Smashing the dirt road theory

If anyone ever suggests you can't go on a dirt road with a Geist again, I'll have to ask them to rethink their logic in a calm and friendly manner whilst getting really cranky inside. The XK660 has performed very well going over admittedly light dirt roads in-conjunction with good and bad sealed roads over the last 35,000 kms. This last stretch for the year across the top and down the west coast is full of rough and not so good sealed roads. We are picking our route around the rough bits admittedly but for many this would be a manner of course anyway. The looks we get when pulling up next to the Bushtrackers, Kedrons and lifted Aussie vans is a little of "how did they", "why have they" and maybe a little of "why did I bother spending the dough". Well sitting here now in Karumba on the bottom of the Gulf of Carpentaria I am surrounded by mostly big and high lifted vans and camper trailers in one of the three caravan parks in the area.

The trip across the top started just under a week ago on Tuesday 2nd Sep and already we have seen lots and appointed a new service agent for Cairns. We left Balgal Beach and headed north to Cairns but we pulled into a little rest area just west of Babinda called the Boulders. This little rest area takes just 5 campers and it is a line up to get in but luckily the two of us, that's right we have Rachel's parent following us to Darwin in their van, managed the last two spots. Two nights there whilst Rachel, her mum Beth and I went to Cairns. For the girls it was a day for shopping, for me it was working getting a new service agent appointed. Wednesday afternoon we had a new agent, Cairns Caravan repairs, Doug there with 30 years experience will be a great asset to our expanding agent role.

Thursday got us off to a good start heading a short way to Innot Hot Springs, a place you must stop at when traveling through. Fellow Geist owner John Cullen gave me the hot tip on this one and now hopefully more people will find this little secret. The pools of different temperature water is great to relax the body as Rachel and I found out. 5 main pools plus a standard pool lets you experience all temps right up to 45 degrees. In the undercover area three pools allows to have a very hot dip and then walk next door to a cold pool. This sudden change in temperature gets the blood vessels pumping and you soon end up with a red body, like you have been scolded. Don't worry though if you keep to short stints you will realise afterwards that you feel your body is floating with total relaxation and blood vessels that are now working properly again. The redness goes away quite quickly. We also met Mel and Bonnie with their second hand LV 485 that they have transformed to be a Footrot Flats cartoon on the back and one side. Quite a classic piece of artwork by Bonnie it lends well with their real companion, their dog which looks exactly like the dog from Footrot Flats but called Molly. Of course Rachel was taken with Molly and not having our animals with us is starting to saden us when we see other happy travelers with their pets.

PICS:

1. The Savannah Way. some of it is like this and worse but most is pretty good up to Normanton from the East Coast.

2. Not my best angle but showing the VW Touareg is really making it easy.

3. After a couple of days the white stone shield is caked in red clay.

4. The clearance lights before I cleaned them off.

5. The new Rocktamers are good at stopping the stones hitting the van and bouncing back into the rear windscreen but the mud splatters higher. I'll have to talk to Dave about how to maybe fix this.