Leaving on Dec 24th 1999, Mick, Jules and I (the Trans Australia Trio or "TAT") left in my 4WD for a trip that spanned 14,500kms from Perth through the centre of Australia to Cairns and the Whitsunday islands and then back across the Top End arriving home in Perth on the 23rd of January 2000. *New* Video Footage of the Trip
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The Trans Australia Trio or "TAT" :-)
Jules, Myself and Mick minutes before we drove off. (And then had to drive drive back again cos we forgot something. (typical!)
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The TAT crossing the border into the NT. Mick didn't quite make it all the way into this photo - see if you can work out where he is...
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One of the four punctures we repaired ourselves. We didn't have to resort to using any of the 3 spare tyres we took.
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Lunch at a billabong just out of Alice Springs.
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My Nissan Terrano II 4WD ("Terra" to her friends) looking quite clean still on a good section of the Gunbarrel Hwy near Warburton Station, and yes, we had stopped because the tyre had fallen off the roof!
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The Terrano looking a big more muddy (and minus a spottie) after having spent days and nights slipping and sliding and plowing through dirt roads turned to rivers of mud on the Plenty Hwy (!) between Alice Springs and Central Queensland.
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Feel that texture!
Serious mud on the bonnet of the Terra from the Plenty and Donahue Highways.
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Our first major River crossing at Jervis Station on the Plenty Hwy. We had to wait for 3hours for the water level to go down. The 4WD next to us belongs to Leo, the mad Alice Springs baker who was our guardian angel for most of our adventures between Alice Springs and Boulia in Central Queensland. We had an absolute ball! After leading us through stuff we would have deemed impassable ourselves (okay Mick would have said let's do it)! ;-), he finally came to grief with his Nissan flooded in the middle of a river with a busted engine. Later we found out it cost $5k to fix. Ouch!
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After being caught in a torrential downpour the night before and seeing the road turn to a river around us, we had found the highest ground we could and holed up for the night sleeping in the 4WD. Next morning, we tried to go back towards Alice and attempted to cross a muddy creek a bit further up from the crossing which was knee deep with chocolate molasses mud. Of course we got stuck...
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I'd bought about a $1000 worth of recovery gear for $100 from a friend of a friend and we used just about all of it at different times, so we were never bogged for long. Here's Mick and I using the high-lift jack and de-bogger ramps. (okay, so we spent 6hrs hand-winching the 2-ton+ 4WD up a muddy slope in the Daintree Rainforest New Years morning, but that was the exception - mostly... :-) |
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Look Ma - No snorkel! Yep, we decided to see how far under water we could drive the 4WD... In this case going through Channel Country near Boulia in Central Queensland.
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As we came out of the depths, the bow wave we were pushing pretty much swamped Jules our intrepid photographer.
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Yes, that is water coming over the roo bar and that depth indicator to the right is reading just below 1 metre! Not surprisingly I was saying words I don't normally say in polite company at this point!
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We finally made it to Cairns and joined up with the rest of our gang at Coconut Caravan Resort, the most luxurious and enjoyable caravan park I have ever been in. And it was one of the cheapest as well!
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Hacky Sac here, hacky Sac there, hacky sac everywhere. Was there anywhere where we didn't play hacky? No in fact :-)
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Linda contemplating the scenery at one of the many rapids we plunged through in Qld.
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New years Day found us up in the Daintree Rain Forest at PK's Jungle Village Resort. As usual, the camera went off while Mick was setting up the timer, so he caught them all sitting on that strong looking log looking quite bored.
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Mick finally ran back and jumped into his poition on the log causing it to break in the middle. Everyone is looking slightly less bored at this point... (I was back at PK's sleeping after my hand-winching marathon the six hours before.)
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Being the wet season, it rained most afternoons at PK's, but that didn't worry us. Everyone ran around in bathers the whole time and it was so warm, the rain was enjoyable. Here's the gang playing mud volleyball.
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No, I don't think Jules was relieving himself, but the expressions on Linda, Kylie and Ailsa's faces suggests they suspect something was afoot.
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After a week in Cairns and then up at Cape Tribulation, we finally travelled down to Airlie Beach, where we got on our luxury Catamaran and sailed ourselves around the Whitsunday Islands for a week. (The group on top were supposed to be modelling YMCA with their hands, but Ailsa, ever the individual pointed to herself for the letter "A")
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There wasn't as much wind around the Whitsundays as we had hoped, but we did get a chance a couple of times to break out the 2 windsurfers that we'd carried all the way across the continent. This particular day I spent the afternoon zig-zagging around the Cat as we all sailled from Whitehaven Beach to Something or other Bay.
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| "So, where were we going again?". We motored or sailed around most of the major islands in the Whitsunday Group and spent lots of our time anchored in the many beautiful bays and off various resorts. |
The gang lazing on deck. Yes, someone is actually steering the boat - on this occasion, I was the one sitting at the back steering with my feet.
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We went snorkelling off the boat around many of the islands. Being in the middle of the Great Barrier Reef meant we were swamped by sea life, though it became very apparent that even the reefs around Rottnest island let alone Ningaloo Reef back in WA are just as good!
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A few times rounding the headlands of some of the more seaward islands, we had short spells of nice big waves. A couple broke over our heads on this occasion - it was a blast! Most of the time the water was very flat though, so sea-sickness wasn't a worry.
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Stinger Suit Beauties. Some of the gang hired stinger suits but the Whitsundays are far enough from the mainland that we didn't need them.
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The gang - Me, Linda, Sarah, Justin, Kylie, Ailsa, Aaron, Mick, JP and Jules (who looks about ready to be laid in a casket at this point)
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Lovely, secluded Palm Bay Resort was what we envisioned tropical Resorts to be like. Most of the resorts only charged around $60 for the whole boat to moor for the night and give us full access to all the resort facilities. We moored off a resort every second night or so.
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Who grabbed the Net? Oh, it's me. Beach Volleyball at Hook Island Resort.
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| Mick catches BIG fish. The night before, Mick had pounded up and down the deck of the yacht for 5 hrs trying unsuccessfully to catch the huge fish that were jumping out of the water all around the boat. The next morning I found this little fish sitting on the rear step of the yacht. It must have been scared out of the water by Mick's efforts. |
So Mick, you're sure that will go round 10 people? Here at Palm Bay resort we literally tied the boat up to a Palm Tree for the night!
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Ailsa, Jules and Linda on one of the golf buggies we hired at Hamilton Island Resort.
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The girls doing the old face squished against the window routine... We lads had our fun with the buggies later that night when we found an old deserted quarry...
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Linda engrossed. We all relaxed with a good book at one time or another on the yacht.
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Some yobbo fooling around on the tender.
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Hook Island Resort. The underwater Observatory is just around the point.
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Oh Mick, that shirt really takes the cake - at least he made it into the photo before the timer went off (the second time anyway!).
The mob relaxing at the top of the hill on Hamilton Island.
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