On Sunday night13th Jan, I was surfing the net for accommodation In Yangon, Myanmar, I decided to check my mail and found a holiday special for a Apollo 4WD camper to be taken from Perth To Darwin with all fuel paid and also a payment for the driver. Teresa said why don't we do it!. the Deal offered 8 days total a of 6 days at $1 per day and 2 days at the standard rate of $75 per day. When I did the booking on the net it would only allow 5 days at $1 day, so I decided that I would book the five days then sort the other days out when we went to pick up the vehicle in the next morning.
At Apollo's yard, we were offered drinks and food and told we would have to wait to be sorted out.
A lot of people were there waiting, while Taxi after Taxi came in with new customers, after a short wait we were summoned inside the office as they need to dispatch us to get us on the way. I could not get the extra days rental the reason being, that the office in Darwin is not open on weekends unit April when the main tourist season starts in the top end. Now we only had five days (less one morning and one afternoon to pick up and return the vehicle)
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Broome to Derby road
This 4WD hit two Cattle
Killing them both |
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4WD hit two Cattle
Killing them both
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4WD hit two Cattle
Killing them both
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This camper was booked out for the Monday and it needed to be up in Darwin by the Friday. ( In Darwin we found out that it was booked to be dropped back in Perth)
After some quick maths if we could make it we decided yes, but, we needed to get home sort ourselves and make the vehicle ready for the trip ahead. It was all go go from that point.
At about 1230 PM we pulled out of the drive at home and were on our way.
Teresa had decided that we would take the inland road to Port Headland, instead of the coast, besides saving a few K's we would be travelling on a road that we last travelled in 2005. as with the coast road we just drove it six months ago.
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Heading east towards Fitzroy Crossing
The temp was 42 C |
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Large Boab Tree is a Rest area on road heading
towards Fitzroy Crossing.
Now in the wet season it's a lush
green |
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| Large termite mounds are very common |
With these relocation campers you are not allowed to drive between dusk and dawn, and it was getting last light when we got to Mt Magnet. we had a quick look at the caravan park in the town, but, decided we would just push on to the next road side stop which was about 25k north of the town. This was a mistake as it was a truck rest area and we woke to a road train resting at the same stop with several freezer generators running all night.
When we first arrived at this stop a electrical storm came through with lots of rain and strong winds which had the camper rock very violently as we were trying to get some sleep. As the night wore on and the road trains generator got to us so in the middle of the night we had to move to a different location just to get back to sleep
First light had us on the road again and after a couple of hours we stopped for breakfast and a driving break, this became the routine for the remainder of the trip.
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| Road between Fitzroy Crossing and Halls Creek |
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| Road between Fitzroy Crossing and Halls Creek |
We also stopped every couple of hours for a break to ensure we were refreshed to continue the drive.
At night I was in bed straight away to try and get as much rest as possible and then up at first light to continue the drive.
When we arrived in Kathrine NT we decided that the mileage allowance would let us detour to Daly River to catch up with my cousin and stay over night before the final push into Darwin.
On our arrival in Darwin we picked up a hire car for our stay here, then returned the camper to be reimbursed for all the fuel and oil we had use. We enjoyed the drive with the country turning greener and greener as it is the wet season here in the north.
The images were posted in order, but for some unknown reason they have showen in a random order
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| Road between Fitzroy Crossing and Halls Creek |
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| Road between Fitzroy Crossing and Halls Creek |
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| Road between Fitzroy Crossing and Halls Creek |
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| Road between Fitzroy Crossing and Halls Creek |
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| Road between Fitzroy Crossing and Halls Creek |
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| Road between Fitzroy Crossing and Halls Creek |
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| Road between Fitzroy Crossing and Halls Creek |
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| Road between Fitzroy Crossing and Halls Creek |
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Storm brewing 100K south
of Halls Creek |
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Looking south 100K
south of Halls Creek |
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| Road between Fitzroy Crossing and Halls Creek |
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| Road between Fitzroy Crossing and Halls Creek |
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Our overnight stop 100K north of Halls Creek
During our stay here we had the biggest storm
we had ever experienced hit at 1 AM and cont.
for over 3 hours We were well and truly shaken |
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First Light rest area 100k north of
Halls Creek |
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| Road between Halls Creek and Kununurra |
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| Road between Halls Creek and Kununurra |
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| Road between Halls Creek and Kununurra |
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| Road between Halls Creek and Kununurra |
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| Road between Halls Creek and Kununurra |
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| Road between Halls Creek and Kununurra |
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| Road between Halls Creek and Kununurra |
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| Road between Halls Creek and Kununurra |
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| Road between Halls Creek and Kununurra |
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| Road between Halls Creek and Kununurra |
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| Road between Halls Creek and Kununurra |
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| Road between Halls Creek and Kununurra |
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| Road between Halls Creek and Kununurra |
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| Road between Halls Creek and Kununurra |
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| Road between Halls Creek and Kununurra |
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| Road between Halls Creek and Kununurra |
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| Road between Halls Creek and Kununurra |
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| Road between Halls Creek and Kununurra |
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| Road between Halls Creek and Kununurra |
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| Road between Halls Creek and Kununurra |
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| Road between Halls Creek and Kununurra |
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| Road between Halls Creek and Kununurra |
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| Boarder WA and NT |
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Grey Hound Bus passing us 110K north of Halls Creek
We played cat and mouse with each other all the way to Kathrine NT |
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| Fannie Bay Darwin |
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| Rest area North of Mt Newman |
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North of Port Headland we came across several Termite
Mounds in one spot all wearing Miners helments |
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| First Light Day 3 |
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| A Sandfire Local |
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| Another Sandfire Local |
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| Crow checks himself in the chrome of a Harley Roebuck Bay |
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| Inland Route to Port Headland |
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| sun set first night south of Mt Magnet |
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Bedded down for the night
Truck rest area North of Mt Magnet |
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| This type of work is never ending |
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| Brew time Day 2 |
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| Mt Newman |
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| Resting North of Mt Newman |
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