West macdonalds we stayed at ellery Creek big Hole, $3.30pp pn flushing toilets.
All the NP in the terriorty are $3.30 pp pn. Devils marbles is good but get in early.
Can't help around coober pedy.

Stuart wells 90K's south of alice is a good base for a couple of days, day trips to chambers pillars, Rainbow valley and the meteorite craters.

-- Edited by Gary and Kerry on Thursday 28th of January 2010 07:56:43 PM

There's a campground at Banka Banka, a bit south of Renner Springs, north of TC, not free but a budget job I think, haven't stayed there but it looks quite nice driving past. Other "forumsters" will probably know it and may post more info.

Well hello and welcome to Nomads Jedo 03.
Now my feet are itchy again. And it's all your fault, and anyone else's who's planning to hitch up.
My turn will come.
So it's all the best to, and I hope it's everything you're planning it to be and then some.
Safe and happy travels to you, wherever you go.

Ta for all the replies:)

Have now decided to give Alice the miss - might call in for fresh bread and milk. For 'some' reason we always seem drawn to Alice. There wouldn't be much we haven't already seen there.
Dave: - that'd be Honeymoon Gap..??
Coober..?? - depends what time of day we get there but probly just stay the one night. Again - has always been a "regular stop" for us. Fascinating place.
Gary and Kerry: Stuart Wells is already on the list - as is Ellery Ck.
To The Gnome: Who's that sitting on MY chair??
Jimricho: Banka is on the list as well.
Ma: We like this one better than the first
Gran: Big 'ugs...

Bit more about us: 22+ yrs in OZ (all of it in Broken Hill). We were once "Geordies" y'knaw, and spent nearly every summer camping at the Lake District or Scotland. Bought a Jayco Campertrailer in our 2nd year here (some stories there). One point we had 2 vans - one we used to tow round with us and another parked permanent at Copi Hollow up at Menindee Lakes ($1 a day...) Had the speedboat then as well. Learned to drive a grader and front-end-loader up at Copi - self sufficient LOL. Have the one daughter and 3 g'kids - they spend half their time on a huge property north of Wilcannia with 6000 sheep and over 1000 head cattle - not to mention the wild pigs. It's an adventurous life... The kids love it - they don't need a licence to drive up there. 12 and 10 yr olds gunning 4Wheelers over sandhills and through wet creeks mustering woolies and mean longhorns... LOL ... and spend the other half at school in the Hill. And you wouldn't believe the change in the 12 yr old when she gets back into town and morphs into a fashion-princess...LOL... 2 days ago she was gutting/skinning/butchering a fatlamb - last night she was dressed to the nines and decked with gold necklaces and bracelets - eating it's cousin...
Should write a book - Eh..??
Jedo

We pick up our Jayco Outback Discovery 17.55-3 on Thursday (5 sleeps)  and were starting to get worried because we had seen "hundreds" of vans over the past 2 months - none (not a one) like ours.

Went up for a vist to the caravan yard to see where the TV is going to be mounted (not now - too big for the area under the aircon) and they had 2 back for repairs (driver error) and another 2 for sale.

It's a comfort thing for me, I like to know that others have thought they are a good buy too!

We sound like the only ones on here without a detailed plan - we are just going!

Catch you somewhere in the great country of ours!

Fency

Fence sitter wrote:

---

We pick up our Jayco Outback Discovery 17.55-3 on Thursday (5 sleeps)  and were starting to get worried because we had seen "hundreds" of vans over the past 2 months - none (not a one) like ours.

Went up for a vist to the caravan yard to see where the TV is going to be mounted (not now - too big for the area under the aircon) and they had 2 back for repairs (driver error) and another 2 for sale.

It's a comfort thing for me, I like to know that others have thought they are a good buy too!

We sound like the only ones on here without a detailed plan - we are just going!

Catch you somewhere in the great country of ours!

Fency

---

We have a Jayco Discovery, although it isn't an outback, and we love it.  Have done about 10000ks all up I suppose and not a thing wrong.  Have done some rather rough bits (still on blacktop though) and the only problem we had, and that was our error, the drawer directly under the griller parted company with its bottom, only because we had too much weight in it. Soon fixed that, bought an Arcapal dinner set.

We don't have a mounted TV Fency.  We just take the flat screen from home and it fits nicely on the bench under the aircon.

Can't really find any faults at this stage and it stands to reason, like Dave said, there's a hell of a lot of them out there so you will see more than other brands up for sale and in for repairs.

As for "a plan"  our plan is to go wherever whenever and as soon as possible and as often as possible.

Elaine

 

Aye - well that was the reason we changed ours... We traded-in the old Windsor (sniff..) last February 2009 for a brand-new Discovery from Halls, Mildura. Not the outback - the one with the door and kitchen at the front. Well, we were over the moon with it - really - until we went to Armidale and it was freezing and raining day after day and night after night (that was when Kempsy and Dorrigo was flooded out...) and the overnight treks to the park loo were murderous (would've been dryer to wet the bed... ) and we couldn't move on 'cos I had something on all week at the Uni there... So we traded that in in November and got a brand-newie 17.55-3 - no more tip-toeing through the tulips. And we like the door and kitchen at the back better. Seems better set-out too...
TV..?? - Well, we just take the kitchen flatscreen from home - hardly watch it - has it's own digital tuner and the little we have used it, find that the wind-up aerial with the booster on does a first class job. Mostly we prefer to sit outside and read or watch the antics of other vanners... LOL...
Gran: - Before I retired, I wrote lots and published in my professional field. You may have noticed that the Health Service today is more concerned with "Best Practice" and "Research-Based-Evidence" &"Benchmarking" than with beds and band-aids. My last 'paper' was to do with "The Neuro-Anatomy-and Physiology of Swallowing" and as well as 'doing my job' I was researching (exactly) what happens up in the grey matter when we swallow a sip of water or bite on a sausage - how all those millions of brain cells 'control' which muscles of the face and neck move - and in what sequence and the timing of all that - more concerned with what "doesn't" happen when someone has a stroke or brain cancer or Guillian-Barre etc.
Since I retired, the only writing I do is the grocery list and typing on forums (as well as vanning I'm an avid photographer, a model aircraft 'buff' and now dabbling in helicopters, and a woodworker)... so plenty of forums... But you DO have a good point and you have sparked-me-off with a fledgling project that could combine my photography with a light-hearted descriptive essay/story - "Life Off The Land.." and if it's a failure then I'll blame you... LOL...
Fency: - I've seen a lot of "Jayco-Knocking" around the forums - based on the old "one-upmanship" principle. A human trait, I'm afraid - more apparent in males than in females (Jedo ducks head)... We're happy with OUR rig...
Off-roading..?? well there's "off-roading" and there's "Off-Roading" eg the Oodnadatta Track vs the Tanami Track or the CSR. There's places and conditions I won't push our Patrol into - and that's sans-trailer-of-any-kind... And there'd be places you could get your Outback into that I'd not get our Discovery into... So it's horses for courses...
A "Professional Truck Driver" turned "Chauffeur"...???
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chauffeur
(especially note the last para...) LOL...
Oh well, better stop: I'm in enough trouble already...
Jedo

Jim: If the timing and conditions are right up there - anything is possible.
If the developmental road had just been graded - and dried out somewhat, they could have possibly roller-skated to Cape York...
I doubt you'd get a Sterling through this season though - with all that cyclonic and monsoonal rain - unless you could float it over those creeks...
And the weight of a Sterling on a wet/damp cambered road would have it nose-diving into the culvert and jack-knifing the tug with it...

I'd have less hesitation with a full off-road rig


and a Trigg coupling...


Even though the couple you met "did it" - And no doubt many other intrepid Aussie adventurers have done it too - but I'd be wary of suggesting that others try it with non-specialised trailers unless the timing and conditions are right...
Jedo

 I just could not take a caravan up there, I'd rather enjoy it without worring about a van.