The Nullarbor-ing Days 66-68

Day 66 - Perth to Coolgardie -
545km today

So, we've decided to make a run for it in between weather systems. Just to perspective this, we haven't seen rain since Alice Springs some 7 weeks ago, and haven't had a temperature under 15, even over night since the same....... Until Last night!!! Far out it was cold! The last thing we wanted was to be stuck in the pouring rain for the next week! So we point East and run for it. Todays target: Coolgardie. Why? Because its about 500ish km away. Makes for a not too long a drive.

The blue line is our Track today - all 545km of it - click to enlarge

We arrive in Coolgardie about 1600, and start looking for the 2 alleged Caravan Parks in town. We find one: essentially a gravel carpark, looks a bit like it used to be a drive in movie theatre. in the 50's! Anyway. it's only $30, and we get to pick where ever we want. Find somewhere flat and not too far from the "facilities", which, whilst they have seen better days, are clean and functional.

Tomorrow : plan to Caiguna - we think. About 550km......

Day 67 - Caiguna to....... Cocklebiddy and the Wedge Tail Inn
Distance today 606km

As there is absolutely NO reason to stay here any longer that necessary and at least 550 km in front of us we get a move on. Nose pointed East as are going to hit the Nullarbor proper. We Stop in at Noresman for fuel and stretch. Interesting little town, with a declining population. We head for the "supermarket" but the shelves are pretty bare. The Truck is due in this arvo. grab a bag of lollies and an Iced Coffee and get going.

loooooooooong straight road - thank gawd for the hills

About 180km in to the trip we get to Balladonia. Site of a Road house and not much else, although they do have a WA Ambulance Service Volunteer station. The only thing of note here; The longest single stretch of Straight road in Australia: 146.6km of DEAD straight road. Booooooooooooring. thankfully it's not flat as well as straight.  


Sam and his Favourite Animal
in the Whole World!

The up side to this long straightness is  that if the brown gooey substance ever hits the rapidly rotating blades, the RFDS can land near by. Upside! otherwise...... driving.... driving.......driving. watching the rear vision mirror for storm clouds. every time we stop its WINDY. Apparently it gets windy when the sun goes down. Awesome! Oh, and its only 20 degrees in the middle of the day..... Brilliant :(

Day 68 - Cocklebiddy to Penong - Where the hell is Penong?
Distance Today 690km!!!!! Bloody Hell!

I'm confused.........

So saddled up for the day after a windy and cold night (Glad we packed the fan heater!!! :) ) we get a wriggle on again, we once again turn right out the driveway of our overnight stay

Madura Mundrabilla and Eucla  pass by and we roll into Border Village on the SA/WA border.

Border Village being some many hundred Km from the next fuel we grab 100 odd litres to give us options Also grab some snacks and a loo stop. Consulting the maps as we eat, we look towards Nullarbor Roadhouse (182km)and Nundroo (332km) as possible stops. We decide on Nundroo. Had we not been trying to out run the weather, I was going to suggest a northerly detour to Maralinga. Always been fascinated with this part of our military history. Not saying I'd camp there. but interesting to visit.....much in the same way Wittenoom wold have been.

We arrive at Nundroo and OMG what a total DUMP. There is a gale blowing in off the Bight and the only sites for Tents are in the open and on shade cloth. While we are here, the local Constabulary arrive to deal with some "locals" who are inside the shop. Toilets are disgusting. It's called CLEANING people. Try it some time.

Some Wedgies grazing on the side of the road.
Working Smarter, not harder. Why kill it, when a car can do it for you?

Straight back in the HiLux  and decide to drive west until it gets dark. Its raining now on and off. Looking at the maps we decide on Penong, another 80 km. Never heard of it. We find a great little caravan park, tucked away off the main road about 1700. $35 a night!!! Its getting dark now. And COLD. Care taker offers us an INDOOR site, in a shed, to keep us out of the wind. Sadly, we need to drive pegs into the ground and have to say no. He instead puts us into a  group of sites behind some trees and screens. It's actually not too bad over night. Predicted rain is there, but not too windy, given what we thought it could have been. Cold overnight, but sunny in the morning. Woo Hoo :) Only 1700km from home now!!!!!!!

Day 65 Cervantes to Perth via Indian Ocean Drive

Cervantes to Perth via Indian Ocean Drive

Distance Today 307km

Ill be honest now: Perth underwhelmed me, and that's probably not fair. There were several reasons.
1. the weather was closing in. We were seeing forecasts of storms and crap weather arriving in the next 2 days. We decided to "make a run for it" across the Nullarbor. We had frost on the tent and rain overnight. :(

Freemantle Harbour: He's NOT gonna need a bigger boat

Anyway, we arrived after lunch after a drive down the scenic Indian Ocean Drive and it was worth it. Great views, but as we had now essentially decided that the trip was over, dropping some things we were going to see between Perth and the Nullarbor Proper to stay ahead of the weather, we had northing keeping us here. That and Mandy had just about had enough. In retrospect I don't blame her. 30 weeks pregnant now and really, she has put up with some appalling roads, long days and some hot days. Oh, and the odd bent tent peg of 12, which may or may not have produced some unpleasant results in the husband department.  I'm so proud of her though, because this pregnancy could easily have been the end to our trip, before it even started., but we stuck with it, and she has done remarkably well. Proud of you Sweetheart :) 

Its along way to the top if ya wanna Rock and Roll
AC/DC found it... and stayed there


We decide to drive down to Freemantle to see what all the fuss is about. Mandy has been here before, many years ago. We have found a caravan park, after our original first choice is full. Not bad, but very open, near a road. anyway, it's only one night.
Freemantle was interesting, but our quick tour probably didn't do it justice. We did see some massive boats, a Boat parking facility that looked like a multilevel car park and a Bronze statue tribute to probably one of the biggest names in Australian Rock - Bon Scott. despite being born a Scot, and emigrating in 1957, we took him as our own, as we Aussies tend to do (Although I've  never claimed Russel Crowe, New Zealand can keep him) We had Fish and Chips in a massive harbour side chip shop. A bit $$$ but not too bad.

On the return trip to the Trailer, I spot St johns WA headquarters and threaten to drop in my resume. Apparently, this was not funny. I make the argument of climate and the extra $25K A YEAR. This gets shot down with "5000km to grandparents" and other such practicalities. Pfffffft!

We retire to the Trailer to replan the stages of our Nullarbor journey. We deicide to play it by ear, with some roughed out plans of places at our trigger distance of 500km per day. Oh dear. The best laid plans....... as they say..... 

Day 64 - Geraldton to Cervantes - The Pinnicles

Geraldton to Cervantes

Distance Today 275km


Now you see me........

After a tyre rotation and possibly some of the best Italian food I've had we continue the journey south.  We drive via Port Denison, and bare right for the Indian Ocean drive towards Cervantes and The Pinnacles. An Interesting little town, and a great drive once you head out and head towards the Pinnacles. We arrive in time for lunch, set up and decide to head down to The Pinnacles this arvo, as local advice is its' a half day activity.
There is seemingly some dispute over the origin of these odd formations. The main one being that millions of years ago this was actually a rain forest, when Sea levels rose the trees were submerged and became "fossilised" under layers of silt and sand etc. When sea levels receded again, they were revealed when the sand was washed away. Cool




The other cool thing here is the visitors centre. The vast visitors centre is a wealth of knowledge and information, with plenty Hundreds of Japanese and other foreign tourists swap this place as it is a bus drive from Perth now with the new Indian Ocean drive completed. We found them to be quite rude and pushy, not particularly eager to take their turn, as they were seemingly trying to pack 6 hours sightseeing into 4 hours! Disappointing.



What you lookin at?

 Once we left the visitors centre however this was no longer a problem. You can drive around the formations in your own car provide you stray on the defined track and park in the bays as marked by rocks. Once there you can walk around at your own leisure and see the formations up close. The only restriction is that you are asked not to climb on them. Not a big thing to ask really. Still, for some, particularly those not seemingly born here, or for whom English may not be their first language, compliance with this direction seemed to be quite difficult



The Kids seemed to find The Pinnacles quite fascinating and I admit I was the same. just another of those weird natural phenomena Australia has to offer (Ha- take that Mal Walden -Phenomena!!!!! I can say it AND spell it)

After a night in Cervantes in the beach side caravan park, sites were on the small side but reasonably priced and although straight out of the 1970's Flat grassy sites. walking distance to the beach. the sunset was pretty cool: a storm on the horizon.

Tomorrow it's off down the new section of the Indian Ocean drive that links in to the old road south.

Bugs? What bugs?

Day 62 - Hamelin to Geraldton

We pack and depart, a little sad to leave, but this is the home stretch now, only 2 weeks until we are home so, as much as we could spend an extra day here, it would be doing “nothing” and there are things we need to do at home that have popped up since we’ve been away.

 

Last night we looked at the maps and decided that we would skip Kalbarri NP. The 2 main areas we wanted to look at (Eaglesnest Lookout and Nature’s Window) are closed due to road works until September. Its an extra 130km to go to Geraldton via Kalbarri, so we aim straight for Geraldton, 309km away.

 



There's a Storm a'brewin

We arrive about 1300, set up and go look around. There are many ships in the harbour, swinging at anchor, and the surf can be heard pounding the shore line. Our tent is 100m from the beach, and you can see the spray from the shore break from our tent!!! Someone at dinner mentions that it’s a 4 meter swell, and ships can’t enter the harbour is its over 2 meters as they can damage the pier etc.

 

Tried to book into the Italian restaurant, but can’t as he is booked out for 6:00pm as there is a show on at 8:00 by the Melbourne Ballet company, and everyone is going for an early dinner. We book for tomorrow, as we are here for 2 nights.

 

Then, after dinner, closer to midnight, a strange thing happened. It Rained! Actually, it poured! It took me a minute to recognise the sound of rain on the canvas. Later in the night Mandy gets trapped in the toilets by another downpour!

 

No harm done.

 

Day 62 – day 2 Geraldton.

 

I change the rear tyres on the Hilux to even the wear out. They have done 10000 really hard km, and the back tyres have more weight on them that the trailer or front tyres.

HMAS Sydney II Memorial

Lest We forget

 HMAS Sydney II was a decorated and storied ship of the RAN, that had seen significant action during World War II. The Sydney II was a modified Leander class Cruiser,  which saw action initially closer to Europe, sinking several Men-o-war and Enemy flagged merchant ships and causing several others to flee her presence. However, it was off the shores of the shores of the Australian mainland that her most well known battle took place, even if the exact location of her final  resting place would not be known for over 75 years!

We head in to see the HMAS Sydney II memorial. Opened in 2001, it is an important reminder of one of the greatest single losses of life in the Royal Australian Navy’s history. Engaged in a battle with the German raider Kormoran, it was lost with all hands on 19^th November, 1941. Until 2008, the actual resting place of the Sydney was unknown. The only reason they Navy knew she had been sunk was that she failed to report in as scheduled, and the arrival of survivors from the Kormoran in life boats on the coast of WA around Geraldton.

 

The loss of the entire ship’s company of 645 Officers and ratings is a stark reminder of the losses our country endured during the second World War. The statue as part of the memorial, showing a lady, looking out to sea, awaiting the return of her loved one, serves to remind us that those lives lost, while tragic in themselves, was only part of the loss suffered. Every one of the men lost, not just on the Sydney, but in all conflicts, leaves behind a grieving family, wife, girlfriend, children, brother, sister, father, aunt, and in the modern era, husband or boyfriend.

 

This is MY Child - acting as one should in a place like this:
With dignity and respect. Well Done Max- So Proud of you!

The Memorial is beautifully done. Sadly the sign stating “ This is a place of dignity and respect. We ask that you conduct yourself in such a manner as to reflect the intentions of this place” was not heeded by the Feral Family, letting their kids play chasey around the central pillar of the memorial yelling “hah hah, you’re a loooooooooser” So remind me again, why you came here? Such disrespect is tragically becoming all too common, and the parents are squarely to blame for failing to correct this abhorrent  behaviour!

 

After this we leave to play at the foreshore park. Great playground and the kids run riot. Sadly, the

Geraldton Shire council has a Department of the Bleeding Obvious, and has a sign on the toddler playground that suggests it is common for parents to let their kids play without a nappy on!!!!??? For real??? Seriously? People need to be told it’s NOT ok for their kids to poo on the playground??

 

After this disturbing incident we head to L’Italiano restaurant. OMG. BEST ITALIAN FOOD EVER! Great little palace with good selection. Smells great. I had Gnocchi Quatrro Fromagii (Gnocchi with 4 cheeses) Brilliant. You do need to see a Doctor about getting your cholesterol checked, but last I had mine done it was ok, so we powered on. Sam had Meat Lovers Pizza – Beautiful Super Thin crust Pizza, stone baked, not conveyer belt. Delish! Max shared the Large Pizza with Sam and they both had some of Mandy’s “combination” Lasagne, Cannelloni and baked Tortellini. We thought we’d save some $$$$ on 3 mains, but it was all so good, we had to order a kids pizza to fill the kids because we didn’t want to give any up!!!!!!

 

Dessert was good too. I had the Mint Choc sundae. Magnificent. Boys had Chocolate Gelato, with a wafer and one of those chocolate wafer roll things. And on the house I had an affogato. I said to the waitress (who happens to also be the co-owner with her husband who is the chef) that I couldn’t decide between affogato and the mint sundae, so, after I ordered the Mint sundae, she arrived with the other desserts, AND an affogato.  Now, for the non-coffee snobs out there, affogato is a shot of espresso coffee poured over a small scoop of vanilla ice-cream in a small espresso cup. YUM!

645 Stainless Steel Seagulls -1 for each Australian Sailor lost on the Sydney II

 

We roll back to the tent, full up, early start to head to Cervantes and The Pinnacles!

Day 61 – Monkey Mia to Hamelin Station

Today just 103km

 

SO we leave Monkey Mia, achieving what we wanted to achieve, which was seeing some dolphins up close, with the added bonus of the boys feeding them! We drop passed the dolphin area around 0900, but no one is home. The morning interaction was only at 0830 (a bit later than normal – after all, dolphins don’t wear wrist watches!) and we do however see a Turtle in the “Dolphin Interaction Zone”. Max remarks that, whilst cute (he loves turtles) that he shouldn’t be in the Dolphin interaction area, and perhaps they should set up a turtle interaction area as well!!!

 

We drop into Denham and pick up bread and some dinner meat (awesome IGA snags and rissoles) Memo Coles from us: Your sausages are rubbish! Just saying. IGA ones are heaps nicer!

 

Shelly Beach - no sand here!!!!!

We wander to the Hamelin Station Stay. Hamelin station is a working Sheep station on 250,000 acres, running 20,000 head of sheep (at the moment, this number fluctuates depending on conditions). There are 2 reasons for stopping here. 1. Stromatalites at Hamelin Pool and 2. To break up the drive to Geraldton (which would be 420km direct or 550km if we went through Kalbarri NP (which was our initial plan)

 

 

Stromatalites: Be thankful they are here......
for the last 3.5 BILLION years!

Firstly: Stromatalites. What the hell is a Stromatalite? Well, if not for these 3.5 BILLION year old life forms, we, humans, may not be here! Stromatalites are a form of Cyanobacteria which combine with rock and sediment to form a reef like structure. They produce Oxygen from surrounding elements, namely Carbon Dioxide, and thrived in the environments around the time of the formation of the earth, when Oxygen was scarce. Due to such favourable condition, they thrived and made so uch oxygen, that the Oxygen level, compared to other gases (Nitrogen, CO2 etc) gradually changed over 100’s of Millions of years to close to what it is now (21% Oxygen, 78% Nitrogen, 1% the rest!), and it was this change which is thought to have prompted certain animals to seek an existence outside of the water and on land. It is these animals which are our earliest evolutionary relatives.

 

So, you may ask, what’s so important out these Stromatalites at Hamelin Pool? Well, there are only 2 known “deposits” of Stromatalites in the WORLD. Here, at Hamelin Pool, and another in the Bahamas. That’s it!

 

Because they are a lot like coral they are easily damaged and take YEARS to repair. In fact you can see tracks in the Stromatalites here made during the late 1800’s and early 1900’s when wool wagons were pushed/pulled over them to load ships in the bay here. Those tracks are still visible, over 100 years later!!!

 

Cant knock these sunsets..........

And the other reason we are here is Hamelin Station Stay. Brilliant. The owners have done a great job building an immaculate amenities block, beautifully maintained. They have cabins, rooms in the old shearer’s quarters or unpowered camp sites. They are large and level. The Price? $36 a night for all of us!!!! We’ve stayed at other stations (Mabel Downs comes to mind) with facilities that are down right 3^rd world compared to these, also unpowered, and paid $45!!! 

 

So, what is there to do at Hamelin Station? Nothing! That’s the beauty of it! You can see the Stromatalites, wander around their lake, watch birds or do NOTHING!!!! Its not a resort, with planned activities and a pool and the like. But the facilities are first rate.

 

The camp kitchen and BBQ areas are brilliant. Large and spacious, they are well equipped. When our host, Julie, took us through, I through she’d walked us through the station kitchen! It had a commercial type cooker hob with Oven, full array of frying pans and saucepans, and 2 separate eating areas, the larger enclosed by café style vinyl blinds! Staff and owners are brilliant, and we had a good chat to both, just shooting the breeze and learning about the place. Just a great place to stay. Also some pretty nice sunsets.

 

Day 58 – uPDATED Carnarvon to Monkey Mia – via Denham

 

Distance 389km 
Avg Fuel consumption for the whole trip so far 15.7l/100km
Fuel used 1567.4 Litres!

Total Distance travelled 10071km!!!!!!

 

We depart Carnarvon a little later than hoped after a call from the Local Ambo’s to say “thanks” for the hand the previous day. Seems “Dave” is actually pretty unwell, and was Airlifted by the RFDS about 2130 last night with a Brain Aneurysm, in an induced coma. Not sure what the future holds, and probably won’t find out, but I’m glad we stopped to help and didn’t just hand it off to the locals (knowing now that they are Volunteers, not paid Paramedics – As volunteers, they do not have the same skill set as Paramedics, but are still well trained and effective First Responders, and more importantly, they have transport to hospital!!!!)

 

To Support the RFDS please click here to find out how

 

We stop off at the Overlander Roadhouse and grab a snack, $2.20 for a fried Dim Sim!! Wow! Head back in the car aiming for Denham for lunch. Find the Bakery and grab pies for lunch. $5 for pies, and not too shabby either. Eating them on the foreshore made them taste better still!!!!

Denham foreshore - Why would you be here????

 

 

What you lookin at!!!!

Again back in the car aiming for Francois Peron NP and the Monkey Mia Dolphin conservation reserve. It is probably worth the mention that the whole area, known as Shark Bay (the whole area is on a bay…..) is World Heritage Listed and protected in all manner of ways from exploitation etc. There is still a thriving tourist industry here too, so things are protected AND people can see it.

 

We stump up our additional $30 to get in, to the WA DEC (Department of Environment and Conservation) and book into the caravan park. Site found and tent set up, we stroll to the beach for sunset, and a general feel for the place.

Some nice pics around sunset. All in all, seems fairly cool

 

Day 59 – Day 1 at Monkey Mia

 

Photos taken during Dolphin Interaction: 1062 :) (Thanks Mum!)

 

 



2 mothers and their Calves. Just 4 of the 15 different dolphins to come in

We have 2 full days here and decide to jump straight in and see the Dolphin Interaction. The Dolphins here are wild, in as much as they can come and go as they please. They only feed certain dolphins, and no more than 3 times a day, and only ever 5 small fish, which accounts for about 20% of their daily 12 kg food requirement. This forces them to maintain their hunting skills. This is important because the young learn this behaviour from their mother, and if the mothers (most of the dolphins that come in are female) don't hunt for fish, then the calves wont learn to find food, and eventually die. This ain’t Seaworld: There is no free lunch here, just a free snack!



Max looking at Niki - trying not to fall in!!!!!






Feeding "Surprise" the dolphin

Only 5 people per Dolphin get to feed (1 fish per person, 5 fish per dolphin), and they never feed more than 5 dolphins at a time. This time around the boys missed out. There are up to 6 more chances (2 today and 3 tomorrow with 1 on the day we leave if required). Not too disappointed. We watch Niki, one of the regulars trying to catch a fair sized fish under the jetty, providing a good 45 mins on entertainment for the gathering crowd.

That WAS pretty cool! Thanks Surprise!!!!

 

They go for “interaction” 2 for the day, and we get front centre spots again. This time the young French guy, here volunteering, picks the boys to feed. Both are rapped, and we get a couple of great photos and some huge smiles from both boys! They thought it was awesome, and fair enough too. Sam remarked that he’d fed dolphins on the East coast and the West coast of Australia, as we fed a captive dolphin at Seaworld a few years ago.

 

Spent the rest of the day lazing around, looking in the shop etc. The boys picked up some more stuffed toys. Max a Shark (not sure what specific type) and Sam a d tiger Shark. We bought a stuffed toy Sting Ray for the baby: Given the Child won’t be called “Steve” or use the word “crikeey” a lot, I feel this is a safe option. It was also Waaaaaaaay cute and gender neutral!

 

You looking at me kid? You Lookin at ME?

 

After lunch decide to play on the beach. It’s down to mid 20’s now, so not even my 2 “Daaaaad, can we swim??” boys want anything to do with swimming here. Max built a sand castle turtle, which was pretty good

Day 2 - Monkey Mia and Denham

 

Weather isn’t as good as the previous, oh say 8 weeks, and we pass on early dolphin interactions, given the boys have already fed one and we had a pretty good time of it yesterday. Wander down, have a look, and no dolphins around. Look through the information centre and the like. We decide to head to the Shark Bay Aquarium after lunch, and so we eat and jump in the car for the 30km drive back to Denham. Weather is still further closing in.  



Nemo: FOUND!!!!!

We handed over our $63 for our family entry. We had heard good things about this place and were   and a variety of sharks including tiger, reef and  some others I can’t remember!

not disappointed. The staff, though young, are knowledgeable and entertaining in informing us of the different types of marine animals they have. All animals are local to Shark Bay. They have sea snakes, Rays, Turtles, Clown Fish (aka Nemo)


 

 

The sharks are in a large tank, strangely enough, along with some other fish that they apparently don’t like to eat! Very very interesting, and the best part is, that once you’ve paid to get in, you can stay all day. So if you wanted to do the tour 7 times you can, just keep tagging on to the end of the next tour.

Ya think!



Max and Bob, the 3 flippered Turtle



What's in there d'ya reckon?

 

Dinner tonight is Pepperoni Risotto, done in the camp oven (but on a burner as no fires allowed in the National Park) which came up really well. I didn’t expect it to work as well as it did.

 

 

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What are we running.........

Many of you will already know this stuff.. but if you dont.... here's a run down on our setup for this Trip, a 3 month jaunt around WA via Ayre's Rock (or Uluru if you prefer)

The Truck/Car/Tug

Our chariot will be a 2007 Toyota Hilux D4D, Twincab, 3.0 turbo diesel, Manual. Purchased new, it has been fitted with a number of accessories to keep us safe and get us out of trouble. these include:

• ARB Bullbar/Siderails
• Snorkel
• Kaymar Rear Step/Towbar
• Lowline Steel framed Canopy with roofrack
• Black Widow drawer system with custom fridge storage and standard fridge slide
• Ironman Foamcell suspension (with 45mm lift at front)
• Ironman 12000lb winch and synthetic cable
• Cooper STMaxx tyres on "Sunraysia" Steel wheels all around including Trailer
• Long Range Automotive 145 l replacment fuel tank
• TyreDog Tyre Pressure monitor
• Fuel Manager FM100 Fuel "pre filter" and water separator

Added to this are a few other things to make life more enjoyable/safer/because I like to talk......

• Codan 8528 HF radio with RFDS and VKS737 channels
• Icom dual band (70cm/2m or UHF/VHF if you prefer) Amateur radio
• 80ch UHF CB
• Reversing Camera/GPS
• Narva 225 driving Lights
• Tekonsha P2 brake controller

We're Navigating with the full suite of Hema  and Geoscience Australia Maps, via my Asus TF-201 10" Transformer Prime ePad, with Oziexplorer for Android and Holux Bluetooth GPS

The Trailer

click to enlarge

Our accommodation for the trip will be our 2011 Tambo Omeo Camper Trailer. One of only around 
25 of these fabulous trailers are out there at the moment. But...... Tambo has re-opened and are back, bigger and better than before. Ian and Emma are giving that same great Customer Service that Tambo are renowned for with the same quality build and ruggedness Tambo trailers are so well known for. Visit www.tambocampertrailers.com.au or phone 03 9801 9222 and see why WE are running a Tambo! You will NOT be disappointed! (No I don't own shares, but when I get a product I'm happy with, I make sure that I let others know, because word of mouth is the best plug for any business, and these guys deserve it.)
15,000km on this trip plus at least another 10,000km through Lake Eyre and the Victorian High Country, including the infamous "staircase" to Lake Cobbler and not one single Mechanical issue. This thing is TOUGH.

built ridiculously tough. the only issue was a bent tent arm -
 caused by Me not packing it up properly

7x5 Steel framed construction, with Australian made 12.5oz Canvas all around, The Omeo was one of the first "Walk up" designs, which allows us to drop a step down at the foot of the  bed and simply "walk up" into the bed. No Massive step up, no climbing over each other to get out of bed!! Genius!

The Omeo has a Stainless steel topped Kitchen bench, with Lido Junior 2 burner stove, as well as Massive kitchen storage drawer for all food storage requirements.

The Omeo came from the factory with no electrics (as requested) and has been modded by us to suit our requirements.

• RedArc BMS1220S2 update
• 2 x 100Ah SSB AGM Deep cycle battery
• 240v 10A, 30mA RCBO for earth leakage and overload protection
• 10 outlet fuse block for 12v distribution
• 2 x Anderson plug outlets - 1 rear and 1 front
• 2 x twin cigarette lighter outlets and 1 x single cig/twin USB 2A outlets in kitchen
• NO Inverter fitted, but we carry 2 x 200w Inverters to use as required

The Cameras

So we are shooting a few cameras:Primary Image device:
       Nikon D70 DSLR 6.2Mpix
               18-55mm f3.5-5.6
               28-80mm f3.5-5.6
               70-300mm f 4.5-5.6 All genuine Nikkor Lens
The 2 shorter lenses run a Cokin "A" series filter system, and use the circular Polarising filter
also on duty id the FijiFilm F100 Compact digital. 12Mpix and the main "glovebox Camera"
Apple iPhone 4S also made a few contributions when the big camera was packed away.

Also the Samsung Digital video Camera had a bit of an outing, but sadly, not as much as I would have liked, as I get carried away with my stills too much and forget to grab it out!!