Happycampers on Tour

[Happycamper]

Little Aussie adventure, desert in winter

We took two weeks off in July to travel to Cameron Corner and the Flinders Ranges in South Australia with 5 other cars full of like minded folks. We love hitting this country in the winter, it is was more comfortable and safer than doing so in the summer. Nights are cold, down to -5 C (and we almost always have a campfire) but days are up to 15 C or so and very enjoyable. I would like to add a map to show where we went in 5000 km of driving, but am having difficulty in finding out how. Can anyone please point me to some instructions on how to achieve this?

 

[Happycamper]

Link to map

Copy this into the browser and you will see approximately where we went.

http://goo.gl/maps/Ny942

It was an 18 day trip and we had a lot of fun and saw some great places. Photos coming.

 

[Happycamper]

Desert

Four Toyotas, 100 series, Prado, 2x76s and 2 Pajeros (one a shorty) with four camper trailers had a ball in the desert, clear days, cold nights, campfires great mates, super country.

 

[Happycamper]

More of our great country

 

[Happycamper]

 

[Wainiha]

Can't wait to see more!

 

[Happycamper]

Animals and birds

Much of our inland is in drought, but the places with water are well populated with our native (Kangaroos, emus, parrots, galahs, corellas, wedge tailed eagle) and introduced (Camels, horses) animals.

 

[Happycamper]

And afew more

 

[Happycamper]

Second half is planned to start in May! Work commitments got in the way, but they will end with retirement, YES.

The truck is coming out of storage and will be readied for the off via EXPO WEST in mid May.

 

[Happycamper]

Now in South America

We picked up the truck in July from Craig at STRAPT PERFORMANCE in Phoenix. He did a great job storing the legs for the camper under the vehicle, did some mods to the hitch hauler and added Jerry can mounts, checked over all mechanical parts and added air helper springs at the rear to level and stiffen the back end some. Hopefully sorted some security matters too.

We stayed with Jeff and Monica of “Overlandtheworld.com” who are desperately trying to get their vehicle ready to go south too. It was their suggestion that we ship to Colombia, bypassing Central America. This worked for us as the weather window to be in the very south only in summer was closing fast. We had planned to share a container out of Houston but their delays meant that we would lose time and so elected to go with RORO at Ft Lauderdale. SCline offer this service every fortnight.
For us the process was simple, go to the office on Monday morning, present documents, fill in and sign a few forms and pay the money, $1140 USD (ish), That afternoon, or in our case Tuesday at 0800 drop the car to the port. We decided to travel with the car and did a nice cruise, at $750 usd each, not the cheap option, but a convenient one. You have to sleep somewhere for the next week right? Boarding for us was Friday at 1000 and the ship left at midnight! We spent the day watching the loading, staying inside in the A/C and studying Spanish.

The next few days were the same with the only variants the passing of Cuba and Haiti on day 2 and arriving in Panama on day 6. They put on 12 cars here, 2 for Colombia, and one driver joined us. She is a solo Austrian lady with a Hymer van 3.2 m high. Cost for her was of the order $2250 for the vehicle and $750 for her passage! This was a 6 hour stop and we were off to Cartagena, 23 hours away.

Arrival there was delayed as we could not get square on to the dock as another ship was unloading grain, so we berthed temporarily side on, got rid of the walking cargo and later the crew turned the vessel 90 degrees and were able to do the second RO part of RORO, for us the most important. We did not get off the ship until about 1800 and finally got a Migration passport stamp at 2000.

Next day, Friday, the ship was gone and cars were on the dock. We employed an agent who had started started with the extraction and true to form they had the car in our hands and off the port at 1730. The driver had to go to the port once before that, at 0930 for the Customs inspection, which was straightforward. (no issues/questions about spare parts importation which had been worrying me). Vehicle and contents intact. Recomended.

Next it is off to see some of this massive continent that we have landed on.

 

[Mr Rehab]

R & J

Good to see you on your way; I expect you'll enjoy every minute. Good luck and keep us posted.

 

[Happycamper]

Here are a couple of pics of the boat passage and then some of the road. We enjoyed Cartagena for four days then it was time for the off, first to Volcan Tololu where Jenny took the mud bath and I took the photos, before a night at Tolu. Un remarkable except for the mighty storm that gave everything a drenching for about four hours from 10 pm.

We had heard of Mompos and decided to go there to see this so called preserved and non touristy town was about. we had a some what frustrating day travelling quite slowly. this has proved to be the norm, with point to point speeds averaging 30 km/hr. In this case the traffic was the delay , but later the steep and curvy terrain have delivered the same results. Mompos was as expected and had a certain charm. We treated ourselves to an hotel room with Air conditioning and this was a boon as the heat was oppressive. On both night here there were furious storms, but the place seemed to be used to it and the next day there was little evidence, apart from on the dirt road out.

We have had some disagreements with Aussie Karen in the Garmin, which has resulted in a few U-turns and resorting to Google maps as a backup to the paper ones we have. The traffic in towns is manic with motos everywhere, and on the highways, slow moving trucks are on the go] and always seem to be in front of you. Some apparently desperate overtaking maneuvers ensue with some close calls. Everyone is tolerant and the speeds are low so you can pass a truck in a very short distance, albeit often over double lines. The tour busses are the best at this.

Of course the normal hazards of people, animals, people on animals, motos stopped, road workers and so on can be around the next corner, no, they will be around the next corner, there is no time to doze off whilst driving. I always arrive tired even from just a few hours on the roads here.


Last vehicle aboard


More country road scenery


This girl hopped on her moto and guided us when "Karen" got us lost


Country road scene, hazards all around


Splashing through the mud


Bridge over the Magdalene river


Three on the bike, roadworks, people looking on, all normal


Free range pigs


Jenny on the Caroline Russ


Low loader with the bulldozer driver in his seat as the lot rolled along the road

 

[Happycamper]

The launch at the side of the barge/ferry was the motor to get us across the river near Mompos


Another church, no shortage of these in this catholic country

 

[trailsurfer]

Thanks so much for posting your updates. I look forward to following your trip.

 

[Happycamper]

Thanks trailsurfer, hope we can keep you entertained!