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Central Australia: Alex's excellent adventure
Well, guys, I just got back from 7 weeks in central Australia and have to say it was great. Great scenery and fun driving. I am not going to write a major essay so will just mention a few things. [I have a .kmz file that would show you in Google Earth where I went. How do you put those sorts of files on this forum?]
I started out from Sydney on 1st July and went to Alice Springs via Birdsville (on the way I had a cuppa with Brett at Orange) and the Plenty Highway. Just before Birdsville the ABS and 4WD lights came on (meaning, according to the manual that I had neither operating). Why would they both come on at the same time? 20km later I thought that the only thing they had in common was the need to know each wheel’s speed. So I got out and checked the wheel sensors and found the wires to the right hand rear one had been ripped out – right at the sensor. To get something to solder to the rest of the wire to I had to file down some of the plastic body of the sensor.
At Birdsville I called in at Big Red to see how well the car climbed central Australian sand. After having no worries going up and down both sides I found out I was on Little Red. Moving onto Big Red I climbed the east face and went down the west. Coming back up I got bogged half way. The audience yelled for me to put it in 4WD, which it already was – I thought. Turns out it was in Lock from Little Red and had finally decided to overheat halfway up Big Red and throw me into 2WD! I waited 20min and then made it up no problems. (When I got to the Simpson Desert I spent hours up and down dunes with no problems, but always with the car in Auto, not Lock. It seems to me the overheating is just Lock and not Auto, and that one rarely needs Lock anyway).
Rather than go the Plenty Hwy all the way to the Stuart Hwy, I dropped down to the East Macdonnell Ranges going on a couple of 4WD tracks. Cattlewater Pass track was great fun. In fact over my whole trip I traveled most of the 4x4 route and had a ball.
Just before turning off the Plenty Hwy I got my first expensive flat. The sidewall got sliced.
At Alice I went to the Camel Races and met up with Stephen (loafer).
 
I then did the tourist loop seeing all the gorges and Kings Canyon,
   
returning to Alice by the 4WD track up the Finke River to Boggy Hole
and finishing off with an excursion to Birthday Waterhole. This was technically the most difficult driving of the trip: 45min to do 14km. Here are a couple of shots of the track
 
Huge fun, and camping there got me a close encounter with a local
Back in Alice I picked up the new Cooper ($246) that they had to order in for me (and got another flat repaired – a big rock I hit the previous day let in grit between the bead and the rim causing a slow leak) and then collected my friend Di from the Airport. We headed up the Tanami track a bit and then headed west to Kintore near the WA border. From there we went down the Sandy Blight Junction Road. This is about 280km and we saw just one other moving car the whole way (there are heaps of rusted out wrecks on the way). Much of this track is interesting without being tricky – we averaged 40kph.
Part 2 below
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Alex X-740(c)
2002 ST, Auto, Blue, Bash plate, Suspension spacers, Cooper ATR/Dunlop Le Mans
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23/Aug/2009, 2:40 pm
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Re: Central Australia: Alex's excellent adventure
Wow Alex, what can I say, the pictures tell the story.
Especially the ones of Kings Canyon. 
--- Tony X-891c
2008 T31 St
HERE is my X Trail
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23/Aug/2009, 2:48 pm
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Re: Central Australia: Alex's excellent adventure
On the way we made a brief excursion to Sir Frederick range. The climb was very demanding and on the way up I managed to hit a head-sized boulder so hard with the muffler that the muffler made a permanent major dent in the wheel well. But the view was worth it. The middle photo is for Jalal – I am sure he thinks you would find an Xtrail at the end of any rainbow [It was actually steeper than the last photo shows. My photographer had a bit of trouble getting the horizon horizontal].
  
When we got to the Great Central Hwy, we turned left (east) and went to the Olgas and Uluru, and then onto Rainbow Valley and Chambers Pillar.
   
Then back to Alice for a restock and to repair the car. (The front left bracket on the roof to which the roof bar mounts are bolted came loose. I had to move to roof-lining out of the way to get to the nut that needed to be tightened, and this meant removing the plastic cover over the A and B pillars. Not fun.). We then had a few days in the East Macdonnells including Ruby Gap which had a bit of demanding 4WDing in the park itself.
Back at Alice I left Di at the airport, restocked, tightened the rear left roof bracket (which had now also come loose and which took 4 hours because the whole car had to be emptied to dismantle the carrying frame to get to the C pillar plastic cover) and headed off for Mount Dare via the Old Andado track. 60km into it I got another flat so went back to Alice. Being Saturday afternoon by now, I had to wait to Monday morning to get it fixed. And they said it had to be replaced (a split in the carcass). Fortunately they had ordered a few when they had ordered my last one.
Stayed a night at the Mac Clarke Conservation Reserve, visited Old Andado station homestead and then onto Mt Dare via a track that had a lot of bulldust. I have encountered a few inches of it before but this was a new experience – good fun.
  
From Mt Dare it was onto Dalhousie Springs and a dip in the 32C pool and then into the desert. Unfortunately a wind sprang up as I entered the desert and stayed around for 4 days so I did not get any great scenic shots as the dust made the horizon very hazy. Still, the driving was fun and the XTrail coped with it all very well – no hint of not being able to do it though if I had been going the other way on the French Line (the track which is more difficult than the Rigg Road on which I returned from the desert) there were a few dunes that I probably would not have got up (because the east face of the dunes is steeper than the west face and they had some very soft sand).
    
As I left the Simpson the ABS and 4WD lights came on again – same problem, same sensor wire, so I spent an hour or two fixing it again (more filing of the sensor casing) and then rewarded myself with another dip in the Dalhousie Spring (for a couple of hours). Then it was onto the Painted Desert which was a bit of a let down because I arrived 30min before sunset – but so did the cloud blocking the sun.
By now I was getting a bit tired of the dust and so I made an uneventful trip home in a few days.
11 000km overall and very enjoyable. No real dramas with the car but I was a bit disappointed that such an inconvenient nut as those that hold the roof bracket on could come loose. If I do a similar trip in the future I think I will completely remove the roof lining and loctite all those nuts. It makes you wonder what similar items there are on the car that could also let go. Some general motor and transmission noises seem louder than when I started. Hopefully they will go with a bit of servicing. I also have a crack in the windscreen: I found that most 4WD drivers do not slow down when passing so I got into the habit of slowing right down and getting to the side of the road as much as possible. However, the stone that broke the windscreen hit me when I was doing only 10kph so sometimes you just cannot adjust for the inconsideration of others. The other observation on the car's performance is that the rear Coopers chopped up badly. The dealer said it was because of the rocks thrown up by the front tyres but when I had the Dunlops on the rear they did not deteriorate the same way. Heard a few bad-news stories about Coopers while I was in the center.
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Alex X-740(c)
2002 ST, Auto, Blue, Bash plate, Suspension spacers, Cooper ATR/Dunlop Le Mans
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23/Aug/2009, 2:51 pm
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Re: Central Australia: Alex's excellent adventure
Welcome back Alex.
Sounds like an awesome trip indeed and plenty of awesome pics some of which you must submit for the 2010 Forum Calendar HERE before it's too late 
Thanks for sharing such a great trip report with us.
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23/Aug/2009, 4:51 pm
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Re: Central Australia: Alex's excellent adventure
Thanks Tony, Jalal and Brett
Brett, thanks for the offer, but this trip just confirmed that an auto has it all over a manual when the going gets tough
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Alex X-740(c)
2002 ST, Auto, Blue, Bash plate, Suspension spacers, Cooper ATR/Dunlop Le Mans
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23/Aug/2009, 5:13 pm
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Re: Central Australia: Alex's excellent adventure
Great report, Alex, and glad you and the X-Trail made it home safely. It sure does prove that it pays to do your research before attempting such a huge trip, and even then, you can find yourself with unexpected situations (failed wheel sensor - twice!). Good to see you took the time to visit some distant forum members while on your trip.
Excellent photos, too!
--- Rich. X-013(c)
'04 S2 ST Auto. Nudge_roofracks_tow_tints_Lightforce_GME_BFG_TBS_home-made-bashplate_50mm-spacer-lift
Click here to see >300MB of photos and videos All For His Glory. |
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23/Aug/2009, 7:55 pm
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Re: Central Australia: Alex's excellent adventure
Oh very nice photos there Alex.
You've given me some ideas on where else to go on the macdonald ranges.
Did you need any permits up there?
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X-1316 (c)
Scareyann
Central Qld
2008 TS - Flint
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23/Aug/2009, 10:03 pm
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Re: Central Australia: Alex's excellent adventure
What an awesome trip Alex, your photos are fantastic and you definitely have several I'd like to see on the calendar, esp the rainbow. I would love to do a trip like that. 
--- Julie X-231(c)
2005 ST Manual Platinum
Cooper CS4s, towbar, roof rack, luggage pod, bonnet protector, weather shields L&R, floor mats |
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23/Aug/2009, 10:34 pm
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