The Ghan and West Coast 2021 - The New Plan

 

The Ghan and West Coast 2021

The New Plan

This is Take 2 on our big trip around the country.  This was planned for last year but Covid and State Border Closures stopped that happening.  So we replanned it with a few changes this time as Helen has ceased her tutoring and we’re no longer tied to school holiday time frames.  The plan for last year had a few sights missing because of time constraints so this time they have been added into the planning.  The first issue we have to contend with is the caravan.  Our fridge decided it no longer wanted to work, so I took it to an RV refrigeration specialist in Dubbo about 4 hours from where we live.  We had some work done by these people (B and C Caravan Repairers) on our previous Baroma caravan, but I didn’t know they were RV refrigeration specialists too.  The problem turned out to be the coolant had leaked from the system and being an ammonia absorption system the cost to repair would be more than a new fridge.  The next problem was that a new three-way fridge is $3600 but a new 12 volt compressor fridge is $2300.  Both are expensive but the price difference between the two types is massive. We have plenty of battery storage plus twin 135 watt solar panels on the roof.  Most of the time we will be in powered caravan sites, so the decision was to go with the compressor fridge.  That fridge is now fitted which will give us some leeway to get everything else organised before we depart on our trip.

We leave home here in Yass on Wednesday 21 April.  Originally, we were intending to go inland to Bourke and then up to Winton but decided to go North to Brisbane to see Mum then head inland through Emerald and on to Winton.

Our timing is based on our booking for the Ghan which departs Darwin for Adelaide on 5 May.  The Ghan trip is not the normal journey which is two nights and three days.  The one we have booked is called The Ghan Expedition which is an extra night and day.  It only goes once a week and only from Darwin to Adelaide.

After a night in Adelaide, we fly back to Darwin and collect the caravan.  Heading South from Darwin and turning West at Katherine we drive across the Northern Territory and into Western Australia to Kununurra and Lake Argyle where we stay for a few nights before continuing to Purnululu National Park (the Bungle Bungles) to do some exploring of the beehive formations.   We head on to Derby where we stay a couple of days to do a short hop along the Gibb River Road to Tunnel Creek and Windjana Gorge.  From Derby it’s a short drive to Broome where we leave the caravan for a few days and head 200km up to Cape Leveque on the Dampier Peninsular for a couple of nights at the Kooljaman Wilderness Resort in a safari tent overlooking the Indian Ocean.  Broome and Derby are also departure points for the Horizontal Falls, but that will probably only be me as Helen doesn’t like small planes or landing on the water in a float plane.

Driving down the West Coast we detour in to Karijini National Park in The Pilbara and visit not only the National Park, but Tom Price, Wittenoom, and the massive iron ore trains.  Back on to the coastal highway we will be staying at Ningaloo Reef and further South to Monkey Mia and Kalbarri National Park before stopping at Perth to visit my cousin Stephen and annoy him for a few days.

The final leg will be back across the Nullarbor Plain which we have done before, so not much stopping on this leg home.  We plan to arrive back home on Wednesday 23 June after 64 days on the road and close to 20,000km later.

Most of the places we are staying at, and The Ghan, have been prebooked so we need to keep to this timetable.  Our travels are on what is called “The Shoulder Season” so hopefully we won’t be overcrowded, but that also means that after the Wet Season some of the areas might still be in flood or have high water levels at creek and river crossings that we have to traverse.  With all this recent rain activity in the North, Central and East of the country, some places might be awash.  Nevertheless, we will still be able to see a lot of this country that we haven’t visited before.

And finally, we're hoping that State borders stay open and we don't get belligerent State Premiers closing the borders because there is a small Covid outbreak in another part of the country.