Credit where credit is due.

[Vincenzo]

This little diatribe is the second half of my drive from Perth to Darwin via Canberra and Sydney <http://www.fordforums.com.au/showthread.php?t=11383325>

Firstly, if there are any Keep Australia Beautiful Volunteers on this list or you know of any please pass on my congratulations, the Australian countryside (highways and roads) has never looked better. Several years ago the first 20 to 30 kms from any town were littered with rubbish, well, no more.

So to the trip. The second phase saw me leaving Canberra, heading for Sydney and a run up the east coast. After days on end of flat dry country with next to no other vehicles I was looking forward to the cut and thrust of dicing with traffic and the up and down of hills etc. Attached, is a picture of what I was driving home to Darwin.

First mistake was to decide not to reference a map for the trip. Coming out of Sydney and heading toward Newcastle saw me taking a wrong turn on a roundabout and heading toward Singleton instead, a great piece of serendipity. Realising I was headed west toward the setting sun rather than north I decided what happens happens. Do those of you in and around Sydney realize how good the New England Highway is to drive on. This was one of my favourite parts of the trip, the old farm houses, little towns, landscape changing between crops to cattle, sheep to horse studs. The gentle rise up into the Armadale hills etc and the views is simply stunning.

Second day saw me leaving Scone (rhymes with phone) and continuing north only a few hundred kilometres inland more than I had anticipated. I have to say most car drivers were well behaved but the trucks were still pushing the limits. Nothing much else happened in NSW and I crossed over into Queensland thinking I would overnight in Oakey, Miles, Dalby or Chinchilla, whichever one I was in before sunset. Unfortunately all hotels and motels in all towns were full (mining crews) and I had to drive through the night to Roma for a vacancy and what a beautiful place to stop it was. Between the border and Roma there was not one dead body on the road at all.

Day three and still heading west toward Mitchell and the count of dead kangaroo carcasses started mounting on a par with crossing the Nullabor heading in to Eucla. It was also where I saw the strangest sight. 40km or 50 km either way from any town and no station entrances near by, there, less than two metres off the side of the road were two of the largest jet black goats I have ever laid eyes on. No other cattle around either. After Mitchell continued west toward Morven before turning northwest toward Augathella, body count still mounting.

Countinuing on toward Tambo, Blackall, Barcaldine, then west again toward Longreach where I would end day three early and sleep for ten hours. Looksherry mate, sheer looksherry (sic).

Choosing the right motel / hotel can be a bit of a guess but if any one is interested I may look at starting a thread where people can nominate a place to stay and rate it for the travellers amongst us. Only made one bad choice and the alternative was to drive another 600km to the next available accommodation and it was already 4pm (1600hrs). Mobile phones come in handy every now and again.

Day four and I'm heading for the Isa, through Winton, Kyunna, Mckinley and Cloncurry. During my entire trip the roads had been dry and 20kms east of Cloncurry I saw rain for the first time and it was a smidgen of what was to come.

I had a vey strange experience in Mt Isa. I consider myself to be a rational person and opened minded. I ran out of fuel just outside of the Isa. Not a problem as I was carrying a 20litre container of fuel with me. I filled the car and hoped to continue toward the Isa. The car just point blank refused to turn over. Nothing was working and after 10 minutes I found my self talking to the car and apologising for running it dry. Immeditely the car turned over and fired up. I can be no more precise than to say the car didn't "feel" right.

There was something wrong but I don't know what. When I got to the Isa and pulled into a servo I turned the car off and pulled the keys from the ignition. This normally unlocks the doors, this time nothing. There I am sitting in my car on the servo driveway and I cannot get out. Put the keys back in, started the car and went through the process again and again nothing, I'm still locked in the car. Long story short, a guy pulls up fuels his car, goes inside and pays for it, comes out again and here am I still pleading with the car to let me out, again promising never ever to run it dry again and to get it serviced on arrival in Darwin and buy it covers. The doors then unlocked and I filled him up.

I misread the clock thinking it said 1400hrs but it was 4.20pm when I left the Isa heading west. For those of you who used to love the roller-coaster ride of the highway either going in to or out of Camooweal, well, it is no more. Wide open smooth gentle rising and falling highway. As much as it pains me to admit it, it was in a far better condition than the beginning of the highway into the Northern Territory. Day four ended in a dorm donger in a paddock.

Price difference in fuel between Camooweal and the Isa is about 35c/l so try desperately to avoid filling in Camooweal or as I did just top up. It's a lot of money difference for 180 km of road.

Day five begins with rain and it would stay with me all the way to about 100km south of Darwin. Crossing the border into the NT and I continue on. Crossing the Barkley Tablelands is akin to the Nullabor. Open wide space with almost limitless views either side of the Highway. Of course this was interspersed with rolling waves of low cloud with some of the most intensive Lightning strikes and rain I have seen for a long time and coming from a 30+ year Darwin resident that is saying something. There was also the associated flash flooding across the Highway with these sudden little rivers. At this time I was in convoy between two 4WD's and watched where the lead one went. The deepest water was about 30cm and the BMW handled it beautifully.

I learnt the hard way that the three ways Servo is no longer on the corner of the Barkley and Stuart Highways. It is about 1km north toward Elliot(no signage). The rest of my trip was fairly uneventful until my return to Darwin (see<http://www.fordforums.com.au/showthread.php?t=11384377>).

I must say that the higher speeds allowed in the NT do take a toll on fuel economy. Mt tank range for the rest of Australia was about 750km to 800km per tank. In the NT this dropped to about 650km to 700km. Those extra 20km/h do take their toll on the tank range and need to factored in for a long trip.



Cheers to all and thank-you to those who read it. Vincenzo

[Djrystofer]

Good read, sounds like a beamer alright, it'll give you hell if you mistreat it untill you finally apologize and beg it to work again.

[smoo]

Nice, you should do a write up on the car?
We've had bimmers in the family from E28 to E60 and they have all been faultless, I'd take my old E34 540i over the E60 530i in a heartbeat. Every time I see a tidy E38 740i I second guess why I bought a V8 BA Fairlane!

[poppa smurf]

good read....well done, we have done that trip a few times and I gotta admit, I was in the passenger seat reliving it right with you!

[Vincenzo]

Originally Posted by smoo

Nice, you should do a write up on the car?
We've had bimmers in the family from E28 to E60 and they have all been faultless, I'd take my old E34 540i over the E60 530i in a heartbeat. Every time I see a tidy E38 740i I second guess why I bought a V8 BA Fairlane!

Thanks and yes I plan to. The first will be a description of the car etc in the "non Ford ride" section and the second will be a comparison piece between the AU XR6 and the 635 CSi. Having done 8,000km in the Ford recently and then 10,000km in the 635. You may be very surprised how close they are to each other.

[ford71V8]

Good post Vincenzo, thank you.

Who would have thought Christine has come back as a BMW ? :-)

[Vincenzo]

Originally Posted by ford71V8

Good post Vincenzo, thank you.

Who would have thought Christine has come back as a BMW ? :-)

Certainly not me but perhaps Christine had Buddhist beliefs

[Cabbage]

Nice right up and a cool ride.