By: Blonde Two
At the moment Mr B2 and I have no plans to go off exploring the Australian Outback but we do love trucks and a friend (who loves them even more than we do) who recently visited Australia brought us back two rather interesting magazines, ‘Overlander 4WD and 4WD Camping’. Having done a bit of both 4WD overlanding and 4WD camping in past (although not on a grand Australian scale) we were both interested to note the following things about 4WD camping in Australia… Read on if you dare!
You should take regular ‘servo stops‘, not to sort out your brakes, but to fill your jerry cans, buy a pie and avoid bush stops.
It’s hot out there so make sure you always allow at least 5 litres of water per person, per day.
Take a sat phone as a bare minimum and an HF radio as back up. (It would probably also be sensible to learn how to use them!)
Make sure you have written down the locations and phone numbers of all of the ‘servos’ on your route. (This is for help if you are in need, not for pie deliveries).
Rig up a shelter over your tent or swag to protect it from the sun and keep the inside cool. (I like this plan… any excuse for a bit of tarp-rigging!)
Get a fresh set of tyres before you start your trip. (This is obviously not going to be the cheapest of hobbies!)
You will need tropical-strength insect repellent as well as a bug net for your face. (Boy are we going to look and smell gorgeous!)
Always approach sand dunes straight on, having first reduced your tyre pressure. (I had no idea driving up sand dunes was even possible!)
Avoid ‘bulldust‘ (no, I don’t know what that is either!)
Night time driving will increase the likelihood of animal strikes. (Well at least some things are the same as at home!)
I can’t decide from reading these fascinating magazines whether I want to go 4WD drive camping in the Australian Outback or not… it would certainly be an adventure!