Yes knx will kill you
 

Not only cars.
1970 escort in 88 from Coulandra to Derby. $500 bucks.
The accomodation and expenses will kill your dreams first.
Sorry.
M:{

Bridge still under construction. From pic (below from Fri 23/01 NT News) it looks like there's no road on the supports.

http://www.ntnews.com.au/images/uplo.../22/1_road.jpg

Ahhhh the good old Vic River Bridge. I remember crossing that thing a few moons ago now, in my 4x4 when the water was just below the railings. Followed several other 4x4's and a road train, and scared the crap out of me, :bored:.

morno

Wally - The irony was that the car had aircon like no other but the room i rented only had a fan (in Darwin):ugh:.

I remember sitting in the car drying out the sweat in between walks to different operators. Its a unique feeling being dressed in neat slacks and shirt in 40 degree heat with large debt, no job, no money and attempting to potray the professional "everythings going great guns" look......i soon found that mission australia mission emplyment offices had good aircon and free internet and printing.

Still wonder sometimes how i made it this far!

Mr. Hat
 

Your post just brought tears to my eyes. :{
....and here i am, about to do it all over again at 50 just for the love of flying!

Is it still that hot in Darwin? :oh: :}

This sounds like so much fun that I want to do it myself - can I come??

Seriously, this is what life is all about. Yes, there is risk. Be careful. You'll love it.:)

Jeeezus wept.I can't believe all the hubbub over a drive on national highways to a place. just get in and go a little bit of common sense and you will be right. strewth.
I managed to cover almost the whole damn country in a busted assed HR ute without problem and the tracks were all gravel back then. no special needs at all.


possibly the most ill informed piece of advice I have seen on the whole thread.
If you take this advice, prepare to live with yourself with the knowledge that you may well have killed someone, that in all reality may have survived if you had rendered assistance. You will also be jailed.........without doubt.
If you do fear retribution from angered relatives, explain that you are helping, ignore them and render first aid whilst phoning for police and ambulance.
If you are threatened, the folk going nuts are usually blind anyway, so can be forcefully pushed over and rendered useless (well, more useless than usual) at the very least stay in your vehicle and go a couple of hundred meters up the road and call the police.
Unfortunately, it does happen with monotonous regularity, but the people involved understand that the injured need help as fast as possible.
I just don't believe some one could suggest that utter crap. :ugh:

CC perhaps washed away in the flood (why isn't there a 'tongue in cheek' smiley?)

they don't build them like they used to:O

Theres a very good reason why that advice is mentioned... its true and may save your life.

Regarding rendering assistance if you accidently drive over one of our indigenous mates... well it depends a lot on the situation. But I know of many cases where a driver accidently hit someone lying drunk on the road, got out of their car and tried to help only to be confronted by the family/mates of the injured and bashed. If theres nobody else around to bash you, I'd go and help.

I also know of a doctor who was called up to help a young kid who was on the other side of the river. The entire community was out there and pressuring this doc to swim across the croc infested river to help. He felt so threatened by how violent they were becoming that he had no choice but do it.

I've spent plenty of time in indigenous communities to know that these people will revert to violence to solve any issue. They will see you as the bad guy if you run over someone from their group, even though you may be trying to help. Just be careful.

As for the drive in general, its a long way but nothing really to worry about. Got a mate in Brissy who's about to do it in an early 90's Camry, shouldnt have a problem at all.

Tiger

Is it still HOT in Darwhine? http://www.augk18.dsl.pipex.com/Smileys/laughpound.gif

Does the Pope **** in the woods? Is a bear a Catholic? http://www.augk18.dsl.pipex.com/Smileys/laughatu.gif

FFS GET IN AND DRIVE!

Hi tinpis,
I thought i would make you smile :D

FFS GET IN AND DRIVE....hey?
Are you for real? I am too old for that sh#t!

Drive to Kunnus would probably kill me :E:E

An accident running over an Aboriginal on the road?

There was an add on the TV in the NT not to many moons ago.

Went something like:

"Don't sleep on da road, but if you're gunna sleep on da road, make sure you wear bright colours! Like Red, Orange or Yellow!"

Wear bright colours. Yeah right. It is a good advice indeed. But..... will you remember it while falling down in the middle of the road because you are totally ****faced?

How about painting every VB can in fluorecent colour with safety stripes because you are sure as hell going to hang on to that one while going down! :D:D

Seriously Tiger, I have worked and lived among indigenous people my whole life..... Hell I still live in a non reflective town, and the advice is dangerous, misleading and mostly false. you would be surprised what a little bit of intestinal fortitude shown in the face of adversity with these people will achieve. Not only that, you will also escape a jail term for leaving the scene of an accident and not rendering assistance leading to the death of your victim.
DON'T DO IT. you have a bigger chance of being hunted down for killing someone you could have saved.

And, better a slap with a nulla nulla than trying to pay a QC.

I've done the drive (for fun) a few times. The run up through the middle of the country is excellent. Wish the roads were like that everywhere. We went through Queensland a couple of years ago, and quite disliked the experience (overall feeling was 'leave your wallet, but piss off). Qld roads were the worst by a large margin.

The advice re driving at night is totally correct. But, extend it a little and don't drive in the first or last hour of daylight either. You'll see plenty of signs from the people who did. Not only are roos a problem, but we saw dead horses, camels, cattle and pigs.

Give the road trains some respect. I found they were extremely polite (totally unlike the east coast B double and semi drivers).

Last trip we stopped at Pt Augusta, Coober Pedy, Erldunda, Alice, Wycliffe Wells, Banka Banka, Daly Waters, Katherine, Victoria River and Kunanurra. Wycliffe is an easy (and somewhat amusing) way of avoiding Tennant Creek

Forgive the diversion from topic, but
can anyone advise what sort of salary a first job low time CPL holder can expect in the Kununurra/Darwin type area?
Enough to support a wife and pay back loans for flight training? :uhoh:
Any suggestions besides going up there? (I intend to anyway)

Someone mentioned road trains? Tell ya an ugly story. I had the displeasure of being confronted by one of these moronic DH's (not all I know but there would be a lot out there on the Rd.)During the 80's I had itchy feet taking me around this great land of ours. To cut a long story short during a conversation with a 'truckie' after I bailed him up post him trying to kill me & my companion I said you guys think you own the bloody rd, he said ...."nope, just the black bit"! Typical ignorant fool I thought.

Some years latter I retrieved an elderly couple from interstate whom where literally blown off the Rd by a speeding overtaking road train whilst towing their caravan. The wife was seriously injured during the roll over caused by the truck, the husband, a quad for life!

I have to agree with 'wiz' here, by not stopping after a possible 'hit & run' would mean a life where you wished you did stop regardless of the risk at the time.

So basicly, do you want to drive on our outback rds? The black fellas in the middle of the Rd, the wild-life, the distance is nothing compared to the real menace out there, the cowboy truckies!


Wmk2

Most of the have been pushed out of the industry now days wally.It is a pretty professional sort of job nowdays, with CAO 48 type restrictions, log books and all. very much like the AG industry..... got serious and fixed most of the cowboy trouble. the bigger risk these days are the tourists........ believe me, they do things that make the mind boggle. (I drive roadtrain when not flying) I have had them stop on the bottom of a hill around a curve and park on the road and walk off into the bush to take photos, Drive in convoy at 70KPH and dribble on non stop on the recognized trucky working channel. you cant get around ten caravaners at 50 meter spacings traveling at 70KPH. It takes time to get a 175 ton, four trailered roadtrain wound up after being bogged in behind them for forty Ks and not being able to get a word in sideways on the radio. the other beauty is waiting until you have wound her up and indicate to go around, then dive into the gravel and hit the brakes......... showered in stones and have to cross the road to avoid them :ugh:
Dunno why they call it tourist season if we are not allowed to shoot at them.

Goddamn! This is a long thread about a pretty routine exercise!
Try not to fall asleep at the wheel, about the biggest risk apparently..

It might be a routine exercise for many, but for just as many city folk, it's a journey into the unknown.

My first real outback drive was in '94 from BNE to DRW. I was 37 and somewhat anxious as I didn't know what to expect in terms of remoteness and availability of help. I'd been driving for close to 20 years, and covered lots of km but none of it remote.

Despite a special mention of the trip to the local Missubishi dealer in BNE, they still managed to fit new wheel bearings to the rear axle that failed in 2000 km, some 40 klicks west of Isa. It took 6 hours to get help and back to Isa! :eek:

Good on Scorpion83 for asking. If more folk who don't know what outback travel is like, asked, perhaps we wouldn't read of folk perishing, as they do from time to time.

In the time this thread has been running you could have driven to kunnunurra then came back then driven back to Kununnurra again! Just get amongst it, enjoy it but use some common sense along the way!

300

Driving from SYD to Kun is harsh but u need a to have a car up here so if things dont work out in kun u can head to Wym , Kathrine , broome etc. Cars are expensive and **** up this way.

Yr right 'wiz' the "Grey Nomads" would be a menice on the roads for truckies can't argue with yr post at all really:ok: but the law is the law, speeding truckies are also a menice with more 'clout'. If the 'Nomads' are doing 70 k's then they are creating havoc no doubt but their not breaking the law by doing so, unlike the cowboys that would still exist out there that travel over the 100 k limit in my state. I too have a heavy truck/bus licence (not used it in a lot of years) so I know what the industry was like. I travel on a dual hwy to work everyday & the trucks are numerous coming down from Mildura. I could count on one hand the ones that stick to the speed limit. The rest are simply dangerous. The speed limiters that are meant to be on trucks I know are 'fiddled' with.

Anyway as one poster said, you could have driven up to Kunners & back by now several times during the life of this thread & another said sleep is the biggest killer, now that is a very pertinent statement.:ok:



Wmk2

Wally, the tampering only happens in Mexico.........by Mexicans. :E
rare for them to last much past the border here. You know about Sesame street I imagine.:E Nothing at all wrong with doing 70.......... just not ten of them 100 mtrs apart so a bloke going about his business can never get around them safely. more of a menace than the speedsters.
yeah, your right though. could have driven up and back in the time this thread has evolved.

Yr right there 'wiz' a lot of 'tampering' goes on down here in Mexico:E
Don't worry the truckies are known to 'bunch' up also, just that they are doing 110+k's single file in each others slip stream & i can't get my 1972 ford escort past 'em without following them over a cliff face!:E
Now back to work will ya buddy:ok:




Wmk2