Then we are 'off' to explore the 'top-end'
Have been a few times before - but never this leisurely...
This time is for 12 weeks...
I'm retired now but the missus isn't and she is taking accumulated A/L for this trip. Doesn't want to take more than that - fair enough...
We have a newbie Jayco Discovery (november 2009) 17.55.3 with built-in ablutions which means we can be more self-sufficient. So I have been researching the Independent/Free/cheap camps all the way (so far) up to Litchfield.
I'm stumped what to do at (1) Coober Pedy, and (2) Alice Spr.
Is there a free/cheap camp around Coober..? I thought I'd read there was a cheap camp ?50km? Sth of Coober - apparently listed in Camps 5 and noted to be "dusty"
Alice - well we are more interested in the E & W McDonnells.
I see that East is Trephina Gorge (either free or cheap) and West there is White Gums at Honeymoon Gap. Anyone have info on these please...
Addit: Technically, I've been Grey/Silver for over 30 years - and have been nomadic in that same time span. Last February we updated the old Windsor with a brand new Jayco - then updated again in November to the current van, which we like. Pretty much set-up now (says he with confidence). Dual Batt (AGM) in back of tug drives Waeco 50L and supplies HF radio (VKS 1330). Having a house Batt (AGM) fitted into van in February - also a HR WDH fitted - and side walls for the pull out awning. CTEK 15a step charger. Pondering abt taking the Gen (probly not - Eh).
GPS and Netbook with 3G and 3G Mobile phone. Normal security gear
Not planning on taking the new van off formed roads (wouldn't want to scratch it) but will certainly explore everywhere else in the Patrol and looking forward to a wonderful 12 weeks.
In prep for the BIG trip - we are going to see how much we can minimalise the cost of this 12 week trip, free/cheap camps, keep the missus away from the shops stay away from bought food - even taking me own home brew.
Also looking at starting a blog - don't know where to start there yet...
Looked at 'SPOT' but figured that emails and phonecalls are enough to keep the daughter and G'kids informed - and we have the HF...
Sorry - long post. Ta for looking...
Any info on camps at Coober and the McDonnells appreciated.
Jedo

Hi and welcome to the forum,

I'd be inclined to stay at one of the Caravan Parks at Coober Pedy, likewise if staying in or close to town at all in Alice. Further out shouldn't be a problem. Won't go into details lest I be accused of being racist. I think you'll get my drift.

Jim

-- Edited by jimricho on Thursday 28th of January 2010 07:55:42 PM

West macdonalds we stayed at ellery Creek big Hole, $3.30pp pn flushing toilets.
All the NP in the terriorty are $3.30 pp pn. Devils marbles is good but get in early.
Can't help around coober pedy.

Stuart wells 90K's south of alice is a good base for a couple of days, day trips to chambers pillars, Rainbow valley and the meteorite craters.

-- Edited by Gary and Kerry on Thursday 28th of January 2010 07:56:43 PM

There's a campground at Banka Banka, a bit south of Renner Springs, north of TC, not free but a budget job I think, haven't stayed there but it looks quite nice driving past. Other "forumsters" will probably know it and may post more info.

Hope you're as happy with your Jayco Discovery as we are with ours Jed 03

Well hello and welcome to Nomads Jedo 03. Now my feet are itchy again. And it's all your fault, and anyone else's who's planning to hitch up. My turn will come. So it's all the best to, and I hope it's everything you're planning it to be and then some. Safe and happy travels to you, wherever you go.

G'day Joe welcome to the forum and what a ripper first post!! mate listen to Jim both his posts are spot on, don't look for freebies in either coober or Alice, they are there but the natives are not friendly, we did a couple of freebies last year with a mob of toffs from the smoke, hot, dusty, dirty yep typical Australia and I loved it but we got annoyed a couple of times by our bony mates! take a look around and enjoy the place but stay at rebas or similar, thats what we did on our second trip up last year, much better, with the Alice stay at the park thats just out the other side, cant remember the name but you wont get bothered out there

Ta for all the replies:)

Have now decided to give Alice the miss - might call in for fresh bread and milk. For 'some' reason we always seem drawn to Alice. There wouldn't be much we haven't already seen there.
Dave: - that'd be Honeymoon Gap..??
Coober..?? - depends what time of day we get there but probly just stay the one night. Again - has always been a "regular stop" for us. Fascinating place.
Gary and Kerry: Stuart Wells is already on the list - as is Ellery Ck.
To The Gnome: Who's that sitting on MY chair??
Jimricho: Banka is on the list as well.
Ma: We like this one better than the first
Gran: Big 'ugs...

Bit more about us: 22+ yrs in OZ (all of it in Broken Hill). We were once "Geordies" y'knaw, and spent nearly every summer camping at the Lake District or Scotland. Bought a Jayco Campertrailer in our 2nd year here (some stories there). One point we had 2 vans - one we used to tow round with us and another parked permanent at Copi Hollow up at Menindee Lakes ($1 a day...) Had the speedboat then as well. Learned to drive a grader and front-end-loader up at Copi - self sufficient LOL. Have the one daughter and 3 g'kids - they spend half their time on a huge property north of Wilcannia with 6000 sheep and over 1000 head cattle - not to mention the wild pigs. It's an adventurous life... The kids love it - they don't need a licence to drive up there. 12 and 10 yr olds gunning 4Wheelers over sandhills and through wet creeks mustering woolies and mean longhorns... LOL ... and spend the other half at school in the Hill. And you wouldn't believe the change in the 12 yr old when she gets back into town and morphs into a fashion-princess...LOL... 2 days ago she was gutting/skinning/butchering a fatlamb - last night she was dressed to the nines and decked with gold necklaces and bracelets - eating it's cousin...
Should write a book - Eh..??
Jedo

Yes! Yes! Write a book. Once you start you'll not be able to stop. I always have a pen and notebook wherever I go. Shopping, travelling - everywhere I go a notebook and pen go with me. So far I have enough material for 7 books - written but not yet published. Yep, start writing that book. It would be a good children's book (7yrs to elderly), writing about the kids mastering 4WD, station life, the skills they have vs city kids, schooling, distances to the shops, station fashion vs city fashion and how the kids deal with it. What a great book! Go for it!

the reason you are seeing two in for repairs is simply a numbers thing, there are thousands of them "out there" going strong and proud go beyond wilpena and they are everywhere, three reasons, cheap in comparison to a lot of other brands, parts readily available and reliable I see them all the time up north, they are the van of choice for the free campers what's a "detailed plan"????????? we just go, someone once said on here "we follow the bonnet" that's a good plan to follow 5 sleeps, I bet the butterfly's are biting now!!

Fence sitter wrote:

---

We pick up our Jayco Outback Discovery 17.55-3 on Thursday (5 sleeps)  and were starting to get worried because we had seen "hundreds" of vans over the past 2 months - none (not a one) like ours.

Went up for a vist to the caravan yard to see where the TV is going to be mounted (not now - too big for the area under the aircon) and they had 2 back for repairs (driver error) and another 2 for sale.

It's a comfort thing for me, I like to know that others have thought they are a good buy too!

We sound like the only ones on here without a detailed plan - we are just going!

Catch you somewhere in the great country of ours!

Fency

---

We have a Jayco Discovery, although it isn't an outback, and we love it.  Have done about 10000ks all up I suppose and not a thing wrong.  Have done some rather rough bits (still on blacktop though) and the only problem we had, and that was our error, the drawer directly under the griller parted company with its bottom, only because we had too much weight in it. Soon fixed that, bought an Arcapal dinner set.

We don't have a mounted TV Fency.  We just take the flat screen from home and it fits nicely on the bench under the aircon.

Can't really find any faults at this stage and it stands to reason, like Dave said, there's a hell of a lot of them out there so you will see more than other brands up for sale and in for repairs.

As for "a plan"  our plan is to go wherever whenever and as soon as possible and as often as possible.

Elaine

 

Gee, you lot can make a girl feel like the right decision has been made!

We are not planning on taking the Jayco up the tip (tent and patrol only) but most other off roading seems possible with a driver prepared to drive to the conditions.

 I have a professional driver (bloody hell, who ever gave truck driver's that title needs shooting) that is prepared to chauffer me around for a few months.  He assures me if we look after it, and drive accordingly, all will be fine.

Fency

Aye - well that was the reason we changed ours... We traded-in the old Windsor (sniff..) last February 2009 for a brand-new Discovery from Halls, Mildura. Not the outback - the one with the door and kitchen at the front. Well, we were over the moon with it - really - until we went to Armidale and it was freezing and raining day after day and night after night (that was when Kempsy and Dorrigo was flooded out...) and the overnight treks to the park loo were murderous (would've been dryer to wet the bed... ) and we couldn't move on 'cos I had something on all week at the Uni there... So we traded that in in November and got a brand-newie 17.55-3 - no more tip-toeing through the tulips. And we like the door and kitchen at the back better. Seems better set-out too...
TV..?? - Well, we just take the kitchen flatscreen from home - hardly watch it - has it's own digital tuner and the little we have used it, find that the wind-up aerial with the booster on does a first class job. Mostly we prefer to sit outside and read or watch the antics of other vanners... LOL...
Gran: - Before I retired, I wrote lots and published in my professional field. You may have noticed that the Health Service today is more concerned with "Best Practice" and "Research-Based-Evidence" &"Benchmarking" than with beds and band-aids. My last 'paper' was to do with "The Neuro-Anatomy-and Physiology of Swallowing" and as well as 'doing my job' I was researching (exactly) what happens up in the grey matter when we swallow a sip of water or bite on a sausage - how all those millions of brain cells 'control' which muscles of the face and neck move - and in what sequence and the timing of all that - more concerned with what "doesn't" happen when someone has a stroke or brain cancer or Guillian-Barre etc.
Since I retired, the only writing I do is the grocery list and typing on forums (as well as vanning I'm an avid photographer, a model aircraft 'buff' and now dabbling in helicopters, and a woodworker)... so plenty of forums... But you DO have a good point and you have sparked-me-off with a fledgling project that could combine my photography with a light-hearted descriptive essay/story - "Life Off The Land.." and if it's a failure then I'll blame you... LOL...
Fency: - I've seen a lot of "Jayco-Knocking" around the forums - based on the old "one-upmanship" principle. A human trait, I'm afraid - more apparent in males than in females (Jedo ducks head)... We're happy with OUR rig...
Off-roading..?? well there's "off-roading" and there's "Off-Roading" eg the Oodnadatta Track vs the Tanami Track or the CSR. There's places and conditions I won't push our Patrol into - and that's sans-trailer-of-any-kind... And there'd be places you could get your Outback into that I'd not get our Discovery into... So it's horses for courses...
A "Professional Truck Driver" turned "Chauffeur"...???
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chauffeur
(especially note the last para...) LOL...
Oh well, better stop: I'm in enough trouble already...
Jedo

When I was in Cairns last year a couple who were camped next to me had just got back from taking a Jayco Sterling to the top of Cape York. The only problem they had was a bit of dust that had got inside. The van was not an "off-road" model.  I doubt that there would be a van in Australia that wouldn't let some dust in on a trip like that.

Jim: If the timing and conditions are right up there - anything is possible.
If the developmental road had just been graded - and dried out somewhat, they could have possibly roller-skated to Cape York...
I doubt you'd get a Sterling through this season though - with all that cyclonic and monsoonal rain - unless you could float it over those creeks...
And the weight of a Sterling on a wet/damp cambered road would have it nose-diving into the culvert and jack-knifing the tug with it...

I'd have less hesitation with a full off-road rig


and a Trigg coupling...


Even though the couple you met "did it" - And no doubt many other intrepid Aussie adventurers have done it too - but I'd be wary of suggesting that others try it with non-specialised trailers unless the timing and conditions are right...
Jedo

I can vouch for what Jim saw, we both spoke to the bloke with our eyebrows way over our heads in wonder - wonder about the sanity of the man to even contemplate doing that trip with a full sized road caravan. He did it, he survived it with minimal impact on anything. Just lucky we reckoned.

 I just could not take a caravan up there, I'd rather enjoy it without worring about a van.

Good on you Jeda. I was a journo before I became a Nomad and now I'm writing non-fiction. The hardest part about writing is getting published. I'm finding it very hard work. I'm currently writing a submission to Qld Health about remote patient travel etc. You idea for that book sound wonderful. I'm glad I could "help". I might even take SOME of the blame if it flops. If it doesn't get published it would make a great family legacy. I'm sure you could "use" some of your uni contacts to get your book published when you're ready. In the mean time enjoy your travellin' life.