Thread: Meet my 90, and share the adventure.

My speedo matched the gps with the 255/85r16s

Sent from my SM-A300Y using AULRO mobile app

Just ensure the speedo doesn't read lower than the actual speed or that could be an illegal modification which an insurance assessor could use to reject your claim for an insurance payout. It does happen. The companies like assessors who save them money.

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Tyres look great mate, mine have 30k on them now so I'm not far off replacement.

Are you running standard front springs?

I like those tyres Mitch but they are quite expensive. At 52 k I'm almost at the Tyre shop myself. I've been umming and ahring for months over the same choice you have made or sticking with Contis so your reports will be invaluable to me.

i think you will be happy with them. Im very happy with mine. Il be getting the same when i need new ones.

Looks sik az brah

On October 25, 2016 We deaprted on a road trip from Tamworth NSW to the North East reaches of NSW, to see as many national parks as possible, and hopefully have a jolly good time along the way. While it started as an idea for 'just a holiday', it ended up being a exercise in chasing waterfalls across this part of the state.

The Cast:



'El Burro' the 2012 Land Rover Defender 90.


Me (Mitch) and Erin. Ready for adventure.


After leaving tamworth we headed north to the town of Inverell, then further north to the tune of 60 km to Kwiambal National park, Near Ashford NSW.

Ashford Limestone Caves (Kwiambal National Park)

This national park has a few points of interest- Caves, waterfalls, a nice camping spot, and plenty of wildlife. Above is the limestone caves. These caves were mined for Guano (bat poo fertilizer) in the early 1900's, and is a nice limestone cave system to explore. Here is the entrance We donned our torches and a jacket and headed in...


No, this is not an abstract interpretation of the goatse man, this is a rock formation in the limestone caves Here we see a shaft that leads to the surface, some 5 or so meters up.


This was a secondary entrance beside the main (excavated) entrance.


What did you say skip? You fell down a cave and can't get out?!
You see some strange things in the caves.
These are the remains of a Kangaroo. We also found etchings of a satanic pentogram and a hook from which something was hung from the roof... Probably just kids messing about.


I've heard about, and am a huge fan of Judas Priest, but never heard of Judas Goat. Wild goats are a problem in the park, so they are captured, tagged and released as part of an extermination program.

Macintyre Falls (Kwiambal National Park)

The Macintyre falls are on the Maccintyre river which is one of the two rivers that run thru this national park.


There was some good water flowing, and some good photo opportunities.

Lemon Tree Flat camping Area (Kwiambal National Park)

Greeted by this crew upon arrival. Some with joeys in their pouches. We had the camping area to ourselves for the night, and it was very green and a nice spot.





We set up camp and got the fire started.

Disaster strikes!

When driving the rough roads, our music stopped. I thought nothing too much of it, as I thought it might just be a loose wire or something behind the dash. When I stopped the car, the interior lights didn't work, and the clock had stopped. The trip meter on the odometer had also decided to reset itself when the vehicle was turned off. Fuse F29 for the radio and instruments had failed.
We need to dig deeper!


After finding the blown fuse, I pulled the dash panel for the radio apart, looking for an issue. BINGO. Melty wire on the back of the radio. Turns out all the hecktic beats I was playing on the trip heated up the heatsink on the back of the radio which melted the radio power feed wire, and shorted against the radio chassis. The electric pixies jumped the fence and fuse blew before the car burned to the ground. Works a charm.


Ghetto-fab! A scrap of electrical tape and it was ready to go.


We have tunes again! Nothing like some late 90's Bubble-gum Punk to get the mood going.

We have fire.

After some ad-hoc vehicle repairs, I thought I'd go traditional and start the camp fire using the old flint and steel. Jute Twine for tinder, a piece of char cloth, a flint and steel, and some tinder laying around the environment was all that was needed.


I built the fire on the shovel, and then dropped it carefully into the fireplace once done. We used the coals to cook some steaks for tea, which were delicious. Everythign always tastes better cooked on a camp fire.


This was the end of day 1. We settled in for a nights rest ready for the trip to the south east to Glen Innes in the morning, followed by the run east along the Gwydir Highway to the next point of interest- Gibraltar Range National Park.

Stay Tuned for more installments!

Nice write up mate.

We pulled into Glen Innes mid morning after packing up the campsite at Kwiambal NP. After Glen, we took the Gwydir Highway en route to Grafton, but not before taking a short detour down the Old Glen Innes - Grafton Road. This is the road with the hand cut tunnel. We stopped at the Mann River Nature reserve for lunch and a swim. Mitchell Rest area. Great name. Haven't met a bad Mitch yet.


Lunch of sausage sammiches on the Biji Barbie, a swim and a beer.


Nice spot too.


Further along the highway after lunch, we pulled into the Raspberry Lookout in the Gibraltar Range NP. The range includes some pretty spectacular pockets of rainforest in the gullies that line the sides of the mountains. View this panorama full size!


'dats what i'm talkin' about.





The park was established as a National park in the late 60's and was formally established as a world heritage Gondwana rainforest site in 1986. It is truly immense in size, and adjoins the Washpool NP on the other side of the highway (this is a world heritage rainforest site).


We based ourselves at Mulligans camping area which was a good sport to start the many walks around the area. 6 clams per adult per night, includes cold showers, flushing toilets (ooooh, fancy!), running tap water (albeit not treated) and good BBQ areas.


Site was nice- we even had a picnic table and small BBQ. There was plenty of cut firewood on hand, but we managed to BYO some cut logs we found at another site along the way. As we arrived late in the day, we had a bit of a wander around and settled in for the night, ready for a few big walks around the park in the morning.

Tree fern forest loop walk

From the camp site the next morning, we embarked on a short 700mwalk to the interchange area between the various walking tracks. We could go right to the Needles, or left to the fern tree forest. Just outside the camp area is an old hut and nice creek area to view. We went left at the fork, and proceeded beyond the fern tree forest to the heathland beyond (despite the map showing it as being a dead-end walking track). All up this walk was about 8km. The walk had a lot of wildlife from birds, snakes, kangaroos, brush turkeys. It was interesting to see how the forest environments change from sub tropical forest in the cooler gullies, up to scrub and eucalypt forest on the mountian tops.


Scumbag lyrebird The male goes thru the mating ritual, then buggers off for the female to look after the young.


This was indicative of the higher areas of the walk. sparse trees, scrub and rocky craggs.








There was plenty of trees and flowers to see at the time (Late October, mid spring). Here is a rather large grass tree.


...and some little flower that was growing out of a rock


New South Wales' Floral Emblem- the Waratah (Telopea aspera). Being Red green colourblind, these were almost impossible to spot in the forest. Erin on the other hand was amazed by their colour, and was spotting them thru the trees at 100 paces.


This little flower was on the fringe of the fern forest as it adjoined a heath. I'd never seen one of these before.


After our 6th Km of walking we came across this stream, which is part of the Little Dandahra creek. Being time for lunch, and the day being warm, a swim amongs the pools was in order.


We hadn't passed anyone else walking on our travel...


...so swimmers weren't mandatory.


After the swim and finishing the walk a storm was rolling in. We took the gamble and embarked upon another 6km loop for the afternoon - thsi time to 'the needles' rock formation. It was cool enough to be a pleasant walk, without too much rain to bother us. Any rain that did fall was blocked by the forest canopy which was not a problem.


The 'needles' are in the background, and are large granite tors. Here is a picture of 3 ******.


Dinner was cooked up on the fire, bieng a big 'ol pot of chilli. The aftermath made for good snake repellant.

Leaving Gibraltar Range NP

The next morning we departed Gibraltar Range NP and wanted to view the neighboring NP- Washpool NP. This is a significant Gondwana rainforest site but unfortunately, we were met with a locked gate due to (I suspect), road works within the park. They had line marking all over the road leading up to this point, as well as string lines and surveying marks etc. It's not too far to visit, and we will definitely be back here in the future.


East along the Gwydir highway, the road snakes down the mountain range towards the town of Grafton. There were multiple rest stops and lookouts along the way, this was one.


The stops were a good opportunity to pop a gangsta pose on the bonnet of the mule. We continued on to Grafton for some groceries and fuel, and headed to the coast.

This rooster doesn't give a damn.

This rooster was at a rest stop on the Mann river, down the road from the mountain pass. Rebel rooster was drinking that water out of a blue ice cream container labelled 'rooster water'. Not a single f*** was given that day.


Disaster Strikes again! Yuiragir NP- Illaroo North camping area

I'll preface this with 'Tombie was probably right'. Refer to post 19/10/2016.
We pulled into a camping area in the Yuragir national Park, due east of Grafton NSW, to stay the night. This is a lovely beach front reserve with a great location, but very basic facilities (and high cost to camp here at 12 clams per person per night). It seems to be popular with the grey gonad club, which isn't my scene, so we only stayed one night. While we were scoping out suitable spots to stay, disaster struck. By this time it was 2pm in the afternoon, I'd missed lunch and I was irritable and Hangry. After a few minutes of indecision in the passenger seat on where we should camp, I executed a reverse turn to exit the parking spot... Right into this freakling tree. In my defence, the rear cargo space was chock full of stuff, and the tree was not visible in the mirrors and obscured by my incompetence. The impact was minor, but luckily the rear bar and spare tyre took the bulk of the impact.


The tree hit the tyre sidewall, and pushed it back into the lever locking mechanism for the tyre carrier. Luckily the latch is still operational.


The tyre is now 'on the ****' at a weird angle to the rear of the vehicle. The rear door cannot open to it's full limit until I re-adjust the tyre holder. You can asctually see the dust marks where the tyre hit the rear panels of the car. I was very lucky not to crumple the aluminium bodied Land Rover like a coke can...


The bulk of the damage is on a removable mount, which is now bent (but easily removed / disconnected for welding of a new straight piece). I think some 10mm plate will make for a nice strong piece to replace the damaged part. Or else buy a replacement / re make it as an engineered weak point.


Dejected after the prang, I set up camp...


...Then resorted to beer after beer to drown my sorrows. After liberal application of liquid band-aids, I chopped some fire wood to spite the tree, just so it knows that if it weren't in a National park, it would be firewood faster than anything.


Dinner was a beef casserole cooked on the coals. There was a lightning storm that night, and we needed to cover up to keep dry, other than that, the rest of the 4th night was uneventful.

Minnie Water, NSW

Minnie water is a small township surrounded by the Yuragir NP. Nice beach, a general store, a surf club and a few houses- that's about it. After Minnie Water, we headed around to Wooli, another small town within the park, that had a bit more activity. We trucked on after a brief look around, being the youngest there by about 30 years. It felt like one of those towns that is gods waiting room.

Yamba NSW- The mouth of the Clarence River

The next day we headed due north of Yuragir National Park to the seaside town of Yamba, which is situated on the mouth of the Clarence River. Many of the rivers and streams we crossed on the eastern side of the great dividing range meet the ocean at this point. We had a 3 day stopover at the Blue Dolphion holiday resort (AKA Caravan park) in Yamba. Lots of great facilities, including a pool with swim-up bar. Helloooo afternoon beers in the pool!!! Everything was good, except the plague proportion mosquitoes and sand flies / midges which stung the crap out of me the whole time I was there. I swear they thrive on DEET repellant, and just laugh it off, bitimg us anyway. Over the next few days we just lounged about, nothing much to write about. Highlights included some bodacious mexican food at a restaurant, chilling out at the pub overlooking the ocean, and...


... a trip to Spooky Beach on Halloween. We visited this beach near Angourie, just south of Yamba. It's a nice spot, but the weather was a little bit fickle for a swim.


On the beach, someone had used the copious amounts of driftwood to make an observation deck / pergola thing. It was very cool to chill out on for a few minutes after walking about. The above pic was actually taken while sitting down in this very spot.


Angourie marks the northern most point of Yuiragir NP, which extends along 65Km of coastline south of this point.


In Angourie, there is the Blue and Green pools- two old dissused stone quarries dug to supply stone for the breakwalls, which filled with water when a underground spring was struck. These make for a great swimming hole, but suffer from occasional algal blooms which make swimming dangerous. IIRC they are up to 20m deep in places. Above is the blue pool.


The green pool features a high, 15 or so meter cliff perfect for jumping off. Old mate seen scaling the cliff in this pic is having a crack at it. On the 7th day, we packed up camp and headed further north along the Pacific Highway en route to Byron Bay.