Report No 2

Fraser Island: We arrived at our first big highlight ... and got bogged twice in the first hour! We were told that due to very dry conditions the tracks are very soft and rough. Well, pulling a 1,7 tonnes trailer in the sand isn't too much fun. The first bog Alex solved by dropping the air-pressure down to 1,0 bar and unhooking the trailer. BUT getting the trailer back on to the hook was an other problem because the 'wheely' sank deep into the sand :-( It took us at least 1 hour to solve this situation. At the second bog we were lucky because it started pouring with rain. This hardened the sand - lucky us :-)

So we decided to take the first campground (at Central Station) we could get to and leave the tent-trailer there for the whole time.

For 10 days we enjoyed this lovely island and slowed down a lot. Getting up in the mornings - only when all of us were awake -, listen to some music, having a lovely coffee, then slowly breakfast, then school for the kids for 2-3 hours and for the rest of the day do some hikes, sightseeing drives, play, go swimming, play Badminton and much more :-) Surely cooking, washing dishes, brushing teeth and all necessities were part of it as well.

Without the trailer we had no problems at all driving around. We did over 500 km on the island and specially enjoyed the driving along the beaches but also the bumpy inland tracks were fun.

Around our 'house' we had plenty of monitor lizards, ravens, kookaburras and also insects. Driving along the beach we came across 4 dingoes. We visited the Champagne Pools, various lakes, the sand blow at lake Wabby, the Pinnacles, the Maheno Wreck, Eli's creek and much more.

Our 'house' proved to be very good for us. The comfort with good beds, a fridge, an oven, battery and solar panel was really helpful and it's waterproof as well :-)
(It sometimes was raining - mainly at night.)

We often passed Eurong. There we had cell phone reception and twice we bought a 1-hour-internet-connection which allowed us to read and send e-mails. But we still couldn't update our website :-( Grrrrrrr!!!
Except for once for 2 minutes it worked without an error message! Juhuiiii the first report was online :-)

So ... we all had a good time there on Fraser Island, but it was time to move on. In Hervey Bay we stocked up again with food, petrol and water and headed up north. We collected information about tracks / roads heading inland (west). Most recommendations were to travel on sealed roads up to Mount Isa. However, having a decent 4WD car and an off-road-camper-trailer, we do not want to take a 1'000 km detour if there is a reasonable track 'available'. Our decision was to take the Donohue "Highway" from Boulia which becomes the Plenty Highway on the Northern Territory side. In Boulia we inquired for the last information about this track and we were told that it should be ok, if it doesn't rain.

There was some rain just a while before. But the road was dried up and there were only some puddles left. The road was mostly in a rather good gravel-road condition and we did the track with ease :-) We didn't even have a flat tyre! But the tyre-damage we prevented by dropping the tyre-pressure down to 26 PSI! (Thanx to the tip of a chicken-farmer we met some weeks ago, talking about the Gibb River road.)

Ohhh ... we mustn't forget to mention the heat and the flies! It was surely over 40° C and the flies were really bothering us. But both were bearable ;-) and we were looking forward to jumping in a pool once we were in Alice Springs!

We don't have too many photos of Alice Springs, but ...

(Welcome back to 'civilisation' :-)

Our 2 days in Alice Springs were over quickly: Shopping, Royal Flying Doctor Service, School of the Air, big service on our Hilux and shopping again.

In the shops they tried to create something like 'x-mas feeling' with decorated Christmas trees, Santa and other stuff. But these high temperatures and the missing snow (we have a very low chance of getting a white Christmas this year) make it hard to believe that Christmas is just around the corner :-)

With less money than we had before entering Alice Springs we went on to the eastern part of the Mac Donnell Ranges to the Trephina Gorge NP. But the explanations would be boring. Rather look at some pictures: