Tropics Trip

[Graham Jones]

Have returned home after trying to get to Cairns in north Queensland. Beaten by covid outbreaks.
Did just over 2600km and once again noticed the biggest effect on fuel economy is wind direction. Apart from hills of course.
When heading into a headwind fuel consumption goes up.
Tailwind and consumption down.
No wind and reasonable and expected consumption.
I know this is obvious but pulling my small trailer had much less effect than wind direction which surprised me a bit.
So the less stuff on your roof the better.
Saw many 4wd vehicles with racks on the roof loaded high with gear, this must use heaps more fuel.
As I was intending to do around 10, 000 km this could be fairly important.
Pleased to report van ran faultlessly through all types of roads and conditions.
Now waiting to see what happens with covid on the direct route through NSW to see if we will try again in a few weeks.

Sorry you didn't make it.....lockdowns everywhere.
Could I ask what tyres you have on ,and how they went please, on all the different surfaces.
Thanks for all your reports..they were terrific.
Cheers.

 

[Sabre]

See, you call it the Indian Delta variant. We're not supposed to call it that, in case it upsets India! It's racist apparently. But the Kent variant wasn't.

 

[Sabre]

Trip looked great tho for what you did manage. There's plenty of time. Plan the next one.

 

[Ayjay]

See, you call it the Indian Delta variant. We're not supposed to call it that, in case it upsets India! It's racist apparently. But the Kent variant wasn't.

I suspect it was more so that they could stop calling the Kent Variant 'the Kent Variant'. The Indian Variant becoming something else was a by-product.

 

[Sabre]

It was first found in Kent. as the South African variant was first found in.... Yea you guessed it...

 

[Sabre]

Wrong thread for this wind up...
Let's have some more pics of Oz.

 

[Pete C]

Look here:

Tropic trip . Attempt no 2.

We are waiting for new covid rules tomorrow., hopefully border restrictions will be relaxed. This should give us another attempt to get to Far North Queensland. My wife"s father is in a nursing home in Cairns, QLD so we want to visit him if at all possible. Time will tell .

www.t6forum.com

 

[AussieMick]

Sorry you didn't make it.....lockdowns everywhere.
Could I ask what tyres you have on ,and how they went please, on all the different surfaces.
Thanks for all your reports..they were terrific.
Cheers.

Hi Graham, I have Goodyear Cargo G26
215/65R16C tyres on my van. I run them at about 52 psi as I have a full camper conversion. They have been good on all roads except for mud as tread is a road tyre, which is where I do 95% of traveling. On highway they are not noisy which is ok by me. Load rating 106/104.

 

[Graham Jones]

T

Hi Graham, I have Goodyear Cargo G26
215/65R16C tyres on my van. I run them at about 52 psi as I have a full camper conversion. They have been good on all roads except for mud as tread is a road tyre, which is where I do 95% of traveling. On highway they are not noisy which is ok by me. Load rating 106/1

 

[Graham Jones]

T

Thanks for that...let's hope things settle down here and open up soon. All the best, Cheers.

 

[Pride]

Later this week we are leaving Adelaide South Australia and heading to Cairns in North Queensland. We shall be traveling inland New South Wales (NSW) and Queensland staying overnight at various rest spots until we get to Cairns.
We will stay around Cairns for a week or two, hoping to go out on the Barrier Reef snorkeling and maybe stay out at one of the islands for a few days.
Leaving Cairns we will head South along the coast. This is a much busier area to travel so will probably have to stay in Caravan parks, if we can get in.
Due to covid19 no overseas travel allowed so many aussie vanning around Australia.
I will post a few pictures and a bit of a blog as we go if anyone is interested. Our adult kids will look after our house and our animals .
Think its about 2700 kms from here to Cairns the way we are going.
Map of journey View attachment 120417

How did you go with lockdown we only able to travel around NSW

 

[AussieMick]

When we left in July only nsw was closed to us, all other borders were open but 4-5 weeks later covid was found in Qld, Nt, Sa so we had to return to SA .Quarantine for 14 days on return and we had 5 covid tests during the time as I picked up a cold and the health department were in constant contact about the symptoms.
Not going out of our home state until covid is more under control.
Had to bypass NSW and travel through NT then QLD adding 1000km each way.
Still a fun trip though.

 

[Pride]

No the feeling we sold up in Sydney and now just trying to keep away from the hotspots and hopefully the boards will onpen soon …we have to accept that covid will all ways be around
off to the next town Bellingen