Betsie goes to Australia

[DieselBoy]

We have been back a few months now, so better get into the trip report.

Its exactly 1 year to day that we were on the plane heading over to meet up with Betsie at the Expedition Center in Sydney. Betsie had been shipped over a month earlier to have some modifications made ready for the trip.

So to quickly catch everyone up, after a big weekend of blinging everything up. Not a spot of dirt inside and out. Mission!!!!!

Ready to go:




This is all that went over inside





And a little bit of gear on the spare carrier,


The roof rack was strapped into the container off the vehicle


There's a small mountain of spares, parts and tools stashed all over the place which are listed on the Carnet. Customs in Tauranga weren't interested in seeing them and the same in Sydney

The mission to the port of Tauranga started at a chilly foggy 5.30am winters morning



Heavy Waikato fog. Joy


It cleared a bit at Karapiro, but closed in again accross the plains to the Kaimais. It was slow nervous trip in really bad conditions. There was so much at stake, anything that went wrong between Hamilton and Tauranga could have potentially jeopardise the whole adventure. It HAD TO BE IN THE CONTAINER TODAY!!!!!


Not to mention, i had 2hrs sitting there by myself thinking "did I check this, did I put that in, did I torque those nuts up properly etc", so naturally it was a relief pop over the top of the ranges into sunny clear skys!!!

Not having done this before, we left ourselves heaps of time. We wanted to be at the customs office when the doors opened. In fact, they were a bit off guard, not having had their morning coffee yet, they didnt know quite what to do with us. In the end they sent us away, and said they would meet us at the Mainfreight yard at the container to inspect it as it was loaded and sign all the documents then and their. I was a bit nervous about that still, but the sun was out so we went and got a coffee and sat down at the beach for an hour or so and tried to relax as much as possible.

After another inspection for dirt on the tyres and under the guards, and for bugs in the radiator grill from the trip over, we gave everything one last check over and headed back to the main freight depot to check in. We were almost their when we got a call from our shipping agent asking what sort of tie downs were had brought with us to use. Turns out the four brand new big truck tied downs I had bought were no good, the hook and loop arrangement on the ends doesn't work with the container anchor points. Who knew eh?? So it was a mad dash into Bunnings with the time ticking buy to try and find four big tie downs with just a plain hook on the end. Luck was on our side, they had four, and only four!!!

We arrived at the Taranga Main Freight depot, checked in and were shown our container


Betsie lined up ready to squeeze in. Customs came and had a quick look over it, stamped and signed the Carnet and wished as well. Good guys. :


Heaps of room for both the truck and the roof rack, I knew there would be, but ya can't be sure until you actually make it happen


Strapped in, locked down, batteries disconnected, fuel empty and ready to go :


The last we saw of it for just over month


As Nibby said, TTFN


After a bit of customs drama with some timber blocks I used as added security into the container, and a small hickup with transportation, it arrived at the expedition center ahead of time, which was such a relief!!! It was so surreal to think that there was your truck, parked up in front of a workshop, IN ANOTHER BLOODY COUNTY!!!!!

Let alone it was there for major modifications, to be done buy a guy I had only ever spoken to on the phone and via email



Last time with a standard roof:



Roof off:



Pop Top frame on:



All done:



When we arrived, Daniel had it posed out on the lawn in front of the work shop for us, looking pretty sharp!!!!





A few more hours for me in the work shop doing the final touches fitting the stuff we had removed and stashed away like curtains and fly screens and the top cupboards so that they didn't get in the way of the modifications to the roof, and also fitting the roof rack. We had to fit heavier gas struts to the roof to handle the heavy roof rack. I even had to pull the highlift jack off and mount that inside!!





Betsie is ready



This is roughly the Mission that lies before us:



The YIT.co.nz plot for day ( click on the green Landy for related post):

http://www.yit.co.nz/yacht/betsie?location=1931#gmap

[mike]

awesome write up! I get to be jealous all over again

[DieselBoy]

And it gets to seem less of a distant memory for me!!!!!!

[drive it ...]

Cool, story time.

[Sawdoc]

Will follow this with interest

[DieselBoy]

The mission to Cape York started Yesterday

We set off from The Expedition Center and headed out into Sydney to find the place we had arranged to pick our Satellite Phone up from, and to load up with food and supplies. We had been tootling round Sydney in a rental car for a couple of days so had the Aussy road rules sussed, but was still a nervous being in our own vehicle, all the way from NZ, and driving it in another country!!!

It took a while, I think it was around 2pm before we were able to really hit the road and head out of the city. The GPS was a life saver, I watched the road, and Sarah was calling the pace notes, an intersection ahead so I was always in the correct lane. Lotsa cars and lots of lanes!!! The roads was like nothing I had ever driven on, it was concrete, in slabs, and kinda patched and repaired and pretty dam rough. Heaps of traffic, but it was all cranking along flat out!!!

We wanted to get about 250 k's up the road for our first night in the new pop top at a little camp site called Banksia Green, in the Mungo Brush Camping area. As you can imagine, we arrived in the dark. We had been well warned that you DO NOT drive after sunset due to native animals being on the move. That was a good start, first day and still on the move well into the darkness, at least we had plenty of lights, it's exactly these instances that we have the lights up on the roof!!!



The next morning we were greeted by this little guy





Not a bad place for the night



Nosey Magpie came to see what Alex was having for breakfast



As we had been kicking round in the city for the last few days, I was hanging to be back out in the fresh air, so was busting to go over the sand dune down to the beach!!!



I wasn't to be disappointed





Me being me, I had to get in the water



After goofing around and unwinding for a bit on the beach, it was time to hit the road and catch the ferry back to the main highway





Our aim was to just do a couple of hours driving and head up to Smokey Cape Light House for the night, about 280 K's up the road. Just taking it easy at the start



A borrowed image of the light house and vista



With a thunderstorm and heavy rain forcast for the evening, we set up early tucked in under some trees:





Then the locals came for a visit:



Not long after, the sky erupted, pouring rain and monster claps of thunder as the sun set. The sky was alight with blinding flashes into the early hours of the morning. We were all rugged up cosey as, warm and dry inside Betsie. The next morning when the sun came up, Sarah was quite stoked to see her first Kookaburra, he came and watched Alex having breakfast!!





The big mission North continues, only 3,580ks to get to the top



And for some perspective, Bluff to Cape Rienga, 2,089ks



YIT link:

http://www.yit.co.nz/yacht/betsie?location=1962#gmap

[Mattman]

Awesome

[tallsam66]

Awesome ... you mentioned GPS best thing ive ever brought is a good one that has free map updates and also lane selection .... essential when there are multiple lanes going in multiple directions.

[DieselBoy]

The trek north continues. From Smokey Cape we headed up to South Port for the night to visit some friends, and the following day headed up to Mango Hill to vist some others. The trip this far had been pretty uneventful, low traffic volume and awesome scenery. As we were on a mission, we didn't hang around long to soak it up, just kept on motoring at a steady pace.



After a couple of days in the big city, were hanging to escape again, so headed out to Inskip Point, which is where one of the ferry's from Fraser Island operates from. It was the middle of School Holidays, so the place was pumping. Modified 4x4s as far as the eye could see, standard equipment was snorkel, ARB or TJM bar, winch, lift, muddies, extra spare wheel, spotties and a big bore exhaust.

Biggest let down was that they all had bloody generators!!!

They did eventually turn them all off and the place went silent for a few hours, but as soon as the sun came up, the generators where fired up. Strange folk

We went down to the beach and had some breakfast and watched the ferry's do their thing.



Inskip Point:

http://www.yit.co.nz/yacht/betsie?location=1976#gmap

The next day we headed on up to see some friends in Burrum Heads. After a good few days on the road I was looking forward to tools and a work shop to give everything another check over. The first part of the trip was like a shake down really.

It was awesome to see Don and Marion after so many years. What a migical part of the world they now reside in, and to think their Land Rover called "Dave" was built i his garage in Manukau and only went over for a 3 month trip. They just never came back!!!

Dave and Betsie:




Dave's pretty cool. Its got the 2250cc 4cyl petrol engine, high ratio diffs, PTO winch, KAM locker in the rear, Dormobile camper roof, 3 fuel tanks and the list goes on. I still cant get my head round the places that L.R has been. Its awe inspiring!!!


Don giving me the run down on how it works



Burrum Heads:
http://www.yit.co.nz/yacht/betsie?location=1984#gmap

We only spent the night there, did a quick check over and carried on up north

[Clint]

Good stuff mate - looking forward to following the rest of the story.

I usually post up a trip report on the advrider forum whenever we've done a decent motorbike trip - it's a great way to re-live the adventure & I reckon the forum format is heaps better than facebook or a blog for this sort of thing.

Cheers
Clint

[DieselBoy]

I have a bit to catch up on, we are getting off the tar seal now, and into the interesting stuff

So to quickly wizz through stuff, we headed up the cost from Burrum Heads to Tannum Sands for the night, the headed inland away from the coast and carried on heading north. Tannum Sands was an awesome little coastal town!!!



YIT Location:
http://www.yit.co.nz/yacht/betsie?location=2001#gmap

We found a cool little camp site for the night beside the beach:








We continued On the next day and decided on Blackdown Table lands National park for the night, which was worth the detour!!!



Pretty fun and very steep track up onto the top of the plateau requiring low range with a couple of little water crossings thrown in just for fun







Mad board work sort of set up once you got up on top, I guess it could get slushy up there if it rained



True to form, the best camp sites had their accesses blocked with bollards, so true to for, ya find a way round em





It was a good night, had the place to our selves and a mean fire

YIT Location:
http://www.yit.co.nz/yacht/betsie?location=2009#gmap

Here's the first of many boring vids I'm going to slap together Its more bout the road and surroundings and the dum shit that goes on in the truck on a road trip



From there we headed towards Emerald and then hit the inland highway north and found the most random spot on the side of the highway to call home for the night



The temperarture was actually starting to pick up a bit to. We had been suffering with the cold up to this point. We had one jersey each and our thin summer sleeping bags

Here's our random spot:
http://www.yit.co.nz/yacht/betsie?location=2010#gmap

Tucked in behind some trees for the night




Got an awesome sun set that night





The following day was more of the same, missioning on up the road counting the squashed Roo's and dodging road trains. We stopped at Charters Towers for a look around and some fuel, and back out in the general direction of the coast. we found a sneaky spot on the bed of the Reid River for the night.



YIT Link: (Click on the L.R icon for the blog & Pics)
http://www.yit.co.nz/yacht/betsie?location=2011#gmap

As it was nice and warm, me and Alex had a bit of a splash in the river, it was more of a little creek in a massive river bed, so no where for Crocs to lurk.




Next day we were up and off to go and visit the air field at Ayr, which is where Sarah's Dad landed his WW2 Devon after flying it over from NZ for an air show on a hand held GPS



It was then back on the road to Cairns for big food resupply mission and get oil and filter for a service etc. This was the last major center before the fun stuff started properly on our mission to the tip of Australia. We booked into a camp site, the standard $20 non powered grass site for the night and took advantage of their facilities to wash all clothes, towels etc so we started off from Cairns with everything fresh.

Hmmm, might have an issue with some of my images not displaying properly, back soon.........

[DieselBoy]

Ha, it fixed itself

So it was game on from Cairns up the very scenic and windy road up the coast to the Daintree River.



We found the ferry and crossed the Daintree River



Then with what we had now nicknamed our "campsite eyes" on, we went on the hunt for somewhere to pull in for the night, with the intention of doing a full service and oil change the next morning. Purely by chance as these things often go, we found the most awesome spot on a rocky little stream bed tucked out of site from the road. Turtles swiming in the river and a rope swing over the deep pool. Jack pot!!!!!!!



It was time to set up camp, throw some rocks and go for a swim!!!!!





That we night a decent sized Huntsman spider came ad sat o the log by the back door and kept its eight eyes on what we were up to


It would have taken up most of my hand, but i wasnt game to try

Next morning it was full service time. Oil and filter, clean the air filter, grease drive shafts and steering, spanner check all suspension and give everything else a thorough visual check over.

Mobile work shop



That all done, it was time to hit the Bloomfield track

[DieselBoy]

A few minutes of cruising on the Bloomfield Track in the Daintree NP. It was pretty steep in places, the surface mostly hard packed mud/clay with a few sets or permenant ruts in it. O e shower of rain and it wold have incredibly been greasy.

[DieselBoy]

Slapped some more of the Bloomfield track together. Not all that exciting i terms of hard core wheeling, but gives you a taste of the country side and a feel for the track

[DieselBoy]

Right, been a slacker, time to catch up!!!!

After traversing the Bloomfield track, we camped the night just out of the Aboriginal village of Wujal Wujal. What a fun filled night that was. We found a cool little secluded spot down the river for the night. It was a magic little place!!

Location:
http://www.yit.co.nz/yacht/betsie?location=2046#gmap











There was some strange happenings in the neighbour hood that night. About 1am we heard a vehicle approaching out on the road, and then it switched off. Naturally we were a bit on edge, being only a 20 or so K's from the village, so I got up and double checked everything was locked and stashed away in the truck and stood still outside listening carefully for signs of life, footsteps, voices etc. It was just the 3 of us, down the end of two wheel tracks through an over grown track hidden down by the river. Nobody new we were there, and there was no body around to call for help. What happens if they were boozed up locals that knew about the water hole in the river we were parked up at and came for a look?? At about 1.30am we heard the engine start again, only to hear it stop about 2mins later. It happened again at 2am. There was a grader and a water tanker a few k's up the road, so wondered if they were going between the vehicles pinching fuel. The odd part was the engine was the unmistakable sound of a petrol powered V6. I was getting worried that they were up to no good, rather than just having pulled over for a snooze or a spot to have a few beers. I made the call, told Sarah bunk down in the back with Alex, I closed the Pop Top down and grabbed my sleeping bag and curled up in the front in the front with the keys in the ignition. I stayed awake, on edge for the rest of the night, the vehicle started and stopped its engine a couple more times at approximately half an hour intervals and finally moved off at 6.30am just before the sun came up. Pretty crazy night!!!!

From there we headed up towards Cook Town. We went out to Archer Point and because of the sleepless night, we found a magic spot in the sun and set up early. After the previous nights antics, we were pretty knackered!!

Archer point:
http://www.yit.co.nz/yacht/betsie?location=2047#gmap





















As you can see, it was a spectacular place!!!!!

[DieselBoy]

We dragged ourselves away from Archer point and headed in to Cook Town. We needed fuel, food, water and some petrol for the stove, so it was time for a bit of a shopping mission. They had a really cool outdoors shop there, all sorts of goodies that we didn't have room for in the truck!!! While in the store, some guy rolled up with his lpg bottle. I overheard the conversation between him and the store owner in regard too refilling his bottle. That little store was the only place in town to fill an Lpg bottle, and the store owner said leave it with me, come back at the end of the day and it will be ready. It was 10am. Sure glad we could just go to the service station and get a couple of litres of ULP91 to run our stove, that guy was going to have to kick around in Cook Town for the rest of the day waiting for is bottle to get filled, and I suppose spend the night there too by that time. No bacon and eggs for lunch for them!!!

Cook Town:




When then headed out to the coast again to Eddies Camp at Elim beach. Another piece of paradise!!!! It was a popular spot with and we had to get creative to get a nice beach front position

Elim Beach:
http://www.yit.co.nz/yacht/betsie?location=2050#gmap







Today the trip to Cape York really started. We were heading up through the Lake Field National Park, and it was now dirt roads the whole way. First point of interest and a good excuse to stretch the legs was the Old Laura Homestead:















It was a big day on the dirt, and the first of many many more to come. It showed up a few issues early on, I though I had the truck petty well sealed up, but as soon as you crept over`90km/h we had dust swirling in through the cab, drop the speed back and the dust swirling stopped. Hmmmm. That night we stopped at Sweet Water lake. I had played with the idea of going to Cape Melville, but apparently the track was still badly damaged from recent bad weather, so we wrote that one in for next time

Sweet Water Lake:
http://www.yit.co.nz/yacht/betsie?location=2068#gmap

Next day it was mission we were aiming for the the archer river, and the archer River road house for the night.

Archer River Road house:
http://www.yit.co.nz/yacht/betsie?location=2076#gmap

[DieselBoy]

We have come a hell of a long way on some seriously rough and slow roads



Finally now the fun begins





We headed into the telegraph track and got to the first crossing. It was a stroke of luck we bumped ito these guys, and got invited to tag along with them for a while





I'll let the video do the talking:

[Mattman]

Awesome

[mercutio]

Pete I noticed your youtube name is a little inappropriate for your current ride

[mike]

Fantastic! Love the old truck wreck, or army wreck. Old wharf was pretty cool.

[UBZ]

"Its ok Betsie" , "Its ok Betsie" ,"You wont get stuck" , "Its ok Betsie" ,"Its ok Betsie"

[mercutio]

Hey Pete have you thought of doing a walkaround video of Betsie to give everyone an idea of how you guys camped out i would love to learn abit more about the roof conversion as well

[DieselBoy]

Yeah, that's a good idea, I will keep that in mind

[DieselBoy]

Just when you thought I had forgotten all about this thread and let die...........

I felt inspired the other day and dug out the four days worth of Simpson Desert footage. Lots and lots of hours of up and down sand dunes !!!!

I put this clip more together for us as an easier to watch record of that part of the mission. It's not an action packed thriller, more of a portrayal of the four day slog over 700km and 1100 sand dunes crawling along in low range, sand dune after sand dune all day long.

I think it's a pretty good representation of how much of a mission it is!!!!

[wjw]

just so you know people are reading it.....

[ChurchurDan]

Update time...........

[DieselBoy]

Update time...........

I did, I just posted that super long boring video yesterday

[notreallybevan]

Can you share any information on the process & costs of shipping a vehicle from NZ to Oz for a trip (and presumably back again) ?

[basics]

i cant believe i missed this tread , awsome reading, photos and videos, shame half the pictures are gone tho.

[nivaman]

I did, I just posted that super long boring video yesterday

Nothing for as far as the eye can see......Bliss.