Will driving from SYD to Kununurra kill me?
 

Hey Ppruners,

I'm planning on driving up from Sydney to Kununurra in late January. A lot of my friends and family are concerned about me doing this trip, understandably so, I'm driving a Daihatsu Sirion and I'll be driving on my own, plus there are floods up North, not to mention the heat.

Any advice from anyone who has done this trip would be greatly appreciated.

Scorp

Don't pick up hitch hikers* and/or, if you break down, don't accept help from Brendan Murdoch look-a-likes. You my find you get a few miles down the road, then he skins you and wears you as a costume.


* A poster on here can no doubt tell you a story how his bleeding heart made him pick up a traditional owner who was hitching a ride to "town camp". They got to conversating and the hitcher forgot that he needed to ask the driver to stop, as he needed to urinate due to the copious amounts of goon he consumed. He then proceeded to urinate in the drivers car. Hilarity ensued.

It's quite likely, the bush doesn't take too kindly to "city boys" :E

Sell the Sirion, fly to Kun,buy an old station wagon there, camp in the back until you get a job, and BOB is you UNCLE

Don't be a softc*#k.
Get on your horse and do it, you'll love it.
Plenty of us have done it before, numerous times. "Daihatsu Sirion" ? You lucky bugger!
It'll get the city-slicker out of you and you may even grow into a decent bloke, the better for it!
Giddey up!

What is going to kill you? :confused:

I drive 60,000 kms each year in the Outback and it hasn't killed me yet!!!

Usual precautions....

• Stick to highways;
• Rest often;
• Don't ford flooded roads;
• Carry two days food and water;
• If in doubt, carry extra fuel;
• Carry an extra spare wheel or compressed puncture repair cans;
• Watch out for 'roos at dusk and dawn and emus during the day.

Cell phone and UHF CB are useful.

Did the trip a few years ago myself. Did it in convoy with a mate of mine. We made it in about 5 days I think. Stopped at Cobar, Port Augusta, Alice Springs, Katherine and then Kunners. Spent a night in each place, except Alice where we spent two or three nights. Was about 4,600km from memory, so each leg was about 1000km so pretty big driving days.

Overall, pretty picturesque drive, a little boring in some parts but really interesting to see how the country changes. All main roads so you're not gonna end up in a place where noone will find you if you break down.

Just watch out for the cattle crossing the road!!! They're big - and will really modify the front end of a Sirion!!!

There are some good pieces of advice here. One thing to consider if you are planning a Darwin to Kunners trip is to factor in the wet season where the road gets blocked off due high water.

Ideally you would have a four wheeldrive that you could sleep in, cross creeks, bounce kangaroos, pack up quickly. The UHF is a good idea to. The number of times i wished i had a 4wd and/or a bull bar. In a sirion you could come second best if you hit something.

I STRONGLY reccomend that you do not drive at dawn dusk or night. (Particularly in a sirion).

Whilst its a great adventure in your shoes (and having well and truly been there and done that) i'd probably fly up and buy a car.

I agree, Have a good think about whether driving is the cheapest option.

If you decide to drive its not a bad drive. 4 days is plenty if your aim is to get to your destination without enjoying the scenery too much.

Make sure you have NRMA cover for breakdowns.
Only drive during day light hours.
Check the road conditions prior to leaving and speak to the BOM to ensure you dont end up spending a week or so in Mt Isa or some other god forsaken town due to flooded roads.
Work out early in your trip the fuel consumption on the highway while you still have plenty of fuel options and then check the distances between stops. You may need a jerry can or two. If you can do 400kms you should be fine.
Dont pick up hitch hikers.
Take plenty of food and water in case you break down. A phone with next G should do the job and a computer with next g mobile coverage is excellent as well. (check road conditions, weather, fuel prices)

You should be able to average 100kms/hr all the way to Kununurra.
Its a pretty cruisy sort f drive with long periods of nothing in between.

The roads are generally good, there will be area with rain damage now. watch out for wandering stock and kangaroos and emu's, especially early morning and later in the day.

I personally cover around 1500kms a day when I do thesae type of trips but if your not used to long times behind the wheel that my be way too much and being tired is not on. Stop and enjoy the country, have a beer in the closest pub and a good sleep and try again the next day.

Once you have done it once its no big deal, just a bloody long way.

Enjoy
 

Enjoy the trip, make the most out of the situation, stop of at all wierd and wacky places, who knows you may even find a job along the way.

Just do your research on fuel stops to make sure you can make it, a couple of extra jerry's could help and definately and extra spare. Got a personal ELT? Handy for ya remote area flying anyway.

Go on now, have a blast!

Driving
 

Dear Scorp
Big drive. Get your car serviced,. RAC !!!!!! yes
Drove a 89 ford escort to KNX.
Good experience, but why is KNX the ultimate be all and end all ass end of low life aviation.? I wasted 2 good years of my life on spag boll, listening to crap and even playing indoor cricket. Just to get a job or keep up.
$220-00 a week ,16 hour days, driving bus,s and no hope.
Think else where , but don,t rely on it.
CP,s normally an anal retentive sad loser who has had a gear up,crashed metro,s. or too fat to do anything else.
In your trip the advice.

RAC . !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
No EXCUSE.



Fly Spray,Black @ Gold surface spray.
Because when you break down in a swamp 90 miles out of Katherine, you will really wish you were dead. Seriously !!!!
Best of luck Scorp.
Multi:ok:

Just as well there are no requirements for young pilots in PNG these days :rolleyes:

Their mummys would have to take them up

Well said by Torres............

Plus... a GPS and your WAC charts. They are often more use to you on the ground than in the air!

J:ok:

All good advice.

I can't stress enough though, DON'T DRIVE AT NIGHT IN YOUR SIRION! (or you will die, :E). Kangaroo's are quite solid, and the only vehicles I've seen that come off first best are large 4WD's with heavy bullbar's, Roadtrains, and Coaches.

Shouldn't have any problems with making it to fuel stops (unless it's a really old car with a small tank). Maybe do a highway drive beforehand and see how far you can get out of a tank. I wouldn't recommend carrying jerry cans of fuel in your vehicle unless you really really need to. However, don't make the Outback the place to think "I wonder how far I really CAN get out of that tank", :bored:.

Make sure you, as they say, STOP REVIVE SURVIVE. I don't particuarly want to be flying you out of some remote town after they've just peeled you off the side of the road because you fell asleep at the wheel. I've seen it enough to not want to see it again.

With common sense and a bit of forward thinking, the drive won't kill you. You'll find it's one of the best things you have done so far (the scenery, the places you'll go through, all interesting in their own way). Outback driving is not like driving up and down the East coast. It WILL get boring, hence the need to stop and have a break, take some munchies, and some good music.

And finally, as well as having some water in reserves, drink plenty while you're driving! :ok:

morno

Quote:

---

[FONT='Verdana','sans-serif']Will driving from SYD to Kununurra kill me?[/FONT]

---

the drive won't but the heat might, the cow probably will, the croc will bite, snakes will chase ya & so will many other creatures if ya pissem off!

on a more serious note, if your going to drive along with the extra water, food, tools, spare tires, extra coolant & oils, take some good old tropical aerogard!

a bit of info that's normally given to truckies who drive up north & given in no uncertain terms (I got this one earlier on in my driving experience)

At the risk of sounding racist being politically incorrect or upsetting the universe.... 'people' occasionally when drunk have been known to go for a snooze in the middle of the road at night & if god forbid you are unfortunate to hit one DON'T stop. as it's possible & happened before that you might be confronted by the poor buggers mate who's not to happy with you to say the least. simply keep driving, take note of where you were & as soon as possible report to the police.

I know this sounds awful & go's against almost everything we are tought, but the reality is that up north can be a dangerous & unforgiving place at times & first and foremost keep yourself safe.

Thanks guys for the feedback so far, some rather entertaining. I particularly enjoyed the post about covering my plane in black and gold fly spray.

My main concern are the floods if I was to drive Alice to Katherine to Kununurra this time of year. Has anyone been caught out in these floods and would the trip from SYD to Kununurra still take 5 days?

Seriously though, thank you so much for the info.

dont forget to watch 'wolf creek' before you go.

;)

ditch the matchbox toy car, fly to kunners, buy a bomb up there and run it into the ground. Will still be cheaper than trying to drive when u factor fuel, accommodation, food, etc etc

If you take that route you'll be fine at least as far as Katherine. The Stuart Highway is completely open at the moment all the way to Darwin. Takes a fair bit of rain to knock it out. If you try and take the shorter route via QLD and the Barkly highway... well thats a different story. Its still closed as far as I know and will be for a little while yet as they try and find the missing bits and put it back together :}

I really hope your Sirion is the 4cyl 1.3L model and not the 3cyl 1.0L model.

Have to agree with the fly as opposed to driving!

I drove from Adelaide to Darwin in 47 hours in a Hiace, with the dog! Worst drive ever, I think the largest distance between towns was around 200km's, with no phone reception, damn optus!

Do not drive at night! lots of the roads are not fenced and livestock just wander anywhere they feel like, mainly the left hand side of the road, behind crests!:uhoh:

I never realised just how vast and isolated this country was until driving across it.

And you will love the price of petrol in some places:eek: