Five days to go

Well we are just about ready to depart on our trip - what with all the rain in and around Karratha and Port Hedland and further north in Broome and the Kimberleys - hey just about anything can happen. Fingers crossed that all roads are open. Of course all the rain that should be falling in Perth during June is falling north during their supposed dry season. Who knows what we will expect other than a landscape that will be green and rivers that should still be flowing.

We are currently working on our meal selections and catering supplies with the biggest hurdle being limited space given that three of us will be travelling in the one vehicle. Have had to make some major sacrifies with leaving behind planned roast meals, cordon bleu and boxes of pizzas. However we have plenty of liquid supplies of the alcoholic variety given that some of the local water supplies may be a little dubious. Would you take the risk???

We have a final planning meeting scheduled for this Sunday as Paul will fly in from Melbourne on Saturday night and Robert is already in location. We will also be packing and repacking the vehicle over the weekend to ensure that we can fit everything in including our extensive selection of fishing gear. I will let the photos tell the story of our success in this area. Until the weekend. Cheers.

I have become aware that friends have tried to post a comment on my blog without any success. After a bit of trial and error I have found out that I needed to develop a circle of family and friends on blogger and then alert them when a new posting on the blog was undertaken. Well I have finally done this so here I go - lets see if this resolves the issue of those wanting to make comment. I hope to have the site up and running before we head off on 2Jul. The only problem then will be maintaining an internet connection which I realise will be a problem on the Gibb River road.

More fine tuning

I have quickly realised that some modifications are required to the camper trailer. This weekend my brother in law, Tony, and I removed the rivetted bracket and R clip holding the spare tyre in place and replaced with 3 bolts along with a 2mm steel plate to strengthen the metal frame. Tony was of the view that the rivets would pop and we would lose the spare tyre as soon as we started driving on corrugated road. The replacement setup appears far more secure so time will only tell!



3 new bolts replaced rivets

With R-clip secured 

 
In addition to making the spare tyre support clip more sturdy, we also added a section of 2mm steel plate to the underneath of the rack on top of the front section of the camper trailer. The rack was secured to the trailer by 4 bolts. Given the weight of the 2 additional spare tyres, Tony believed that the trailer frame needed strengthening and so added the plate on both sides to the underside of the frame. This was a relatively easy procedure and only required the plate to be cut to size, the holes drilled and the bolts refitted. No movement now.

Existing trailer rack

With two additional spare tyres mounted

2mm steel bolted to underside of rack

A couple of further security additions have been to drill out the pin used for the Tregg Hitch so that a lock can be attached to it when the trailer is not attached to the vehicle. Also we have added some chain to the spare tyre on the rear of the trailer and added a lock.

We are well and truly into the final stages of preparation and all that is required is to purchase some supplies and organise the packing. Bring it on!

Weekend trial

D-day is 2 July. I head for the Kimberleys to tackle the Gibb River Road and to take in the tourist spots during July and August. My name is Lindsay Rollo and I will be joined on this adventure by my brother in law Robert Schock and an old Air Force colleague of mine by the name of Paul Hewitt. We will be travelling in my Nissan Navara 4x4 D40 turbo diesal and towing an offroad camper trailer.

 

 Being unfamiliar with the trailer, Lucy and I decided to head south during the last weekend. It was all about setting up the trailer and erecting the annex, something we were not looking forward to given that the instructions fitted on one page. Schocky has a property down Preston Beach way so we set up camp there on Saturday and Sunday.

  



 

so far so good!

 

yes I think I found it Lindsay

 

not ready yet Lee

 

 

just can't seem to find it Lucy!



yes yes good job

lookin good

looks like it is ready to fall over!

 

yep that will do - lets celebrate

 

well - we made good time!

all to much for the old boy!