Pradopoint Cape Trip - 2014 - Update from expression of interest thread

[Brains Find all posts View Profile Close Brains]

Check out my little trailer
http://youtu.be/T57t0OhQWDY


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[Bailey84 Member Find all posts View Profile Close Bailey84]

Check out my little trailer
http://youtu.be/T57t0OhQWDY

Looks awesome.. Specially in 1080p!!!

Looking forward to video.

[BlakMoth Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close BlakMoth]

X2 that trailer looks great


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[DSS150 Find all posts View Profile Close DSS150]

The Gold Coasters all got back on Monday, what an awesome trip!!

I took a few photos and some GoPro footage but wish I took more. Bit difficult as I was the only one in my vehicle :P

I have done a short and rookie video of Elliot Falls and will put together a full trip one once I have footage on photos from everyone else that came.

http://youtu.be/_KN9E2YY6mc

[M3R Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close M3R]

That trailer is awesome!

[mexmike Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close mexmike]

What a great trip, I had an awesome time. My Prado looks weird with the new cargo window in it, I think I got used to the blue tarp and duct tape!!! Great to meet up with a great bunch of people and see some of the best sights this great state of ours has to offer. Thanks again for taking over the reins and getting the trip organized Tiny you have done a fantastic job. I wish I was sitting back up at Loyalty Beach cracking a few cans right now, I'm really not finding the motivation to go back to work on Monday.

Cheers,

Mike.

[mexmike Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close mexmike]

Hey Dan, great video mate I'm sure that we'll be catching up this weekend to swap pictures and have a beer or two.

Cheers,

Mike.

[gumboot Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close gumboot]

Tiny/ Guys.
Be interested to hear of any lessons learned from the trip, ie

1. How did your meal planning go. What worked well/ not for food?
2. How much water did you use per day and where did you fill up.?
3. Did you use any of your spares?
4. Which worked better Tents or Swags?
5. Anything you took that you shouldn't have?
6. Anything you wish you took that you didn't?

cheers
Robert

[djnapkin Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close djnapkin]

I'm heading up there Saturday on a similar itinerary. On top of what gumboot asked I'd also love to know the places to fuel up and the mileage to expect.

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[DSS150 Find all posts View Profile Close DSS150]

Tiny/ Guys.
Be interested to hear of any lessons learned from the trip, ie

1. How did your meal planning go. What worked well/ not for food?

Meals were easy for me as most of the time I was just cooking for myself. Lots of Steak, some sausages, Bacon and eggs Salad and veges. Wraps and sandwichs for lunch. I took 2 single butane cookers, cast iron ridged pan, frypan, pot and Camp oven.
I took way too much surplus dry food, crackers, noodles, spag and beans, etc.
I was unsure how my fridge food would last and took extra incase of getting stuck.
There are good grocery shops and Seisia, Bamaga and Weipa.
My advice take what you know you will eat in time in between and little else, no need to carry too much excess.

2. How much water did you use per day and where did you fill up.?

I filled my 40L footwell tank on the way up and bought 2x 10 litre foilpacks for drinking.
I didnt drink much water (probably due to excess beer consumption) and the 40L lasted me the whole trip.
Loyalty Beach had good running water, as did Weipa and most Roadhouses in between.

3. Did you use any of your spares?

Used nothing for the whole trip other than my infamous cable ties to adjust the exhaust bracket.
Blew out my air filter twice and swapped out for a brand new one once we were back on the bitumen.
Air filters seemed to build up really quickly but didnt affect performance at all.

4. Which worked better Tents or Swags?

I had an ARB Double swag which worked well other than broken poles which were a constant problem that needed running repairs during the trip. Also borrowed some spare pole parts from Tiny when he wasn't using his swag.
Other than an over friendly horse trying to break into my swag at night, no other problems and was easy to set up and Stumble into at night.

5. Anything you took that you shouldn't have?

Excess food, 20L water drum that was never used - just used my 40L as was by myself.

6. Anything you wish you took that you didn't?

More photos and Video. Was busy enjoying the experience and forgot constantly to take pics and vid!
My advice is just keep snapping, overdo it if you can as you may wish you had footage of things later.
Another bag for dirty clothes.

cheers
Robert

dj, there are plenty of places to get fuel, the most expensive for diesel is Seisia and Bamaga at $2.30/litre.
I didnt work out overall economy but was getting around 12L/100km on the open unsealed roads.

[DaneH Lurker Find all posts View Profile Close DaneH]

Home sweet home! Got back yesterday arvo after 36 days, 17 412 km and 2177 l of diesel. Fantastic trip.

Tiny/ Guys.
Be interested to hear of any lessons learned from the trip, ie

1. How did your meal planning go. What worked well/ not for food?
2. How much water did you use per day and where did you fill up.?
3. Did you use any of your spares?
4. Which worked better Tents or Swags?
5. Anything you took that you shouldn't have?
6. Anything you wish you took that you didn't?

cheers
Robert

1. I took a heap of prepared meals, and still have quite a few of them because I tend to snack all day when driving and am often too lazy to cook in the evening. You can buy food everywhere except the OTT. Also learnt that you need to keep a close eye on fresh vegies in the fridge and adjust it to avoid freezing them. The supermarket in Weipa is closed on Sundays.

2. Between 4 and 5 litres a day for myself alone, without making any effort to conserve it. You can top up at Lion's Den, Archer River, Bamaga and I think there were taps at Eliot Falls and Bramwell Junction too. River water is probably fine to drink, just go upstream of the crossings.

3. Busted one tyre on the way there near Charters Towers, but that was due to me abusing them on bad roads ahead of scheduled replacement. Damaged another sidewall on the Peninsula Dev Road south of Weipa. Blew a headlight globe on the way home. Had to replace the fridge fuse a few times (not a fridge fault, I suspect it's the ebay digital voltmeter). Lots of cable ties.

4. Swags are definitely quicker to set up and pack up (although not having kids probably helps on that front). ARB swag poles aren't very good. Make sure you have a tarp for the ground and that your awning is long enough to cover the swag.

5. Winches are not required if you're in a group, snatching is quicker and easier. The second 22l water jerry was nice to have, but not really necessary.

6. Propane stove (ended up buying one in Cairns). The cheap single burner stoves that use 400g butane cartridges are slow. Stainless steel billy (also bought in Cairns) rather than aluminium. A good handsaw - my cheapie was great to have for firewood, but was dull by the end of the trip. An assortment of nuts and bolts is also handy.

I averaged 12.5 l/100km for the whole trip, and 17.9 l/100km on the OTT. That's in a manual KDJ120 which was loaded up to 2.8 tonnes. Top up at Bramwell Junction ($2.10 a litre for diesel) at the bottom of the OTT, and it's less than 400km to Bamaga ($2.30)

Dane.

[gumboot Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close gumboot]

Useful info and good feedback. Thankyou.

[DSS150 Find all posts View Profile Close DSS150]

A small list of things to make sure you take if required, some of which I and others had to buy during the trip.

Rope for clothes line
Pegs for clothes
Laundry powder
Hose and fitting to fill water tanks
Extra thongs for broken or lost replacements
Sunblock
Good mozzie repellant
Ziplock bags
Trivet for camp oven, I didn't have one.
I used HEAPS of wet wipes, mostly for cleaning that B red dirt off hands arms and feet

I am sure the others will have more to add

[mexmike Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close mexmike]

Here's my thoughts on what you may or may not want to include...

We came home with lots of tinned baked beans and spaghetti, in theory making jaffles for breakfast was a great idea but when you want to get on the road quickly either instant noodles or blt's are the go to food items and use wraps over bread as they have a much longer shelf life and are easier to pack away without using up valuable space that bread does. As the other boys have stated there's plenty of places that we bought food just be mindful that being in remote locations means that prices are somewhat higher and certain items maybe of limited quantities, although we had no real issue with the quality of most items in the supermarkets. Definitely take pegs and rope for your washing, it makes things so much easier, I bought a very small packet of washing powder which lasted the whole trip. I took a 4kg gas bottle and a double fold out coleman gas burner and think it served its purpose really well and we didn't even run out of gas. The camp oven and trivet are must have items, it's really great to sit around the fire at night and have a yarn about the days adventure whilst waiting for your dinner to cook, not to mention the obligatory ice cold beers!! We took two towels each as they tend to get pretty dirty really quickly. If your into your fishing book a charter out of Weipa, we spoke to a few people that did the half day charter there and they all did really well in hindsight that's what we should of done but there's a great excuse right there to head back up for another trip. A few led torches don't go astray either. As the other boys have said you can get water pretty much anywhere, I took a 20 litre jerry can of water and hardly used any of it, personally I wouldn't bother next time, just grab a few cases of small bottles from Woolies and refill them as you go. I also took two 20 litre jerry cans of petrol and in hindsight I wouldn't do that again either, as there's plenty of places to refuel along the way, the dearest price I paid for petrol was $2.45 in Siesa but it was to be expected. I also took a 60 litre engel which didn't miss a beat and held enough necessary food for two blokes at any given time and a 111 litre waeco esky which held ice well for approximately three days. Personally I'd keep your food stored in your 4wd when not using it as Dan wasn't joking about the horses either. I hope that this info is of some use.

Cheers,

Mike.

[talk2tiny Moderated member Find all posts View Profile Close talk2tiny]

Tiny/ Guys.
Be interested to hear of any lessons learned from the trip, ie

1. How did your meal planning go. What worked well/ not for food?
2. How much water did you use per day and where did you fill up.?
3. Did you use any of your spares?
4. Which worked better Tents or Swags?
5. Anything you took that you shouldn't have?
6. Anything you wish you took that you didn't?

cheers
Robert

Nothing much to add that the others haven't already mentioned. I had two adults and two young kids so that made our trip a bit different. I carried 2x15 litre water jerry's and used and refilled them constantly. I also tried to keep 20 litres of foil packs all the time and we were drinking about 8 litres a day just in drinking water. We ran out of foil packs at Elliot falls and there were taps to fill up but the water there had a funny taste so we added cordial to it. Once we got to loyalty beach though the water tasted great straight from the tap. We didn't have room to buy slabs of bottles though so we used Tupperware drink bottles and they went great.

We all crammed into an Oztrail tourer 9 canvas tent but next year the oldest should go into his own swag and we'll move to an oztent I think. Dad used the oztent this trip and loved it.

I went through my stuff as I took it out and the only thing I took that I didn't use was a football so I was very happy with the packing this time. Mind you, with 4 people living out of just a car, I spent a lot of time culling the packing list in the months before the trip. Swags are definitely easier and quicker than tents but I doubt I could get the wife into a swag. The only trouble we had with them was the moisture build up each night. It stopped north of cooktown but south of cooktown we usually packed them up wet. It helped to put them under an awning though.

Lastly, this was the first big trip with the ostrich wing awning and I can't recommend it highly enough. Great bit of kit, especially for my set up, solid as a rock and super fast. Definitely glad I lashed out for that one.

Tiny


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