Roadtrips

[BENT_8]

Anyone know if sgt_doofey made it back ok, hasnt been active since early monday morning which i would assume was prior to heading back home.

[sgt_doofey]

Yeah, made it back home without any dramas. Sorry, was straight back to work Tuesday morning after arriving home at 9:45pm Monday night, and still sorting crap out after the trip so haven't had a chance to jump on here.
Only problem we had coming home was the driver's side wiper decided it wanted to look in the mirror. One loose nut tightened and it was all good again.

The old girl did us proud. Loved driving her over and even my mate did, and he's a big Holden bloke himself. Very comfortable on the crappy roads, towed the camper trailer easily and very happy we made it home without incident.

Still got to finish unpacking, but that's a job for the weekend. That and giving her a good clean again to wash off the ash from the campfire and the road grit and grime from the drive back.

It's probably not something we'll do again, although I have no doubt that she'd make the trip over and back again without any hassles. Had lots of people stopping and talking about the old girl, or just making comment as they walked past our camp site. Was actually quite surprised how few classic cars were up the top of the mountain. Definitely saw more classic Fords than Holdens though.

18+ hours to get over there - including the breakdown in Renmark. 14.75 hours to get home again. Most of the time, we just sat on 100km/h so probably took a little longer than if we were in a modern car.

Fuel stops: Barossa - Mildura - Hay - West Wyalong - Cowra (splash and dash) - Bathurst - West Wyalong - Hay - Mildura - Renmark (splash and dash again) - home.

Splash and dash was done due to hills in to Bathurst and outside Truro as a safety precaution. Most times we put in about 40-50L for each fill. Cost around about $600 all up.

[BENT_8]

Good to hear fella, how'd you go with those wombats between Blanchetown and the hill, i've never seen so many in that stretch in all my trips up the riverland and beyond.
We left at midnight Friday and was sort of in cruise mode until i saw the first one directly in our path, certainly gets your attention.
That stretch between the border and Merbein South is bad for roo's at the moment too, at one point i was sitting on 60k's as the way the scrub comes right up to the road shoulder doesnt fill you with confiidence.

It took us about 13hrs each way in the Terri so you did quite well towing the camper, we stopped pretty much at the same places and it cost about $320 in diesel which was quite reasonably priced, i paid less per litre at that servo across from the Macca's in Mildura than i do here in Adelaide.

Roads weren't too bad in the end, the worst probably the stretch between Hay and Goolgowi.

The 4 of us that went were sitting around this evening having a debrief of the weekends events and i said even if you never go again at least you can say you saw Falcons run on the mountain and my Nephew said, im not doing it again, i said didnt enjoy it mate, he's like, hell yeah, next year were camping, 1 day there isnt enough when it takes a day each way to get there and back.
Bring on 2019!!

[sgt_doofey]

Didn't see any wombats on the road. Did see a shed load of kangaroos though. All throughout the Riverland especially. Hundreds of them on the side of the roads. A few emus too but thankfully nothing strayed on to the road in front of us.

I believe that we ran over a turtle in the middle of nowhere.

Driving a modern car with working airconditioning, you probably don't get to appreciate the smell of rotting animals out on the national highways. It surely stank most of the way for us considering we had to drive with windows down when it was warm!

Sent from my SM-G900I using Tapatalk

[BENT_8]

Originally Posted by sgt_doofey

Didn't see any wombats on the road. Did see a shed load of kangaroos though. All throughout the Riverland especially. Hundreds of them on the side of the roads. A few emus too but thankfully nothing strayed on to the road in front of us.

I believe that we ran over a turtle in the middle of nowhere.

Driving a modern car with working airconditioning, you probably don't get to appreciate the smell of rotting animals out on the national highways. It surely stank most of the way for us considering we had to drive with windows down when it was warm!

Sent from my SM-G900I using Tapatalk

Yeah, i smelt them, my Nephew has a certain aroma only a mother could love so despite having the A/C on it was always set to fresh cycle letting in the outside air, im just not entirely sure what was worse the dead fauna or the Nephew..lol

Actually the worst smell ive encounteted out there was back in 2009ish when the locusts were bad, a million splattered locust is a foul smell.

[prydey]

Originally Posted by BENT_8

it was always set to fresh cycle letting in the outside air,

Mine stays on fresh unless following a stock crate or something.

It is actually dangerous to use recirculated air for extended periods.

[BENT_8]

Originally Posted by prydey

Mine stays on fresh unless following a stock crate or something.

It is actually dangerous to use recirculated air for extended periods.

Depends on who you believe, from what i've read we exhale 5% CO2 when we breath and so to reach dangerous levels in a car you'd have to inhale the entire volume in one breath or at normal breathing about 10hrs give or take, thats assuming that a car is 100% sealed which it isnt even with recirc on, only Tesla has a bio shield whoich pressurises its cabin to prevent outside air entering, like a pane. Approx 20% is cycled ive read

[pottery beige]

Originally Posted by sgt_doofey

Yeah, made it back home without any dramas. Sorry, was straight back to work Tuesday morning after arriving home at 9:45pm Monday night, and still sorting crap out after the trip so haven't had a chance to jump on here.
Only problem we had coming home was the driver's side wiper decided it wanted to look in the mirror. One loose nut tightened and it was all good again.

The old girl did us proud. Loved driving her over and even my mate did, and he's a big Holden bloke himself. Very comfortable on the crappy roads, towed the camper trailer easily and very happy we made it home without incident.

Still got to finish unpacking, but that's a job for the weekend. That and giving her a good clean again to wash off the ash from the campfire and the road grit and grime from the drive back.

It's probably not something we'll do again, although I have no doubt that she'd make the trip over and back again without any hassles. Had lots of people stopping and talking about the old girl, or just making comment as they walked past our camp site. Was actually quite surprised how few classic cars were up the top of the mountain. Definitely saw more classic Fords than Holdens though.

18+ hours to get over there - including the breakdown in Renmark. 14.75 hours to get home again. Most of the time, we just sat on 100km/h so probably took a little longer than if we were in a modern car.

Fuel stops: Barossa - Mildura - Hay - West Wyalong - Cowra (splash and dash) - Bathurst - West Wyalong - Hay - Mildura - Renmark (splash and dash again) - home.

Splash and dash was done due to hills in to Bathurst and outside Truro as a safety precaution. Most times we put in about 40-50L for each fill. Cost around about $600 all up.

chicken dinner

[sgt_doofey]

Just to finish things off, some photos....

2am in the morning getting ready to leave.


Stop in Hay


Smoko in Rankin Springs


Up on the Mountain



Getting a wash in Bathurst


Renmark on the way home. The spot where we broke down on the way over in the background!

[DFB FGXR6]

Originally Posted by sgt_doofey

Just to finish things off, some photos....

2am in the morning getting ready to leave.
image

Stop in Hay
image

Smoko in Rankin Springs
image

Up on the Mountain
image
image

Getting a wash in Bathurst
image

Renmark on the way home. The spot where we broke down on the way over in the background!
image

The old bird looked right at home parked on the mountain.
Great thread and really highlights what Falcon's were so great at.

[ford71V8]

I knew about sgt doofeys intentions to take the XE to Bathurst from posts on here.


I was camping in the Orchard park alongside the road a little up from the check in point. I was sorting out our power for the van and watching the cars come in and I spotto'ed a white XE.
I yelled out "Doofey!" as the car went passed, got a wave from the blokes in the car but it drove on. I have no idea if it was you guys, but I took the punt


With Bathurst finished we took off to the Jenolan Caves.
As we were winding our way up the hills, whats coming down? A white XE.
Again I leant out and yelled out "Doofey!" It was the same car and same guys - I'd love to know if it was you lot.

You didn't spot the random crazy guy wearing a DJR bucket hat, yelling out Doofey! every time ??

[sgt_doofey]

I personally didn't hear anything and I don't think my mate did either as there was no discussion around people yelling out at us.
We never went around that side of the track with the car. The closest we would have got was that we went to the car park on Wednesday evening when we rocked up there.
As for leaving, we left on Monday morning and headed west back home. Looking at Google maps, you were probably coming back in from the east of Bathurst from the caves?
Both of those times, we would have been towing the camper trailer too.

We drove in to town on Thursday and Saturday I think. But that was all via Barry Gurdon/Boundary Road. We never came down Panorama Ave all weekend. Avoided it due to the traffic you get on there.

I'm afraid to say, I reckon you waved at some other people driving a white XE that weekend.

[sgt_doofey]

Well, we've started planning next years trip. Going to be a little different though.

We'll kick it off with a week of camping at Halls Gap with some friends from Melbourne. Once that's up, will head up to Bathurst from there for a week of camping on the mountain.

We've done our Halls Gap trip the last two years during the school holidays between terms 1 & 2. Next year, that's Easter so parks are all booked up. Decided to move it to the holidays between terms 3 & 4. Looked at the calendar after picking dates that suits us and our friends and realised it's the week before Bathurst! Spoke to she who must be obeyed and have basically gotten agreement on it, so we've got a bit of time up our sleeves for planning now.

Adelaide to Halls Gap will be done in a day. Halls Gap to Bathurst and Bathurst to home will have to be 2 days. Don't think the kids will survive a 11 hour and 15 hour drive.

I hope the kids will enjoy it. I have fond memories of the road trips we did when we were young kids, 3 of us kids piled in to the back of the XE as went to different places. Most of the time it was holidays at Yorke Pennisula here in SA. Have good photos of us on Kangaroo Island too, as well as trips to Canberra & Sydney and Halls Gap. Used to love those trips.

Here's to planning the next road trip!

[prydey]

we're off to bris at xmas. normally we drive straight through but having recently bought zoo membership, this time we are visiting the dubbo zoo on the way through. We've done it twice before but have to be close to 15years ago now.
Probably drive through to Parkes. Following day, drive to dubbo, visit zoo and then probably continue on to Narrabri for the night. Day 3, Narrabri to bris. we're always pretty flexible and rarely book any motels or anything prior to travelling, so we can change things on the run if we have to.


also, we are also looking at going back to halls gap at easter. next year there is only 3 working days between easter and Anzac day, so good value for annual leave, however as Sgt Doofey has discovered, being school holidays also, its pretty packed out already. still in the early planning stages with us. only been there the once and keen to go back, its such a nice place.

[ford71V8]

Originally Posted by sgt_doofey

I personally didn't hear anything and I don't think my mate did either as there was no discussion around people yelling out at us.
We never went around that side of the track with the car. The closest we would have got was that we went to the car park on Wednesday evening when we rocked up there.
As for leaving, we left on Monday morning and headed west back home. Looking at Google maps, you were probably coming back in from the east of Bathurst from the caves?
Both of those times, we would have been towing the camper trailer too.

We drove in to town on Thursday and Saturday I think. But that was all via Barry Gurdon/Boundary Road. We never came down Panorama Ave all weekend. Avoided it due to the traffic you get on there.

I'm afraid to say, I reckon you waved at some other people driving a white XE that weekend.

It was Wednesday evening when I first saw the XE. Can't say I recall it towing anything.
And on the Monday after raceday we headed east and down to the caves and then Blue mountains. That same XE was already winding down the hill, returning from the caves. I thought, they are keen to have already been there, had a look around and driving back already and its only lunch time.


So I think you are right, I was yelling out at the wrong XE.


Had South Aus rego too, which was really the reason I figured it was you. There was not a lot of SA plates around.






This years roadtrip was pretty good though we did have some crap luck with weather.
From Bathurst we still had about 2 weeks so we visited Blue Mountains and headed to east coast and then drove up. Highest point was so I could take my son to Australia Zoo and my wife to Bribey Island.
We returned back to Adelaide inland (via Tamworth / Dubbo / Mildura).
Great holiday, got home wishing we'd had another 2 weeks of freedom.
Craig had a smile on his face the whole trip too, must've been that win on the Sunday.

[prydey]

on the topic of road trips, I just completed another annual pilgrimage north to brissie and back (to Adelaide) and while the vast majority are well behaved, there is always the few that stick in your mind...

like the clown who pulled out on to the Cunningham hwy with his loaded horse float, in a 100km/h zone near willowbank, about 200m ahead of me even though there was no one behind me, only to turn off shortly after.

or the clown who decided that roughly 400m is enough clear road to attempt an overtake... luckily I was keeping an eye on my mirrors. when he pulled out I thought, 'surely he'll just pull back in when he sees that car...' but nope, kept on coming. I braked and got off the road. the guy coming toward me got off the road on his side, and the clown passed through the middle and sailed off in to the sunset....

Thankfully lots of people use airplanes these days.