Snowy River Country

Hello All
Well, with Christmas over it was time to load the camper again............
After a busy run up the highway to Bairnsdale I turned North to head towards Omeo. Just North of Tambo Crossing the heavens opened...........lightning, thunder and torrential rain, the road was awash. By the time I arrived at Omeo the sun was out again, but thunder rattled around the hills throughout the night.

 The weather cleared the next morning as I headed towards Taylors Crossing on the Gibbo River. I had read several reports about how great this place was, so I wanted to have a look for myself.

Taylors Crossing

While it was quite a pretty place I thought it lacked clear areas for camping and think there are better places, but that's my opinion.

Taylors Crossing

Taylors Crossing

I continued on over Sassafras Gap towards Corryong. As I stopped at Stacey's Bridge Camping Area I heard that heart sinking sound................a flat tyre!

 This dictated my campsite for the night, it was pretty hot and it was the first time in probably 25 years I had to physically change the wheel to continue. I set up the camper, grabbed a cold drink from the fridge and set about changing the flat. Stacey's Bridge was not my choice of campsite, with the oldest, most run down longdrops in existence, but it served it's purpose.

 The next morning was a short drive into the tyre service in Corryong, as the day was forecast to top 39c with extreme fire danger, I decided to overnight in Corryong.
Next morning was the long drag up onto Kosciuszko. First stop was Tooma Dam.

Tooma Dam

  Next stop was Bradley's Hut.The hut was built by Jack Bailey in 1952 before the Tooma road was developed. It was originally used for grazing.

Bradley's Hut

 A bit further on was Tumit Dam, which was quite impressive.

Tumit Dam

 

Tumit dam

 After another long climb I arrived at Cabramurra, Cabramurra is the highest permanently inhabited town in Australia, established in 1954 using Prefabricated houses, as part of the Snowy Mountains Scheme. The town was moved some 500m and 20m vertically to a more sheltered position, its current site, in 1974, leaving the original site as the lookout. The original houses were either demolished or relocated to Talbingo, Adaminaby and Jindabyne. The new houses were built with Besser blocks to a design specifically tailored to the environment. Long steep roofs allow snow to slide off, and the interiors are designed around a central heater.

Cabramurra

Cabramurra

As the day rolled on I began looking for somewhere to camp the night, and decided to have a look at 3 mile dam. A welcoming committee of March Flies greeted me upon getting out of the vehicle. After I set up I watched the unending stream of campers arrive until dusk with my bemused neighbours, a lovely couple from Lamb Island in Queensland. 3 mile dam would be a lovely place with a couple of hundred less people, but I suppose at holiday periods you have to expect this..........Surprisingly full mobile reception and TV reception was available here.

3 mile dam campsite

3 mile dam campsite

From 3 mile dam it was a short drive to Kiandra. Kiandra is an abandoned gold mining town and the birthplace of Australian skiing. In November 1859, gold was discovered by mountain cattlemen, the Pollock brothers, and by March 1860, some 10,000 miners and storekeepers had raced to the scene. Initial returns were very good. A 9 kg nugget was discovered in river deposits under what became known as New Chum Hill. The area at its peak accommodated around 15,000 people, served by 25 stores, 13 bakers, 16 butchers, 14 pubs, several banks and four blacksmiths, nevertheless by 1861, the Sydney Morning Herald was reporting a "mass exodus" and the easy pickings were exhausted.

 

old Battery at Kiandra

Kiandra

old cottage at Kiandra

Kiandra Ruins

I had planned to head to Jindabyne, but while cruising along the Snowy Mountains Highway I heard over the radio that the Snowy River Muster was on in Jindabyne. So instead I made tracks to Cooma to restock.
Next morning was a quick trip across to Jindabyne for a drive down one of my favourite roads in Victoria. The Barry Way here I come......I know I have covered this trip serveral times before on my blogs but it is an awesome drive which I never tire of driving.

Wallace Craigie Lookout

 Dropping down off the plateau to the Snowy River was very slow, the road here is narrow with big drops off the side and with the added danger of Christmas traffic going to fast and cutting corners.

New Years Eve was spent at Pinch River campsite with couples from Drouin, Albury and Port Stevens, with Alan from Port Stevens providing the evening entertainment.

The Mighty Snowy River

Suggan Buggan Schoolhouse

In 1865 Edward O'Rourke constructed the old school house which still stands today. The smaller of the two rooms was for a tutor named Ballantyne who was hired to teach O'Rourke's thirteen children. From Suggan Buggan I climbed back up to Black Mountain Station, took a right turn and headed along the Limestone Road towards Mt Wombargo.

It is a long drag up over Wombargo before tonight's camp at another favourite of mine, Native Dog Flat on the headwaters of the Buchan river.

Native Dog Fat

There is just something about camping in a park like area, beside a beautiful alpine stream and listening to the Brumbies snorting and calling each other all night.

Native Dog Flat

Flame Robin at Native Dog Flat

I tore myself away from Native Dog after a pretty windy night and headed to Omeo keeping an eye on the sky.

The remnants of a Tropical Cyclone was passing through so the weather was not to be ignored. From Omeo I headed up to Mt Hotham to all the cyclists doing the high altitude training which seems to be all the rage at the moment.

Menacing skies over Mt Feathertop

  Turning off to the Dargo High Plains road first stop was Lankey Plain hut. I remember spending an extremely cold night here in 1986.

Lankey Plain Hut

Dargo High Plains road was very dusty after all the holiday traffic, but dropping from Grant down to Dargo was the real test. With probably 800-900kg sitting on the back it was slowly slowly in second gear to try to save the brakes from cooking. About 3/4 of the way down I stopped to see if a Nissan Patrol needed assistance, he had cooked the brakes and had to slow using the handbrake. I took the opportunity to let my brakes cool a bit and stopped for a chat, then followed him to Dargo making sure he arrived safely.  

From Dargo it was a straightforward run to home, another good trip completed. Apart from the flat tyre an uneventfull trip. After taking on 120 litres of diesel in Bairnsdale on the way, and with 95 litres of water, solar panels, Waeco freezer it was the first trip away to test everything fully loaded in readiness for the big Gulf trip. The little ute certainly knew it was loaded up but handled everything with ease, I topped up the main fuel tank in Cooma, from Bairsdale to Corryong, Cabramurra the Cooma, which included more than it's fair share of long slow climbs I got 10.4L/100km......pretty happy with that.

The next trip is hopefully in about 4-6 weeks, heading to Yorke and Eyre Peninsula's then up through Central Australia to the Gulf Of Carpenteria until about November.............stay tuned

Bye for now........... 

Snowy Plains and Paradise Valley

Hello all,
I slipped away for a couple of nights before the 40C temperatures hit that are forecast later in the week. I headed to Licola, then up the Tamboritha Road to Bennison Plains. There is a beautiful Alpine stream that flows over Bennison, called Shaws Creek which has cascades and small falls right along it's length, which is very pretty.

Shaws Creek

  I headed along kelly's Lane entering from the top end, with thoughts of spending the night at McMichaels Hut. With the camper on this track was a little bit of a challenge, it's normally fairly easy when dry, but once you put probably around 650kg on the back of a low slung ute it changes how you look at it.
The cross drains are now about 60-80mm lower thanks to my low slung undercarriage. A keen eye needed to be kept of clearance with trees also.

McMichaels Hut

With a few grey clouds starting to appear, and having an appointment in Melbourne in a day's time I decided discretion was the better part of valor. If it rained I would not get back out that track with the camper on, so onwards I pressed. that night was spent at Guy's Hut Camping Area. Snowy Range Trail Rides had 16 horses in the paddock opposite, these made a good photo subject late afternoon in amongst the snow gums.

 

 Further along the Howitt Road is Howitt Hut, built around 1900 and is one of the oldest remaining huts in the High Country.

Howitt Hut

The weather was superb, with a breeze during the day, calm at night and low 20's temperatures.

1580metres Howitt Plains (that is a fly in the pic not a UFO)

Howitt Road

On the run back down off the High Plains, I did a quick stop a Bennison Lookout.

Bennison Lookout

I stayed a night at a little bit of paradise, called Paradise Valley. I have been staying there occasionally since I was about 13 years old. It is still run by the Gell Family, who have welcomed campers for about 50 years. Unfortunately age is catching up with the Gell's and the place is for sale. I hope whoever buys this place keeps it open to campers. A lovely grassy flat right on the Macalister River.

Paradise Valley Camping Park

Well, that's it for this trip, it's off to Melbourne tomorrow to get my snorkel fitted.
Over the New Years period I plan to do a trip up through the Snowy Mountains, so stay tuned....

Bye for now.


 

12 Month review - Ute and Camper (and modifications)

Hello all
My how time flies, it was the beginning of November last year that I headed North to Hervey Bay in Queensland to collect my Camper.
It has been a relatively quiet 6 months or so but I have continued to try to fine tune things to suit my needs.

The Ute.........
2012 Great Wall V200 Diesel, 6 speed manual 4 X 4 

With the speedometer sitting on 41,469km after 15 months it certainly hasn't been standing still for long.
Since the first couple of Warranty problems, addressed in the 6 month review there have been no further problems, and the Great Wall is proving to be a capable, reliable and economical work horse.

Mt Useful fire Tower

   Running around locally and empty I am getting 8-8.5 l/100 km, on my last trip away, from Home up over the great Dividing Range on windy and hilly gravel roads to Mansfield, and on to Moama just across the border the economy was 10.7 l/100 km with the camper fully loaded for an extended trip away.
I like to travel slowly and enjoy the trip, so unless I am holding up traffic I usually sit on about 90kph. 
From Moama to Ivanhoe economy was 10.5 l/100km this was after filling the extra water tank, so I was now carrying 95 litres of water.
Broken Hill to Mildura was 12.3 l/100km driving into a reasonably brisk offset headwind with the camper on and full tanks.
I still find the Great Wall to be a comfortable vehicle to drive, with a bit of weight in the back to settle it down. I can do reasonable distances in a day without ending up with "numb bum syndrome"  
The local Dealer seems to be OK and reasonably helpful, but I do find the servicing cost to be more in the Prestige car price range. I have just been quoted $700 for the 45000km service! And at these prices they expect me to continue getting services at the Dealership after Warranty runs out..........................................get real! They are dreaming................

Eaglevale, Wonnangatta River Victoria

A snorkel has just been released by TJM to fit the Great Wall Diesel so I will be getting one of these fitted shortly. I don't want to ford the deepest rivers, but the benefit is the motor is getting cleaner, cooler air via a snorkel, with the added benefit of not having to worry to much about the creek and river crossings up North. At just under $700 fitted, and as I like the dirt roads it will be a worthwhile purchase.

The Camper.............
2012 Palomino Bronco B600T

Well, this Camper just continues to surprise me. I keep hitting it with wind, rain, corrugations, dirt roads, tracks dust and heat..................It just continues to perform without hesitation.
 

Kingwell Bridge Wonnangatta River

 Any questions, dumb or not, Kevin and Tania at Palomino RV Australia in Hervey Bay do not hesitate to offer assistance, even after 12 months..........I wish I could get that sort of service at some other business's I could mention, that are sadly lacking any sort of customer service.

Palomino RV Australia 

Everything is a compromise, so I look at my Ute and Camper combination as an evolutionary thing. There will always be a tweak here or there to make things better and a little easier to live with.  
In the New Year the Camper will become my home, so I am always looking for ways to make life easier.
The internal table is something I don't use at all, so I made an outdoor table out of MDF.

table can be pushed in to make into a shelf

 The table slides inside the rectangular cross braces underneath the Camper. The table is hinged in the middle, this way I can have a shelf, or a table, which folds flat to stow inside the lockers, and no table legs to trip on.

As a table

On the trip just completed around Broken Hill I had a day or two over 36C, I have had quite hot days before and on this particular day there was not a breath of wind and very hot. I have a 9ft Dometic awning on the passenger side but the sun beat down most of the day on the divers  side of the Camper. I could feel the heat radiating off the wall inside the Camper.

36c and no wind to cool things down

 This little project is being done as I write this. I need to be able to shelter the non awning side of the camper from direct sunlight on very hot days where sometimes there isn't a lot of trees.
Problem solved, a quick trip to Bunnings, purchase a 3 metre x 3 metre x 3 metre triangular sun sail. $19.98. A chap a few doors away does awning/tent repairs, so I will get him to sew a rope along one side of the triangle. this will allow me to utilise the awning rail already fitted to the drivers side of the camper.

http://www.bunnings.com.au/marquee-3-x-3m-beige-triangle-shade-sail_p3304493

A peg through the lower corner into the ground to secure it should do the trick of keeping a lot of direct sunlight from the side of the camper. I will post a picture when I get to use it.

Since the modifications to my 3 way absorption fridge, covered in the 6 month review, my fridge continues to think it is a freezer........on 12 volt or 240 volt and temperatures under 30c it keeps freezing everything even with the fans turned off.
My solution has been to just turn it off while driving and also at night when plugged into 240 volts. I only like to travel a couple of hours in one day at most, so the fridge keeps cold for that time switched off, with the benefit getting a bit of extra charge into the battery without the fridge draining all the power while driving.

On my last trip 2 potential problems arose, the first one being the Wineguard antenna mechanism became quite gritty in operation, especially rotating the Aerial. A shower of rain resolved this problem washing away the dust binding the mechanism.
The second potential problem was a rough spot and clunking noise when raising or lowering the pop up roof. As the roof raising gear is against the headboard of the ute, I could not check it out without removing the camper from the ute.

roof raising mechanism

I had visions of being stuck with the roof unable to be raised or lowered as every day the winding mechanism got worse. I persevered until arriving home and upon removing the camper fearing a failure or overhaul of the mechanism was pleasantly surprised.

the offending screw

One of the screws had worked its way loose after thousands of kilometres and was hitting against the ajoining tube as the roof was wound up or down. I already had the 18v cordless drill out, to lower the legs of the camper, so this was fixed in about 10 seconds.

Water - With 40 litres of water in the camper tank and another 55 litres in a bladder behind the seats in the ute, I have purchased an additional 12v shower. This one is now used to transfer water, I have cut the shower head off and can now pump water from a river into either tank using the 12v pump. If the camper tank need filling I can drain the in cab bladder into a bucket and pump from the bucket to the camper tank refilling it. 
This enables me to carry 95 litres of water with the ability to refill from any source and transfer between tanks also.
The last trip away to Broken Hill gave me a good opportunity to test everything out, I have aimed for self sufficiency without the need for Caravan Parks and the expenses that come with them. My laptop, Television and everything else can be run and charged from the battery pack, and the battery pack can be replenished from either the 200w solar panels or from the vehicle while driving, although I must admit a nice long hot shower every few days in a Caravan Park is a welcome experience. 

The Combination.........
How they go together.........

There is not a lot more I can foresee doing to the combination, but in saying that something always comes up. The ute and camper are a happy combination and work well together. I have traveled many kilometres of gravel and corrugated roads in the last year and everything seems to work as desired. 
The biggest hurdle I have is trying to fit all my worldly possessions in, as I head off in the New Year into the unknown. I think I will have to be brutal and minimalistic.
My plan at this stage is to do a couple of shorter trip over the Christmas period, probably up around the Snowy mountains area, then late January, after School holidays end, head over towards South Australia spending Summer exploring the York and Eyre Peninsulas.
As the weather cools start heading North, spending a few weeks in the West and East Mc Donald Ranges around Alice Springs. As the weather continues to cool down a bit head further North to Katherine, before turning East along the Savannah Way and hopefully popping out at Cairns around November sometime.........
I hope to catch the Morning Glory cloud formations (roll clouds) at Karumba in September after spending a while relaxing at Lorella Springs beforehand http://www.lorellasprings.com.au/

my travels over the years

 After that I don't know................but i can tell you that there are good times ahead and hopefully lots of good photos too, so stay tuned, there is a lot of Queensland I haven't seen, but I am itching to head back to the West Coast. Time will tell where I end up.
Game on, look out Australia here I come......................
bye for now