So, you 4WD masters must have some ideas about this.. Planning a queensland exploration trip (perhaps in a 4cyl 2wd car) in which I basicaly wanna stack the car full necessesities, get a tent, and drive around till get tired, put up tent and sleep, then drive to new place next day or stay there a few days.

Wanna do this as cheaply as possible. Is it permissible (or safe?) to just stop on the side of the road and pitch a tent? Obviously I have a lot of experience in this area and have put a lot of thought into this project before posting this thread.

I wouldn't... this dude I used to work with did GIS work with the army, and he used to tell these crazy stories about how they'd be camping in/near towns. The locals would be so bored and resentful towards the world that they'd just beat the s*** out of outsiders. One of these encounters ended in one guy having an eye dislocated from its socket and another hanging upside down from a fence. Granted this didn't happen all that often and it was about 20 years ago, but the fact that it happened more than once worries me.

Is it permissible (or safe?) to just stop on the side of the road and pitch a tent?

not permitted in most populated areas and not very safe either

if I'm doing a trip where it's over a lot of k's and a new town each night I either get a motel room or stick the tent up in the camping section of a caravan park. once you're in the bush where only 4wd's usually venture it's a lot easier to find a spot to just throw the tent up, although you nearly always need a permit if it's in a national park but they usually make it easy to pay for one

some examples:

simpson desert trip
http://jasonb.smugmug.com/gallery/4781408_RhAMK#283787503_Q69Wu

left bris late afternoon, camped at a caravan park at roma, then a designated camping spot at windorah then at caravan park at birdsville, then a camping park at maree, caravan park at coober pedy, camping park at mt.dare then 2 or 3 nights in random spots in the middle of the simpson desert (had a desert parks permit) then back to birdsville and hightailed it home


cape york trip
http://jasonb.smugmug.com/gallery/4781158_y8sKq#283760128_cf9XS

motel in townsville, camped at caravan park at cairns, caravan park near cooktown, caravan park at weipa, random spot along the telegraph track on bird(?) creek, caravan park at the tip, camped at some roadhouse on the way back, then caravan park at lakesville, hotel at townsville


s/e corner trip
http://jasonb.smugmug.com/gallery/4781615_e3ssK#283819376_LyLFx

pretty much all motels except a night camping at innamincka, temptation to be lazy and roll into a motel instead of unpacking the tent on that trip was too great

On the Bruce highway up past Rocky there is quite a few "Side of the road" stops.
Nice park area and toilet and stuff, legal to camp there, not pretty though, but does the night travelling.

National parks are all over the place though, and cost ~$6.50 a night to camp at.

Camp grounds (non elec) are very cheap, not as cheap as the side of the road, but a nice hot shower when you havent had one for a few days is always a good thing.

Huge fan of cape york and fraser.

I'd suggest cape york, however if your a newb and you get bogged, theres 1 car every 2 days that might drive past. Fraser there's 2 cars every 1 minute.

Yeah, I wouldn't take your 2wd car as you suggested you might, to either of those places.

Also, Looking through your Photo's Jim, Cant Wait for the 2nd Cape Run! Not enough photo's of my Jeep/s though >.>

meh, 2wd could work fine on fraser you would just need to carry a lot of speed to get up off the beach.

ps, are you doing fraser scooter?

mmm cape york run

been many years but there is some nice country down out the back of beaudesert down near lamington nation park and so on, the local council used to have a few camping areas beside creek's, one off the top of my head was Christmas Creek, used to get fresh milk with the cream still on the top from the local farmer =], and water was nice and cool for swimming.

^Stinson Memorial Park ;)

Google ftw.

http://www.queenslandshiddenoasis.com/pages/camping/

Oh Fraser was decided? I thought someone wanted to go Bush?
I'm probably in anyway. Everyone was f***ing around with dates so i just cbf saying yes un till it's decided.

second weekend in november, fraser.

f*** the outback.

thos cape york pictures look awesome

searching carsales.com.au for a 4wd as we speak

f*** the outback, cyclones are more fun hey nf?

Jim / Scooter, what you planning guys?

Jim, that SE corner trip looks great. So did the Cape trip. Well done man.

last edited by E.T. at 22:44:49 28/Aug/08

there's some awesome camping spots on mp_backlot

jims cape york pictures nice :( i miss australia in that way

yeah it is a damn beautiful and varying country


ET: cape york trip around mid-july next year - bring the jeep!

Well, Scooter / nF are planning Fraser... apparently.

Jim / Scooter: Cape York, 2009, Early July for ~3weeks.
Suggest Snorkel and 2" lift for those interested, but there are other ways around the harder stuff, but we'd be separated for 2~3 days. I made it through everything with my (Stock) 96 Jeep Cherokee. However by 'made it' I meant sometimes 'Dragged through it' by Jim :p I think I got stuck 8-9 times and Jim once.

We've actually done it before (Although I had the Cherokee) and this time I think we have 4-5 Vehicles keen. We are planning to leave Cairns the week school goes back (so we just miss all the school holidays)

straddie anyone????

holy crap, this sounds great!

Might have to get some mods to the commander. Woot!

i've camped on the side of the road a few times... prolly not the best thing to do but it's better than falling asleep while riding :D one time on the way home from the motorcycle gp races at phillip island we packed up right after the last race on sunday arvo & rode till about midnight which just got us over the victorian border (had a little sceneic ride through the mountains :D). i was so tired i started hallucinating, so we pulled over, setup tent & slept. woke up in the morning & the whole tent was covered in meat ants... we'd setup on top of thier nest :P

we just rolled the tent up ants n all n headed for home :D didn't unpack the tent till about 3 weeks later n just shook all the dead ants out.

Some pics from my last cape trip here.

If you head up at the right time of the year, you will not need a snorkel.

Knew it was somewhere! My dad, brother and I:
http://casa.nowuckingforries.com/simon.JPG

last edited by casa at 13:34:46 29/Aug/08

We're heading up in July, so while the rivers will be receeding there is still bound to be some deep ones.

Like I said I made it through (Late June) in a Stocko Jeep (No snorkle). That doesn't mean I wouldn't suggest one. They also help cut down on the dust getting into your Air Filter which, if you're travelling with mates and not infront/way behind, is a significant factor.

are you suggesting my car throws up a slight dustcloud?

No not at all. All i'm suggesting is that the road leaps up in an act of Joy when you honour it by choosing to take that route.

Also, Talking about equipment, ARB Southside is having a Carp Park sale this Sat.

pfft, ARB, if you can't engineer it from magna parts with a grinder and jb weld you're just not trying hard enough.

Probably no help for over here, but I just finished a 25,000km road trip around north America. Have you considered using a car that's easy to sleep in, we used a minivan with the back seats removed. Most of the time we either camped in national parks (they have heaps) or slept in the car by the side of the road. We only ever once got woken up by a couple of sheriffs in California. Trip Blog here.

that's very cool furgle

in fact that is f***in awesome