Oriental Offerings - Reincarnated

[mouseflakes]

I think I mentioned it to you when you brought your Delicia to Shitefest in September.

 

Sorry Joe - I think you did too. I'm a dimmock.

[KruJoe]

Back on the road, this was to become a familiar sight:

 

 

 

We passed dozens of abandoned broken wrecks like that.

 

Heading into the interior:

 

 

 

 

 

 

This batch are from the dusty town of Coober Pedy, a fading opal-mining hot-spot. It very much has the feeling of dying Wild West gold-rush settlement. There are old boys with long beards trundling around in knackered pickup trucks with broken lights and panels hanging off, still hoping for the big find.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My guess is that these contraptions are for sifting/separating the material they dig out of the ground. I saw a few working - there were piles of gravel under the tub on the boom. The bigger the machine, the bigger pile they can make before they have to move to a different spot. There are sun-scorched conical piles all over the surrounding desert.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What a chodtastic place! Well worth a look around if you're passing!

[fotorabia]

The collection above the green Holden ute Ive also photographed...

 

 

 

[KruJoe]

Hey, thanks for adding those ones Rab. You're a braver man than me!

Was Coober Pedy on your route between Uluru and Melbourne?

[fotorabia]

That garage  looked abandoned!...yeah...leaving Uluru behind and camping overnight at Coober Pedy...hopefully Ill be repeating it nxt year..at least Adelaide to Alice!

[KruJoe]

Back on the road again, this was the only thing we say all afternoon in the desert:

 

 

This stretch of the main North-South (Stuart) Highway is sometimes used as an airstrip! (It didn't go well when the last time a pilot tried to land on the UK's M1.)

These abnormal loads (earth movers) had pulled over on the wide bit, and that was the only police car we saw in the whole of rural SA.

 

Our next sleep-stop was Kulgera:

 

 

 

 

Another distinctive Wicked L300:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I really enjoyed the few sights scattered about the Kulgera Roadhouse. They made up for a rather 'dry' afternoon. They have an ace little bar there with a couple of hilariously unintelligible bearded 'Bushies'.

 

Kulgera is just over the South Australia / Northern Territory state border, and curiously there's a time zone change too.

 

Progress so far:

 

 

Next: To the Red Centre.

[mouseflakes]

I get the impression that without the the old wrecks there'd be very little 'scenery' - is that the case? Nice photos anyway - I like the strange lorry-based gravel sifting devices. The Bedford TK with all the sun shades looks like some kind of rubbish funfair truck.

 

Did Wendy wear that worried expression for the whole journey? Can't say I blame her.

[KruJoe]

Aye, there wasn't much going on in the desert in mid-summer. Here are a few more from the Coober Pedy - Kulgera stretch. It was a hot and lonely piece of road. No other bugger was daft enough to be there. Mad dogs and Englishmen etc...
From Mrs_KJ's camera:

 

Worried or not, the 'Wendy' side of the van was certainly prettier than 'Brett'!

 

Still a long way to go.

[KruJoe]

Back on the Highway, our final destination is still four figures away, but we get a reminder that the speed limit in NT is 130km/h, rather than 110 in SA. Yay!

 

 

Not that we'd be anywhere near that speed. The van was much happier at 80-90, and used loads less pez that way. Also, it gave us more time to avoid the eagles picking at roadkill - they're so big and S L O W to take off - you don't want one of them coming through the screen!

 

 

It's just handy to know we could speed up a bit to keep a road train behind us until it was safe to pull in for him. Those buggers are not to be messed about with, and slow down for nowt.

 

 

At the Erldunda homestead we took a left off the Stuart Highway, and suddenly we were on the tourist trail! This is the Red Centre Way from the north-south Stuart Highway to Uluru (Ayres Rock), and if you're mad enough, you can continue another three-thousand-and-something km off-road all the way to Perth, Western Australia!

 

 

Most tourists coming here fly into Alice Springs (E ont' map), and go to see Uluru by coach (best part of a day each way), so even in mid summer, this road was busier than any we'd seen so far.

 

 

A mid-morning splash'n'dash at Curtin Springs. This surprisingly low petrol bill almost became very significant later on:

 

 

OMG, we're actually here!

 

 

There's a road right around the base of the rock.

 

 

It was lunchtime, and the place was deserted - we had it all to ourselves!

 

 

We stopped in a shelter near the rockface, and had a picnic of Spam on rice-cakes with warm Pepsi, while this fella was clearly too hot to be bothered by us:

 

 

We dashed the 20 yards to go and touch the rock (climbing it isn't done these days), and honestly, we both nearly collapsed and died with the heat! It felt like my eyeballs were boiling, my kidneys were failing, and it was nearly impossible to breathe. Try heating your oven to 250, then open the door and stick your head inside and inhale the baking dryness. Please don't, it's not healthy.

 

 

My little keyring thermometer thing went up past 50*C and then broke. True story. And the liquid in my compass boiled and leaked out.

We then knew why there was nobody else about.

 

 

A dash back to the van, tried the air-con (still not working), and headed to the visitors' centre, where we enjoyed the coolness and found a couple of Rab's mates working in the art gallery. (If you didn't know, Fotorabia worked there at one time.) It was great chatting to them. They told us that at Uluru, it had been the hottest week in living memory, and there had been casualties.

 

Sorry for the holiday-blog-ness of this update, and the lack of shite (maybe this are had been 'tidied up' for the tourists).

But here's one from the Red Centre - papped just for Rab:

 

 

More tat next time, and that's a promise.

[fotorabia]

Shit..i totally missed out on scoring the only SL dumped out there...sorry for repeats..

 

and the toilet cleaner ute..hence no door..u gotta be fast with that mop..

 

thanks for the mention mate....brings back fond memories..

[KruJoe]

After enjoying* the heat of Uluru (Ayre's Rock), we made a quick flying visit the the comparatively unknown 'Olgas' (Kata Tjuta). It's an impressive group of monoliths, and well worth the few extra miles.

 

 

Sadly we couldn't explore because the camper company strongly advised (forbade) us to drive in darkness. Wildlife is a real danger once dusk falls.

That's a rare photograph of myself, but shows the big desert skies too.
 
Remember the low fuel bill at Curtin Springs on the way to the rock? Well, I thought I needed a full tank to get to Uluru and back from there, but the pump clicked off when my tank was only two thirds full, I noticed this when we were 40 minutes down the road, but decided to risk it.

We did just make it back, on fumes, with fading daylight.
 

 

I rolled straight back to the pez pump. It let me have $1.53's worth then cut off again, and wouldn't give me any more. Apparently when the daytime temperatures exceed the mid 40's degrees C, the fuel vapourises and pump can't shift it.

 

 

Screw that! So we set up camp as the noisy galaas came in to roost above us. We fueled up ok in the morning, TFFT!

 

 

A Disco is a rare sight in Oz. Obviously outback travel in a Jap truck is not risky enough for this fella

 

 

Next stop: King's Canyon. This was reassuring:

 

 

How TF could anyone get to central Australia and not realise?!

 

 

The canyon was a bit of a disappointment TBH, and becoming very warm.

 

 

So we pulled a Uey to head back to the main north-south highway From King's Canyon, it is a long way if you're going north, so we decided to risk the Ernest Giles Road:

 

 

 

 

Bad cambers, bull-dust and corrugations become very tiring very quickly, and are not a good idea in a RWD vehicle.

Scary.

 

 

This one was properly stuck, abandoned, and surrounded by empty water bottles. I hope the adventurers got out of here ok.

 

The road looks alright, but 100km on this was not a wise decision.

 

 

It would be ace in a tooled-up 4WD. Don't do it in a camper.

The air-con died all together, and going so slow, we had no wind in the cab, and were dripping with sweat. I've never been so relieved to see tarmac as when we hit the Stuart Highway again.

 

 

 

As you approach from the south, the road and river* squeeze through a narrow gap.

 

 

I expected Alice Springs to be a barren, dusty desert town, but it was a pleasantly cool* 42 degrees C, and weirdly normal. Apart from the shite, the place is over-run with it!

I know that's what you've come here for...

 

 

 

 

 

 

Loads more of that next time.

 

Oh, the River* Todd through Alice is actually dry sand, and hosts the annual Henley-On-Todd Regatta!

 

[KruJoe]

Right, I need a dump.

 

 

This lot are from in and around Alice Springs.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

That's more like it!

[Bucketeer]

That pick-up with the dinosaur-bar made me MEGA LOL.

[KruJoe]

Time to head north from Alice Springs. First landmark was the Tropic of Capricorn:

 

 

 

Another zany 'Wicked' vehicle, this one contained a couple of hairy female adventurers:

 

 

 

 

Wauchope, land of The Flies. This hell-hole was plagued with the bastards; we could wait to get moving from here.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Suddenly we found ourselves entering The Top End. This is the north part of the the Northern Territory, and has a tropical monsoon climate, as opposed to the arid conditions we've enjoyed* up to this point. As we approached, we could see the first patches of rain. It is weird to see so much sky, and know exactly what you're driving into. I s'pose you had to be there:

 

 

Suddenly, everything was wet and green, like Thailand in the rainy season.

 

 

 

Larrimah was another place of weirdness...

 

 

 

 

Luckily I'd read that the fuel station at Larrimah was no more, so had planned accordingly.

 

 

Moving on, and two days out of Alice Springs we spent the night at Mataranka, which felt altogether more civilised than previous stop-overs, and was busy with visitors from the coastal north. We're back in the land of the living!

 

 

Still, I felt well pleased with this snap:

 

 

We weren't out of the outback just yet.

 

 

Moar next time, tat fans.

[KruJoe]

Hayes Creek, a lunch stop in some actual hills for a change.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I've mentioned Australia's famous road trains before.

 

 

They're made up of three or four units, usually a normal tractor, with trailer, followed by a bogie with a fifth wheel supporting another trailer, then another bogie and trailer, and perhaps one more! Sometimes the front unit is a rigid, pulling more bogies and trailers, and sometimes the trailers carry a shorter load and have a fifth wheel above the wheels so they don't need another bogie.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hkh2AVh30e4#t=64

 

These rigs are not to be messed with, and will plough through a herd of cattle / camels / 'roos without feeling them.

 

 

It was very much 'The Wet' season in the Top End, and we experienced the sharp end of it. The heat was less of an issue, but keeping the screen clear was fun* because the a/c was naff and the van rained in.

 

 

We pushed on north, bypassing some apparently spectacular national parks, because the weather was unappealing and we could smell victory over the Stuart Highway.

 

 

It took us right to the seafront in Darwin:

 

 

That's Darwin Harbour and the Timor Sea... FUGGIN YAY!

 

My parents sent me with the address and phone number of some friends in the suburbs, we found their street on an info board and gave them a ring. Of course they wanted us to stay with them and of course they were lovely - big up Jenny and Dave!

[dollywobbler]

A great adventure! Fabulous.

[KruJoe]

Thanks Wobbler!
What follows is a healthy yield of pappings from our last few days in Oz, in and around Darwin.



From a distance, this Ceica looked very wrong.



I've not seen one like that before.



Jumbuck!











The Tjanpi Grass Toyota:



Whoever decided this needed to be in pride of place had clearly been smoking the off-cuts.

The Top End of the Northern Territory is littered with rusting artifacts from the Second World War. Old oil drums can still be seen in the forests along the side of the Stuart Highway.













I saw one of these taxis in Sydney traffic, but couldn't cet a shot at it, so I was pleased to capture this one.



It's a Ford Falcon Station Wagon with a tail lift for wheelchairs, and the rear bodywork extended upwards for headroom.

The irony of these places also made me smile:



It's a drive-through bottle shop (off license) and they can be seen in the suburbs of any town.

 

I bet this LC could wind itself up something chronic with those tyres on.

 
This diorama was put together by the local authorities as part of a road safety campaign.







Chery A1, I think. Chinese futureshite.



...with a multicoloured Almera saloon. The front end was green and blue.





That's a Holden Premier, a posh Kingswood innit.


 
The fact that such a thing as this exists this made my day!
 

 
It's only a battered, knackered, droopy nosed Kia Rio saloon!
I saw it a few times near Jenny and Dave's place, I couldn't believe my eyes at first, I'm so glad I got a shot at it.


 

 

 

Of course we had to visit the jumping saltwater crocs while we were in the Top End...

 

Dropping 'Brett 'n' Wendy' off at Wicked on the way to the airport:

 

 

Finally a couple from the airport before we head to Singapore.

 

 

I'd roll this any day of the week:

 

 

A proper Brumby Ute with the T-bar roof.

 

 

Yeah baby!

 

Thank you Australia, you've been brill.

[KruJoe]

Sadly I had no spottage time in Singapore, our time there was spent clearing immigration, collecting bags, and checking back in again, all because bloody Jetstar and AirAsia CBA talking to each other FFS.

So, we're back in Bangkok for this batch.

 

 

 

306 saloons are probably the most common Pugs I see in Thailand. There are some 406s and 405s about too, yesterday I saw an MI16x4, no pic though.

I may have papped this one before, I think it's the worst I've seen in use:

 

 

 

 

 

This one is a sure-fire re-spot, but who wouldn't want to see a brown Crown again?

 

 

 

 

 

 

This mod became fairly common in Bangkok a couple years back, it allows trucks and vans to continue working when flooding becomes a problem.

 

 

 

Due to popular* demand, there will be a 'bike special' update in the near future. Here's a preview:

 

 

MOAR temple spots...

 

 

Hmm. I prefer this one:

 

 

'Bulletside' Dattie trucks FTW.

 

Peace - out.

[Mr_Bo11ox]

Wow I've never seen one of the targa-top Subaru trucks before, thats awesome!!! Great spots Kruj, keep em rollin' 

[M'coli]

Excellent spots, Joe- Oz looks fun.  Is this cart wearing Renault wheels?

 

[KruJoe]

Cheers guys. Cameron, those wheels may be old Peugeot rimz... deffo French and ancient anyhoo.

 

keep em rollin' 

Will do boss.

 

Our last visit to Bangkok involved rather too much of this:

 

 

And this...

 

 

...and a full 20 bent valves. Ouch. Painful on the wallet too.

All caused by:

 

 

A dried up belt tensioner pulley. I won't go on, it'll make me cry.

 

 

Returning our winter residence, Chiang Mai.

The first and only Tata Nano I've seen, and I've no idea why it's here.

 

 

I think this is an Escort van with Mazda pick-up lights:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This anonymous looking Asian barge is, I think, a Ssangyong Chairman.

 

 

Correct me if I'm wrong.

It has Bangkok plates but Chiang Mai is where it's at, tat fans. It's GR9 to be back.

 

[Mr_Bo11ox]

Looks flipping awesome. I think those SSangyong chairmans (chairmen?) are a reskinned Merc S-class of some sort

[Skizzer]

Brilliant stuff.  I've only just caught up with the epic Australia trip (I've been away myself, but nowhere interesting) - love it.

[KruJoe]

Thank you gents.

We kick off today with another East-Asian oddity, a Chery A113:

 

 

 

 

And another bulletside lovely...

 

 

It's rotten from serving many years as an ice truck.

 

 

This is the scene at the top of my street This man has taste, I need to sign him up!

 

 

 

 

 

I was over t' moon to snap this old Topolino. I saw it about three years ago, brim-full of students it was, they were hanging out of the roof! Not quick enough on the draw that time, but here it was stuck at the lights:

 

 

This one is an official local government vehicle... can you tell we're not on the best side of town?

 

 

 

Bluebird SSS - this incarnation look properly droopy and melted:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

That'll do for now, there's plenty more, but I'm spoiling you this week!

[Junkman]

 

 

 

That coach is the dox bollox.

[Jon]

Scene tax aplenty on that swallowtail Golf there, Joe! Hope you don't mind me posting up some internet-sourced pics here but I'd never seen a wheelchair accessible Falcon wagon before, so thought others might not have truly appreciated the utter horror created. These should help rectify that:

 

 

 

 

Great way not to raise awareness of a person's disability whilst not at all making them feel like a dog, sitting in the business end of a disfigured estate. And whilst I'm ruining your thread, have a Mazda Demio (!!) version:

 

[KruJoe]

Good God Jon, that is horrific! I used to quite fancy a Demio, too! It's like meeting a fit girl's ghastly mother - it just highlights the worst that could happen.

 

Those pics you found remind me of the Kia montrosity we saw a few times ont' ebay thread:

 

 

Also, I think I forgot to post this one from Sydney:

 

 

Six of us rode to the airport in it. Cavernous!

If you parked a Fiesta in its arse, it wouldn't feel it.

[KruJoe]

That coach is the dox bollox.

Ta JunkMonkey!

MrsKJ did well to get that much of it in shot. Here was her second attempt:

 

 

It was plastered in Pooh scenes. Here's another, with a bonus smashed up, burnt out 'sip-lor':

 

 

These hideous 'ching-chap tour' buses are all over the place, I can pap a few more if that's your thing.

 

 

I can't remember where I found this skanky Beemer, but it's on Pitsanulok plates.

 

 

 

 

 

 

"Insert dented Pride joke here"

 

 

It's a Ford Festiva, so you can shut up now.

 

 

 

 

^ That's missing something important from under the back.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thank you, thank you. I'm here all night folks.

[KruJoe]

 

This batch are from a day of running errands at various ministry offices around Chiang Mai. Any questions at the end please.

 

 

 

 

^ Perhaps not the best side-car tug?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

That pink Charade again:

 

 

 

 

 

Now to share this with you... the parking area behind my Volvo man's place is shared with a back-street bodyshop. It rarely disappoints.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I saw this thing in a previous state last year, it was made from a Corolla coupe like the blue one here, I reckon.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I'm spent.

[Junkman]

These hideous 'ching-chap tour' buses are all over the place, I can pap a few more if that's your thing.

 

If you please, I'd appreciate it. I like bad taste when it is this good.