TRIP REPORT :Northern Rivers 4x4 Trail - bandwidth hungry

[LiveFreeAndRoam Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close LiveFreeAndRoam]

Re: Northern Rivers 4x4 Trail - bandwidth hungry

Question for you though... where do you store the 30sec tent? Back seats folded down are they :?

Yeah, the 30sec tent is a pain to pack and barely fits with the rear seats folded - it required some strategic shoving for me to close the tailgate. When I've had a full set of passengers it goes up on top, though I'm more likely to take a more compact (but larger) tent on those trips.

LFaR.

[Snaga Wishing I was lost Find all posts View Profile Close Snaga]

Re: Northern Rivers 4x4 Trail - bandwidth hungry

... strategic shoving ...

:lol: :lol:

[LiveFreeAndRoam Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close LiveFreeAndRoam]

Re: Northern Rivers 4x4 Trail - bandwidth hungry

I have updated the first entry with a pointer to my GPS Log for the trip. As well as the tracks, it contains many waypoints and planned routes.

• Northern Rivers 4x4 Trail - My GPS Data in GPX format.

This is a zip file containing a GPX formatted file. You can use GPSBabel to convert it to any other format that you might like.

Cheers,
LFaR.

[Ba77hy Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Ba77hy]

Re: TRIP REPORT :Northern Rivers 4x4 Trail - bandwidth hungry

Looks like you had a great Trip!,
Spent a fair bit of it around the Clarence and Nymboida areas ( My home)! If you are down this way again, let me know, it would be worthwhile to do a trip to Station Creek the Coast Range road and Candole road! There are some excellent places for 4WDriving around this area!

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Re: TRIP REPORT :Northern Rivers 4x4 Trail - bandwidth hungry

Looks like you had a great Trip!,
Spent a fair bit of it around the Clarence and Nymboida areas ( My home)! If you are down this way again, let me know, it would be worthwhile to do a trip to Station Creek the Coast Range road and Candole road! There are some excellent places for 4WDriving around this area!

Excellent, I will be sure to be in touch next time I'm tavelling down that way. Local knowledge would have been a great help as we searched for 4WD trails.

One of the travellers actually tried to stay at Station Creek on the return trip. The campsite was bursting at the seams, and he ended up driving into a small forest clearing and camped there. He arrived after dark and left right on sun-up, to avoid any unpleasant visits from the rangers .

LFaR.

[esie Member Find all posts View Profile Close esie]

Re: TRIP REPORT :Northern Rivers 4x4 Trail - bandwidth hungry

I saw this website some time ago, and always had it at the back of my mind to do one day.

So, after your great write up LFAR, we have decided that we are going to do it over Easter. It will just be us going - all our friends who have been interested in 4WDing are popping out babies currently!

Anyway, do you have any tips for the solo traveller? Also, were you able to locate any maps that had the trail on them?

[LiveFreeAndRoam Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close LiveFreeAndRoam]

Re: TRIP REPORT :Northern Rivers 4x4 Trail - bandwidth hungry

I saw this website some time ago, and always had it at the back of my mind to do one day.

So, after your great write up LFAR, we have decided that we are going to do it over Easter. It will just be us going - all our friends who have been interested in 4WDing are popping out babies currently!

Anyway, do you have any tips for the solo traveller? Also, were you able to locate any maps that had the trail on them?

Hi Esie,

I envy you already. What a great adventure this trail provides. There are so many options along the way that you can easily customise your tour whilst in transit.

On the map-front, I used the NRMA maps. Though one camper I met pulled out his Hema map of the area, which contained a great deal more detail. For me, the NRMA maps were free and certainly adequate - although my GPS made up for the lack of detail in the maps. If I had to pay for the maps, (or if I didn't have a GPS with offroad maps) then I would choose Hema.

On tips... also contact Spurio before you leave, he may have an update of the area and its conditions. Esie, if you are taking children, then also take some inflatbale tubes or body-boards. The rivers are great fun. Though, the Nymboida is especially fast-flowing, so you'll need to take some additional care there. If you can fit in a kayak, then even better.

Since you're travelling solo, be careful on the side-tracks. I would stick with the Cambridge Plateau... I find it hard to resist taking a look down side-tracks, so perhaps just don't venture in too deep. We got to a point along Paw-Paw Skids where our only option was to keep pushing forward.

Tom's Lookout of the Old Gwydir-Grafton Hwy is a must. It's fun 4WD'ing and one of the few sections where a 4WD is manadatory if you are to make it to the top.

I hope I've captured enough other points in the trip report. If you have a GPS unit, you may be interested in the GPX file I provided also.

I'll be looking forward to your trip report .

You're welcome to contact me if you have more questions.

LFaR.

[hoppy Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close hoppy]

Re: Northern Rivers 4x4 Trail - bandwidth hungry

Question for you though... where do you store the 30sec tent? Back seats folded down are they :?

Yeah, the 30sec tent is a pain to pack and barely fits with the rear seats folded - it required some strategic shoving for me to close the tailgate. When I've had a full set of passengers it goes up on top, though I'm more likely to take a more compact (but larger) tent on those trips.

LFaR.

Great write up....

We also have one of the Oztents .... an RV1 which is the smallest but perfect for two people. We used to carry it in the back of the Prado but takes up to much space. Then we invested in a thule roof top box. Fits perfectly with all the poles etc and frees up so much room inside the Prado, especially now we have a cargo barrier....

I damaged a plastic clip on one of the poles about a year after I bought it and when I took it back they replaced the whole pole and also gave me a spare!!! Love that sort of service. Now looking to buy a Foxwing awning from the same place.

[LiveFreeAndRoam Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close LiveFreeAndRoam]

Re: Northern Rivers 4x4 Trail - bandwidth hungry

I damaged a plastic clip on one of the poles about a year after I bought it and when I took it back they replaced the whole pole and also gave me a spare!!! Love that sort of service. Now looking to buy a Foxwing awning from the same place.

That is good news about their service. I broke one of the plastic clips on the last night of this trip and haven't done anything about it yet. I'll have to give 'em a call.

LFaR.

[jeff s Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close jeff s]

Re: TRIP REPORT :Northern Rivers 4x4 Trail - bandwidth hungry

Again,
Nice write up LFAR.
And your camera sure catches contrast very well, The sky shots really shows whats looks to be DARK thick clouds and the light fluffy ones very well. And still enough light for other areas of the frame, top stuff.

And the greenery looks fantastic, expanding on what Golly said, we havnt seen green like that over here for a long time.

Keep on showing us that stuff and we might move over....

[mumstruk Member Find all posts View Profile Close mumstruk]

Re: TRIP REPORT :Northern Rivers 4x4 Trail - bandwidth hungry

Hello LFAR.
We recenly (31 dec) took a little scouting trip up the Clarence Way looking for new campsites. We were staying at my Brother in Laws place at Iluka during the Xmas/ New Year break and it was something I have been planning to do for some time. We went via Maclean and Lawrence, took the Pringles Way, found the Old Tenterfield Rd, checked out Wave Hill Station. Had lunch at Yates Crossing and made our way back to Iluka with a number of excursion up some forrestry tracks etc exploring some fairly rugged countryside. Turns out that the cleaner who does my shop and home has a cousin that owns the property at Yates Crossing! We have stayed at the Winters place at the Clarence Gorge before and checked out Nyboida/Mann River Copmanhurst etc as well. We just love this part of Aus and pass through on many occaisions. Great camping, excellent fishing and swimming and you have the option of some challenging 4x4 driving or staying on the hard stuff keeping the shiny side up.
I was going to do a little trip report but I dont think that it would be worth it as yours is so good. :wink:

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Re: TRIP REPORT :Northern Rivers 4x4 Trail - bandwidth hungry

G'day Mumstruk,

I agree wholeheartedly... it is a beautiful part of the world. It is quite a different trip when following the river-theme all the way.

I was going to do a little trip report but I dont think that it would be worth it as yours is so good. :wink:

Thanks, but please don't let that stop you. I love to read about others travels as much as anything - extra points for pics . Especially good when it covers similar ground for comparison sake.

It's a small world hey. Fancy your cleaner's cousin owning the Yate's Crossing property. The 6-degrees of separation seems to be approaching 5 these days . Yates Crossing is another piece of magic on earth.

I think next trip down that way, I need to also carry some simple water-craft.

Maybe we'll get to see some of your pics?

All the best,
LFaR.

[mumstruk Member Find all posts View Profile Close mumstruk]

Re: TRIP REPORT :Northern Rivers 4x4 Trail - bandwidth hungry

Hey LFar, Let me know if you are coming this way again, maybe we could share some local info. Alice/ Yates Crossing on the Clarence way is only about a one and a half hour drive from my place, close enough for a Friday-Saturday night camping trip. We are planning to go there in Feb once the school hols are over. There must have been about 15 camps there when we came past.