Heading to Dubbo

Before reaching Burra, we had arranged to have our V8 twin-turbo 200 Series Landcruiser booked in with Stephan Richards in Murray Bridge, South Australia, to have a torque lock-up kit fitted.
 
While I was dropping off the car, another Landcruiser owner was having the same work done, along with an ECU and transmission remap. Of course, I had heard about having this done, but wasn't entirely sure about the benefits.
 
Stephan explained in simple terms what these involved and said that if I was interested in having both done together, we would get a $400 discount on the transmission remap. This was only possible because we had already installed a larger aftermarket exhaust. The rest is history.....

After the installation, Stephan took us for a test run, during which he explained the use of the switches. 

The auto lockup master switch on the left remains on at all times, and the right switch locks the torque converter at around 75 km/h. The converter remains locked until the vehicle slows below the unlock speed of just under 75 km/h. Consequently, our new fourth gear is now fifth, which reduces RPM and results in a slight decrease in fuel consumption of around 3 L/100 km.
 
To activate the low-speed lockup, press the right button, which will illuminate to show that it is active. The torque converter will automatically lock at 35 km/h and unlock below 30 km/h. When the low-speed lockup is active, the gears are also reduced, as if you were driving a manual transmission. 
 
This will be very helpful when towing our van over dirt roads with corrugations, where we previously saw our auto transmission temperatures increase considerably, sometimes reaching as much as 120 degrees.
 
Since completing the work, our auto transmission temperatures have stayed around the 66-degree mark, and the 4WD is now a completely different vehicle to drive. 
 
We are currently camped at Frog's Hollow, Lake Cargelligo. It is a ten-minute walk from town, but space here is quite limited. There is an area for three vans where they could park right by the lake, but after recent rains, it has become very muddy. The rest of the foreshore has large gum trees lining the lake, and one would have to be either very brave or rather reckless to camp under these. We are camped against the fence, but still have a view of the lake.

After spending three days camping here and purchasing food and alcohol at the local IGA to support the town that provides this free camp, we headed north.

 

Today's 92 km drive will take us to Condobolin. We found the road to be quite rough, narrow, and with broken edges on the bitumen, making some parts even narrower. I pulled over multiple times to avoid being showered with stones as the B doubles approached.

 

We are just over 3 km west of town, camped at Gum Bend Lake. It's a man-made lake built to commemorate Australia's bicentenary, and when full, it has a depth of 1.75 metres. A gold coin donation is appreciated for camping here, and we were more than happy to make a donation as we filled our tanks with their water.

 

There are hot showers and flushing toilets, but we prefer using our own. Unlike Lake Cargelligo, there are no lake views from the camping area. We enjoyed a few beers and lunch at the local RSL yesterday after buying some groceries at the IGA. It's a relatively large town, with a population of approximately 3,800 people. We planned to stay for three days, but no matter what repellent we used, we couldn't keep the flies away. 

As we headed towards Dubbo, we thought we might break up the drive, so we checked Wiki Camps and found Bogan Weir, 6 km west of Peak Hill. When we arrived, there were five other vans already camped there, and another arrived after dark. It's a large area, probably the size of two football fields, with only rubbish bins and phone coverage.

Just a short 75 km drive today towards Dubbo. We are staying at the Red Earth Winery, just south of town and near the southern border of the Western Plains Zoo. 

Camping fees are $15 per night with power and water, or just $5 without power, although you can still fill your tanks.

On our second day, we visited the zoo and spent the day cycling around the various enclosures. No trip to any zoo would be complete without spending a good amount of time with the incredible meerkats.