A new sound system for Rocky!

Whilst the canopy on the back was my first priority to get fitted out into a useful space for us to use,  with the prospect of a long road trip ahead of us, in car entertainment for the family became a much higher priority on the list.

The Canopy is starting to be useful.

So the next thing to sort out was the in car entertainment.

For some reason the Trendline Amarok is fitted with a four speaker stereo... where all four speakers are in the front!! So our previous trick in the Terracan of fading the speakers to the rear, and putting on an audio book weren't going to work. Oh, and the VW iPod kit was about $1000, and blue tooth another $1000... yeah no thanks.

The original unit. Functional - but pretty basic

With the Terracan, a simple replacement radio and wiring loom for under $150 was a sufficient upgrade to give us all we needed in a radio, and a free Garmin GPS when renewing our NRMA membership kept us on the right track mostly. Unfortunately with the Amarok, nothing was going to be that simple, or cheap!

The first thing to sort out was to put some speakers in the rear door.  Thankfully this was something I could do - and as the space was already there - it was a simple task of removing the trim, installing the speakers and refitting the trim.  I did purchase a whole heap of new trim clips as the original clips are very brittle. I managed to break every single one when removing the trim.  Thankfully I wasn't he first to do this, and had new trim clips on hand.

After reading many forums and reading most people's opinions of aftermarket gear for the Amarok, we went with the Zenec 2011D. It essentially is the following:

• CD/DVD Player
• Radio
• Bluetooth Handsfree Phone Kit
• iPod connectivity
• Bluetooth music streaming
• Satellite Nav
• Reverse Camera

What impressed us is that the dash looks just like it rolled out of the factory. It works beautifully and seamlessly and more importantly intuitively. The guys who fitted it upgraded the reverse camera, and gave me the other one, which I will be able to fit to the Camper Trailer - perhaps not in time for Birdsville!

The funny thing is that whilst this unit will support the playing of DVD's, including screens on the back of the headrests for the kids, this is something we will not do.  We have lots of audiobooks on the iPod, and the kids (and big kids in the front) enjoy listening to the stories such as Wind In The Willows, Peter Pan and all the classics by Roald Dahl.

The other thing we fitted was the old UHF radio,  in the parcel shelf under the A/C controls.  it slotted in easily, and I picked up power from one of the cigarette 12v outlets just forward of the gear stick.

Fitted up - and about to plug the microphone in.

It is a 40 channel UHF radio - but still in perfect working order.  The aerial I mounted to the bullbar.  This is not my preferred position for the aerial, as it resonnates beautifully on the dirt road home, and I am not entirely convinced thousands of kilometres of corrugations, or the odd kangaroo strike will do good things for it.  Still the mount is there, and I didn't need to use a Z bracket under the bonnet (which didn't fit comfortably with the Amaroks tight seams).

The aerial is mounted on the bullbar

So, now you will be able to hear us coming.  We will be the Amarok with audio books such as The BFG blaring from the rear speakers as we barrel along the highways and byways of Australia!  Gloriumptious!

Shake down trip... Destination Birdsville

Whilst we were at camping at Boorowa a few weeks ago, campfire conversation turned to a forthcoming concert to be held at Birdsville in July.  It would appear that one of Australia's most popular and engaging entertainers was going to be hosting a sunset concert on the top of Big Red, the famous sand dune on the eastern end of the Simpson Desert.

John Williamson was going to be performing songs from his latest album - The Big Red, at Big Red... Something stirred inside me and said we had to make it happen.

We returned to civilisation, calendars and the cloud.  A quick check revealed the concert was going to be the middle weekend of the NSW school holidays.... and I had already planned to take leave! 

The clincher though was when I found out the concert was part of a bigger series of events, The Big Red Run raising money for Type 1 Diabetes.  As the Little Fisherman is a Type 1 diabetic, it was all the motivation I needed, so in a moment of madness I bought tickets to the Big Red Sunset Concert.

It was only once the tickets were booked that I realized that it is over 2000 km to Birdsville from home, and with the whole family coming along for the ride, a bit of planning would be necessary. In short a swag and an esky won't cut it.



Of course planning can be fun... particularly when you spread your trip over three maps!

 

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!