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Ok guys and gals, finally been inspired by reading Chester's trip and also meeting all you friendly West Australian's to get around to sorting through some photos of our trip which I will attempt to put up here to make you all jealous and inspire you to plan more journeys..
And I guess I'm not ever going to sell my car to anyone on here as "never been offroad" anymore but that is what it is built for...
So I've gone to uni and got a bit of paper saying engineering and have worked in a couple of different roles while at uni but I enjoy my fishing, diving, surfing 4x4ing etc too much to work full time.. and so far have successfully avoided it. Living at home has helped me save a decent amount of money while working part time and partly this forum is the reason I am now homeless and loving it.
I was 24 when we left.. 6 months ago but now I feel 65... Before we left EVERYONE said "oh yea I want to do that one day" (drive round oz) and a few also said "Are you 60?" but seeing as (like alot of people) it's something I wanted to do, why the hell not now?? I have no kids, mortage debt or major responsibilties that I'm bound to encounter one day and also I have a Prado.
It took a little longer to leave than first anticipated which resulted in us changing the only plan that we had, to travel clockwise from Sydney, and as it got to July before we left there was only one way to go. I had never really done anything similar to this trip and being pretty practical and hands on I wanted everything to be right before we left, partly the reason it took so long to leave.. my old man made several offers that we could take their old caravan but didn't fancy the weight and constraits and Holly said it wasnt very adventurous so there would be none of that...
The stars must have aligned or something as the best purchase I made, a second hand oztent and alloy roof rack were made from some people selling a set of bfg's and rims which didn't end up fitting, had never heard of an oztent but after I got home and watched the video on their website I was sold so this became our house.
We have really enjoyed exploring this country which was largely unknown to me besides the obvious and have found that a lot of places you really just need to go there and experience. We have slipped quite comfortably into the lifestyle of getting up whenever the tent is too hot and driving until whenever it's beer o'clock and meeting all the other people on the road...of which it seems a fair percentage are living in Western Australia.
So the setup wasn't meant to cost much but before you know it the cost doesn't matter and I didn't want things to go wrong on the road, we wanted to rough it, but be comfortable!!!..The intention was to spend as little as possible to get us on the road, safely and comfortably. If the setup was bad we'd be home in a couple of weeks and look pretty silly! which was always an option.
It started with a 40L Engel which meant dual batteries and then storage drawers. I didn't fancy lifting jerry cans all day and the pvc stormwater chemical thing scared me a little if i'm going to drink it for a year so found a second hand outback tank of 50 something litres which wasn't going to cost much more and the pvc fittings etc so whacked that in beside the engel, welded up a shelf above, ripped out the back seat and made a folding false floor level with the drawers in the rear. Figured a puncture repair kit wasn't much use without a compressor so an arb unit sits under the bonnet. Alloy roof rack holds a second spare, maxtrax & shovel, oztent. I have a heavily pradpoint influenced rear door table too which I now couldn;t go without. I've tried not to add it up but I've probably spent $5k before we left to set the car up but tried to be as economical as possible making lots of stuff and fitting everything myself. I say economical not cheap as you do get what you pay for and i've learnt it's cheaper to buy a quality product once than several cheap nasty items and it doesn't do a Toyota justice to bolt crap onto it! Everything I bought or made I asked myself "What do I do when this breaks in the middle of nowhere?" I guess thats enough or i'll get told this is a build up thread, right?
40lt engel & bag 1500
drawers 1000 slam latches 150
battery 200 isolator & wiring 200
compressor 350
water 350
tent 400
rack 150
maxtrax 300
4500
Yes I have heard of google maps but gave up on it after I got too many points on the route..
Intention was to have a "Plan B" of sleeping in the car... wasn't so comfortable
Freediving the wreck at Byron
I have a car, not a truck..
This sign says to me "Enough people jump from here safely to justify installing this sign" but no I didn't
First duct tape fix
The idiot who overtook me at 120km/h on a road with plenty of stock on it, we had already slipped into grey nomad mode and were cruising around 90. After pulling him out and giving him a "do you think you were going a bit too fast?" he was then too embarrassed to overtake me so we were the pacecar until the next town.. he was trying to pull into a rest area but "didn't see it till it was too late " because he was tailgating the car in front, but tried to turn in anyway. The poor kid in the baby seat in the back got a bit of a fright...
Lightning Ridge and the start of unusual rainfall in the outback coinciding with our arrival....
Point taken
This guy carved out hundreds of carving in this mine, chambers of the black hand, go do it!
So we pull over for lunch, door open, table down, table covered in lunch stuff "hey it looks a better spot over there"... I dont need to close the back door i'll just drive really smoothly and slowly over there....straight across a deceivingly soft patch. Guy came in with a landcruiser and caravan and was convinced he'd have to pull his van off and snatch me out but I was determined to prove the purchase of the "self-recovery device", proven. But if you are going to get a set get a real shovel aswell.
A special moment
Know your strawberries, good strawberry
BAD strawberry
Bribie Island inland track, panned out twice, Maxtrax test 2 & 3 no longer scared of sand
Low tide, check, lowered tyre pressures, check... whats the big deal.. this is like a highway!! - Cooloolah
Home
Holly's 2nd best friend - Eco billy, metho burning kettle
Why buy a postcard? Look at that!
Had to be done
You'd better believe it!! If you see the wall of the Rainbow beach pub - granted
Waddy Point - Fraser
Ngkala rocks on our way back fromt he lighthouse on the north of Fraser
Lesson learnt, dont leave shoes outside or they will be home to a toad in the morning and later don't leave tent open for too long or they will emerge in the middle of the night and jump on your face!
The stick that got stuck between my front disc and the thin backing plate inside the disc, drove me mental for a day with a high pitched squeal.
"When in rome" - Harvey Bay
Now there's an idea...
Wow thats a bullbar, don't get them in Sydney town...
Case 2 of unusual outback rain coinciding with our arrival.. - Birdsville
Who doesn't need a curried camel pie and a bourbon and coke to kick off the day?
Poor buggers, "to the bakery" I guess they said when they woke up! We watched more than a dozen vehicles that had to be snatched out of axle deep mud which they had just sunk into overnight with the rain.. apparently the caravan park had been graded for the races so was really nice fine level soil, perfect to suck up a car or camper
Pretty glad we told the guy we wouldn't fit in the first site he showed us which was only 2m from the water before the storm!!
Mind you we were still camped in a creek. Holly is the only person in Birdsville with gum boots, and we had to lock the things up!! We could have made a fortune selling them, there were many offers!
"We don't need to go to the races today we'll just go on Saturday, thats the big day..The only action on the track, the day we went
Just what every man needs??? One of the things in the museum which has shut down now I believe
Self explanatory for anyone who has seen it, or google Fred Brophy's boxing tent if you didn't see the doco on the other week which we missed...
Don't quote me but 6000? I think people all stuckin Birdsville and not one criminal offence...recorded.. very surprising maybe just the right amount of alcohol..
The only road open out of Birdsville, why not
Road out to Big Red
So close but so far, big red, but still 12kms by prado to get to it.
Amazing
View West from big red
Escaping finally
Eyre Creek
Thats a bullbar, again
Rain coming at sunset - Hughenden
Holly getting hungry... I mean feeding the wallaby - Magnetic Island
Snake keep Holly in car
Flies that can bite you through your shirt are not fun
Tadpoles @ Alligator Creek camping ground
Worth the side trip - Wallaman Falls
Haven't seen one like this
Good idea..noted
And they call it "roughing it", I've paid money for worse..
Paronella Park reminded us of temples of Cambodia..
Big shiny rock - The Empress of Uruguay
Amazing Colours - Atherton Tableland
Add car windows to the list of things to close
You can still do some things...
Trying my hardest to drive a straight line at 30km/h. 150kms from Kingfisher camp to Lawn Hill gorge took people 3 hours the day before, think we were close to 5 hours.
So we are the only car that has driven on the road since the rain... yeah I lost it a few times... glad we didn't have any more weight up on the roof rack when doing 180's
But worth the trip, no doubt.. we unrolled the tent and found nearly a dozen of our amphibious friends from the night before too!
Mary Cathleen near Mt Isa and old Uranium mine I believe.. didn't realise until after we visited it, good thing we didn't swim in it!! Does explain the unusual water colour
Should have taken the advice written on this sign - Camooweal Caves
Not bad skyline but
This is the point where we gave up on fresh veggies, they wouldn't fit in the engel and this is what they looked like after one day!!!
So when is it too big? Maybe when you need a truck to pull it?
Still more dust on theoutside than the inside which is good..
Devils Marbles are one of the few places left without crazy restrictions of where you can and can't go, what you can photos of and that so I took advantage!
Mataranka is a stop everyone makes, not hard to see why. Great place to wash the red dust off
Central Arnhem Road
Typical Arnhem Land, after recent rain anyway.
Trying to get some kms under our belt for the next day..
Another beautiful camp
It's not the roo's you are worried about hitting
and you don;t want to drop a wheel into these ruts..
The Goyder, we had heard so much about.. two crocs over 3m had been pulled out of here a few months earlier with sightings of a monster one.. luckily it was still easily passable as it's 300kms from anything
Everything is just a bit bigger up north
Local delicasies
And I guess I'm not ever going to sell my car to anyone on here as "never been offroad" anymore but that is what it is built for...
So I've gone to uni and got a bit of paper saying engineering and have worked in a couple of different roles while at uni but I enjoy my fishing, diving, surfing 4x4ing etc too much to work full time.. and so far have successfully avoided it. Living at home has helped me save a decent amount of money while working part time and partly this forum is the reason I am now homeless and loving it.
I was 24 when we left.. 6 months ago but now I feel 65... Before we left EVERYONE said "oh yea I want to do that one day" (drive round oz) and a few also said "Are you 60?" but seeing as (like alot of people) it's something I wanted to do, why the hell not now?? I have no kids, mortage debt or major responsibilties that I'm bound to encounter one day and also I have a Prado.
It took a little longer to leave than first anticipated which resulted in us changing the only plan that we had, to travel clockwise from Sydney, and as it got to July before we left there was only one way to go. I had never really done anything similar to this trip and being pretty practical and hands on I wanted everything to be right before we left, partly the reason it took so long to leave.. my old man made several offers that we could take their old caravan but didn't fancy the weight and constraits and Holly said it wasnt very adventurous so there would be none of that...
The stars must have aligned or something as the best purchase I made, a second hand oztent and alloy roof rack were made from some people selling a set of bfg's and rims which didn't end up fitting, had never heard of an oztent but after I got home and watched the video on their website I was sold so this became our house.
We have really enjoyed exploring this country which was largely unknown to me besides the obvious and have found that a lot of places you really just need to go there and experience. We have slipped quite comfortably into the lifestyle of getting up whenever the tent is too hot and driving until whenever it's beer o'clock and meeting all the other people on the road...of which it seems a fair percentage are living in Western Australia.
So the setup wasn't meant to cost much but before you know it the cost doesn't matter and I didn't want things to go wrong on the road, we wanted to rough it, but be comfortable!!!..The intention was to spend as little as possible to get us on the road, safely and comfortably. If the setup was bad we'd be home in a couple of weeks and look pretty silly! which was always an option.
It started with a 40L Engel which meant dual batteries and then storage drawers. I didn't fancy lifting jerry cans all day and the pvc stormwater chemical thing scared me a little if i'm going to drink it for a year so found a second hand outback tank of 50 something litres which wasn't going to cost much more and the pvc fittings etc so whacked that in beside the engel, welded up a shelf above, ripped out the back seat and made a folding false floor level with the drawers in the rear. Figured a puncture repair kit wasn't much use without a compressor so an arb unit sits under the bonnet. Alloy roof rack holds a second spare, maxtrax & shovel, oztent. I have a heavily pradpoint influenced rear door table too which I now couldn;t go without. I've tried not to add it up but I've probably spent $5k before we left to set the car up but tried to be as economical as possible making lots of stuff and fitting everything myself. I say economical not cheap as you do get what you pay for and i've learnt it's cheaper to buy a quality product once than several cheap nasty items and it doesn't do a Toyota justice to bolt crap onto it! Everything I bought or made I asked myself "What do I do when this breaks in the middle of nowhere?" I guess thats enough or i'll get told this is a build up thread, right?
40lt engel & bag 1500
drawers 1000 slam latches 150
battery 200 isolator & wiring 200
compressor 350
water 350
tent 400
rack 150
maxtrax 300
4500
Yes I have heard of google maps but gave up on it after I got too many points on the route..
Intention was to have a "Plan B" of sleeping in the car... wasn't so comfortable
Freediving the wreck at Byron
I have a car, not a truck..
This sign says to me "Enough people jump from here safely to justify installing this sign" but no I didn't
First duct tape fix
The idiot who overtook me at 120km/h on a road with plenty of stock on it, we had already slipped into grey nomad mode and were cruising around 90. After pulling him out and giving him a "do you think you were going a bit too fast?" he was then too embarrassed to overtake me so we were the pacecar until the next town.. he was trying to pull into a rest area but "didn't see it till it was too late " because he was tailgating the car in front, but tried to turn in anyway. The poor kid in the baby seat in the back got a bit of a fright...
Lightning Ridge and the start of unusual rainfall in the outback coinciding with our arrival....
Point taken
This guy carved out hundreds of carving in this mine, chambers of the black hand, go do it!
So we pull over for lunch, door open, table down, table covered in lunch stuff "hey it looks a better spot over there"... I dont need to close the back door i'll just drive really smoothly and slowly over there....straight across a deceivingly soft patch. Guy came in with a landcruiser and caravan and was convinced he'd have to pull his van off and snatch me out but I was determined to prove the purchase of the "self-recovery device", proven. But if you are going to get a set get a real shovel aswell.
A special moment
Know your strawberries, good strawberry
BAD strawberry
Bribie Island inland track, panned out twice, Maxtrax test 2 & 3 no longer scared of sand
Low tide, check, lowered tyre pressures, check... whats the big deal.. this is like a highway!! - Cooloolah
Home
Holly's 2nd best friend - Eco billy, metho burning kettle
Why buy a postcard? Look at that!
Had to be done
You'd better believe it!! If you see the wall of the Rainbow beach pub - granted
Waddy Point - Fraser
Ngkala rocks on our way back fromt he lighthouse on the north of Fraser
Lesson learnt, dont leave shoes outside or they will be home to a toad in the morning and later don't leave tent open for too long or they will emerge in the middle of the night and jump on your face!
The stick that got stuck between my front disc and the thin backing plate inside the disc, drove me mental for a day with a high pitched squeal.
"When in rome" - Harvey Bay
Now there's an idea...
Wow thats a bullbar, don't get them in Sydney town...
Case 2 of unusual outback rain coinciding with our arrival.. - Birdsville
Who doesn't need a curried camel pie and a bourbon and coke to kick off the day?
Poor buggers, "to the bakery" I guess they said when they woke up! We watched more than a dozen vehicles that had to be snatched out of axle deep mud which they had just sunk into overnight with the rain.. apparently the caravan park had been graded for the races so was really nice fine level soil, perfect to suck up a car or camper
Pretty glad we told the guy we wouldn't fit in the first site he showed us which was only 2m from the water before the storm!!
Mind you we were still camped in a creek. Holly is the only person in Birdsville with gum boots, and we had to lock the things up!! We could have made a fortune selling them, there were many offers!
"We don't need to go to the races today we'll just go on Saturday, thats the big day..The only action on the track, the day we went
Just what every man needs??? One of the things in the museum which has shut down now I believe
Self explanatory for anyone who has seen it, or google Fred Brophy's boxing tent if you didn't see the doco on the other week which we missed...
Don't quote me but 6000? I think people all stuckin Birdsville and not one criminal offence...recorded.. very surprising maybe just the right amount of alcohol..
The only road open out of Birdsville, why not
Road out to Big Red
So close but so far, big red, but still 12kms by prado to get to it.
Amazing
View West from big red
Escaping finally
Eyre Creek
Thats a bullbar, again
Rain coming at sunset - Hughenden
Holly getting hungry... I mean feeding the wallaby - Magnetic Island
Snake keep Holly in car
Flies that can bite you through your shirt are not fun
Tadpoles @ Alligator Creek camping ground
Worth the side trip - Wallaman Falls
Haven't seen one like this
Good idea..noted
And they call it "roughing it", I've paid money for worse..
Paronella Park reminded us of temples of Cambodia..
Big shiny rock - The Empress of Uruguay
Amazing Colours - Atherton Tableland
Add car windows to the list of things to close
You can still do some things...
Trying my hardest to drive a straight line at 30km/h. 150kms from Kingfisher camp to Lawn Hill gorge took people 3 hours the day before, think we were close to 5 hours.
So we are the only car that has driven on the road since the rain... yeah I lost it a few times... glad we didn't have any more weight up on the roof rack when doing 180's
But worth the trip, no doubt.. we unrolled the tent and found nearly a dozen of our amphibious friends from the night before too!
Mary Cathleen near Mt Isa and old Uranium mine I believe.. didn't realise until after we visited it, good thing we didn't swim in it!! Does explain the unusual water colour
Should have taken the advice written on this sign - Camooweal Caves
Not bad skyline but
This is the point where we gave up on fresh veggies, they wouldn't fit in the engel and this is what they looked like after one day!!!
So when is it too big? Maybe when you need a truck to pull it?
Still more dust on theoutside than the inside which is good..
Devils Marbles are one of the few places left without crazy restrictions of where you can and can't go, what you can photos of and that so I took advantage!
Mataranka is a stop everyone makes, not hard to see why. Great place to wash the red dust off
Central Arnhem Road
Typical Arnhem Land, after recent rain anyway.
Trying to get some kms under our belt for the next day..
Another beautiful camp
It's not the roo's you are worried about hitting
and you don;t want to drop a wheel into these ruts..
The Goyder, we had heard so much about.. two crocs over 3m had been pulled out of here a few months earlier with sightings of a monster one.. luckily it was still easily passable as it's 300kms from anything
Everything is just a bit bigger up north
Local delicasies
:lol: 
Matty80
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