For the benefit of the wider circulation group I will try to fill in some
gaps & provide extra information wrt Glenns email. Please excuse me if
there is some unavoidable repetition.  As Glenn mentioned, there has been a
behind the scenes brainstorming session involving a barage of 20 or 30 long
email messages and it's getting hard to remember who has received what
info.

The core group ( Mike Gill, Glenn Schneider, Joel Moskowitz, Joe Cali) will
assemble in Canberra and depart on December 1st in two vehicles.
Tibooburra is about 1.5 days drive by the most direct route from Canberra.
Canberra has no traffic congestion & is a very easy city to move around.
Buying provisons and getting out of town in convoy will be very easy.
Definitely not the case  leaving Sydney. An out of town rendezvous would
have to be arranged.  Canberra is very quick to exit.  10 minutes from my
front door to the highway. The only difficulty is that the nearest Britz
(4wd camper rentals) office is in Sydney so renters will need to have at
least one person fly into Sydney to collect & drive the camper to Canberra.
You can also opt to meet us on the road but flexibility is our middle name
and once we have left Canberra,  our path will be dictated by decisions we
make relating to the weather.

Our basic plan is to head to the NW corner of NSW ( Fort Grey )as per
Glenn's email. At this site, totality occurs with the sun just 1.3 degrees
above the horizon.  The horizon is quite flat. Glenn found photo's on the
net and I've got magazine articles showing pretty flat horizons. I checked
the horizon in the direction of the sun on a topo map and that also
suggests a flat horizon.  If we get there early,  we can check using the
sunset the previous day. I've just sent Glenn some electronic 250 000 scale
topographic map sheets of the last 200km of the track. Glenn will soon make
these available at his sight with refraction corrected paths overplotted.

This trek involves driving over 10 metres sand dunes. If you are going to
rent a 4wd, I suggest you read my outback 4wd techniques guide which covers
some of the issues involved and some of the questions you should ask of the
agency that rents the vehicle to you. If you are with us, I will be able to
advise and assist if necessary.

http://joecali.members.easyspace.com

Follow the eclipse links to Australia 2002.  The article is linked off that
page.

Anybody arriving on the 29 or 30th can rest up in Canberra either at or
near my place for a day before we set off. My apartment is only small so I
can't offer accommodation to all 16 people on this list if all participate
but I am happy to squeeze in as many as possible providing you don't mind
sleeping on camping mats on the living room floor and bring your own
sleeping bags. If the bigger group materialises and want to coordinate
travel with us out of Canberra, there is a big motel just down on the main
road 5 mins walk from my place to take the overflow of people. 7 day/24 hr
supermarkets are within a few mins drive of my place so buying provisons
etc is not going to be a problem.  There are also hardware and camping
stores nearby for last minute supplies. They are opened 7 days standard
business hours. For those travelling on the cheap,  you can probably sleep
in your campers in the shopping centre car park 50 metres down the road if
we can't squeeze you in at my place.  The car park is pretty dark and dingy
at night so nobody will notice you if you keep a low profile. Just don't be
too obvious what you are doing.  There is a public toilet for midnight
emergencies and you can use shower & toilet at my place during the day or
in the evening.  The suburb is quite safe.  I have no hesitation walking to
the shops in the dark of an evening.

MONEY & Security

Australia isn't a third world country. You can't spend US$ here like you
can in Africa or Latin America. You can change US$ at an exchange bureau or
a bank. Both  will be few and far between once we leave Canberra.  You can
also change travellers cheques at the same places. I'd suggest taking cash
from an ATM through your visa card is the easiest way and use visa card to
purchase most of your fuel and accommodation.  Personal security/ theft is
not an issue outside of the downtown Sydney area. Carrying cash does not
present a security problem unless you lose your wallet yourself.
Roadside camping is both safe and popular in the outback.  I do it all the
time.

When I travel in the outback, I usually bring a decent amount of cash to
pay for fuel. Most farmers have fuel storage tanks. Fuel can be purchased
from farms or small general stores in very remote areas. They obviously
won't accept visacard, amex, US cash or travellers checks. Diesel fuel
prices are presently A$0.90 per litre in the city,  A$0.75 on the major
highways.  In the outback fuel can cost up to 40% over the city price
depending on the remoteness of the supplier.  We are looking at a round
trip including post eclipse sight seeing of up to 5000km depending on the
amount of post touring. The basic trek there and back is 3500km. To the
basic rental cost of $200-300 per day(3 person capacity), you should add a
total fuel budget for the vehicle of approximately A$700-1000 for the trip.
 

COST SHARING

I suggest we segregate cost sharing into three segments aircraft / vehicles
/ catering.  People will need to sign up for the aircraft in the next 4
weeks. Each group can arrange 4wd hire.  Each vehicle is probably the most
obvious food catering unit.  Cooking for more than 3 people on small stoves
is a pain.
 

AIRCRAFT

If we do fly on E-day, the plane will be grounded possibly at a small
airstrip away from our base camp. Those people already on the plane will
need a lightweight overnight "survival" kit to see them through the night.
Sleeping bag, food bars or simple food that does not require cooking,
drinking water, torch and toilet paper. If pressed, we could always catch a
snake or goanna and spit roast it if we get desperate :-)
 

MOTEL BOOKINGS
At this stage, I believe there are far too many road permutations and route
changes in the event of weather problems to be talking about pre-booking
motels just yet.  If we observe from Ft Grey and are forced to fly to clear
skies,  we will probably have to land in Pt Augusta that night and return
to pick up the vehicles the next day or possibly be grounded for the night
at whichever bush airstrip we fly to. For those from the wider circulation,
this is because the dirt airstrips don't have landing lights so that night
take offs and landings are prohibited.
If we were going to book one night,  it should be Dec 02 see travel
sceanrios below.
 

If the weather is perfect.........

I would suggest establishing our bush camp at Ft Grey on the morning of Dec
3rd & staying on the night of the 4th.  That gives us two nights of
observation with plenty of time to align equatorial mounts, do
astrophotography etc  and a couple of days to look around the park on the
afternoon of Dec 3rd and morning of the 5th.
 

Possible travel scenario's?

CLEAR WEATHER SCENARIO

DEC 1    DEP Canberra 7am, arrive NYNGAN early pm.  Check weather ( We will
already have been monitoring weatherin the days beforehand.)  If continent
looks really clear drive to Bourke first night.

DEC 2    DEP BOURKE  arrive TIBOOBURRA by lunchtime motel in TIB night of
the second?

Stay in TIBOOBURRA
 

DEC 3

CLEAR SKIES?  DEP TIBOOBURRA.  Establish bush camp at Ft Grey.
Astrophotography, explore desert trip to Camerons corner etc.

DEC 4
Eclipse at Sunset.  Bushcamp at Ft Grey or sleeping on the runway of some
little airstrip

DEC 5
Sight seeing
 

__________________________________________________

CLOUDY SCENARIO

DEC 1    DEP Canberra early, arrive NYNGAN early pm.  Check weather ( We
will already have been monitoring weatherin the days beforehand.)  If cloud
is moving across, drive towards BROKEN HILL first night. Possibly reach
Cobar or maybe Broken Hill. Check weather prospects.

DEC 2

CLEAR SKIES?  move to TIBOOBURRA then as per previous scenario
 Cloud?       Move to Pt Augusta.

DEC 3

CLOUD MOVING IN?  Stay in Pt Augusta track weather systems.
 

DEC 4
Eclipse at Sunset.  By mid morning, choose Ceduna, Woomera or Lyndhurst or
stay at airport in Pt Augusta & prepare to fly.

DEC 5
Sight seeing

__________________________________________________
 

Those thinking of meeting us "on the road" may find it a very hit and miss
proposition.
 
 

Sight seeing options

Possibilities include Flinders Ranges, the Strzelecki track  & Strzelecki
desert, the wine growing areas,  Broken Hill, Kinchega and Lake Mungo
National parks. The Coorong (Mouth of the Murray river) the Great Ocean
road and various salt lakes.

Regarding costs.  Apart from the vehicle and fuel costs estimated above,
free or cheap camping is widely available in the out back, national parks
and Caravan parks (RV parks) In the more remote areas free camping is the
norm. Some national parks have small use/camping fees A$3-7 per night.
Caravan parks charge A$5-15 per night depending on facilities offered.

Scenic flights may be chartered over major tourist attractions like Lake
Eyre, Flinders Ranges.

When the group settles & decides on how many days it will want to go sight
seeing, I'll  suggest some more detailed possibilities.  Before deciding to
book a night post eclipse at Tibooburra, could we consider the possibility
of continuing straight across the Strzelecki Track to the Flinders ranges.
 

Cheers

Joe Cali