Aussie Explorers 2017.

Richmond Queensland 28th July 2017 Today we are taking a day off travelling and enjoying 28 degrees of winter sun in Richmond, Northwestern Queensland. Over the last few days we have been travelling in dry open grassland country that has been in drought for the last five years. Normally summer rains from the tropics get things growing especially the Mitchell grass that grows on the deep soils around this area. If the summer rains are poor then farmers do it hard and things dry out considerably. It is not long before feed runs out and stock are shipped to other areas that have the feed. Many of the towns we have passed through like Longreach, Winton and Hughenden seems to be locked into the 1960,s with dry dusty sections, rough housing, old shops and only basic services. Groceries have been a little pricey as well and selection generally poor. Pubs are often the dominant buildings in town. However we have been visiting a few national parks and have done a little bit of walking i...

25th July 2017 Longreach Queensland Been on the road for almost a month now and we have made it to the dry outback of Western Queensland. We didn't have too much trouble getting the ownership and registration swapped over from the previous owners thanks to the help of Gary and Lynne Briggs whom we met up with a few days after leaving Maloolabar. They live in a flash apartment close to The Gold Coast and it was nice catching up with them once again. However the outback was calling and after a few days Maria and I were keen to get started on our adventure. Out first day saw us take to the foothills just south of Brisbane and through the hills to Mt Tambourine. We made our way westwards visiting a couple of small nationals parks along the way. Our first real wilderness camping spot was at NguNgu National Park beside a large lake with lots of birds and geese. All very different from what we have at home. The country is dry, rustic and very rocky in comparison to anywhere back ho...

Introduction. In late June 2017 Maria and I flew to Brisbane to take delivery of a 4WD Hilux and Aussie sway trailer marking the start of our Australian adventures. Having just completed two and a half years travelling around New Zealand we thought it was about time we expanded our horizons to the very large super continent off our west coast. The winter months in NZ can be cool and frosty so the prospect of spending a few months in the warmer parts of Autralia was too much to resist. We found an advert in the NZMCA magazine from a NZ couple who had been travelling Aussie over the last three winters. It did not take long to convince us that this was a good opportunity to start the next phase of our master retirement plan. We plan to purchase a 2004 Toyota Hilux 3.0 diesel turbo with 215,000 kms on the clock. The 1999 Aussie trailer is fully set up for wilderness camping and comes complete with solar panel, fridge, awnings and other odds and ends needed to get started. Yeah Austra...