Road Trip! Sydney to Alice Springs

A road trip on the eastern half of Australia. 6600 kms. 7 days. One driver.

Many years ago, I read a web article by Anita Ryan (dated 2003!). It detailed a trip from Perth to Sydney - a distance of 4000 kms by an SWF. While I was neither S nor W nor F, I always dreamed of a trip in the opposite direction - from Sydney to Perth. There was no way I would do the trip back as well. I even toyed with the idea of putting both me and the car on the Indian Pacific train. But that was way too expensive. The other plan was to put my car on a truck and fly back. I even got a quote for putting the car on a truck - it was just under $1000. I even did a practice trip to check things out by doing a Sydney-Adelaide-Melbourne trip of about 3000 kms in 3 days. It was a success and I even took scenic routes at every opportunity.

All this changed once I heard about the Northern Territory govt designating a stretch of about 200 kms north of Alice Springs as a trial no speed limit zone. Now Alice Springs would be my preferred destination. Alice Spring is nearly 3000 kms away from Sydney. Just going there and back would be 6000 kms. This was one and a half times as long as the Sydney to Perth trip. But I kept planning, waiting for a chance. Then it arrived. The extended family was going on a week long holiday to the Gold Coast between Christmas and New year. This should give me the chance to do my trip and meet them on the Gold Coast overnight.

I would travel only during daylight hours. At night, the risk of hitting kangaroos is too great. Each leg would be around 1000 kms or less. I would pick stopovers at relatively big towns so I can find decent accommodation. This was during the school holidays and most places will be full. I was traveling in summer - it was hot but I would have longer daylight hours. The destination would be those 200 kms of no speed limit road. I will go to Alice Springs, travel down the no speed limit section and then loop back along the east coast, making sure I go through Gold Coast.

Day	Start	End	Distance	Time
Day 1	Sydney	Mildura	1020 kms	10:20
Day 2	Mildura	Coober Pedy	1073 kms	11:00
Day 3	Coober Pedy	Alice Springs	700 kms	7:30
Day 4	Alice Springs	Mt Isa	1170 kms	14:00
Day 5	Mt Isa	Tambo	962 kms	10:15
Day 6	Tambo	Gold Coast	918 kms	10:05
Day 7	Gold Coast	Sydney	830 kms	9:50
Total			6673 kms	72:20

Besides clothes and camera gear, I packed a few other essentials.

• 10 litre jerry can of petrol
• 10 litre jerry can of water
• Canned and instant food
• Small Esky
• Personal Locator Beacon (PLB)
• Satellite Phone

The satphone was a Thuraya XT Lite. Although I was not going off-road, the PLB sounded like a good emergency backup. Using the satphone involves a strange ritual. You switch it on, pull out the antenna and hold it up. After it detects signals you have to tilt it towards the horizon depending on where you are located and turn around to get the best signal. Then you turn yourself around to hold it to your ear without changing the position of the phone. Receiving calls is not practical but costs nothing. Call whoever it is and get them to call you back. An SMS costs $1 and talking is $2/minute. Receiving calls and SMS is free. I hired the lot from EPIRBhire that has been around with a barely changed web page over the years I have been eyeing it. Coincidentally, I contacted them about picking it up when Peter from EPIRBHire was just a few kms from my house. He dropped the kit off and explained how to use it. It cost about $195 for the week with extra charges for any usage.

The satphone is on the lower centre and the PLB on the left. The protective covers are above though I like to keep the sets handy and not wrapped in a protective cover. Using the PLB (only in case of an emergency) involves opening the strip antenna, breaking a seal and pressing a button. This is the modern PLB that transmits your GPS coordinates so that they don't have to triangulate your position. A helicopter should arrive soon overhead :-) I did not bother with a GPS, relying on the one built into my car. Apart from Google on a tablet, I took no paper maps. Again, I was relying on the maps in the car GPS.

I also took along a collection of canned and instant food. In fact, it filled up half my carry bag. On my previous trip, I got a bit tired of arriving at a small motel late in the night and then having to raid the bar fridge for chips.

The whole lot was stuffed into the car boot and, as you can see, it was a tight fit. At the back was the petrol and water jerry cans. A bungy cord held them in place and the esky in between helped keep them there. With an empty boot, they just do not remain in place and get thrown around, spilling some of the petrol. But the boot was so full, that I did not have to worry about them budging an inch.

It was with great effort that I could push the boot separator down. The carry bag with the clothes and food is on the left, the camera bag on its side on the right. Some reading and writing material with a tripod top it all. Other things are stuffed into any gaps.

So I was all set. I got a quick fluid level check on the car by my friendly car service centre guy, Dan, at very short notice and all looked good to go. The car was in good shape with just 60K on the clock and recent niggles with the wheels and tires had been fixed. I filled up the petrol jerry can at the fuel pump and topped up the car tank all on the previous night. I also filled up the water jerry can from the tap.