Description
📖 Simpson Desert Travel Guide — Over 260 pages, two years in the making. Detailed maps, locations, and knowledge that applies to any remote outback travel. $59.95
🔗 https://simpsondesertguide.com.au
Part 3 of my Kosciuszko high country trip — a day that started with coffee and ended with questionable navigation decisions.
The morning kicked off with a dawn drive to test the Lazer Glide LED bar against my Linear Elite Plus in real conditions. Verdict? The Glide is a solid light, but for outback driving I still prefer the wider beam pattern of the Linear Elite. The Glide sits more comfortably in on-road and soft-road territory.
Back at camp: coffee with the OutIn battery grinder and Delta Press, cleanup made easy with the OnTap Roam pressurised water system. First night on the new Agnes Kempmeister Deluxe winter mattress — warm, comfortable, quiet. Only issue: the Flextail pump couldn't push past about 70% inflation. Lungs had to finish the job.
Then we set off for the Nichols Gorge walk from Blue Waterholes car park — a 7km rated loop that turned into 17km thanks to a missed turn and some truly unhelpful National Parks signage. If you've ever walked past a sign, glanced at it, and kept going — you'll relate.
Water became an issue. The creek that was flowing the day before? Bone dry. Lesson learned: carry water, don't just carry a filter. The Katadyn BeFree portable filter saved the day — once we actually found water.
The caves were the highlight. Cooleman Cave (335m of passages) and Murray Cave (784m, the largest at Blue Waterholes) are genuinely impressive — stalactites, flowstone, crystals in the ceiling, and tight squeezes that test your commitment. Murray Cave has a siphon that's only been passable about three times in the last century.
With time running out, we took a shortcut down the dry creek bed, skipping the plateau loop — a gamble that paid off. Aired up with the MorrFlate system (four tyres at once — sorry, JMAC, but that's hard to beat) and drove to Gungarlin River camp for the night.
Gear mentioned in this episode:
🔦 Lazer Glide LED Bar
🔦 Lazer Linear Elite Plus
☕ OutIn Battery Coffee Grinder
☕ Delta Press
💧 OnTap Roam
🛏️ Agnes Kempmeister Deluxe Mattress
💨 Flextail Pump
💧 Katadyn BeFree Water Filter
🔧 MorrFlate Airing System
🗺️ ExplorOz (with its ongoing mapping gaps...)
00:00 - Start
00:30 - Lazer Glide Elite early morning drive
02:15 - Morning Coffee with OutIn and delter Press and OnTap Roam Clean up
02:58 - I purchased a new winter mattress, first test
03:53 - Packed in and now heading to Blue Hole for Nichols Gorge Walk
04:31 - I broke my belt…..
05:10 - Nichols Gorge walk
06:18 - I made a mistake, running out of water
06:40 - National Parks please fix the signage!!!!!!!
07:47 - Cooleman Cave
13:46 - GME Sponsord Segement
15:22 - Should we risk the shortcut?
15:50 - Does the shortcut pay off?
16:42 - Air up with MorrFlate
17:14 - ExplorOz issues
17:59 - The Wild Dog Tree
18:25 - Gungarling River Camp
19:31 - Outro
Blog Post: https://alloffroad.com.au/blog/trips/coolamine-homestead-clark-gorge-walk/