All posts by admin

Mount Zero Taravale

AWC, forest, Landscape, Mount Zero Taravale, Mount Zero Taravale, mountains, Qld, river/creeks

In 2019 The Doc went on an AWC Supporter’s Event to Mt Zero Taravale out of Townville. Supporters arrived in that fancy red helicopter, flown out of Townville Airport, known as Garbutt Airfield in WW2.

He had previously driven up the entrance of the Sanctuary.

The Doc forgot to write up a report, so he only has some pictures. Better late than never. One day he may find the notes from the visit.

The Doc does remember meeting and speaking to AWC legend Peter Stanton at the event and later sending him some AWC slides The Doc had scanned of Peter at MZT, in the very early days of AWC ownership.

Viva Cristo Rey.

The first visit was to the entrance of the MZT, in a car. The road up was a bit narrow driving the Nissan Patrol and it was a long way down. That road was narrow and had blind corners everywhere.

The road down was not as bad when The Doc left the Supporter’s Event and someone else was driving!

The Bungle Bungles revisited from the air

4X4, Australia, Bungle Bungles, Kimberley, Landscape, landscape, Purnululu National Park, rock, WA, WA

Next The Doc jumped into a helicopter and had a short flight over the Bungles. You take off and 30 seconds later you are over the bee hives and from this perspective you begin to understand how the “bee hive” formations were eroded from the surrounding plateau. In fact, the Bungles are still slowly being formed today. Viva Cristo Rey.

The Bungle Bungles from the ground

4X4, Australia, Bungle Bungles, Landscape, Purnululu National Park, river/creeks, sunrise, sunset, WA, WA

The Doc is reprocessing images from the Bungle Bungles in Purnululu (Per-na-lew-lew) National Park in Western Australia, the original images were posted here. First up it is the reprocessed ground images, with the aerial images to follow.

Images are from Gorge Road, Spring Creek Track and Piccaninnny Creek. Viva Cristo Rey.

Sunrise and sunset images below.

One night at camp The Doc thought he was being watched, he turned on the torch to see a Tawny Frogmouth 2.5 metres away. They are silent on the wing and The Doc never heard it fly in and land, nor do their prey.

Plus a bonus image from Panikin Lookout, Lake Argyle Road, Lake Argyle (the last image).

Amazing Pilbara images P&S – Part 2

4X4, Australia, desert, Landscape, Pilbara, river/creeks, States, Textures, trees, WA,

Part 2 of the Point & Shoot images from places like Munjina Lookout Road, Albert Tognolini Lookout, Karajini NP Visitor Centre, Warlu Way, Kalamina Gorge Trail, Hamersley Gorge Road, the Roebourne – Wittenoom Road at Chichester, Deep Reach Picnic Area on the Barrimirndi Trail,  Panorama Lookout at Roebourne, Python Pool Trail at Millstream, Miliyanha Campground at Kanjenjie, Snappy Gum Drive and the Tom Price-Karratha Road. Lots of panoramas this time around.

How does The Doc know these names years later? All his images have GPS co-ordinates put into them, plus he adds keywords. However another source is using those GPS co-ordinates to Reverse GeoCode the images, this process puts location data into the photo. The Doc just copied some of that information from the images into the blog post.

Viva Cristo Rey.

Amazing Pilbara images P&S – Part 1

4X4, Australia, camera, desert, Landscape, Pilbara, Plant, river/creeks, trees, WA

The Doc also carries around a Point & Shoot camera and these images are from that camera. They are what The Doc calls “explorer images”, but they also have some memorising panorama images.

From places like Juna Downs, Great Northern Highway, Karijini Drive, Joffre Lookout, Kalamina Gorge Waterfall, Kalamina Gorge Lookout and Banjima Road Karijini.

Viva Cristo Rey. Click on image to see full size slideshow.

Amazing Pilbara images

4X4, Australia, desert, Landscape, Pilbara, river/creeks, rock, Textures, WA

Reading older blog posts The Doc noticed he has said there are lots of Pilbara images, but had not posted them. That is now remedied, here is a selection. Images from Karijini National Park, it surrounds, Millstream Chichester National Park and surrounding areas. Viva Cristo Rey, enjoy.

Grenadier build – sealed snorkel

4X4, Aussie made, Australia, , ,

The Doc just paid for the final work on Wally, being:

  1. install the diff breather kit;
  2. add rear airbags for towing the van (Poly Air, the ones also used on the van); and
  3. a bolt on a sealed snorkel. It is a bolt on job, no cutting. GrenX’s final development of the diesel airbox is now complete. Rohan confirmed to me last Friday at the 4WD and Adventure Show.

The Doc has some DIY things to do, but GrenX will do the final work. The Doc needs to book the trip to Melbourne. The Doc organized the final work with GrenX at the Sydney 4WD and Adventure show.

Watching the Grenadiers do water crossings up at Cape York in the Canny Outdoor video was the final prompt.

Narromine Aviation Museum

4X4, NSW, States, ,

On the trip to collect the Vista RV Crossover caravan, The Doc had a short stay at Dubbo and managed to visit the Narromine Aviation Museum.

During WWII Narromine was one of the largest pilot training schools in Australia. Images include the Rolls Royce Merlin engine, from a De Haviland Mosquito, as well as parts of the Bristol Beaufighter used by Australia during WWII.

The Mosquito used a Rolls Royce Merlin Mk25 engine. It had a single stage supercharger for low level missions of 618 RAF Squadron. In December 1944, 618 RAF Squadron was deployed to Australia to use Barnes Wallis’ Highball bomb against Japanese targets – aka a variation of Wallis’ famous dambuster bombs. But 618 were never deployed into combat in the Pacific and the Mosquitos ended up at Narromine and were sold off after the war. De Havilland Aircraft also built Mosquitos at Bankstown Aerodrome in Sydney.

The Dambusters were 617 RAF Squadron, flying Lancaster Bombers using the Upkeep variation of the bouncing bomb.

After towing the Vista RV Crossover to Dubbo, The Doc visited the Narromine Aviation Museum.