Thread: A few figures from this trip

Gday All
At present we are in Mt Isa headed back to Darwin and we have done some coastal driving plus some inland stuff thru some hot temps and this is what we found
- car coolant temp sits at 93-94 until about 35 degrees then for every degree the temp rose so did the coolant temp until it got to 100 then stayed constant.
- the cars fuel consumption increased by over 10 percent once we towed in temps above 38 degrees and worse case went up by 2.2ltr per 100ks and that was towing in 40 degrees.
- truck drivers returned our wave the most Toyota drivers the least
- seen more D4 than any other Landrover on the road.

This was towing our camper which would weigh about 1000kgs and sitting on 100ks.

Lastly Skippy has a bloody big family as seen plenty of his kind as road kill and emus were the most live animals we seen on the road so far.


Cheers Ean

I found driving up through Charters Towers through to Torrens Creek (closer to Hughenden) I didn't see a single roo, then as soon as you head south from torrens creek towards Aramak (nice little town in the middle of cattle country/nowhere) they are literally everywhere. Then it was just a crap shoot as to whether or not you were going to hit one at dusk - they are literally kamikaze, throwing themselves in front of the car at the last possible second. You expect them to do it. It's the rule, not the exception! The wild goats around Cobar had far more common sense. That said, coming over a crest at 200km/h after an overtaking manoeuver to be greeted by a flock of wild goats all over the road is better incentive not to speed than any of the government's plethora of speed cameras could ever be. Was great to see the other wildlife, which included lots of emus, bustards (whose road sense is barely any better than the roos) and even brolgas, since the whole area was basically a flood plain. The grasslands of central queensland and then the tropical grasslands of the north are absolutely beautiful.

So after taking that in all day and dodging kangaroos and bustards in my unforgivably bright blue Audi S4 (you think no one waved to you??), I was pretty tired. I stopped for fuel and coffee at Barcaldine and was less than impressed that instead of coffee, the servo lady had given me warm milk (forgot to put the coffee in it I assume?) - and here I am trying to stay awake! I already had my foot on the brake after narrowly missing a dead roo when at 80km/h one jumped out of the roadside grass (which at this time of the year is at least 1.2m high, right next to the roadside!!) - even with an instant reaction and the Audi's massive brakes, I couldn't miss it and I was a little surprised to see even with that impact, the roo was lifted at least my height into the air and did a flip. Cracked radiator, broken xenon headlight ($$$) missing air duct grille. Couldn't see the roo anywhere.

So I limped back to Adelaide which was still a good 1600km away, topping the radiator up every 500km, but that whole area left a lasting impression on me and a temporary impression on the front of my car... It's a trip I'd recommend to anyone and I'm itching to get up there in the RRS!