heading to perth.

[Biggles]

G'day,
        Time to share a pics of the Rats trip to Perth.
As you probably know I had a few last minute hiccups before
heading off which meant missing the original rendezvous at
Port Augusta to travel over with the group from the east. It
was a little disappointing  not to travel over with a group of
mokes. But every where we went we met people who told us
they had seen a "bunch of mokes" a few days earlier. At least
we knew we were on the right track.  As I was doing the ABH
after Mokefest I had to take extra gear, parts, tyres etc as well
as Ruths proverbial kitchen sink so we had a fair load to cart so
I had to make a light but strong rack to carry the wheels etc. I
was able to keep a lot of the weight forward in the back that way
and it seemed to have work well.
Here's a pic of it loaded just before we headed off



We followed the direction that moke my day had set out in the
booklet he prepared for the trip participants so we were able
to follow in their footsteps so to speak and see all the points of
interest they did along the way as well. Ruth and I camped out
every night but every second night was in an unpowered camp
site in a caravan park so as to be able to shower etc and keep
Ruth happy.
 The first night we slept in a carport in a closed down servo just
out side of Narrandera.

 

We always tried to find a spot in town or just on the out skirts
Ruth felt a bit safer that way. Here we camped in a showground
I cant remember the town but I do remember it blew a gail all
night.

 

we also did the obligatory photos at signs just to show we were here,









more to come

[moemoke]

The Rat does look like it's loaded to the max, those kitchen sinks can be quite heavy, lucky Ruth took it home with her
before you did the ABH.

It would of been a bit lonely out in the wilds by yourself, one little moke crossing the country on it's lonesome 

I thought you'd painted The Rat with flat black paint but it looks glossy in these pics, looks good either way.

[Halfpint]

 
Gee the Rat was loaded up. Looks good but .
A bit of a bugger to be late starting but lucky to have avoided the storms, the pics look sunny ( albeit windy).

HP

[shorty 68]

I think Ruth and you did it a bit rougher with the sleeping arrangements than we did,but you did well to get there in the time you did.
Cheers Ian    

[FNQ]

Biggles the rat looks like a real mcGyver(sp?) mobile - ready for anything.  Your packing must have been pretty good - being able to get out the daily needs without having to unpack the whole lot each time.... how long were your travel days when in catch up mode?

[Biggles]

G'day,
        thanks guys. You're probably right there Ian but Ruth
and I are regular campers and are used to roughing it. I will
admit though that a the odd night in a motel in a nice comfy
bed would have been nice but we had to keep the costs down
 FNQ I like the Mcgiver comment it did look a bit like that
or something the A team threw together. It did look heavy
but under the rack were 5 20l plastic jerry cans which took up
a lot of space but no weight. On top of the rack were tools
recovery gear air compressor etc. The back part had all the
stuff that we had to access every day. The esky ,clothes, food
and camping gear. The side boxes were full of spares.
I was a bit embarrassed by how it looked but had no other way
of doing it. 
Yep HP we were lucky with the weather from all accounts we
were a couple of days behind the storm all the way across.
 I was proud though of going across on our own. Every one
thought we were mad."you're doing What in a what?" But I
have to say that Dave G did it on his own too when he had to
turn around and go back home because of a death in the family.
We actually met up with them on their way back..

  Biggles

[Ozimoke]

Good on you Biggles. Enjoying your trip. It's good to see how it went for we who couldn't go.
Cheers,
O M

[spider]

Looks like you guys were moving house!

Never ceases to amaze me just how much you can get in to a Moke.

Looking forward to hearing of the rest of the trip.

Getting across in the time that you guys did it in was truly a Herculean effort. Well done

[Pete Power]

Thats awesome, did you see if it was sitting on the front bump stops??
Love the idea of the Camp beds saves time packing up tents.

[Biggles]

G'day,
        Yep Pete the beds were great. I think we only used the tent a couple of
times and that was only for a bit of privacy in caravan parks. Ruth flew home
after mokefest and I left her stretcher, the tent and a fold up table behind at
Maddogs in Coxys trailer. I think they've made it back to Melbourne. Incidentally
when the moke was weighed at MD's grain terminal It came in at 1120kg with
a full tank and 1 full jerry. I thought it would be a bit more than that. The 2
empty fuel jerrys and the 2 water jerrys when filled would be equal to Ruth.
well that's what I worked out  but don't tell her.  The bump stop on the front
had plenty of clearance. I changed them for hydro ones on top arm instead of
the ones in the tower plus I wound the front up a bit.  Ozzie I'm glad you are
enjoying the trip you'll do one one day i'm sure but be prepared for the jokers
on here I got a pm from HP who thought the rat reminded him of this.
What do you think?  good one Hp   


          Biggles

[Biggles]

G'day,
        From memory the schedule for the trip over was about 450- 500ks
a day. Ruth and I were doing 650-700 a day. One day we did just over 800.
When you get up at the crack of dawn and pack up after brecky it was very
easy to just keep driving. Ruth and I had turns driving. I cant sleep in a moving
car I never have been able, but Ruth nods off very easily. If she wasn't leaning
on me I was watching her worried that she might fall out but she never did.   
We did have grandiose plans of catching up but a couple of days in, we decided
we wouldn't of been able to so we slowed up a bit and met up with every one
at the caravan park/moke central in Perth the same day they all rocked in.
A lot of people think the Nullarbor is a long boring road but everything about it
was interesting. It wasn't how I pictured it. Yes there was some long patches
of the same, but then it changed. Scrub, trees, saltbush as far as you could see,
grassy plains. It was ever changing some bits just took a bit longer to change
than others.  We saw lizards by the 100's, emus, wedge tailed eagles feeding
on the endless supply of roo carcasses killed by the endless supply of Semi's of
all shapes and sizes. I had a sore finger by the time we got across it wouldn't
bend at the joint from the obligatory wave or my case the finger (not the rude
one) to the endless supply of caravans and Winnebago's migrating there way to
the cooler side of Aus.
  Everywhere we stopped we were greeted by people who were amazed at what
we were doing or who had seen the mokes before us. So fuel stops often took a
bit longer. A couple of times we stopped to look at something or to water the dry
bush and people stopped to see if we were ok met some nice people.
I'm not a big scenery pic taker so I hope these few pics aren't too boring as I think
everyone does the same thing 
                                     Biggles

[Moke2b]

145 Kim straight is one hell of a long quarter mile!

[shorty 68]

You don't no you have done it if you muck around like drive in and out of the lines. Hope terry puts up the pics of us on this bit. Sorry Biggles for taking over here.

[casper]

Love the pics Biggie, keep em coming. Looks like you and Ruth had a lot of fun. Well done

Casp

[Newie]

Great photos Biggles. Hopefully bringing back some good memories of the trip at the same time as sharing them with us 


Newie