A movie or two under the stars!

With conditions being so dry around home lately – and barely a drop in the rain gauge since Christmas, we thought the best thing we could do to break the drought would be to get a camp in before it really gets too cold in these parts.   We were rewarded with a fantastic weekend at a friend’s farm near Boorowa – however we were unable to break the drought!

Looking back towards camp

There is something magical about sitting around a campfire at night enjoying the serenity.  It is also a lot of fun watching a great Australian movie under the stars, with full surround sound… unless you are camped nearby and not a part of the party.  Hence we enjoyed our night on private property with no one to upset with our whisper quiet generator, 5.1 surround sound, or raspy out of tune voices singing along with the soundtrack!

Bullbar Installation - Amarok Style

With a long list of equipment and toys to be fitted to Rocky, saving a few pennies here and there is always a good thing.  One such opportunity arose when a second hand ARB bullbar came up for grabs.

After sitting in the shed for a couple of months, I finally got around to organising a day for fitting the bullbar.  Now with such a big job - I figured I would be wise to have a helper.  In fact, I would be really wise to enlist the help of someone who knows what their doing, so I could be their helper.  Andrew was indeed that man, without whose help I could not have fitted the bar.

The ARB instructions are available online - so we printed them out and followed them.  Overall it went really well - except for a few minor bits missing.  Ever resourceful, Andrew had enough bits in his shed to keep the fitting on track.

The bumper off shows a lot of plastic and foam!

Let The Planning Begin

With a little more than eight months to go, it is time to get serious with our planning.  We would hate to travel around Australia and miss something that is a 'must do'.  We are also fully aware that we will not be able to get to see and everything we want.  We also don't want to fill up our days with such a busy agenda that we feel like we are on a tour, with every moment planned.  If a camp is perfect - well, why don't we stay an extra night or two.  The weather perhaps will be our biggest influence on the direction our travelling will be, but we do want to hit all the most important bits on our trip.

And travelling with school age kids means we will also have to devote some time to schooling whilst we are on the road.  I will come back to schooling as we get closer to departure, because that is another story in itself!

As a young man I was given a fantastic road atlas, that has served me remarkably well over the years.  It traversed much of this big wide land with me in what was then a relatively new Ford Falcon, covering every state, with the exception of Tasmania and the Northern Territory.  My travelling plans were relatively simple in those days, with a rough idea of the destination in mind, I would fill up with fuel and point the bonnet in the rough direction.  Perhaps my longest road trip was a three week drive from Cairns to Perth, via the Nullarbor.  Iconic - Yes.  Would I do it again - Yes - but perhaps taking a little longer to admire the view!

It may be time to upgrade the Road Atlas too!

New Canopy for Rocky

Getting a canopy made for the Amarok to store all our stuff proved to be more difficult than I anticipated. It was very hard to find someone locally who could manufacture one at a reasonable cost.

After requesting quotes from a number of canopy manufactures, and receiving varying levels of response from 'sorry mate, booked until November' to one line quotes listing a final (expensive) price, I finally found a company that were quick to reply, providing three dimensional diagrams of their quote, and were very quick to respond to requests.

The company I went went with in the end was Made 2 Order Toolbox and Canopy (http://m2otoolbox.com.au/).  Raymond and Boyang were very quick to provide an itemized quote, and even more happy to modify it to suit exactly my requirements.  After paying a deposit, it was a short four weeks and I was on my way south to pick up the new canopy.

The quote included full CAD drawings and modifications were easily made

It had been a hectic lead up to the trip south, including a couple of trips north to Sydney, so I was very pleased my Old Man was able to join me for the journey south.  It had been over ten years since our last road trip across the Nullabor to Perth, and was a great opportunity to spend some time together, with no other distractions than the open road.  We stopped for a leg stretch at the only town not yet bypassed on the Hume Highway, Holbrook, and pondered for a moment the change that the bypass will make to this final bastion of old school road trips.

HMAS OTWAY, as far from the ocean as any submarine ever was

After a night in Lillydale, we made our way to the shop, with fingers crossed that the manufacturing process was as good as their customer service.