Pompey’s 2024 Plenty Highway Trip

[Pompey]

Yesterday I bought the tyre and had it mounted on the rim. That’s the last major thing that needed to be done for this trip to proceed. Now to get it back home.

 

[Pompey]

Someone said they wanted photos of Sydney. Went out for dinner in town this evening. Nice view of the harbour from where I was sitting.

 

[jpeckinp]

For some reason that doesn't appear on my bucket list.

Might not be on the bucket list, but take the woman sit back drink a few beers and surf on your phone and when you get back to the hotel room prepare to get you ass kicked.

 

[Pompey]

This time next week I should have pulled up on the first night of the trip. In the meantime, I’ve added the Push To Talk (PTT) to the CB. A separate module is connected to the microphone inlet socket, with microphone plugging into the module. A separate microphone mounted on the A pillar also connects into the module.

The PTT button is mounted on the steering wheel. It’s connected via Bluetooth to the module. Simply press the button and the microphone on the A pillar comes to life. The original microphone can also still be used.

You can also connect via Bluetooth ear pods, headsets or, in my case, the in car stereo. So you can hear incoming transmissions in that way if you choose. I first cobbled together a system years ago on my old car to let me do that, but up until now it couldn’t be done. I asked GME to design such a system and finally they have.

I am yet to try any of this out, so hopefully it all works as I expect.

 

[Maine Guide]

Tagged

 

[Pompey]

Ok, I’m all set to go tomorrow morning.

For those who are interested, I have attached my itinerary. I don’t expect anyone to know any of these places so I’m probably wasting everyone’s time, including mine!

Columns A & B are obvious. Column C is the number of nights at the location and column D is the distance between stops, with the highlighted ones being distance since last re-fuel.

Some stops will be caravan parks, others will be sheep and/or cattle stations and others will be free camping areas.

It’s not cast in stone. We can stay longer at some places, or less, if we want to.

 

[RedZilla]

Wow that’s about the best itenerary I’ve ever seen. If planning to travel in a group caravan, you would definitely be the one chosen to organize.

Looks like a great trip with fun stops throughout. Unless some have visited Australia or researched extensively, we get little information about regional attractions throughout your beautiful country. Thanks for sharing and please include photos when you have a chance.

 

[Pompey]

Wow that’s about the best itenerary I’ve ever seen. If planning to travel in a group caravan, you would definitely be the one chosen to organize.

Looks like a great trip with fun stops throughout. Unless some have visited Australia or researched extensively, we get little information about regional attractions throughout your beautiful country. Thanks for sharing and please include photos when you have a chance.

Cheers. I organised my first outback trip to Ayers Rock in the mid 80’s and have been refining how I do it ever since based on what I learned.

I’ll report along the way with photos

 

[2020Tremor]

Wow that’s about the best itenerary I’ve ever seen. If planning to travel in a group caravan, you would definitely be the one chosen to organize.

Looks like a great trip with fun stops throughout. Unless some have visited Australia or researched extensively, we get little information about regional attractions throughout your beautiful country. Thanks for sharing and please include photos when you have a chance.

I second that on the itinerary. Well done @Pompey.

 

[Optimus]

Ok, I’m all set to go tomorrow morning.

For those who are interested, I have attached my itinerary. I don’t expect anyone to know any of these places so I’m probably wasting everyone’s time, including mine!

Columns A & B are obvious. Column C is the number of nights at the location and column D is the distance between stops, with the highlighted ones being distance since last re-fuel.

Some stops will be caravan parks, others will be sheep and/or cattle stations and others will be free camping areas.

It’s not cast in stone. We can stay longer at some places, or less, if we want to.
View attachment 156245View attachment 156246View attachment 156247View attachment 156248View attachment 156249

Is "Dump point" an area where you have to, ya know, take a...

 

[Pompey]

Day 1 and it’s been a long day. Up at 6, on the road at 750. We re-fuelled at Warwick and again at Dalby, as the prices were lower (I certainly won’t say anything over $1 a litre is cheap.) the roads just got worse and worse. We dropped the air pressure in the tyres which made a noticeable difference but nothing could negate the massive dips and rises that on one occasion nearly had us airborne. This on a major highway- the Warrego Highway.

At one stop we found that the Anderson plug that charges the van batteries off the truck had come off and had disappeared, leaving just the cables and the metal tongues. Fortunately I carried a spare and we got it all working again.

We are staying at a rural farm stay but the noise from passing traffic is matched only by some yobbo who rings up all these people and argues with everyone of them and is incapable of speaking quietly.

It might be a farm stay but the reality is it’s just like a caravan park with everyone parked next to one another, albeit a bit further apart.

It’s certainly warmer than home and I expect it will get warmer still over the next 2-3 weeks.

 

[Pompey]

Is "Dump point" an area where you have to, ya know, take a...

Where you empty the toilet cassette.

 

[idrivea2022tremor]

I didn't realize the cameras were in on this whole "wrong side up" shtick as well!! Power to them for playing along.

 

[Pompey]

Day 2 and the Warrego Hwy improved quite a bit. We only had to drive half the distance so it was an easier day all up. We stopped on the side of the road late morning for a break, then resumed. We came up on a triple road train which I thought we’d need to overtake, but then he took off, slowed and then took off again.

We arrived in Charleville and had lunch, then set out for the Charleville secret US WW2 base. We missed the tour but chatted with the guide for quite a while and learned a bit about it. Unfortunately, we ran out of time to visit the bilby exhibition. Maybe next time. In the 500 plus km we averaged 18.9 litres per 100km

Made it back to the caravan park we’re staying at and it looks like the Starlink dish is not working. So we then went and sat around a campfire and listened to some live country music

 

[idrivea2022tremor]

Leave it to the US to make a "secret" base the most obvious thing in the area.

Looks like an awesome trip... I'm going to save your itinerary and hope maybe someday I can get up there and do it.

 

[Pompey]

Leave it to the US to make a "secret" base the most obvious thing in the area.

Looks like an awesome trip... I'm going to save your itinerary and hope maybe someday I can get up there and do it.

This town was chosen because it was so far inland that it was beyond Japanese fighter escort. Numerous allied fighters were kept hidden but could scramble to intercept unescorted bombers. Thousands of US troops were deployed here. This base was one of a number of bases in remote areas.

I visited one in Victoria which flew sorties as far north as Hong Kong, stopping for fuel along the way. Some amazing stories out of the world wars.

 

[Pompey]

Day 3 and we arrived in Blackall, which is where the Black Stump is. From there, we will be travelling beyond the Black Stump. The drive here was quite pleasant, and it’s weird to find everything so green,despite El Niño. Blackall is a nice town, but it’s very sad the population has shrunk from over 3,000 to around 1,000. They do their best to foster tourism as they realise they need tourists during the cool months because in the hot months it gets very hot and there are few tourists.

We camped by the Barcoo River. This is the outer Barcoo area made famous by Banjo Patterson’s poem A Bush Cristening. The poem starts with, On the Outer Barcoo where the churches are few and men of religion are scanty, on a road never cross ‘cept by folks that are lost, one Michael Magee had a shanty.

So there’s a bit of history to Blackall. It’s also pretty warm here too. 27 degrees at 41% humidity is warm for mid May, but thankfully a long way from the 47’s they get in summer.

Tomorrow we arrive in Longreach, where we will stay for 3 nights.

 

[Pompey]

Day 4 and we arrived in Longreach, where we plan to stay for 3 nights. It’s pretty warm here, but a cooler change is expected tonight.

Longreach is the home of 2 major attractions- The Stockmans Hall of Fame and the Qantas museum. When I first came through here back in 1987, neither existed. I’ve booked a tour of the Stockman’s Hall of Fame tomorrow. I was thinking of doing the Qantas Museum, where they have numerous aircraft on display, such as a Super Constellation and a Boeing 747-200. However, it’s cheaper to book a flight from Sydney to Perth than it is to do the top level tour, so I’ll give it a miss I think.

We are staying at a property 10kms east of town. I don’t know if they’re grazing sheep or cattle, but I suspect it’s beef cattle. Flies are bad of course, but that’s life out here. Triple road trains rule the roads out here. You see a few doubles but rarely do you see the semi trailers that are so common in the east. Wedge tail eagles circle overhead looking for a feed, usually its roadkill but I haven’t seen them feeding on one like you usually do.

Before we got to Longreach though was a small town that was really cool. On the left hand side was a beaut looking pub and lots of flowering trees. On the other side there was the “mechanical mile” of old machinery, vehicles and equipment. It was so well done and I left most impressed. We might even go back there if we have time.

 

[Pompey]

Some photos of our Longreach campsite

 

[Pompey]

Some more night photos