June 14 2017

Relocating from Darwin to Cairns

Tobias Stricker Travel Log 4WD, Cairns, Darwin, Outback

Getting stuck and running out of fuel in the outback – Travel log no. 76

Finally my friend Hendrik from Hamburg arrived in Darwin. Together we stayed in Darwin for two days making plans for our trip. Thanks to Apollo we booked a cheap 4WD relocation to Cairns for one dollar a day.

So on Sunday morning we left Darwin to travel to Kakadu National Park.

Nourlangie, Kakadu — We made it to the Nourlangie Rock for sunset.

Night-Sky, Kakadu — Even though the mosquitos were annoying we couldn’t complain about the night-sky.

Sunrise, Kakadu — Sunrise from a lookout the next day.

Gunlom Falls, Kakadu — One of the highlights, the Gunlom falls with a decent view from the pools.

Gunlom, Northern Territory — The view from the Gunlom Falls into the valley.

After Kakadu we had to cover a long distance to drop off the car in time. On the way we stopped by Threeways Roadhouse where I met my friend Emily coincidently.

Back on the road suddenly the unexpected happened: Hendrik decided to run out fuel. Stuck in the middle of nowhere we had to restart the engine by pumping in fuel back in manually. This took pretty long, even after ten minutes pumping the engine still wouldn’t start. Luckily, a guy stopped by and helped us out. By injecting WD40 into the air-filter the engine finally roared like a tiger again.

No gas, Outback — Hendrik studying the user manual after running out of gas.

Mirror, Outback — With the sun in our back we were still able to cover a lot of distance.

sunset, outback — Another view of the setting sun.

Sunset, Australia — Hendrik again taking a closer look of what’s going on.

It shouldn’t be the last incident…

At Chinamen creek we tested the off-road abilities of our 4WD. Unfortunately the 4WD was shut off by the car rental company we got stuck on the border of the lake.

Luckily Anton an Aussie-Baverian came by and helped us out. After 2 hours of digging we were finally free again.

Chinamen Creek, Australia — Hendrik still laughing after running the car into the mud.

Chinamen Creek, Stuck — At least the location wasn’t the worst for some digging.

After 2 hours we finally got free again.

We just made it to the White mountains after getting stuck.

Of course we also left some marks on the sandstone.

After days of driving more than 1000km per day we finally made it to the Jungle.

View from the Castle Hill in Townsville.

The Murray falls, our last stop before Cairns.

We had a short break at Mission Beach.

The Bolders close to Cairns.

The cassowaries wouldn’t demand any tributes. So we made it to Cairns, save and sound, planning our upcoming adventures on the East Coast of Australia.