So as you all know ive been in the Red Centre for quite some time, but the time to leave had come. So the Little Red Brick has moved forward and onward.

Leaving Alice i drove up the Stuart Highway to Darwin, a long 1600km journey into the Wet Season, and what a wet, it rained constantly for four whole months morning noon and night, the biggest wet on record. The car didnt like the humidity and ran like a bucket of crap.

I went into Litchfield National Park only to almost get stuck in the park due to a massive storm that lunchtime. We had to cross thirteen bloody rivers to get out. The deepest of which was about 12 inches. And these are Salty Croc infested rivers, so getting stuck in a river was not really an option.

Water swelled up through the gear stick and filled the floor at my feet, but we made it through all the rivers and got back to Darwin.

Kakadu was closed due to the massive amount of wet wet season.

After Darwin i travelled south to Katherine and then West through Kunnanurra and Halls Creek. Wolf Creek was unfortunately closed due to a massive amount of water over the road 100km down the Tanami, a real shame, but we may look at returning just to do the crater.

1800km's later, the Brick now parks in Broome, where beautiful beaches and perfect weather allowed me to retune the car and make her happy again.

Im looking at plans to do at least some of the Gibb River road, but due to the big big wet, the Kimberleys is also closed to traffic. Fitzroy Crossing had its worst flood in history and the river flowed at over 100km/hr, swelling its banks into a massive floodplain that buried most of the town at one metre deep, with some sections of the river extending to kilometres wide.

Another 3000+kms on the road and plenty more pics, the Mini is featured proudly in front of the Devils Marbles, and many other icons along the way. Now were in WA, YAY. Hell is behind us and the Territory may be visited again later to do Kakadu.

Hope everyone is well on the east side of the world of Aus.

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Aussie Leyland, Aussie Factory, Aussie Mini S.

Awesome adventure there mate and very glad to hear from you

Looking forward to the pics.

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pics............or it didnt happen!

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Chuck Norris is the only person alive who can kick you in the back of the face!!
mooo, I'm a pig!

Drexxle.... your life with the mini seems to be one adventure after another in the Red Centre!
Good to hear from you again....it's been awhile.

edit....spelling

That would have to be the most fantastic drive in Oz, and you got to do it in the wet. Rock on!

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SooperDooperMiniCooperExpertEngineering

All garage work involves equal measures of enthusiasm, ingenuity and a fair degree of irresponsibility.

If I'm correct in saying you've done all this in your mini, well crickey,, I take my hat of to you I thought my 7,500km trip in the mini over 2 weeks was crasy, but this is nothing to what you have experienced with those roads.. I'd love to do this some time.. and I plan to

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Bluey-1973 Clubby - 1330, high lift, big cam, 7 port madness in progress..

Gumby-1978 Minivan, British Racing Green - 1310, high lift, mild cam, enlarged porting and chamber shape with big valve head, supercharged build in ever slow progress!

Lockie thats only a small section of the trip.

Starting from Brisbane i have travelled almost 40,000 kms possibly more i dont know my speedo hasnt worked since i went across the oodnadatta track.

But this is the trip so far

Brisbane - St George - Lightning Ridge - Bourke - Cobar - Wilcannia - Emmdale - Broken Hill - Mildura - Renmark - Bordertown - Horsham - Warnambool - Ocean Road - Geelong - Melbourne Mini 50 - Geelong - Portland - Mt Gambier - Adelaide - Leigh Creek - Marree - Oodnadatta - Marla - Alice Springs - Extensive Travelling around Alice - Tennant Creek - Darwin - Extensive Travelling around the Top End - Katherine - Kunnanurra - Halls Creek - a bit of the Tanami - Fitzroy Crossing - Broome.

And im still going. Im thinking about how to tackle WA. Its a big state, but i know i want to get to Meekathara, and also Kalgoorlie. I also want to work in Perth and top up the account again.

So yeh, im sure its around 50,000 kms so far, when i left the car only had 1000kms on the clock. Brand new motor, rebuilt car, specifically for this journey. There are some sections where you need fuel drums and i carry 4 on the roof. 4 spare tyres, lots of spare parts, and of course lots of tools.

Looking forward to WA now.

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Aussie Leyland, Aussie Factory, Aussie Mini S.

Wow, sounds like an incredible journey, made infinitely more awesome by the fact you're taking it on in a Mini!!!!

Look fwd to a few pics also!!!

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Pete...
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1968 Deluxe 1275
1969 Deluxe 'Scruby' 998 Looking for a roof skin...

Should be fun. Some of those roads are awesome, lol @ the speedo... mine did the same after the 5,000km mark,, back road ruts in Vic, and it was gone.. never worked since.. and got better things to do these days atm then to fix it,, haha... I remember reading about your trip a while back, but didn't realise it went ahead. Would love to see some pics one day, and will be talking to you for advice when I do get around to the trip one day. I'd say once I've finished uni, settled down and found myself a firm job in the industry. So 10yrs from now

Good luck on the rest of your travels mate. Not many people would do this adventure in a mini, i was called "crasy" by almost everyone for what I just did, so you've now set the bar much higher. Good on yah mate, keep it going. Hope all goes well, and when you make it back to Brissy, please stop by for a BBQ and some beer.

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Bluey-1973 Clubby - 1330, high lift, big cam, 7 port madness in progress..

Gumby-1978 Minivan, British Racing Green - 1310, high lift, mild cam, enlarged porting and chamber shape with big valve head, supercharged build in ever slow progress!

Happy to give you plenty of advice. And happy to attend a BBQ where the beer flows and there are good steaks on the grill.

But first bit of advice is, build at least three minis before you leave. The amount of things ive had to fix, and tune, and bodge and bush mechanics has been large.

You wont find parts, or people who know anything or the right tools in the outback.

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Aussie Leyland, Aussie Factory, Aussie Mini S.

well im almost 2 mini's down, but i can't imagine things being easy out their. Specially when it comes to river crossings etc, and water swelling into the floor im guessing ur running without much interior and carpet? Last weekend i drove in Gumby from Brissy- Tamworth and back again, poored the whole way, and water somehow made its way in, and carpet is horrible now, so i can imagine yours would be much worse...

then again, i can think of much worse things that could/ would be problematic for you out there,...

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Bluey-1973 Clubby - 1330, high lift, big cam, 7 port madness in progress..

Gumby-1978 Minivan, British Racing Green - 1310, high lift, mild cam, enlarged porting and chamber shape with big valve head, supercharged build in ever slow progress!