Wayne Kerr Does the Desert

[Wayne Kerr]

A few months back my old mate Johhny Longprong and I flew home to catch up with a some other chaps for a bit of a desert adventure. I reckon Johnny must be a zillionaire as he never seems to do any work, and when he isn’t bumming around on his mango farm up in Uthai Thani Province, he’s always off on some crazy trip.

Anyway over way too many beers up at his farm earlier in the year we cooked up a bit of a plan to do a 12,000 km outback odyssey around Australia. Johnny pretty much wanted to get away from his harem for a while, and I hadn’t been back for yonks, so it seemed like the perfect getaway from Asia. Here’s a rough sketch of our planned route.


^ The mud map we sketched out whilst on the piss

We knew we couldn’t do it ourselves and a few phone calls back home and we quickly had a bit of a team together for a month long piss-up in the desert. First up was Big Kev, an accomplished rally driver, adventurer, and beer drinker extraordinaire, old Roger the dodger as mechanic, Paul de Mills as video man, and bloody Wally the Whinger, our cook.

We were equipped with a Toyota Landcruiser with strengthened front end and canister shock absorbers and an aging Toyota troopcarrier as the packhorse. The Landcruiser was towing a Trak camper with our kitchen and water supply.


^ Our ride – nice little turbo diesel


^ The mechanic, video man, and cook drove the troop carrier


^ A taste of things to come

[buad hai]

This is gonna be great, he says, rubbing his hands together. Another whacko Wayne Kerr travel saga....

[Wayne Kerr]

I'm gunna try and link this thread up with Google Earth were possible. You can click on the blue boxes to "fly" into the places I refer to … if you don't have Google Earth you can get it free by clicking here.

Our starting point was our home town on the east coast of Australia - click the blue square to check it out on Google Earth


^ Our first bush camp was here at a small place called Paterson’s Creek in southern Queensland … we put in a good 20 hours drive to get away friom things as fast as possible. As you can see it was in the middle of bloody nowwhere but the perfect getaway nonetheless


^ We had to make contact with the outside world via HF radio because some dipstick forgot where they’d hidden the charger for the satellite phone in the truck

[flash]

nice one, you do a good travel thread mr Kerr.

[blackgang]

looks good so far, I never made it down under yet.

[jizzybloke]

Good start Wayne looking forward to more.
Thanks again!

[Wayne Kerr]

This little blue tounged skink scared the crappers out of me whilst taking an early morning leak ... it was kinda like I suffered some reverse culture shock going from Bangkok to this .

[Wayne Kerr]

We set up camp the next day on a small river somewhere half way between the towns of Quilpie and Windorah in Queensland - click here to visit the exact location.

The idea was to try to catch some yabbies in the creek for breakfast. These suckers are dead easy to catch with a bit of steak tied up in a ball of string. They were the delicious fried up in a lovely chilli/garlic sauce prepared by our cook … but it was about this time I started missing Mrs. Kerr’s cooking.


^ Small creek we camped by on the second night


^ Did alright on the yabbies in the first hour before sunset


^ Lovely looking critters


^ Nice sized one getting ready for the breakfast frying pan. As these critters live in muddy water they can taste a bit muddy so its important to remember to pull their head and tail off before cooking in order to remove the digestive tract.


^ Bald Rock Lookout … quite fertile country out there … still a long way from the desert proper .

[terry57]

Lovely photos of our home country wayne, and your just teasing these fellas.

Especially the pommy blighters.

[Wayne Kerr]

Originally Posted by terry57

Lovely photos of our home country wayne, and your just teasing these fellas.

Thanks Tez ... just starting out. Not teasing ... just sharing . Seriously, what percentage of Australians have seen this stuff ... I reckon less than 1%. It really is something spectacular .


^ A kangaroo on the Barcoo River in the Welford National Park northeast of Windorah Queensland. This shot is during the dry season ... in the wet season it floods the river bank of course.

[terry57]

I've been all around Australia and without a doubt Queensland get's the gurnsy.

I especially love far north Queensland for the tropical weather, the stunning Daintree rain Forrest and its to bad its so bloody far away from Perth.

Your photos are brilliant and you are correct that not many people get to see this sort of country.

[Wayne Kerr]

Next leg was from Bald Rock across to Welford National Park – the Wiki page could use some updating. Anyway we came across these strange rocks below and weren’t surprised to hear that the indigenous folk in the area refer to them as the “crocodile rocks” … apparently they are a little ominous when the water is up a bit.


^ Can understand why the indigenous folk treat this rock with a fair bit of respect


^ The big crocodile rock - wasn't there a song about that


^ Found this lovely little billabong to set up camp


^ Our camp in Welford National Park Queensland


^ Set my tent up under this lovely tree … the lads made a few jokes about the branches falling down and all that but a night sleeping under a tree like this is better than 2 sleeps in the city


^ A lovely river red gum tree on the Barcoo River in Welford National Park Queensland\

[astasinim]

Another superb thread.

From reading your other threads, you certainly know how to live life.
Now i know why most of my friends moved over there and never come back.

[dirtydog]

Originally Posted by astasinim

Now i know why most of my friends moved over there and never come back.

Yeah, Australia is full of poisonous animals, they were all probably killed and eaten by snakes or spiders

[astasinim]

Originally Posted by dirtydog

Yeah, Australia is full of poisonous animals, they were all probably killed and eaten by snakes or spiders

One was killed by a snake of sorts... Went by the name of bradley Murdock

[MeMock]

So far so good. Keep it up.

According to your drunking road map we must of almost crossed paths!

[kingwilly]

great stuff mate, love it!

[corvettelover]

great pics but wouldnt entertain setting up camp near a little billabong further up north.
or you might find a flash flood carrying you off
or
A large croc carrying you off over night.
Dont worry the blue tongue lizard wont kill you,but some of the snakes you will come across will.
1% is a high figure most aussies have no idea what the real bush is like.
i had a cruise up in early 70s in NT (northern territory ) doing the testing on the lepord tanks when in the army and that country is amazing.
The desert is a little to hot and bloody freezing overnight.
pack some wollies.
good luck i am sure you will have some amazing memories from the trip.
Hope you got some pub shots outback pubs have some characters in them.
No bargirls damm shame

[buad hai]

Great stuff again. I've driven from Alice Springs up to Darwin and then over to Kakadu and all over Queensland. Some of the most beautiful and some of the most desolate geography I've ever seen. Keep 'em coming.

[Jet Gorgon]

Stunning photos, thanks. What's that fir-like tree in the sunset pic? Beautiful. Can you show us some cooking pics?