Campers Road Trips

[Camper]

who bring a rubbish bin camping ??

It usually sits behind the passenger seat in the front, on top of my 120AMPH portable dual battery system (the main battery in this ute is on the floor behind the passenger, not under the bonnet, weird but worked out well for me). The bin doesn't take up much usable space and gets alot of use, but yes, waaaay too much shit.

Keep in mind I am still away from home now, it will be 11 weeks from when I left to when I go back home again, so I brought a lot of stuff.

Hell, I bought an inverter that I never even used this trip, as well as the tools and parts to change the connections to fit my electrical system (Repco had a sale while I was traveling), in case I wanted my laptop on the road, didn't need it, didn't even open it til I got to Melbourne. I will need it in the future though, for editing video.

This trip was always going to be a trial of a few different systems, to see which things I naturally wanted/gravitated towards and what was awkward or not used. For instance I found I am quite happy with just a 14L fridge and an esky, a bag of ice every 2nd day or so, fridge kept on minus 14 deg, to freeze water bottles and quick chill drinks. Top tip, I kept the fridge in the passenger footwell, which meant the compressor was kept cool by the aircon while driving and I could have a very short cable run from the battery, keeping the fridge very efficient.

I brought a lot of spares and different parts for the 3 new cameras I bought just before this trip, to try out which bits I wanted on a daily basis, straps/mounts/batteries/bags and packs etc.

Sooo many cords and different chargers, 12V, 240V, transformers for 3 cameras, 2 phones, laptop, a GPS and a fridge. Smaller back up battery banks, 1.2AMPH, 10,000MA and 6,000MA, one even has its own solar panel and 24 LEDS.

I bought my cooking setup which I didn't unpack, happy to eat cold stuff most nights and was out and about most days so had a hot lunch.

The lighting I brought worked out well, I found a 500ml 12V dimable led strip that fits my needs. I broke a favorite mini lantern, will need to replace that as it worked well for the little bit of night filming I did and to back fill some still shots. I used my key chain light more often than I would have thought, but did end up buying a powerful hand torch for spot lighting animals and fish (found some freshwater Glass Body Shrimp in Goldsborough Valley, very cool) and used it on a guided night walk through the jungle in Cape Trib.

The chair I brought is very comfy and worth the room it takes up, I will however hurry up and find some sort of cushion/upholstery for the the tail gate as it makes a great impromptu seat, right height, and will make getting in and out of bed softer on the knees.

The big green box has my fire tools and general camping equipment, wont always need this just depends on where I go, next trip I will be staying in Caravan parks/festival grounds, so wont need it.

The red box has my shoes/boots, lid keeps the smell down at night if I have to have it in with me.

I find I save a lot of money on my diet coke/spring water addiction if I buy in bulk, so the back of the car here has a 30pk coke and a slab of water bottles. This also accounts for the need of a bin in the cab.

The table worked well, it has 3 selectable heights and lays flat under the mattress when driving. The two halves mean I can keep 1 side dry enough for electrics and have my drink/s on the other.

I brought 3 types of day bags with different gear for different situations, long walks in the bush Vs day tours or wandering around town Vs car's on fire - 36 HR RUN/GO bag.

I brought a weekender type backpack that fits in airline overhead cabins for the trip to Melbourne.

Some basic tools, although I admit I wouldn't have much chance of repairing a modern engine. I do have roadside assist...

Clothes for varied climates, this trip saw me go from the dessert to the wet tropics to Melbourne in the winter, lots of layers, swimmers, hiking shorts, rain coat etc. I'm a sook in the cold these days.

Nearly forgot, some places I go you cant have a fire so I bought one of those big tin citronella candles to suffice, gives off lots of light and keeps the bugs at bay.

I think that's all... waaay too much.

[Robbo]

You have just about every possible situation covered Camper. Great photo's, really enjoying your adventures.

Cheers.

[Camper]

You have just about every possible situation covered Camper. Great photo's, really enjoying your adventures.

Cheers.

Thanks Robbo,

Happy to share them, lots more to come, we are at day 4 of a 12 day road trip.

[wbute]

Looks like you could live pretty comfortably! If your going to spend that much time you might as well do it like that.

[Camper]

Day 4 of the trip and I had no real plans for where I wanted to go or even really what I wanted to do.

First I had to get out of the forest and back on the road.





Back in civilisation and wasn't sure how to fill the day, had kinda planned on doing the waterfall circuit, there is something like 10 waterfalls in the area, but is was cool and raining.

So I went for a drive and checked out the other campground near by at Henrietta Creek, great surroundings but very close to the highway, you would definitely be able to hear cars all night.
I did find an awesome swimming spot, just a short walk past the toilets.








Real fantasy type spot, sun breaking through the clouds, jungle right up to the water, a little mist about and I had the place to myself.


Below you can see just how close I was to the highway, bridge in the background, swimming spot is about 800m from this photo, further from the road.






I also got what is possibly my favourite shot of the car up to this point, paint color really lives up to its name here.

#Jungle Green








Ended up driving down to Innisfail and back for supplies, also just to drive the range road, it's a great drive if you can snag a whole trip with out a truck/slow driver, bendy, drop offs and cliff sides, views through the forest to the coast and 100Kph most of the way. Palmerston Highway from Millaa Millaa to Innisfail, fun. I did this drive a few times.

[Camper]

Not much to report around Innisfail, nice enough town, old streets around the CBD make for some confusion - set up back before cars were common.

It was cool to see the river I had camped beside become huge as it approaches the sea and joins with the North Johnstone River




The color of this boat caught my eye.





I'm Pretty sure I saw the same boat 4 days later in Cooktown, was nice to think of a parallel trip in a sail boat.

While in town I took the opportunity to research a camp site for the night, decided on Goldsborough Valley, back into the forest and about an hour away.





This ended up being my favourite find for this trip, hadn't known about it before hand was pleasantly surprised, absolutely beautiful spot.
Drive in was spectacular as well, easy enough but did have to take it slow in a few spots once on the dirt, mostly single lane gravel road, might be slippery in the wet.

Campground was pretty full so I had to take what was left, I knew this when I booked the site online from Innisfail, but was not ready for just how many people were in the day use area, must have been some type of community picnic, over 100 people with drums and flags etc, Indian people. Happy when they left in the late afternoon.
























The site was not the greatest but I was happy to be here.





Went for a walk





Talk about well established root systems





I was already impressed with the forest, then I found the river!






Found this spot where the tree's overhang the river, I sat in a tree with my feet dangling in the water watching the sunset, Huck Finn would have been proud.















Sat here probably longer than I should have and ended up walking back to camp in the dark, it did give me a chance to play with a little flash photography though

[Camper]

Looks like you could live pretty comfortably! If your going to spend that much time you might as well do it like that.

I should probably qualify that, when I say I'm away from home for 11 weeks, 6 of those weeks are at work (1,000 odd Ks from home) I have a permanent room here in Blackwater where I mostly stay for work.

So 1 week on, 16 days off (9 days A/L), 2 weeks on, 5 days off (heading to Winton next week for the film festival), 2 weeks on, 1 week off (not sure yet, maybe Carnarvon George?), 2 weeks on and then home for a week, 2 weeks on etc. etc.

[wbute]

Got to love a roster like that. Best I had was 7 on, 7 off. If you took a week off it gave you 21 days! Now back farming so it's 7 on, 7 on....

[Camper]

Got to love a roster like that. Best I had was 7 on, 7 off. If you took a week off it gave you 21 days! Now back farming so it's 7 on, 7 on....

I would kill for an even time roster, just can't convince the boss to pay me the same.

[Camper]

.

Next morning I forced myself to keep quiet early, didn't want to upset the other campers on a Sunday morning, so laid in and read a book until I saw movement about.






Packed up quickly and got going.





Just a point of interest, when wandering I like to have 2 types of maps, its really nice to have a relief map and a road map (the map in the car dash changes scale really easily with the tuning knob from the stereo)
A bonus if I can have a satellite view on Google maps, really helpful especially when hooked into the car, I can literally push a button on the steering wheel, say "navigate to a bakery" and Google will find the nearest bakery and direct me.






This bridge marks the edge of the national park and start of the farming area/civilisation, I spent nearly an hour here taking photos and just soaking in the beauty.













You can just see the video camera on my bonnet in the pic above, it's on a suction mount. It fell off while going down the range from Kuranda later in the trip and survived being run over and bouncing along the road, footage intact. Walking back along that road to collect it may be the riskiest thing I did on this whole trip, straight drop off on one side and tight, busy road on the other. Thank God it wasn't far from a lookout otherwise I probably would have had to leave it behind.







The drive out of here was an amazingly fun way to spend a Sunday morning, I had the road to myself and made full use of it.













In one of those magical coincidences I believe I inadvertently took 2 photos looking back on each other, 1 here and 1 about a half hour later up the mountain range







Look straight into the centre background of this pic about two thirds of the way up the range and imagine yourself looking back at this point







I was on that valley floor looking up here, without knowing where I was headed!




The blue scribble is the campground, 459 Goldsborough road is about where I took the photos on the hilltop, the lookout speaks for itself.

The drive up Gilles Range Road was so curvy, tight and steep that I actually found it intimidating towards the end and was glad to reach the top. The one time on since I got my new car that I could've wished for something else, early on I thought I was doing well, passed a couple of sedans, car was running smoothly, I check my rear mirror and I've got one of those new Ford Focus Sti's up my butt, next slow lane I'm ashamed to say I let him pass...

The round lakes in the bottom left of this map grab are the craters of 2 extinct volcanoes, filled with rain water and some of the most pristine lakes I have ever seen, including lake McKenzie on Fraser Island. Lake Eacham especially was divine, I'm lucky enough to get to see a lot of places and this was one of those spots that just feel special. I even forgot to take many photos or use the loo, I was spellbound.


.