Australia trip

[ack]

Several people have ask me to report on the Australian trip and experience


1. Be ready for a long flight.  14.5 going 12.5 coming back.  If you go United book Economy plus if you can?t go Business or first class.  It is only a few bucks more and gives you much better leg room.

2. If you are going to rent big vehicles don?t pick them up during rush hour in Adelaide.  Learning to drive a 3 ton truck or 6 berth motor home with left side stick shift on the wrong side of the road in rush hour traffic on 8? wide lanes is not fun.

3. Try to arrange to have the shipping container delivered to the lake.  I would ship to Adelaide or possibly Port Augusta and clear customs there, then hire someone to deliver the container to the lake.  By the time you rent a large truck and smaller trucks to tow with, load them at the port and unload them at the lake reload them at the lake, unload them at the port and reload them at the port it?s way to much work and the expense of having it delivered seems relatively minor. It would also cut about two days of hard work out of the trip.

4. If you use high octane fuel make arrangements to purchase it there prior to leaving.  You will need to find someone in Australia who has a leaded pass book and is willing to buy the fuel for you using their passbook.  I understand next year that all leaded fuel may be banned in Australia and that could be a major problem for vehicles that require high octane.

5. In spite of the favorable exchange rate things are not cheap in Australia.  Gas cost nearly $5.00 a gallon.  Truck and motor home rental is expensive and the motor homes don?t have generators or big holding tanks like US ones and really need to be used where there are hookups.  The five star hotels in major cities $450 -$500 US a night decent accommodations $150- $200 US. Food is good in quality restaurants in the major cities but expensive.  In smaller towns you never know what you are going to get but it is less expensive.
    Learn about Beet Root and Vegemite before you go and like drugs just say no!

6. At the lake, plan to be self sufficient and bring plenty of spare parts.  You can?t run over to the Montego Bay and have stuff shipped next day air to you.  Bring plenty of bottled water.  Ice was not a problem this year as the DLRA arranged to have a ice truck on hand but I understand the ice provider was disappointed in the sales and wanted to leave early but the DLRA paid him to stay so we would have ice available.  Make sure to check on ice availability before you go.

7. Don?t count on the lake to be hard and dry.  In the last 15 years it has been too wet on four occasions or about once every three years to run fast, or to cause cancellation of the meet.  This happened in 1992, 1995, 1997 and 2006. The two major efforts to set a world record, Dick Williams group in 1995 and our effort in 2006 ended up with the lake being too wet to run fast. The salt is probably among the best in the world when it is dry.  The pressure ridges we saw were only about ?? high and just disappeared when the drag was pulled across them.

8. Don?t take 22 people and do everything as a group.  It?s like trying to herd cats.  We are all friends and it was great having all there but I would suggest having the core crew on their own schedule and operate as a separate group.  The other would be the tourist group who can come and go as they please with their own transportation and on their own schedule.

9. Do talk to the DLRA people before you go.  Rob Carroll, Gary Baker, Rod Hatfield and Andy Jenkins were of great help in planning our trip.  As with all the Australian people we met and worked with they were very helpful, friendly and tried to make our effort as successful as possible.

10. You can drive from Adelaide to the lake in about 6-7 hours if you don?t have to haul all of you equipment.  The more leisurely way is to stop in Port Augusta for the night.  There are good accommodations there and ok restaurants along with all the familiar US fast food places.  The drive to the lake is about 3 ? hours from there.  The last 120 miles are good dirt roads but the red dust will get into everything.  Leaving Port Augusta on the way back there is a great self service car wash on the road out of town to clean things up.  

11. The DLRA camp has electrical hookup and showers and you can camp there or stay in your motor home.  Although I understand that water and electricity seemed to be a slight problem this year. It is about 10 minutes from the lake.

12. Other than the DLRA camp Mt Ive is the closest accommodations.  It is about a 30 minute drive to the lake.  The accommodations are good and the folks that run it are very nice. There are plenty of showers and clean bathroom facilities with nice hot water.  The rooms are clean and tidy and there are laundry facilities.  They also have a number of RV hook ups and a nice recreation room with coffee and toast provided every morning. The rooms are not air conditioned and can be warm at night but they are planning to have air conditioning by next year. Gas and diesel are available and there is a small store that has cold drinks and small food items.  They take all major credit cards.

All in all we enjoyed the country and got to know the people in a way that you would never get a chance to as a tourist.  I gave our sponsor TOP Oil an estimate early on as to what I thought it might cost to go.  As it turned out the trip was about 3 times as expensive as I estimated but we brought a lot more people than originally planned.  TOP OIL has been a wonderful sponsor for us and is the only company I know of that is supporting land speed racing in a major way.  I would like to thank the Ryan family who are TOP OIL for their support.

[landracing]

That is a great account Mike.

I second the motion for "Just say NO" to vegemite. Beet root was ok. And the egg on hambergers took some getting used to.

People were excellent. Expect NO less then what you would expect from our LSR family.

DONT miss the Auction

If you do tow to the lake, instead of what Mike suggested as to get container shipped to the lake, seal it good. As you could see with pictures on the Amo and Higgins bike dirt was an issue.

DLRA camp was good, hot showers, minor problems with electricity but it was fixed fast. Plan on bringing your "A" game if you plan to keep up with the Aussies beer drinking.


Again TOP 1 Oil, was number one in helping us this year. What a great group of people. When Joe and I were stranded in San Fran for a day, Frank Ryan took care of us. Got us from the airport, took us on a site seeing journey thru San Fran. Since we missed our connecting flight in Australia he also made arrangements to get us a new flight from Sydney to Adelaide.

Bring what you need to be self sufficient, as Mike Says. Meals were not an issue during the day or night. The Cantina was the bomb. These people served a very good meal breakfast, lunch and dinner. Stayed open even for the people who left the salt late (11 pm). And a small gent "Guy" at the Cantina likes american money... He will do almost anything...

If you are looking for some oiling needs I would suggest asking TOP 1 about their product. They have something for you, just have to ask. They will explain everything you need to know and wont get some operator who doesn't know anything. It's worth your time. Top notch. Family run business.

TOP 1 OIL

[PorkPie]

Jon & Ack,

when I read your writting I think you got a great time, also if you pick a lot of expierence.....

Australia is not only a wonderful country for LSR people - Australia is worth to do a great trip thru and around the country - I write thru and around, due to this that Australia is a little bit strange with his enviroment - there is a strip, about 150 miles deep along the coast line and some "islands" in the center of Australia which is green...the other is dust.....

To today the Australians call you always welcome, unfortunately also Australia got his economy problems, so the peoples "friendly" mentality from the 70's and 80's changed a little bit, but they are still the most friendly people I ever meet.

Australia is not really expensive, the gas prize - if you live in Germany the prize is still fair, what makes this country "expensive" is the size and the number of citizens - in Australia lives less people than in the LA area.

So there are simple not enough taxpayer for all the necessary community work, like road building.

Somewhere has the money to come - like gas tax.

The Lake and the weather - this will be always a problem.

The weather is very strange, if the antarctis goes crazy you got snow in the summertime in Sydney. If you life in Melbourne you can laeve your home in the morning with a umbrella, swimmers + factor 40 sun protector and a winter coat - you never know......

About 15 years ago a friend of mine crossed the Simpson desert (he walked thru..) and he had a hard time......with the 4 inch water......it's normally one of the dry'st place on earth.....

But if the weather is alright the salt on the lake could be the best you can get for LSR.

So the next time plan a little bit more time for a nice vacation in Australia, than the cost for flight and rental car start to be more fair. If you could afford no high comfort you can stay on the camp grounds with a tent - this reduced the necessary expenses a lot - just as an idea.

Hope to go again to Australia next year - to go to the salt and than to see my brother again who lives in Sydney.

See ya

[generatorshovel]

PorkPie,,,,If any fellow LSR devotees ever get the urge to wander "down under" I'm sure you could find enough DLRA members who would me more than willing to share their abode (and local watering hole)with a few visitors from "The States", free of charge , and  the DLRA members are scattered right across this fair country of ours,,,sound inviting?
                                   Cheers    Tiny

[PorkPie]

Tiny

your homeplace......where is Outback........I was too long in Australia, that I know that can means everywhere.....

If someone in Sydney says to you he lives near Sydney, better you ask for the place before you got the idea for short visit and a sixpack beer...it could be Orange....which is appro. 400 km (250 miles) away......

By the way, if all LSR speednuts comes to Australia to the same time, the Australian population will increase by 1 percent

See ya

[generatorshovel]

Tiny

your homeplace......where is Outback........I was too long in Australia, that I know that can means everywhere.....

In my case , outback is 720 miles west of Sydney , in a mining city called Broken Hill , 9 hours drive from Lake Gairdner
                                                                    Tiny

[PorkPie]

I know Broken Hill...yup....you can call this Outback.......

you "pass" this place if you go the shortest way from Sydney to Adelaide

See ya

[dirtydave]

Mike Ackatiff,
It was a pleasure meeting your crew, and fellow tourists, and sympathies with you guys re creature comforts,
You couldn't  have meet a more hospitable Australian group, in what most Aussies would call paradise,
I understand the Vegemite and Beetroot thing, Beetroot is to kill the taste of pickles in a McAussie burger..
Herding Cats is the piss funniest thing ....

Good luck Ack Attack...and crew...

[firemanjim]

Well the weather and salt were not what we were hoping for but the people we met were a great bunch,super friendly and enthusiastic.


 Dave, look here for all the records,if you need an interpreter let me know.Also if a record is not listed for a class it's because there is no current record,it's open.
http://www.scta-bni.org/

[gazza414]

I miss the banter Jim.

I've gone from a place of total isolation out on the salt to working here in Saigon, Vietnam for the next month where I have just never seen so many people and so many scooters on the road.... just hell it is.

Nice to meet all you guys too, and hope we keep in touch over the coming years and see each other on the salt.

[Greyboy]

Hello, rookie here again,

I read all I could find about Lake Gairdner but coud not find out much about staying in touch with the outside world if and when I'm there .. I think I read a comment somewhere about cb but now cannot find where I saw it     .. I'm assuming there's no cell phone towers stuck into the salt so is there email possibility with my own laptop or a PC somewhere?

Thanks 

[landracing]

There is a place about 45 minutes from the salt, they do have internet there. I think it was called MT Ives.

I took over a satellite internet connection to update the website from the salt.

Jon

[Greyboy]

  Thanks, and yes it's Mount Ives (which is "nearby" Iron Knob ~ remember I'm from Hawaii, nearby is arm's reach) ... btw while searching I found this interesting race car coincidence about the area, half of a double-page ad for Dunlop Tires from 1923:

http://nla.gov.au/nla.cs-pa-HTTP%253A%252F%252FDSPACE.ANU.EDU.AU%252FHANDLE%252F1885%252F67