Outback in a BJ40

Well we were now stuck at the bottom of a sandy banking rather than the top, having tried to bump start the old cruiser.

We had camped just off the main 'Oodnadatta' track so i sat patiently waiting for some help.  I managed to get a lift to William Creek Roadhouse where the owner kindly came to our rescue in his V8 110 landrover.

The technique of towing in soft sand is to use a 'snatch em strap' which means the rescue vehicle backs up to the broken vehicle and accellerates as hard as possible until the second vehicle is YANKED a few meters, this is repeated until on harder ground ... On our rescuers hat it said 'William Creek Landrover Owners Club'. How many members i asked - " Just the one"...!

We had been travelling for a month now having bought the 1978 BJ40 in Darwin. We did a few trips around the Northern Territories checking out Kakadu and Litchfield National parks.   There were some fantastic campsites near spectacular falls with good swimming. Here we did the route to 'Lost City'  which was a real spring tester, taking hours per kilometer, but the little truck behaved itself. With crocodiles a in the creeks, 'flying foxes' at night, massive spiders and any amount of deadly snakes the wildlife here keeps you on your toes.

We picked up a few more travellers in Darwin and set off again. With 5 of us in the cruiser we headed off to the Bungle Bungle massif, a strange area of rocky beehive-like mounds, a remote wilderness covering 3000square kilometers. The only real way to appreciate the spectacular features is by helicopter so we had a flight in the tinniest of machines.

We were now heading for Adelaide so our route was to take us on the Tanami track to Alice Springs and then the Oodnaddata track heading for Maree.

The intersting thing with travelling in the outback is that the routes are very well defined , but should you stray from one of the marked tracks it is a very harsh environment.  The Tanami track was reasonably good for most of the distance, although we managed to get a puncture which we fixed in the rain(!) at the Rabbit Flat Roadhouse, about halfway along the route.

The Oodnadatta track is another easy route taking you along the old Ghan railway line that ran between Adelaide and Alice Springs.  The Pink Roadhouse at Oodnadatta is worth a stop.

We discovered that our cruisers engine was lacking compression and was struggling to start in the mornings as the glo plugs were goosed.

We did manage to make it to Adelaide. The little truck did some 5000km with 5 of us cramed in with all our stuff, it was an amazing experience and a great way to see the outback. We decided to stay and work in Adelaide for a while so we sold the truck and got jobs and a flat...

Comments (0)