Preparing for take off ...

Well ... we have been busy planning for our next adventure ... in the mean time we have painted the outside of the house; rebuilt fences and gates and got itchy feet ...

Since our last big trip we have just about pulled the TVan apart cleaning and making some minor repairs (like tears to the canvases from Dirk Hartog Island); cleaning out dust from the back of beyond (uncovering the odd moth or two from our ill-fated night on the Nullarbor); new tyres on the TVan; recoated the front stone shields (having been sandblasted by the dirt roads), a service and a spit and polish.

We have traded the Prado for a 300 series Land Cruiser.

Dimensionally it is about 15mm shorter than the Prado (but that measurement includes the rear wheel on the back of the Prado); 95mm wider and 90mm higher. Engine is a twin turbo diesel with 227kw (Prado was 150kw) and 700nm torque (Prado was 500nm). Bigger car; more power; more refinement. Still a Toyota.

Now the ever ending equipment acquisitions - The Land Cruiser came with an alloy bull bar with an integrated light bar; tow bar/wiring and brake controller... all essentials.

We couldn't refit the drawers from the Prado so ended up having to get new ones! Snorkel to come (we expect to do even more dirt/unsealed roads than our last adventure and countless water crossings into the mix). We are waiting on a Long Range Tank to be fitted (the Prado came with a 150 litre diesel tank - the Land Cruiser has 110 litres (it has an 80 litre main tank and 30 litre auxiliary tank - diesel) - we will be having the 30 litre tank replaced by an 76 litre tank - giving us 156 litres. Fuel consumption will be higher (we averaged about 13.4 litres per 100km in the Prado (towing) - I'd expect around high 14s for the Land Cruiser (we haven't had a chance to hitch it up and see how it goes (rain, rain and more rain at the moment).

We have just covered the sides of the Land Cruiser in Bushwrapz - this is a paint protection film that is self healing. Yep! Self healing it is! Trust me!? It looks a little like clear contact (just like what you used to cover your school books) but slightly more stretchy ... we covered the sides of the Prado in it ... it resists scratches (pinstripes) from bushes and other nasties ... put the vehicle in the sun or pour boiling water over any scratches and it regenerates ... worked a treat on the Prado - we did an awful lot of narrow tracks last time (especially on Dirk Hartog Island and Lincoln Track on the Eyre Peninsula) with shrubs scraping the sides of the vehicle ... not a mark on it! So we decided that the Cruiser needed the same ...

We leave Toowoomba on 17 May and will be home on 4 October 2025. We have the same house/dogs sitters as last time ... all we need now is for the clock to count down and we are outta here!

We will be spending much more time in the NT and WA.

The plan ... so far

Initially, we will head west to Birdsville then down to Innamincka to Lyndhurst via the Strezlecki Track. We then take the Oodnadatta Track up to Old Andado Station before being very remote and getting to Chambers Pillar which is just south of Alice Springs.

Chambers Pillar

From there we will head west to Kings Canyon and the West Macdonnell Ranges before heading back east via Alice Springs to the East MacDonnell Ranges. We then pick up part of Binns Track and the Plenty Highway as we head north to Davenport National Park roughly running east of the Stuart Highway. We will wind our way north through Limmen National Park to the the furthest Northern point in the NT - Arnhem Land (both East and West) then back down to Jabiru in Kakadu NP. To access Arnhem Land you need permits where you need to specify the dates of your travel and where you will be staying. In one campground they have 12 powered sites. We checked the status about 6 weeks ago for a booking for the end of June. There were 11 remaining. Two days later there were 4 remaining. This is the busy time. It has meant a great deal of planning to understand where we may be at a given point then secure a booking. Some of the WA and NT National Park Campgrounds are already booked out for when we will be travelling. This has meant changing our route and dates. WA doesn't seem to have much in the way of free camping.

We then pass through Darwin on our way to Litchfield National Park then begin our way south to the Bungle Bungles (Purnululu NP) via Duncan Road (a circuitous and adventurous unsealed road of about 440km of gorges, creek crossings and amazing scenery, running east of the Bungle Bungles).

Purnululu NP (Bungle Bungles)

We then head north again to pick up the "caravan killer" - the Gibb River Road.

Most of the above travels are largely unsealed roads; remote; with limited services (esp phone coverage and fuel stops) and a great deal of water crossings.

But we aint over yet ... take a deep breath and off we go again ... Port Hedland; Karratha through the Pilbara to Millstream Chichester NP then Karijini NP - we visited Karijini last year and rated it one of our most speccy places - there were a couple of gorges that we couldn't get to due to road closures so we are heading back to see them ... we then head south via some dusty isolated tracks to Mt Augustus (which is 2.5 times larger than Uluru and the largest rock in the world) before making our way to Kennedy Ranges in the middle of WA.

We then head to Kalgoorlie via Big Belle which is at Cue. We stayed there last time and were fascinated by its history and felt that we needed to see more of it.

Big Belle - Cue WA

After Kalgoorlie we follow a little used track along the Trans-Australian railway for some 380km to Rawlinna before heading along an even more indistinct track south to Cocklebiddy on the Eyre Highway then across the famed Nullarbor via Adelaide to Geelong ... the next bit is not yet decided ... likely to be along the NSW coast to maybe Cann River then ...

At the moment our plan sees us travelling about 20,000km. The last trip started at 16,000kms and ended up at 24,000kms!

Join us!