Brisbane to Perth

[Craig]

I am finally breaking out of Brisbane tomorrow and heading back over to the west. I am planning to head out through Toowoomba an down through Cobar on the Barrier Hwy. Has anyone traveled this Hwy lately and can tell me what the road condition is like?

[Dot]

Safe trip home Graig, keep us informed please. How have you gone with the MH's new paint jobbie?

[Craig]

Thanks Dot,
I don't know if you'd classify it as going home though . The paint job looks great. Fingers crossed it stays that way.

[BruceS]

Haven't gone on that road for quite a few years but it always was a pretty smooth surface, bitumen all the way.
Best not to travel at night unless you have a good bullbar. Not many big roos but lots of small ones.
http://www.weatherzone.com.au/nsw/upper ... /wilcannia
If you put the town in the area on the right side you get a 7 day wind direction forecast. (& temperature)
Keith (Tanks) traveled that road as far as Broken Hill recently.
Try to pick what days you cross the big paddock though at this time of year.
Chuck has good experience at knowing when to stop or go quick...........
Hot roads destroy tyres!!

[Shirley]

Take your time & travel safely Craig have a good trip.

[Craig]

Parked up at the sports ground at Port Augusta. $7 per night for self contained vehicles. I have just finished a service on the MH and am sitting inside with the genny going and the air con on.

[Dot]

Bit warm ain't it Craig? do you do any night time travel over the nulla?

[Craig]

no I don't Dot. early starts and early stops. If it gets too crappy I will just stop for a day or two. Some MH friends have just caught up with me so we will cross the paddock together. Cheryl probably organized it so they would keep an eye on me

[Craig]

I arrived safe and sound a couple of days ago. Although the last free camp at Karalee Dam (about 50kms east of Southern Cross) was a very short visit as bush fires flared up very close and the wind changed direction. I could see the flickering of the flames on the other side of the dam so I packed up and left around 8pm. I drove a further 150kms that night and ended up stopping in a rest area. I drove the final leg to Perth the following day.
As a few may know I have had a run of bad luck since leaving Cairns last Sept. and it hasn't ended as after I arrived and unloaded the car out of the trailer I drove to a local service station, It was as I was leaving I couldn't start the car. So much for the expensive Optima AGM that was 16 months old. But I didn't look at it as bad luck, I thought it was good luck because it waited to fail until I got back to the city I bought the battery in . So no problems, I remove the battery and trundle off to the local distributor only to be informed that the warranty approval had to come from Melbourne head office (talk about micro management). Then told that as they are shut until tomorrow (time difference over the east) I would have to drive the 30 minutes back tomorrow after he submits his report and gets approval to replace it. So a phone call this morning and confirmed the approval has been given and yes it has but they don't have a replacement battery. It has been ordered and will be here next week. He picked up on the fact that I was a little peeved (I don't know how) and gave me a temporary replacement until it arrived. Thank I said and what day and time will YOU be delivering the new optima battery when it arrives. He agreed that would be the case and will deliver it when it arrived .
So now I am back at the MH and have crawled under and over it to see if that bloody chinaman is caught up on something.

[Dot]

Yep those bloody chinamen are everywhere Craig, I reckon they travel through computes now = ninja apples Anyway home safe and sound and teasing the beejeezes out of the "little man" I bet