Roger has now RETIRED!!!!! WAAAHOOOO.  Tuesday we are starting of for Alice Springs....as we have done a couple of time. Just love the Zircon fields at Gem Tree. We go over the Plenty H/way. Thats a fun trip. We sure dont have any complaints about our van. It's a 17ft6 coromal..off road..tandem wheel..independant suspension.  Has all the comforts..shower, toilet, island bed, and tows like a dream. We've been preparing for this retirement for years now, so, hopefully.... getting used to having no clock will be easy. If anyone is in that area about the 10th of June,please get in touch. I'll be taking this puuutter thing with me.  For those of you who are aware of Sarge....well... shes fighting with all her might, and her courage is amazing.She tells me she is very tired.I've just had a week with her and wore her out I think!!  Anyway, I'll stop talking about that!! We are leaving the house in good hands as our son and his fiance will be staying here and taking care of things. A trip south is on the cards about September I think Ma.
  Cheers Dellie

Best wishes for your retirement plans, Take care on the Plenty. It's very stoney in places. I "blew" a rear window on the Plenty a few years back despite a stone guard on the trailer (a "tent" trailer not the Goldstream in my avatar). I was travelling in convoy with an Ultimate behind a Patrol and 10 minutes further on he blew a rear window too! So much for the "nose cone" on the Ultimate deflecting the stones away from the tow vehicle! Jim

Delliemay Good luck with the retirement getting used to no clock will be a breeze for you take care on the road and enjoy. Helena.

Woohoo is right Dellie, you go girl. May still see you out there somewhere, we leave on the 10th June for Darwin. Will keep you posted.

'Bout ruddy time Dell.  Life is about to begin for both of you.  We are in Broken Hill at the moment.  Leave here in the morning and heading for Pt. Augusta.

We just might be in Alice Springs around the same time as you.  I will PM you my phone number so give me a ring and we will see where we both are.

Don't know what coverage I am going to get between here and there but leave a message and well see what happens.

Safe travels my friend.

Thanks Guys.Yep!!! Leave here in the morning. All packed and ready to go. Years ago. Jimricho, there were 3 vehicles in our group..going across the Plenty for the very first time. We thought we were driving to the condition of the road, but, after blowing 7 tyres between the 3 of us,we realised we weren't. Sure did slow us down on the return trip. We now take a few days to get across, altho this time may be longer as we hope to do some fishing in the Georgina river. Ma, please do that. Would love to meet up somewhere and maybe get to meet Firefly too. Sounds like a plan, don't you think? Cheers Dell

Drop your tyre pressures to no more than 28-30 psi, van/trailer too. Tyres need to be a good quality brand and have at least 50% tread life left in them before tackling these roads and normal highway tyres are totally unsuitable.... this also applies to the van/trailer, and the spares. Handy to have a compressor so you can put some wind back into the tyres when you get back to the black stuff.

PS: I also picked up some dodgy fuel (previous vehicle, unleaded petrol) at Tobermorey.

-- Edited by jimricho on Tuesday 1st of June 2010 06:49:10 AM

In Woomera today Dell, Wednesday 2nd June.   Alice probably in two days time.  Will probably hang around there for a few days at least