thanks all. good to hear you all enjoyed the photo run. to be honest since my return ive been totally stuffed and those last few long runs to get home took it out of me, couple of good days rest soon fixed that
anyway its over now so I am in no hurry to do a return run. I was a bit surprised to see only one mx5 on the whole trip at Katherine gorge and an se too. the only other convertible ports car sited was in alice springs was a young guy in a porsche boxster . looked a bit like the model I used to own a few years a go.
I did see a near new bmw m3 parked just outside the unrestricted speed sectioned with a guy doing what I think was last minute adjustments prior to the run....lol
looking back now I think this part on the unrestricted and seeing that flock of wild Gouldian finches land at that waterhole in pine creek was the highlight of the trip.
the worst part would have been from mt isa to the nsw border. several thousand dead roos in different states of decay and laying dead all across the road. in some places I could have done with auto cross skills.
hard to believe these bounces get knocked over by the road trains sometimes in bunches of 10 or more and they are spattered ever where. more importantly on that particular section of road stay well clear of the grey nomads pulling the vans at 80 kph. get past those fast or before you know it you will be riding over road kill.that happened to me very early in the first week of the trip and I never forgot the experience of the smell of cooked meat ...lol
if you wonder what was most annoying on the trip....the nomad on the trip up the guts. why? well you come you behind them sitting on 130 as they crawl along at 80 or 90kph and some of the bustardos at 70 kph

and your on their ass pretty quick.
not only that even if they are sitting on 90 they are in a convoy of 2,3 or4 van and in most cases no gaps to allow you to get in so its all or nothing. plus I am not talking a few caravans and motorhomes - I am talking 100's and 100's of them in both direction.
road trains no trouble at all. they see you come up behind and actually slow down. these guys are great.
as for the car well apart from the sump plug incident I didn't really have any problems at all. one was heat soak so that could happen to all and one was slackness from the mechanic's work. if i'd stayed off the dirt roads the plug probably would have stayed in place.
no windscreen hits and I think painting the plastidip over the front end was a good move too. pretty sure that saved some paint.
took something like 2500 photos and nearly 400 short video clips so I didn't stuff about

had enough driving now.
I had to take the bmw z3 down for a rego check yesterday or the wife did I picked it up. certainly looks the part I thought as I walked over and hot in. by the time i'd dríven it 400 metres I knew I took the right car to the top end compared to this bit of german crap
there is no way that car would have made the trip.
so it can just sit in the garage and fill in time and the next time you see some wanker in a bmw z3 remember that a person who doesn't know what a good car a mx5 really is
