The power and the passion (Darling river)

temmah

temmah

Forum Member
Joined
Feb 25, 2016
Messages
247
Location
Sydney
Car Year
2016
Car Model
Forester
Transmission
CVT
Its official, our next holiday is a trip to Uluru. (The wife approved)

"Bring on the night (Alice),I couldn't stand another hour of day light (city life)."

So my wife, my boy and I are taking the forester to Uluru. 3-4 Weeks.


Here is what i am planning for the trip.

1) good places to camp (tent) for 2-3 night. Then followed by a night at a motel.
2) Great "non tar" roads to camp sites.
3) The off beat high lights.
4) Great "non tar" roads from place to place.

"I know, that the cannibals wear smart suits and ties!"

Advice on the trip is much much appreciated. I have a stock Forester, with bash plate. We are experienced campers.
I will replace my tires with AT tires for the trip. All other advice is much appreciated and welcome!

Thanks in advance!
 
Those should be fine for recovery. A shovel can do wonders. Recovery boards are golden when solo (not in a convoy) touring.

Also, make sure your tyre inflator is in good condition. In one of my last trips, my 35LPM one broke and I had to tread at a really slow speed on pavement. I replaced it with a 160LPM one - less time to inflate - less heat - less wear. Cheers.
 
Roughly - I'd do something like Peterborough SA via Mildura or Broken Hill; up to Marree on the Outback H'way; across to William Creek then Oodnadattta via Oodnadatta Track; head to Mt Dare then Finke; Finke Rd to Kulgera Roadhouse (Mt Dare & Finke roads were very rough mid-2019 but may have been graded); Stuart H'way to turn-off for Uluru (there is a back way from Kulgera but I've not done it); visit Henbury Metorite Craters on the way to Alice Springs (Old Ghan & Transport Museum); Alice to Boulia Qld (home of the Min-Min lights); then you could go across to Winton (visit the Waltzing Matilda billabong and the museum ); Longreach (QANTAS museum & stockmans hall of fame) or down to Birdsville (visit Big Red) and make your way home. Or if you want to spend more time down south then visit the Flinders Ranges - also very worthwhile.

You can see some of the areas here: https://offroadsubarus.com/threads/trouble-in-the-northern-territory.7967/
 
If you travel between Kings Canyon and Alice, the Mereenie Loop Road has great scenery, and we did it easily last winter in our stock Forester (2012) towing a camper trailer. Definitely drop your tyre pressures, though.
We also took our Forester out to Palm Valley, which was well worth the visit. The road there was challenging for inexperienced me, mainly the climbing up onto roack ledges. With care we made it there and back with no damage, though at one point we did build a small ramp to assist getting up onto one rock section. We could have used better tyres than our road ones, for better grip onto the rocks, but it was ok.
We decided against the Oodnadatta Track as it everyone we talked to described how bad it was last season, and we didn't want to destroy the camper.
The road out to Rainbow Valley(?) was heavily corrugated, but worth the drive. Didn't drop the tyre pressures due to the relatively short distance, but in retrospect we should have.
We found a couple of bush camps off the highway on the way up there from Wikicamps, which was good.
Curtin Springs has free camping, and is convenient for day trips to Uluru, KataTjuta etc. We stayed there and paid for showers. Water is available for a donation to charity. Driving back there after sunset at Uluru was interesting - worth dropping the speed right down to be prepared for avoiding the cattle on the road - the black ones are remarkably hard to see at night!
Loved camping at Redbank Gorge camping area in the West MacDonnells - good base for exploring the West Macs.
Whatever you do, don't camp in Coober Pedy. If it isn't blowing dust, you'll still be camping on rocks... Great place for a motel room, or get out of the mining area and bush camp. The Breakaways are well worth the short diversion - magnificent scenery.
We're planning to take the kids up to Darwin this winter.
 
I bought a decent brand tyre inflator off gumtree secondhand, and has been a good buy. You definitely want one - tyre pressures make a big difference.
 
Thanks all for the advise. I'm sure I will come back with more questions.

I have an air compressor which i run off my second battery (separate to the car battery that runs my simple solar system). The air compressor is probably 15 years old. Maybe its worth getting a new one.
 
Spare nuts and bolts?

What are the common nuts and bolts sizes that i would need for a SJ Forester?
 
temmah said:
Advice on the trip is much much appreciated. I have a stock Forester, with bash plate.
Click to expand...
I reckon you'll be fine. We did it a trek like that in a '61 VW Campervan. That was about 45 years ago though, I imagine the roads would be better. :)

Oops. I've come rather late into this conversation!
 
Well my my 3-4 weeks got reduced to 2 weeks. So now I am planning to do the Darling River run. Camping along the way. Sort of working my way from Broken hill to Bourke along the Darling river.
Any tips or place i must see?
 
nice trip. shovel and axe can do wonders if you in forest or near trees . in other cases you need some traps and high jack that can lift you high. reason why i chose hilift jack.
 
temmah said:
Sort of working my way from Broken hill to Bourke along the Darling river.
Click to expand...
I worked out there when I was a youngster. Call into the Tilpa Pub for me and sink a couple of cold ones.
Hopefully the Darling will have water in it when you go. :(
 
Yes I have heard the Tilpa pub is great. From my research so far the Darling is flowing again. Fingers crossed.
 
temmah said:
Well my my 3-4 weeks got reduced to 2 weeks. So now I am planning to do the Darling River run. Camping along the way. Sort of working my way from Broken hill to Bourke along the Darling river.
Any tips or place i must see?
Click to expand...

North of the Barrier Hwy, but I'd strongly recommend Mutawintji NP.. You have to organise a guide/tour in Broken Hill beforehand, its the only (legal) way to get access to the various areas. Well worth the small cost, as there's a large amount of rock art (painting and carving), and the whole basin is a pretty magical spot. You can camp up at Mutawintji and meet the guide there.

I vaguely recall we exited south out to the Barrier Hwy through a few properties, too.

P1030061.JPG
 
@Kevin how can i change the title of this thread? I want to replace "uluru" with "Darling river". Is it possible for me to do that?
 
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