Travel Times in the outback

[Disco EMU]

Hi Guys

As some of you know I'm planning a trip from Sydney to Cameron's Corner, up to Innaminka and the Dig Tree, back down the Strzelecki and onto Lake Eye ... back through Wilpena Pound amd home through Broken Hill.

The goal is to complete this in 2 weeks but I'm concerned that we may be trying to fit too much in. I'd love to get to The Dig Tree but am worried about travel times (with two kids). How long would it take to get from Cameron's Corner to Innaminka (assuming good road conditions)? ...

Any other advise on other travel times in outback SA would be appreciated too.

Thanks

Craig

[BigJules]

CRW is completing a similar trip presently, will be back soon, I'm sure he will be able to give you some first hand feedback.

[MR MAC GU]

We did a similar trip (Bit different but about the same milage) with 4wd action magazine back in 2009 as a 5000k camper trailer torture test.

We left Sydney and headed to Geehi (sp?) across to the Flinders, Wilpena Pound, Skytrek, Arkaroola, The Old Strez to Camperon Corner, across to Stockton Beach and back to Sydney with in 2 weeks.

It was a long way in a short amount of time and considering the amount of time spent stopping for photo shoots it was still quite achievable.

I would advise that 3 or 4 weeks would be much more enjoyable.

Cheers

[Disco EMU]

I would advise that 3 or 4 weeks would be much more enjoyable.

Thanks, I agree ... but 2 weeks for School Holidays and lack of annual leave is all I've got. So perhaps we may need to remove some of the places to see along the way.

Cheers

C

[crackacoldie]

Most of the dirt roads out there, even in good condition, will have you travelling at 40-60kph, so work your travel times (distance v speed) at a lower speed, rushing these roads will only cause damage to the jayco.

  Cracka

[MDS69]

Craig,
June last year we completed a sort of similar trip. I have copied and pasted a heavily revised trip report from PP. It would have been good to take our time a bit more but it still was a good trip. You might not go to the same places we did but the idea was to show what we did in 2 weeks. We had a 4yo and 7yo and met up with 3 other families at Tibooburra. My fuel figures are for a 2008 4.0L Prado not towing but loaded up.
Friday 02/07/10
Depart North-West Sydney 9.30am and stopped in Bathurst for lunch at 12.10pm then continued on to a motel in Nyngen for the night. Overnight Nyngen (motel)
Distance travelled 546km
Fuel Avg 13L/100

Saturday 03/07/10
Dawned bright and sunny and left at 8.00am for the run to White Cliffs. Overnight White Cliffs (tent in caravan park)
Fuel 100L @ $1.36/L (Cobar)
Distance travelled 486km

Sunday 04/07/10
After a bit of breakfast and packing up we left the White Cliffs tourist resort :lol: for a look around town.
Overnight Tibooburra (tent in caravan park)
Distance travelled 255km
Fuel avg 14.9L/100

Monday 05/07/10
Now the trip really starts. After filling up in Tibooburra we head off for Cameron Corner. Along the way we come across a clay pan that looked like a good spot for the kids to get out and stretch their legs.
We arrive at Cameron Corner and had lunch on the other side of the carpark out of the back of the cars and then had a look around and took some happy snaps.
Overnight about 50km west of Cameron Corner (bush camp in tent)
Distance travelled 188km
Avg consumption 13.7L/100
Avg speed 53kmh
Refuel Tibooburra 86L @ $1.52/L

Tuesday 06/07/10
2 x overnight in the Town Common Innamincka (tent) with a pit toilet
Distance travelled 230km
No fuel figures

Thursday 08/07/10
Haddon Corner via the Dig Tree instead as we had 3 trailers and didn’t want to risk it on the muddy roads.
The Dig Tree has changed since I was last there in 1997. Now it has a graded road, information hut, toilets and an entry fee.
We left the Dig Tree and continued to Haddon Corner. We pulled up about 80km north of the Dig Tree on the side of the road for a quick bite to eat.
We arrived at Haddon Corner around 4.20pm and the good thing about being this far inland is that the sun sets a little bit later than home on the east coast. This gave us time to set up and get a fire going.
Overnight Haddon Corner (bush camp in a tent)
Distance travelled 292km
Avg consumption 15.1L/100
Avg speed 63kmh

Friday 09/07/10
We stopped for lunch at Betoota and an opportunity to use a real toilet (pit toilet, very clean) after bush camping the night before.
We arrived in Birdsville around half past 3 that afternoon and pulled into the caravan park.
Distance travelled 275km
Avg consumption 15.3L/100
Avg speed 59kmh
Overnight Birdsville CP in a room

Saturday 10/07/10
We headed out to try our luck on Big Red. The road just before Big Red was closed due to flood waters so we took the very bumpy and very slow 10km detour.
Back over to the CP for another nights sleep.
Overnight in the Birdsville CP in a room
Distance travelled 90km
Avg consumption 16.3L/100
Avg speed 29kmh

Sunday 11/07/10
Today we are going to head back to Innamincka but via Cadelga and Cordillo Downs. But first some photos outside the pub.
We travelled back on the Development Road to the Cadelga turn off and the road had dried up considerably since we last travelled it 2 days prior. We stopped at Cadelga Ruins for lunch and some photos.
Overnight Candradecka creek (tent bush camp)
Distance travelled 335km
Avg consumption 13.8L/100
Avg speed 61kmh

Monday 12/07/10
More dingoes howling so up we get, brekkie, pack and head into Innamincka. We have lunch (and a beer) in the pub. Headed out to Montecollina Bore for a 2 night stop over. We got there at 4.30pm which gave us time to set up, collect wood and have a beer by the fire before dinner.

EDIT: it flogged down all night and we got flooded in at Montecollina Bore for 4 days.

Tuesday 13/07/10
There was some motorbike riders also camped at the Montecollina Bore who also got very wet. It had stopped raining and it was mostly sunny but we were going nowhere. We spent another night in the jayco’s.

Wednesday 14/07/10
We wake to a beautiful sunny day. We all decided to make a break for it and packed up. All our tent, air matresses, chairs etc were still saturated (sleeping bags were OK thankfully) All wet gear went into the roof top bag that had a pool of water in it as it was open overnight when it rained.


Thursday 15/07/10
We have a visitor in the form of a road train driver who is stuck out on the main track. He has a sat phone and tells us the road is officially closed but is due to be opened tomorrow morning, yay. 60mm of rain fell in Lyndhurst and 20mm in Innamincka.

Friday 16/07/10
We were supposed to head north again to overnight at Milparinnka then down to Broken Hill then home but we see the truck driver again and he tells us the road is open but only to the south.
The rest of the trip into Lyndhurst was fairly uneventful after that with a few shallow creek crossings and dodge a pair of road train trailers where the driver dumped them and took his truck back to safer territory. He couldn’t turn around with the trailers hitched and he didn’t want to end up stranded like the other near Montecollina Bore.

Arriving in Lyndhurst for lunch, great burger too.

After lunch we made a bolt for an overnight stop at a motel in Hawker and dinner in the pub after 10hr on the road.
Refuel at Leigh Creek 76L @ $1.47/L
Overnight Hawker in a motel
Distance travelled 413km
Avg consumption 18.4L/100 (we weren’t hanging around)

Saturday 17/07/10
Leave Hawker at 7.50am to go to Cobar via Broken Hill. Have lunch and refuel at Broken Hill 116L @ $1.28/L
Overnight at motel in Cobar
Distance travelled inc detour 981km
Avg consumption 16.5L/100
Avg speed 99kmh

Sunday 18/07/10
Leave Cobar at 7.40am. Lunch and fill up at Orange. Sit in a humungous traffic jam as the result of a double head on at Wentworth Falls in the Blue Mountains for around 1.5hr and arrive home at 6.00pm
Refuel in Orange 150L @ $1.24/L
Distance travelled 681km
Avg consumption 13.2L/100
Avg speed 55kmh
Refuel at home 31L @ $1.31/L

[Silvo]

i recommend just going.. that is the amount of time you get with kids.. fit in what you can, leave out what you think isn't as important, and enjoy yourself.

dan

[2 Brutal]

If you can stretch it to 3 weeks the kids will learn more in the 3rd week travelling and stuff than they will at school. Ask your boss for a week in advance if he's a good boss and you are a good employee he shouldn't have a problem, work hard do some free overtime to make a few extra days up.
It's been 18 years I did my trip to the Cape and would have loved to take longer and have never had time to get back since.
Don't rush the trip, you won't enjoy it and you'll come home more knackered than when you left, plus rushing on outback roads can bring you unstuck.

[Bird]

it will also depend on how well your kids travel. We would all like more time to do trips, but like OP said sometimes it just isnt possible.

[albyback1]

If you can stretch it to 3 weeks the kids will learn more in the 3rd week travelling and stuff than they will at school. Ask your boss for a week in advance if he's a good boss and you are a good employee he shouldn't have a problem, work hard do some free overtime to make a few extra days up.
It's been 18 years I did my trip to the Cape and would have loved to take longer and have never had time to get back since.
Don't rush the trip, you won't enjoy it and you'll come home more knackered than when you left, plus rushing on outback roads can bring you unstuck.

I agree with the kids learning more on the road than at school.

I took our daughter on many an outback trip and the teachers actually looked forard to the presentations that we made to the class.. complete with Chloe's written journal and some photos and the bits and pieces collected along the way.

enjoy your trip, no matter what amount of time you take - you will always want more!!

[Disco EMU]

Craig,
June last year we completed a sort of similar trip. I have copied and pasted a heavily revised trip report from PP. It would have been good to take our time a bit more but it still was a good trip. You might not go to the same places we did but the idea was to show what we did in 2 weeks. We had a 4yo and 7yo and met up with 3 other families at Tibooburra. My fuel figures are for a 2008 4.0L Prado not towing but loaded up.

Thanks MDS69 ... some really good info in there!

Cheers

C

[Redback]

That itinerary by MDS69 is very good, you'd be hard to beat it

Just to answer your question, Cameron Corner to Innaminka can be done in a day if you wanted too, we did Tiboorburra to Innaminka in one day and that was with fixing a broken rear window, morning tea and lunch and fixing a broken spring hanger on our old dual axle box trailer

2 days is a much more relaxed way of completing it and in hindsight from my trip, that's what we should have done, I was pretty knackered when we got to Innaminka.

Our trip was back in 2000, at the time we had a 4.0L Ford Explorer, towing a fully enclosed 8 x 5 dual axle box trailer

Baz.

[Disco EMU]

Most of the dirt roads out there, even in good condition, will have you travelling at 40-60kph, so work your travel times (distance v speed) at a lower speed, rushing these roads will only cause damage to the jayco.

  Cracka

Thanks Cracka.

[Disco EMU]

Just to answer your question, Cameron Corner to Innaminka can be done in a day if you wanted to. Baz.

Looks like around 6-6.5 hrs would be an appropriate of time to put aside then ... thanks Baz.

C

[Redback]

Have a great trip, very envious

Baz.

[Farquo]

The usual rider - conditions vary day-to-day, week-to-week.
Last year we travelled parts of this without towing anything. Overlapped the Lake Eyre/Wilpena bit last week, with camper trailer, too.
We did Wilpena - Montecolinna Bore via Balcanoona - 1 day, comfortable but not for Jaycos, Montecolinna Bore - Innamincka - 1 day, comfortable & Innamincka - Cameron Corner - Tibbooburra - long day.
Dig tree was an easy day trip from Innamincka.
Where are you planning to see Lake Eyre from?
Marree to Muloorina is a good track. Muloorina to Level post bay is corrugated. Water was about 3 km out from the bank last week. The mud stopped us walking about half way. Water moves around with the wind though, it had been where we walked to a couple of days before.
South Lake Eyre can be seen from the Oodnadatta track. Not sure how much water can be seen
I would expect that the road in from William Creek would be corrugated too.
Coward Springs, Farina or Muloorina would be good to camp and leave the Jayco to go and look at the lake.
Good road Parachilna - Blinman - Wilpena, sealed from Blinman. We did Farina - Level Post Bay - Wilpena a week ago - little too much in one day.
Hope that this helps. Trouble is a good shower of rain can throw your plans out, there is already plenty of moisture in the soil and it does not take much to close roads now. Have fun

[Disco EMU]

os, Montecolinna Bore - Innamincka - 1 day, comfortable & Innamincka - Cameron Corner - Tibbooburra - long day.

Thanx Farquo ... when you say 1 day, how many hours, non-stop?

Where are you planning to see Lake Eyre from?

Not sure at this stage ... taking plenty of advice on board here. Either camping at Coward Springs and traveling in from the west, however, Muloorina looks like it's worth considering. Is the road suitable for a Jayco?

Cheers

C

[frenchac]

We did a similar trip from Brisbane a couple of years ago.  It is certainly achieveable in 2 weeks as we did, but of course more time would be an advantage.

Frenchac

[Farquo]

Thanx Farquo ... when you say 1 day, how many hours, non-stop?

Not sure at this stage ... taking plenty of advice on board here. Either camping at Coward Springs and traveling in from the west, however, Muloorina looks like it's worth considering. Is the road suitable for a Jayco?

Cheers

C

Montecolinna Bore - Innamincka: road was in great shape and we could travel easily at 90kmh, not much more than 3 hours non stop.
Innamincka - Cameron Corner - Tibbooburra: made it to Fort Grey for lunch, walked to the lake there. Probably less than 5 hours non stop. Not such a long day now that I think about it. It had all be freshly graded after floods when we went through last year.

Maree to Muloorina was Jayco suitable last week provided that you take it easy. We could sit on 80+ kmh without towing.

[Broady]

The trip we had originally planned (Plan A, not our eventual Plan B) basically followed that exact route, though we only had 2 days planned for the Flinders. The original timeline was 18 days, including one or two days as spare in case something went wrong, slowed us up, or the hangover simply got the better of us. Do the trip, and if time becomes an issue then after seeing Lake Eyre and being at William Creek, turn around and retrace your steps back down and into the Flinders. You should cover that easily, barring the unforeseen or mother nature. Forget running back down and around along the blacktop, it will simply suck up the miles and your time.

Have a good trip