FULL OF NOTHINGNESS




































































Things to take:
  • Service car prior to leaving - inc. 2nd 12v connector, polyair levels, rotate and wheel alignment DONE
  • Tent - ground tarp and shade tarp
  • Sleeping bag, pillow, air mat, mat cover
  • Poles, pegs and rope bag - roof
  • Gas bottles x 2?, reflectors and hoses bag - roof
  • Camping gloves - for making and breaking camp
  • Fire wood, paper, matches, axe, splitter, gloves, hessian bags (for collecting wood) - roof
  • Water x 2 (30 lts) - consider door inserts
  • Two spare tyres - tie downs  - roof
  • Spare fuel (20 lts) - roof
  • Fridge
  • Recovery gear - long handled shovel (roof), tyre pump, recovery pack
  • Torches
  • Kitchen box: see below
  • Food box: see below
  • Bathroom box inc toilet paper, small shovel, wet ones and towelettes, brush and shovel, chux washes
  • Clothes - inc warm clothes for cold nights, bathers, camping towels, Ear plugs
  • Sturdy shoes/driving shoes, thongs,hat
  • Camping gear - camping guides, binoculars, camera, travel journal, field guidebooks, water packs, first aid, maps, fly nets, hiking packs.
  • Camelbak
  • Music - CDs and iPhone / MP3 players
  • Max traxx - not required
  • Winch  -DONE
  • GPS (tb$) iPhone has adequate GPS - no need for telephone reception as it searches the satellites and just needs clear line of site to sky. Otherwise Polaris in dash unit - $895 : bad reviews though - maybe look at iPad as better option with dash mount  - not required
  • Roof bag (tb$)  - around
  • Air lockers (tb$) - ARB - not required
  • Suspension - old man emu (tb$) - not required
  • Under vehicle protection -ARB - not required
  • Bikes - depending on pack arrangement - not required
  • Inverter (tb$) - not required
  • Mexican ranchero hat
  • Cuban hat and drums
  • Swiss army knife
  • Swimmers
  • Art supplies!

“Hi Guillermo
 Great to see you also.
Below are some links to photos for the two trips that I have done up through South Australia.
https://www.flickr.com/gp/83954176@N02/r30q5P/
 https://www.flickr.com/gp/83954176@N02/785hvo/
 I guess the favourite spots for me have been:
-          Burra in South Australia. Great old heritage town. The miners cottages are cosy and cheap.
-          Parachilna Pub. They have a great Feral Feast. Also good accommodation, although the surroundings are a bit desolate.
-          William Creek. Small park with left over wreckage from various Woomera rocket tests. Probably not worth staying here.
-          Coward Springs. Great campsite, built around an old stopping point for the Ghan. Has showers, toilets, and a natural spring that you can sort of swim in (it is about 2mx3m and about 2m deep).
-          Algebuckina Bridge. Relatively near Coward Springs. Has a big waterhole that is also swimmable. You’ll see some photos of it in the first few shorts from the second link above. The bridge took the Ghan over some flood prone areas.
-          Arkaroola, SA. Gammon Ranges. Near the northern end of the Flinders. Bit of a drive to get there, but the scenery is spectacular. Look at the end of the photos in the first link above.
-          Wilpena Pound. Flinders Ranges. Pretty spectacular. I haven’t actually stopped here, but my father raves about it.
 Other tips:
-          Make sure you get off the road if you see a road train coming, preferably with the windscreen at an angle to the direction of travel to deflect any rocks.
-          Have plenty of water (obviously!).
-          GPS units designed for the city tend to struggle out there. Depends very much on how far off the beaten track you are.
-          Drop the tyre pressure on the dirt roads. Just dropping a little can make the ride a lot more comfortable if the road is rough. For example (and you should get some advice from locals… varies depending on type of tyres, and load etc.), we generally do 40psi cold on bitumen, and down to 35 on the dirt, and down as far as 15 on sand. Worth having a battery powered compressor with you, and a decent tyre gauge.
-          A CB radio isn’t a bad idea. Can give you some idea of what is up ahead on the road.
 Hope you have a fantastic trip.
 Fergus” 
“Hi Guillermo,
Oodnadatta is north east of coober pedy. I think I went on the start of the road you will go on when I was in Roxby Downs last year. We were told by a few people that you have to take spare tyres and a weeks load of water and food in case you break down as there a not a lot of people passing by and you go out of range pretty quickly. But you probably know all of this! It's amazing out there, I was hoping to do a desert journey this year but it hasn't happened.
Hope to catch you next week before you go!
Keely” 
“Hi Guillermo,
 Hope you had a good weekend, I heard from my friend Megan and said she is travelling out of town a bit over the next couple of weeks but if you want to email her with when you’ll be in town, and if she’s there she can meet up with you guys to give some local advice.  She’s really cool, her partner has recently moved from Adelaide to Coober Pedy also so hopefully you can all meet up for a beer.   They don’t have phone reception when they’re underground so she said email is the best way to get in contact.
 Have a great trip, let me know how you go with meeting up with Megan.
 Cheers,
Kristal”
“Hi Guillermo. The desert in SA is really beautiful so it won't matter where you get too as you will find weird towns, ruins and red dirt along the way. Have a great trip! Will be much nicer to be in the desert than over a computer at RMIT!” 



Guillermo.Aranda-Mena©2014