My Outback in Outback Australia.

Mate - those photos are awesome!

Makes me itch to get back into outback Australia, the only thing stopping me is the season right now (summer).

I'm not convinced about "McDonald Ranges" though, perhaps you mean the McDonnell Ranges? Lol - unless Ronald has built himself some massive golden arches out there....

Big Red looked like a breeze for you guys!

Amazing trip!
 
Here are some more photos from the trip.

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Glendambo fuel stop

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Breakaways, Coober Pedy

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Yulara

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Uluru

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Kata Tjuta

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Kings Canyon

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Palm Valley

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Plenty Hwy

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Tweaksta said:
Mate - those photos are awesome!

Makes me itch to get back into outback Australia, the only thing stopping me is the season right now (summer).

I'm not convinced about "McDonald Ranges" though, perhaps you mean the McDonnell Ranges? Lol - unless Ronald has built himself some massive golden arches out there....

Big Red looked like a breeze for you guys!

Amazing trip!
Click to expand...



HAHAHA, Yeah must fix that typo up, spelling has never been my strong point :iconwink:
We didn't see any "McDonald's" for a long period of time!

Ben..
 
Really great pics :rock: Can you tell any details on the Outback thats pulling the popup camper. How well did it tow it, any mods to the car to aid in towing, is it turbo charged. I have a 2000 leggy I plan on towing a 10 foot popup next year.


Thanks Nate
 
Ohhh man.....I am just looking at those photos while sitting at work.....thanks for providing me with the ultimate escape from boredom!

One question though - what is that big spaceship looking thing in the photo "2010outbacktrip057.jpg"?

Where is it?

Looks lush around Birdsville - all green and well watered.

Enjoying the pics immensely!
 
Ben - any chance you can give us a quick "waypiont" description of the trip. So, start point, 1st major destination, 2nd, 3rd etc.? Even if it's just a very high level one, I'd love to know the order of the trip.
 
Yep, I will put the trip into point form tonight guys.. Glad to hear you love the photos.

The spaceship thing was at Coober Pedy and was left in town after the filming of one of the star wars movies.

Ben..
 
tinknocker07 said:
Really great pics :rock: Can you tell any details on the Outback thats pulling the popup camper. How well did it tow it, any mods to the car to aid in towing, is it turbo charged. I have a 2000 leggy I plan on towing a 10 foot popup next year.


Thanks Nate
Click to expand...

Yep, it's a 2010 2.0L Diesel Outback (turbo). No real mods except for electric brake controller and A/T tyres.

It towed really well, used a bit more fuel with the camper attached though but thats to be expected.

Troy.
 
I think I like the photos too much. In as much as I want to go there but cannot seeing it happening- yet. But if I could could I would.
 
Its best if you have a read of the actual trip report I did for the Subaru and Recreational 4wd club www.subaruclub.com.au

See below...




While sitting around the campfire at Olinda hall on the weekend of our Constitution change meeting, after a few beers, was when this trip first came about.

I had wanted to head out to the ‘red centre’ for a while and was evening considering it during the summer months, as the year was just filling up so fast with so many other great trips.
It was late in the evening that I said to Troy “Do you reckon I could get out to the red centre, see everything possible, and then cover the Plenty HWY and Outback QLD on the way home?” The answer was “Yep sure do. We are in!!” So the trip was born, that night around the fire.

A few weeks later some phone calls were made to ensure that it wasn’t the beer making us believe that we could do so much in two weeks. It was great news; we were all keen to plan this adventure.
The date was set and the trip put in the calendar.

We had 4 vehicles for this trip, Troy, Sandi, Lauren and Caitlin in their new TDi Subaru Outback, Craig, Chloe and Mitchell in the Mitsubishi Pajero, Josh in his Navara and myself in my Subaru Outback. Many questioned why I wasn’t taking my Prado and my answer was simple. Subaru named the car “Outback”, I wanted to see if it could live up to its name. I can assure you that I was not disappointed.

Day one: 3:00am Caltex service station on the M4 motor way to fill the tank and we were on the road. First stop was West Wyalong to meet up with Josh travelling from ACT. Craig was one day ahead of us and we would be meeting him that night at Broken Hill.
We’d covered Just over 1200kms on this day, through Hillston, Ivanhoe and across to Broken Hill, arriving around dinner time.
It was an early night to get some rest for the next big day ahead.

Day two: And we were on the road at 8:00am to start the 980km drive to Coober Pedy. This was a fairly uneventful drive apart from the many petrol stations visited for Craig to refuel.
Arriving in Coober Pedy that afternoon was like stepping into a different world. The vastness of the landscape was amazing and shear lack of plant life indicated just how unforgiving this country can be.
Set up camp at Riba’s Campground (base camp for 2 nights) and then off into town for our first dinner out. (Great pizza shop in Coober Pedy)

Day three: And it was our day to explore the sites of Coober Pedy. Sandi had carefully planned our itinerary for the day and much to Craig’s amusement most of it was on foot and didn’t involve anything to do with the vehicles.
Great day Sandi, we didn’t stop. We got to see everything we wanted to, and more.
I spent more time underground in that day than I had done in my entire life. That evening we got to go on a guided underground opal mine tour with the owner of the place we were camped at. It was very informative and hands on. If anyone is thinking about heading to Coober Pedy then Riba’s Campground is the place to stay.

Day Four destination: Uluru (and the 130km/h speed zone that we love about N.T).
It was another early start to enable us to get to Uluru by mid afternoon.
It truly is an amazing spectacle when you see this huge rock in the distance growing larger and larger as you drive towards it.
We set up camp at Uluru camping facility and then made our way out to take sunset photos over the rock. A truly amazing site.

For day five we had planned to climb the rock. We were up, out of bed bright and early only to find that the climb was closed due to high winds at the summit.
So with that we headed off on the base walk of the rock. This walk is a total of 10.8kms including side tracks and is a must do. Apart from being totally amazed at the rock itself the formations around the base were also truly amazing. The fresh water springs in and around the base of the rock that provided the much needed water for the native folk we so pure and clean that we just wanted to jump in and lap it up.
On completion of our walk it was on to the visitor centre to study the history of the area; a very informative afternoon. Back to camp for a swim in the pool and relax; ready for the next day of adventure.

Day 6: Out of bed at 5:00am and out to the rock for sunrise. What an amazing way to start the day!
After sunrise, it was off to the Olgas to do the 7.8km valley walk. I personally got more enjoyment out of the Olgas than I did out of Uluru; it was a spectacular place.

Day 7: Time to hit the road again.
Destination: Kings Canyon. This was a fairly short drive and we arrived at the camp ground at around 11:00am.
Very fast set up of camp and it was back in the cars to drive out to the Canyon itself.
There are two walks on offer, the easy stroll up through the bottom of the canyon in the shade or the full on climb up to the top of the canyon and then around the entire rim of it. Craig offered to take the kids with him while Sandi, Troy, Josh and I elected to tackle the extreme walk (in the heat of the day)
This was tough, steep, hot, long and bloody hard going, but we did it, and what a brilliant sense of achievement we had. Such a sense of achievement, that it was straight back to Kings Canyon hotel for an extended happy hour!!
 
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