Rob & Liz's 1999 Trip

The inset photo is taken on Fraser Island at Lake McKenzie.

Hello and welcome to our 1999 around Australia report.    You can follow our adventure around Australia through this Website.     For those of you that have stumbled across this site please do not hesitate to send us an e-mail at rljackman@netspace.net.au We are traveling around Australia and we would love to correspond with you and tell you a bit about us and what we are doing.

Background

Preparation for the trip has been extensive as we want to be well prepared for all eventualities.  We have purchased a new 100 series Toyota Landcruiser 4 WD and a Statesman Royale Caravan that we will use for the trip.   In addition we have set up the rear of the 4 WD with camping equipment which will allow us to leave the caravan in storage and travel to remote outback locations.   We have undertaken off road driver training and participated in some off road weekend and day trips as well as joining the Toyota Landcruiser Club to learn more about off road skills and to share our experiences with people with common hot interests.Whilst the caravan is reasonably conventional other than containing a water system we have gone to some trouble to set up the 4 WD vehicle.  It contains bullbar, CB & UHF Radios, diff breathers, GPS unit, dual battery systems and a range of off road recovery and tyre repair equipment to cater for most eventualities.  Our research would indicate that you could add substantially more equipment, particularly recovery gear but it seems that it is rarely used and most of the more popular off road tracks are well populated meaning help is not far away.

Departure & Route Taken

The photo is from the Devils Marbles, 114 km south of Tennant Creek.

We departed for our adventure mid May, 1999 travelling in a northerly direction up the East coast of Australia.   Our first main stop will be Surfers Paradise for one week where we will celebrate my father's 80th birthday.  After a week of celebrations we will then leisurely make our way to Cairns arriving there on about June 20th.   We spend almost a week in Cairns at which time we meet up with friends from Ballarat for the journey up to Cape York.  From there we travel back down to Cairns to pick up the caravan. We then make our way to Normanton, Cloncurry, Mt Isa, across to Tennant Creek up to Darwin, Kakadu and Arnhem Land.   This part of the trip from Cairns is expected to take approximately two months.
We then leave Darwin to travel through the centre of Australia through Katherine, Tennant Creek to Alice Springs where we will spend time exploring the McDonnell ranges, and Ularu (Ayers Rock).  From there we continue south to Coober Pedy, Woomera to the Flinders ranges then down to Adelaide.  From there we will probably take the coast road back to Warrnambool in Victoria and back to Ballarat.

Click here to see the detailed version of our 1999 itinerary

Travel Reports

May 15 to June 5 - Ballarat to Surfers Paradise
June 6 to June 28 - Surfers Paradise to Cairns
June 29 to July 12 - Cairns to Cape York & Return
July 14 to July 27 - Cairns to Mount Isa
July 28 to August 18 - Mount Isa to Katherine
August 19 to Sept. 7 - Katherine to Darwin
Sept. 8 to Sept. 27 - Darwin to Alice Springs
Sept. 28 to Oct. 4 - Alice Springs to Wilpena Pound
October 5 to October 20 - Wilpena Pound to Ballarat

Any Suggestions
Places to visit, things to see, plus any other suggestions are welcome.    We would love peoples input on what there is to see on this route.   We are obviously aware of the main tourist areas but if anyone knows of unique, out of the way places we would love to hear from you.

Email us on:           rljackman@netspace.net.au

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