Kombi Club Australia just completed it’s Easter get together - Busstop 2023. Every Easter we have a catch up and this year it was in Strathalbyn, a wonderful old town in the Adelaide Hills, South Australia. For us it was a 6 day journey there. We did just over 3,500 kms all up. Sydney Dubbo Nyngan Silverton (Broken Hill) Gurra Gurra Strathalbyn Rufus Euston Grong Grong Sydney Some travelling from far North Queensland my wife and I travelled with our dog, Stan. As such, we couldn’t camp in National Parks and I’m not one for winging it with State Forests or free camps. So we mostly camped in farm stays or Hipcamps. Rules were 1 dog allowed 2 a fire 3 a toilet only missed out on “3” once. Showers were limited. Lots of LONG roads and lots of wild goats running around Leaving Cobar the GPS said “turn right in 485kms” Silverton is where the original Mad Max was filmed And lots of red dust
We then had a 300km to drive south to Wentworth. No town, water, food or petrol stops. We camped at Gurra Gurra on the Murray and you could really see how high the floods were earlier in the year Then we got into Strathalbyn and we ended up with about 50 kombis all up. Most were Late Bays - yes, I was in my T3. Only one other T3 there
The return trip was where we went a bit feral and headed bush to Wompinni Station at Rufus. 200km of full on corrugated dirt lots of emus and kangaroos to watch out for
All up a great trip. Unfortunately the best pub at Grong Grong was closed when we passed through. Lists of small towns are doing community buys of the pubs and really getting behind them. still lots of schnitzel and beer stops were had
I go into major planning mode if I'm doing a trip of a few hundred miles, bloody hell that's one hell of a trip you've done. Looks great.
this is how i wish my drive to Techenders looked like... instead its the M1 Sent from my Pixel 7 using Tapatalk
here is Stanley ready to go Stan is a Blue Healer cross with a Shar Pei and is a rescue. Look closely and he has no ears (Shar Pei) We reckon he has a complex over this. Wonderful with people but his report card was marked “does not play well with other dogs” He really doesn’t know what to make of emus
Stan stays on a lead as we just don’t trust him with spotting a wallaby or wombat. We reckon he enjoys camping. Blueys latch onto one person and that’s my wife. We have a 2 seater camp chair for them and I have my own chair. He loves a camp fire, but some of the wildlife noises he is not sure about.
I just love the place names - one can tell where you are without looking at the pictures I've gotta put Australia on my bucket list.
dust is not a problem with the radiator but does play havoc with air filters and the interior in general. It is just everywhere. Locusts and bugs can splat a fair bit on the front and radiator. You pull up at a town and go for a walk and there are 2 dozen small birds flitting around the front pecking at the road kill
Unfortunately the next Busstop is south coast NSW somewhere - location still secret until end of April. Whilst absolutely lovely, it will only be a 3 or 4 hr trip. Might have to go the LONG way. Also need to pull my fingers out and get the bay camp ready. Just needs a Redarc relay and leisure battery in there for my fridge and lights.
South of Perth is Margaret River Absolutely magic country for tall trees, surfing, red wine and country cruises North is good but it is with up and back or up, up, up and all the way to Darwin
We did this drive in a Toyota Hi-Ace camper - picked up in Perth, drove to Darwin... around 3,500 miles I think. Amazing trip. It was so hot we had to stop using the A/C... otherwise you couldn't get outside as it was a literal oven to step into. you're so remote that ANYONE coming the other waves to you, not just campers!
