Bought a new car.. well new to me... a Series 2 Landrover!

Found this advert on the board at Coolalinga shops and just had to get it.  Its a 1962 model Series II.  No motor and really past trying to do it up..  but I thought would make a nice garden ornament.  Jessie lent me her car trailer and went with me to pick it up.  The guy in Darwin River had like 30 old landrovers!

It cost me $200 but apparently the original badge on the back of it might be worth nearly that. 

His name is Cecil.

At Darwin River with all his mates

One the way home

Setup in the yard at home

Point Stuart Trip

Well its Darwin Show Day today but we'd rather be bush!     So we set off on the Hardies 4wd track today in a little convoy.   We had Rob and Jessie, Wayne and his wife from Paul's work, and Johnny and Sandy.  I think there was another car or two also that I can't remember!

Pulled up on the Hardies Track waiting for the Toyotas to catch up!

We had a good drive along the track although Johnny's little Hyundai 4wd bottomed out in some rocky areas.

We came out on the Point Stuart road and then camped for a couple nights at the Point Stuart Wilderness Lodge.

During the two nights we visited Shady Camp, Point Stuart (although the road was closed right at the end!) and did the walks around the lodge.

There was some nice looking buffalo bulls at the lodge behind a fence that Paul, Jessie and John went to have a look at.   They mocked charged us a few times and we weren't real confident in the flimsy three-strand barbed wire fence between us and them!

The camp at Point Stuart.

A captive buffalo at Point Stuart Lodge

Another shot at Shady Camp during golden hour

Paul saw this Sea Eagle diving at the last moment
and just got it grabbing an eel at Shady Camp

Expedition to Orchard Creek

A bunch of us went eventually found Orchard Creek this saturday.  Was a very nice little swimming hole and a fun drive.

A few of us even got bogged - as you can see from the video here

4wding around Scotts Creek

This sunday afternoon a few of us were a bit bored so went for a drive down to Scotts Creek.   We had

nibbles at one of the Billabongs.

The actual creek was quite flooded but we found a way over the crossing even though the ends had big wash outs in them.

Daniel got bogged on the way out when he went to test out his Sukuki on a side track with a large boggy hole.  His winch didn't work so the defender pulled him out from behind.

Paul and Gwenny were reminded of the dangers of having the windows down (no aircon in the defender) when a car driving the other way through the mud and water blasted them in their cab.

From memory those who came were Rob & Jessie, Daniel, Ree-ann, Jack, Rowen, Lee and Susy and the kids, Peter Pattemore and friends, and I can't remember who else!

Upper Butterfly Gorge

A few of us went into Butterfly Gorge today from the Stuart Highway side.   The road wasn't too bad as it hasn't been much of a wet season and there were some beautiful places to see.

It was my first real offroading in the new Landrover and as I feared the factory road tyres weren't up to the job - I burst a steel belt on the rocky road which resulted in a bubble in the sidewall of the tyre.  I do have new rims and tyres on order that will be much better for offroading.

We were basically just doing a bit of exploring searching for new potential camping spots.  Rob and Jessie took a couple of quad bikes and we also did a bit of exploring on these which wasn't good for my hay fever due to all the spear grass!

Bought another disco

The suzuki is a cool little 4wd but I miss my Land Rover too much.  So I've gone the whole hog and bought a new one!  

Daniel has bought the Suzuki of me.  Shannon and Rosanna drove the new car up for me as I bought it in Toowoomba.  I think it'll be good timing anyway as they might have something to announce when they get here!

Lots of mods are planned for the disco - including bullbar, winch, snorkel etc.