4WD 4life

Maryborough Qld- Perth

After picking up the new truck I wanted to give it a good running in.  Several discusions with my wife (Darlene) & the kids (Hayden 11 & Courtney 7), it  was decided to Drive to Perth To visit my old man & 2 sisters ( 1 in Perth & 1 in Esperance) for the 08 Christmas holidays. From Maryborough we went through Kingaroy, Dalby, Moonie to Goondiwindi & the Newell Highway in outback NSW. From here it was Moree then Coonabarabran & into Cobar & Broken Hill. Once in SA we headed for Peterborough & onto Port Augusta (Port Allgusty as we like to call it) & Ceduna. Next is the Nullarbor & the Great Australian Bite, There is some  excellent  Scenery around here, there are places along the bite that you look out one window at the southern ocean, you look out the other window to see dry grassless & treeless, shrub covered dust. The Nullarbor also has Australias longest straight bit of bitchy 146k's, some hills but no bends, curves, corners nothing. From the Nullarbor we were into WA & got to Norseman & hung a left for Esperance, Some awesome 4wdriving to be had around here with beach access, the "Sand Dunes"  & the "Rock"  just to name a few, and you can't let a place like this go untested. The Rock is an awesome climb from either side, but i suggest  you walk it first as it is stepy in a few places & a couple of tracks on the back side are fairly chewed out but there are other ones. We took the Tonka (the Triton) up the back & onto the beach from the front side & my nephew took his old short wheel base Jackaroo up the same side,  its pretty solid rock so you don't slip&spin much but pick your lines & be careful, If you stuff up bad enough on the back side you are going into the ocean.  The Sand dunes are also good fun but soft so make sure you have someone with you to snatch you if you need it, and I can vouch for Max Trax they are an awesome invention (see photos). Also watch out for motorbikes in the sand dunes as they fly around out there on a regular basis aswell. From Esperance it was into Perth for a week with Dad & My sis, didn't get to do any 4x4'n here as we were busy doing the family thing & none of them own a 4wd, but we had a ball playing tourist. From perth we Raced back across the nullarbor to Ceduna for a couple of days rest, fishing & crabbing (love them Blue Manner Crabs). From Ceduna we headed into Adelaide & as none of us had been there before we explored the city. We all loved Adelaide, beautiful & not to rushed. From Adelaide it was onto Mt Gambier & into VIC & the Great Ocean Rd, what an absolutley awesome stretch of coastline this is, some of the views are amazing & there are some awesome tracks among the hills. 2 days in Melbourne were enough for me, people, cars, trucks, busses, & trams friggen everywhere, I didn't know where to look let alone where to go, we took off for the peace & Quite of the high country. The drive through Kosciuszko National Park into Jindabyne also has some breath taking scenery & we will definatly be coming back here in winter some time. We then headed for Canberra & Sydney one of Darlenes Cousins. We Were nearly home, Only a stop in Ballina between us & QLD.