Camper Trailer Australia Issue 163

This month our focus is on planning your next adventure. Whether that be a ‘weekender’ by the beach or a three-month trip around Australia, we have some tips for you. Sam Richards has revealed the challenges in selling everything and hitting the road full-time, but we are thankful that he and his partner have done so because they always create brilliant articles for the magazine. Ron and Viv Moon have been exploring this amazing country for longer than many of us have been around, so they are perfectly qualified to offer some sage advice on planning your next adventure. Even Nuts & Bolts relates to this topic with some insights on what I do to make sure my 4WD and camper trailer are ready for a big expedition. It has been…

The first step for me is checking out the framed Hema map of Australia that hangs on my wall. The tracks that haven’t been traced over with a Sharpie always catch my eye first, followed by places visited in the past that need further exploration and then destinations I would love to enjoy again. The next step is filling in the trusty trip planning spreadsheet that I utilise on every adventure tackled. With the help of Google Maps and Hema X, distances between stops are calculated, accommodation options and POIs are entered and the trip is quickly planned. The schedule can be loose or tight and changes are always able to be made easily; it’s a brilliant spreadsheet. PERMITS In better days, the only permits you needed were to access remote desert tracks…

In 2020 we said goodbye to the commute, the open-plan office, the computer screen; au revoir to junk mail, shampoo advertisements, and reality TV; and adios to small talk, small pleasures, and small ambitions. Instead, we said hello to the open road and all it represents — and perhaps the time is right for you to do the same. Your future is in your hands. What’s it going to look like? Will you carve out funny, gripping, and mad anecdotes you’ll tell your grandchildren? Accomplish self-sufficiency and draw on personal courage as you venture into unfamiliar places? Abandon stress in favour of an off-the-grid existence, synchronised to the lapping of waves on a golden shore, the wind whispering through the mulgas, and the crackling of a bonfire below the stars? Adventure is…

Completely changing your lifestyle involves immense challenges and considerable risks, so if you are to do it, you need an even stronger counterweight motivating you to travel. The idea of travelling the country is one thing but having concrete places in mind is a lot more psychologically compelling. It provides hard evidence of why you should be doing this. Have a list of favourite destinations already? Hop on a mapping software and plug in your key destinations so you can visualise your big lap on the screen. Scroll through the Instagram geolocation or an article on the destination and have a look at what you stand to experience. Nowhere in mind? Point to a map of Australia blindly and investigate the place where your finger lands. Allocate a value to each state/territory…

For us, taking the plunge has definitely been worth it; this is, after all, Australia. What natural wonders doesn’t Down Under boast? Every conceivable landscape is here. For snowy peaks, we have the High Country and Tassie. For jungles, Far North Queensland. For deserts, the Red Centre. For beaches with transparent waters, the entire West and East Coasts. For riverways, the Murray. For forested mountain ranges, the Great Dividing Range. That's not even touching on the reefs, estuaries, rock formations, and varied geological wonders elsewhere.…

Driven by buyers seeking more robust but lighter offroaders, there’s a quiet revolution going on in the local caravan scene. Significantly, several boutique companies are transitioning to 21st century technology in their build processes. Vision RV is the latest arrival, and from what we have seen so far, the company will become a significant force in the very competitive adventure sector. Sunseeker Caravans on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast has joined forces with an innovative Noosa builder to create the new Vision RV brand, and the release of a range of innovative hybrids late in 2020 announced their entry into the top end of the offroad sector. The branding is an excellent fit for an outback RV, recalling Banjo Patterson's memorable lines from ‘Clancy of the Overflow’. “THE VAN IS ENTIRELY TIMBER FREE INCLUDING…