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.
