked around Kings Canyon.
Path starts like this

and then keeps on going and gets steeper. There are NO flat spots for all 1.6km!
Mind you there are some nice views at the top.
This is 9am and 99% humidity over the wetlands.

Coming down is easier. Just slip once and you'll be down in no time at all.
Oh for a Zimmer frame.
Then on to the aboriginal rock art.
There is some nice country here as well. It's in the base of the hills etc. from the previous picture. There is a brick paved pathway for about 2km with short excursions for each site or you can walk through the hills from site to site through places like this . . . much nicer . . . no Japanese tour guides saying "Keep to the path."

You'd have to carbon date some of this stuff while I was there to get me to believe it wasn't done by a couple of kids who stole a box of chalk but then it doesn't say "ancient" anywhere does it?

Day 16 - Other Part
I don't think I have this touring thing quite worked out. At least in this part of the world anyway. I don't mind being out in the heat and humidity where you have to drink litres per hour until you feel nauseous and sweat litres per hour but it doesn't evaporate so you don't get cool and it trickles down into your eyes all the time and stings and drops onto your glasses where it creates visual distortions so you try and step over or around or on a rock which isn't there and there is no breeze and there are lots of flys as long as there are interesting things to see but to just sit around and "relax" . . . you have to be kidding me.

When you get to Jabiru where you turn left and start to work your way back to Darwin there are many fewer things to see along the road and the "creek walks" have less attraction. I've seen enough crocodile warning signs that I can't get excited by a mudhole with a sign anymore.
In this part of the world there are no simple little places to spend some idle time and I've already commented on the weather so you tend to keep moving and lo and behold there is the Stuart Highway and a sign saying Darwin 35 km. For reasons entirely unexplainable by me I actually turn toward it! I get all the way into downtown Darwin before it occurs to me that the only thing I can think of that I would like to see here, at the moment, is the aviation museum but it's Sunday and 5pm and I really should stop.

A call into a couple of parks reveals that a single person site is on average $25-30 per night. It seems a bit excessive so I decide to buy a meal and then head on out of Darwin toward Litchfield Park which everyone assures me is nicer than Kakadu. I've made this dumb decision a couple of times now and should know better. For any sort of stress minimization technique to work while travelling like this you need to be stopped and camped by about 4pm. The only consolation is that there is a particularly nice sunset, and then I kick myself that I should be somewhere nice with a tripod and some time instead of pulling to the side of the road and taking a quick shot from the window of the truck.

I tell myself I'm going to pull into the first reasonable parking bay I can find and set up camp.
Finally I get control of myself in a place called Bachelor which is the gateway town to Litchfield and pull into the first campground. "$30 per person per night thank you."
I don't care. I plug in the air conditioner and just sit until I cool off mentally and physically.
A good nights sleep will help I'm sure.

Great Central Road Day 15

2010-09-26T05:08:00.000-07:00

First thing I see coming into Katherine is the Visitor Information Centre so ignore all the traffic and cross to the other side of the street and pull into the very convenient parking area. A good collection of brochures and a complete overload on information only took about 20 mins..

Water and fuel (ouch, but not as bad as a lot of places as it was only $1.38/l) and heading out of Katherine following the Information Centre Advice, Kakadu first and Litchfield second. On the way out stop at Edith Falls for a nice little 2.6 kilometre walk which loops around the falls. Takes about an hour including 10 mins to dangle your feet in the water to cool off.

[Update]

[End Update]

I’ve worked out a new system for controlling the water pump. I have a second electrical switch right next to the pump in the outside shower compartment which I installed when having a few problems with the pump during installation. It saved me from running up the stairs every time I wanted the pump on or off. So I have finally worked out I can leave the inside switch on and turn the pump on and off in the compartment, where the water tank tap is also, when I want to use the outside shower head. Came in very useful after the walk for sticking my head under to cool off. Takes a while sometimes . . .

Then off toward Kakadu again. Just about lunchtime I reach Pine Creek. I am continually surprised that the places I have heard of are generally sh*tholes and the places I have never heard of are just nice little country towns. I saw a “Lookout” sign on the way into town so when I see the turnoff I thought “Why not lunch on the lookout?”.

Well it did say “No walking on the road” and “No Caravans” so I should have thought about it . . . About half way up there was a tight turn with a little flat spot . . .thank goodness . . . no way to back down and what looked like a 45 degree slope in front of me.

My truck won’t go into low range without also engaging four wheel drive, not good on the bitumen and especially under these circumstances. So, first high range gear and pray, did OK actually but it sure wouldn’t have made it in second!

Just have a look at those dates. How on earth were people managing out here in 1871???

Just as I was leaving town I took this one especially for Rosemary.

Finally into Kakadu Park and the first recommended walking tracks. I was told the dirt road was fine so off I went about 30kph. I went about 2km down the road and saw the tracks of 6 others who had turned back before me! No shame in being 7^th.

This road defeated me. Those corrugations are not just a simple set of ripples. There are about 4 different sets of ruts which mix and cross over all the time. The worst ones are those long flat bits with speed bumps every 600-800mm apart.

So I left that to another time and went on to the next spot. This was only 8km down relatively smooth dirt road. Looked like this.

Nice walkways to get through the muddy bits.

Wait a minute whats that little sign say??

Let’s have a closer look . . .

Hang on a minute. It’s about 4pm. Isn’t that when they used to feed the croc’s at the zoo? Do I really want to walk in there? Why are there 6 cars here and no people around? There are some voices up ahead and I don’t hear screaming so maybe it’s OK. Actually there are some quite nice spots

along the way to the “Plunge Pool”!!

I won’t go into all the other warning signs along the way but there is no chance of dangling the tootsies anyplace near here.

Finally back to the car park about 5pm and stick my head under the shower to cool off again and the damn same joint which came undone on the first part of the trip (and caused the near loo lock in disaster) has done it again but no leak to warm me so as I turn the pump on it’s worse this time and floods the compartment.

Clean up takes about half an hour and despite the time I dislike the campground here enough to make me move to the next one. This one is quite nice and generators are even allowed. This appeals to me greatly as I really can't quite understand how anyone can enjoy this sub-tropical heat and humidity! So on with the generator and the air conditioner. Disaster strikes. The generator runs long enough to overheat and overload simultaneously! The over heating can be dealt with by just leaving the compartment open for the time being. The next guy along just has a little two pot screamer sitting out on the ground. The overloading takes a bit of thinking about. The electrical control system, the "Quattro", has been programmed to allow for a draw of 17 amps as that's what the original generator could provide but this one can only deliver 10 amps. After hunting around on my laptop I eventually find the software to control it and manage to reprogramme it to 10 amps. Yay!! Success.

Generator installation is still crap really – something else to fix!.

Great Central Road Day 14

2010-09-24T04:51:00.000-07:00

Today is just to get to Katherine.

The was a sign at the last stop to say that we would notice a change in the trees and flora etc as we enter the true tropics. Oops. Must have missed it.
This was the only thing which really stood out, as I went through one of the quite a few unattractive towns which litter the Stuart Highway.

In the early morning light, just after dawn the many termite mounds which border each side of the road looked quite interesting in amongst some recent burning off which has been happening on the verges. It is an amazing aside that the verge on each side of the road has been mowed back about 20 metres from Alice Springs to Katherine!!! Unless there is a truck or rest stop, they keep them separate here, there is nowhere to get off the road. I am amazed also that there are seats, tables, barbeques and toilets at rest stops and bare earth only at truck stops!!
The stops vary anywhere from 60 to 160km part so you better not want to go to the toilet in a hurry.
Eventually I found a stop with some termite mounds nearby, of course they were no longer very interesting as the really nice light had disappeared by now.

It sure seemed to annoy the heck out of these guys as I maneuvered around trying to get a better shot.

They would fly right up to within a metre or so and "tell you off" in no uncertain terms!

I arrived in Katherine at about 1 pm and parked right outside the information centre. A very nice young lady spent about 20 minutes explaining all about the Kakadu and Litchfield parks. You can go from Katherine through Kakadu to Jabiru and on to Darwin and then back to Katherine via Litchfield. You have to come back to Katherine to return to WA via Kununurra where I can find out more about the Kimberlys. Some people I spoke to in the caravan park said they spent 9 days going through Kakadu but Litchfield is nicer? Mind you they have just spent the last three days in the caravan park!
I guess I'll just have to take it one day at a time.

Great Central Road Day 13

2010-09-24T04:33:00.000-07:00

The day starts beautifully

And then is a long fairly uninteresting haul through country much like before.

692 km

The Devil’s Marbles just before Tennant Creek are worth half n hour walk around but it’s near middy so no dramatic lighting for photos.

Lunch in Tennant Creek which reminds me, in layout, of more WA South West towns all along the main street apart from the red dust of course.

On the way out is the Telegraph Station “museum”which is really the station house and outbuildings of the station on which the telegraph house was. I can’t see a sign here saying any of these buildings was the telegraph house. Quite strange!

Not far up the road is Threeways, so called because it’s the meeting of the Barkly Road to Mt Isa and the Stuart Highway from Alice to Darwin . . . take your pick.

Continuing on I think about staying in Elliot for the night but I think even parking in front of the Police Station may not give me enough protection so I move n to another layover allowing camping. There are already half a dozen camps set up and I have no choice but to be near some of them. Of course now getting into the tropics I need the air conditioner and generator. I have a “mild” discussion about the relative disadvantages of my noise and my neighbours smoking. Neither of us is satisfied but I have turned them off. I notice he is still standing upwind puffing on his cigarettes.

Nice moonrise.

Tomorrow Katherine.

Great Central Road Day 12

2010-09-24T04:26:00.000-07:00

Just a long 500km transport stage back to Alice Springs.

In the last day or so more and more people are telling me how nice it is in Darwin now.

I wanted to take the Ernest Giles Road across from Luritja Road to the Stuart Highway which cuts off about 120km. Probably no quicker but would save a little diesel and I could have another look at Henbury Meteorite crater but was told it was closed at he Palmer River. Funny, when I looked at the signs on the Stuart Highway end it was now open. Crossing allowed one way only ??

So that's it. Back to Alice for reprovisioning and then a long 2 day haul to Darwin to see what I can see.
Very frustrating coming out of Alice.
A beautiful sunset over the surrounding hills with a full moon etc. etc. and nowhere to pull off where it could be seen. Eventually I stopped in the middle of the road but of course that meant a gigantic peak in traffic until eventually it all went dark. Damn....

Great Central Road Day 11

2010-09-22T00:11:00.000-07:00

A nice pleasant start to the day with the constant cold wind relenting a little. Easy pack up and a reasonable run into Kings Canyon about 9-30. Straight through the “resort” to the Canyon itself. The rim walk is 6km and 3-4 hours apparently so I fill the “camel pack” in my rucksack take some extra water and food and off I go. The track is only walked clockwise as there is quite a significant ascent in the first ½ km and they don’t want you coming down it when you are tired from the hike.

You can see from the height profile that it’s pretty straight up

Mind you that last descent is pretty steep as well but the track “stairs” are more regular and it’s a lot easier. Two things always amaze me on these walks, the first is the amount of work the rangers put into making these paths stable for the traffic. It all has to be carried in on foot and there is a lot of cement up there. The second is that now 90 year olds can race past me on the track with their Zimmer frames in high gear! I have to get one of those things or take up drinking Red Bull or something.

I have come to the conclusion that the only way people take decent photos of these places is to get authorization to hang over the edge with climbing gear or something. Mind you the German tourists that abound out here seem to think you can do it in socks and sandals. My whole body goes in to nerve spasms just watching them so I don’t. I figure they’ll yell on the way down and I can tell the ranger about it when I get back, that’s if they don’t land on him on the path below.

Still I took a few snaps to remind me . . .

The rim wall here is about 100metre high

[Update]

and all in one photo ...

[End Update]

Half way along the walk you cross over the canyon at “The Garden of Eden” using this bridge

Where there are lovely rock pools full of sub-zero water waiting to freeze your toes solid if you are crazy enough to try and cool off.

Which is all very lovely until I turn the corner and am confronted by

I find the easiest way to do this is to offer to help somebodys frail little grandma who passed me earlier then close my eyes and hold onto her hand while she leads me up the steps with my eyes closed after which I can dash of with great gusto into the distance until she fires up that damn Zimmer frame again . . . what? they fit turbos these days???

By now it’s lunchtime so I return to the resort to try and decide which direction to go next. I got into an interesting conversation with a couple ( m & f) of German tourists and a 22 year old guy from Queensland looking for the meaning of life on 650cc Yamaha dirt bikes with long range tanks and tons of gear. Two of the three would take lighter bikes next time. They all quiz me quite extensively about the road conditions around the Mereenie Loop for the next couple of hours and the Germans decide to stay in a motel for the night and head out the next morning while the young guy decides to head out to my previous overnight spot to camp the night.

I decide to stay over and have dinner in the café and head out tomorrow morning.

(I appologise for all the crazy spacing in these posts but I just can't get it to work properly!)

Great Central Road Day 10

2010-09-21T23:52:00.001-07:00

Well I was surprised too . . .

Not by the cooking but by the arrival of one of the “Wayoutback” tour trucks firstly and then by a couple of 4wd vehicles soon after. The tour bus was privately chartered by a group with about 6 kids (at least two of whom I had begun to consider throwing over the edge before noon the following day, but I get ahead of myself). The guides/drivers were very pleasant and in fact so were all the adults. The kids soon settled down as they had walked Kings Canyon that day and were “pooped”. So by 8 o’clock everyone was bedded down and asleep.

Dawn over Palm Valley

Just a bank of cloud over the hills and a lovely clear blue sky.

It was 4km into the heart of the valley and I didn’t feel like packing up the truck to get in further and I didn’t want to walk in 4km before starting the valley walks themselves so down with the bike for the first time, of course all to an appreciative audience, except for two of the aforementioned children whose chorus of “I wanna ride!” guaranteed they weren’t going to.

Off I went . . . back three minutes later . . . no way I was going to attempt some of those creek crossings on a bike! Fortunately when asked why I had returned and I had explained it was not possible to walk it either I was invited along with the tour people. Great!

This is the one which stopped me on the bike . . .

4 km . . . 30 minutes in low 4wd . . . and 30 sec’s into it . . . “I’m bored!”

“Why?”

“The battery in my iPhone is dead and I can’t play games!”

OK.

The tour guides say they have never seen it so wet but they can take their trucks up to 1metre deep so we’re OK.

There were even 3 or 4 Landcruisers not willing to cross.

Am I glad I didn’t try and bring my truck in here! It’s not so much the water which I am becoming used to but the lurching which occurs with some of the rock climbing required.

The only vehicles in today are the specially outfitted tour trucks.

Isuzu and Mitsubishi 4wd only.

Of course everyone now just routinely photographs the info. board to help them remember where they have been. . .

Then off on the walk . . . to the ideal spot from which to throw a child!

Should land about down here somewhere and get washed away . . . just kidding.

The guides did say however that the only way they take children in the truck/buses is with these specially chartered tours. None on regular tours.

[Update]

A look around 180 degrees of the main valley area. Nobody goes much further than here as it just disappears back out into the desert.

[End Update]

Then back for lunch and everyone is packing up to go in different directions. The tour people are going the opposite way around the Mereenie loop to me and they pack and head off while I am deciding what to do. There isn’t really a lot more I can do at Palm Valley with everything covered in water other than rim walk and that probably isn’t a good idea given my reaction to heights . . .total fear!

So I packed up too and headed out for Kings Canyon.

Fortunately a new big Isuzu FSS800 tour truck, newer bigger brother to mine, is headed out with a load of 90+ year olds so I can follow them as they go gently avoiding problems caused by osteoporosis and big bumps. This is a benefit to me as some of the water crossings are a bit difficult trying to pick the correct path and exit point when they are about 200metres across but these guys do it every week so no problems.

About 90 mins in 1^st and 2^nd gear only . . . I learned a few things watching on the way in this morning.

Then unfortunately I have to retrace a nasty little bit of 43 kms back to the Kings Canyon turn off and then 140km of the Mereenie Loop which turns out, apart from a really nice piece of 20km, to be every bit as nasty.

It’s difficult to photograph but this is the nicest country to drive through on the whole trip so far. There are a couple of videos I’ll try and get up soon. The only animals, apart from one scrawny dingo waiting to cross the road, and a mob of camels out at the Olgas, that I have seen are a small mob of wild horses crossing the road. Not a single kangaroo, snake, wombat or drop bear to be seen.

The going is quite slow and I had one interesting moment climbing out of steep dip in the road which was very muddy when things went a bit sideways, fortunately only at 2kph but I thought I might be there for a while 4wd and all.

By the time the sun went down I still had 30km to go and it was too dangerous to continue when another of those nice little parking spots on a hill appeared so that’s enough driving for today. Now I can go and fix those trashed kitchen drawers laying on the floor (again, as the rubber stoppers didn't work) and get some dinner and a hot shower.

Kings Canyon tomorrow.

Great Central Road Day 09

2010-09-21T23:32:00.000-07:00

Day 09

Hooray it didn’t rain last night, but damn was it cold out!

A nice gentle run into Glen Helen Gorge. It is probably the most recognizable place from my memories, Nothing seems to have changed one little bit. A lot more water in the river but that is to be expected.

Standing in the river looking toward the gorge.

[Update]

This is the panorama 180 degrees as you stand near the "roadhouse" looking at the far bank of the river with the gorge on your left

and the gorge itself when you hike down opposite the entrance. Normally you can puddle jump aross the river to the other side but not now.

[End Update]

A chat with one of the “Wayoutback Tours” drivers suggested that the Mereenie Loop Road was open as that was the way she had come from King’s Canyon. Further discussion revealed that they have a different way of looking at the road restrictions; “closed” means closed but “impassable” means closed to idiot drivers but the rest of us can get through. You learn something everyday . . .

I decided to continue on to Gosses Bluff.

Along Namatjira drive the country is quite nice and there is still plenty of water around.

On the road into Gosses Bluff just where the road disappears here is water crossing. Not very deep but my first attempt to get the truck in motion on video.

So much for washing the truck!

then across to Palm Valley. I would have liked to spend a little more time in Gosses Bluff but camping is not permitted and although I don’t think the rangers will be by in the middle of the night the area is fairly heavily restricted so there are no walking trails. It’s tempting to climb to the top of one of the lower parts to get some photos but there isn’t enough time left in the day.

Once out of Gosses Bluff I have to go to Hermansberg to get a permit for the Mereenie Loop Road . Unfortunately this bit of road I have to backtrack to get to King’s Canyon and its one of the worst so far. 43 km of heavy corrugations which feel like they will break everything and heavy dragging sand or soft squelching mud as comic relief. Most of the trip is done in 3^rd and 4^th gear. Hermansberg looks like the twin of Docker River. A quick $5-50 and out of there.

The river crossing on the way in and out is interesting!

And then at the Palm Valley turn off

You have to be kidding me 3 hrs!!

Mind you the first two guys I pass coming out in a Landrover Discovery and a Landcruiser have both turned back within 500metres of the rangers hut because of the last river crossing.

This is one of the early crossings where you enter alongside that tree on the far left and come out where I have stopped. This one is about 800mm deep at the deepest. Of course by now I have discovered that anything over 200mm means no brakes for about 100m or so while the water drains out.

This part of the trip is in 1^st and 2^nd gear the whole way in . . . and I was through the last deep crossing before I realized it was the one described by the guys leaving.

About an hour and 45mins without hurrying.

The campground is fantastic, barbeques, hot showers, toilets and all immaculately clean.

This is my favourite place so far . . .

The actual palm grove is still another 4km down the track so it looks like a couple of nights stay here, which will help the water recede a bit, and allow plenty of time for walking.

It’s the first night that is pleasant enough to cook outside and the facilities are great so I have cooked a curry with rice and some veggies. That will surprise some of you !!

Great Central Road Day 08

2010-09-21T23:11:00.000-07:00

Still raining . . .

Boring for you, boring for me.

Only a short drive into Alice Springs. It doesn’t match anything I thought I remembered from 25 years go. I’m not sure if it’s better or worse, but I’m not inclined to hang around, so it’s a quick trip to the supermarket as soon as it opens at 8am. Stock up on provisions for the next week . . . I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised at the total but I was surprised that a few things were actually cheaper here than in Perth! Then came the brutal bit, top up the fuel tanks, I knew that wasn’t going to be cheap as I have been listening to the radio where there has been an ongoing discussion as to why fuel is cheaper in outback Queensland than in Alice Springs. $360 . . . Ouch!

As I was walking past the information bureau it was quicker to check road conditions there than to fire up the laptop. As I had hoped it was open out to the west with only cautions for flooding over the bitumen in places. The main loop road further out where I want to go is dirt and if it is open I will find out further along the track where I have to get a permit anyway. I’m out of here!

The main road is a bit broken up in places but nothing serious

Even this one only came up to the rim of the wheels, about 250mm deep.

These two were on the way out to Simpson’s Gap which is about as I remember it except with a lot more water. I can’t really say I’ve ever been impressed too much with this one so on to Standley Chasm. There are three walks with the longest being an hour (in normal conditions) and only 90 minutes before they close the park and still pouring with rain (so sorry no photos) and I think I’ll move on as there is still 100km to Glen Helen which is where I thought I would end up.

Around about 4pm there is a sign to a parking spot which for a change looks to be up on a hill so I decide to have a look. What a great little spot. The car park is a bit muddy but I found a well drained spot right out on the edge overlooking some small gorges and the road with an all round view and the rain has even eased a little which allows me to take a few photos.

Not really good enough to stitch into a panoramic but it’s all a bit like this.

Rather nice.

[Update]

I decided to do the panorama anyway. This is about 180 degrees from the same place.

There is a video version here.

[End Update]

As there is still a bit of light I decide to do a bit of maintenance.

These wretched drawer locks unfortunately aren't doing the job. They are really nice in less severe applications but are having a terrible time on these roads.

This is the original catch as installed . . .

and this is what's left !

The only thing I have found is some rubber stoppers which might have a little more give in them

I guess we'll see as we go . . .

Great Central Road Day 07

2010-09-17T18:48:00.001-07:00

The cheerful Ayre's Rock (oops sorry Uluru whatever . . .) caravan park. I think you can see why you'd go stir crazy after a while.

Alice Springs here we come . . .
This means a trip out to the Stuart Highway and then head north.
Along the way you pass Mt Ebenezer station / roadhouse.
The view on the way is always quite impressive

and gets better as you get closer

The station property itself (and road house could be nicer, but that's the same for most places)

but if you like the view you can consider buying it, the current owners have seen enough apparently

Let's have another look at that

can't understand why anyone would want to leave, you can't beat the view.
And the wildlife is included too

Of course you wouldn't be able to look at it all right now as you can't drive everywhere at the moment . . .

So just a slow day driving north to Alice.
Stopped about 30km south in quite a nice parking spot and spent the night there to the accompaniment of continuous ongoing rain.

Wee'll see what tomorrow brings.

Great Central Road Day 06

2010-09-16T03:33:00.000-07:00

Day 06 much like day 05 !!

I looked up geocaching and there were two caches in the local area. There was also one at Lassiters Cave but I had not thought to look at that section of the trip before I left. Tough.
So I decided local hiking around Yalara would be good for me. Found out how many muscles I had stretched around the Olgas two days ago!!

The weather has been 100% overcast but did not actually rain although more is promised for tomorrow. With any luck it will be drying off tomorrow if it doesn't rain tonight.

I finally relented and bought some new maps for the Northern Territory.
The road conditions on the NT Government website have been saying basically "anything not bitumen is closed", and I have been looking at 20+ year old maps. DUH!!
The road out to Kings Canyon is now all bitumen! The reason it has been closed is that there are a couple of creeks which cross some flood ways. There are a couple of people who just got out before the closing who reckon the truck would have been fine even when the road was closed. With the drying weather it should be "no trouble". So tomorrow morning I will head that way. It's a long way to come back if the loop road doesn't open as well but then it's a longer way to come back some other time if I don't go now.

So that's it for "another sunny day in paradise" . . .
(Sorry no photos as it was just too dull).

Great Central Road Day 05

2010-09-15T18:56:00.001-07:00

Short post - long day.

Continuous rain !

Spent all day sitting inside. Read two books already.

A few short walks in little breaks. I would only get a little way and somebody would ask about the truck and then we'd have the guided tour. I am not complaining - it was nice to have people make appreciative comments - and I've run out of business cards as I didn't think to bring extra.

Now you'll have to admit that is not the most appealing environment in which to be stranded.
One of my little walks managed to produce this sight

It's interesting that one of the information people mentioned that on average 25% of people saw rain on the rock. That's higher than I imagined.
Even these little guys were a little bedraggled.

Attention was diverted however by the arrival of this guy.

It turned out it was hired and he wasn't very happy with the level of maintenance which had been performed. Nothing wrong with the basic mechanicals but the fit out was not holding up all that well. It was parked like that the whole time as he was a little scared about the area to the front where there wasn't quite as much blue metal on the ground. Needless to say off bitumen was off limits. I hate to think what the insurance would be!

It's predicted lighter rain tomorrow and heavier the day after . . .

What to do ?? What to do ???

Great Central Road Day 04

2010-09-14T17:30:00.000-07:00

Day 04
Pretty to wake up to but a little ominous.

According to my father "Red sky in the morning - shepherds warning. Red sky at night - shepherds delight.

Later in the day it cleared way to this - hopefully it will continue.

Generally the road was quite good with only the occasional puddle to contend with.

and visually more interesting as the tail end of the central "mountain" range hoves into view.
I'm puffing because I ran to the topof a hill.

It appears the descriptions were accurate. After crossing into the Northern Territory the roads were in much worse condition. There were about 235 km of roads like this (little YouTube video)

About 135 km out was lunch at Lassiter's Cave. I brought the kids out to Ayres Rock (maybe 20+ years ago) and we were told you should drive out and see Lassiter's Cave. While having lunch it occurred to me I was quite glad I hadn't!!

Enough said!!

The road comes out in the middle of the Uluru-Kata Juta national park so I made a turn toward Kata Juta (formerly The Olgas) arriving at about 4pm. There are two walks through so I took the "Valley of the Winds" which was rated at 3 hrs. These ratings always seem to be for fat pommy tourists so I thought I would go anyway. It actually only took about 2 hrs stopping for photos so those pommys must be getting fatter! I wont bore you with the 100 photos but here are a couple.

Got kicked out of the park at 7pm (no one is allowed in after 7-30 everyday) as no camping allowed. So it's off to the caravan park at Yulara.

Great Central Road Day 03

2010-09-14T15:08:00.000-07:00

Day three and I felt a little more relaxed. Still here . . .

Up at about 6am after a solid eight hours sleep.

Nothing to do while waiting for the road to open at 9 am

except to finish day 2 blog courtesy of their free of charge wireless Internet.

By now there is getting to be quite a queue of

and a few of these as well

The guy with the twin freezer road train in the front was telling me that when it gets bad and he’s heading into a strong wind he gets 900metres to the litre!! He carries 2000litres of fuel on the prime mover and 3000litres in a belly tank under the first freezer trailer.

Still waiting at 10am . . .

Road opens as far as Warburton at 10:15.

That’s as far as the semi’s behind are going. They have a quarter of a transportable schoolroom each on four low loaders. But, as I happened to be eating a pie standing next to the fax when the clearance came in I was first on the road. On bitumen I have been travelling about 80-85 kph in two wheel drive. On the dirt I have been travelling in 4 wheel drive at about 80-85 kph when it is smooth and about 40-90kph when it is rough. It’s really weird . . . the seat is sprung and keeps bouncing up and down which keeps you from subluxating vertebrae but it means you can’t keep your foot in a constant position. In fact you can’t even keep it on the pedal when it gets bad. Just hang on and wait for it all to calm down. It’s 8pm now when I write this and my whole body is still “vibrating”!! I haven’t yet had the courage to start dropping tyre pressures but some of the rigs are running about 60psi down from 100psi in the rough stuff. However they have far more efficient compressors to pump up again when they need to – still takes an hour and a half on average! They also have multiple tyres on each of multiple axles so if one rolls off a rim they still have support in that corner. I only have one tyre on each corner and one spare while they tend to carry 4 spares on each trailer!

Any way, I figure I can get a bit of a start and keep ahead of these guys.

Fat chance. They do this for a living. They have a land cruiser out front and are all in contact on CB radio. They travel just far enough apart to avoid each others dust. The land cruiser is constantly calling road condition and where to position themselves on the road and they are travelling about 100kph. Even the freezer road train travelling solo is doing 90kph. It’s disconcerting when they call you up and say they will pass on the downwind side, ie the wrong side of the road, to keep you out of the dust. Very considerate but frightening as it will happen uphill, downhill, crest or curve regardless as the land cruiser can call oncoming traffic. Then one of them blows a tyre and they all stop and you know it’s going to happen all over again. I chose to pull up behind and have lunch while they fixed the tyre and let them stay ahead.

While doing this I nearly had a disaster; I noticed some water leaking out of the pump compartment. Thank goodness for learning the rule “always switch off the tanks and the pump while travelling”. A joint in the plumbing system had unthreaded itself and dropped off the hot water system

As it was all switched off only a small amount ran out of the pipes so not too bad. That wasn’t the near disaster; I had parked right over on the edge of the road where everything leaned strongly over that way. When I went into the bathroom to check on things I opened the drawer in the kitchen where I keep a few small tools handy and the bathroom door swung shut behind me and the drawer slid open alongside the door, and there I was trapped in the bathroom! Fortunately I heard it happening and swatted the door against the drawer before it went all the way. I just had enough room to get my hand through and work the draw back millimeter by millimeter and the door open by the same amount.

For the rest of the time I was in there I made sure it couldn’t happen again!

I am sure someone would have come along and banged on the side to see who was in there after couple of trips past but it could have been a long wait.

Enough embarrassment!

While I was stopped I noticed this alongside.

Further examination showed it to be a survey marker.

I’ll have to see if there is any information on it next time I get connected.

Otherwise it all looked pretty much like this

That’s the Warburton ranges in the distance coming into the Warburton Indigenous Community . . .

The worst bit of the road was 100metres away from the roadhouse!

I won’t dwell on Warburton but suffice it to say that I stayed about 1 minute after learning the road was now open, with caution warnings, for a further 235 km.

As it was now about 4pm I decided to look for a place to stop along the road for my first true camp out. There was this nice little outcropping with a parking allowed sign about 80km down the track.

The entry was a bit wet but I figured it should be OK. Main road and entry in . . .

You can see the wet entry . . .
Once in there it turns out there was even a nice shelter, seats and a barbeque pit.

and the camp

As you couldn’t drive to the top I decided on a quick walk to the top before dark.

So that’s it for today.

I’m told the road is OK until the Northern Territory border and then it goes all to hell!

Could be an interesting day tomorrow . . .

Creat Central Road Day 02

2010-09-12T04:37:00.001-07:00

So last night I made it to Leonora. It was too far really. I had intended to stay the night in Menzies. Unfortunately when I arrived about 9-30pm the whole place was locked up. I was going to stay the night and and get fuel in the morning. Two things put me off this; the first was the fact that there were quite a few people roaming the streets looking, it would appear, for some form of amusement; robbing my truck seemed like it would be high on the list for entertainment. But perhaps I malign them. Then again the roadhouse was surrounded by a several metre high security fence topped with barbed wire!! Even the driveways were gated such that no-one could get in!! The second thing was that I got a call on the CB radio from the roadhouse proprietor informing me that they would not be open the following day. Fuel was available 120km away 24/7 in Leonora. No brainer really . . .

Leonora was much nicer, and parked outside the police station I wasn't bothered all night!

Fueled up next morning and off at about 7-30am.

The road goes to within about 10km of Laverton but seeing as I had worked out by then that I am averaging about 5km/l (or 20l/100km if you prefer or VERY roughly about 15mpg) and have a range between 1600 and 2000km and its only 1500km to Alice and about 300 to the next fuel I decided to keep straight on. I don't have particularly stimulating memories of Laverton from many years ago and I can't see it would have changed much. Subsequent conversations with others on the road since have borne this out.

So turning left I was confronted with . . .

Not too bad . . . a bit rough in patches . . . a bit corrugated in patches . . . and quite smooth in others.
Then there was some of this . . .

and this . . .

but surprisingly only one of these!

Who turned out to be

who explained that THE ROAD WAS CLOSED DUE TO RAIN !!!
He was coming back . . . as you couldn't get past the roadhouse.
He explained that it only took 24-48 hours normally for the road to re-open as wind and evaporation dry everything very quickly around here.
It took me a few minutes to come to grips with that. Then I thought "I'm on holiday! I don't have to get to any place particularly at any time particularly, and as it's an awful long way to anywhere else from out here I may as well wait at the roadhouse for a day or so. I can always get down the bike and go for a ride. . .
So on we go . . .
Along the way I had surprised several families of eagles by the side of the road but they were always hidden behind some bushes until I arrived suddenly and by the time I got stopped they were long gone so I couldn't get photos. Finally there were a couple well ahead and I could roll up a bit closer. All but one took off and "he" flew a little way into a bush. What the heck . . . I would just walk up slowly until he took off. I managed to get to about 30 metres away, very unusual. I love these big guys although this one only had a wingspan of about 2 metres.

On to Tjukayirla Roadhouse, the most isolated roadhouse in Australia, which probably puts it in a world class anyway.

It's run by a white guy on behalf of the aboriginal (or whatever the PC term is these days) and is very well looked after. Some other travellers and truckies waiting for 9 tomorrow morning when it is expected the road will be re-opened. A few interesting conversations and set up for the night. Interestingly this is as far as you are allowed to take alcohol and tobacco into the native title lands. Completely banned in these communities.

So far nothing dramatic has happened. A bracket holding the motorbike has come loose as some rivnuts have pulled out because of the sometimes AWFUL corrugations. Now I remember why it's not always a good idea to use rivnuts. Also the stove would not work. Seemed to be no gas flow although the hot water system is fine. I'll have to wait until I can phone the gas fitter or get to Alice Springs for a repair.

Gradually I'm getting the arranging worked out.
Not bad for day 2 . . .

Hopefully there will be some interesting sights to see further on ...

It Turns Out It's Easy !

2010-09-11T07:35:00.001-07:00

The wonders of modern technology!

I decided to go East.

Here I am in Leonora, using my laptop, wireless mobile Internet connection etc. etc. etc....

In addition both the Western Australian and Northern Territory governments have improved their procedures and technology and permits are available online immediately.
Wonders will never cease!

Using these same technological marvels here follows a collection of truly awful photo's taken when pulling the truck over to let traffic get by. It happens every our or so and there is some variation as I got further east.

It's late tonight so I will modify this tomorrow (maybe) or when I get access again which could be a day or two.

Today's track . . .

Lunch at the "information centre"in Merredin outside the old cemetery

in the Shire of Yilgarn

Hopefully will be more organised as I settle into this holiday mode.

Bitch, Moan, Complain . . . .

2010-09-07T02:31:00.000-07:00

For reasons that currently elude me I decided I had to have a CB radio.
So I bought one of these :

A friend of a friend of a .... etc. who does police, fire, ambulance and mining vehicles etc. persuaded me that I really didn't need one to try and reach across Australia or to the moon etc.; if I really needed something like that I was better off with a satellite phone. After some research I tended to agree but I still lost the plot and needed a CB for inter-vehicle communication at close range . . . you know . . . like when travelling in a convoy. At this point everyone yells "Rubber Ducky that's a big 10/4" and I go and cringe in a corner. Never the less I bought it and had it fitted. Did you get that bit "HAD IT FITTED"? I DIDN'T DO IT MYSELF?!!! It was decided that the most convenient place to mount it was on the front of the gearshift console.

Which is OK.
The aerial is another matter. It really needs to go smack bang in the middle of the roof to work effectively, however with the truck 4000mm high and the legal maximum is 4200mm and more importantly there are bridges and underpasses that are 4201mm, at least it seems like it, that is not really practical. There are the remains of an aerial still in the middle of the roof of the cab but that was for the old flat bed arrangement, the current "big box" would block the signal for 180 degrees behind the direction of travel. The best compromise that could be agreed on was here ...

This still blocks off reception and transmission in a 90 degree arc but will allow communication with vehicles in front and behind and that's really what it's for . . .
Now the "bitch and moan" part comes about with the interior installation.
I had a cable for the reversing cameras reasonably neatly over the front of the dash as I didn't want to drill any holes in the dash until I had decided exactly how much I was eventually going to change it all, however, the guy doing the installation either forgot it went down the front or tried to help by tucking it away and in doing so broke off the end of the ashtray while trying to squash the cable in behind it. Somehow I don't think it improved the look . . . I think I preferred the exposed cable. What? Did he expect I wouldn't notice?? Or I would be happy the cable is now half hidden and is going to wear through where it is squashed???

Well I guess it just advances the next part of the project. I temporarily screwed the rear view camera display to the top of the ashtray. I hate/loathe/despise/etc.... smoking so it was never going to get used but it is not the best of mountings.
In addition the radio which is directly underneath has one output amplifier blown so only one speaker works.

No worries! I will just get a new one. What could be simpler?
a) Isuzu no longer has them as a spare.
b) Wreckers do not keep radios???
c) It's 24vDC and all cars are 12vDC (at least that can be solved)
d) the real killer is that it's only half as deep as a standard radio!!
You can see that compared to the size of the standard car radio I bought intending to just "put it in the same slot".

and there lies another tale . . .
While purchasing some other things one day I saw this

Damaged packaging?? So what!!
It's got all that nice new fruit with MP3 plug, USB control, CD player, detachable front panel, remote control, etc, etc . . .
HAH!!
I bought it at the time because it was cheap and I would use it some time in the future . . . fast forward, that's now, so I unpacked it and yes only the packaging is damaged but they forgot to mention that the remote is missing along with the mounting hardware and that someone had detached the front panel without pressing the appropriate release button.
Of course what followed was par for the course . . .

"Excuse me I purchased this about six months ago but have only just opened it and there appears to be a few things wrong . . ."
"Well. Jeez mate. What do you expect us to do now. You should have told us straight away, and look it says 'damaged' what do you expect?"
and
and
and . . .
Why don't I learn??
So it's back to the old technology, iPod and iTrip for music in remote locations where the radio wont work

and cross wire the one amplifier channel still working in the old radio to both speakers so at least I get dual Mono, and advance the timetable for the construction of the new dashboard console so I can mount the new 12vDC radio properly.

In the mean time I think I might just go away for a month . . . so let's check the travel conditions . . . of course . . . the north of Australia is having unseasonal early monsoon rains and many of the roads are closed so I can't go that way and I have to apply for several travel permits to cross aboriginal lands to go east and that could take a while and there is only ocean to the south and west and . . . and . . .
bitch . . . moan . . . complain . . .

First Real Test . . .

2010-08-25T04:23:00.000-07:00

Nothing much happening in the way of construction as "Suzi" is out and about !!
Just a small run on the spur of the moment to a place called Mount Observation about 65km in a direct line from where I live in Perth right on the edge of a National Park.

I thought it would be a good test to see what it's really like. I did not load any food and just stopped in a small town along the way to pick up supplies
- just like I'd have to if I was travelling for an extended period. It certainly reminds you of all the small items you have in your cupboards and fridge that you only think about when you run out, because I ran out of everything.
Arrived just on lunch time and was able to get organised without too much trouble. Took the bike down and then realised that I had not filled it after the last trip nor had I filled the jerry cans. Dumb! The nearest town was about 20km away so a trip there was required just to get a full tank. Back by about 3pm and just enough time for a short trip around a small part of the national park which extends for some 200 miles south.
The temperature started to drop fairly quickly as the sun went down so dinner was a barbeque and some stir fry vegetables. Already I can see I will have to rearrange where I carry nearly everything in order to make things more convenient.

This is a typical Aussie picnic spot, you can just see a concrete fire pit in the background alongside the next log table and seats.

The unusual bit was that there was a well kept toilet here as well!

As the sun went down

I was joined by some of the local wildlife

When it got properly dark I repaired to the truck and set up the computer etc..
A friend rang my mobile while I was doing it and, I find it amazing, I was able to connect with my wireless modem and solve a problem on his computer and then go on to produce this blog post. . .

To someone who finished schooling and started work before the invention of the PC it's quite mind boggling.

The Other Half . . .

2010-08-18T02:57:00.000-07:00

of the drawer problem that is :)
All that's needed is a little catch to be put on the drawer for the lock pin to bear against when locked.
(You can see a video of the whole operation here and here).

Fortunately the fridge misses when the lock is both open

and of course when closed.

and I still haven't figured out how to get the top one to work yet.
I might have to end up with one of those "kid proof" locks or something glued to the front.
Pretty ugly but I'm getting desperate . . .

Just a Little Test Run . . .

2010-08-16T02:04:00.000-07:00

My computer suffered another meltdown!

While waiting for a replacement part I decided to do a little test run through a couple of towns about 100km away. It all went well apart from the drawers next/under the sink don't want to stay closed. All the other drawers and cupboards seem to be fine, it's just these ones. After much searching through furniture manufacturers' catalogues the best I could come up with is these.

I used them before on some of the other cupboards but the way the drawers are made led me to think they could not be used here. They are meant to go straight through the front and have a striker on the frame or cross piece between the drawers. These drawers don't have a frame!!
However, I reckon I can use them differently and mount them from the side of the carcase and use the actuating pin against a stop mounted on the side of the drawer. Sort of back to front . . .
This is what it looks like unlocked

and locked

First thing is to drill a hole (hopefully in the correct spot) through the side of the drawer cupboard to fit the lock barrel but not going all the way through.

You can see there are no cross pieces to lock against.

Where the point of the drill comes through on the other side allows for marking out the securing screws

and drilling the necessary holes from this side.

Then a larger hole for the locking pin to come through.

Tomorrow I'll fit the lock and the striker on the side of the drawer and then if that works as well as hoped I can do the other three, although the top drawer is going to have it's own problems as I can't get to the side of the carcase because of the fridge fascia board.
There's always some little thing . . . .

Not Completely Abandoned . . .

2010-08-09T02:10:00.000-07:00

While trying to organise the rest of my life there are still a few little jobs which need to be attended to; the end caps for the tail-light bar seemed like a good place to start. . .
Fortunately there were a couple of pieces of my favourite acetal in the rack.
First step was to machine a "plug" to fit inside the end of the tube.
You can see video of the machining here.

then machine off the excess to match the outside of the tube
You can see a video of the machining here.

and finally round over the edge (just to be neat)
You can see a video of he machining here.

Turned out rather nicely I think

Despite being a nice "tap" fit into the tube I couldn't resist adding a stainless steel screw to make sure it would stay there.

I had noticed before that the step treads were starting to crack. They were cannibalised from a very cheap ladder and are made of sheet metal about 1mm thick, not a good prognosis for longevity so some repair work was in order.

At each hinge point the (surprise) powder coating was ground off

and a washer the correct size tacked in place

then fully welded (it's like trying to weld brown paper on that 1mm sheet metal)

and ground flat again.

This will be primed and repainted along with the rest of the steps and hopefully wont even be noticed, apart from the reduced likelihood of pitching me into a severe injury!

It's The Little Things That Get You

2010-08-02T05:41:00.000-07:00

I needed to use a separate "earth" or "neutral" or "return" wire (whatever you want to call it) for each light as I never use the chassis as part of the circuit and if I ever needed to remove one light it couldn't be connected to the other earths as the wires for each light went through a separate hole behind each light and needed to be independent. (I hope that all makes sense!) Anyway the point of all that is I ended up with so many wires a rather large junction box needed to be tucked into the rear end of the chassis. It also took a whole day (with interruptions; a few new people seem to have heard of the truck and are turning up wanting to look and "kick tyres").
Before too long however it was all ready to go back together so the truck was backed up into position and of course I overlooked that pesky little exhaust pipe for the generator. (That saga never seems to end!) So that had to come off and be modified. I actually think the redirected pipe is slightly quieter as it points at the ground now so "silver linings" and all that . . .
You can see here the mounting pad way over to the left and the pipe on the right about to be crushed if it was lowered any further at that point; and of course the lovely new lights below.

With that fixed it could be lowered all the way down and bolted up. The only drawback is that the toolbox cross bars get in the way of reaching the securing bolts. A modified spanner and some extension tubes nearly fixed that ( I suppose I have to carry them with me now too) but there was still one last bolt which I could not get full torque on. It is done up tight but not as tight as I would like . . . still there are five more on each mount that will have to do.
With the body in place the toolboxes could be mounted up and finally bolted in tight.

I think they fit in quite well and don't compromise the departure angle tooooo much.
Since then there have been a few other activities in the shop which have nothing to do with the truck and a little more motorcycling as the nice weather returns.
As I have been tidying up I have been trying to decide what to put in and where to put it. The temptation is to take way too much. It's actually built now with remarkably few things left to do, like lining cupboards and selecting storage boxes to fit various spaces so I don't need to take all the things necessary to build it again as spares. Hopefully little will break and in reality I will probably be passing through at least one town every day or so for the early parts of the around Australia proving tests. It's about 8.5 tonnes dry and 9.5 tonnes wet and provisioned so it's no lightweight. I have some things to do which will keep me here for a little while yet and I don't seem to be able to find the enthusiasm for little short hops which I had anticipated a while ago.
So expect things to be a little quiet for a while as I just work out what to take and where to put it and what to do with everything left behind.

Never Go Near The Truck Shop !

2010-07-28T04:54:00.000-07:00

It occurred to me that it would be a good idea, before doing all the taillight stuff, that I should also think about some toolboxes for the back of the chassis and I needed to carry some extra petrol for the motorbike and the generator while I was at it. Then I thought maybe I could see what was available commercially (i.e. ready made) in the way of toolboxes and jerry can racks. Which just goes to prove that too much thinking is not good for your wallet and you should leave it at home when "going out to check on a few things".
I think I mentioned once before that my shop is not set up for sheet metal so toolboxes would be a bit of a problem. It also occurred to me that I could put some plastic jerry cans inside a toolbox for carrying petrol and that way I could vary the amount of fuel I carried and have usable space when I was not carrying a lot. Made sense to me!
So . . . some little while, and considerable money, later I arrived home with two of these toolboxes. They are a fraction larger than I actually wanted, with regard to ground clearance, but everything else was too far one way or the other so these ones were it.

You can see from the picture that I also decided it would be easier in the long run to remove the house from the truck to get all the fixing and fitting done. I decided to hang the boxes from two beams across the chassis which required a little bit of remounting of the electrical buses in the centre of the chassis but nothing too drastic. This is the first of them made up, painted and bolted in place.

I did have it all mocked up before it was painted but somebody distracted me while I was getting the camera and by the time I got back I forgot I was supposed to take photo's so I just pulled it all apart again (old-timers disease).
While I had it all together I did realise that I couldn't get to the bolts for attaching the house once the toolboxes were mounted so the house has to go back before final fitting of the boxes. This means that the tail lights needed finishing so I could put the house back. Back to where I started!
First thing was to record all the wiring codes for how it was originally wired up. Then cut off all the horrible wiring extensions that had been done for the trailer plug connection and wire everything to some connection blocks for simpler reconnection and to allow for removing the tail light bar assembly some time in the future if I ever needed to. These will be mounted inside the chassis in a mounting box when finished.

Next was to temporarily connect all the new lights to make sure everything worked as it should. I was replacing all the old globe lights with new LEDs and sometimes this does not work properly. The flashers tend to cycle too fast and the dashboard indicator for blown globes can light up all the time as the LEDs do not have enough resistance in the circuit. You can get load resistors to add in but they are about $25 each and you need one for each circuit, LH flasher, RH flasher, stop, tail, reverse! Fortunately everything worked OK.

Next in with the extensions to bring the tail light bar out to the end of the house and mount the bar.

The bar had previously been fitted with all the rivnuts for screwing the lights on so it was simple to fit them in place.

All these lights are fitted with short wires, about 300mm, so they all needed extending by soldering on extensions and heat shrink covering the join.

Then feed them all back through the chassis to the terminating block.

Christmas tree effect coming up soon.

It All Comes Back To Me Now . . .

2010-07-22T06:10:00.001-07:00

After staring at the electrics for about 10 mins. it all started to come back. Thank goodness I had at least used the dymo machine and labelled all the wires.
Eventually it was all wired together and I now have a switch on the dash which turns on the cameras and the display at the same time. That way I can forget the on-off switch on the display and know that the cameras are on and off with the display. The blank square in the photograph is caused by flash reflection and the dymo label actually says "REAR VIEW". I left out the little LED light as I thought it would be too distracting at night and the display is a giant indicator all by itself!

I will not go into detail but some time in the past I ruptured the video lead from the second rear view camera. Its the one used for close up backing and monitoring the bike and carrier on the rear. I decided to fix this as well, which required cutting the lead and replacing a 4 pin plug before the break. It's hard to believe but after looking through all the catalogues of electronic parts, at an electronics supply company, that plug could not be found anywhere! This meant of course that I had to cut off the end of both cables I needed to join and replace them with matching plugs of another type. This wasn't such a big deal but did mean that they could not then act as backup for each other, I had located these plugs so that the cameras could be switched in about 30 sec's should one or the other fail, without accessing a much less convenient spot and changing things there. That's life . . .

The 12vDC outlets were then all rewired and as I didn't really need a 24vDC outlet I rewired that to 12v as well. Now I can have several items operating in the cab, fridge, GPS 1, GPS 2, MP3, laptop, battery charger . . . hmmmm maybe I need to drill some more holes in the dash!

The [connect batteries] button is part of the truck auxiliary battery isolation unit which protects the cranking batteries from the loads inside the cab and disconnects them when the voltage falls below a predetermined point. From the opposite point of view, in the rare event that the cranking batteries become low this button can reconnect the auxiliary batteries to provide some extra boost.
While doing all this I came across the remote control for the camera display still in it's plastic bag. I have always scoffed at the idea of a remote in a vehicle when you can just reach out and press a button or twiddle a knob but after trying to find a radio station while travelling down a dirt road recently this and the radio remote will now find a permanent home close to the drivers seat.

This seemed to complete all I needed to do in the cab for a while so it was outside again.
Some time ago in circumstance I refuse to describe (so I can't be prosecuted for endangering the public) I managed to lose a number of the leg housing covers. The next day or so was spent finding some acetal large enough and then machining the replacements. Enough said.

While out looking for the acetal I managed to run across some locking fuel caps which just fitted straight onto the tanks. The ones which came with the truck when I bought it were some plastic caps which are only legal in this state as "get you home" type items. I was intending to machine some new ones from stainless steel whenever the opportunity arose but they fit and are locking and I can just put them straight on and aren't overly expensive. No brainer!

Also the taillight assembly was transferred from the original tray body onto a piece of angle iron as a temporary measure to get me home when I sold the tray. They actually stick out a bit behind the house and get in the way of the bike carrier when it is swung down.
Time to address that so while getting the caps I also got some new LED lights to fit to the truck.

It was startling to be told that the clear reverse lights were DOUBLE the cost of the turn and stop/tail lights. I was told that they are priced that way from all the manufacturers! Can't follow the reasoning there.
In looking for a suitable mount for these new little beauties I came across some "yard rail" I had left over from cattle yards on the farm. In order not to injure the cattle it is a nice smooth profile which I think will make quite a nice "bumper bar" on which to mount the lights.

Back in a couple of days . . . .

It Seemed To Make Sense at the Time ...

2010-07-19T07:55:00.001-07:00

Some while ago I was organising how to make the lifting and securing of my off road bike a little easier and then seemed to get sidetracked somehow. Today I managed to get it sorted out. Well until I try it out in practice anyway. It's based to a large extent around a simple lifting bar. I tried straps and ropes etc. but they all require some slack in them and it made getting the bike high enough a little more difficult than necessary. In actual fact to make it work I had to put the winch up on the tyre lifting outrigger, which works but is just a little more difficult than I had hoped. By using a solid bar I was able to mount the winch on the same bar as for lifting the tyre, which is a little lower and easier to get at. The bar looks like this

and is made from 50mm x 20mm x 2.5mm wall thickness which is more rigid than the normal 1.6mm thickness tube I use for most things. At each end I have provided "cup hook" fittings which mount to the bike and in the middle a lifting ring. A bush of solid steel has been welded into the bar and tapped to match the lifting ring. At the front there are a couple of split bushes (in my favourite acetal material) which attach to the handlebars

like so

and another single hook at the rear which goes under the rack at the back as discussed in a previous post. When mounted on the bike it looks like this

The next part of the system stays on the truck and looks like this

Its a triangular tube frame which is pivoted with a couple of bushes again made of acetal, but painted over in this picture. The bushes provide a bearing surface which will not rust where it wears against things and makes a cap for the end of the tube to stop water entering.

It works by : swing the carrier frame out of the way and lift the bike to the maximum height for the low winch mounting. It's actually impossible to lift it any higher even with the winch on the top mount as the bike is mostly underneath the tyre and fouls if you try to lift it any higher. The inside mirror even has to be swung forward to be out of the way of the tyre.

Swing the carrier frame back underneath and lower the bike into position.

Then the truck mounted triangle can be swung up into position and a bolt, or two, can be used to hold the triangle to the lifting bar.

This effectively secures the bike to the truck!
The triangular frame ensures the bike can not roll from side to side and holds the bars at the correct distance from the back of the truck so they do not rub. The two hooks and bushes at the front hold the bars square as well so they can't flap around. All that is left is to strap the wheels to the carrier frame. This is just a safety measure as I don't think its possible for them to jump over the rear bar but better to be safe than sorry.

While doing this it became annoying to use the winch as it had the stupidest cord into which an extension had to be plugged, it was only about 600mm long, and because it was hanging all the time it tended to fall out. As I had a few extension cords laying around, they tend to get damaged in the workshop and have to be replaced from time to time, it seemed reasonable to sacrifice one to the expedience of convenience.

While I had the electrical toolbox out I decided it was time to do a few things that had been put off for a while. I needed some more 12vDC outlets inside the cab and I wanted to fit a switch to the rear view cameras as they appear to be on all the time even with the display turned off!
All these electronics and the controls for the non-standard electric windows and central locking which I fitted were on a panel I mounted under the passenger seat when I first built them (the truck is 24vDC and all these extra electronic components were 12vDC), so out with the passenger seat and .....

I knew I should have made a proper circuit diagram when I built it, but it all made sense at the time . . .

One Siren After Another . . .

2010-07-17T06:35:00.000-07:00

Trim up a sheet of stainless steel, drill some holes, put some silicone and a few washers under each hole and screw in some stainless self tapping screws. The washers provide a 5mm gap between the sheet and the fibreglass which will allow for some air to carry the heat away.
Now all jobs should be like this one !

Next another simple one. I finally remembered to get a battery for the smoke alarm I had sitting in a drawer for 6 months so a couple of screws and that's done too.
The test button provided proof of just how piercing the noise can be.
No chance of sleeping through that one!

And while I remember, the exhaust air hatch on the generator box needed some final waterproofing and trim paint.

Then a few days of beautiful sunshine in the middle of winter and the siren call of the big road bike put paid to any work for a couple of days.
What can I say .... :)

I See the Light ....

2010-07-11T07:03:00.001-07:00

Some while ago I mentioned my over-enthusiasm in selecting a water pump had resulted in one which cycled on and off about every 2 seconds, fast enough to ensure it would probably not last over any extended time. My friend Sich has kindly donated a pressure tank, which he does not need in his system, to see if that can help solve the problem. I find that this sort of re-arrangement does my head in. I tend to be a bit obsessive compulsive about trying to get things neat and "proper" some times and when there are a number of conflicting requirements it leads to a great deal of (SOMETIMES) useless anguish. My lessons learned on the generator saga however have encouraged me not to ignore the little things as they all seem to add up to more than the sum of the parts. In the case of plumbing there are always things like pipe friction involving length, diameter, bend turbulence etc. etc. etc.... which will cause these low pressure systems to not perform very well at the best of times. Then when you have to squeeze it all into small spaces involving twists and turns and try to match each manufacturer's fittings to each other it can cause great angst.
Never the less this re-arrangement has seemed to turn out OK and the cycling frequency has been greatly reduced so I am going to live with it for a while.

While I was at it I decided to try and improve another aspect of convenience. I intend to do nearly all cooking outside - BBQ, wok or frying pan on the BBQ burner - inside the smells just never go away and I have never found a satisfactory range hood for a camper (or a house for that matter!). When you do this there is always the matter of cleaning up. Similarly if you ever need to just rinse something off before stowing it away it is a real inconvenience to be going backward and forward inside and out for water in a bucket etc.. It would be nice to have a tap convenient to the outside. So while I was at it I added another couple of fittings into the system and installed a mixing tap and shower hose just inside the compartment. I could have bought a standard "outside shower set" but they are really flimsy and then just give you the problem of securing them so no vandal can just turn on a tap and drain away all your water. (Yes I have heard of it happening!)
Now I have the convenience of an outside shower and hot and cold running water for cleaning up etc..

With the carpets in it was time to clean up the last of the inside . . .
The bed frame is just about the last of it and I had decided that some more light was needed over the table for reading, eating and working etc. so that needed attending to as well.
A few bits needed priming and painting and I decided it was easier to do this in place than pull it all out and then scratch it all again putting it back in. It was interesting to note that while Sich and I were bringing the truck back across Australia we dropped in at Jacana Motor Homes who are probably the biggest builder of bus based motorhomes in Australia and they did all their finishing painting in place inside the bus after everything else had been completed! Sounds like a nightmare to me but they seem to make it work and they have a very good reputation.

After that is was just a matter of carpeting the ply base on top

and also underneath and putting all the trim bits back in place. Also visible are the two LED light bars underneath. These can be turned on their longitudinal axis for directing the light and consume something like .2watts and they are quite effective in this small area.

As the bed rises and falls taking the lights with them I also needed to get some power to them. This was solved using a "cigarette lighter" adapter which had a coiled cord - cutting it off and soldering the wire ends to the lights and providing a couple of fittings to take the "strain" of stretching the cord.

Now I think it's back outside again.
Testing the plumbing I of course turned on the hot water system. It worked fine but this time I noticed the fibreglass just above the flue outlet seemed to get very hot. It was probably the same as last time but I never noticed it then. It is probably OK but I think over time it will discolour the fibreglass and maybe even cause it to break up. I think it just needs a simple deflector to let the heat disperse before it reaches the fibreglass. I have some spare stainless sheeting in the corner so that's where I am headed. . .

I Think I Like It . . .

2010-07-09T01:46:00.000-07:00

With a modicum of contact adhesive and some fancy little plastic clips ( I forgot to take any photos but they are similar to the clips used to hold all the interior fittings into cars, commonly called "Xmas trees" ) made to fit the aluminium track and a couple of "D-ring pull handles" a hatch cover looks sort of like

Not all that impressive by itself but it goes quite nicely under the table with a couple of others. You can't see it well here but there is a step at the edge of the dining area which needed a stair tread bull nose capping as well.

At the other end there is just a small area under the floor which required a slightly more elaborate hatch cover but I may as well make use of every little space.

All in all I think it has turned out quite well.
One day I will get around to lining the inside of the bins with some carpet (or something ???) but for now there are some plumbing changes which need doing and we are getting our entire July rainfall in the next couple of days so I think I will attend to the plumbing until the weather clears a little. . .