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A letter from Australia
Dear All
I hope you are well. Ive been mucking around in the bottom right corner of Australia. My mate in Canberra sorted me out with a ten year old Nissan Navara thats not knackered and i fitted a rooftent. I was gonna head for Brisbane but the weather put a dent in that plan hence a loop down south. I’ve spent 3 days getting used to it all and driving some dirt roads down to the coast and up into the mountains.. im heading to see a pal in Sydney then on up the east coast.
Good work, any pics appreciated;) and the photos did arrive!! Looks good:)
albeit it has been sunny over here, but still had a frost on the car this morning.
Pucs should have been posted now as an edit
Great stuff!
I cant be arsed editing it to reverse the order
Enjoy, any biking planned
That looks like a good set up. I've spent a fair bit of time touring round Aus in a small campervan and I absolutely loved it. There's some truly amazing places to see and some great spots for wild/bush camping that are totally legit and cheap as chips. A great way of getting away from it all. My favourite spots were probably on the west coast and in Tas, but there's plenty of great places in the East too.
Enjoy, and I'm already looking forward to the next letter!
Ive akready found some of those sites. Really nice
How do you get the photos to flip up the right way?
Or is that not really Australia?
Nice, enjoy!
That tent photo looks like it's glitched. Surely a roof tent should be on the roof? 😆
Edit: I can't get The Proclaimers out of my head now! It's stuck.
Looks ok, for over East 😉
Must admit, it's lovely to just do an overnighter mid-week. Waking up to roos round the site and the smell of bacon and eggs and a nice coffee.
Where are you aphex? I'm heading east as well.
Love it! Have a re-run of Wolf Creek when you get the time 🤪
About as West as you can get mate. Sunny Perf. (Well, 50 clicks south of Perth city)Where are you aphex? I'm heading east as well.
Looks amazing TJ!
Mind you don't get bitten by anything.
And have a nice time otherwise 😉
Looks great TJ, the Australians really do know how to camp don't they, have a great & safe trip
Exciting. What's the food like?
Exciting. What's the food like?
Don't Australians just dig up a witchetty grub to munch on when hungry?
That looks stunning. One of the few places on earth where a roof tent makes sense. Enjoy!
The spiders can still climb the ladder...
That looks a great set up ..... enjoy the trip 👍
looks rubbish. 100% would not visit
Dear all.
I hpe you are well. Since my last missive i visited various pals and drank far too much in Brisbane. Unfortunately this meant I did not look at the weather forecast in enough detail and carried on with my plan to drive up to Cairns. Well northern Queensland is under a series of tropical storms leading to flooding and road closures. I couldn't get to Cairns!
I drove west inland as far as you can before I have to decide north or south. Right into the deep outback. Even some gravel roads for added spice with flooded creeks.
Sitting having coffee and trying to decide mount isa and the north or south towards the nullabor.
Nearly 3000 miles drive already
My ute is filthy
Wait until you've been out there a few weeks! You'll turn that colour too.
Hmm could have sworn mi did an update
Dear all.
I hope this missive finds you well. Since my last letter i have mainly been buggering around in north Queensland. I tried to follow my plan but forgot about the weather. Floods and roads closed. I did manage to stalk reeksy tho 🤣
Done another chunk of gravel including being overtaken by a truck and a bunch of creek crossings.. Much fun.
Headed west then south. Time to escape rain a d bad decisions
Ill write again soon
TJ 
My kids play a game when bushwalking: "who can spot the biggest Lizard". Part of the game is the the "Bush turkey bonus" - first one to see a bush turkey wins.
Bugger was after my coffee
I'd love to see an over-caffeinated turkey.
Also, I think reeksy's t-shirt may be inside out 🤔
Headed west then south. Time to escape rain a d bad decisions
Didn't you bring the rain when you cycled around Ireland? Are you some sort of rain-god jinx ?
If you're heading to Mt Isa by the inland route, make sure to stop at the pub in Mackinlay. It's the pub used in Crocodile Dundee.
I'm 99.999% sure that this isn't TJ
Man stranded in Simpson Desert with authorities seeking others due to wet weather - ABC News
I'm 99.999% sure that this isn't TJ
Man stranded in Simpson Desert with authorities seeking others due to wet weather - ABC News
At least he's not worrying any baby wombats.....
... that we know of. I haven't checked his Tik Tok account.
Not me. I went south to avoid that. Heading for the nullabor on tarmac.
Its where i hoped to go tho🤣
30 years ago I was relocating a campervan from Adelaide to Perth and spent an evening drinking with a random bunch in the Nullarbor roadhouse. When the party broke up the barman said to one 'local' You know the drill, if you can catch your keys you'll be OK to get home under your own steam. He caught them and walked out the door. As he was clearly pissed I said to the guy surely he isn't driving home and the barman laughed and said nah, don't worry he isn't driving so I assumed he was going back to one of the rooms in the car park.......as I was walking over to my camper I heard what sounded like a ride-on lawnmower start up and watched in astonishment as a single seater crop sprayer wobbled off down the back road and took off, circled round, buzzed the pub and disappeared in a Northerly direction!
Love the outback.
If you have plans to make it as far as Melbourne, let us know. Can arrange a meetup.
Hello again all. Its been a while since i wrote last and i have been adventuing!
I do hope you are all having as much fun
I crossed the nullabor then drove up thru Kalgoorlie and the goldfields thru the Gibson desert to the pilbara and on to port hedland then turned right and went on to 80 mile beach and Broome. I had a excursion up the Dampier peninsula then headed thru the Kimberley which was closed ffs and i am now heading for Darwin.
Fabulous camping in the bush with amazing stars. Miles and mes of desert and semi desert. Today i nearly bogged the ute in a mudhole on a tiny road miles from anywhere. Gave me a scare.
The lady in charge of the campsite i am on just warned me snakes are around. Gulp.
Uphillcursing. I may do that. Im gonna drive the central road thru alice springs so will be back in the south east in a couple of weeks.
Sent, or at least think I sent, a message with a general location. If you think you might get anywhere near, let me know.
Alice Springs? You've more chance of seeing a bunyip up there.
Dear all.
I hope you are well. Im sorry it been so long since i wrote but i couldn't be arsed🤣
Since my last misdive I have been to Darwin where I washed the car and had it serviced. Ffs only halway round and it needed an oil change.
From Darwin I went into the Kakado national park to see the wetlands after the rain and to be eaten by mosquitoes. Didn't see any crocs tho as they have all dispersed far and wide in the floods.
Then down the central road to alice springs via a weird place called the devils marbles
and then west into various national parks to gawp at the gorgeous scenery. Kings canyon. Palm Valley which involved a bit of real 4x4 driving. Ularu and the Kata Tjuto rocks.
Then back to the stuart highway and Im now in Coober Pedy for a couple of days. Plan is to now go east to Lake Eyre and into th Flinders ranges
More pics. King canyon Ularu and Kata Tjuda
More pics including 
Coober Pedy and a random tabletop
Im heading that direction next
Dear all.
Sorry I have been remiss in writing. I have been too busy driving around.
After Coober Pedy whete i did find a tiny bit of opal i headed off the main road to lake eyre which is a lie. It contains no water🙄 then on to the flinders ranges for a few days. Found some real old outback roadhouses and some nice walks in the mountains 
After the Flinders ranges I carried on south to Adelaide where i met up with an ex Stwer. Zokes. Anyone remember him? I stayed with him a couple of days and we went to an Ausdie rules game and then out on the town. He took me to a very trendy area so i had to put my hair in a man bun 
Then have pterydactyls in Adelaide
I ended up not going to Melbourne so missed meeting uphillcursing of the parish.. He is probably relieved 🤣
Instead I went to Ballarat which has a fabulous living museum of the goldfields where I did some gold panning and got a few specs of gold.
Visited my cousin who seems to have a knackered Peugeot issue then on to Echuca which was an important port on the Murray river and has working paddle steamers and static stem engines
Last day on the road tomorrow back to Canberra thru the mountains. I have to get the car ready for sale before I leave and as the Aussies would say its a bit feral
20000km driven in 10 weeks every state visited and most of thr big tourist spots plus loads of time in the outback, a fair bit of gravel driving and a bit of real 4x4 driving.
Thats a road trip.
Im ready to come home now tho. 5 months on thr road is enough
What a great tour. What was your highlight?
Dunno really
NZ the last 3 days cycling maybe.
Aus camping in the desert or at palm valley. Or maybe driving on gravel high into the mountains
It will take a while to digest.
It all looks a lot nicer than portrayed on “Outback Trucker”, thanks for the pictures, I’ll still not be going though!
thank you for the updates, has brightened up the winter days in the uk. Have a safe trip home.
Talking about outback truckers I saw Steve Graemes truck. That made my day
Did you see Steve Graeme? In the series I’m on he’s 72 and looks well knackered! I want to know if he’s quiet and gentle in real life…
Excellent pictures you’ve posted, looks like you have had a great time.
Just saw the truck driving past
I'm going to Ularu in a couple of weeks - how was it?
Yeah TJ was avoiding me like a dose of Herpes. In truth, the day he was passing these here parts was Mothers day in Aus. Difficult to get anything arranged.
I'm going to Ularu in a couple of weeks - how was it?
Heaving with tourists and you have to stay in the "resort"
Still worth seeing but I enjoyed the Kata Tjuta better ( the olgas) which is 30km away or something. Kings canyon was also great in that area
I also camped in a brilliant spot on the way there Palm Valley near Hermansberg. 4x4 track to get to it but fab.
Great pics. Reminds me of my road trip. 😀
I don’t post much on this thread - but I love to see your updates and photos. Somewhat jealous of your photographic skills!
Looks like a pretty awesome 5 months! 😀
I don’t post much on this thread - but I love to see your updates and photos. Somewhat jealous of your photographic skills!
No skills - just take loads and post the best ones - all on an old phone
Back home now - I was more than ready to get home. Long tyrip, some great stuff, some not so great. I just loved the desert - days and days driving thru it
Welcome home TJ, looks like you had a fabulous time & thanks for sharing your photos with us.