Darwin 2012 - Adelaide to Woomera

Well, we left Adelaide at around 8am, which is a good time to get going. Traffic was heavy out of Adelaide and we tried, whilst moving, to take some photos of some roadside art on the way. Not much luck though for good shots without stopping so we may try to do this on the way back.

We cant travel for a day without some form of issue. Today, dads caravan mirror, the drivers side unit, came loose and then flew off whilst we were doing about 90Km/h. Another stessful moment for dad, who proceeded to pull over so I could run back and retrieve it.

Since there was a truck following, dad got some descriptive words leveled at him over the CB whilst I went back to see how the mirror fared. As would be expected, it was destroyed, so out came the backup mirrors ;)

The rest of the trip was really good, and once we took the turn north, traffic dropped off. We got a great view of the country side, since last time we had a dust storm hit us outside of Pimba and up until Port Augusta this time there was low level cloud. We also managed to see quite a few Emu on the side of the road which we didn't see last time. We hope to get some photos tomorrow.

Woomera caravan park has not changed, and was nearly empty when we came in, but it's a nice quiet park with suitable amenities. We spent some of the evening, after tea, at the caravan park "pub" ;)

Even the Cinema here is open tonight. Very tempting.

Below are some photos taken with the iPhone during the day and after that is the latest fuel economy graphs form mum and dads LTR petrol 4x2 Colorado. I plan to keep this updated during the trip as well.

 

 

Tomorrow we drive to Cadney Park station.

 

Canberra–Instagram and the Colorado Fuel Economy figures

 

Hi All, As i did at the end of the Perth Trip i thought i would add a copy of all the instagram photos i took whilst on this trip. In addition to that, now that i have my own tow vehicle i thought i would document its fuel economy on trips.

Instagram

 

Fuel Economy Figures

These figures were collected using GasCuby for the Iphone. I have been using this for all of the cars i have had since getting the iphone and will be able to continue posting this data on future trips.

At the moment i am attributing the high figures on the first day of the trip to incorrect Tyre air pressure and driving style. On the trip home i adjusted the air pressures away from dealer recommendation and more in line with the car placard. I also modified my driving style. Future trips will show is this helps

L/100km	Date	Vehicle	Odometer	Filled Up	Cost/Liter	Liters	Total Cost	Octane
9.3	25/12/2011	Colorado	3,176.00	Full	$1.44	32.77	$47.16	Diesel
13.7	30/12/2011	Colorado	3,317.00	Full	$1.44	13.07	$18.81	Diesel
12.6	1/01/2012	Colorado	3,579.00	Full	$1.52	35.78	$54.35	Diesel
12.4	2/01/2012	Colorado	3,760.00	Full	$1.53	22.89	$35.00	Diesel
12.2	5/01/2012	Colorado	4,166.00	Full	$1.46	50.39	$73.52	Diesel
11	7/01/2012	Colorado	4,307.00	Full	$1.56	17.26	$26.91	Diesel
12.4	7/01/2012	Colorado	4,692.00	Full	$1.51	42.51	$64.15	Diesel
	8/01/2012	Colorado	4,958.00	Full	$1.42	32.95	$46.75	Diesel

Canberra - Canberra Motor Village

I though I should post some photos of the caravan park we are staying at. As you can see it is quite dense in the caravan section and the site we have is far from level. Many of the other sites are no better. In the background of one of the photos you can see Sara's mum and dads van as well.

Eldorado and Canberra

I can't believe it's 2012. Last year just seemed to of went so fast.

Well, January 1st found us crawling out of bed, after a long night of seeing in the new year and watching all the fireworks our various neighbors felt the need to let off.  With a single stop for fuel and food we arrived at the Gemstone caravan park in Eldorado. The park was deserted, hitch I found strange for the Christmas period, but the owner informed me that the park had only just emptied that morning. For us this meant the choice of sites and drive through to boot. 

I have been to this park twice now and it really is a great little, quiet park, just off the highway near Wangaratta. Behind the park is a creek that contains both gemstones, including Smokey and Citrine Quartz, and Gold. As we were only passing through we used the creek as a swimming hole this time and only did some specking for any gems lying on the surface. LasT time, when we came up with the Essendon Lapidary club, we brought the sieves and gold pans allowing us to find both gems and some small specks of gold.

The kids loved playing in the creek and we found ourselves a shady spot to sit in the water and cool off. We we glad we only stopped here for one nit though as the temperature for 2 days later was predicted to be 45degC.

The next day saw us up and gone by 7 am due to Caitlyn getting quite a bad blood nose during her sleep and us all all finding ourselves awake at 6am. With a promise of a McDonalds breakfast, that did not actually eventuate, everyone agreed to hook up the van and get going. 

We eventually stopped at Holbrook, which seems to be a common theme when we travel this way, but with a new bypass being built, not for much longer.

After Holbrook we caught up with Sara's parents in Gundagai before making our way on to Canberra. We arrived at the Canberra motor village around 1pm to about 35 degrees, so shot welcome. After setting up the van we went out in search of a shopping center for some cool air and supplies. We found both ;)

The Colorado is handling the caravan and trips great with an average of about 13.5l per 100km so far. That included a lot of hills and the car has only just gone over 4000km. I expect this va.ue to improve over time.

Our next day will see us visiting the Australian War Memorial, which will be very interesting and a first for the kids.

Our new tow vehicle–A 4WD Holden Colorado

Well, we finally done it. After many years of talking about it and making do with our various lease cars, we finally went out and purchased our own tow vehicle.

We can now begin the slow exercise of setting this car up for towing and the many trips we want to do in the future. As always, if you have any suggestions, please add them to the comments.

So far we have only added the Tinting, a Tow bar with our old electric break controller (Tekonsha Prodigy) and its booked in for a tub liner with ARB. We also plan to fit a UHF radio, an upgrade from our current hand held unit and i am looking at either the GME TX 3340 or the TX3540 with the decision mainly based on price. Without a Bulbar, or plans to get one in the near future, it looks like the antenna will be mounted off of the sports bars.